General
As Second Life grows more popular in the media, a variety of sources are writing short articles of introduction to SL and its educational possibilities. This category includes such articles along with other brief write-ups of an overview nature.
Anderson Terry. Virtual Canuck. "An Educator Discovers his Second Life."
Overview of many SL educational aspects with a nice eye to the history of virtual worlds, moos, muds, and technology.
Appel, Justin. eschoolNews Online. "Second Life Develops Education Following."
Another basic introduction. You also can't read beyond page one without registering with eSchoolNews.
Bugeja, Michael J. Chronicle of Higher Education. "Second Thoughts About Second Life."
Moral, ethical, and legal concerns when using SL in your classroom.
CCarter. "Introducing Your RL Students to Second Life."
A useful step-by-step on lesson planning in SL, places to start, and time management skills.
Cohen, Kate. Boston Phoenix Online. “Right Click to Learn”
General introduction to both SL itself and the general education possibilities. Briefly covers SL's use for long-distance education and features a mention of Sarah Robbins.
Kieran, Christopher. Architectual Record Online. "Second Life and Google Earth are Transforming the Idea of Architectual Collaboration."
A short article but significant for its discussion of a course taught at the Montana State University School of Architecture. Discusses effects of SL and Google Earth on the field.
Lamb, Gregory M. Christian Science Monitor. "Real Learning in a Virtual World."
General overview of education possibilities in SL, featuring examples from Harvard, Ball State, and Bradley University
Learning Circuits Blog. "Second Life is Not a Teaching Tool."
Cause we can all use a counterpoint every once in awhile.
McGolerick, Elizabeth Weiss. "Online Degrees. Second Life University"
Article on MSN Encarta with a lot of quotes from various people in the fields of education and virtual technologies. Good focus on distance learning and also noteworthy for a rational discussion of the world's pitfalls.
Olsen, Stefanie. CNET News "Universities Register for Online Future."
Focuses on how the California State University School system is planning to utilize SL and features quotes from chancellor Charles Reed, UCLA's Jane Kagon, and others.
Rabble Podcast Network. http://www.rabble.ca/rpn/podcast.php?id=wos
Hosted by Wayne MacPhail, this podcast interviews a number of eduators and activists about how their Second Life has affected their first one.
Reuters, Adam. (Adam Pasick). "Prof Gets Funding for Virtual Shakespeare World."
Covers Indiana University Professor Edward Castronova's plan for constructing an SL island where people can encounter and interact with Shakespeare's texts and ideas. He will also use the land to conduct experiments for testing economic theories.
Tebbutt, David. IT Week Online. "Is Second Life a Brave New World?"
Stronger focus on business professional interest in SL with some mention of education.
Terdiman, Daniel. WIRED online. "Second Life Teaches Life Lessons."
Focuses on organizations using SL for purposes such as teaching social skills to abused children and providing stigma-free social interactions for people with cerebral palsy.
Wagner, James Au. Edutopia. "The School of Second Life."
More general introduction material but does feature some nice pull quotes from members of Global Kids and Kids Connect.
Wallace, Mark. 3PointD "Mitch Kapor on the Power of Second Life."
Quite lengthy but informative article that quotes heavily from Kapor's speech at the Second Life Community Convention. Contains information on the early history and start-up of Linden Labs and discussions about innovation and "disruptive technologies."
Wong, Grace. CNN Online. “Educators Explore Second Life Online.”
Focus on distance learning and a consideration of drawbacks and distractions.
Pedagogy
This cateogory includes articles, blogs, course websites, and any other sites that seem heavily focused on pedagogy. Look here for sample assignments, instructor reflections, and highly specific focus on SL in the classroom.
Burton, Andrew. O'Reilly. “Giving a PowerPoint Presentation in Second Life.”
Provides information, codes, and hacks for using a PowerPoint presentation in-world.
Farrell, Kate. DigitalKatie. "Using Second Life in Secondary Education."
A wiki dedicated to the pedagogical uses of SL for students in the 13-18 year age range. Includes justification for use, sample lessons and assignments, plus a link to Zoomlabs, whom are dedicated to promoting cultural connection between children in all nations with the assistance of virtual environments.
Israel, Shel. Global Neighbourhoods. "Putting Second Life into Education."
After beginning with a mighty claim that SL “may culminate with something close to the Star Trek Holodeck,” the article proceeds into an interview with Kate Farrell on her projects with grade and high school kids in SL.
Lamoureux, Ed. Lamoureux's Second Life.
SL page from the personal website of a professor at Bradley University. In-world he goes by "Professor Beliveau" where he teaches an ethnography course. Page features links and clippings from local sources about Lamoureux and his work.
Lim, Kevin. Theory.IstheReason. "How NOT to Teach in Second Life."
Interview with Milosun Czervik (RL: Ross Perkins) founder of the Second Life ICT Library.
Nesson Charles, Rebecca Nesson, and Gene Koo. Course Website for Harvard's "CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion" course.
From the course website: "If we do say so ourselves, the course will be unlike any that has ever been taught. It is a course in persuasive, empathic argument in the Internet space. Throughout the course we will be studying many different media technologies to understand how their inherent characteristics and modes of distribution affect the arguments that are made using them. Students will be immersed in this study through project-based assignments in which they will be using these technologies to make their own arguments."
Robbins, Sarah. Intellagirl’s English Course Site
This Joomla site features information, assignments, and student blogs from Robbin’s English 104 class at Ball State University. The class meets one a week F2F and once a week in SL.
SimTeach: Information and Community for Educators Using M.U.V.E.S.
Jeremy Kemp's base site for educators using MUVEs. Sections on blogging, Wiki, Forum, Machinima, Second Life, and There.
Tettegah, Sharon. University of Illinois. "Teaching and Learning in a Virtual World."
Tettegah is a professor at the University of Illinois. She teaches a course entitle: Computer Assisted Instruction. This webpage highlights video footage of student work done in SL across a wide range of ages (from preschool to adult learning).
Research
A bit more focused than the pedagogy category, here you will find links to research notes, ongoing projects, and people conducting research in/or about Second Life.
Antonacci, David M. and Nellie Modaress. The Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW). Pdf.
Outline for the EDUCASE Regional Conference, with a focus on the collaborative and social constructionist possibilities of education in SL. Also includes in-world videos.
Conklin, Megan. Elon University. "101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom." Pdf.
Fetscherin, Marc. Second Life Research Blog
Compilation site featuring research news from a varierty of research disciplines relating to SL.
Jarrett, Kevin. The Story of my Second Life
Tagged as "aK-20 educator's grand funded immersion into and exploration of the world of Second Life." An astounding amount of information and currently updated.
Krotoski, Aleks. University of Surrey. Personal Page. Social Sim.
Online research site and survey for a PhD canidate in Psychology. Her goal is to map social communication patterns in online spaces including Second Life.
(LIFE) The Learning in Informal and Formal Environments Center.
From the website, "LIFE is a an interdisciplinary collaboration between learning scientists at the University of Washington, Stanford University, SRI International, and other institutions across the country. We have a research project underway to investigate the relationship between learning and interactivity in Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs). Participants will experience a variety of problem solving environments, build learning theories based upon their experiences, and then relate their theories to the research literature (compared to the more typical procedure of learning simply by reading about these kinds of studies)."
Parsons, Catherine Victoria. "I am Victoria."
Parsons is the Assistant Superintendant for Cirriculum at Pine Plains Central School District in New York. Her site includes a blog and research presentations concerning sims and MUVEs for educational purposes.
Robbins, Sarah. Intellagirl’s Second Life Education Research
Sarah Robbins (AKA Intellagirl) is a Ph.d. Student in Rhetoric and Composition at Ball State in Indiana. She does consulting work for education and business, and her major research interests include: tagging, social networks, and computer-mediated writing. Her dissertation in process concerns Second Life as community education space.
The blog mainly consists of her research notes and what are likely sections of her dissertation. She also includes extended reflections on her experiences teaching Freshman Composition in Second Life.
Schultz, Nan. My So-Called Second Life
Riki Rinkatink in SL, this site contains a number of links and resources pertaining to tools, research, and resources concerning education in SL.
Community
If you're even slightly interested in SL's educational possibilities, these are a list of resources to introduce yourself and get involved in the community.
Gaming and Learning in Second Life. Google Group
Nonprofits in Second Life. Listserv
Real Life Education in SL Group. SL Group
Second Life Research. Listserv
Second Life Educators. Listserv. Archive.
Virtual Campuses
Not a list of SLurls (although those are coming), rather a list of campuses and other virtual spaces in SL that also maintain a blog or website prescence.
CPCC 3D Campus. Futures Institute. Website
From the website: Second Life Community College Consortium: CPCC's Second Life Campus, and a place where community colleges can link up and collaborate with the wider SL and RL community.
Education UK. Website.
Website for a virtual island developed by a group of UK educational philanthropists.
Eye4You Alliance Island. Blog
From the blog: "The Alliance Library System are leaders in library services for adults in SL through the Second Life Library project (http://infoisland.org) which was conceived in April 2006 and opened in June 2006. The project has grown to over thirty volunteers, and four islands with programs and services for adults.
The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County is dedicated to their mission of expanding minds, empowering individuals and enriching our community and anticipates that a presence on Teen Second Life will be another way to address the mission. It addresses it in a place that meets teens where they are (i.e., online)"
NMC Campus Observer. Blog. NMC Virtual Worlds Program. New Media Consortium.
From the NMC Website: “The NMC Campus is an experimental effort developed to inform the New Media Consortium’s work in educational gaming. In early 2006, the organization made the decision to create a space for experimentation in a virtual 3-D world and began a search for suitable platforms, with a special interest in massively multi-player environments. Ultimately, Second Life was chosen, and working with an advisory board drawn from its membership, the NMC began designing a space within Second Life expressly to support collaboration, learning, insightful interaction, and experimentation — and to encourage exploration of the potential of virtual environments. The goal of the project was to create an immersive 3-D virtual environment for higher education and museum professionals to interact, collaborate, and experiment that would provide a low entry threshold for newcomers, while simultaneously exploring the boundaries of what is possible.”
Conference Papers/Presentations
This section will likely grow as more educators begin to write and present on SL at various games and virtual worlds conferences world wide.
Antonacci, David M. and Nellie Modaress. "The Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW)." Educause.
Outline for the EDUCASE Regional Conference, with a focus on the collaborative and social constructionist possibilities of education in SL. Also includes in-world videos.
Bray, David A. and Benn Konsynski. "Virtual Worlds, Virtual Economies, Virtual Institutions." Social Science Research Network.
Abstract: "Virtual worlds are now a reality. Virtual worlds such as the growing Second Life and Entropia Universe, allow everyone to create a digital character representing themselves and interact with other computer-generated individuals, landscapes, and even virtually-run global businesses in real-time. Fascinatingly, both endogenously produced economies and social orders are emerging in these virtual worlds. "
Graetz, Ken. A. "The Psychology of Learning Environments."
Chapter six of "Learning Spaces" an Edcause book.
Kemp, Jeremy and Livingstone, Daniel. “Putting a Second Life “Metaverse” Skin on Learning Management Systems."
From the abstract: "This paper outlines the advantages and weaknesses of Multi-User Virtual Environments for teaching and explores the possible benefits of integrating them closely with Traditional Learning Management Systems." Also includes the results of a survey given to teachers interested in working with SL.
Livingstone, Daniel and Jeremy Kamp (eds.). Proceedings of the Second Life Education Workshop at the Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco. Pdf.
A very large document reporting the results of the First Second Life Education Workshop held in San Francisco's Fort Mason Centre on August 18th-20th, 2006. The document includes:
- A preface from Pathfinder Linden
- A keynote address from Dr Larry Johnson, CEO, New Media Consortium
- Eight case studies, posters, and tutorials
- Two papers from Hilary Mason & Mehdi Moutahir, "Multidisciplinary Experimental Education in Second Life: A Global Approach" and Sarah Robbins "Image Slippage: Navigating the Dichotomies of an Academic Identity in a Non-academic Virtual World"
Second Life Best Practices in Education. Post-Conference Report.
"On May 25, 2007, 1300 educators from around the world gathered at the Second Life Best Practices in Education: Teaching, Learning, and Research 2007 International Conference in the virtual world of Second Life. The event was the first 24 hour, international conference ever to take place entirely within a virtual world."
Stevens, Vance. "Second Life in Education and Language Learning." TESL-EJ.
- - - - - . "Second Life and Online Collaboration Through Peer to Peer Distributed Learning Networks."
Design/Software
The popularity of SL is causing many media companies and web-design firms to take notice and develop software to improve the SL experience and integrate more educational options into the platform. This category also includes various organizations and groups joining their resources to create new possibilities for learning in virtual environments.
Consultants-E. Website.
From the website: "The Consultants-E is a leader in online and distance education and is an innovative company of consultants specialising in online learning and teaching in higher and adult education. We help companies and higher education institutions implement instructional technology, design online courses and seminars, and train educators in online teaching and learning. We aim to help you ensure that the online learning and teaching you offer your clients and students is of the highest pedagogical and technical standard.
Croquet Consortium. Website.
From the website: "Croquet is a powerful open source software development environment for the creation and large-scale distributed deployment of multi-user virtual 3D applications and metaverses that are (1) persistent (2) deeply collaborative, (3) interconnected and (4) interoperable. The Croquet architecture supports synchronous communication, collaboration, resource sharing and computation among large numbers of users on multiple platforms and multiple devices."
Electric Sheep Company. Website.
From the website: "The Electric Sheep Company is the largest company in the world dedicated to designing experiences and delivering add-on software for 3D virtual worlds. Our Professional Solutions team delivers strategic, creative and technical insight and services to global organizations. Our Software team is building a suite of information services to enhance virtual world experiences, such as trending and measurement tools, e-commerce, and social networking.
FutureTag. Website.
From the website: "The Future Technologies Advisory Group is a consulting and media group focused on promoting awareness and understanding of radical scientific advances and emerging technologies, as well as evaluating their impact on individuals, businesses and societies. The firm FutureTAG Ltd. is incorporated in the UK. Our target markets are the media, and policy makers in government and industry. We develop science information products aimed at a wide audience and suitable for publishing, broadcasting and the web, and more detailed information and consulting products aimed at specific clients.
Global Kids Digital Media Initiative. Website.
From the website: "Global Kids is a New York City based nonprofit that works with youth after school and online to build digital literacy,foster substantive virtual dialogues about current events, and promote civic participation through interactive games."
NMC (New Media Consortium). Website.
From the website: "The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. The consortium serves as a catalyst for the development of new applications of technology to support learning and creative expression, and sponsors programs and activities designed to stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration, and recognize excellence among its member institutions. "
Serious Game Initiative. Website.
From the website: "The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy."
Sloodle. Website.
From the website: "Sloodle is an Open Source project which aims to develop and share useful, usable, desireable tools for supporting education in virtual worlds, making teaching easier. Through engagement with an active community of developers and users, the Sloodle project hopes to develop sound pedagogies for teaching across web-based and 3D virtual learning environments. Sloodle integrates the Second Life multi-user virtual environment and the Moodle learning-management system."
Blogs
Many educators and SL citizens are keeping blogs to document their educational ideas, classroom activities, and general responses to SL. Some of these blogs are theory-focused, pedagogy focused, and some are just fascinating insights into the minds of the SL Blogosphere.
Ambling in Second Life Blog. Alesiter Kronos(in SL). Blog.
Largely narrative blog about Kronos' journeys in SL but also touches on ramifcations for social networking.
Beth's Blog. Beth Kanter. Blog.
Kanter is a professional blogger, trainer, coach, and consultant to nonprofits on how to utilize new media tools.
Beth's Second Life. Beth Ritter-Guth. Blog.
Personal blog of an English and Woman's Studies instructor at LeHigh Carbon Community College in Pennsylvania.
Binary Footprints. Betsy Stoll. Blog.
Stoll is a Library and Information Science grad student at Wayne State University in Michigan. Blog has not currently been updated since July 2007.
Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Vicki A. Davis. Blog.
Global Kids Digital Media Initiative. Blog.
From the website: "Global Kids is a New York City based nonprofit that works with youth after school and online to build digital literacy,foster substantive virtual dialogues about current events, and promote civic participation through interactive games."
Metalab. Blog.
Focuses on creating and exploring in-world tools for education.
MUVE FORWARD. Topher Zweirs. Blog.
According to his blog, Topher is "an educational technologist and instructional designer primarily interested in emerging technologies, institutional technology integration, and distance learning."
Puritan's Guide to Second Life. Dembe Wellman. Blog.
Second Life and Education. Blog.
A blog "dedicated to the ins and outs of K-20 education using Second Life. This blog is written by educators and for educators, for those who are seasoned Second Life veterans and for those just starting out, for those who are dye-hards and those who are skeptics."
Second Life English. Blog.
"The ultimate aim of Second Life English is to assist foreign language teachers in their efforts to use the virtual world of Second Life as an instructional medium. Moreover, we seek to help empower language learners with the English language (and other languages) by providing various opportunities to participate in learning activities."
Second Life Research Blog. Marc Fetscherin. Blog.
SLED Picayune. Blog.
"The SLED Picayune is a news resource for educators, trainers, librarians working in Second Life. (SLED is a mashup of "SL + education")."
SLCC Blog. Official Blog of the Second Life Community Convention
Story of my Second Life. Kevin Jarrett. Blog.
Tagged as "aK-20 educator's grand funded immersion into and exploration of the world of Second Life." An astounding amount of information and currently updated.
Suffern Middle School in Second Life. Peggy Sheehy. Blog.
A "running account" of Sheehy's class at Suffern Middle School in New York. Features a transcript of a mock SL trial held by students based on Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men."
Wikis
ACHUB. Arts, Music, and Education in Second Life. Wiki.
"The ACHUB is a not for profit growing community interested in sharing educational experiences with new forms of immersive and social media such as webcasting, blogging, twitter, secondlife, streaming video/audio, machinima, myspace, linkedin, advertising, branding, web dev, etc."
College English. Second Life in Higher Education. Wiki.
Digitalkatie. Using Second Life in Secondary Education. Wiki.
A wiki dedicated to the pedagogical uses of SL for students in the 13-18 year age range. Includes justification for use, sample lessons and assignments, plus a link to Zoomlabs, whom are dedicated to promoting cultural connection between children in all nations with the assistance of virtual environments.
MUVE FORWARD. Topher Zwiers. Wiki.
A complement to his blog, this wiki "will likely organize many of the thoughts posted in the blogspace into more coherent topics and collections of resources."
NMC Campus. Wiki.
"This site provides documentation and other helpful information for campus visitors. As a wiki, we hope our users will help us create some of the content. "
Schome (Not School, Not Home). Wiki.
A wiki formed by a group of academic researchers whom work, research, and build from their SL island, Schomebase. Features extended project ideas and outlines from the various members of the group.
Second Life in Education. Wiki.
Second Life Grad Student Colony. Wiki.
A Simteach wiki run by a number of graduate students working in or researching Second Life.
University of Cincinnati Second Life. Wiki.
The University of Cincinnati Second Life Learning Community will evaluate the feasibility of using Second Life in online instruction for the purpose of distance learning and to enhance traditional face-to-face courses. Our major goals are to share and develop resources as we examine the use of the Second Life virtual environment for instruction, pool our talents to build reusable learning objects and spaces in Second Life, and ultimately create a web-based resource for other educators that describes our process, the results of our experience, and our recommendations for its future use as an instructional tool.
VITAL Lab @ Ohio University. Wiki.
"The VITAL Lab excels in research and development in Second Life and other 3-D online virtual environments. We provide service in scripting, content creation, full-service sim development, creation of teaching tools and learning aids, coordination of educational and other events and activities, and operational management of sims in Second Life. "
