how to create class in the second life

[fatmagurci]

Hello dears,

I'm a student but i'll be English teacher next year. how can i create a class and invite my students to that class in second life.? do i have to mapy money.? thanks for the answers from now on. Have  good day.

[Marigold Devin]

3 minutes ago, fatmagurci said:

Hello dears,

I'm a student but i'll be English teacher next year. how can i create a class and invite my students to that class in second life.? do i have to mapy money.? thanks for the answers from now on. Have  good day.

Welcome to Second Life Forums, fatmagurci

I would advise you to "do your homework" 

There are plenty of real life educational establishments that already do exactly what you are wishing to do. There are also plenty of fantasy/roleplay education establishments.

Have a look at this Second Life information for more knowledge about what is already available, and teleport around to see how it is being done so far. http://secondlife.com/destinations/learning

More responses will surely follow, so please do keep checking back here.

[Aeval Fae]

Marigold's correct--do your homework. Learn the platform before asking your students to. Also, there is an age limit for SL--so if you're planning on bringing in a class of students who are not adults, that's something to consider. There are other platforms that would be more appropriate for kids (JokaydiaGrid comes to mind).

From the Second Life Terms of Service...

Quote

3.1 Age Requirements for the Service.

By accepting this Agreement, you represent that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age and you have the legal authority to enter into this Agreement. If you are at least thirteen (13) years of age and less than eighteen (18) years of age, then your parent or legal guardian must read and accept this Agreement, your use of the Service, participating in the Service, and providing any personal information in connection with the Service on your behalf. 

 

To get ideas of what other educators have done in SL and other grids, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference starts tomorrow (March 29th) https://vwbpe.org/

It's free to attend and not only covers Second Life but also they're doing tours and experiences to other grids and games that have value for education. It's a great place to network and pick peoples' brains about what works and what doesn't.

I have a short write-up of the research I did on best educational practices in SL that was published as part of my dissertation (if you're just really bored and want to look through it)--https://stasiaweston.com/about/portfolio/ . Sections C and D are really most about the stuff that has been done that works.

 

Hope this helps get the gears turning...

[LilyLaran]

There are some University buildings in Second Life you could check out and see if you can hold your meetings there regularly. There are many beautiful structures in Second Life and some great University buildings.

[HarrisonMcKenzie]

What you want to think about is what bringing the students to SL will add to your class. What kind of activities and lessons do you plan to run? How does SL add to that experience? Teaching is more than having the students watch you talk (or in the case of SL, watch your chat text).

[GlenaKaf]

On 4/12/2017 at 1:58 AM, HarrisonMcKenzie said:

What you want to think about is what bringing the students to SL will add to your class. What kind of activities and lessons do you plan to run? How does SL add to that experience? Teaching is more than having the students watch you talk (or in the case of SL, watch your chat text).

how can you chat text ? 

 

[Lindal Kidd]

On 9/4/2018 at 1:22 PM, GlenaKaf said:

how can you chat text ? 

 

Glena, he means typing text in the Nearby Chat window.  This is the main way that many people communicate in Second Life.

[Lindal Kidd]

Fatmagurci,

1.  Your students must be at least 16 years old to use Second Life.  There are ways that kids who are as young as 13 may use SL, but they must do so under active adult supervision and on a "walled off" region sponsored by a legitimate school or youth organization.  If your class is too young for SL, there are other virtual worlds you can try, or you can make your own with open source software called "OpenSim"  This software can be placed on a USB memory stick, creating what is known as "Sim On A Stick" or SoaS.

2.  You will need a classroom.  You may be able to borrow or rent an existing one.  For example, see the very nice classroom at GQ Start.  If that would meet your needs, contact the owner, Kelley Griffith, and ask about its use.  If you will be using your classroom for a relatively long time (a semester or a year) you may want to get a Premium membership for $9.50 per month.  Then you could buy a mainland parcel of up to 1024 sq. meters and build your own classroom, or buy an appropriate design from the Marketplace.

3.  You should have some sort of presentation display.  Many such displays are available; search the Marketplace for "slide show" or "presenter".  You can create slides as .jpg or .png textures and upload them to SL, then put them into your display.

4.  If you plan to teach using text instead of voice, you may want to have some way of "speaking" prepared lecture text.  This will save your having to type the entire presentation in real time.  I use a device called "HUD Notecard Reader" by Etaoin Barcelona.  You should be able to find it, or a similar device, on the Marketplace.

