How can virtual worlds like Second Life enhance the teaching and learning experiences for students? What are the implications for the arts and society?

Many universities and schools are incorporating Second Life into their study and curriculum. The Open University, Harvard, Texas State and Stanford have all implemented virtual campuses where classes are taught online and students can meet and interact. Around the globe, Second Life experiences are linking students and educators and promoting education in a scholarly atmosphere. Educationally, Second Life provides “rich sensory immersive experiences, authentic contexts and activities for experiential learning, simulation and role-play, modeling of complex scenarios, a platform for data visualization and opportunities for collaboration and co-creation that cannot be easily experienced using other platforms.” It uses building and scripting tools that are easy for anyone to learn. Second Life engages students in an interactive environment, to many’s dismay it is not a passive game playing technology. Some examples of areas that may find Second Life useful are design and digital art, business and computer programming and multimedia and virtual tourism. Incorporating Second Life into Education will artistically, continue to inspire digital creativity and societally, promote the technological learning experience.
sources: http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/14/second.life.divorce/index.html?iref=newssearch

I ended my Second Life adventure asleep in a Hammock in Kaeleer d'Alliez. A most calming atmosphere, The mesh curtain pavillion i rested in. I saw the stars twinkling, even shooting stars and comets. And heard the water rushing over at Harmony falls.

Late on this night I was hoping to encounter many people gathered at Benny's Campfire. I was dissapointed when I found no one else there, just me. I warmed myself on a log sitting beside the fire, listening to it's crackling, watched it's flickering flame. There was thickly wooded forest surrounding me. As I walked along I encountered a typical red checkered picnic blanket, a full spread of food and table settings, I left it. I furthered on listening to the bird's calling in the forest and I followed another sound of rushing water. Next I stumbled upon a waterfall, at which I skipped rocks.

While here in Arrakis, a misty island, I enjoyed a beautiful setting sun from the basket of a hot air balloon. But what was most remarkable was that a story was told. This was a tale of the trials of a love stricken pirate and his travels.

Amatsu Shima aka the Heavenly Island was one of my favorite places I visiting while adventuring through Second Life. Surrounded by rocky beaches it is a most peaceful environment with an Asian harmony amidst the air. Willows blowing in the breeze, I rode on one of the brown and white mustangs that was roaming through the field. Here I stumbled across a most helpful fellow while Brittany and I were struggling for over an hour to find each other, he explained to me teleporting and how to go about finding a friend. He recommended to me a few interesting places to visit in Second Life and invited us to attend a poetry reading. I wondered through palaces, theaters and small meditation pavilions, one of which had a zen garden and a trickling fountain. This snapshot is me feeding the swans at the pond.

I ventured deep below the sea in Rosewood Fusion Bay. I discovered a treasure chest filled with gold and jewels. I also found a most unusual mermaids harp with a large sea horse decoration and golden strings. Although I'd never played a harp before, I experimented. The reef was plentiful in fish species, in all colors and shapes and sizes! Its anemones, coral, seaweeds and creatures were so colorful. I was careful of jellyfish. I took my snapshot next to a magnificent pearl inside and enormous pink bellied clam. How often can you say you did that? Ha ha

Soon to be actually visiting Australia, I was excited to browse through Sydney in Second Life. I wondered through interesting open architecture. I took my snapshot inside the Sydney Opera House. Here I sat and enjoyed a concert.

First I visited Ganymede, a village lodged in between cliffs and pine forests. There were wooded walkways guiding you through this small fun village abounding with different art, rides and attractions. While I was tempted to hop on the swings, I opted to rides the swans on the lake. It was a quiet day here.

Gualala-Moon Called Tribe Lands

While in Second Life I searched to see if there were any museums that contained artifacts. I didn’t find any such museums, but I found an Indian tribe. I was surprised to find this in Second Life. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t expect to find something like this. There were fires and dream catchers all over. There were even teepees. It was pretty interesting. At the time there wasn’t anyone around me so I couldn’t really ask any questions but it was still pretty neat.

