Second Life - A Virtual World to Connect

What is Second Life?

Second Life (http://secondlife.com/) is a 3D virtual world platform developed by Linden Lab for participating social interaction, like online conference, lecture and group work through synchronous online text and voice chat with other residences. Through the avatar you created, you could explore the world and join individual and group activities as well. 

How to use Second Life?

- Register for new account 
- Create your own avatar
- Choose the place to go
- Explore the world and communicate with other avatars

Second Life in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teachers can arrange online courses with Second Life by inviting students to the specific place and time in the virtual world. Teachers and learners do not have to stay in the classroom and they could choose any place for Second Life lecture. Teachers could upload the PowerPoint in the conference room in the Second Life to give their presentation as well.
• Students can talk with other residences in English to exchange information. In this process, not only their communicative skills could be trained and improved, but also obtain cultural knowledge by communication with people from different backgrounds. 
• Teachers could play a role as researchers. They could arrange meeting with interviewees in the Second Life and conduct interviews. Second Life provides comfortable and relaxing places for interviews. 

My Experience on Second Life

• The first time to use Second Life was in the ICT class with Tilly, Simon, Cecilia and Lu. We explored the Kamimo Island and tried to find the subjects mentioned in the handout. It was fun to explore the virtual world since it looked similar with the real world with houses and places for conferences. We could control our avatars quite well. We could "run", "sit on the chairs" and even "fly" in this virtual world. Additionally, Tilly has invited  David, an expert of Second Life from Sweden to introduce us how to use Second Life and answer our questions on Second Life as well. 

• 2013/03/12 Joining the JURA Program - As an volunteer of JURA Program, I was arranged to join Group 2 with Fabienne from France, Louisa and Ana Julia from Netherland. We arranged our first meeting on Thursday night at CET 7 p.m. in the Kamimo Island. Since this was our first meeting, we needed to recognize our group mates by names. I met Louisa and Fabienne and waited for others for a while. After that, we found a place to "sit down" and began chatting with each other. After self-introduction (name, nationality, career/major, age, etc.), we talked about our hobbies for about an hour. Since the confusion of time (CET and GMT), Ana Julia showed up at GMT 7 p.m. but we managed to begin our belief conversation. It is interesting to talk with people from different countries and to get in touch with them. 

Benefits of Second Life

• Increase social interaction between people from different countries and backgrounds.
• Avaliable for online conference, lecture, presentation, meeting, interview, etc.
• Flexible time and places.
• Communication is avaliable through text and voice.
• Semi-authentic setting is provided.

Limitations

• Computer Facility: Second Life Viewer requires high-qualitied equipment of computers.
• Inappropriate Content: It might contain adult websites.
• Cost: Payment (Linden dollar) is required to decorate your avatar and increase your privilage.
• Privacy: Others residences could hear the conversation between you and your target residences.

• Security: Leaking personal information to strangers might get you into trouble.

• Community Involvement: Without your familiar people in real life joining Second Life, it would be relatively boring during exploration.

Further Reading

• Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage by Axel Bruns 
• Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human                     by Tom Boellstorff

Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?

Ideas from the Speech
''We're lonely, but we are afraind of intimacy.''

''There's plenty of time for us to reconsider how we use it, how we build it . I'm not suggesting that we turn way from our devices, just that we develop a more self-aware relationship with them, with each other and with ourselvs. ''

''We all really need to listen to each other, including to the boring bits. Because it's when we stumble or hesitate or lose our words that we reveal ourselves to each other.''

''Techology is making a bid to redefine human connection --- how we care for each other, how we care for ourselves --- but it's also giving us the opportunity to affirm our values and our direction. ''

''We're drawn to virtual romance, to computer games that seem like world, to the idea that robots will someday be our true companies. We spend an evening on the social network instead of going to the pub with friends. ''

''But our fantasies of substitution have cost us. Now we all need to focus on the many, many ways technology can lead us back to our real lives, our own bodies, our own communities, our own politics, our own planet. They need us. Let's talk about how we can use digital technology, the technology of our dreams, to make this life we can love.''

------ Sherry Turkle

Summary

Sherry comments that today people use technology to connect more often than the face-to-face connection. People are lonely while they are afraid of intimacy. They spend overweight time on the virtual world to the connection rather than focus on the real world. However, she ends her conversation with a wish that technology could lead people back to the real lives, communities, and the actual planet.

Reflection

Nowadays, people would have forgotten the lives without technology for communication. They cannot image the life without cellphone and computers, which provide them more opportunities to ''communicate'' with others.

However, we need to ask ourselves a question that ''Does technology really provide us the real connection?'' With technology, we don't need to see friends face-to-face in the same place. We don't need to talk with them --- just text. We focus more on the messages from our Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, etc rather than the word from our friends and families next to us. We really need to reconsider the effect the technology bring about and how to use it to creat a better world. We cannot deny the positive effect the technology has for us and we are still enjoying this. What we should do is not to let it develop in the wrong direction.

Further Reading

• Alone Together by Sherry Turkle  http://alonetogetherbook.com/

• Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle – review by Rafael Behr

       http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/30/alone-together-sherry-turkle-review

• TEDxUIUC - Sherry Turkle - Alone Together 

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtLVCpZIiNs

• "Alone Together": An MIT Professor's New Book Urges Us to Unplug

      http://www.fastcompany.com/1716844/alone-together-mit-professors-new-book-urges-us-unplug