Graphics Programs Reference
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or the Sistine Chapel to observe the artworks as
if they were really there. Drama instructors have
employed the ability to dress the students' ava-
tars in costumes and create actual performances.
Some educators have used relatively inexpensive
joystick technology or 3-D mouse technology
such as the Space Navigator to set up inworld
cinema, called machinima. Some very sophisti-
cated camera angles, special effects, and tracking
scenarios can be set up with as much rigor as real
world settings and at a minute fraction of the cost.
Some instructors have actually incorporated the
American Film Institute's learning materials into
machinima production. Second Life has at least
one major dance company where the participants
are forced to use avatar animation software such
as Qavamator to map out each movement and to
synchronize those movements with those of the
other dancers. Although generally more difficult
than humans performing the dance movements, for
a detailed analysis of choreography it has potential
that some educators have taken advantage of.
The potential disciplines that can adopt MUVE
environments and the numbers of applications they
can create are staggering, but the complete imple-
mentation of the tools of Second Life for course
content is most likely beyond the capabilities of
most educators without at least a substantial time
commitment. For example, the well referenced
Genome Island that allows for very robust biology
and genetics experiences, including performing
scientific experiments, while exciting, took nearly
five years to create and incorporates substantial
levels of building, texturing, and scripting skills.
For this reason, I have chosen to take an incre-
mental approach to both teaching in Second Life
and to the development of learning experiences.
In my first attempt at teaching in Second Life
I employed my own familiarity with Second Life
tools such as the whiteboard. This inexpensive de-
vice allowed me to convert lecture material (Pow-
erPoint frames) from my face-to-face class into
textures that could be displayed for my students
and their avatars to view. I used this successfully
to provide an opportunity for the students to form
informal study groups, to review for exams, and to
be there with them during the process. Anecdot-
ally the exam scores seemed to improve at a faster
rate than those students who did not participate.
Observations seemed to indicate that forcing
the students to use text-based responses during
reviews, and making them respond in complete
sentences and paragraphs seems to have resulted
in better performance on essay exams (DeMers
2008b). While it provided an opportunity for the
students to congregate for study and to share the
social presence through their avatars, it did not
take advantage of the true power of Second Life.
My next incremental step was to create small,
bite-sized learning objects that took advantage of
some of Second Life's tools without requiring a
massive investment in instructor time and learning
USINg SeCOND LIFe TOOLS
examples of Learning Objects
The field of geographic information systems (GIS)
lends itself to the building, animation, scripting,
and visualization tools of Second Life, but, as
with any other discipline, it requires a modicum
of thought about how the transition can take place.
There are examples of the use of Second Life for
GIS Education (Herwig & Paar, 2002; DeMers,
2008a) but these writings provide little guidance
about how to actually create small, bite-sized learn-
ing objects that can be incrementally developed in
the Second Life environment. I now provide a few
simple examples of learning objects that I have
created in-world that demonstrate the migration
from traditional real-world exercises that are not
necessarily readily available to the online student,
to virtual ones where the tools are present and
collaboration is also possible.
Let me preamble this explanation of creating
Second Life learning objects for my discipline
with a brief description of the course and how
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