It came as a bit of a shock to faculty at my university that there would be a foray into Second Life for educational purposes, social networking, and university service provision. There had been apparently long debates over concerns of what could happen in immersive 3D spaces in terms of griefers or other buses. And after some deep analysis, the advisory committee apparently was putting forward some solid recommendations along with hopes to maximize the use of this social virtual world.

To get into the spirit of this shift, I made a new avatar, gave it big hair, tried to find some new clothes with the help of a virtual avatar who self-identiifed as a Marine but owned up that he wasn’t in “rl”, and went into the world to look at university setups in my rocker girl jeans and semi-risqué top. (Rule 1: Don’t do anything in the virtual world that you wouldn’t do in real-life… Yeah. I need to find a local and free clothier because I refuse to spend money on digital duds. And I also don’t want to pick up clothes where I can also buy virtual body parts.)

One Ivy League university had a virtual security guard in uniform and dark glasses to greet guests. “We” chatted. It was sort of surprising to see an actual avatar around, and the virtual campus was essentially a lot of greenery, fountains, and some empty-shells of buildings.

Another Foray In

This morning, in between my more regular work, I went into a collaboration space between some 20 international stature universities in Second Life. There were more steep vertical builds, and my avatar kept tumbling off cliffs into water or perfectly coiffed grass and fluorescent trees. When my avatar dropped into a ravine and swam-walked up to a giant octopus, the octopus sort of danced around my avatar which had bungled into its territory. I appreciated the coding that went into that behavior.

After getting caught in a virtual “room” and downloading some informative messages, I found myself looking for people. The map showed two. I tried to teleport over, but no go. I made my avatar fly closer….but even though my avatar was right next to the other on the map, this elusive avatar was nowhere in sight. I flew and tried for an aerial view. I walked. Nobody. Just me and fluorescent trees. I had a déjà vu moment of recalling walking up to an “asleep” avatar that was slumped standing up and sort of grayed out. I walked through him a couple times, but nothing.

The Elusive Unicorn

For all the eye-popping imagery and discovery-learning, I totally understand now the draw of the social in such “metaverses.” Further, I’m on a search for good teaching and learning in immersive online spaces, but I’m wondering if that may be more elusive than a white unicorn, which probably exists someone on SL.

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