Experiencing Second Life first hand .....
I really enjoyed my initial, and regrettably only visit to date in Second Life, experienced through my svelte alter ego: Mertle Arrowmint!
I joined several other participants from FOC09 in SL one evening, where we were given a general orientation led by Petal Stransky (Sarah Stewart).
Time in SL seems to fly as we were there for almost 1-1/2 hours , yet it felt like half that. I came away thinking how easy it must be for some people to spend hours at a time in SL. I think this is one reason why I have not been back! However if I was to use SL for facilitation or teaching purposes in the future, I would need to spend a lot of time getting to grips with the technology, as one lesson is definitely not enough!
Prior to this experience all I knew about SL was that it was being used in some educational contexts as a learning/teaching medium, and also that an old friend of mine had become addicted to SL when it first launched, which caused her husband several bouts of offended sulking! - needless to say I was both curious and a bit apprehension going into SL for the first time.
The advantages that SL offers to learning/teaching and facilitating online events, became obvious within minutes of our visit. As we all attempted to sit around in a group and practice using our chat function, I pictured numerous virtual meetings and lessons taking place throughout SL.
We were given lessons on basic SL survival skills, such as how to move, sit, chat, make friends, teleport e.t.c. This was a lot of fun, although sad to say I brought my lack of sense of direction in real life with me! I managed to frequently stray away from the group and seemed to lack the ability to walk in a straight line!
Communities in Second Life ....
I visited the second life Wikipedia page and was amazed to see the number of flourishing communities actively participating and utilising SL. As an ESOL home tutor I was really interested to see that language learning is the most widespread type of education in Second Life, however the biggest drawback in using SL in this context is that most of the learners we deal with as volunteer home tutors in New Zealand are migrants and refugees, so many lack access to a home computer, broadband internet connection, and the computer skills to access SL.
However in a more formal learning setting there are plenty of universities, and P.T.E's utilising SL to support language learning, and as I will be completing TESOL papers next year I feel confident that this with not be my last dabble with SL!
Other communities well represented were music, theatre, arts, and religion. You can attend live music events in Second Life, with various genres supposedly well represented, or attend a live theatre production or comedy festival, which utilises live streaming audio. Many Churches are even using SL .... the mind boggles.
Ahhhh..Second Life....it certainly has it's challenges, loves and hates. There's no doubt if you wish to use it effectively for teaching and learning you have to become quite competent with its use. At the same time, it has potentials that are worth investigating. In terms of facilitation, what do you think you'd have to keep in mind when you were facilitating an event in SL?
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