Holodecks in Second Life- Click Picture to see larger image

There are actual working Holodecks in Second Life. The Holodeck idea was

immortalized in a famous TV science fiction series where a crew member on a star ship would enter a large room and by a verbal command change the room to any setting.

This technology has great applications for learning and simulation experiences. Imagine a Second Life site where you have a Holodeck program recreating a hospital emergency room with photographs from the actual medical facility. The avatars using the site would be the actual employees using the area to simulate different medical experiences. Or, the Holodeck images could simulate any number of county and government facilities, such as a driver’s license bureau.

Here is the SLURL to a site that I built that has a working Holodeck:
Online@UCF (formerly UCF Course Development and Web Services):
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Arts%20and%20Letters/214/186/22/

After you reach the site, go to the teleport area and choose the sign that reads “Holodeck.”

If this would take too long, just have your avatar fly over the area, look for the huge wire ball that is atop a cube. The Holodeck is directly below the wire ball. There is also a large sign that reads "holodeck" next to the wire ball with an arrow for direction.

You have a choice of 40 different environments. You can just click one of the 10 colored prims, or read the instructions on the signs to choose from 30 others.

The Holodeck will say “program loaded and ready” when you have made a choice. After the program is loaded, have your avatar walk inside the environment.

The Shrugging penguin, Medical, Science Studies, and Virtual Worlds

I remember the good old days in high school when we had to dissect a frog in biology class . The frog was already dead and was preserved in formaldehyde, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a gruesome, and somewhat unnecessary use for a small animal. We were studying the reflexes of nerves and muscles and we stimulated the nerves in the frog’s leg and watch as it moved. I felt sorrow that this unfortunate frog was born and harvested just so that high school students could watch a leg twitch. Fast forward to today.

We now have virtual worlds that are accessible to a global audience where we can potentially watch simulations of virtual animal behavior, physiology, and anatomy.

I am working with a simulation software in Second Life where you can program up to 26 different actions into a “puppet” creature.

If you wish to view this, you can go to my Usability Learning area in Second Life at

http://slurl.com/secondlife/RUC%20Seven%20Oaks%20/119/111/24/?title=Usability%20Learning%20Center&msg=Usability%20Learning%20Center

and watch the shrugging penguin.

My plan is to create a virtual frog or turtle puppet that turns itself over and then dissects itself so that a student can observe and learn. Of course, it may look gruesome, but it is a better alternative than dissecting a real animal. I will let you all know how it is going.

The other uses for this puppet software is to show puppet human avatars with a variety of situations that a student must diagnose. You could have an avatar show respiratory distress, cardiac problems, HIV symptoms or other ailments. These virtual world simulations would not replace the advanced studies that are a necessary part of many medical and science studies but hopefully will reduce some of the waste and cruelty that may occur in the beginning studies in these fields.

To parcellize or not to parcellize in Second Life

Many people in Second Life subdivide the land to have the ability to view more than one streaming media source at one time on their virtual land. It can be a slideshow, a video or other source that is uploaded on your website and then streamed into Second Life. This is particularly important when you are using your site for online education, since you can have multiple training/learning modules for your students.

Here is how you parcellize, and only the land owner has the permissions to do this:

Click with the right mouse button on the ground and then left click the "edit terrain feature."

It will open a window which allows you to choose a portion of your land.

The selection tool works by pointing at the land and dragging a square big enough for what you intend to do there. Then click subdivide and the parcel is created. You do not need to parcellize a very large area, it can just be an area large enough for perhaps just a screen.

Graphic Files in Second Life and creating Powerpoint slides

Graphics file formats supported in SL:

TGA, JPG and BMP, and now PNG. The ones that support transparency are TGA and PNG for creating items like clothing and objects such as windows.

Second Life pictures that you shoot from Second Life are BMP files and should be converted to other file formats because they use up so much memory.

Many people use Photoshop to create TGA and PNG files, but some thrifty educators use the free GIMPshop and Paint.NET (which just added support for saving 24-bit PNGs).

If you are in a hurry and it doesn’t matter if you have transparency or not, here is a simple solution to obtain JPG images for SL uses:
Create a Powerpoint presentation. Then when you save it, click “save as JPG.” This saves all the slides in the presentation as individual JPG images in a single folder. Then, from SL, you click Upload, then “bulk.” You browse your computer’s folders, find your folder and then hold down the Ctrl key to choose your files. Or, you can choose the first slide, then scroll to the last slide and press the Shift key to highlight all of them.
Many educators use this method, since they still have the original Powerpoint presentation to use in RL, while they have the same slides in SL. This enables them to use the same material between RL and SL. There is a charge of 10 Lindens per slide. This quick method is useful for creating signs to use in SL also, but ensure that the text is larger than 24 points so that they are easy to read.
When hosting an event in SL using slides, the area supporting the event will usually give instructions to the presenters a week prior to the event. The presenters usually give them a SLURL to the area and a “practice” area with a slideshow viewer so they can practice uploading their slides and using their presentation. They also designate a small area where they are allowed to place their posters and graphics.

Textures for a Virtual World - Second Life software

There are several popular programs to create virtual textures in Second Life: Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, and GIMP. The most affordable for online education and distance learning is GIMP, since it is free. You just have to decide if it is worth the learning the program to create your own or just to buy textures other Second Life people have already created. They all have different attributes, while Photoshop has the most features and is the most expensive.

New Second Life Build - Online@UCF (formerly CDWS)

Dear Folks, I just completed a new Second Life site for the Course Development and Web Services (CDWS) department at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Some of the features include a Holodeck, an Educational Games area, a Getting Started area, Educator Tools and Resources area, a 3D data area, and other exhibits. Feel free to visit and let me know what you think.

Here is the SLURL :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Arts%20and%20Letters/214/186/22/

Etherpad in Second Life - Collaborative Doc Sharing Tool

Dear Folks,

I have just installed a new educational document sharing tool in Second Life in the Usability Learning Center and the University Writing Center. It is a software application called Etherpad and multiple avatars can write and edit documents collaboratively in real time. Visit either educational area in Second Life and there is a sign with instructions. To share larger documents, spreadsheets, or Powerpoint presentations, GoogleDocs is a better choice. Let me know if you would like further information. (Click the photo and it will enlarge for a better look).

Usability in Second Life

Writing in Second Life

Marz's Second Life Activities and Building

Dear Second Life Folks,

I thought I would just give everyone an update on my Second Life building activities.

In June 2008 I was the virtual design architect for the Usability Learning Center, a center for usability information and testing.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RUC%20Seven%20Oaks%20/119/111/24/?title=Usability%20Learning%20Center&msg=Usability%20Learning%20Center

In August of 2008 I then created a virtual University Writing Center for its real-life director.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RUC%20Seven%20Oaks%20/50/95/22/?title=University%20Writing%20Center%20&msg=University%20Writing%20Center

I now have a new upcoming project building a courtroom site for a modern language professor.

If anyone would like an educational area in Second Life, please contact me for details. I am available for full site creation at a reasonable price which includes design, scripting, implementation, user training, and maintenance.

My Second Life name is Marz Dayafter and I am located in the RUC Seven Oaks Region.

My email address is margh2010@comcast.net