I was recently gifted an island in SecondLife and haven’t managed to pry myself away from it since. It’s not something I would have thought to do, but having been given the opportunity I’ve embraced it and have been quite surprised with the results. Along those lines I’ve made several observations that I’d like to discuss here.
The first observation was that building in the virtual world immediately introduced a sense of vested interest and ownership in the project. Perhaps not surprisingly this has resulted in an increased sense of purpose when in-world. Whereas previously I’d wander aimlessly wondering “what I’m meant to do in this place,” I’m now content to widdle away the time on the island experimenting with ideas and generally exploring the possibilities.
In that sense I’m beginning to think that one of the key values of SecondLife lay in the dynamic – in the building of new things and the planning and design processes that go along with it.
When I decided to terriform one portion of the island I didn’t arbitrarily start digging; I did research first. I sourced photographs and images that depicted island geologic structures and landforms and considered notions like the local geologic history. The logic being, unless you now how the land is formed and evolved, you can’t effectively sculpt it.
For example, when building mountains you are mimicking a naturally-ocurring process characterised by lifting and erosion. In order to produce realistic looking virtual mountains you must replicate these agents and consider factors like water drainage routes and how this would alter and affect the landscape.
Biologically speaking there are matters if climate and corresponding species to consider. For example you wouldn’t see a Giant Panda and Kangaroo side by side in the wild. So unless you’re building a virtual zoo they shouldn’t be on the same plot of land. The same goes for plant species. In order to maximize realism you need a solid grasp of the ecosystem and what exists within it.
Thirdly, I’ve been paying much greater attention to shapes, colour, proportion and geometry in real life lately. In Secondlife the building process involves linking together lots of small shapes until gradually they resemble something recogniseable. Maximizing realism requires recognising the fundamental patterns and shapes that make up the object.
At first a project doesn’t look like much, so you have to think in terms of detail and aggregate at the same time.
In the sense of the built environment and landcaping there have been layout and architectural considerations. The same rules that apply to designing realworld homes apply to virtual ones as well. And in the case if virtual instance constraints like budget don’t apply; so you can really push the boundaries.
The jury is still out for many people regarding the uses of SecondLife in formal education, but one things fairly certain – it definitely caters to experiential learning.
Mike,
What fun to find someone here on the FOC08 course who is interested in Second Life for much the same reasons I am. I can just imagine what I would do if someone gave me an island, and love the way you’ve begun this exploration in such an integrated and “natural” way. I look forward to meeting you in-world and seeing what you’re doing there, as well as connecting with you in this ongoing FOC conversation.
I’ve just started a(nother!) blog for this course, which is not the link I’ve used above, but I suspect we’ll all be getting a more complete blog roll soon, and hopefully settle into communications patterns that work for us.
I’ve enjoyed your comments on the list-serve, and will be joining you all there soon.
Hi Amy,
Nice to meet you! I’m finding the discussions that are taking place on the group very inspiring as well and am desperately trying to carve out more time for my readings and interaction than I’ve managed this week. Especially considering this fortnight’s topics of “What is an Online Community?” and the discussion on Groups vs. Networks. It looks to be a very insightful conversation that I definitely don’t want to miss.
As far as SecondLife goes, I’d love to participate in a group in-world meet up. I know that virtual spaces is being covered in Week 10; but that seems like ages away and I’d love to get an early start. I wonder if anyone would be interested? I think it would be a great foray into the virtual space for the uninitiated and a really nice community-building exercise for the rest of us.
That said though, several people have voiced some bewilderment about the amount of tech talk that was thrown about during the first week. I don’t want to scare anyone off! Perhaps some informal group meet-ups would work. What do you think?
Cheers,
Mike
That sounds great to me, Mike!
An invitation to gather in Second Life isn’t “tech talk” in the way that the earlier comments were, in that there is no imperative to be involved or comprehend it like there was with the exchange around tools to help achieve our course assignments.
And, as you say, the invitation might be a catalyst for people who’ve been interested but languishing on the sidelines to take the leap and come play!
I’ll be there, anyway.
As luck would have it there’s a SecondLife Unconference planned in late September on the island of Jokaydia. I’m not sure if Leigh has earmarked this as something to throw out to the other students, but based on the rough agenda it sounds like there will be some fascinating topics covered.
I’ve written up a bit about it here:
“Jokaydia Unconference in SecondLife”
You can also refer to the main site itself here:
First Annual Jokaydia Unconference
I’m planning on going and will try to drum up some interest amongst my colleagues. For the uninitiated I think it would be a great introduction to how people are using it to empower education. I’m hoping for some really insightful and inspiring conversations about it.
Cheers,
Mike