Last week Andrea and I had the pleasure of meeting with Andrew Boyarsky, Project Director for the Coastal Storm Training Project and faculty of the CUNY School of Professional Studies We were shown some of the impressive training activities that are being developed using Second Life as a platform.
Briefly, for those of you not familiar with Second Life, it is a 3d virtual world where people create avatars of themselves and interact with people around the world in a constructed digital world where users can chat, meet people, play games, visit museums or complete other tasks in a share environment. This is a brief description, for more information I would point you in the direction of others who have described it in much more detail.
Second Life has been around since 2003, and many groups have created educational environments: University of California, Davis created a simulated Hallucinatory environment; The Smithsonian created a Latino Virtual Museum; Buffalo State College held a fashion show in Second Life for students in the undergraduate fashion program.
Though many students and friends of the New Media Lab have worked in three dimensional environments in the past (Zach, Aga, and ASHP to name a few) I’m not aware of anyone having done any work in Second Life. Is anyone else experimenting with three dimensional environments currently? Anyone think they might like to?
Andrea and I have invited Andrew to a New Media Lab general meeting in the future to share the work he has done. We will announce the dates of our Fall Semester meetings in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned.
One Comment
Second Life is a great program! I am a huge fan and have been a member for a couple years now. I’ve visited some of the Sim campuses on Second Life (SL), and the resemblances between actual and virtual campuses are often stirringly lovely and sometimes just plain uncanny.
Virtual environments are really unique spaces because the behavior codes are quite scripted, if you will, and the “newb” or “newbie” is easily spotted by the old timer past their first “res date”.
Some very interesting research can be done within SL, however there is a large learning curve for gamers to learn how to interpret the 2D space as 3D and to maneuver seamlessly without breaking etiquette by “bumping” or “landing” on someone’s avatar.
SL has only begun to be tapped for its research potential, but as a hobby, social media and sublimation tool, I HIGHLY recommend it!