Second Life zapped my avatar today–totally fried it, and several times too! It was like something from a science fiction movie. I was wandering around different English study islands in Second Life when, all of a sudden, zap. An electric orange grid lit up and repelled my avatar, like force shields protecting Star Wars space craft from enemy fire, and displayed the message “No Entry” not once, but repeated hundreds of times across the screen.

But, magistrate, I was only curious, only looking around. I didn’t realise that I was entering a forbidden zone. Besides, there were signs inviting visitors to look around. I’m sorry…

The Second Life tutorials are done, so what next? I started by sending my avatar, Asa Mornington, out to explore rather aimlessly. I don’t recommend this; it got boring quickly. I found a lot of islands (Second Life is made of a bunch of little islands) that are still, I presume, under construction, because they don’t look all that complete. What I didn’t find while wandering aimlessly was a lot of people or
anything to do.

After my rather bitter experience with the Second Life sign up procedure, I was ready to jump in and start doing things in Second Life. I launched the Second Life client software for the first time and… got a message that there is a new version of the Second Life client software. It seems that they don’t give you the newest version of their software when you register your account. No big deal, 15 minutes later on my wireless connection and I was ready to go.

Normally I wouldn’t write about signing up for a service, but Second Life pulls one of my privacy pet peeves in their sign up procedure and they do a very crummy job of it. Well, if I’m going to write about the good, I’m going to write about the bad.

On the first registration page, they ask for your birth date and give a reason for requiring the birth date.

Please provide an accurate birthrate for your own protection. We ask your birthrate to verify your account if you ever forget your Second Life name or password.

I came across an article from the BBC titled “Virtual worlds threaten ‘values.’”The substance of the article is based on film-maker Lord Puttnam’s keynote speech at the Virtual Worlds Forum.

Puttnam expresses concern about children “think[ing] of themsleves as not much more than consumers” noting that many of the virtual worlds for children are created and run by toy makers. Unfortunately, the BBC article doesn’t go into the substance of Puttnam’s arguments, but anytime a politician starts talking about morals you can expect a lot of hot air. However, Michael Parsons, writing for the Times Online, was impressed by “how evolved Lord Puttnam … [was] in [his] understanding of the scale, scope, and importance of this new medium.” I would be very interested in seeing the full text of Puttnam’s speech, but I haven’t had any luck finding it online.

There are a number of people teaching languages in Second Life. Over the next few months, I plan on observing, and possibly taking, some language lessons in Second Life. When I do, I will most certainly share any interesting uses, ideas, and advantages that Second Life has for language students.

Today was not about learning languages, though. It was about learning how to do stuff in Second Life.

The respected business and international affairs weekly, The Economist, is currently holding an online debate on the usefulness of technology in the classroom.

Proposition: The continuing introduction of new technologies and new media adds little to the quality of most education.

The debate is concerned with technology in the classroom, but I think a lot of the comments apply to online language learning resources.

Sir John Daniel, in his opening statement for pro side of the debate, argues that, while there are a few notable successes where technology is used to solve specific problems, mostly technology is used as a fancy tool to spruce up education.