I just finished my first experience with Second Life and it didn’t impress me. I found the tutorial complicated and had little meaning. I was trying to follow the instructions on the screen but nothing was really working for me (the program was functioning but it didn’t hook me). I will admit that I was never a big Simcity, etc type of person and Second Life reminded me of that.
Anyway, that is a brief summary of my first impression of this program. Hopefully discussion on Wednesday will shed new light that will give me confidence to spend some time with this program.
I’ve used SL a few times and this is one that isn’t yet worth the time investment for me. I know many have embraced it but I’ll wait for someone to make a compelling case for its use. I haven’t see it yet. Again, not to say it has no value but I’ve got enough tools and resources that adding one that I’m not sure of doesn’t seem like the right move right now.
I’m with you on this one, Dean. It seems to me that a virtual reality world will only be worth the time when there is some sort of 3-D experience. Experiencing SL in 2-D makes me wonder why I would bother…
This game does not interest me at all, but I have to say I was impressed that Alec’s daughter could navigate around at age 3, impressive.
I just checked it out today and my opinion is similar to yours. I can’t see spending a lot of time in that world. I would rather deal with the real world. I will give it a go to see what the hype is all about. My oldest son thought it was pretty cool but he really likes World of Warcraft, which is another game where players connect with others. I’ll give it try.
I am with you Dean. I went through the tutorial last night and still don’t really get it. My boys weren’t too interested either. They thought it was cool that you could fly, but there didn’t seem to be a point. Perhaps tomorrow night we will find out an educational purpose for it.
Apparently our division has a building in it. Also, big corporations have building (not sure if that is the right terminology).
Interface can be complicated..often the bane of many programs… It’s a wonder why more people don’t buy user friendly Macs; still a Microsoft World isn’t it?
There are millions of people in these worlds, largely represented by young people (I don not have a citation for this) and yet they overcome the learning “curve”. Second Life is one of the few programs where many institutions have purposefully used this tool for educational/business purposes. I believe that says a lot.
Many of these online worlds have tutorials, help pages….there are also many people who are willing to mentor the “newbies” and teach them basic skills. I would like to say that many of these people have honest intentions, but the person that mentored me in Runescape wanted “coins” for his trouble.
Two of the many concepts I have learned in the course. There is no such thing as privacy, and nothing is ever “free”.
While I agree with the majority of opinions that Second Life is not a worthwhile time investment for entertainment purposes (although the NASA site was cool last night), I do see a lot of potential for SL in terms of social networking. I started seeing the value in the second world when I ran into four people from class and we were able to have a discussion about class and our experiences through our avatars. As SL continues to grow and develop it has the potential to be a great resource for educators. Time will tell.
Walter you make an interesting point about social networking via SL. I had not considered that angle. I was coming at it from a purely “what can this do in the classroom approach”. Thanks for the input and food for thought.