COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 30, 2007 –
“A long time ago, in a land far, far away...” Who hasn’t heard that before – the start of so many bedtime stories that signaled kids to let their imaginations run wild and take them to places where they were in charge of the charming prince, evil giant, grand castle and happy ending. Only that “far, far away land” is now not so far away. It’s available at the touch of a keyboard with a 3-D virtual world called Second Life.
B. Stephen Carpenter, II, associate professor of art education and visual culture at Texas A&M University, and his students are using Second Life to create a place where they meet for discussion and work on class projects. Carpenter, who teaches in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture, also uses the created world to collaborate with colleagues and even give lectures at other universities.
Similar to a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, Second Life is not a game but rather an online virtual environment. Since opening to the public in 2003, it is now “inhabited” by millions of residents around the globe.
“Second Life is similar to the kinds of online communication and social networking technologies we’re using to educate our students. It offers both synchronous and asynchronous communication possibilities, streaming video, voice communication and image display. It’s just a different package that offers a different way of teaching,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter has been a resident of Second Life since February, and his online character, or avatar, Metaphor Voom, lives on an island with other members of the Educator’s Co-op, a group of K-12, university and community-based educators interested in furthering education possibilities in Second Life. Voom even wears a TLAVC — Teaching, Learning and Visual Culture — shirt in Second Life.
“Think of an island in Second Life as a Web site and an avatar as a cursor. Users can see multiple avatars on an island at the same time. Second Life puts a tangible mark on places that people, through their avatars, visit and helps users visualize and interact with other users on the same site at the same time,” Carpenter said. “Instead of visiting a Web site and not knowing who else is there at that exact time, avatars create a location marker and path for all residents of Second Life to see.”
Students in Carpenter’s contemporary visual culture class have created their own avatars and meet with Carpenter and Voom in Second Life for class and office hours at the TLAVC House — outdoors near the ocean. He is able to upload student projects, photographs, written work, streaming video and slideshows to help conduct his Second Life classes, assign projects, offer tutorials and conduct research related to digital visual culture.
Second Life also allows Carpenter to offer virtual historic and contemporary worlds to his students, such as opportunities to visit Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the cave paintings in Lascaux and Gotham City — the home of Batman.
“In Second Life, my students are able to visit places they may never have an opportunity to visit in real life,” Carpenter said. “I’m also able to construct spaces that students normally couldn’t visit, such as unusual classrooms or art galleries,” he added. “In Second Life, the unusual is often the usual.”
Second Life can do everything most current computer software programs offer — send bulk email, instant message, hold multiple conversations — but it also allows its users an interface to connect internationally, market products and serve as a real world space-saver.
“I’ve given two lectures to students and faculty at the University of Texas in Second Life, which I wouldn’t have been able to do in real life because of time and money,” Carpenter said. “I meet with colleagues every Sunday afternoon to collaborate on research projects and critique white papers.”
Carpenter will host educators from other universities later this semester to serve as guest speakers for students in his class.
“One of my former students has opened an art gallery in Second Life and is selling her art. Toyota has used Second Life to test new car prototypes and receive feedback from residents,” he added.
While other universities such as Texas State and Harvard currently have campuses in Second Life, Carpenter hopes that Texas A&M will soon follow suit. He noted that Texas A&M currently has an informal presence in Second Life through the TLAVC House and two other Texas A&M affiliated groups, one of which established an “Aggie beach house.”
“Second Life could be one answer to all the space problems the university is currently facing,” he said. “Imagine students coming to a virtual Texas A&M, a virtual Harrington Tower, my virtual classroom, to have class with a virtual me.”
http://dmc-news.tamu.edu/templates/?a=5441&z=15
