In thinking about the uses we could make of the new Eduserv Island, I coined the term 'SLashup' - a Web 2.0 mashup delivered in Second Life. One of the areas of the new island will be a 'SLashup area'.
A quick search of Google indicates that the term hasn't been used in this way before (though it has been used for a Slashdot mashup).
I quite like it as a term?
Saturday, 7 April 2007
ArtsPlace SL has moved
I've moved ArtsPlace SL to the new Eduserv Island. This means it is in a more controlled location, without my needing to worry about who is moving in next door so to speak.
The new SLURL is:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduserv%20Island/64/93/26/
I apologise to people who have bookmarked or referenced ArtsPlace using the old SLURL - hopefully, this location will be more persistent.
If anyone has any suggestions for new exhibitions that could be hosted in ArtsPlace I'd be keen to hear them. I'm primarily looking for exhibitions based on library or museum collections.
Friday, 6 April 2007
On naming...
There are a couple of slides in my talk (see previous post) to do with identity - one concerning appearance and one concerning naming.
In discussion at the end of my talk, someone raised an interesting issue about naming...
No-one in Second Life has their own name - it simply isn't possible given the way that names are assigned. You have to choose a surname from a pre-determined list. The questioner wondered if the act of having to choose and use a new name would be a hurdle for some students? I'm not sure.
It was also noted that remembering a second name for every student would also be a hurdle for teachers and lecturers!
I wondered if it might be possible to get round both these problems by selecting a surname for a whole cohort of students and then asking them to create their first name thru some algorithmic transformation of their real name. So for example, instead of being 'Art Fossett' I might be 'AndyP Fossett' or some such.
In discussion at the end of my talk, someone raised an interesting issue about naming...
No-one in Second Life has their own name - it simply isn't possible given the way that names are assigned. You have to choose a surname from a pre-determined list. The questioner wondered if the act of having to choose and use a new name would be a hurdle for some students? I'm not sure.
It was also noted that remembering a second name for every student would also be a hurdle for teachers and lecturers!
I wondered if it might be possible to get round both these problems by selecting a surname for a whole cohort of students and then asking them to create their first name thru some algorithmic transformation of their real name. So for example, instead of being 'Art Fossett' I might be 'AndyP Fossett' or some such.
Meanwhile in Manchester...
I repeated my talk about Second Life in Manchester for a group of about 40 learning technologists. It was a good turn out and people seemed to enjoy the talk. It was blogged here with some interesting follow-up about the value of virtual creations. I used the same slides as in my presentation to Eduserv staff last week.
It probably doesn't come across well from the slides but in my talk I wanted to stress two things...
Firstly, that my aim in giving these presentations is not to add to the levels of hype that already exist around Second Life. My intent is only to give a balanced view on the strengths and weaknesses of Second Life in the context of its use in education.
Secondly, that there is no point in approaching Second Life as if it is a game. Second Life isn't a game, and if you approach it in that way, i.e. expecting a purpose to be laid out for you, then you'll go away disappointed.
Some thoughts flow from this second point, which I didn't really expand on in my talk - they occurred to me during the 4 hour train journey home to Bath. People seem to engage most with Second Life when they have some purpose to being there - a librarian setting up a virtual reference desk, an artist building a virtual exhibition, a programmer building a scripted object, a teacher putting together a virtual lesson, and so on.
Second Life is much less engaging if you simply turn up to see other people's creations. I suggest that for the most part, people who only do the latter, get bored pretty quickly and go home wondering what all the fuss is about!
Now, in the context of education, we want our students to be as engaged with Second Life as the teachers - more so probably. So it is not sufficient for us to prepare things in Second Life for our students to do - we need to find ways for them to build stuff for themselves. I suspect this is why we are tending to find that Second Life works better in some subjects than in others.
It probably doesn't come across well from the slides but in my talk I wanted to stress two things...
Firstly, that my aim in giving these presentations is not to add to the levels of hype that already exist around Second Life. My intent is only to give a balanced view on the strengths and weaknesses of Second Life in the context of its use in education.
Secondly, that there is no point in approaching Second Life as if it is a game. Second Life isn't a game, and if you approach it in that way, i.e. expecting a purpose to be laid out for you, then you'll go away disappointed.
Some thoughts flow from this second point, which I didn't really expand on in my talk - they occurred to me during the 4 hour train journey home to Bath. People seem to engage most with Second Life when they have some purpose to being there - a librarian setting up a virtual reference desk, an artist building a virtual exhibition, a programmer building a scripted object, a teacher putting together a virtual lesson, and so on.
Second Life is much less engaging if you simply turn up to see other people's creations. I suggest that for the most part, people who only do the latter, get bored pretty quickly and go home wondering what all the fuss is about!
Now, in the context of education, we want our students to be as engaged with Second Life as the teachers - more so probably. So it is not sufficient for us to prepare things in Second Life for our students to do - we need to find ways for them to build stuff for themselves. I suspect this is why we are tending to find that Second Life works better in some subjects than in others.
Monday, 2 April 2007
Presentation to Eduserv staff
I did a lunchtime seminar for staff at Eduserv about Second Life. The slides are available on Slideshare and in our virtual symposium venue on Eduserv Island. My plan was to present from within Second Life, but unfortunately the hotel wireless network that I was on didn't offer sufficient bandwidth to make that viable.
I'm repeating the talk tomorrow to a group of elearning types in Manchester.
I'm also open to other bookings if people are interested ;-)
Eduserv Island
Eduserv have bought an island in Second Life to support various activities... our plans are tentative at this stage (building is just about in progress) but some outline ideas are available at SlideShare for those that are interested.
Museums and the Web paper
ArtsPlace gets a mention in the following paper for the Museums and the Web conference:
Urban, R., Marty, P., & Twidale, M. A Second Life for Your Museum: 3D Multi-User Virtual Environments and Museums. In J. Trant and D.
Bearman (eds). Museums and the Web 2007: Proceedings. Toronto:
Archives & Museum Informatics, published March 31, 2007 at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/urban/urban.html
Urban, R., Marty, P., & Twidale, M. A Second Life for Your Museum: 3D Multi-User Virtual Environments and Museums. In J. Trant and D.
Bearman (eds). Museums and the Web 2007: Proceedings. Toronto:
Archives & Museum Informatics, published March 31, 2007 at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/urban/urban.html
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