Photograph in Layachi Gallery

From the Layachi Gallery under the Eiffel Tower, I teleported to another section of the gallery and came across this picture. I’m not sure why, but this picture captured my eye out of all the artwork on the floor. I wasn’t going to buy it, but I checked out the price and the gallery artist was asking 1,000 Linden Dollars for it. Since the picture doesn’t say what it is of, it allows you to make inferences about where it was taken.

Layachi Gallery

On one of my visits in Second Life I went to see the Eiffel Tower. I couldn’t figure out how to take a picture of the entire tower with it being in focus, but I did visit the art gallery underneath the Eiffel Tower. I visited the Layachi Gallery and saw some very nice artwork. It was strange though that there weren’t many picture of the Eiffel Tower since that was where the gallery was based.

BB Vista versus Second Life

Well to begin, Blackboard Vista's chat rooms are specifically designed for students to easily be able to talk to a classmate from their group or even a professor if they have a question or an issue that needs to be dealt with. Also, BB Vista clearly states the day and times that professors are available and as far as contacting other classmates, we can simply send an e-mail. So BB Vista was designed around the efficiency of communication and so this is what its good at. If it weren't for BB Vista, it would have been virtually impossible to coordinate the way we did in order to accomplish what we needed to for Second Life. In BB Vista, students are able to clearly see who is online and from there we can be chatting with someone at the click of a button. We all needed to be on BB Vista in order to coordinate a meeting for Second Life. This ease of finding a friend or classmate was not present in Second Life. In fact, it was especially difficult to find eachother even knowing the names of our group member’s avatars. Even as we were all chatting in BB Vista, there was still confusion in locating eachother. We were all in different places and it was actually quite frustrating at times. In fact, a considerable amount of time wasted in trying to find eachother that we could have been getting some work done. Another issue we were all having was the speed of Second Life, it could not keep up with our typing or walking too well, which is not an issue in BB Vista. Despite the fact that we were all in the same place at the same time in Second Life, which was neat, the only difference was that we could see eachothers avatars and so it was almost like real life meeting. However, there was still the minor inconvenience of the typing issue, which wasn’t bad enough to get frustrated with, but BB Vista does not have any such difficulties so I would rather just work with that. On the other, BB Vista is not perfect and that has its flaws on occasion, which I actually experienced one night we were all trying to coordinate a meeting. However, we could still e-mail eachother on BB Vista and so that is how we communicated and eventually found eachother on Second Life. So in conclusion, the In World meeting for Second Life I think was worse than Blackboard Vista because that is not Second Life’s focus.

Lollygagger Lane

I chose this place because it looked completely different from all the other places I went in Second Life. I previously chose islands or forests with plenty of greenery and sunshine. This place was a hangout spot but it was considerably gloomier than others. I still enjoyed wandering around though because it had some crazy scenery and plenty of people too.

The Forest

This was also another place to hangout. My goal was to go to a variety of different places but there was more hangout places than any other. This forest was in my opinion the most beautiful of all the places I visited. The water was crystal blue, there were boats everywhere, and there were plenty of villas and canopies to hang out underneath. There were even more ducks here than I saw at the Duckpond.

The Duckpond

This place was another hangout spot I visited. The exact picture is of the White Horse and Eagle SkyShop. Here, I saw many other people walking around and hanging out which was interesting to see. They were acting just as they would in real life. This place had many different things to see and i especially liked the fountain in the picture.

Albion Park

This place was under the parks and nature section of Second Life. This was one of my favorite places that I visited. It was very peaceful, much like a park we would see. This place was even more deserted than the previous island. I encountered nobody and only saw one house, which is in the picture. I could also hear birds and other wildlife which was really neat.

Kaiya Islands

I found this spot as I was searching for a hangout spot. It is in the bay of the Kaiya Islands, which was beautiful. Here though, there were not a whole lot of people. I expected there to be others hanging out but I only saw one other person if that. The scenery was gorgeous and there were plenty of benches and tables for people to sit in. Maybe it was just the time of day but I almost liked it better without people everywhere, it was relaxing.

