Third Class in Second Life
This week, we had Suzi Mazzenga as a guest speaker talking about her adventure as a male in Second Life. You can read about it in her article My Days as a Dude. She gave her presentation using text chat within the Second Life classroom we have set up on MSIT Island.
The class then had a discussion about the places they visited last week and how those places could be used for education. Thanks to Marnie Welliver for taking over the faciliation of the class as I was otherwise engaged.
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The Third class was fun with Suzi talked about her experience in Second Life and being a man avatar.
She had indecated that in Second Life, appearance seems as a judgement to lead people to want to talk to you or not. I think I believe so, because the avatar is all we can see from the screen except the environment. And so, if we coudln’t see, I believe that people’s judement will lay on hearing, depends on what kind of voice we prefer to talke to.
Yuming
I thought the third class was very interesting. Suzi did a great job facilitating the class and talking about her experiment on switching genders in second life. I think was a great topic to explore because of all the gender differences we face everyday in real life. The fact that it transpires into a virtual world is amazing. Second Life was a great environment to conduct the experiment, enabling it to be a very controlled experiment due to the vast array of people in the world.
-Bianca Pichardo
I thought that class five is interesting even though I didn’t know what was going on in the beginning. I like that we all split into groups and work together in role play. We had the chance to be the sales person and the buyer. The good part about it is that everyone is talking and and interacting not just typing in corespondance to the the avatar. It though that my best class was class four when we had meet in protosphere because I thought that everyone was very professional, and I thought that it was the best way to have a meeting in an educational, professional, or any kind of settings.
The third class was very interesting. I found Suzi Mazzenga’s presentation on switching genders in Second Life very interesting. In the book Second Life: The Official Guide, the topic of switching avatar genders was touched upon. I liked hearing someone who has experienced this personally expand on the information I had read in the book.
I found Protosphere to be more professional overall than Second Life, but also very limiting. The addition of Voip however was a big plus. I can see how corporations would feel much more comfortable with a world like Protosphere because it allows for interaction without as many (often inappropriate for the workplace) distractions.
It seemed liked everyone was getting much more comfortable navigating their way through these virtual lands. I think Marnie did an excellent job leading the class. Overall I feel the class went very well.
The third class is now in the history books… and what a class it was. Of course, we had the technology snags that we are beginning to accept as life. After reviewing the comments posted by many of my class members, I agree that Suzi’s presentation was very difficult to follow in the text chat. I felt that the quality of class was being negatively affected by the lack of audio in Second Life. Breeze, once again, was the saving grace for the rest of class. Many of us got into Protosphere and discussed the similarities and difference with SL. In my opinion, Protosphere has a much more “business like” feel and look. I found it more professional. I am also interested to know what options we may be lacking using this demo version. The notecard activity was very interesting. Our facilitator did a fabulous job in the absence of Dr. Kapp. I found it very interesting to hear the opinions of other students regarding the sites we visited. I also found some additional sites to review. I found the time at the end of the class a nice transition from the hectic frustration that follows technical difficulties. As always, looking forward to this week.
Her experience as a male in Second life was a little shocking. I couldn’t believe that she is treated a little better as a male compared to a female. I figuure since we are in a 3D world all biases would be thrown out the window, but apparently not.
We later got together as a group and discussed the different sites we visited for our assignment. This part of class was pretty informal. There were some good ideas on how to use some of the sites, but a lot of the ideas I had already thought of as well. There were a couple of things that other saw that I havn’t, which was a good thing for me to know.
Finally at the end of the class we joined in Photoshere and discussed some of the similarities and differences between Photoshere and Second Life. One of the biggest differences discussed was that Photosphere was more geared towards business and second life was more laxed. Second, there were a lot more choices in Second life compared to Photosphere. For example different gestures, creating objects, etc. Finally, the biggest positive for Photoshere is the fact that Avatars can talk out loud!!!
The third class was, for me, quite the challenge. First, I (as another student mentioned) kept waiting for Suzi to conduct a formal presentation and wasn’t clear as to what we were waiting for. When she left, I THEN realized that her chatting WAS the presentation. I’m sorry I missed most of it. Thank goodness for Marni during part II because I could NOT get into Protosphere. I kept getting a message saying it was downloading some new update, but my computer virus software kept stopping the download. Grrrr. So here’s to the computer age and glitches…I’m looking forward to the next class! 😉
Misty
Overall the third class is an interesting class.
Unfortunately, Suzi’s presentation is not as informative as I expected. When she started text chat, I thought she must want to give us more time to get to the right place in SL, and deliver a formal presentation later. Therefore, I did not pay much attention (it’s hard to follow and catch everything in chat history too). I waited for the formal presentation, waited and waited until she left… too bad.
