Sunday, April 01, 2007

Second Life

One of my classmates M Brooks has introduced me to Second Life which is a 3D online digital world. When you first begin you will need to create an avatar... which can have your characteristics of your own physical body or something much different. The possibilities of creating/building learning communities for students seems to be unlimited. I plan on getting started on my own journey over EAster. I'll let you know how it goes.

"Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 5,172,486 people from around the globe.
From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.
The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges. "

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jeff Boulton and I attended a conference earlier this month that focused quite a bit on Second Life. I had tried it a while back but it while it is quite an intriguing environment, it didn't make it much past the "wow factor" for me.

With its evolution, I'm needing to rethink it. For now, it's not ready for K-12 use in my opinion, but perhaps we need to do some exploring and research. I've found a few educational spaces including ISTE and San Diego State. Bernie Dodge, the father of the webquest, started a classroom inside SDSU. So the educational possibilities are growing. It certainly would be engaging for students. We'll have to continue to keep a pulse on it.

My SL ID is DRS Shan if I ever bump into to you.