[Share Your Educational Success Stories]

 

• What educational organization do you represent?

The Learn English Network 

 

• How do you use SL in your educational endeavors?

Many different ways.  We run several sessions in SL for ESL / EFL learners.  

When reading with students we are able to immerse them in the world of the book.  (So far we have read Dracula in a castle  / 20,000 Leagues Under the sea in the Nautilus wearing diving suits / The Rime of the Ancient Mariner on a ship (with an albatross) / The Ballad of Reading Jail in a jail (with a rat and a gallows) / Wind in the Willows along the river bank / Jane Eyre in a classroom and mansion house)

When teaching lower level vocabulary we utilise the holodecks / animations and scripts and have taught - crime vocabulary by running a scripted murder mystery session / restaurants in restaurants / banking in a bank /  cookery in a kitchen (the list is endless)

We take trips to other sims too - The Jungle - The Zoo - The Theatre - The Nightclub etc. etc. etc.

We run drama sessions that utilise all of the above, and allow the students to play with their identity and appearance.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Unfortunately we have to run our sessions on someone else's land (I wish SL were cheaper).  

 

• Most importantly, what positive results have you seen from using SL?

As a teacher, I have lots of fun.  Teaching about pizza? Be the pizza.  

More importantly, our students tell us that they have gained confidence.  They are able to remember what they have learnt more easily, because they are able to interact with rich materials, and I'm able to show them why a cook isn't the same as a cooker.  

We actively encourage them to go exploring and meet some of the interesting people around SL, which stimulates conversation and often results in them writing about their adventures (with no prompting from us).

In a series of interviews we conducted, no one had a negative thing to say, apart from the occasional technological glitch, and the odd griefer. 

 

 

[A Letter To LL About Builders]

I think a reduction for creators in SL would be a good idea.  

IMHO LL could also distinguish tier prices for A M G rated land, and public vs private group only land.

All in all though tier prices should be reduced across the board.  Let's face it - RL property has.    

[Is it possible to eject someone remotely from a parcel?]

After a recent series of griefer attacks, the ??? in question wears an attachment that brings the computers of everyone in the area to a crawl.  This makes it very difficult to eject and ban them.  Is it possible to teleport to another sim (free of the griefer) and eject them from there?  

Also is it possible to block whatever emitter they are wearing so it can't affect you in the future, hence leaving you free to ban them when they come back in an alt - again?  

[Poser Models for mesh shapes?]

Thanks for the info.  I actually carried on querying Poser World, specifically about SL's TOS, and got this reply:-

The only thing we don't allow is the giving away of the actual models, so if you created or added to a game in a way that allowed a third party to extract a mesh/model then you'd be breaking the agreement. Unfortunately this looks to be the case with SL.

So, I guess that even if you could tweak stuff enough to get it inworld, it's still a no no.

I'll have a look Make Human (It does sound a bit Frankenstein) mwahaha.  

[Poser Models for mesh shapes?]

Okay, just to clear this up.  I contacted Poser World and they replied that their Poser / DAZ studio content is royalty free for commercial use.  The real issue, as has already been mentioned, is that the content is too complicated for SL at the moment.  However, you can tweak textures to use in your SL creations.  As per this thread from Daz 3d.

http://www.daz3d.com/shop/tc2-second-life-avatar

Please don't ask me how, I'm new to all this, and that's how I ended up in this thread, I was actually looking for answers.  LOL

[Graphics Cards]

I found this whilst trawling for the same information. However, I have to presume it's okay as I'm a total NOOB to graphic settings etc. It seems really useful, and I'd be interested to see if any of you Gurus agree with it:-

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=718&canMyGpuRunIt=Second%20Life

[Best Computers and/or Graphic Cards for Filming]

It's well worth reading your review, if only to see the word "Newbie" next to your name.

Made my day!

 

:smileyvery-happy:

 

PS - Have you upgraded since then?

[Orientation Island now a kicking arena?]

It's not happened to me, but it sounds as if it's something LL should look into.  I applaud your reaction to it, but on a more serious note, newbies can be very disoriented in SL and they should be guaranteed a more gentle introduction to SL.