I actually very much enjoyed the beginning part in Protosphere. I met Jay, Brian… we shared with each other how to do different things in PS, like altering averter, jumping, running. We even had a race.
The second thing I like very much is the homework of islands tours and making notes. The two places that I had gained a lot are underwater and help island. I actually was very lucky to meet the owner of the underwater island. She introduced me the island, how did she build the island, and how did she do in SL (taking a lot of classes, spent a lot time but really fun). She also graciously and patiently answered me a lot of questions and showed how to listen to music at that place, and others. It was really a nice experience. The second place I like very much if the help island. In addition to learn a lot of knowledge, I got a lot of free stuff. I kept trying new clothes that I got from that place like in real world.
Both PS and SL can be used as great tool for education. I feel that PS is more professional for business meeting, but less fun, less variety. SL obviously has more functions, more fun, but hard to focus.
Hongyan Yuan
The Sistine Chapel (Vassar Island) –
http://slurl.com/secondlife/vassar/165/91/24
Users can learn about art and architecture, by experiencing this scale 3D rendering of the Sistine Chapel,
The Van Gogh museum
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Luctesa/110/200/66?title=Vincent%20van%20Gogh
The Van Gogh museum has a collection of paintings grouped by subject. Info buttons, which are located near many paintings, present informative note cards about specific works.
NOAA’s Virtual Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteroa/177/161/27/
Renaissance Island
The Globe Theater
UC Davis’ Virtual Hallucinations (James Linden)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/sedig/27/45/22/
This project educates people about schizophrenia
Not at all what I expected. I must admit I was a weary that the professor was not around, it made it a little difficult to get things done the way they were supposed to be done. I wish the speaker had a little more to say. Marnie did the best she could, keeping everyone in semi order. I guess it’s a little hard to keep people interested when the structure is interrupted by having the professor absent. I’m not saying that nothing was learned. Protosphere seemed to be a good place to get together. It doesn’t seem that much different from Breeze except you can see virtual people.
deBabbler works!
A few minutes ago I had the opportunity to use this program with two Spanish typing avatars.
The translation, while not perfect, was better than I had expected. If you want to try it here are the directions:
How to use (copied)
Wear it. Should be a HUD point.
If you don’t know what this means, then just drag it from your inventory to the ground, and follow he directions.
You will be prompted to Pick the language YOU speak. This sets Babbler to your language.
TO TRANSLATE YOURSELF
This button turns Babbler ON/OFF. When you turn it on, you will be asked what language you want to be translated to.
TO TRANSLATE OTHERS
1
This button picks the person you want to translate. You will be asked to pick the language they are speaking. To remove someone from the list, just push this button again, and pick their name again. You must be within 50 meters of them. The machine can hold about 30 names, then it removes the oldest one.
2
This button turns translate others On and Off. When you turn it on, it will begin translating others you picked in step 1.
You can pass people a copy using the Gift button when you are in their area.
Pirate translation is via http://pirate.monkeyness.com/.
Max Case the inventor has many other items available on his web site, SL exchange, at
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=138377
Max’s Blog: http://www.maxcase.info/?s=babbler
Free language translator “DeBabbler”
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Green/128/128/0
Several times I have encountered avatars who come from other countries. For instance, I met asyu Allen who lives in Kyoto. I noticed that while he was typing in Japanese, I was seeing an English translation. I asked him about it, but he could not explain what was happening.
When I found the “Voice” program, I also found Debabbler. Here is the description:
“..is a Second Life object that instantly translates back and fourth between English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. So now, in Second Life, you can easily communicate with people who you’d have a hard time talking to in first life. Think about the implications for education! There’s a whole new world of communication and collaboration.”
After you teleport to “Green Island,” right click on the tall cylindrically shaped object. It is labeled “Babbler & Debabbler”.
Next, select touch. You will receive a pop-up asking if you wish to receive…. Select OK
If you are given a choice, select Debabbler instead of Babbler.
“The Babbler required the speaker to choose a native language and a language for their chat to be translated to. The De-Babbler (which is still in testing) allows the listener to choose a person in the vicinity and receive a translated version of their chat. This seems like a nice advance, since it means you no longer have to give someone a HUD and teach them how to use it — in a foreign language — before you can converse.” http://www.3pointd.com/20061229/hud-free-language-translation-for-second-life/
Good news! You can now have a voice in SL! And, it is free.
