Education in Virtual Worlds

Second Life in Education

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 The purpose of this article is to give you an insight in SL and help you explore it. With the help of tutorials and a presentation made for an educational project called Camelot  you might decide to stay now in the future of teaching. Do you think you can't teach in an immersive environment where your students cope better? All you need is practice and the sooner you start the better. There are many ways to get help.

 

How to start:

a) You can start right on the spot, like everybody else. Go to the Second Life site for an explanation, then join and chose an avatar that can be customized later on. Once you are in SL you will need to learn the basics: How to move, dress etc. If you are used to digital games, you soon will find the controls and how to use them. But you will still need help to develop skills needed to interact in world. Second Life offers tutorials for newcomers.

b) If you are an educator, I would strongly recommend to watch these tutorials before doing anything else and then follow the instructions. Watch a short introduction with Letty Pienaar for a quick start. Then you can watch two tutorials  from englisheasily for more information. Part 1 and  Part 2 When you have started you will need to learn how to customize your avatar, get dressed, make friends, build objects, speak, use the chat...etc. Not an easy task when you are in SL for the first time, but Camelot has made special tutorials you can use for free. There is a downloadable PDF file too. I recommend you to watch each of the tutorials carefully and practice what you have learned immediately in world.

Do you like the tutorials? Imagine you being able to film your own tutorials for your students matching your syllabus. You should be able to when you finish the training, but just in case you can't wait and are already planning your next school yearCamelot is looking for partners, they will produce machinima (videos in world) for your students with the contents you ask them to. Have a look at the form and contact the Camelot team for more information. Have fun researching the future!