What's the use of Second Life in Education?

What is Second Life?

 A 3D online digital world imagined, created and owned by its residents

A few facts and figures - 26 June 2007

• Total residents (=unique avatars) - 7 609 806
• Logged in last 60 days: 1 759 370
• Online at any one time : around 30 000
• Resident figures are contentious.
• Slightly more men than women
• Average age is in 30s or older
• There is a Teen grid exclusively for under 18's
• Client is Open Source, plans to make servers avaiable under GPL
• Not the only online virtual world - eg. ( There, ActiveWorlds or for kids,  Club Penguin)

Slides 6 - 14 of this presentation give a bit of an explanation

How are educators using it?

• Tutorials with off-campus students - ( Lindy McKeown, USQ and her Learning Pavillions )
• Conferences - ( eg. Eduserv Symposium: Virtual Worlds, Real Learning May 2007 )
• Exhibitions, replicas, displays, streamed media on demand for class materials (eg. communal whiteboard)
• Integrating it with Learning Management Systems (eg. Sloodle)
• Using the tools of Second Life to create assessible material (eg. Kim Flintoff 's drama project at ECU, see Dramatech Space)

See also Showcasing Australasian Educational Projects in Second Life

How Second Life is used at the University of Ohio:

How Second Life is being used at Murdoch University Library:

Here's the handout for the two Murdoch Library workshops workshops, "Creating your avatar" and "Doing more with your avatar".

How Second Life is used at the University of San Jose:

Limits on Second Life for Education

• Equity issues
• The systems requirements - need a gaming PC with a decent video card.
• Broadband is required
• Frequent mandatory upgrades
• Regular downtime
• Clunky interface - vastly inferior to many gaming interfaces
• Lack of easy markup of textual items (notecards or a full 3D installation)
• Neighbours - adult activities

Discussion points

• Is it just a way to help older people understand what gaming is all about?
• Will understanding the Second Life interface make it easier for teachers/students to understand web in the future?
• Isn't Second Life just making the interface more elaborate instead of simple and elegant?