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About Us Learn all about the company and the people behind the avatars. |
What We Do Discover our services and how we can help you make the virtual leap. |
Our Clients Read about some of our clients and the kind words they say about us. |
The Estate Explore our virtual estate from our Green Campus to historic Scotty's Castle. |
Ask CNDG Got questions about CNDG or Second Life? Ask them here! |
Blog The official word from CNDG on the present & future of virtual worlds. |
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General Second Life is a world of computer generated 3D Virtual Reality simulators existing as a cohesive grid of interlocking "Islands" or "Regions" on a platform maintained by Linden Lab of San Francisco, California. This world, referred to often as "The Grid", allows users to create and operate avatars which can navigate in realistic movements and walk, fly and transport through this world over more than 25,000 regions. Created by users, the thousands of regions of SL together combine to produce a virtual planet containing museums, universities, homes, government offices, and learning, recreational, cultural and private spaces which is fascinating and vast. Second Life is the most complex such created world in existence. So compelling and real is the experience of using and "living" within SL that it is often referred to as "divided" or "shared" reality. Anyone with a computer capable of running the SL viewer, an internet connection capable delivering sufficient bandwidth and speed, and who is over 18 years of age can use SL. In practice this means that virtually every adult with a recent and modern desktop or laptop computer (regardless of operating system) and a home cable or DSL connection can "live" in SL. The navigational skills require practice but are not difficult to learn, and can be mastered in a few hours, although experienced residents spend hours becoming both proficient and familiar with SL. How long has Second Life been around? Second Life has been operating as a commercially available Virtual Reality environment for over 7 years. It continues to grow, with the largest user-base in the world for such VR environments. It is in operation 24 hours a day 7 days a week and is only shut down for maintenance on an as-needed basis. Content in Second Life What kinds of content and environments are available to avatars in SL? Almost every kind of content and environment available in the "Real World" is available in SL. This content ranges from broad landscapes simulating nature parks and open land, farms, urban settings and reproductions of world cities, small towns, beaches, and mountains and plains, to painstakingly realistic reproductions of museums, historic sites, universities, hospitals, and business and residential environments. Millions of "residents" own homes in SL ranging from small cabins to broad mansions, and thousands of businesses operate in SL, ranging from shops with goods sold only for use in SL to major global corporations who maintain headquarters and office spaces in SL for internal collaboration. There are thousands of shops and entertainment venues in SL dedicated to avatar use. What are the facts about the reports of "salacious and inappropriate content" in SL? Second Life is a created reproduction of a "world", and as such, has content of almost every kind produced by its residents, in much the same way that any country or continent in the real world would have. In order to ensure that residents and visitors and users of specific functions in SL do not inadvertently come upon private areas in SL, Linden Lab has recently moved to assign ratings to areas of content. These ratings apply to the areas in which the content is provided and the behaviors allowed in those areas. The content labels are constructed to adhere to the commonly used international labels that are applied to films, video games and other media. These are:
Since SL is a "world" mimicking the "real world", environments also often contain private spaces which are homes and estates. These areas can be access restricted so that only the owners can enter them. Does SL permit abusive and discriminatory behavior and language? Absolutely not. SL use is regulated by the Terms of Service of SL published and revised periodically by Linden Lab. These ToS rules specifically prohibit the use of abusive language or discrimination against any group or individual. Such language or behavior is considered a violation, and can be reported to LL in a specific complaint format available to any user. The account which harasses, abuses or insults another user can be suspended, either permanently or temporary, at the discretion of Linden Lab How does SL regulate such content and behavior? Linden Lab permits only legal activity and does not permit abusive and discriminatory activity. But, as SL is a global community, community standards vary from country to country and region to region. For this reason areas of the SL world can be "access restricted" either by the owners or by LL itself to specific individuals, members of a group, users of a specific age, and users who self-select. Just as in any real world environment, SL residents are free to engage in all kinds of activity with other users with whom they develop relationships. Such specific intimate behavior is limited, however, to those private areas which would simulate private homes and estates or to areas, as in the real world, where adults choose to congregate and interact with each other. Access to areas which may be deemed inappropriate for many users is strictly regulated. I've heard about "adult age verification". What is this? LL recently implemented a two-tiered system of providing age verification to prevent minors who might log into SL by lying about their ages from accessing specifically adult material. These two methods are:
What is the Application Developer's responsibility in regard to content? Solution Providers and Application Developers who create environments in SL have a responsibility to ensure that their "builds" contain only legally appropriate content and do not violate LL's ToS and conform to the standards of the countries in which they reside and the wishes of their clients. Where explicit material may be present, the SP is obliged to create access rules which limit access to the material to approved individuals or groups. What is the educational institution's responsibility? An institution's responsibility is to provide a safe and suitable learning environment, just as it is in the real world. But, just as in the real world a university or college or other institution cannot restrict students from visiting other areas "off campus" so, too, the SL campus developer has to realize the limitations of his or her authority to restrict adult students. Where specific restrictions are desired, developers can use registration tools commonly called RegAPIs to create accounts for students that are restrictive and can only be used to login and use the specific educational environment being provided. This does not, in practice, prevent a student from creating his or her own personal account in order to travel through SL, which again conforms to the way in which the "real world" works. How do "Access Restrictions" work? Access restrictions have many levels. They can be attached to a specific parcel of "land", to an entire region or private island or estate (a group of islands connected by single ownership), or to the avatar account itself. Access to regions and areas can be restricted to avatars with age verification or to avatars belonging to a specific "group" which requires registration in SL. How can I control access to sites for avatars registered in our courses? Students can be registered to have membership in groups to which access to the course area is limited. Only registered students will then be able to enter the virtual classroom and access the materials. Different Generations in Learning Environments What is the "connected generation"? The Connected Generation is a term used to describe those individuals born between 1980 and 2000. Often also referred to as Millennials or Generation Y, the term "connected generation" is used because these individuals consider networking through internet and cellular communications to be a part of the ordinary backdrop of life and are "always connected". Their learning styles have been molded by the presence of such connected tools. They see such environments as SL to be perfectly ordinary and "enablers of learning" as opposed to previous generations who see such environments and technologies as "tools for specific purpose" or "enhancements". How do Millennial Learners see SL? Millennial students see SL as a normal part of their educational environment. They expect to see such technologies as a part of standard course delivery, and students have such technologies mastered earlier than most institutions can provide them. They see their absence as a lack, and tend to gravitate towards those learning environments where Virtual Worlds and V-Learning are commonplace. What is the difference between SL as a "ubiquitous and transparent part of life" and as a "tool"? Modern students see SL as a part of the ordinary environment in which they function. The easy transporting of technologies between platforms and the rapid growth of "cloud technology" delivering such content in an "anytime - anywhere" manner have changed the environment in which they learn. Such learning environments are SL are no longer seen by them as "exciting new developments" but a part of their expectation of daily life. V-Learning is rapidly being shown to be as effective or, in many instances, significantly more effective, than previously more conventional instructional milieu. The compelling evidence for this has been presented in a meta-analysis by the U.S. Department of Education and in a number of published studies which have increasingly "made the case" for immersive V-Learning. Copies of three such reports are attached. As the US Department of Education stated in their 2009 Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (published by the Center for Technology in Learning): "In recent experimental and quasi-experimental studies contrasting blends of online and face-to-face instruction with conventional face-to-face classes, blended instruction has been more effective, providing a rationale for the effort required to design and implement blended approaches. Even when used by itself, online learning appears to offer a modest advantage over conventional classroom instruction." |
Ask a Question General Content in Second Life
Different Generations in Learning Environments |
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