Introduction & Overview
Of all the free 3D online worlds that can be used for educational purposes Google Lively is currently the easiest to use for both staff and students as it:
- Runs from within a web browser.
- Can be embedded into a webpage on your institutions VLE, blog or website.
- Allows teachers to create permanent rooms for free.
- Allows teachers to incorporate "live" content from around the web.
On this page I'm going to list some tricks you can use to enhance the educational aspects of Google Lively & demonstrate them using the Google Lively room on the right 
However before you read this you should first take a look at the Google Lively FAQ and familiarise yourself with the interface by making a few test rooms...
One of the main draws to using Google Lively is that it allows you to give immersive, interactive online presentations to students from all over the world.
Key to this is the ability to stream in powerpoints whilst providing students with the ability to view the presentation full screen, outside of the 3D room.
There are many ways you can do this but I find the following to be the easiest & most effective:
- Create your presentation using MS PowerPoint or Google Docs - don't worry about animations or slide transitions, each slide needs to be static.
- If you used Microsoft Powerpoint, upload the presentation to Google Docs and share the resulting slideshow so it can be viewed online - make a note of the URL people need to click on to access it.
- Save each individual slide in your presentation as a picture file.
- Import the pictures into Windows Movie Maker/iMovie and create a video slideshow of your slides.
- Upload the resulting video to YouTube.
- Import theYouTube video into your Lively room using one of the many objects that stream video content into the room - my personal choice is the Jumbotron (with video).
Regardless of the object you use, you need to paste in the web address (URL) of the YouTube video into the Gadget Options of your object and then save your changes.
Please click here for a detailed guide on how to do this.
- Add a hyperlink to the Jumbotron that points to the web address where people can view the presentation - this should be the same web address that you made a note of in Step 2.
Please click here for a guide on how to add hyperlinks to objects.
Be sure to set it so that the resulting weblink opens up in a new window otherwise people will leave the room when they click on the link!
- Once you become proficient at this it's possible to change presentations on the fly - students in the room will see the new video/presentation instantly, allowing you to break up large presentations with other activities.
Please note though, the videos begin for each user when they enter the room so be sure that any late comers have seen the initial video/presentation before you change it.
The finished Jumbotron showing a powerpoint in world
Previewing & Linking to Webpages
As you've now seen, it's possible to add hyperlinks to any object in your Google Lively room so that students can click on the object to view a webpage or any other online resource.
In this example I'll outline how you can use a "Jumbotron (for photos)" combined with Thumbalizr.com to display a 'live' web page in the room that students can then view full screen if they want to.
- Add a Jumbotron (for photos) to your Google Lively room.
- Add a hyperlink to the Jumbotron that points to the web address you want your students to access, make a note of the URL of the website. Be sure to set the link to open up in a new window otherwise your students will leave the room should they open the link.
- In the Jumbotron's Gadget options, paste the following URL into the address of the image it should display:
http://api.thumbalizr.com/?url=
XXX&width=250
Change the
XXX to the URL of the website that you used in step 2.
Eg: http://api.thumbalizr.com/?url=http://bbc.co.uk&width=250
- Save the settings - After a few minutes, reload the room and the Jumbotron will now show an image of the website that students can visit if they follow the hyperlink.
The second Jumbotron displaying a preview of the webpage students will visit if they follow the hyperlink.
Add an interactive whiteboardBy using the above technique of previewing and linking to web pages it's possible to add interactive whiteboards and other online applications to your Google Lively Room.
In the example pictured below I've added an interactive whiteboard using Dabbleboard - but this method could equally be used to add in a Google Doc for the students to edit or any other online application that you want to use.
Teleport to Second Life
This technique can also be used to provide users with an instant teleport to a location within Second Life.
The preview image was taken in second life as a snapshot and then uploaded to a web server so it can be previewed inside the Lively room.
Each Google Lively room has a unique web address (URL), this is shown in the address bar of your web browser once you are in the room.
Because of this, it's possible to link to multiple rooms and allow students to easily travel between them by doing the following:
- Create 2 lively rooms and make a note of their web addresses (URLS). Let's call them Room A and Room B.
- In each room place an object that you will use as your 'teleporter' - this will be the object students click on to jump between the 2 rooms, my preferred object is the phone booth with a red lava lamp placed on top of it.... I'm not sure why!
- Assuming you picked the phone booth, you should now have one in each room, lets call them Booth A (in room A) and Booth B (in room B).
- Add a hyperlink to room B in Booth A. Be sure to set the hyperlink to open in the SAME window - otherwise the student could appear in both rooms at once!
- Add a hyperlink to room A in Booth B. Again, make sure the link is set to open up in the same window.
- Now you should have the ability to 'jump' between the 2 rooms by following the hyperlink attached to your Tardis phone booth.
You can repeat this process to link to multiple rooms, you just need a different object for each room you wish to jump to.
It's possible to combine this along with the previous technique so that students can 'see' the room they are going to jump into... have a play and see what you can achieve!
 By opening the hyperlink attached to the phone booth, visitors can teleport to a brand new location...
Show your online Skype status
Skype is one of my recommended video conferencing tools but it's also very useful when used in conjunction with Google lively, namely because Lively doesn't have integrated voice chat - so you can run the two side by side to add a greater level of immersion.
However it's also possible to show students inside your room(s) your oniline Sykpe status and have them call/chat to you even if you aren't logged into Google lively.
Here's how to do it:
- Log into Skype and change your privacy settings to allow your online status to be shown on the web. Click here to learn how to do this.
Be sure to save your settings in Skype otherwise the rest of this tutorial won't work.
- Add an object into your Google Lively room that can display photos/images - in this example I've used a Rotating Photo Sphere.
- In the gadget settings, add the following URL to the pictures to display:
http://mystatus.skype.com/smallclassic/xxx
Replace the xxx with your Skype ID
- If you want students to be able to chat with you or call you via Skype from within Google Lively add one of the following 2 links to the object's hyperlink:
To text chat via Skype: skype:xxx?chat
To Skype call: skype:xxx?call
Again, replace the xxx with your Skype ID.
 My Skype status is shown on the rotating ball.
Secure your roomBecause anyone can make and enter a Google lively room it's essential that you do not have your educational rooms listed in the Lively room list.
To achieve this you need to edit your room properites so that they match the ones shown below.
Be sure to save your changes after you have changed the settings!
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