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Essentials

On this page I've put links to sites that you can use when considering to use Second Life and when trying it out for the first time.

Please click on one of the links below to learn more, or just scroll down the page...


Which version of Second Life is right for your institution? 

There are 3 main types of Second Life, the Main Grid, the Teen Grid & Open Sim. 

The Main Grid can only be used by people over the age of 18, so if you are teaching students under the age of 18 then you cannot use the main grid. The main grid is where universities or other institutions with adult learners would go to use the second Life platform, you can learn more about the main grid here.  

The Teen Grid is designed for people between the ages of 13 and 18, anyone over the age of 18 wanting to use the teen grid must have a background check completed before they are allowed onto the grid. The teen grid is where secondary schools would go to use second life, you can learn more about the teen grid here. 

This does raise a problem for FE colleges in the UK who have students ranging from 14 to 95 - it's one of the main reasons why SL hasn't really taken off in the FE sector in the same extent as it has in universities. In these cases colleges might want to consider "Open Sim" - it's an open source version of the Second Life platform that can be hosted internally by an institution and as such has no age limits on it.


Tutorials to get you started with Second Life


In order for your students to use Second Life effectively it's essential that they are comfortable with the user interface, the links below will take you to a 2 part tutorial in using Second Life - it is well worth a look:


In addition to the above, the UK based Serious Games Institute has created an excellent 'in world' introduction to Second Life which you can visit by clicking here.
 
 
"(The tutorial) consists of a series of linked rooms, each with a "station" where you learn a particular SL skill. There are only about 6 of these initially and it should take you no more than 5 - 10 minutes to work through them. They are intended to give you the basis to be able to move around in Second Life and use some of the key features - such as watching streaming video."
 
 
 



Buying Land


Whilst creating an account on second Life costs nothing, if you want to have a permanent "home" on either the Main or Teen Grid your institution will need to buy virtual land from Linden Labs.  

This is essential if you want to put up buildings or classrooms for your students to use and also provides you with the ability to block unwanted people from entering your classes.

Your institution will need to have at least one 'premium' account in order to purchase land.

There are three types of land you can buy, however most educational institutions choose to buy a 'private island' that's only accessible to it's staff and students - at the time of writing (Nov 2008) this costs approx £2000 a year - which includes the cost of having a premium account plus VAT.

Please click here to learn more about land is to click here.
 
 



Second Life URLs (SLURLS)


SLurls are brilliant and you'll find many of them on this site.  They act like hyperlinks on a web page, but rather than taking you to a web page when clicked, they take you to a specific location within Second Life.

Try clicking on this link to see what I mean http://slurl.com/

"A SLURL (Second Life URL) is a teleport link to a location in Second Life. If you have Second Life installed, using a SLURL will automatically transport you to that location inworld."

Please watch the video below to learn more:


You can learn more about SLURLS and how to make them by clicking here.

Getting free items "delivered" to you in world.


There are two ways of getting hold of objects and items in Second Life:
  1. Find them in world - this is the equivalent of you going out and "shopping" for things on the high street (in real life!)
  2. Order them via a website and have them deliivered to you - this is like internet shopping in real life, only without the wait for the postman.

The second option is very handy for busy teachers as it's a great way of quickly finding & getting free items in Second Life.

The website that let you do this is called XStreetsl, click on the link below to learn more:

Make Second Life run better.


Although Second Life has been around for a few years, it can still run slowly on older/less powerful machines. 

If Second Life is 'chugging' on your PC then the video below will show you some quick fixes you can make to the Second Life client to boost performance:

Run Second Life in "Text only" mode

If you have trouble running the main Second Life viewer you can visit Ajaxlife.net or try downloading and installing Metabolt, both are "text only" Second Life clients - especially useful for students who do not have PCs or Macs powerful enough to run the main Second Life client.

Ajaxlife will run from a web browser where as Metabolt needs to be downloaded and installed before you can use it.