I Can’t Believe I Just Said That! Shamp Writer in Second Life.

There are some things you never thought you would say.
“I just don’t want to celebrate my birthday this year.”
There are things you swore you would never say.
“Because I say so, that’s why!”
But last Friday, I found myself saying things I never thought I would have to say.
“Please don’t sit on the fountain during class. Don’t forget that everyone needs to wear clothes the next time we meet. And, please, try and remember not to fly during class time.”
Last Friday I held my first class in Second Life. My classes are typically crazy (you alums are nodding, I know) but this class put morphed into a lunacy learning experience that still has me buzzed.
Second Life is a virtual world. A computer created three-dimensional space. You make an avatar (a computer version of yourself) and you can travel (walking, flying, teleporting) to thousands of “islands” to interact with any of the 9 million other avatars that have been created to represent the over 75,000 regular users (yeah, all the powerusers have more than one version of themselves – think of it as conspicuous schizophrenia).

This semester I am teaching a course in virtual worlds. I have a lot of academic verbage in the syllabus, but the real goal is to determine what environments like Second Life are good for. The brave 18 graduate and undergraduates in the class are going to be creating “in world” (that is the trendy term for things in Second Life) places and events. Concerts, lectures, games, exhibitions – they are all on the table. We are still at the planning and plotting stage so send me any ideas.

For Friday, the students had to create their own avatars and meet at the NMI island. “NMI at UGA” is the island’s name. Yes, university accounting had a heyday with a purchase order for “One island.” It turns out you can sole source an island, but you are going to have to put a continent out on bid.

The students gathered outside the NMI building on the island – right in front of the beautiful water fountain a giant snow tiger gave us (don’t ask). It was a little disconcerting to see students falling from the sky but they were on time. The group that gathered around me included a giant elf, two rabbis, and a lot of spikey hair. Pretty much the typical UGA class.

I talked for a little while. Yep, Second Life is now voice enabled. Instead of typing, you can talk into your computer and people in the SL vicinity can hear you and answer back. Cool. We teleported as a group to a friend’s island to see what he had build (we missed you Orion Broderick!) Then we went to hear a German band playing Tom Petty covers (gives all new meaning to “You don’t have to live like a refugee”). By that time, our 50 minutes was up and I logged off. But I hear that quite a few of the students stayed to dance.

It was really an amazing experience. I was in my office. Four students were in the NMI lab. And I have no idea where the rest of the students were logging in from. With WiFi they could be in class anywhere. It was a tad chaotic. There was a lot of chatting while I was talking. I am sure that never happens during my lectures in meat space, right? And a couple of students lost control of their avatars and disappeared. Second Life takes a while to learn. But the fact that we could use this tool to share info no matter where we were was exciting.

Second Life has palpable potential. As you fly around and interact, you begin to feel that this really could chang the ways we teach and learn. In fact, straight from class I got on a plane to the Second Life Community Conference. The majority of the 800 people in attendance followed the Education thread of over 20 presentations. I will fill you in on the wild things I saw and learned later.

Sure, Second Life is a little clugy and crazy. But providing a way for physically distant people to interact and experience things together in real time is an educator’s dream that had Socrates tossing in his sleep. SL is a place for minds. It is going to take a while to figure out how we should use it. Frankly, now virtual worlds seem like a powerful creative solution. We just need to find the right problems for virtual worlds to solve. Back in 1994 I felt the same way about the web. It is going to take a lot of patient experimentation to find the best way to harness its potential. And that is why the NMI is there!

I will keep you posted on what the students learn. You can count on me to brag about all the terrific things they do. And look for an invitation to attend our Second Life class. But remember to wear clothes.