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Second Life in Education

Getting around In World

Overview

• The Second Life homepage gives you a good overview of what SL is all about http://secondlife.com/. The official blog is at: http://blog.secondlife.com/
• NMC, or New Media Consortium, has interesting resources such as Getting Started With Second Life A step by step guide to getting started in SL, from installing and registering to learning how to move around in SL http://www.nmc.org/campuswiki/index.php/Getting_Started. You can tag the NMC newsletter straight into delicious, and http://www.nmc.org/sl/ will get you the feed links.
• You Tube - Sample Second Life Videos A selection of videos that show you clearly what life is like in SL http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Second+Life
• There's a large selection of video tutorials here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Video_Tutorials

Getting started

• There's a very nice Getting Started with Second Life at http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/gettingstarted with links (in Dec 2007) to * About Second Life * Introductory Videos * Signing Up for Second Life * How much does it cost? * Technical Requirements * Institutional Requirements * Beginner's/ Newbies Resources * Groups and Mailing Lists for Educators * Challenges/Issues/Cautions
• Getting Started in Second Life http://www.nmc.org/campuswiki/index.php/Getting_Started
• Absolute Beginners Guide to Second Life http://www.combinedstory.com/tutorials.html
• My Teaching Semester in Second Life http://www.slatenight.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=107&Itemid=40
• A starting point for beginners recommended on Educators@lists.secondlife.com is the educator's wiki at http://www.simteach.com/

Navigation in world

Navigation hints are available from Linden at http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/category.php?id=22; and see Torley Linden's Second Life & techno music blog with Tips and Tricks, e.g. this one at: http://blip.tv/file/106637 <-- this is on advanced camera techniques and might be a bit much for newbies, but it would does provide an insiders view of what getting around in SL could be like. These tips are available through http://secondlife.com/newsletter/

From a dispatch from Dudeney Ge: Moving around can be tricky to begin with. When I first get into Second Life I usually wait for 30 seconds or so while the world around me settles down. Tips for movement:

• Running is erratic and difficult to control (World - Always Run)
• Flying is good (Page Up to fly up, Page DOwn to fly down)

Getting help

• Second Life Help Wiki http://sliki.info/wiki/Main_Page
• http://blog.secondlife.com
• Known issues with upgrades, etc. http://secondlife.com/support/known-issues.php

Some tips to enhance the experience

Speed

More from Dudeney Ge: If you're getting a slow SL video experience, please experiment with the following - all available from the Edit - Preferences menu:

• Graphics - lower the draw distance
• Graphics detail - disable everything, avatar rendering normal, sun and moon only. Terrain detail low, all sliders under that towards the left - your mileage will vary, so experiment
• Adv Graphics - turn off Anisotropic Doodahs and reduce the particle count to 512, keep the Outfit Composite Limit low
• Webhead Link has found that "if the window is maximized full screen performance on my laptop can degrade to something akin to falling into an event horizon. Simply minimizing and resizing the window diminishes the visual experience only slightly while restoring snappy performance (so, it's the graphics!). One way to restore control is to use File / Screen Size and then select 600x800, to snap your window to low resolution"

Suggestions for improviing performance in case of poor computing resources, posted on the SLED list Vol 441, Issue 1 , Aug 16, 2007: " reduce quality of all bandwith relevant settings you can find in the preferences. Reduce draw distance, pull down the levers for mesh details, turn off sound and video options for example. There are also some settings in the "secret" Client menu which you access by clicking ctrl+shift+alt+D when you are logged in. This menu has options for turning textures off and such. Im not sure the experience of SL is going to be much worth without textures.. but you can try turning diffrent rendering options (in client/rendering/types) on and off in this menu to see if anything helps. "Animate textures" could be something else you might want to turn off, not sure about that one but might be worth a try.

Light

• If you turn up anywhere and it's dark - try 'World - Force Sun', which is a per-user setting.

Clothing

• Tips from Baldric Commons: If you search on the 'Gnubie store' or 'freebies' you should find something. Another tip I have is to sign up for an account with http://www.slexchange.com and search for what you want there. Likewise, there are lots of freebies, or clothes that cost 1L$
• Graham mentioned in a recent post about the Gnubie store (which is great) and there is another freebie place I use a lot called the Freebie Warehouse. As the Search function within Second Life is disabled at the moment, I have created a quick Second Life Languages Welcome pack (box) which, when you click on it, will give you landmarks to these locations (and others) plus some information (on notecards) that I hope you will find useful. The box is on my island, click on the link below and it will open a webpage with a map and link to a my island's location in Second Life. Click on "Teleport now" in that web page and it will open Second Life and when you click the Connect button, you will arrive directly at my island (if you have Second Life open already, it should open the map for you to click teleport). Once you are on the island (Boracay), turn your avatar around and look for the big, light purple, box near the big tree that says "Second Life Languages, Landmarks & Freebies". Simply click this to get the landmarks and notecards. http://tinyurl.com/yyesnl Hope this helps Nick/Corwin
• Dove's (128,128,0) ... has a lot of free stuff

Building

There is a list for SLED Builders: http://lists.simteach.com/listinfo.cgi/sledbuilders-simteach.com

Video on constructing objects tutorial

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSzh_QTE00
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSzh_QTE003
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSzh_QTE00 3 (this one times out per LinkSleuth report Aug 2007)

