My Second Life Experience

Flying at liberty

Well, we were at liberty to fly in Second Life and apparently a real superman joined us, my touring partner Kia and I PrinceKJ.

The Second Life Experience

I was visiting Avatar Island for weeks on end and ventured out sometimes to Princeton University but could not find anyone doing anything. I saw all the conference rooms and even some video presentation in the library but I did not have access to view them. I am not sure if it the time of day I try to tour Second Life which make it seem so sparse. I am also cautious even in the real world to just talk to anyone and I guess I took that there in second life with me or was that me there or an avatar? Uhhhmmm!

Then one fine day I met a classmate of ours in the library and we made a date to explore together and so we met up in Second Life. At first I had to ask her what her avatar’s name was and I told her mine. She Kia me PrinceKJ – more like “me boy, you girl”. Well when PrinceKJ saw Kia he was impressed. She was looking fine and I say that to point out how easily one could lose sight of the reality of it all. In a sense the “real” person on the keyboard is removed from the virtual wordl and it is the avatar that takes precedence. You sometimes forget what the other party looks like as your immediate focus is on the avatar.

We even commented that it was an adventure to be exploring together and visiting different worlds, Miami Beach, New York and some other place I cannot remember. It was easy to get lost in the game and loose track of time. We might have spent two to three hours in the game. (I could have been exaggerating here)

I can see the possibility of  taking students on tours of the virtual worlds that possibly explain phenomenon such as volcanoes, maybe an experience of the moon or another planet. Also the lecture theatres could actually hold lectures as long as the microphone is on and the speakers as I could hear some moderators of Second Life talking to one another many times when I was on Avatart Island.

I can see how possible it would be to have lectures that can use other effects that are only possible in the virtual world to expand their lectures bringing in a real live Walrus for example or showing the intricate parts of a machine as they speak about it. They could actually show virtually how something work by taking out cross sections of it and showing it innards. Jst some thoughts.

So that was my experience in Second Life.

Kojo