gottahavacuppamocha

Last year, mainstream media was all abuzz about Second Life (kinda like how they’re all on the Twitter bandwagon now). I looked at it a bit, but wasn’t overly impressed and didn’t join. The hype made it sound like the Metaverse in Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash,” however, Second Life’s graphics didn’t match the Metaverse as it appeared in my imagination. Still, the social, economic, and cultural aspect of Second life is similar.

Technology is as prone to fads as anything else, maybe even more so. There are the early adopters, usually a motley crew of people who put up with higher prices and/or poor service because they are part of something special. Then inevitably, word gets out. The number of users climbs, the media catches on, and rapid growth ensues. Good for businesses, though it may put off the early adopters (remembering the legions of AOL users unleashed on the web.) Then comes the plateau. Anyone who thought it was worthwhile, already staked their claim, and there are few if any new users to be had. Bad for businesses that expected astronomical growth, but things more or less stabilize. Sooner or later the cycle declines. The test of a fad is how quickly and deeply something declines after the plateau. A good business can keep the plateau going for a long time, or can stem the decline so it doesn’t fall too far. Many people have studied this phenomenon. Some companies, like Apple, exploit it by offering new products when old ones near the end of the cycle.

Taking classes for the MA, I’ve been more-and-more interested in using technology as a teaching tool. Using computers, projectors, and PowerPoint is interesting, but it’s just an evolution of the classroom. It may have changed how teachers prepare for lectures, but lectures are still lectures. However, the net changed things.

The past few weeks, I’ve been reading journal articles on teaching writing online. That is, using the net as a classroom to teach people how to write. Someone else in class came up with articles that looked at virtual classrooms in Second Life, so I decided to take another look at it.

Since I haven’t been on Second Life before, there’s a learning curve. I’ve figured out what a slurl is, even if I don’t know how to set one up (don’t need to use it at the moment). The default avatars are low-resolution, but this probably saves bandwidth and processing time. Wandering around in SL initially, I was amazed by some of the architecture. Sure, they’re clunky looking, too, but people obviously spent a lot of time on some of the buildings. However, the most amazing thing is Second Life was virtually deserted. I think some places are probably more popular than others, but I went to some places that were vacant. I went to one place that had a miniature-train that avatars could drive or ride, so I drove it around a nicely laid out course and only saw one other avatar, and that one appeared to be reading a book. I went into stores that were empty, except for goods (freebies are nice, BTW). My main impression of SL is that it’s a digital ghost town. On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for having an amusement park to yourself ;-)

At the moment, I still have a lot to learn about Second Life, so I don’t know if it’s worthwhile or not. The plan is to learn a bit more about it and some of the places therein. Before long, I’ll try to do some 3D work and upload something, mainly because the default avatar makes me out to be a n00b. I want to give my avatar a Hawaiian shirt, some khakis, and a receding hairline. At some point, I may check out other classrooms or schools and see what they do and how they do it.

I put up a new category for Second Life, because I anticipate blogging about SL and related issues (3D, education, OpenSim, OSgrid) as I learn more about them.