I found this in the “The English Village” http://slurl.com/secondlife/English%20Village/22
If you would like to try it, please download the voice client at:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/firstlook-secondlife-com/Second%20Life%201-17-2-122%20Voice%20First%20Look%20Setup.exe
Ruth and I tried it on Tuesday July 25, 2007. It functioned and sounded great after we adjusted our settings. However, Ruth’ s computer locked up after 5- 10 minutes (2X).
It took a while to figure out all the settings. Originally, the sound was too loud and full of static. However, if you want to try it, this is what worked for us:
• download and install the software
• follow the directions – you will need to upgrade to newest version of SL when prompted
• Assuming you are using Windows, you will have a new SL icon in your Start menu “Second Life Voice First Look”
• Click on the new icon to open SL
• enter your first and last name [my password was still there]
• Once you are in SL, from the top menu bar, select: Edit—Preferences—-Voice Chat
• check box “enable voice chat”
• select appropriate input and output devices from the respective drop down menus
• From the left hand side menu (General is top selection) pick “Audio & Video”
• At the bottom select the 128 kbps radio button
• Adjust “Volume: Master” slider to the middle (I have the remainder of my volume sliders set at maximum )
• Close menu
• Located at bottom right of the main screen you should see a “TALK” button, directly to the left is a button that appears to have talking balloons (like in a comic strip) click the balloon button
• A small window, which is labeled “Active Speakers,” should appear on the left-hand-side of the screen – lower the volume slider to the middle
• If you have another speaker icon and slider on the right side of your main screen make the same adjustment
You can adjust the volume later. The default setting just about blew out my speakers and my ear drums!
Enjoy!
B
I think it was the best class for me as i had no technical hassles. I wouldnt say if it was the best class in terms of the knowledge i gained. Suzie shared some interesting things which only she could have come across for she had a male avatar inspite of being a female in real life. Special note of appreciation for Marnie as she did a great job in managing everyone. Had fun in moving around to different places. Saw people doing their own antics on both protosphere and SL.
July 18th, 3:58PM
I am in the Yankee Stadium. Its absolutely astounding to see this virtual stadium. It is good enough to give a feeler to the aspiring young learners of how a baseball stadium looks like.
July 18th, 4:18PM
I am in Dell Island.
I think this auditorium can be a great platform and podium to learn and teach. The number of seats are good enough to hold a seminar or a big class. If this TV could work then it would have been a grt medium of sharing instructions. I mean to say that we could have shown Flash movies, videos etc.
July 18th, 4:39PM
Help Island has a lot of open space that i believe can be used for teaching.
July 18th, 4:48PM
I am in the International Space Filght Museum.
SO far the best platform that i have seen. I will say that its different coz it is sharing information like the names of satellites of different countries. Then it also tells u where u r, whenever u goto a new place on this space island. Also it keeps explaing what different parts mean and their functions.
July 18th, 5:24PM
I am in Future. Aesthetically it is state of the art but there is no space to conduct any class or any training session.
This is Aman Tyagi signing Off…….
The third class was definitely an interesting one — somewhat chaotic as we weren’t totally sure how to conduct class without Dr. Kapp, but Marnie did a nice job filling in.
I enjoyed the comments being shared regarding the notecard activity — it was nice because some of the things that I might’ve overlooked when I explored the areas were touched on by other members of the class. It’s truly amazing the amount of content available within Second Life. I think the most useful sites to that we visited with the notecard activity to me would be the International Space Museum and the ANWAR Oil Rig. I can see myself using those in some of my science classes at school.
Finally, I think that Protosphere seems to have a much better interface for professional meetings and collaborations. It was hard figuring out how things worked at first, especially with the whole class in the conference room, but I think it worked out well.
Class three had its twists and turns. Our guest speaker, Suzi, provided a lot of insight. I agree with a lot of the above mentioned comments from my classmates. Just using the text chat was hard for me to stick with and follow along. It also takes considerably longer to get your ideas across to your audience when using that approach. Suzi had been talking for about five minutes and someone actually asked when the speaker was going to arrive. She didn’t really give a formal introduction of herself or her avatar for that matter. I agree with Matt on her approach to the situation she created. He had a great idea with her communicating to her friends to see how they would respond without knowing who it was. I did take a lot of new knowledge and ideas from her. I feel as though she got me thinking more about experimental situations in SL.
Marnie did an excellent job leading the class. Tough gig, but we were fortunate to have someone take the reins in the absence of Dr. Kapp.