I used to direct new people to Orientation Island, but I don't any more due to reports of harrasment, etc.  It's okay saying these people are just griefers - should get a life etc, but they are damaging the reputation of SL in general.

The first few hours of experience that newcomers have is the difference between new people sticking around and leaving.  

LL should have trusted helpers to stop this kind of thing happening.  They could pay them in $L or free stuff, so it wouldn't really cost that much.  

[Why do meshes have to render for non-compliant viewers? So awkward....]

The worst thing about mesh at the moment?  Turning up for a meeting of teachers to be told you have an egg on your naked behind.  (I never realised my avatar could embarass me until that moment).  So - if you buy mesh clothing, put your prim undies on.  

[Should LL reduce tier prices and maybe act to save popular sims?]

I leave tips in places where I find free stuff (I love free stuff).  :-)

And  I found a very good way of getting people to tip in one sim I visited recently.  The tip jar said "Buy everyone in the bar a drink", you clicked it, paid 20 L$ and everyone got offerred a glass of red wine.  It's tipping, but innovative and fun.  (Just a thought.)

[Should LL reduce tier prices and maybe act to save popular sims?]

If you like SL, and you can afford it, get a pro account.  That way you get 512 sqm of land thrown in, with a modest number of prims, a 300 L$ stipend every week, and LL gets some money to keep the whole thing going and growing.

I use SL to help people with their English (for free) and I really appreciate the beautiful sims - just been to Bora Bora beach - fabulous!  I use my stipend to upload pictures and sound files, but whenever possible I spend my money in the sims I visit.  I only resort to Marketplace when I'm looking for something specific or free.  I much prefer to look around a sim and find a great hat or scarf etc.  In the same way I prefer going to bookshops, than buying on Amazon, but maybe I'm just old. LOL

The fact is that I am in the minority.  I speak to lots of people, and only one of them spends money here.  I agree that if the cost of mainland land could be reduced and the number of prims increased there would be more takers.  If it weren't so expensive I would build a fabulous English school on the mainland, and I have so many ideas, but I'm limited to mooching around on other sims like Virtlantis.  

As for popular sims, maybe there could be an "adopt this sim function".  Where people who like a sim, can set up a Direct Debit for a small amount every month to keep it going, that way they get their name on a role of honour or something.  Or LL could take the really good sims over and ask for volunteers to run them.  For example: A team of students from the UWA have built an amazing Sim on the Aztec culture.  So much work has gone into it, but it's for a limited period.  I'd hate to see it disappear, when it could easily be tucked into a corner of a server for posterity.

[A to Z of Second Life]

OK - here's an update.  A couple of the adult terms have made it in, but I'm a real innocent (I didn't even know what / where Zindra was / is.  As I have to explain these terms to SL newbies, I have spared my blushes.  

 

