Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?

Building a screen for showing slides in SL.

The class meeting this week reviewed the progress you are making on your projects and considered some of the practicalities of delivering it in Second Life.

There was at least one member of each Team in class (and all members of the Green Dog Team) so John asked for an update on progress. All teams have been meeting and considering what approach to take. The openness of the brief has made it difficult for some to settle on a specific direction but has resulted in repeated readings. John emphasised the importance of constant referral to the brief in any project you are undertaking. It is very easy to drift off-point or become distracted by your personal interests and concerns so re-reading the brief is necessary to keep you on track.

All teams have been attempting to keep working online rather than give in to the temptation to meet in RL! The Green Team have found it very useful to meet in SL while maintaining communication on Facebook and other media. Others have been using tools such as Google docs to support brainstorming and begin drafting the text.

John asked about the locations you might be thinking about for the presentation. One group had found a location that suited their topic but discovered that voice was turned off in the region. Some of you had also heard about the incident last year when the owner of the location selected by one team thought she was under attack when we all arrived suddenly! So, if you are presenting outside the classroom make sure you visit the location during class time in advance and try to get permission from the owner, or at least warn them in advance of you intention.

Most teams seem to be considering either a YouTube video or presenting slides in SL. John suggested that providing a link to YouTube is probably more successful than trying to stream into SL. We can then have a Q&A with the team following the video viewing.

John demonstrated a simple way to present slides in SL by dragging images from your inventory and dropping them onto a panel that acts as a screen. It costs L$10 to upload an image to SL so you each received L$300 (the equivalent of about US$1) to cover this expense. It is important that you give yourselves enough time for a rehearsal to ensure everything works as you expect it too.