SECOND LIFE, FOR REAL!

Interview to Kyle Mauer (aka Frank Spearman)

Yesterday I had a very interesting conversation with Kyle about using SL in the classroom. SL can be very overwhelming for people who have never been in SL. That's why our aim for the first session would be to have our students create their avatar, adjust their appearance and take a tour around orientation island to learn the basics of getting around SL. As homework, the teacher could ask their students to come back to class with a photo of an interesting place they found, an interesting object, some money, to add the other classmates as friends and/or pick up freebies.

When students feel comfortable in SL it is interesting to set up a building task. The building of simple objects such as beds, carpets, paintings and windows don't require advanced building skills. If you are interested in learning how to build Linden Lab has a great library with tutorials on how to build. The Academy of Second Learning has free workshops on how to build.

Another important issue to bear in mind is that students can use Flickr to upload the pictures they take in SL or Slideshare to upload a power point presentation and watch it in SL. Skype is also available. I have never used any of these gadgets myself but I am going to do so soon!