I thought that the note card exercise was fantastic. It helped me gain a lot more experience teleporting and interacting with different surroundings. I never realized how much more there was to Second Life before this assignment. It does not take long for a user to figure out what the goal of an island is, whether it is: educational, social, or just a place to go and relax. While on my journey through the various places I came in contact with a professional builder of Second Life creations, at the time she was building a theater. She informed me that she is hired by various owners of islands to build to their specifications. She also informed that there is a real market out there for professional builders in Second Life.
Below is a list of some of my favorite and unusual islands I explored, and a small narration about each one:
Science Center, Info Island II (114,202, 24)
I really like the interactivity involved to touch an object to see an animation. This could also be used to keep the person entertained and or absorbed while learning. Navigation was fairly easy, most edges had rails, hallways were a little narrow, could not find my way into some of the buildings (maybe I was not allowed in). Place was rather friendly for learning, nice technology theme.
NOAA Science on a Sphere, Meteroa (145,131,28)
This island was really well done, everything looked so real. I especially like the airport and the underwater creations. The buildings were easy to navigate in as well, both flying and walking. I liked the idea of having boxes to click on so that the avatar can receive instruction. I learned a lot from the Tsunamis and Hurricane simulation. The Tsunami generator was a neat idea. It showed just how Tsunamis happen and the destruction that lays in their wake. The lecture hall/auditorium I thought was really nice; it had a projection screen and theater seating. The hurricane generator was also a really well done and very informative.
ICT Library on Info Island (55, 200, 33)
This island very nicely created, one of the most attractive designs I have seen. I like the idea of having a comment box. All you have to do is create a note card write your comment on it and drag it over to the box. I also like the creator’s idea of having a device that you can scroll through locations then right click and teleport to that location on the island. This really speeds up travel, especially if you know the location you want to go to. They also have a similar document to an island newspaper. Although the forest area looked really nice it was a little hard to navigate when flying. A funny aspect of the island was that you could put yourself into a cannon on the side of the mountain and ignite it, blowing yourself halfway across the island. This was definitely one of the biggest islands I have ever been too. The ocean on the island was awesome; it made you feel like you were swimming with squids, whales, sharks, dauphins, and schools of fish. It would be nice and relaxing to have a meeting on the beach with the sound of waves crashing.
Better Worlds Center, Chamonix (223, 162, 105)
I immediately clicked on a link that teleported me to Express Club where for every ten minutes I danced I could earn one dollar. The money could be used in the casino on the island or to buy merchandise. At the Express Club I actually saw someone wearing a billboard advertising for another island; where if you clicked on the billboard it would transport you to that island. The Express Club was a little risqué, it sold picture of nude people. Back at better worlds I entered a building that advertised to get paid to take surveys. They also had an area where you could buy supplies for a house: kitchen, carpets, tables, ceiling fan, etc. Another place was a wedding shop that sold everything needed for a wedding: invitations, dresses, cakes, food, alcohol, etc. They also had apartments and houses for rent.
Info & Comm Technology (ICT) Library, Info Island (53, 204 33)
This island had little newspaper boxes that when you clicked on them, it sent you educational new; I really like this idea. This island was packed with information and surveys. The island was nicely laid out. However, walkways on second level did not have railings so it was easy to fall off. The buildings were nice and open so it was easy to navigate both walking and flying within the buildings. This island also had a guided tour, which I think is a great idea to get residents acquainted with the island from an aerial view. Very serious tone, which I think, is appropriate for this island.
I agree with others that the article written and study being conducted by Suzi is very interesting. I found it somewhat difficult to follow all of the text last night; this showed me just how valuable Breeze is. Overall I found the study to be very interesting even though she is only two days into it.
In general I think Protosphere is a much more professional environment than Second Life, the VOIP also make it somewhat easier to conduct a lecture or meeting. The application sharing in Protosphere is definitely a plus; we played with the whiteboard a little in class last night. However, there are many limitations in Protosphere including: ability to create objects, fly, and customization of your avatar, to name a few.
-Chase Winters-
Regarding 3rd class session — it was quite good. Brings new definition to messy learning!
The article was good to read but I would like to read / learn more on design for learning.
PS’ GUI much quicker to adapt to. I wonder how usability in SL impacts learning outcome? Is it too new a medium to have statistics on user satisfaction and measurable outcome (i.e., evaluation; mastery test, etc.) or Level 1 evaluation (reaction)?
