The Affordances of Second Life for Education - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 104

laughing, coughing, yawning, etc. Anyone can cre-
ate their own avatar animations using a tool such
as Poser, Avimator, or Qavimator, and combine
those animations with sounds, which can also be
uploaded into SL. SL uses animation files in the
“BVH” format, which can be exported from other
programs as well
Avatars can also use a form of “body language”
to indicate their agreement with particular points of
view or answers to a complex question. GlobalKids
has an activity they call the “human barometer.”
Basically the leader makes a statement, and then
creates a number of separate “platforms” that
are labeled “agree,” “disagree,” and “not sure,”
where avatars move to indicate their preference
or choice. This allows the whole group to “see”
the group's diversity of opinion, and also pro-
vides an interesting opportunity for like-minded
participants to have their own conversation and/
or create a useful discussion with those with other
viewpoints. A similar tool, the “Opinionator,”
presents an avatar-counting example of a Likert
scale (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and
strongly disagree). As avatars make their selection

by moving into labeled areas, a pie graph in the
center changes to display the percentage of each
response. By applying this system to the phrase,
“I am comfortable enough in Second Life to help
someone else with basic skills,” Virginia Society
for Technology in Education (VSTE) members,
for example, were able to identify the novices and
pair each of them with a mentor. (See Figure 1)

Representations and Simulations

Representation has two aspects that need to be
considered. First, teachers (or curriculum devel-
opers) provide representations of information
or ideas that they want students to understand,
such as textual descriptions, the illustrations on
a chalkboard or in a textbook, various video and
audio including lecture and narration, animations,
and models (such as when a chemistry professor
displays a model of a molecule). The insight that
different people have different preferred styles of
learning (McLoughlin, 1999; Rayner & Riding,
1997) leads to the realization that information
ought to be presented flexibly and with a diversity

Figure 1. The “Opinionator” http”//slurl.com/secondlife/Tupi/147/149/303