5.  Before launching into your actual class, you will need to walk the students through the process of signing up for an SL account, creating an avatar, signing in for the first time, and then learning the basics...how to move, how to search, how to teleport, how to communicate by chat and IM, how to accept and use inventory items.  Sending them through a basic tutorial like the ones offered at Caledon Oxbridge University or New Resident Island is a good way for them to spend their first several hours in SL.

6.  If your students are all in the same physical location and on the same network (for example, on your school's LAN), be sure to coordinate with your IT department.  Many public places don't allow "games" through their networks.  Besides local policies, you will want to run a test to see if your local network can handle the load of running multiple instances of SL on XX number of computers.

This all is going to take a lot of preparation and learning on YOUR part, before you have enough knowledge about SL so that you can help your students get started in SL, and also to create your actual lessons and materials for your classes.

[GlenaKaf]

12 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Glena, he means typing text in the Nearby Chat window.  This is the main way that many people communicate in Second Life.

aw sorry I didn't understand it correctly :( thank you :D 

 

[GlenaKaf]

12 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Fatmagurci,

1.  Your students must be at least 16 years old to use Second Life.  There are ways that kids who are as young as 13 may use SL, but they must do so under active adult supervision and on a "walled off" region sponsored by a legitimate school or youth organization.  If your class is too young for SL, there are other virtual worlds you can try, or you can make your own with open source software called "OpenSim"  This software can be placed on a USB memory stick, creating what is known as "Sim On A Stick" or SoaS.

2.  You will need a classroom.  You may be able to borrow or rent an existing one.  For example, see the very nice classroom at GQ Start.  If that would meet your needs, contact the owner, Kelley Griffith, and ask about its use.  If you will be using your classroom for a relatively long time (a semester or a year) you may want to get a Premium membership for $9.50 per month.  Then you could buy a mainland parcel of up to 1024 sq. meters and build your own classroom, or buy an appropriate design from the Marketplace.

3.  You should have some sort of presentation display.  Many such displays are available; search the Marketplace for "slide show" or "presenter".  You can create slides as .jpg or .png textures and upload them to SL, then put them into your display.

4.  If you plan to teach using text instead of voice, you may want to have some way of "speaking" prepared lecture text.  This will save your having to type the entire presentation in real time.  I use a device called "HUD Notecard Reader" by Etaoin Barcelona.  You should be able to find it, or a similar device, on the Marketplace.

5.  Before launching into your actual class, you will need to walk the students through the process of signing up for an SL account, creating an avatar, signing in for the first time, and then learning the basics...how to move, how to search, how to teleport, how to communicate by chat and IM, how to accept and use inventory items.  Sending them through a basic tutorial like the ones offered at Caledon Oxbridge University or New Resident Island is a good way for them to spend their first several hours in SL.

6.  If your students are all in the same physical location and on the same network (for example, on your school's LAN), be sure to coordinate with your IT department.  Many public places don't allow "games" through their networks.  Besides local policies, you will want to run a test to see if your local network can handle the load of running multiple instances of SL on XX number of computers.

This all is going to take a lot of preparation and learning on YOUR part, before you have enough knowledge about SL so that you can help your students get started in SL, and also to create your actual lessons and materials for your classes.

Can I ask something in these instructions ?I am new in SL and  I have created a classroom with firestorm for educational purposes, and I want to create slides about presentations !!! Do I need to pay for it ? In the marketplace ? Or can I create slides as you say and upload them in the firestorm ? 

[Lindal Kidd]

You can create your slides in any program that can save the images as a .png or a .jpg file.  I use Photoshop, but the program GIMP is free.  Here is an example of a slide that I created.

You can upload these images to Second Life for a cost of $L10 per image.

To present the images, I use a presentation display.  Here is an example of one such device that I found on the Marketplace: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/CCFT-Presentation-Screen-Change-slides-by-menu-show-videos-and-webpages/908058  It's also not very hard to script your own.

 

[Rolig Loon]

Glena,

As a teacher, I'm sure that you can understand how frustrating it could be for students to be given an assignment that their own teacher cannot complete. Sadly, I have met many students in SL over the years who were given assignments by teachers who had never spent much time in SL themselves, and could not help with basic skills of navigation and communication, or even managing their own avatars.  Yes, it's useful to have slide presentation devices and whatnot, but your basic responsibility is to be comfortable and confident in the learning space, so that you can be a competent guide and mentor.  The learning curve in SL is steep enough to be discouraging for many people.  It may help to imagine how you would prepare students to do a field assignment in some distant, strange, mildly scary corner of the world -- and then go there yourself first.