FEATURE
KU joins the list of universities using the virtual world of Second Life as an educational tool
By Sean Rosner
srosner@kansan.com
Stacey Fox soars through the air over a body of water, scanning the unfamiliar islands below. When she sees an island she knows, she swoops down to ground level. Finding a couple friends, she chats for a few minutes and then decides to go back home, this time choosing to teleport instead of fly All the while. Fox is sitting in front of her laptop in her office on the top floor of the Art and Design building. She is exploring the 3-D virtual world of Second Life.
From home. Fox, a visiting assistant professor of art, flies to a pair of islands with no buildings or people, just flat grasslands from coast to coast. But the islands won't be bare for long. They belong to the Spencer Museum of Art and the KU Department of Art, and soon they will be full of artwork and interactive exhibits. Launching in the spring 2009 semester, the two properties will make the Spencer and the Department of Art accessible to people worldwide, and open doors for new teaching, socializing and marketing techniques.
Launched in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, Second Life is a 3-D virtual world populated by more than 15 million people. SecondLife's look is similar to that of a video game. Think The Sims, except online and enormous. The Second Life world spans more than 65,000 acres of virtual land.
After downloading the Second Life computer software, users create their own customizable characters called avatars. Skin, hair and eye color, body build, facial features and clothing are all up to the user's discretion. Users can even choose whether they want their avatar to be human or something else. Fox's avatar, Sage Duncan, is actually a fox.
Once users create an avatar, they can then maneuver the avatar around the Second Life world by walking, flying or teleporting. Second Life is more than 90 percent user-generated, and contains everything from churches to theaters to shopping malls.
"Everything you have in first life, you can have in Second Life." Fox says.
Avatars communicate with each other by typing, similar to instant messaging, or if both users have computers equipped with microphones, they can communicate simply by talking. Second Life is a world in which physical distance is not an issue.
Second Life even has its own economy. Users exchange their real money for the currency used in Second Life, called Linden dollars. From there they can buy land to build a house or start a business. Users pay each other for goods and services just as they would in the real world. At LindeX exchange stations, users can cash in their Linden dollars for real-life currency. In
November 13,2008
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Photo illustration by Becky Sullivan