Although class 3 was successful in that most people were now able to get into Second Life and ProtoSphere, I came away feeling it was lacking in depth. Except for the first few minutes with Dr. Kapp, we didn’t utilize the audio of Breeze in Second Life;
Suzi’s presentation was done in the text chat of Second Life. What we ultimately were part of was a recreation of a real-life classroom in Second Life with chairs, presenter at front, and a presentation. (Isn’t that what you’re NOT supposed to do when effectively utilizing virtual worlds for education?) I found the Second Life portion of the class to be lacking in impact and difficult to follow. I find it difficult to concentrate on the chat history to the degree necessary to make it an effective way to present educational materials. I think I learned more from reading Suzi’s blog than I did from the presentation in Second Life.
ProtoSphere is an interesting tool that I can see would have great application to the corporate world. As opposed to an entire virtual world, complete with an economy and individuals who can build and modify the experience, ProtoSphere seems more like a tool that is an alternative to Adobe Connect (Breeze) or Centra. The whiteboard feature and document sharing capabilities would be great for remote meetings and discussions. The 3-D aspect and avatars take Adobe Connect or Centra to the next level. As an alternative “meeting” application, I see great potential in ProtoSphere. As a competitor to Second Life for creating and presenting educational “experiences”, I don’t see as much potential in ProtoSphere because of the limitations in customization, ability to build, sell, trade, and travel.
Unfortunately, during most of our class time in ProtoSphere, we did not utilize the VOIP feature. Instead we used the text chat. VOIP is one of the few features that ProtoSphere currently has over Second Life. (That will change.) ProtoSphere is also better equipped to handle AppShares and Whiteboards, which would be very important for business meetings or classroom meetings.
Welp, a lot of people got on Protosphere! I wish our guest speaker would have gone in to a little more detail about her experiences. I know a lot of the information was on her blog and I did read the article, but the presentation seemed kind of lacking and she ran off quite quick. She said during her experience as a “male” that the only people who talked to her were the people who knew her in real life. This leads me to believe however that she was telling people she was actually a female pretending to be a male for a couple of days? I don’t know that seems a bit counter-productive. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting for her to go talk to her friends and see if they still accepted her as a person not knowing who she really was? It was a good idea and I know people in Second Life who play the reverse role (most not hiding the fact), but I think she could have taken the experiment a little further.
As far as protosphere goes I am wondering what features we lose using the demo…
We decided that it definitely is more professional and that the VOIP is a plus. However, Second Life definitely has less limitations and will have VOIP soon. So there isn’t that much you can’t do in SL that you can do in protosphere. Theoretically you could simply duplicate protosphere in sl.
Computer (games) need WASD as a control scheme. =]
Marnie did do an awesome job of keeping everyone organized and keeping us on task.
-Matt Monahan
International Spaceflight Museum
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/48/75/22/?title=International%20Spaceflight%20Museum
———————————–Audiocourses Music Production School: London, United Kingdom
In addition to offering marketing services, courses, and concerts, this site is interspersed with educational note cards. For example, clicking on a larger-than-life speaker generated a relatively detailed explanation of how audio speakers function. Clicking on the cubes textured with the RSS icon will open linked web pages. For example, one cube opens a site where you can subscribe to EZ Computer Help News. Another box opens a link in ACHUB “a not for profit growing community interested in sharing educational experiences with new forms of immersive and social media such as podcasting, blogging, twitter, secondlife, streaming video/audio, machinima, myspace, linkedin etc.”
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Audio/33/127/31
———————————–Paris
Emerge from the metro to explore the Moulin Rouge or parachute off of the Eifel Tower
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Paris%201900/9/174/16
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Kyoto, Japan
An old-fashioned Japanese town with lovely buildings, bathing houses, restaurants and shops.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Juho/89/165/62
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Virtual Morocco!
“Put on your Info Fez and go for a guided tour in this lovely Moroccan town with a grand palace, bazaars, gardens and whitewashed houses.”
This project was created by a multidisciplinary group of students from the USA.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Casablanca/134/146/88
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Better World Island (149, 147, 25)
This site focuses on social responsibility. Exhibits include topics such as Darfur refugee camps. There is also a radio station type broadcast, a retreat center, and a performing arts venue.
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Caledon
“steam punk” Victorian scifi setting
Features a hot air balloon ride and Caledon Library Activities such as book discussions. The July book of the Month is The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20VictoriaCity/43/209/23
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Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater as a three-dimensional replica in Second Life ). The location in SL is “Schwanson Schlegel” (158, 169, 27)
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The virtual Van Gogh museum has a collection of paintings and several 3D renderings that allow users to enter the painting. Optional jazz plays in the background. This is my favorite site.
(http://slurl.com/secondlife/Luctesa/110/200/66?title=Vincent%20van%20Gogh)
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The Future is also interesing. Buy a jetpack for 1L and sore up to Marspace. Delightfully disorienting!