My Experiences in Second Life

Children are so much better at game play than adults, but Second Life is not for children. The uncontrollable environment is certainly a place to get lost or see things that children should not see. But, we all know some children are certainly advanced at their age and will find a way to create an avatar and join in the play in Second Life without supervision. I would not want to be responsible for introducing Second Life to my middle school children.

For some reason the movement in Second Life has been a severe handicap for me. I have practiced with the controls and continue to press the opposite buttons than what I want to happen. The movement of the avatar seems to be backwards to the controls. I also can see why there is a need for up-to-date hardware and broadband width for the software to not drag, I have had several failed teleport occurrences. My computer setup is as good as it gets, it is a 2013 all-in-one high end desktop. As I began to become comfortable with the controls and the camera I would get where I wanted to be, but I could not get my avatar to arrive at that location, I am certainly doing something wrong. Finally I realized that at places there are videos to help move around in Second Life. I viewed one of them and it helped a lot. I have searched to get more help in videos at YouTube.com.

Just for my information, I wanted to check out Teen Second Life. I wanted to see if I could move around in the virtual world better as a beginner but they have closed Teen Second Life back in 2010. I really felt that the virtual environment of Second Life was not for the K – 12 classroom child and apparently so did Linden Labs.

I did some flying around the island but that was difficult since my movements are erratic at best. So I used the camera to view the entire island and tried to teleport to places and it failed to complete, I don’t know why. I made it to the amphitheater and the “Poultry Pride” section but again teleport my avatar there did not happen. I ended up in the Egg Processing Facility first and did not know that was where I was so I am going back and check out each of the microscopes to view the specimens. I could not find the hammock? I did choose the lighting in the World section and it was fun the see the daylight change. I really need to browse this virtual world much, much more, and I want to but again it is difficult and time consuming.