A - avatar / animation - animate / appearance / accessories - accessorize / album / away / abuse / album / admin / advanced / arrive / application / appear / addiction / ask / adult / action / activities / adventure / animals / aliens / arrow / angel / angle / accident / arms / art / ants / antelopes / ankle / ash tree / archery
B - browser / beginners / bumps / bake / batch / buy / bugs / borked (a new word for me!) / borders / body / bots / ban / boxes / bags / buildings - build / busy / break / back - backwards / blocked / balls / bombs / boobs / brewery / black  / blue / bank / barn / beaches / bars / basket / butterfly / bees / bears / boogie / books / bow - bow / bite / beech tree / boat / beauty - beautiful 
C - conversations / communicate / chat / call - calling cards / category / cash - cache / cost / content / copy - copyright / current / co-ordinates / compress / collision / compile / crash / character / clear / clothing / consoles / camera / create - creation - creator / children / classes / coud - clouded / couples / cuddles / canvas / camping / clapping / cats / coffee / calves calf (animal and on ava)/ chill / cherry tree / cigarettes / cigars / colours / chalk / countries 
D - default / dashboard / display / disconnect / destination / discover / drop / develop - development / design - designer / disable / driver / debug / delete / dump / download / down / dawn / district / direction / dance / dress - dresses - dress up / drinks - drinking /  dollars / dark / dissapear / delay / dogs / dracula / drive / die / dive / desk / doors / defend / dragon / dinosaur
E - events / edit - editor / environment / exception / emotion - emoting / errors / erase / enable / exit / estate / exercise / escort / eggs / elephant / eating / embracing / excitement / elbow / elm tree / ears
F - flying / favourites / force (error) / focus / find - found / fingers / falling / flapping / furry - furries / friends - friendship  /  food / furniture / fish - fishing / fan / flowers / fruit / fox / frightening / frames / farting (I keep typing :-) and forget that it makes a pfft noise) / fir tree / fame / fair / face / free - freebies
G - grab / games - gamers / graphics / ghosting / grey goo / groups / guide / gambling / get / grow / grief / greet / giraffe / garage / glass / gimp / grope / goose - geese / graphs / gold 
H - home / http / history / hints / hack - hacker / help - helper / highlight / hair - hare / hall / happiness / heart / hate / hit / hazel tree / harass / hell / hunt / hosiery
I - inventory / islands / IM / inventions / items / images / input / iris / iguana (still looking) / illness / ivy / imagination / improvements 
J - jump / jar / jewellery / joke / jelly / jaw 
K - keep / key / koala / knife - knives / kiss / knock / kill / kinkiness
L - life / land / laugh / level / lost - lose / like / limit / look / leave / lag / Lindens / LOD / lock - locked / lift / lines / link / library / left / lights / loop / landmark / location / lake / lips / low / lurker / leap / llama (still looking / lamb / lick / love - lover / lingerie / larch tree (still looking) / locket / lamp
M - menu / mesh / map / mega-prim / media / men - male (mail) / move - movement - moveable / make / money / machinima / meeting / market - marketplace - marketing / my + stuff in SL / midnight / marry / mask /  mirror / monkey / make up / maple tree
N - notecards / notification / neko / new / next / nose / nudge / nipples / nuts / narrow / nails / nudity / naked / nuke / nick / Nike / naughty / nearby 
O - open / organisation - organise / output / options / object / owner / outfits / oar / office / oscelot (doubtful) / oak tree / ocean / organ  / over heating / orange
P - permissions / prim / pets / profile / plywood / play / parcel / packet / pocket / parts - particles / property / plugin / pick / place / press / poofer / performance / pose - poseball / photo (album) / priority / premium / previous / panda / prison  / pimp / pants (vs trousers) / pin / pocket / passion / palace / person - people / pretty / purple / pink
Q - quit / quick / question / query / queen / quail (still looking)
R - roleplay / run / recent / rez / resident / replicate / rules / remove / right / reports / rip - ripping / record / return / request / render - rendering / read / recompile / region / rabbit / rain / road / railway / read - read - reading / Ruth - ruthed / red
S - second life / sim / sandbox / sit - stand / sound / scripts / save / settings / shape / start - stop / state / search / sculpt - sculpty - sculpties / self-replicating / share / show / shop - shops - shopping / ship - shipping / space / select / safety / sun / steal - stealing / skins / shapes / shortcuts / statistics - stats / squat - squatter / support / socialise / snapshot / size / smoothing / select - selection / stretch / swim / sea / seat / sun - sunrise - sunset / shave / set / shadow / shoes / scarves / socks / sink / slap / stab / stork / sport/ stamp / shore / sand / snake / shoot / silver / sex
T - textures / teleport / talking / tip / typing / time / thread / tools / toggle / t-shirt / take / tail / transport / travel / try / thumb / trans gender /  top  / trees / tiger / TV / treasure (hunt)
U - use / user (menu) / up / update / upload / umbrella / ugly / unicorn / uniform / UI
V - voice / view / vampire / virtual / value / valley / vault / volkswagen / vector
W - wear / walk / world / weather / window / wall / wasp / wave / wiggle / wombat (still looking) / white / wheat
X - x-ray 
Y - you / yak / yellow
Z - zoom / zone / zindra / zebra / zoo / zombie / zip 

[Norway, Our Hearts Are With You]

<3

[A to Z of Second Life]

These are great! 

