Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Meeting virtually in Second Life

Right, now that you've had time to recover from our first class, it's time for us to plan our virtual meeting in Second Life. This will be an opportunity for you to ask me questions about course content, about your video making, about your transmedia ideas, and about the readings.

We will meet inside Second Life (on Montclair's island) on Tuesday, September 29 @ 8pm. In what follows, I list the process you'll need to follow in order to get yourselves signed up for a Second Life account, to get the software you need for accessing Second Life downloaded to your computer, and then I'll tell you exactly where inside Second Life we'll be meeting. At the end of this post I'll also ive you details about how to get additional in-person support for getting yourself up and running (flying even!) inside Second Life if you find you're having trouble doing it on your own. Okay, so here we go.

Well before Tuesday, September 29, do the following:

1. Set up a Second Life account (http://sl.nmc.org/create.php), download the client software and login, and complete the tutorial on Orientation Island (this introductory island can also be accessed directly once you have your account and have downloaded the Second Life client. Use this URL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Orientation/69/107/32/).

2. Once you have completed the tutorial, you should know how to teleport yourself to different islands. Here is the URL for accessing my meeting space on Montclair's island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CEHSADP/227/123/22 This is where we will met as a group for our question-and-answer session. So, you can click on this link hen you have your SL client open and it will teleport you to our meeting space. When you are there, create a landmark for this space (you'll have learned how to do this in your tutorial as well). This will make it easier to find tis particular space again later.

3. Send me your Second Life username once you have set up your account--that way I'll know who is who when we meet.

4. Once you're inside SL, you can also make me a "friend" (I'm Nell Aquacade inside Second Life)--that way you can send me private messages during the discussion if you need to, or if you get lost in SL, I can easily find you and get you unlost.

5. To help support you, my assistant is available in person between 4pm and 6pm on Tuesday, September 22 (this is next week, a week ahead of when we will all meet in Second Life). Come to room 3173 in University Hall (my office) and she will be able to talk you through any difficulties you're having with getting yourself onto Second Life and to our meeting place. She will only be here, though, if you let me know you need her help.

6. We also have at least two Second Life experts in our class, so feel free to ask them for help via our blog. And if you are familiar with using Second Life, don't be shy about sharing tips and hints with everyone via our blog.

Best of luck everyone, and see you in Second life on the 29th!

Michele

Additional hints-and-tips sites include:
http://sl4nowt.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/30-things-every-newbie-should-know-before-starting-second-life/
http://slvideos.wikispaces.com
+ use Google to help you troubleshoot problems you're having, too.

9 comments:

  1. Creating a SL account is very time consuming and frustrating. After I finish filling in all the information, the message always shows "Please Check Your Data There is one error in your registration form that prevent us from accepting it. Please check the item below and resubmit this form." However, it did not indicate which item needs to be corrected. I start over to fill in all the information again and again but the same message shows again. It is really frustrating. I had a SL account before, but somehow I can't access that, is that because I finished that course,I can't access my account any more?

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  2. Oh no! What a shame! Are you scrolling down the page and making sure you're filling in everything they want when you sign up? Sometimes people miss seeing the bit whre they have to enter in the letters based on a stretched image etc.

    And your old account should work--it's been less than six months since you last signed in, right?

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  3. Thank you. I gave up to create a new account since it just did not indicate what item I filled wrong. Maybe it is not a good time to open an account now. I went back to my old account, and luckily, I can access now and my avitor is called "Yenyen Ying". I already invited you as my friend. However, I tried to set landmarks as our meeting space: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CEHSADP/227/123/22, In map, I tried to key in this slurl information to the third text entry and hit "Search", but the Search Results show "None found" Maybe I can't find the right place to keyin this slurl. Once I can get there, I know how to set it as landmarks.
    How can I get to our meeting place?
    Thank you and good night.

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  4. I figured out one way to teleport myself to our meeting place. Add " http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CEHSADP/227/123/22" to my favorite and click "to visit this location" then I will enter SL. However I am curious how can I enter SL and then visit our meeting place?

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  5. Once I got to the meeting place, I set it as landmark, then I believe I am not lost now.

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  6. I actually had the same problem. The error message kept saying that one thing was done incorrectly, yet the description section of which field had a problem was left blank. I finally gave up and used another link to successfully create the account!

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  7. Question....do we need to add everyone in our contacts in Second Life?? I added Nell Aquacade as my friend....I hope that was correct.
    Grace

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  8. @Grace--no, just add Nell. That way if you somehow get lost in-world, I can find you etc.

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  9. I followed some of the links you posted to help get acquainted with Second Life. They were helpful and confusing. This is very new for me. I was trying to change my appearance. It appears to be user friendly but not how I wanted to look. I'm very excited about our meeting tonight. I hope I teleported correctly!!!

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