Second Life, Revisited
Chronicle Careers: 11/12/2007: Second Life, Revisited
I think Michael Bugeja does a wonderful job pointing out some of the important issues of Universities in SL. However, his tone seems overly cautious for something as flexible and adaptive as Second Life. These issues are not reasons to turn and run from Second Life, but instead things that need addressed and resolved be each University using SL.
This definitely isn’t the first time the idea of and “Education Grid” has come up. They’ve been discussing it on the SLED listserve for years. While it may have its benefits, in terms of security, it may also cause a disconnect between grids… I certainly would not want to log out of the main grid to log in a separate avatar on the educational grid to attend an art gallery opening at BGSU’s island only then to repeat the process to visit more galleries.
Accelerating Innovation
Second Life Will Revolutionize New Product Development and Engineering: “Second Life Will Revolutionize New Product Development and Engineering”
“It as serious development tool,” says Assistant Professor Chang Liu (a.k.a. Chang Tuxing in SL) of the Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning (VITAL) Lab. at Ohio University. “Second Life is just emerging into the mainstream and a lot of engineers are not there yet,” says Pam Broviak, PE, (a.k.a. Pam Renoir in SL) public works director and city engineer for La Salle, IL. “When I show engineers Second Life, their initial reaction is ‘it is just a game’ because it looks like a game. They have to get beyond that.”…..
“I see Second Life being used as the first step in the planning process for many future engineering design projects,” Broviak says. “Building something in there does not take a lot of time. Companies will soon discover that much of their initial design work can be accomplished in-world where everyone has a chance to use it and comment on it before anything is actually built,” says Pam Broviak.
Second Life, Revisited
Chronicle Careers: 11/12/2007: Second Life, Revisited
I think Michael Bugeja does a wonderful job pointing out some of the important issues of Universities in SL. However, his tone seems overly cautious for something as flexible and adaptive as Second Life. These issues are not reasons to turn and run from Second Life, but instead things that need addressed and resolved be each University using SL.
This definitely isn’t the first time the idea of and “Education Grid” has come up. They’ve been discussing it on the SLED listserve for years. While it may have its benefits, in terms of security, it may also cause a disconnect between grids… I certainly would not want to log out of the main grid to log in a separate avatar on the educational grid to attend an art gallery opening at BGSU’s island only then to repeat the process to visit more galleries.
Second Life, Revisited
Chronicle Careers: 11/12/2007: Second Life, Revisited
I think Michael Bugeja does a wonderful job pointing out some of the important issues of Universities in SL. However, his tone seems overly cautious for something as flexible and adaptive as Second Life. These issues are not reasons to turn and run from Second Life, but instead things that need addressed and resolved be each University using SL.
This definitely isn’t the first time the idea of and “Education Grid” has come up. They’ve been discussing it on the SLED listserve for years. While it may have its benefits, in terms of security, it may also cause a disconnect between grids… I certainly would not want to log out of the main grid to log in a separate avatar on the educational grid to attend an art gallery opening at BGSU’s island only then to repeat the process to visit more galleries.
Accelerating Innovation
Second Life Will Revolutionize New Product Development and Engineering: “Second Life Will Revolutionize New Product Development and Engineering”
“It as serious development tool,” says Assistant Professor Chang Liu (a.k.a. Chang Tuxing in SL) of the Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning (VITAL) Lab. at Ohio University. “Second Life is just emerging into the mainstream and a lot of engineers are not there yet,” says Pam Broviak, PE, (a.k.a. Pam Renoir in SL) public works director and city engineer for La Salle, IL. “When I show engineers Second Life, their initial reaction is ‘it is just a game’ because it looks like a game. They have to get beyond that.”…..
“I see Second Life being used as the first step in the planning process for many future engineering design projects,” Broviak says. “Building something in there does not take a lot of time. Companies will soon discover that much of their initial design work can be accomplished in-world where everyone has a chance to use it and comment on it before anything is actually built,” says Pam Broviak.
Accelerating Innovation
Second Life Will Revolutionize New Product Development and Engineering: “Second Life Will Revolutionize New Product Development and Engineering”
“It as serious development tool,” says Assistant Professor Chang Liu (a.k.a. Chang Tuxing in SL) of the Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning (VITAL) Lab. at Ohio University. “Second Life is just emerging into the mainstream and a lot of engineers are not there yet,” says Pam Broviak, PE, (a.k.a. Pam Renoir in SL) public works director and city engineer for La Salle, IL. “When I show engineers Second Life, their initial reaction is ‘it is just a game’ because it looks like a game. They have to get beyond that.”…..
“I see Second Life being used as the first step in the planning process for many future engineering design projects,” Broviak says. “Building something in there does not take a lot of time. Companies will soon discover that much of their initial design work can be accomplished in-world where everyone has a chance to use it and comment on it before anything is actually built,” says Pam Broviak.
