Elda’s Weblog

It has been a really busy week. I did not have enough time and motivation to write something in my blog. It is not so easy to update it every week. This is why i hadn’t written something until today.

This week we had a meeting in Second Life (SL) with the classmates from the Internet Cultures module. It was our first meeting. It was not so easy to have a proper discussion since everybody was speaking and someone else might interrupt and there was no coherence in the discussion. There were many problems.

Lets take it from the beginning though. Not everybody from the course managed to be there. I don’t know the reason but i can guess. They might not have a proper internet connection at their homes, not a great computer to run SL , not enough time to get to grips with SL, they might be doing something else at the same time and finally maybe not very confident to use SL and have such a ‘face to face’ meeting. I hope in our next meeting there will be more people.

So, in the beginning we sat in a certain area where we could have a proper discussion since in the same place where we met, there were other groups and we could hear their discussions too! After we sat, we introduced to each other and we started talking about the whole experience of having an avatar in SL and doing things in there. But this was not a discussion. Everybody was telling his/her opinion and it was difficult to catch up. Moreover, i wanted to tell my opinion too and so i was writing as fast as i could. As a result, i was doing so many mistakes but no one seemed to care since they were struggling to write their opinion too.

Except for this i had problems with my picture. My graphics card is so old and my computer does not meet with the minimum requirements of SL. So, there were times in SL when i could see nothing else but myself and if i moved a little bit i would see everything in my screen move up and down. It was very upsetting but what else could i do?

Anyway, someone raised the question, why are there only beautiful and healthy avatars? Why do the shops sell beautiful and young faces and bodies? Can my avatar grow up or is it young forever? Obviously, SL is a place for socializing and hanging around with friends. There are handsome and beautiful avatars because when we meet with new people we want to give a great first impression. We want to look beautiful and make as many friends as we can. Since SL offers this opportunity why not? If in real life we are not as skinny as we want, or tall enough, or beautiful or young as we would like to, why not be in SL? Nobody can check what the truth is. Oh and you can even have another shape than a human being. As a result you don’t have to be a male or female and you can be whatever you want. You can make friends from both sexes and never reveal your true identity. Very convenient.

Also, i had read somewhere that some people make opposite sex avatars in SL. A man for example can make a female avatar for himself and pretend to be a woman. As a result he can have a relationship in there with a man and see from the woman’s scope how it is to be in a relationship with a man. Obviously there are no ethic rules in SL and you can be exposed to anything and anyone, so you should be very careful of what “friends” you make and never talk about personal things and data with someone whom you do not know!

Finally, there is a question of how might SL be used for educational purposes. What i feel is that SL can be used for educational purposes but for adults only and not children. There are so many dangers that children can be exposed in there. Anyone can approach them for any purpose and they are not safe at all. And there are some areas in SL which are for adults only and children shouldn’t see.

Anyway, this is a very interesting video for Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life

There are so many opportunities offered aren’t there? Through simulation systems scientists can try and do almost anything! Even a non-scientist can enter there and learn things that in real life would be impossible to learn. Even for children it would be fine to visit such places. I remember myself as a child when we conducted experiments in chemistry or biology and i always felt that if i could see this experiments how really did happen i would learn more easily than watching the teacher doing the experiment for us.