Hit the Ground Running in Second Life

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Hit The Ground Running In Second Life

Questions:

How long have you been in Second Life?• Never, I didn’t create my account yet.• I’ve created an account but didn’t log in.• I’ve logged in but done nothing.• I’ve completed Orientation Island.• I’ve been exploring but I still consider myself a newbie.• I consider myself past the beginner stage so maybe I’m in the wrong workshop.

What do hope to leave with by the end of the workshop?

Presentation Outline:

• What is Second Life?• Why use it in the classroom?• Can I run it on my computer?• How does one get started?• Challenges?• How can I find other educators using Second Life?• Do you have any resources for me?• What’s next?

Heidi Trotta and Nick Noakes

Copyright Heidi Trotta, Nick Noakes, 2007. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors, however, we would be flattered!

What is Second Life?

• Online, 3-D interactive space• Downloadable client program• Enables “residents” to interact with each other through avatars• Provides social networking• Residents can explore, meet others, participate in individual and group activities, create, trade items and services from one another• Not a game – a space!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxj8RTW4ev4

Why are you interested in using Second Life in Education?

• Engages students• Encourages active learning and collaboration • Brings real world experiences into the classroom via technology• Allows for role-play and the “trying on” of different real-world identities

This content is so dry and

boring!

So Cool!

Why use Second Life (con’t)?

• Adds a sense of presence not available in other online environments

• Gives students the ability to interact with others outside of the university community

• Creates new landscapes for work, learning, teaching and collaborating

• Encourages higher level cognitive skills – interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating and problem solving

• Provides an environment for creativity and innovation

Introduction to Second Life – A Movie

Technical Considerations for Education

• Account Setup - Challenging

• High Learning Curve

• Labor Intensive – Processing, Updates, Need Broadband

• Online support and scaffolding needed

How do I get started?

– Create an account – Login– Movement – Communication – Inventory– Changing your appearance and clothes– Searching– Notecards

How do I get started?Click the orange Join Now button to create an account – free or $

Download the client and you are ready to

go!

How do you move?

Fly:Page Up, Page Down

Hitch a Ride

Walk: Arrow Keys

Teleport

Communication - Chat

View > Chat History

Communication – Instant Message

View > Chat History

Changing Your Appearance and Clothes

Handout

Your clothes are in your inventory. Find someplace to change

that is private!

Don’t forget to take your current clothes

off first by right clicking on yourself, choose “Take Off”.

Find the piece of clothing you want to wear, right click and

choose “Wear”.

Search for People, Places, Events

Many different options

Give items away by dropping on

profile here

Search for Groups with Similar Interests – NMC Guests

Join

Location

Teleport

Search for Places - World Map

Find “Notecards” in your inventory, right

click and choose “New Note”

Knowing how to create a notecard is an important skill in Second Life

Type directly into the notecard and

remember to rename your card something that makes sense.

Keep your card!

Type your content in here!

Just a review …

We have: – Created an account – Logged in– Moved around – Communicated with people near and far– Found items in our inventory– Changed our appearance and clothes– Searched for people, places and events– Created a notecard

Need to improve your performance? Follow the instructions on the next couple of slides .

Windows XP – select

> Right click desktop > Properties (display) > Settings tab > Advanced button > Troubleshoot tab > Acceleration = full

>Full hardware acceleration

Adjust to Full

If Second Life does not load, or if you have graphic problems, click on Preferences.

Lower the draw distance

Turn offbumpmapping;

lower terrain detail

Turn off anisotropicfiltering,

reduce settings

http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/NMC2007_Hit_The_Ground_Running

Contacts:

Heidi Trotta(aka Heidi TeeCee)trottahe@shu.eduWeb: www.heiditrotta.com

Nick Noakes(aka Corwin Carillon)nick.noakes@gmail.com

Many thanks to Lyr Lobo for her slides on improving system performance that are included in this presentation.

Questions?