Session 6: Student Projects 1- Providing Information

The theme for session 6 was providing information to learners in SL. We began by discussing 5 common ways to provide information to learners in SL.

1. Slide shows
2. Textured prim with notecard
3. URL provider (to open web pages)
4. Books
5. Video

Mali Young had some interesting comments on the URL provider. She explained that we are now able to bring the 2D web (such as blogs) into the 3D web. This is a powerful concept because Second Life now becomes the "web plus" (Young, 2008).

We had some very interesting building projects in this session. The first was a URL provider that launched to a web page. This type of tool provides the ability for instruction to be provided to learners without having to leave SL. To make this project we first rezzed a cube and sized it to look like a screen. We then put the URL provider script into the object content folder of the cube. The script then needed to be modified by replacing the current URL with the one we wanted. After everything was setup, when we clicked on the screen it provided a URL and opened up a web page in a new window. The neat thing about this project is that any texture or object can launch the webpage. For example the object could look like a large screen with a texture of the webpage or the object could be a computer that you sit at and get the URL. People are being very creative when providing URLs in-world.

The next project was making a power point presentation. To do this we again rezzed a cube and turned it into a large screen. We then put a script that only allowed the owner to advance the slides. There is also another script that allows anyone to advance the slides. We then imported some slides and put them into the contents folder of the screen (cube). It is a good idea to number your slides because the script will put them in order according to the numbers.

We then looked at a product called a Thincbook. This is a book in SL that you can add your own content. I am not going to go into this in-depth because I believe that I discussed this item in a previous entry.

The project that I was most excited about was the Media screen. This is probably due to the fact that I have been wanting to try out media since the construction of the ECMM building. I have not been able to test media out on the U of S property due to permission issues that need to be rectified. So I was finally able to test it out...and all I can say is fun...fun...fun. As you can see in the image below, I created a media screen in my sky-saucer. I added some relaxing chairs so I can sit down and watch some Eagles music videos that I set to stream in from Youtube.

Jeff's newly created "Sky-saucer" with mutli-media screen (photo taken August 23/08)

The easiest way to learn how to make a media screen is to watch the following two videos by Torley Linden.

1. http://youtube.com/watch?v=-SJu23Ya4WY
   
   
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUwIUDW7LM