Second Life
Our description of River City will remind many educators of Second Life. They may have been exposed to Second Life at an educational technology conference or by reading publications directed at teachers. College students may be familiar with Second Life because many institutions have a virtual presence in Second Life as a way to engage students these institutions believe may be captivated by a different way of representing the institution to potential and enrolled students.
Second Life is a virtual online world anyone over the age of 13 is free to visit as an avatar; a graphical representation of a user. In fact, one of the first things many “residents” do is customize their avatar to resemble themselves or a character that they see as representing an “alter ego”. If you find our description interests you, visit the Second Life web site and download a “veiwer” so that you can explore. It takes a little while to learn to control your avatar and navigate (keyboard commands are more efficient than using menubar options), but if you are willing to invest a couple of hours you will become proficient enough to explore some relevant locations within the virtual world or “grid” as it is known “in world” (i.e., in Second Life).
We think it is helpful to understand the real world economics of Second Life. Access is free, but there is a thriving in-world economy that sustains the company responsible for the infrastructure and on-going development of this service, and provides revenue for entrepreneurs who feel they have legitimate ways to make real money within the environment. While in Second Life, you can purchase things using Linden dollars (the company responsible for Second Life is called Linden Labs) and Linden dollars can be purchased using your credit card or earned by providing various services required by others. As an example, those with artistic talent might create and sell clothing offering purchasers a way to differentiate themselves from those who rely on the free options available when you first become a member. Organizations or individuals wanting to develop a location in Second Land must pay for a premium membership and a fee to lease land. So, if your university has a presence in Second Life, some funds have been expended to acquire this virtual space. Those wanting to provide a location focused on a specific educational mission or for other purposes must pay before they can create buildings or add objects to a location. A variety of individuals, educational institutions and other organizations with a commitment to education (e.g., NOAA, NASA) have done so.
There is a certain reality we would urge educators to recognize that applies to this and many other online settings and services. Much of the Internet is a very open and relatively unrestricted environment providing the flexibility for many people to do many different things. Second Life takes a similar perspective. Teaching and learning are only a few of the behaviors that are possible within such settings and some of the other behaviors one might encounter are clearly not appropriate for younger individuals and may be offensive to some individuals of any age. Our intent is clearly not to discourage use of Second Life or the other open environments we describe here or in other chapters, but it is important to understand the general setting within which potential educational experiences exist.
Linden Labs has made some recent changes to Second Life that may have consequences when it comes to educational use (Livingstone, 2011). First, Second Life no longer offers the “Teen Grid” which provided greater security for younger users. Second Life now recognizes two groups of younger users; 13-15 and 16-17 and stipulates that the youngest group should limit exploration to the sites maintained by “sponsoring organizations” developing sites appropriate to this age group. Second, the company has eliminated the subsidy for educational use. Educational sites in Second Life have now essentially doubled in cost. Of course, adequate revenue is essential for any business and the company behind Second Life must weigh the collective costs and benefits of any given decision to the entire membership.
Second Life Resources
Here are some Second Life resources you may want to explore. We do encourage you to take the time to give this a try. There is no cost and some time experimenting will give you a better understand of concepts such as “avatar” and “immersive environment”. By the way, web addresses pointing locations in Second Life are called SLurls (Second Life Uniform Resource Locator - URLs or Uniform Resource Locators are what you would recognize as a web address). You can identify a SLurl by the coordinate values (the numbers) that appear at the end of the address. These coordinates identify locations on “the grid”.
Second Life Resources:
Launch Second Life - a good place to begin for the novice
Official Linden Lab Teen Safety Guidelines
SLurls Global Kids - (also see for background)
SciLands - (Also see for background on SciLands)
NOAA - real time weather information
NOAA - explore oil spill
ISTE - International Society for Technology In Education Island