 

I actually thought of "holodeck" later.

 

I'm currently singing the alt SL version of favourite things.  More verses please.  Might have to leave it out of the lessons though.  ROFL

 

Thanks so much everyone.

[A to Z of Second Life]

Hi all,

I'm developing some lessons for ESL / EFL learners and teachers in SL and I want to start with the basics and make it relevant to SL, so I've started writing an a to z of second life and would appreciate any input (preferably clean).   Not just about features in SL, but what you can do and what you find in SL too.  

BTW - I am British, so the spelling might be a bit odd to some of my cousins.  :-)

Here's what I have so far:-

A - avatar / animation - animate / appearance / accessories - accessorize / album / away / abuse / album / admin / advanced / arrive / application / appear / addiction / ask / adults / action / activities / adventure / animals / arrow / angel / angle / accident / arms / art / ants / antelopes / ankle / ash tree / archery

B - browser / beginners / bumps / bake / batch / buy / bugs / borders / body / ban / boxes / bags / buildings - build / busy / break / back - backwards / blocked / balls /  bricks / bombs / boobs / brewery / black  / blue / bank / barn / beaches / bars / basket / butterfly / bees / bears / boogie / books / bow - bow / bite / beech tree / boat / beauty - 
beautiful 

C - conversations / communicate / chat / call - calling cards / category / cash - cache / content / copy - copyright / current / co-ordinates / compress / collision / compile / crash / character / clear / clothing / consoles / camera / create - creation - creator / children / classes / couples / cuddles / canvas / camping / clapping / cats / coffee / calves calf (animal and on ava)/ chill / cherry tree / cigarettes / cigars / colours / chalk / countries 

D - default / dashboard / display / disconnect / destination / discover / drop / develop - development / design - designer / disable / driver / debug / delete / dump / download / down / dawn / district / direction / dance / dress - dresses - dress up / drinks - drinking /  dollars / dark / dissapear / delay / dogs / dracula / drive / die / dive / desk / doors / defend

E - events / edit - editor / environment / emotion - emoting / exception / errors / erase / enable / exit / estate / exercise / eggs / elephant / eating / embracing / excitement / elbow / elm tree / ears

F - flying / favourites / force (error) / focus / find - found / fingers / falling / flapping / furries / friends - friendship / fish - fishing / fan / flowers / fruit / fox / frightening / frames / farting / fir tree / food / fame / fair / face / free - freebies

G - grab / games - gamers / graphics / ghosting / groups / guide / gambling / get / grow / grief / greet / giraffe / garage / glass / gimp / grope / goose - geese / graphs / gold

H - home / http / history / hints / hack - hacker / help - helper / highlight / hair - hare / hall / happiness / heart / hate / hit / hazel tree / harass / hell / hunt

I - inventory / islands / inventions / items / images / input / iris / iguana (still looking) / illness / ivy / imagination / improvements 

J - jump / jar / jewellery / joke / jelly / jaw 

K - keep / key / koala / knife - knives / kiss / knock / kill

L - life / land / laugh / level / lost - lose / like / limit / look / leave / lag / Lindens / lock - locked / lift / lines / link / library / left / lights / loop / landmark / location / languages / lake / lips / low / leap / llama (still looking / lamb / lick / love - lover / larch tree (still looking) / locket / lamp

M - menu / map / media / men - male (mail) / move - movement - moveable / make / money / meeting / market - marketplace - marketing / my + stuff in SL / midnight / marry / mask /  mirror / monkey / make up / maplet tree

N - notecards / notification / new / next / nose / nudge / nipples / nuts / narrow / nationalities / nails / nudity / naked / nuke / nick / Nike / naughty / nearby 

O - open / organisation - organise / output / options / object / owner / outfits / oar / office / oscelot (doubtful) / oak tree / ocean / organ  / orange

P - permissions / profile / play / parcel / packet / pocket / parts - particles / property / plugin / pick / place / press / poofer / performance / poses / photo (album) / priority / premium / previous / panda / prison  / pimp / pants (vs trousers) / pin / pocket / passion / palace / person - people / pretty 

