Presentations for Faculty: Second Life as Distance Learning Resource

Tuesday, February 9 2010 at 9:30 AM

Two presentations for faculty about Second Life designed to provide an overview of this educational resource will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the Albertson Building, Michael Boardroom.

KD Hatheway-Dial, College of Business and Economics, Brian Cleveley College of Art and Architecture, and Lori Wahl, College of Agriculture and Life Science, received funding through the Idaho State Board of Education to expand and promote Second Life as another distance learning tool.

Through the grant, the University has expanded its virtual campus, Idahonia, and various meeting and classroom spaces are available as well as tools and training. The grant provides funding to help faculty set up Second Life Accounts and become familiar with the virtual environment and its resources.

Second Life may offer faculty some tools to enhance their distance courses. Idahonia is hosted within Second Life, a real-time multi-user virtual environment accessed directly from a user’s computer. From Idahonia , an instructor can host real-time discussions using voice chat, show slide shows, and show videos with audio. Plus, faculty has access to educators and researchers from around the world. Access to Second Life is free for users.

One-on-one training is available to increase faculty comfort levels in connecting with students in-world. Hatheway-Dial, Cleveley and Wahl will help faculty load presentation materials as well as provide training for loading materials for future presentations. And they will be in-world with faculty during their first presentation to help with any technical issues or concerns that arise.

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