Education-Oriented Research Activities Conducted in Second Life - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 331

narrative interactive environment is easy to design
in Second Life. Avatars can dress like characters
from history or fiction. In one case, teachers de-
veloped packs of clothing representing the dress
of various immigrant populations to the United
States. Students study the immigrants and their
historical context and engage in role-playing to
display what they have learned.
The exciting part of learning in SL is that there
are all kinds of possibilities and the residents need
to fully participate and make choice. Malone and
Lepper (1987) argued that choice is a significant
variable in fostering motivation. Besides choices,
a sense of achievement also can foster intrinsic
motivation. Malone and Lepper (1987) noted the
significance of challenge and uncertainty in fos-
tering motivation in gameplay. Therefore, the SL
instructional models should adopt flexible design
which allows participants to choose, challenge
and achieve in order to foster learners' problem
solving and increase their intrinsic motivation.

support and careful instructional deign are all very
necessary. We propose the following suggestions
to help faculty to start teaching in SL:

• Get to know SL. Rogers (2003) pointed

out that the first stage of the Innovation
Decision Process is knowledge.
“Knowledge is gained when an individual
(or decision-making unit) learns of the in-
novation existence and gains some under-
standing of how it functions” (p20). There
is much information about SL in various
mediums for universities and individual
instructors who want to start using SL such
as Wikis, books and Blogs. Wiley has re-
cently published a book about Second Life
titled Second Life: the Official Guide . It is
aimed at the beginning users and would be a
good reference book to learn about SL. On
the SL education page, people can also find
pointers to mailing lists such as the SLED
list (education focus) and the SLRL list
(research focus) (Second Life Education.
http://secondlife.com/education).

Teaching in Second
Life: How to Start?

• Create an Avatar, get around in SL.

When instructors want to teach in SL, they
need to experience and get familiar with
SL. They will experiment with their ap-
pearances: how to navigate around, how
to pick up things, how to fly, and so on. It
is also important to explore possibilities of
how SL can be used in teaching and how to
design instruction in SL.

The faculty members in our study are in the art
and computer science departments. They primarily
use SL as a professional tool for computer skills
and 3-demensional skills. The reasons are obvious
since those instructors have the knowledge and
skills to us these environments. Research shows
that faculty who are knowledgeable and skillful
in using one technology may then be more willing
to try a different technology (Kagima & Hausafus
2000). This implies the importance of technology
competence in teaching in SL. In the beginning, it
is essential for educators to get acclimated about
how to use the interface.
Moreover, instructors are faced with the
challenge of having to develop a whole new set
of instructional models that will work in this
environment. Therefore, effective instructional
design is needed. In addition, since teaching in
SL is relatively new, getting resources, finding

• Find support. There are a number of pro-

fessional organizations that can provide
support and resources for educators who
want to experience teaching in SL. For
universities who want to build virtual cam-
puses, New Media Consortium (NMC) is
a good place to go. NMC is an interna-
tional non-profit organization and there are
nearly 300 learning-focused organizations
that have dedicated to the exploration and
use of new media and new technologies