Scouting - Public Displays

There are now several hundred educational organizations using Second Life ranging from small non profits to large Universities with an expanding knowledge base. The tools they use to range from straight forward chat and Voice with other citizens to static notecards and displays to completely scripted areas for interaction. The following is some images from other educational areas within SL and how we are incorporating them into the IML region and pedagogy.

Here is a traditional presentation area with video screen and seats at the Berkman Campus.














Here is a large area of the same style at the NMC Campus. Chats are often common in such situations, but is still many receiving information from one and usually not vice versa.















Here are the Group Conference Facility developed by the Terra Incognita Group and Decka Mah. It has a facilitator in the Center controlling the surrounding 'pods' which break off and have separate discussions. When called back the facilitator can rearrange the groups and give feedback through note cards that are dropped in boxes. The IML has purchased one of these and is setting it up in the open classroom area of the campus.















Static Information

Here is a gallery display/example at the NMC of how to build in steps only using visual cues. The Ivory Tower of Prims which is an amazing place to learn how to build has similar displays, but has note card stations everywhere to provide additional reference.














Berkman has a public Sandbox with Giant Billboards showing how to construct different types of prims. This a great reference for those trying to make complex objects.















Scripted, Interactive, and Abstract

NMC Audio Installation with the Source and Content changing depending on your location.














The Port is highly influential on the future design of the IML Campus. Keeping far away from the recreational trends that abound in SL, the port displays information through a somehwhat abstract, but complex set of interactions.

Free Modulation

SL gets a lot of press about the economic aspects and how everyone is out to make their millions. That is not the case and as shown at Freebie Planet by Gamesband you can get almost anything for $L0. Here I am scouting for furniture for our soon to be discussion area.














Sometimes it's not organized neatly and a lot of the boxes have completely unrelated items, but that's fun too because you just might need that gigantic panda avatar sometime in the near future.















Here I am taking a look at the hundred+ pieces of free furniture. The ones that were kept had two qualities... 1) modular: chatting is still a main form of information exchange in SL and avatars like to see each other so seating needs to have the ability to rearrange easily 2) script orbs for sitting - most residents will be new and this just makes it easier.















IML's new discussion area... I'm thinking of switching to the pink though....hmmm..

Navigation

When you get lost in RL you usually the Sun or Stars is the first place I look for orientation... however in SL this doesn't help and landmarks don't either usually because everything has the ability to change in an instant. The Map is great, but for people new to SL sometimes that is something that isn't looked at right away. SO.. I decided to make all of the textures (currently book covers of our class readings) face North. This will give our virtual residents a reference point in our virtual campus.

Notecards

In SL you will be learning absorbing a lot of information and you will need a way to have it on record for later retrieval. Notecards are at times going to be your best friend. In SL notecards can store plain text, but also can hold other information such as landmarks and textures. This greatly reduces the amount of items you have to send to residents. I am currently creating a notecard that contains a URL to our program and landmarks around the IML campus so that in case a teleporter is not near you may have quick access to these locations.

Here is a video by SL Guru Torley on how to create a notecard. I highly suggest you subscribe to their channel because Torley lives in SL and is a valuable resource.

Walking Billboard

As I was giving a tutorial to an IML staff member on how to build it became clear that not everyone is familiar with navigating a 3d space, let alone a 3rd person view of an avatar trying to manipulate a 3d object. A puppet controlling a puppet scenario and the Master being unable to see anything. SO.. How can this situation be simplified? Instead of making the avatar try and move an object externally I started to experiment with making the Avatar the Object. Second Life is a 3D space and therefore information should be shared and used in a three dimensional manner.

Here is a list of all the places on your avatar where you can attach an object.


















I live in Los Angeles and you run into a lot of people who are walking promotion, but you usually have to engage in some type of interaction outside of just seeing them to get any information. I wanted to make my avatar resemble the media blimps.

Here is a sandwich board (attached to chest and spine) showing todays readings.





























attaching the first of many video screens











































Here I am with every body part attached to a video screen. The objects overlap, but the objects can be resized and repositioned to reduce clutter.

The Distance

I like the video screens blocking out artificially created nature and the intense amount of stimuli that it creates, BUT...as a permanent campus environment it might not always be necessary or healthy. When I had a demo of the holodeck the creator said that the giant spaceship was brought into the sim as a scene...so possibly the video immersion could also be brought in as a scene and recalled again if needed. Here was the test using a rock and torch.















Both objects are in the far corner of the Sim and their positions were saved and rezzed back in successfully. Only problem is that I could not control the holodeck from this distance, but it's good to know that I can put the entire region into a holodeck scene. The current layout is basically a sketch and with the holodeck I will be able to have many layouts available to be displayed at a moments notice.

Multiple Video Streams

After I tested out video streams and spread it out over the entire region and blocking out the artificial sunlight I started working on multiple video streams. This is proving to be a challenge that might require some scripting. The media player is free your library and it works quite well. However, the video comes from a URL under the media preferences and only one URL is allowed per parcel. I tried dividing up a corner into a separate parcel and assigning it a different URL... this worked...BUT EVERY SCREEN in the sim changed to the new URL and than back when I walked out of the corner parcel. Inspection shows that the media player looks for a standard channel number which is dependent upon where your Avatar is located and not where the media player is..hmmm....errr...

Green Line shows the parcel division. On one side the glitch video I created.














On the other side of the line both video screens change to a clip by 'The Vanishing'.















Going to the campus area above...the whole area was covered in 'The Vanishing'.