Bag of Tricks in Second Life.

Bag of Tricks met in Second Life To discuss the following questions and our overall thoughts.

How was the virtual society different than our real world society?

In Second life you can experience many different things which may not be possible in the real life. You have the opportunity to fly like a super hero. This obviously is not possible in the real world. Also you can sell yourself off as a slave or purchase one of your own. This, again for obvious reasons, would not go over well at all in the real world. There are some positive outlooks as well. We discussed how you can change your appearance and be who ever you want. Also you have the opportunity to socialize with people from all over the world. We noticed how you can do a lot of real world activities in Second Life. For instance meet with a group to socialize, work on school assignments or even hang out and play games.

How was your group meeting in world different, better or worse than the meeting in Blackboard Vista's chat groups that your instructors set up for this course?

We had mixed feelings on this subject. Some of us thought it was a neat idea because you could see ever one or virtual group member instead of just looking at a chat board with words scrolling down. We did think it was creative that we could meet together at pretty much any location we desired. How ever some of felt it was more difficult for several reasons. These reasons being: 1. Some of us had problems with the soft wear running too slow 2. Hard to concentrate if other non-group members were about. You could hear or see the conversations they were having. 3. Even though we had a set location to meet we still had a bit of trouble trying to locate each other, especially with many other avatars running around.


How can virtual worlds like Second Life enhance the teaching and learning experiences for students? What are the implications for the arts and society?

We agreed there are a lot of learning and teaching opportunities in Second Life. We noticed many Colleges and Universities have their own sites in Second Life. They provide lecture halls and class rooms both indoor and outdoor. They all seemed to be set up for both formal and informal settings. It can accommodate a large group of students at one time.

We thought some art implications would be allowing others to view works of art by a large population It gives you the opportunity to be creative and build architecture, landscapes, clothing alter appearances.

We thought social implications would be the ability to connect with a large amount of people from different social , religious and ethnic backgrounds. In a way you can sight see those places you know you cannot afford to see in the real life. Most people were very open to conversation so its a great way to meet new people from all over the world.