Second Life for Education Second Life is 3 dimensional virtual world, which is free to join… …where you can create an avatar, explore, meet people, buy or rent virtual land, build, do business, teach or learn…
What is Second Life? Linden Labs began development in 1999 and launched Second Life in 2003. In early 2008, the total number of residents is over 12,000,000. Usually, up to 58,000 Residents are logged on at the same time. Second Life has its own economy, based on the Linden Dollar (L$), which is bought and sold in US Dollars on the Linden currency exchange. Around 362,000 Second Life Residents spend money in Second Life, and over 12,000 islands are privately owned. There are at least 42 UK universities with a presence in SL.
Why is Second Life being used in education? A growing number of universities are teaching using virtual worlds such as Second Life. Although Second Life is the most famous, there are many other virtual worlds such as There, Habbo Hotel, Active Worlds, Coke Studios and OpenSim. Virtual worlds have a lot to offer students, they can: ✴ Help distance students feel part of a class rather than a lone distance learner ✴ Give students the chance to work together on activities in real time ✴ Let students work from home
✴ Offer students the chance to meet people from all over the world ✴ Let students try out activities not possible in real life
How can SL be used in education? Some of the ways that Second Life and virtual worlds have been used for teaching: ✴ Distance and Flexible Education ✴ Presentations, Panels and Discussions, Displays and Exhibits Training and Skills Development ✴ Roleplays and Simulations, Data Visualisations and Simulations ✴ Historical Re-creations and Re-enactments, Living and Immersive Archaeology ✴ Multimedia and Games Design; Theatre and Performance Art; Machinima ✴ Treasure Hunts and Quests ✴ Virtual Tourism, Cultural Immersion and Cultural Exchange ✴ Language Teaching and Practice, and Language Immersion ✴ Social Science and Anthropological Research ✴ Politics, Governance, Civics and Legal Practice; Business, Commerce, Financial Practice and Modelling ✴ Real Estate Practice; Product Design, Prototyping, User-testing and Market Research ✴ Architectural Design and Modelling; Urban Planning and Design http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/ educationaluses
Why is the School of Modern Languages using Second Life? Our aims are:
Some websites on education in Second Life: ✴ http://edumuve.com/tour/ A blog sharing websites of interest to educators in SL
✴ to offer distance students a chance to meet face-toface in-world ✴ to offer students a new learning experience ✴ to support teachers and students learning languages ✴ to support international students learning about academic life before coming to the UK.
A few places to explore There is a wealth of information about all aspects of Second Life, but here are few to get you started. Torley Linden’s videos will teach you some of the skills that are needed in SL, both to get you started and also to develop your skills further. There is also a small set of websites from Second Life education projects.
Some Second Life YouTube videos Torley Linden’s video help tutorials on Second Life http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Torley Architecture in Second Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KruzH82Z2qQ Watch the world – Art in Second Life http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=LxVDVggLqsA&feature=userWatch the world (revisited)– Art in Second Life ✴ http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=LxVDVggLqsA&feature=related ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴
✴ http://www.slideshare.net/epcad/educationalsimulations-in-second-life-for-fashion-technologystudents A SL Project for Fashion Technology students in USA ✴ http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses ✴ An exploration of educational uses of SL ✴ http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/ index.php?title=Language_learning A wiki for exploring SL content, activities, and tools of educational value for language learning Image of a Second Life woodland
Become a Second Life resident You can join Second Life for free through the New Media Consortium (NMC) website. Create your account with NMC, and you will be able to access NMC’s facilities especially created for education. http://sl.nmc.org/join/
Contact us at M3 Ann Jeffery - acj1@soton.ac.u Julie Watson jw17@soton.ac.uk Image of a Second Life class visiting a teaching location