Second Life

http://secondlife.com

"Second Life is a 3D virtual world created by its Residents (people like you) that’s bursting with entertainment, experiences, and opportunity. The Second Life Grid provides the platform where the Second Life world resides and offers the tools for business, nonprofits, educators, and entrepreneurs to develop a virtual presence."

• Second Life is free to join. There is a cost if you want a virtual environment created.

• It is a program that you download and install on your computer.

• It can be used on Windows or Mac.

Ease of use: Second Life is easy to download and install on your computer, but will require ITS to install on your computer. There are a lot of button combinations to perform different interactions; it does take some time to get comfortable with Second Life.

Availability of tutorials/help/support:
There is a help section and knowledgebase located inside the program. The help section includes guides, a search feature, and highlights basic functions. During the initial game play there are built in tutorials to teach basic game play. The knowledge base includes a search feature, hundreds of articles and video tutorials.

Pros and Cons:

An article on USA Today describes experiences of some Universities utilizing Second Life. Professors at Drexel University and University of Texas use it as an optional study tool, but would not want to use it to teach in. They prefer the real life classroom for lectures or slideshows. Others teach online courses with Second Life. Second Life allows the flexibility for anything to be created. A lot of universities use it for educational purposes and people use it for fun which makes the program very large. At times simple navigation such as walking can be difficult. The article can be found at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-08-01-second-life_N.htm.

Click on the link to view the hospital simulation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhAOYxxH7gE&feature=related

Rating scale: Excellent (5) Very good (4), Good (3), Fair (2), Poor (1)

Feature or task	Rating
Downloading and installing the program	4
General ease of use	3
Finding different locations	2
Interacting with other Second Life users	4
Quality of tutorials or help	4