This was our presentation for the Learning 2.0 Conference at Montclair State University. Teachers from across the disciplines and from K-20 attended in a Standing Room Only crowd.

1. Second Life
Virtual Environment as Pedagogical Tool
AJ Kelton Laura Nicosia
AJ Brooks LauraMaria Onomatopoeia
Director of Teaching and Emerging Technology Assistant Prof English/Dir. Eng.Education
College of Humanities and Social Sciences @ Montclair State University

2. What do you already know
about Second Life?
Why Second Life?

3. A Universe of Virtual Worlds
Platforms
Adult - 22
Teen /Tween - 18
“Kids” - 15
55 virtual platforms
80.8 million users

4. What is Second Life?
Officially Launched in 2003 (beta in 1999)
“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built
and owned by its residents.”
A flexible space for learning and exploration
An opportunity for people to interact in a way
that conveys a sense of presence lacking in other
media.
Generalized rather than contextual, applicable to
almost any discipline, business, industry, etc...

5. What is Second Life?
Second life is NOT a game - there are no rules or
a fixed goal-oriented purpose.
10-15K sign ups daily - nearly 14 million total
30 - 60K residents on at one time - avg 50K
(2000 census puts Montclair and Little Falls at about 50K)
over $1 million spent daily (real US dollars)
Well over 300 educational institutions with
thousands of meters of land dedicated to
education

6. The CHSS Pilot Project

7. Recreate What Exists

8. xt
Recreate what exists, differently!
Recreate what exists, differently!

9. Walk into a story

10. Always “On” Content

11. Gloria Naylor’s Willow Springs

12. Traditional Spaces

13. Create Something New

14. Engage Your Students

15. ENWR 105:18
Introduction to College Writing I

16. ENWR 105:18
• The technology use was required
• Notification prior to the start of classes (MWB / MWH / MWO)
• Full support from the Department
• Open and Clear Communication
• Email prior to class starting
• Posting syllabus prior to class
• Expectations clearly outlined in syllabus
• Expectation of use
• Expectation of access

17. ENWR 105:18

21. Assignments
• Explore NMC’s Orientation Island
• Group work
• Info Island field trip
• Research and share relevant SL places
• Alternate meeting place
• Library research (RL and SL)
• Friends, Groups, and Landmarks
• Final Project: Dorm

22. What does it take to teach a
technology rich class?
• Relevance
• Planning
• Flexibility
• Experimentation
• Research

23. Using SL in a Literature Class
• ENGL 240.03
The Art of Fiction

24. By Using SL in Literature Classes:
Comprehension soars
Learning communities are fostered
Collaboration is nurtured
Cognitive capital is distributed

25. Students become immersed when inworld

26. And they enter a world...
where the
environment
is as
persistent as I
build it to be

27. My learning sites are “always on” & “always full of content”
Each site is “always on” and “always full of
content”

28. We meet in “interesting” places

29. Meeting in these places would be
difficult or impossible in real life.

30. Dante’s Inferno and Linden Hills

31. Construct 3-D
Sites

32. Autonomous Learning

33. Students visit the always available site

34. They enter the learning space

35. Explore and orient themselves

36. Encounter my assigned tasks

37. Open search engines
and visit my pre-
screened and pre-
selected urls. I control
the environment.

38. They receive
tasks to
accomplish
(whether I am
with them or
not)

39. Students write essays on note cards, deliver them to me via an
“inworld email” system or deposit them in items.

40. Creating note cards is as easy as opening a file in a word
processing program

41. Their note cards can be as long as they need to be.

42. Yet, while SL is new and fun
• It is not
an end,
in and
of itself

43. Technology for learning’s sake--not as an end

44. Business

45. Collaboration

46. Genome Island

47. NOAA

48. Spaceport Alpha and Delta

49. The Second Louvre

50. Renaissance Island

51. The Lost
Gardens of
Apollo

52. San Francesco Assisi

53. InfoIsland

54. Princeton

55. The Sistine Chapel
Vassar

57. Vassar Island

58. Abbott’s
Aerodrome

61. Kelly Employment Services

62. ?

63. MUVEing Education Forward
An Unconference for Anyone Interested in
Second Life as a Tool for Teaching and Learning
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
University Hall - 7th Floor
8:00am to 3:00pm
Free and open to all