Well, that was too much fun flying around Second Life with Dave, Ewan, Tom, Doug, and others today in Second Life. I’m not sure what I think actually, other than it’s an absoultely amazing, um, place that could have some interesting applications for the classroom. In fact, I guess, it could be a classroom. But, oy, the thought of spending another chunk of my life learning enough about it to actually make some sense of it is giving me a migrane. (And besides that the first couple of people I tried to interact with ran away from me. Was it my breath?) Luckily, the technology doesn’t seem to be stable enough yet to make classroom use an option right now. I don’t think. Ewan and others were having a slow time of it, and some folks crashed.
The other fun was doing my first Skypecast with Dave at the helm. That too had some mixed reviews, but it was fun being able to talk to people while interacting with them in SL.
Btw, in case I ever get back there, my SL name is Blogsar Lumpen. Don’t ask.
It’s not just losing a chunk of my time familiarising myself with the ‘place’ and the technology that worries me. I (and a lot of people I know) already spend way too much time online than is physically and psychologically healthy. What’s going to happen once the technology is up to speed? It looks pretty addictive. Are we going to spend half of our lives exploring and building and interacting in virtual worlds like this? Thank God my computer isn’t up for the task at the moment!
I just couldn’t take seriously a tour through a social software space that was relying on an entirely different technology to communicate. The fact that I couldn’t get technology #2 to work today didn’t help either.
Interesting that the first two comments are a bit negative. What about the people who were there – what do you guys have to say?
I was just sorry I missed it. Once I worked out the time difference, I was as predicted, taking the dogs to stay at my mum’s for the weekend. 🙁
I was sorry I couldn’t be there for the guided tour. I’ll need to explore SecondLife on my own now, and that always takes longer.
I agree Will… the technology is not really ready for primetime teaching, simply for the access issue. I think we’re probably a year or two out. And i think its gonna take that long for anyone to get their mind around how to make that space not just simple mirror of first life. To use its inherent advantages.
One of the interesting things about second life is that it exposes the vagueries of the computer industry. The biggest reason for system failures is video drivers that are not updated. I was working on a card today that costs about 35 bucks now, downloaded the new drivers, and had no problem.
And skypecast, well, its still a beta. And an early one, being released only a few weeks ago. I’m not sure about it long term, certainly for the solo user. When jeff and i are both running the show its no biggie, then you can have someone talking and someone muting… It is however, nice to have a place you can send people who can’t get the live audio.
As for the ‘tour relying on different technologies to communicate’ Tom, (dave shakes his head), that’s what we do, live webcasting. It wasn’t a case of reliance. it actually would have probably been simpler to not use the webcast. Your graciousness, as always, is appreciated.
I’ve been looking around SL for about 3 weeks now, and met quite a few people doing interesting educational things there. There is a lot of useful info and links from the Education Wiki at http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki
As to the technology, well, yes, there is a problem inasmuch as SL is limited to people with wired broadband but it will run on hardware that it ‘officially’ shouldn’t – I get on using an old Dell Inspiron with one of those Intel graphics chipsets that should never work with it.
I think it is worth investing time in SL because that sort of virtual world, using open source technology, will become very common in the next two or three years. I can see many colleges and schools running their own virtual worlds in a few years. We’re dealing with kids now who play warcraft all the time, they’re going to be very comfortable living in virtual worlds. I teach some international relations courses, and I can see ways I can use SL to enchance class simulations.
Mike
Will,
I’m sorry I missed it. I had my account set up, and took one late night excursion — and fell down a hill, I think. Alas, one of my tasks for Friday ended out taking longer than I’d hoped, and I wasn’t able to join you guys.
I agree with some skepticism about using 2nd life classrooms. However, what about using something like this as a homework space. Not for teaching, but for collaborative learning. This is where students would spend part of their time as they are completing the tasks that we assign them in the classroom.
I believe that we have to be thinking less about, “What can we do here that we do in our classrooms,” and more about, “What can we do here that we CAN’T do in our classrooms.”
Again, I share your skepticism. I suspect that I’ll never be anywhere near at home in virtual environments. Still, these aging bones don’t creek so much yet that frolicking across a digital meadow has the appeal — it may have thirty years from now. 😉