Wednesday, July 15, 2009

KJcsi Greybeards journey through Second Life

After a few weeks of playing around on Second Life, I have found that emotions are the same in “real” life verses Second Life. I experience the stress of navigating through the worlds; I also experienced emotions of others in this world. I could not believe how many avatars were hitting on me. People actually have relationships in this world! The difference is evitable, you are able to fly, change appearances as often as you would like. Exploring the world by a hit of a button is cool! The Virtual society is not as different as I thought it would be as in the real world. One of the biggest differences I experienced in Second Life is the social contact. There are not many places we go in the real world where there is guaranteed social contact. It is less likely that a stranger will start up a conversation with us, but in Second Life, it did not matter where I went, someone was talking to me!

If used properly, Second Life can be a tool for education, such as it was for me. The creativity of Second Life provides almost unlimited freedom to its members. The increased social interaction is education alone. Even though visiting a certain place is not the same effect as in the real world, some places offer much information explaining the facts of what you are seeing. As a student teaching myself the ropes of how to navigate through the world, I learned a little more about certain technology. Second Life offers such rich media that allows for the illusion of ‘real world”. These capabilities bring into play the artistic implications that Second Life brings.

Some of the most interesting art is the avatars themselves. It is amazing how the user is able to create such fascinating images to resemble themselves. I was able to have a head full of hair to being bald, I was able to change my body type, I was able to transform into a complete different person if I chose to. Second Life defiantly supports creativity and imagination. Second Life is filled with “real world” artist and their works. Artist truly have an advantage in having a great way for getting their art out there and seen by so many people. Many artists are photographing their art and importing it to Second Life in the hopes of either attracting interest in the global market. Second Life is a great tool for the education of arts, and social learning. It is defiantly time consuming to get the most out of Second Life, not sure how much time I will spend on it after this class, but I am sure I will do more exploring throughout it! I hope you enjoy my journey that was caught through pictures of certain places that I found interesting in Second Life.

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