Alpine Valley Music Theatre

While trying to find other interesting places to visit in Second Life I came across a place called Alpine Valley Music Theatre. The view wasn’t interesting; it was the content of the theatre. When I got to the theatre it was completely empty. I was very surprised when I didn’t find a band playing. I just assumed that bands played all the time in this virtual world. However, that is not the case; there are specific dates and times when certain bands will be playing just like in the real world.

Group Meeting of Chelsea, Karinna & Brittany

Amatsu Shima was also the same island they my group had our meeting. Between the three of us we discussed the game and what we thought about it. It was unanimous that when first starting out, the game was very confusing. We all found it interesting the amount of different places you could teleport to. Right before the meeting Chelsea was feeding the swans. It was neat how you could interact with the swans like you could in real life.

Wild Horses in Amatsu Shima

This picture was taken on Amatsu Shima (Heavenly Island). Chelsea and I were shown to Amatsu Shima by two different people and we happened to teleport at the same time. When Chelsea and I first teleported to Amatsu Shima, Chelsea saw these wild horses. It was neat because Chelsea walked right up to them and sat on their backs. There aren’t many places anymore that have wild horses running around freely. It was a pretty neat experience.

Help Island Waterfall

This photo of a waterfall was also taken at Help Island. This is the spot where my teammate Chelsea and I met for the first time in Second Life. With both of us being new to the game it took us about an hour to finally find each other. Not only did I pick this photo because Chelsea and I are in the picture, but because of the sign on the waterfall. The sign says "HELP PEOPLE BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS WITH NEW RESIDENTS SUCH THAT THEY ARE INSPIRED TO LEARN, PARTICIPATE IN AND CONTRIBUTE TO CREATING THE SECOND LIFE COMMUNITY." I feel the sign not only pertains to Help Island but all of Second Life.

Freebie Shop on Help Island

When I first arrived on Help Island many people were helpful. One person told me to go to the Freebie Ship to pick out new clothes. Trying to get more acquainted with the game I decided to check it out. When I arrived I was overwhelmed by the many free items. After looking around I found some things I wanted to get, yet didn’t understand how I retrieved them. I asked someone for help and they were glad to help and it wants even someone who worked in the store. No wonder it is called Help Island, everyone on the island likes to help people.

Virtual Society vs. Real World Society

Even though these two worlds are different, there is a lot of similarity in them as well. In the Virtual World there is a Freebie Store which allows anyone to have anything in the store for free. This is different because in the Real World nothing seems to be free anymore, especially not a whole store full of free items. In the Virtual World and avatar’s means of transportation consists of walking, flying, or teleporting. The Real World is similar in that both people and avatars walk, however the two other means of transportation are different. In the Real World people are able to fly, but through means of airplanes or even hot air balloons. Teleporting is something that is only available in “Pretend Worlds”. So far technology has not yet enabled the ability to teleport in the Real World. From my experiences in Second Life I have not come across a car, so I’m thinking that there are no cars in the Virtual World due to the simplicity of transportation such as teleporting. Another difference between the two worlds is the one-on-one interaction between people. Yeah, a person can talk to someone else by typing, but the experience is not the same. You can’t read other people’s expressions just from the text. People normally use facial expressions to really perceive another person’s emotion when talking to them. Body language also tells a person a lot and the experience is not the same through the Virtual World. Differences between these two worlds are at a minimal, there are many similarities besides the ones already mentioned. Avatars in the Virtual World can even own land just like in the Real World. Even though there are free items readily available to anyone, there are a lot of items that contain a monetary value. In the Virtual World the monetary system is based on “Linden Dollars” instead of US Dollars, which would be used in the United States. The way people act is even the same in both worlds. This is mainly due to the fact that an actual person is behind every avatar; but like in the Real World there are some extremely nice people and then there are others who you just can’t get away from fast enough. Also like the Real World, people have the freedom of speech. Overall, these two worlds are similar in many ways, however are different due to the fact of interaction (in person) experience of people.