Q - quit / quick / question / query / queen / quail (still looking)

R - roleplay / run / recent / rez / resident / rules / remove / right / reports / rip - ripping / record / return / request / rendering / read / recompile / region / rabbit / rain / road / railway / read - read - reading / red

S - second life / sim / sit - stand / sound / scripts / save / settings / start - stop / state / search / sculpt - sculpties / share / show / shop - shops - shopping / ship - shipping / space / select / safety / sun / steal - stealing / skins / shapes / shortcuts / statistics - stats / support / socialise / snapshot / size / smoothing / select - selection / stretch / swim / sea / seat / sun - sunrise - sunset / shave / set / shadow / shoes / scarves / socks / sink / slap / stab / stork / stamp / shore / sand / snake / shoot / silver

T - textures / teleport / talking / tip / typing / time / thread / tools / toggle / tinies / teens / t-shirt / take / tail / transport / travel / try / thumb / top  / trees / tiger / TV /  treasure (hunt)

U - use / user (menu) / up / update / upload / umbrella / ugly / unicorn / uniform 

V - voice / view / vampire / value / valley / vault / volkswagen / vector

W - wear / walk / world / weather / window / wall / wasp / wave / wiggle / wombat (still looking) / white / wheat

X - x-ray 

Y - you / yak / yellow / yolk

Z - zoom / zone / zebra / zoo / zip 

 

Thanks

[Wish List]

I am not a progammer, I'm a dabbler (a dangerous thing to be).  But every so often I "wish" I could add some functionality to SL.  I couldn't find a suggestions thread, so I started this as a place where I could add those "wishes".  I'm a relative newbie, and I realise it might be possible to get my wish with the current tech, and it's just that I don't know how. Please let me know if that's the case.

Today I came up with two wishes.

I ended up wishing I could set my status to "Busy" but still IM in group chat.  I'm doing more and more in SL, and I run a group for English learners.  The problem is not all my contacts are in that group, and so I get IMs all the time, which can be distracting when you are discussin the finer points of bike vocabulary.  But, if I set myself to "busy" I can't use IM.  Now it would be nice, if it switched of general IM, but kept group IM working.  

The other thing I ended up wishing for was the ability to organise my contacts - Friends List - into different folders, in the same way I do my inventory.  I now know (thanks to Gwen) that you can organise calling cards (didn't even know about them) but I would like to do the same in the Friends list, so I know who are native speakers, who are teachers, who did I meet at that in-world conference etc.

[Any St Patrick's Day Events?]

Thanks.  

 

I love Irish music.  

 

I'll check out the other page too.

[Where Do The Brits Hang Out ?]

Hi Jo,

I have a Dalek, can I bring him along too?  

 

BTW - thanks for the rolling pin.  It's very useful for scaring off daters.  

[Asking Lexie Linden for a date...]

Do avatars wash their hair?  

[Update - SL Viewer]

Thanks Winter. 

[Any St Patrick's Day Events?]

Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day.  Does anyone know of any StP parties, or events?

 

Thanks.

[Looking for Centaurs]

I saw a couple of unicorns in the middle of 3D Germany of all places, but no centaurs - sorry.

[The Wrong Trousers]

Oh dear - rebaking - prim cuffs.  LOL  - I'm only a newbie, I only figured out what a prim was last week.  I wee I shall have to do a bit of Googling.  

[Show us that you care with a bear !]

I had a few problems getting hold of my bear, but he arrived at last.  Bob (the dog) isn't 100% convinced though.

 

[Update - SL Viewer]

I got a message that I needed a new viewer, trusting soul that I am I accepted it, it did it's usual thing and then - crash. I kept getting messages that it couldn't install certain parts (dll files). Tried all sorts - Abort / Retry / Ignore - restart etc, all to no avail. It was only when I logged into my computer as "Admin" that I was able to go through the process, I "Ignored" the error messages and now I seem to have an updated SL version - or at least I think that's what it is. (I did try to submit a ticket, but it all went a bit Pete Tong (wrong)).

So if anyone else is having similar problems you could try logging in to your computer as Admin.  It seems to work.

 

E&OE