Flight of fancy with a 6 ft tall talking chook

It’s amazing what difference a day makes. I just finished another session in Second Life and the results of this evening’s experiences could not have been more different from the previous encounter I had in the realm.

First off, it’s obvious that I’m starting to learn my way around the application because I didn’t spend nearly as much time fumbling and stumbling as I did in prior sessions. Thanks to a comment by Sean FitzGerald earlier this week I began by visiting the Island of jokaydia, which near as I can tell is owned by someone from the University of Wollongong.

UPDATE: I initially stated I thought jokaydia was owned by someone at the University of Wollongong. I have since been informed that this information is not correct. jokay, the island’s owner, has indicated that:

“jokaydia is actually privately owned by me. It is not supported by any educational institution directly, however we do have a rental community on jokaydia which supports educators and artists who are interested in exploring the use of virtual worlds at low cost. Some of our tenants include NSW LearnScope, Sydney Institute of TAFE and a number of individual educators.”

Sorry for the misprint jokay! Thanks for the correction.

Anyway, after falling into a duck pond I had the opportunity to read several of the help signs they have posted there, and began to stretch and challenge my virtual legs. One of the recommendations was to try out the freebie shops for products that can be acquired without having to fork out the local currency, Linden Dollars (of which I currently have none whatsoever).

After my run-in with the masked Gunman during my preliminary foray I made sure to select a centre that catered to newcomers and had a strict no-weapons policy. After all, nothing wrecks freebie shopping in Second Life more than being gunned down for no reason. That just won’t do.

I was slowly finding my way around the centre and trying on some new clothes when, wouldn’t you know, I ran into a 6-foot tall talking chicken named Zephan Castaignede. As I do anytime I meet human-sized poultry, I struck up a conversation and was quite pleased to discover he was a friendly. After explaining my status as a 3-day old newbie, he kindly took me under his wing and covered some of the basics of the realm.

For example, Zephan said that you can earn Linden dollars by doing nothing more than lounging in specifically identified chairs throughout the realm. Every 15 minutes spent sitting on your arse doing nothing earns you $2 Linden Dollars – if only real life were the same. He indicated this can be quite a tedious process though, so it’s better left for times when you are at work or sleeping, and can leave your alter ego sitting there sunbaking.

When asked if there were any dangers of sleeping out in the open – most notably muggings, pickpockets or masked gunmen – he said that, assault rifles aside, stealing isn’t possible, however sneaky scripting is. Apparently he once had someone approach him when he was sleeping and, using a script, made it appear that he was speaking to a girl across the campfire in an attempt to pursuit the more sleazy aspects of virtual spaces. So some places are safer than others.

He kindly gave me the location of one of them and suggested I give it a try. I’ve yet to do so though because I next began to discuss with him the fact I am investigating Second Life to assess any pedagogical potential for use in higher education and we found ourselves on a lovely tangent.

He noticed I was busy taking screenshots in the name of proper research documentation and offered to take me to the Island of Svarga. This turned out to be the most stunning region I’ve visited so far and I have every intention of returning there.

Svarga can be explored by foot or flight for people who want self-guided tours, or for the newly indoctrinated and inexperienced noobs such as I, via a guided tour. We opted for the latter.

The joy of this tour is that narrative captions appeared throughout the trip explaining the different aspects of the island that were worth checking out when the guided portion of the tour was complete. This meant I could sit back with my new chicken compatriot, enjoy the stunning virtual scenery, take some of the screenshots I’ve included above and focus on what I was seeing and learning.

It was here that the first glimpse of pedagogical potential shone through for me. The designer of this island is effectively guiding students (me and chicken) across a content-rich landscape to highlight and elaborate upon a series of destinations or educational aims. As the student I am able to focus on the context and significance of what I was looking at because the path we are traveling has been laid out in advance and can be re-used as many times as desired because it is automated.

Further investigation can then be undertaken on my own initiative, undoubtedly with the added benefit of local references (signs) that provide further contextual elaboration and information. This particular example didn’t include video or audio clips, but Second Life does support multimedia so this is certainly an option as well.

And as far as engagement and capturing the student’s attention is concerned, what could be more exciting and interesting than flying across an exotic island peppered by steep peaks, deep valleys and glacial pools with a 6 foot tall talking chicken beside you?