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.
I tried Second Life (SL) two months ago but my computer’s graphics did not allow me to experience this social network the way I would like. From the smallest movement everything on my screen seemed to collapse and even if I didn’t move my avatar wasn’t stable at all. But first of all let me introduce what SL is according to my experience.
Well first of all you create an account with a username and a password. You can choose your first name but not your last name. There are a number of choices and someone can choose the one it best suits him/her. After that you can install the SL on your computer and after entering your username and password a totally new world is just for you.
In the beginning there is a tutorial base where you learn the basics such as walking, watching around, flying, dressing and changing your avatar, and talking to other people in there. This is a funny and easy part as it seems that you can do anything you dreamt of in real life (RL).
If you have very good graphics you can make the slightest changes on your avatar, even from changing the shape of your eyes. This is really good; you can look like you would love to in RL.
Well after this, you can visit different areas of SL and see so many things. There is a place just for educational purposes the Education UK Island whose address is
There you can find a great number of other universities and stuff for educational purposes.
Also, there is a research project at the London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London, for Learning From Online Worlds; Teaching In Second Life whose page is:
From there you can have a better idea of what SL can offer as learning is concerned.
But there are so many groups and events you can learn about if you learn how to handle SL. You can join these groups and become a member of many societies. You can even learn about popular place, events and groups without losing lots of time.
Moreover, there are places in SL where you can find stuff for free. These include clothes, jewellery, money, games and quite many things.
But SL has its disadvantages too. There are places for adults only and there is a great risk for a child to visit them. What is more, lots of people in SL can so easily pretend to be anything they like so you can never trust the one you are speaking with. You must really be careful what you are saying and to whom.
Teachers TV is a site created exclusively by teachers and from people working in education. It includes many educational videos and anyone can see them, not only through the site but through the TV channel as well. Everything you need to know about the site and how to use it is right here.
It really is a very useful tool and gives great ideas and help for anyone who wants to teach and needs some innovative ideas.
For example this video from Teachers TV shows us the ‘critical importance for teachers to provide guidance to their pupils when using the internet for research’.
This is a great video explaining RSS in plain English. I found it very explanatory and interesting. It shows how RSS works and makes it easy and plain for everyone. I was excited in the beginning and i wanted to share it with you. It is such a nice idea explaining things through videos. Even students can experiment and upload videos from research they have done in the classroom. Internet has become an essential part of our everyday lives. We can do anything through it. It can inform, entertain and educate us. The question is how can this best achieved and what challenges lie in front of us, as technology is rapidly changing from day to day. So we must be very careful how we exploit this technology in our everyday lives. We should think of our children and help them be digitally literate. By this i mean that it is our obligation to provide them with tools and solutions that will enable them to choose what to read and how to read it.
