RWLD #5 - Learning in a Virtual World

This will be an opportunity to meet, greet and talk with people through virtual means. Review these materials, enroll in Second Life (SL), and explore Second Life.

 
After you sign-up for SL, remember to post your Second Life name on our Student Contact page.
We will visit the Iowa Island in Second Life. Read the materials and watch the videos below to get an idea of what SL involves. Can you find any materials on the web that you would like to add to our collection?

7 Things You Should Know about Virtual Worlds. A virtual world is an immersive online environment whose "residents" are avatars representing individuals who participate through the Internet. Many institutions are experimenting with virtual worlds for educational purposes. They may foster constructivist learning by placing students in a context that challenges them to learn without explicit learning objectives and assessment.
 

Using Second Life for Immersive Learning podcast
(Educause Connect Podcast) 14-minute podcast with Dr. Cynthia Calongne, Professor of Computer Science at Colorado Technical University. Discusses how she uses Second Life to provide real-life laboratories for her students.
 

Educational Uses of Second Life
Interesting 7-minute video introduction to the educational possibilities of Second Life.
 

Dr. Z's Intro to Second Life Wiki
A series of YouTube videos that Dr. Z found to introduce you to Second Life.

Virtual Social Worlds And the Future of Learning
Learning in Three Dimensions: Experiencing the Sensibilties Imagining the Possibilities of virtual worlds in education.

Dr. Z Explains Making Landmark Notecards in Second Life
A tutorial that Dr. Z created using his avatar in Second Life. It explains how to create notecards that can be used to help direct people around SL.

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Assignment (Doing)

Complete the Second Life Education Tool where you will be find 10 or more resources in Second Life and then you will create a landmark card as well as a blog posting where you will share those resources.

Support Videos for the Assignment

Here are some videos that will help you learn how to create the Landmark Tour card and the blog posting for this assignment.

Creating a SL Educational Tool Tutorial - Part 1

Provides an example of the Landmark Notecard and then covers the first part of the process you will use to create this notecard. You will begin by identifying a topic; use the SL search engine to find places dealing with that topic; visit these places; and landmark each of these sites.

Creating a SL Educational Tool Tutorial - Part 2

Demonstrates how to create a new notecard; list the SL sites you will be including in your Tour; drag the landmarks from your inventory to your card; and save the card. Finally, you will see how to submit your card to the dropbox in Second Life.

Creating a SL Educational Tool Tutorial - Part 3

Demonstrates how to create your blog posting that includes the SLurls for each of your Second Life sites. You will copy these SLurls from SL and then use them as links on your blog page.

I hope that these are useful for you to create your virtual world tours.