Second Life Directions
Second Life, a virtual world, offers tremendous possbilities for teaching and learning, but for right now, we are just going to “experiment” with the software. Right now, Second Life is not a “safe” place for our students, and we should not encourage them to visit it. This does not mean that we as teachers cannot learn about the program in preparation for changes that will be coming to the state.
Second Life is a useful tool that can meet some of our needs right now. We can conduct virtual staff meetings in Second Life. I have already been making plans with Edgecombe for a virtual meeting with all of our teachers in our two schools so that teachers can exchange ideas. Finally, I think we might bring Second Life to the parents and hold some virtual open houses there. For right now, I think we will try to use some of the educational spaces available in Second Life, like those available from NC State.
These instructions for using Second Life were adapted from a professional development session at NCVPS.
You will need to download Second Life on your computer. To create a Second Life account, follow these simple steps:
1. Go to www.secondlife.com
2. Click on “Get Started Membership is Free” button.
3. There are 3 steps to joining – step 1 – create an account (you’ll be prompted to choose a look and name for your avatar), step 2 – confirm your email address and step 3 – download and install second life onto your computer.
4. Be sure to save your username and password.
Once you have created an account, use these direct teleport links to locations in Second Life. If you have Second Life installed on the computer you’re using, clicking on the map link will automatically teleport you to that location in-world.
Slurl for Second Life locations (What’s a SLURL?: http://si.ist.psu.edu/secondlife/sl-info/second-life-urls-slurls?
Wolflands 2 – NCVPS new Second Life location
http://slurl.com/secondlife/NC%20State%20Wolflands2/52/140/22
USDLC Star Island –
http://slurl.com/secondlife/USDLC%20Star%20Island/122/89/30/
I will share other SLURLS in our training.
Once you enter Second Life, walk or fly around and explore. Use your arrow keys to walk. To fly click on the “fly” button on the bottom of the screen. Again use your arrow keys to move around. Use the Page Up key to increase your altitude and Page Down to decrease your altitude. To stop flying, either land (page down) to the ground or click on “stop flying” at the bottom of the screen.
(Don’t see the fly or search option at the bottom of the screen? Go to the View menu at the top and choose “toolbar”. You should see the toolbar at the bottom of the screen now.)
Add your NCVPS colleagues to your friends list. To do this, click on the Search button at the bottom of the screen. Click on the People tab at the top of the window that opens. Type in the Second Life name found below. After the search is complete, click on the name and look in the bottom right hand corner. You should see the “Add Friend” button. If you click on this you can send an invitation to this person. If the person is online, you can also “Offer teleport” which will prompt the person to join you at your location in Second Life.
~Candace Haefnir
