The buzz about Second Life goes unabated. Recently, NUS Computer Centre announced that it is currently working to establish a NUS student community in Second Life. It will be "designed by students, for students" as John Yap, FASS ITU Media Producer, notes in an article in The Ridge Online.
Second Life, like most online innovations, also possesses potential for teaching and learning applications. To that end, The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus highlighted a new orientation island, developed by the New Media Consortium, which is targeted towards students and educators.
If you are already on Second Life, you can visit the New Media Consortium's Education Orientation Island via this link.
Stephen Downes highlights a website detailing educational uses of Second Life. It highlights numerous Second Life projects covering a variety of subject areas.
P.S. NUS is hiring students for the NUS Second Life project.
Petrina
Hello all. I’ve tried using Second Life, but it was a great disappointment.
The admin under the group NUS academic with his name as LividEye Yoshikawa, and whose real name I think is John yap(he obviously had reason to hide from me his real name knowing he did something wrong), had disclosed one of the student’s personal information to the whole group of NUS students there.
I believe it was only ethical, in a virtual world, and especially in that informal chat to keep one’s personal information confidential unless permission was sought in advance. However, LividEye had abused the power he was given working at the IT dept in NUS to disclose such private information to other NUS students there when in any case, he could have called the person by her real name in a private IM message.
Furthermore, LividEye behaved very rudely and was too serious. He was not courteous nor polite, and very bossy indeed. being the producer of this NUS second life does not give one the right to treat other students with disrespect. That student that he spoke rudely too had not provoked any fight and had used proper English(not any vulgar language). Yes indeed she was playful and set her avatar as a mist and bumped into people… not knowing though, that this system was so fragile that it would jolt what others was doing in their screen. It was only her 1st day using Second Life and thus she did not deserve such a harsh treatment by the admin, LividEye. She was only bored(which you would surely understand when you try it), and hence tried to add some fun into it.
I believe only with freedom and respect would this NUS second Life succeed. It is quite a pity that such a good idea has not churned out any results due to the producer, LividEye. I hope it would improve to make our NUS Second life a better, more enjoyable place.
Kenneth Pinto
Hi Petrina,
Thank you for leaving a comment. I have notified John (who is supposedly LividEye) about it so that he can clarify his alleged actions and behaviour with you. May I pass him your email address so that he can contact you?
John Yap
Dear Petrina,
As the few of us in the in-world at the time would very much like to assist you in getting on board the NUS Second Life with a better experience, which has unfortunately resulted in some communication exchanges that are uncalled for, and with this I sincerely apologize.
As we all know communicating in the virtual community, is at times hard to anticipate the intensity of tone used by one while interpret by others (whether it is plain humor or darn serious), and may often cause some misunderstandings.
As we continue the likes of experiencing NUS Second Life for social interaction, immersing in the 3D virtual world for collaboration, learning or plain chatting, I sincerely hope that you would continue to explore this 3D in-world environment while during your study in NUS.
Yours Sincerely,
John (LividEye)
ps: Thanks, Kenneth, for referring this to us.