Second Life: What do we do with it

Second Life: What do we do with it?

Tanya Joosten, tjoosten@uwm.edu

Interim Associate Director

Learning Technology Center

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Juice Gyoza

UWMSecondLife.wikispaces.com

http://tinyurl.com/UWMSecondLife

Who are you?

Are you teaching using Second Life already?

In which discipline do you teach?

Are you supporting teachers in using SL?

Are you still waiting to be convinced to use it?

Are you still trying to figure out what Second

Life is?

What is Second Life?

• Not a Game

• Online, Virtual World, 3-D

• Network through software to a virtual space

• Not just information

• People, Places

• User constructed

What is Second Life?

What is Second Life?

8

UWM & Second Life in 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7g6i3_OhFI

Why use Second Life?

What is Second Life?MediumAsynchronous Discussion Forums

Synchronous Collaboration Tools

Virtual Worlds

Technology Text-Only, Static Images, Tables

Text, Audio (VOIP), Static Images, Video

Text, Audio (VOIP), Static Images, Video, 3-D

Cues Written Verbal, Emoticons

Written Verbal, Emoticons, Oral Verbal, Nonverbal: Paralanguage, Kinesics

Written Verbal, Emoticons, Oral Verbal, Nonverbal: Paralanguage, Kinesics, Proxemics, Haptics, Objectics, Environmentics

Feedback Delayed Real Time Real TimeParticipants Limited to course

sizeLimited by task, invitees, and bandwidth,

Somewhat limited by bandwidth and task, open attendance

Capacity Lean Medium Rich

Increase characteristics for success

Engagement

Social Presence

Learning Community

Top 4 Considerations

Lean Rich

Didactic Experiential

Private Public

Recall Performance

Experiential

Didactic

RichLean

Pedagogical Task -- Medium Richness

SimulationsRole PlaysField WorkShowcase

Content

Pedagogical Activities for SL

Experiential

Simulation Role Playing

Field Work

Interviewing Native Speakers Virtual field trips

Showcase

Art Exhibition Presentations Architectural Build

When do we use??

Second Life

Desire2Learn

Desire2Learn

Content Delivery

Assessment

Administrative

Asynchronous Discussions

Purpose: When do we use??

Second Life

Desire2Learn

Pedagogical Activities for SL

Experiential

Simulation Role Playing

Field Work

Interviewing Native Speakers Virtual field trips

Showcase

Art Exhibition Presentations Architectural Build

Example: Virtual field trip

20 Presentation Author, 2006

Example: Presentations

Faculty development

Showcases of use

Second Life Workshop Part 1

•Basic Functions•  Interacting w/People•Groups •Communicating•Navigating• Flying• Teleporting to other places

Second Life Workshop Part 2

• Advanced skills:– Inventory– Finding and building objects– Sending landmarks, objects,– Appearance– Rich media

• Best practices

Best practicesFor you or the faculty you support

Building not required

Create collaborative activities

Plan for meaningful and rich activities

Experiential

Simulation Role Playing

Field Work

Interviewing Native Speakers Virtual field trips

Showcase

Art Exhibition Presentations Architectural Build

Manage student expectations

Find a support network

Document your work

Evaluating the impact

Virtual Worlds

Student

Learning

Model for evaluating virtual worlds

Media Richness

Social Presence

Engagement

Learning Community

Learning

Performance

Satisfaction

Engagement

Media Capacity

Satisfaction

Learning

Student Comments

• “I really enjoyed the fact that we incorporated Second Life into the course. I also think it is very useful to work in virtual teams to complete a project(despite the fact the it can be a pain:])”

• “I would have liked to see more required participation within Second Life.

• “Overall, I think Second Life provides endless opportunities to explore and learn about an infinite number of subjects.”

Resources• UWM Student Orientation Materials, Pantherfile Repository of

Student Orientation docs: https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/groups/sa/ltc/SecondLife

• Video Tutorials: http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/SL-Tutorials/

• Finding Events: http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/SLED_Calender

• Sign up for the Second Life Educators (SLED) List: https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators

• Find Colleagues and Course Information, search SLED archives: http://tinyurl.com/y234ht

• Find objects (for free or a fee): http://www.xstreetsl.com/

• Search” Virtual Ability” island in SL for a good orientation to Second Life.

Questions?

Tanya Joosten

http://uwmsecondlife.wikispaces.com

http://professorjoosten.blogspot.com

http://tinyurl.com/UWMSecondLife

tjoosten@uwm.edu

SL: Juice Gyoza

414.229.4319