Second Life Workshop – Fall 2010

UPDATE: THE WORKSHOP “Best Practices for Teaching & Learning in SL” ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, NOV. 16 HAS BEEN MOVED TO TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14. IF YOU REGISTERED FOR THE NOV 16 WORKSHOP, YOU WILL NEED TO RE-REGISTER FOR EITHER THE DEC. 2 OR DEC 14 WORKSHOP. WE’RE SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE. CLICK THE REGISTER NOW LINK BELOW TO SIGN UP FOR A NEW DATE.

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Are you an instructor interested in using Second Life in your course? Educators are consistently searching for ways to increase engagement, establish presence, and build learning community in their courses. They are also looking for technologies which facilitate active learning and engage a new generation of learners. A virtual world, Second Life, assists faculty in meeting these needs.

During the Fall 2010 semester the UW System Learning Technology Development Council is sponsoring 8 workshops on Second Life.  The workshops are designed and scheduled to serve faculty at all skill levels and to provide a progression from beginner to “teaching with Second Life.” The workshops will be held at  3:00 pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays and run for 90 minutes. The first 60 minutes are for instruction, with the last 30 minutes for Q & A, and extra one-to-one assistance with difficult topics. Note that Workshop 1, or equivalent knowledge (including having an avatar already) is required for participation in Workshops 2-4.

Schedule of Workshops

Thur, Sept 23	Workshop 1 – Getting Started with Second Life
Tues, Sept 28	Workshop 2 – Inventory Management, Appearance & Profile
Tues, Oct 12	Workshop 1 – Getting Started with Second Life
Thus, Oct 21	Workshop 3 – Creating Your Virtual Environment
Thur, Nov 4	Workshop 2 – Inventory Management, Appearance & Profile
Tues, Dec 14	Workshop 4 – Best Practices for Teaching & Learning in SL
Thurs, Dec 2	Workshop 4 – Best Practices for Teaching & Learning in SL
Tues, Dec 7	Workshop 3 – Creating Your Virtual Environment

Workshop Descriptions

Educators are consistently searching for ways to increase engagement, establish presence, and build learning community in their courses. They are also looking for technologies which facilitate active learning and engage a new generation of learners. A virtual world, Second Life, assists faculty in meeting these needs.

Workshop 1 – Getting Started in Second Life

This workshop is for instructors that are familiar with virtual worlds and are interested in implementing Second Life in his or her course in the coming semesters. In this workshop, instructors will learn how to perform basic Second Life functions, such as navigating, teleporting, searching, and creating networks, and gather course materials and information that you can use in your own course.   [Note that Workshop 1, or equivalent knowledge (including having an avatar already) is a pre-requisite for participation in Workshops 2-4. ]

Workshop 2 – Managing your virtual identity, Inventory, Appearance and Profile

In Second Life, you navigate through the environment by controlling a character, or a virtual representation of yourself called an avatar. This avatar can be your likeness, or it can be anything you want. Some people have avatars that are a different gender or race from themselves, while others are more extreme and have avatars that look like animals, dragons, or robots. In this learning activity, you will see and practice the steps involved in creating and saving a new look for your avatar that is modeled after the blockbuster film “Avatar”. You will also learn basic inventory management and learn how to edit your profile.

Workshop 3 – Creating Your Virtual Environment

Do you know what a prim is? What kinds of settings should you consider in a group build? These questions and others will be answered in a beginners workshop around what it takes to build in Second Life. The same software that you use to interact with and communicate inside Second Life also comes with a suite of tools that can be used for creating virtual learning spaces.

This workshop will focus on general build terminology, a tour of the building tools Second Life provides, and the considerations you should keep in mind when embarking on your own build project or orchestrating an in-world classroom activity. Faculty and academic staff interested in learning more about the tools possible for creating virtual spaces will have an opportunity to experiment with the tools as well as walk away with a simple creation they could use to handout course information.

Workshop 4 – Best Practices for Teaching and Learning in Second Life

Second Life provides access to a network of information, organizations, people, cultures, and languages not easily available in RL, has the potential to increase retention through engaging and interactive activities, creates a status-leveling effect for students from diverse backgrounds, increases social presence by providing a 3-D environment that is media rich, and offers an immersive environment for experiential learning.

In Second Life students can participate in simulations and role-plays taking advantage of the 3-D immersive environment, students can exhibit their work for a small group of people or the entire world and receive feedback on their work, and students can take virtual field trips to meet various pedagogical needs like gather information, performing research, or practicing a skill (like a foreign language).  Further, students and students can hold group meetings or give presentations using the voice and audio functions.

In this workshop, we will discuss pedagogical best practices in using Second Life and discuss the potential of Second Life to meet certain pedagogical needs effectively. Specifically, we will share Second Life orientations and learning activity templates.

For more information contact:

• Scott Reeser – scott.reeser@learn.uwsa.edu – Workshops1 & 3
• Leif Nelson – nelsonl@uwgb.edu – Workshops 1 & 2
• Tanya Joosten – tjoosten@uwm.edu – Workshop 4