Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
What Does Second Life Offer?
•
Art and Music Projects
•
Literature, Composition and Creative
Writing
Second Life (SL) is a multi-user virtual environ-
ment (or MUVE) that allows users (known as
“Residents”) to create and customize their own
avatars, shape the landscape and environment,
build almost any object or structure imaginable,
and script those objects using a proprietary lan-
guage. SL is different from other virtual educa-
tional environments like Quest Atlantis (Barab et
al, 2005) or River City (Galas & Ketelhut, 2006)
in that the Second Life environment itself does not
offer
any
specific educational content, activities or
situations. Rather, it presents an open, adaptable,
extensible virtual space that offers infinite pos-
sibilities for creating almost any situation that can
be imagined. Indeed, the most exciting possibilities
for using Second Life for education are those that
stretch our traditional conceptions of learning and
effective learning environments beyond what is
generally done or considered acceptable in what
may be called “First Life” (Cross et al., 2007).
To get a sense of the possibilities, look at the
SLEducation web site at http://sleducation.wiki-
spaces.com/, which offers a database of different
ways that Second Life has been used for education.
Here are some of the categories:
•
Theatre and Performance Art
•
Photo stories and Photo Scenarios
•
Machinima (videos of events in Second
Life)
•
Treasure Hunts and Quests
•
Virtual Tourism, Cultural Immersion and
Cultural Exchange
•
Language Teaching and Practice, and
Language Immersion
•
Social Science and Anthropological
Research
•
Awareness/Consciousness Raising and
Fund Raising
•
Support and Opportunities for People with
Disabilities
•
Politics, Governance, Civics and Legal
Practice
•
Business, Commerce, Financial Practice
and Modeling
•
Real Estate Practice
•
Product Design, Prototyping, User-testing
and Market Research
•
Interior Design
•
Architectural Design and Modeling
•
Urban Planning and Design
•
Distance and Flexible Education
•
Presentations, Panels and Discussions
This incredible range of possibilities presents
many opportunities for imaginative, technically-
skilled educators or those with the resources to
hire technical specialists, but it also presents huge
challenges, especially for educators who work
in relatively under-resourced schools. Some of
these opportunities and challenges—and possible
strategies for meeting them—are described below.
We will now describe some of the opportuni-
ties that we believe Second Life offers education,
by discussing each of the four major affordances
that we outlined in the previous section.
•
Training and Skills Development
•
Self-paced Tutorials
•
Displays and Exhibits
•
Immersive Exhibits
•
Role-plays and Simulations
•
Data Visualizations and Simulations
•
Libraries, Art Galleries and Museums
•
Historical Re-creations and Re-enactments
•
Living and Immersive Archeology
•
Computer Programming
•
Artificial Intelligence Projects
•
Artificial Life Projects
•
Multimedia and Games Design
Search WWH ::
Custom Search