initial target(s)
- build initial (throwaway) prototype
- explore content creation technology
- create tutorial(s) for content contribution
- analyse technological requirements
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| (a) outside view | (b) inside view |
The history of Second Life is extensively descibed in the official Second Life guide, [SecondLife].
Beginning 2004, almost out of the blue,
Second Life
appeared with
a high adoption and low churn rate, now counting, March 2007,
over 4 million inhabitants.
Considering the cost of ownership of land, which easily amounts to
200 euro per month rent after an initial investment of 1500 euro for a
single piece of land measuring 65,536 square meters,
the adoption of Second Life by individuals as well as companies such as ABN-AMRO,
Philips and institutions such as Harvard is surprising.
What is the secret of the success of Second Life?, we asked in
[VUSL], and we immediately confessed:
We don't know!
But in comparison to other platforms for immersive worlds,
including MMORPGs such as
World of Warcraft
and
Everquest,
Second Life seems to offer an optimal combination of
avatar modification options,
gesture animations, in-game construction tools,
and facilities for communication and social networking, such as chatting and instant messaging.
Incorporating elements of community formation, commonly denoted
as Web 2.0, and exemplified in
MySpace,
YouTube and
Flickr,
the immersive appearance, perhaps also the built-in physics
and the inclusion of elementary economic principles,
seem to be the prime distinguishing factors
responsible for the success of Second Life.
In addition, the possibility of recording collaborative enacted stories, [Stories],
using built-in machinima certainly
also contributes
to its appeal.
What has been characterized as a shift of culture,
from a media consumer culture to a participatory culture, [Participatory],
where users also actively contribute content, (was) for our
institution one of the decisive reasons to create a presence
in Second Life, to build a virtual platform that may embody
our so-called community of learners,
where both staff and students cooperate in contributing content,
content related to our sciences, that is.
The first idea that comes to mind, naturally, is to
use Second Life to offer courses online.
But, although we did have plans to give lectures (college)
on law, probably including the enactment of a particular case,
we did consider this approach as rather naive, and frankly I see
no reason to include what may be considered an outdated
paradigm of learning in our virtual campus, where there
might be more appealing alternatives.
Similarly, using the virtual laboratory for experiments
might not be the best way to offer courses, although,
again, we do intend to provide a model of a living cell,
allowing students to study the structure, functionality and behavior
of organic cells in virtual space.
active learning
- experience the world in new ways
- form new affiliations
- preparate for future learning
