Second Life

One of the programs that I've been looking at recently is Second Life. What is Second Life? Simply put, Second Life is a massive virtual world populate by cartoon-like characters called avatars. With a population of about 5 million residents, SL is designed and owned by it's residents, which are represented by Avatars. The reason that I've been looking into this program is that it has got a lot of potential use as a teaching tool at SMU. While I couldn't find out exactly how many schools are useing Second Life, the best figure that I found was that over 200 schools are using SL. The two biggest advantages to using SL are: 1. it gives distance-learning students a more realistic learning experience, and 2. it gives students another way to interact outside of the class room. A link to SL is on the right side of the blog, and I will continue to post more info as I find it.

After doing more research, I've come accross a number of differnt ideas for how SMU could use second life: it would provide a more interactive experience for distance-learning students; a couple of places could be created where students could come to discuss homework or various clubs could meet on SL if they are having trouble getting everyone together; and a virtual mock-up of the campus could be created, thus letting students take a tour of the campus without have to come all the way over here.

Academic Uses:There are a lot of colleges using Second Life, including Harvard Law School and Ball State University. In the case of Ball State University, a teacher named Sarah Robbins held an English composition course on SL. The course was topped at 18 students, which meant that only 18 of the 300 Freshman that applied for the Spring Semester were accepted. While the novelty of the class undoubtedly had an impact on the popularity, I think the fact that around 200 schools are using Second Life is some way speaks volumes about it's potential as a learning tool at SMU. I've posted the links to a number of website that have got additional information about using Second Life as a teaching tool.
‘SL wiki’ is a simple ‘wiki’ about SL uses in education. It’s got a lot of good links to blogs about using SL in education, places in SL that are involved in education (such as universities, libraries, and museums), and sample lesson plans. This seems like a really good place for someone who is interested in using SL for educational purposes to start their search.
‘SL bibli’ is a website that has got a lot of great links to websites and blogs that deal with education/research in SL. I really like this site because it offers such a wide variety of links that you can probably find something on the site useful no matter what your interest in SL is.
‘Crossroads article’ is a fairly short and simple yet remarkably informative blog that talks about a number of institutions that are currently using SL for academic purposes. I liked this blog because it gives you enough information to quickly decide if you are interested in reading it or not, but not enough to totally overwhelm you.

Real World Ideas: As the name suggests, ‘SL ideas page’ is the Second Life ideas page. This page and the whole site is a great place to start if you want to know what Second Life is and if you want ideas/facts that you KNOW are true and are not just rumors or ideas that might be true.
‘SL business plan’ is an article about a company that won a second life contest. The company made a market research and analysis program that would allow real-world companies figure out what will and what won’t work in online universes. This article caught my attention because I think that the internet is slowing heading in the three-dimensional dimension and, while it may not happen for a long time, having companies actually advertise and even set up shop in SL would make clear the fact that SL is not some online ‘game’ universe’, but is in fact evolving into a world/country of its own.
I really liked the article ‘SL millionaire’ because it gives a really good example of the very real business possibilities that exist in SL as well as giving a list of other actual businesses. It also talks about how SL is different from other Massive Multiplayer Online Games in that these games are usually just online versions of popular computer/video games, where as the purpose of SL is not to ‘slay dragons to advance a level or collect weapons to prepare for battle’ but to socialize, build contacts, and maybe even start a business.
Although I am a fan of SL, I thought that the blog posting 'SL cons' offered some good insights on the downsides of second life.