Introducing Virtual Worlds: Second Life
Prefatory note
The University and the Faculty are currently exploring the potential for using Second Life as an e-learning platform. In this session you will undertake a group project that will help you familiarise yourself with the Second Life virtual environment.
Some of you may already have a Second Life account, in which case you can ignore the next section and proceed directly to the tasks for Week 1.
Your preparatory tasks prior to start of semester
If you don’t already have a Second Life account, here is a list of things you will need to do prior to the start of the semester.
- Open a web browser and go to http://secondlife.com
- Click on the ‘Sign Up Now’ button and complete the registration form to create your account. Follow the on-screen instructions.
- If you are connecting from your own computer, you may at this point want to download and install your personal copy of the Second Life client software. If you are using a university computer, you should be able to access Second Life from the applications server.
- Log in with your account name. You will find yourself on Orientation Island: work through the in-world exercises until you are confident that you understand the basics of walking, flying, changing appearance, using mouseview for viewing, moving objects, etc.
- Inform me of your Second Life avatar name and your corresponding real name + K-number.
Your schedule for the Week 1 workshop
You must at the very least have created your Second Life account, have the client software installed, and have completed the exercises on Orientation Island in order to participate in this workshop.
Your task is to configure a ‘tour HUD’. It is presumed that you will by default undertake this task as a team, for which very clear instructions are given on the sister site, Vorticism, at the URL:
» http://vorticism.wordpress.com/the-student-view/student-induction/
Should you choose to undertake it as an individual, however, you can scale down the deliverable from the HUD’s maximum 12 locations to between 4 and 6.
