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Second Life at Penn State, and How to Get Involved

Overview

Second Life is a virtual world, a 3D online environment created by Linden Lab. This environment mimics the real world, but also contains the impossible, such as flying castles. You participate in the world by creating an avatar, a representation of yourself that may look like you do in real life, or vastly different. You control your avatar, moving about, creating things, and interacting with other avatars. While the 3D environment shares many visual characteristics with some current games, Second Life does not come with any preset objectives or goals. It’s up to you to create them.
 

How Can I Use Second Life?

Virtual worlds provide many educational benefits. The two strongest benefits may be an immersive environment coupled with social interactions. Virtual worlds hold the promise of an immersive environment containing problems and contexts similar to the real world. In addition, multi-user virtual worlds allow users to meet, interact, and form social communities. While either an immersive environment or social interactions can provide for good learning experiences, in multi-user virtual worlds the natural coupling of these two possibilities may be what multi-user virtual worlds do best.

General Educational Uses of Second Life

  • Explorations of identity in this environment.
    What does it mean to have an avatar? How are avatars a reflection of self? What is unique about communications in a virtual world?
  • Building/creating in a virtual environment.
    This is perhaps more useful for some disciplines than others, but all users can learn more about the affordances of a particular virtual world by manipulation of the environment itself.
  • Exploration of the virtual environment.
    Virtual field trips and scavenger hunts are easily implemented in virtual worlds.

Possible General Learning Outcomes

  • Explorations of new media, self, and society.
  • Using virtual worlds to simulate, compare, and contrast real-world activities, processes and events.
  • Using virtual worlds as tools to meet specific learning objectives.

Discipline-specific Uses of Second Life

  • Economics
    Any activity with associated commerce and values. These include cooperation, competition, and variable value sets.
  • Business
    • Comparison of in-world business affordances with real-world parallels.
    • Advertising and marketing in a virtual world.
    • In-world and real-world business crossovers (where things in-world are sold in the real world, and vise versa).
    • Complete business simulations.
    • Virtual real estate.
    • Virtual intellectual property issues.
  • Social Sciences
    • Class and status issues.
    • Subcultures.
    • Relationships, politics, and religion.
    • Diversity.
    • Criminal justice for in-world offenders.
    • Legal rights of avatars.
    • Communication.
  • Humanities
    • Cultural studies and recreations.
    • Virtual art and theater.
    • Virtual existences.
  • Sciences
    • Programming.
    • Physics of game design.
    • Analysis of real-world scientific phenomenon, such as biological evolution or physics principles in action.

What is Penn State Doing in Second Life?

Please read the following:

How Do I Get Started?

Step 1 - Download and install the Second Life software from http://secondlife.com.
Step 2 - Get a Second Life Account at http://sl.nmc.org/join/.
Step 3 - Start up Second Life, and (automatically) proceed through the NMC Orientation Island.
Step 4 - Explore! See http://gaming.psu.edu/VirtualWorlds for more information.

Getting Help and Overview Training

How Do I Get A Space On Penn State’s Second Life Island?

The Educational Gaming Commons (EGC), part of Penn State’s Education Technology Services has established several islands for dedicated use by Penn State’s faculty, students, and staff called “Penn State Isle." One island showcases innovative works of the members of the Penn State community. Other islands serve as an experimental space for collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. To set up your projects on a Penn State Island, please email gaming@psu.edu. Please include the following information:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Telephone
  • Email
  • Department
  • College
  • Campus
  • Planned use of the space.
  • Minimum length of time you need the space (We recommend 2 semesters to explore the space.)

If space is granted to you, you agree to the following:

  • Maintain a journal/blog of progress maintained throughout the project lifecycle you will share with the EGC; ideally the world. This must include
    • Shared samples of student and/or instructor work.
    • Summary of assessment of your explorations and use.
  • Develop an article on your use that can be publically shared.
  • Consider presenting your findings at the annual TLT Symposium – see http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/ .

The EGC will provide administrative support of your space and ensure it functions correctly. If possible, the EGC will work with you to conceptualize and formalize your ideas for the use of this space. The EGC cannot provide staff to assist you in building and/or scripting.

At the end of your planned use of the space, if you are not actively using it, the EGC reserves the right to reclaim that space for use by others at Penn State.