Pedagogy

Nik Peachy has created a set of shockwave video tutorials pertaining to his work teaching languages in SL via http://www.languagelab.com/ and in a spirit of much appreciated sharing has blogged them at "Learning technology teacher development blog for ELT" - http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2007/08/teaching-english-in-second-life.html. On Aug 13, 2007 the following videos were available. I've included the links in the list below, copied from Nik's blog: The videos reveal:

• how you can get students into pairs or groups, so that they only hear the people you are working with http://www.technogogy.org.uk/IMcall.html
• how can use the 'Active Speaker' panel so that you can change the volume of the other speakers around you or mute them. http://www.technogogy.org.uk/activespeaker.html
• how to adjust the various volume levels, so that you can turn down background / ambient sound and turn up audio or video media. http://www.technogogy.org.uk/audio_level.html
• how you can use the zoom feature to help read text ( on the board) and how to hear a speaker using voice more clearly. http://www.technogogy.org.uk/zoom.html
• how to create a note card to take notes during the lesson http://www.technogogy.org.uk/takingnotes.html
• how to copy notes from Second Life note cards into a Word document (If you want to keep copies of your notes outside of SL) http://www.technogogy.org.uk/copyingnotes.html
• how to share and pass note cards to other avatars / students. http://www.technogogy.org.uk/passing_notes.html
• how to set up the interface so that you can listen to audio and watch video. http://www.technogogy.org.uk/playing_media1.html
• how to use the camera tools to take pictures / snapshots within Second Life.http://www.technogogy.org.uk/taking_snaps2.html

Torley Linden has some tutorials and much else of ummm interest shall we say at his blog http://torley.com/category/resources/tutorials

Other tricks

HUD (Heads up display)

• Fire in Korea says s/he "distributed a free Rock Papers Scissors game I had found from the HUDDLES store (search for it on SL) The Rock Paper Scissors is a HUD (Heads up display) attachment that will give you a set of controls on your screen - one for "Challenge" then a "rock" "paper" and "scissors". All you have to do is wear the HUD, and click Challenge. If someone esle in the vincinity is wearing the R.P.S (rock paper scissors) HUD, then you'll get a message which asks you to who you want to challenge - once you select a person, and that person accepts your challenge, you'll get another message that asks you to select a rock paper or scissor. then after 20 seconds, you both will do the R.P.S animation, and then one of you will do a victory dance, or get knocked to the floor. It's pretty neat. -- I think this HUD attachment is pretty pretty cool - because as an educator, I always use rock paper scissors to resolve conflicts and make decisions amoung students. Anyhow, I think it would be great if we, as educators, could compile a list of teaching tools for SL - and report on how we used them"
• There is BlogHud which allows you to blog directly from SL (for free) and even directly to your Wordpress or Blogger (if you have a pro account).

Voice in world

Second Phone: http://www.vivox.com/

Webeads were using Ventrilo to voice chat in Second Life. In order to use Ventrilo you need to download the client from http://www.ventrilo.com and then launch it. Next you need to configure it with the IP address of the server everyone is using, and the password for that server.. Gavin notes that there are (at least) two servers: One Ventrilo server provided free of charge by Pathfinder Linden, for the educational community - whereas EduNation has its own server (also provided free of charge). In the Webheads hut you'll find the IP of the EduNation server, and the password is available from Gavin (or me, Vance, assuming I have most current information). More information:

• Gavin's Ventrilo tips are:
  1. Download the Ventrilo Client from http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php (client, not server)
  2. Install the client on your machine
  3. Run the software and add a new user name for yourself
  4. Add a new server with
     • Name - Edunation
     • I.P. - 87.117.195.90
     • Port - 4237
     • Gavin might have forgot to mention the shhhh password
  Ventrilo's instructions on how to setup and configure the different components of the Ventrilo system: http://www.ventrilo.com/setup.php#Client_Quick_Setup
• Short Media's Ventilo Setup thread: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14039

SusNy Foss tells us:

• Flickr tag: secondlife - Flickr hosts heaps of people's pictures from SL.Take care and rezise them before upload ; they're huge by default http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/secondlife/
• SL home video collection People are recording small videos from in world. I believe you would need powerful computer & connection http://secondlife.com/community/media.php

Video in world

Bruce Neubauer asked on educators@lists.secondlife.com" What is required, please, to use a web cam to appear and speak in SL on a video screen?" He got this great answer from: Eloise Pasteur:

You need something that will stream video out in a format quicktime recognises. The obvious (but probably not the cheapest) solution is the Quicktime Broadcast Server.

In world... you'll need a URL for your video stream, and a "screen texture". You put the texture on one (or more) screens in the parcel. Right click the land and choose about land (also in world menu) and choose the media tab. Put the texture in the texture box, the URL in the streaming video field.

Make sure you know how to tell people to turn their video streams on and give them a couple of moments to do so ... Quite a few people don't know how to turn it on (preferences>audio and video>play video) and the pressing the play button that appears also throws them.

What's it like in World: Video and Image galleries

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkgNn50k14

Copyright 2007 by Vance Stevens
under Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

August 13, 2007

Mirrors: This page is available at:

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• http://www.prof2000.pt/users/vstevens/secondlife_inworld.htm