The power of mobility
Communities Dominate Brands: Putting 2.7 billion in context: Mobile phone users:
“Now we have context. 800 million cars, 850 million personal computers, 1.3 B fixed landline phones, 1.4 billion credit cards, 1.5 billion TV sets. How many mobile phones in use today? In use today, yes, 2.7 billion (technically 2.7 billion in January, not December). They sold 950 million phones last year and the total worldwide mobile subscriber base grew from 2.1 billion to 2.7 billion. Three times as many mobile phones as automobiles or personal computers. About twice as many mobile phone owners as those of fixed landline phones or credit cards. And almost twice as many mobile phones in use as TV sets.
Phones are very aspirational. We project our personalities via the interchangeable covers, various decorations, stickers, and the massive industry of ringing tones. We customize our phone services further with ringback (waiting) tones, welcoming tones and background tones. Young people assign the same kinds of value to their emerging personality, their own perceived coolness etc, through their mobile phone, like older generations did with their first car.”
This isn’t surprising to me. My daughter will be getting a hand held learning device made by leapfrog this Christmas which will undoubtedly begin her lifelong relationship with hand held devices… which, at some point in the future will all meld into one device: phone + PC.
What is being done right now in education for the mobile phone or hand held device? Just recently my campus instated a text messaging program for emergencies on campus. The program allows you to register your cellphone and receive a text message if there is a campus shooting or fire, etc…
I’ve recorded lectures and provided them as mp3′s for my students to listen to on their iPods. And now most holiday phone commercials tout the ability to play mp3′s on the device. (Sidenote: the lecture’s I provided were recorded live from the classroom, hence longer in length. I would not recommend this. Instead, cut the lecture down to 5 short minutes of important points. Or better yet, provide a podcast of supplementary material for the lecture. The students will be more likely to take advantage of these rather than a 20-30 minute lecture.)
I have a friend who recently graduated with a degree in Video Game Design. His first three interviews were for gaming companies developing games for the mobile phone platform. I was also excited to see that last February, Comverse Technology cracked a mobile phone to run Second Life.
It will only be a matter of time before my students are using Facebook from their phones (some already are) instead of their laptops and my the wiki textbook for my class will be carried in their pockets (disguised as a phone no less!).
Grand Opening
On November 9th, we held the BGSU SL Virtual Campus Grand Opening. This event took place in real life at the BT Student Union on the BGSU campus with live musical performances by students from the College of Musical Arts and two student DJ’s. In Second Life the event was attended by people from all over the world and documented by several of our learning community members. Below are just a few of the snapshots from in-world.
We’ve also received some great press lately (see my last post), including this article in the Toledo Blade.
Anthony’s snapshots:
Radhika’s snapshopts:
The power of mobility
Communities Dominate Brands: Putting 2.7 billion in context: Mobile phone users:
“Now we have context. 800 million cars, 850 million personal computers, 1.3 B fixed landline phones, 1.4 billion credit cards, 1.5 billion TV sets. How many mobile phones in use today? In use today, yes, 2.7 billion (technically 2.7 billion in January, not December). They sold 950 million phones last year and the total worldwide mobile subscriber base grew from 2.1 billion to 2.7 billion. Three times as many mobile phones as automobiles or personal computers. About twice as many mobile phone owners as those of fixed landline phones or credit cards. And almost twice as many mobile phones in use as TV sets.
Phones are very aspirational. We project our personalities via the interchangeable covers, various decorations, stickers, and the massive industry of ringing tones. We customize our phone services further with ringback (waiting) tones, welcoming tones and background tones. Young people assign the same kinds of value to their emerging personality, their own perceived coolness etc, through their mobile phone, like older generations did with their first car.”
This isn’t surprising to me. My daughter will be getting a hand held learning device made by leapfrog this Christmas which will undoubtedly begin her lifelong relationship with hand held devices… which, at some point in the future will all meld into one device: phone + PC.
What is being done right now in education for the mobile phone or hand held device? Just recently my campus instated a text messaging program for emergencies on campus. The program allows you to register your cellphone and receive a text message if there is a campus shooting or fire, etc…
I’ve recorded lectures and provided them as mp3′s for my students to listen to on their iPods. And now most holiday phone commercials tout the ability to play mp3′s on the device. (Sidenote: the lecture’s I provided were recorded live from the classroom, hence longer in length. I would not recommend this. Instead, cut the lecture down to 5 short minutes of important points. Or better yet, provide a podcast of supplementary material for the lecture. The students will be more likely to take advantage of these rather than a 20-30 minute lecture.)
I have a friend who recently graduated with a degree in Video Game Design. His first three interviews were for gaming companies developing games for the mobile phone platform. I was also excited to see that last February, Comverse Technology cracked a mobile phone to run Second Life.
It will only be a matter of time before my students are using Facebook from their phones (some already are) instead of their laptops and my the wiki textbook for my class will be carried in their pockets (disguised as a phone no less!).
Grand Opening
On November 9th, we held the BGSU SL Virtual Campus Grand Opening. This event took place in real life at the BT Student Union on the BGSU campus with live musical performances by students from the College of Musical Arts and two student DJ’s. In Second Life the event was attended by people from all over the world and documented by several of our learning community members. Below are just a few of the snapshots from in-world.
We’ve also received some great press lately (see my last post), including this article in the Toledo Blade.
Anthony’s snapshots:
Radhika’s snapshopts:
