Anyone have a Second Life? Anyone over the age of 25 know what on earth I'm talking about?Second Life (SL) is a virtual world, in which you create an avatar - an online representation of yourself, and explore a very detailed virtual world. You can buy and sell, build, explore, attend a concert, take part in a training, and much more. Now, not all areas of Second Life and its participants are G-rated, so please use wisdom and discretion. However, there is such wonderful potential for education for all of us with this tool!
Which is my reason for this post.
How cool would it be for our students or consumers with disabilities to have the freedom of exploring a virtual world? You control your avatar with simple keystrokes. So, hook up an Intellikeys keyboard and create an overlay that corresponds to the keystroke controls. Voila - an accessible world!
I'm still learning about getting around SL, and will try to post about how we can use this tool, and provide access to this tool as I learn more.
Caution, though. It's free and highly addictive! :)
Second Life
2 comments:
YOU BLOGGED: Anyone have a Second Life? Anyone over the age of 25 know what on earth I'm talking about?
MY COMMENT: That cracks me up! I've been in Second Life for over a year and have yet to meet ANYONE under 25. Everyone I've met and know are 35+. I've heard that the demos for SL skew a little older and that colleges are struggling to get their students interested in SL for education because they don't consider it "cool." All us old fogies are using SL on a daily basis for networking, marketing, and business.
http://cybergrrloh.blogspot.com/
FYI: The Discovery Education Network and ISTE in SL both provide **FREE** Teacher workshops and social events on a weekly basis. I am on the Leadership Council for DEN in SL. About once a month is a newbies session. The DEN workshops are on Wed nights.
I have been in SL for a year now and the one piece of advice I have is "there is safety in numbers". If you need a little handholding or help feel free to email me atruger@gmail.com and if I can't meet you I will hook you up with a DEN-SL member who can!
Once you get off Orientation Island (which we can help with)go to EduIsland II or ISTE and there will be educators there to help you.
Check out the DEN-SL blog for more info about upcoming events. http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife/
Hope to see ya in world!
JessieMarie Flanagan
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