All+the+things+you+need+to+get+started

What you need (besides an avatar...)
[|Official SecondLife Blog] Here you can find links to the Knowledge Base (everything you need to know about SecondLife from the experts) and many other useful things such as [|Community Events] you may wish to have your students attend.

Join a community of teachers sharing ideas for SL!
This [|Ning network] was recently created by an innovator in SL for ESL, Kip Yellowjacket. At the time I am writing this, his website is still quite new and waiting for educators to post ideas for roleplays, quiz games, and more in SL.

Getting Started
The Information Commons in Building 28 will check out USB's and CD's to students and staff for the duration of the quarter. These USB's and CD's are loaded with the SecondLife program as well as a free video software, CamStudio, with which you and your students can make movies in SecondLife. Don't lose them...there is a small fee for lost items.

There are two options for using SecondLife in the classroom.


 * You can have the students go to[| http://www.secondlife.com] and download the program onto their hard drive. The College will delete it at the end of the day, so your students will have to download it for each class session that you use it.


 * A more convenient way is to have your students go to the Information Commons and check out a USB or CD. They can keep it with them and run it on the computer each time your class uses SL.

The First Day In Class
Prior to opening the SecondLife accounts and creating avatars, you can choose to spend a class session introducing SecondLife to your class. It is sufficient to explain to your class what SecondLife is, who uses it, and why you are going to be using it. Attached is a brief, simplified transcription of a video--along with a link to the video-- that you can adapt as content for your own introductory lecture.



Accounts and Avatars
Plan on spending at least one 50-minute class session for your students to get their SecondLife accounts. For more information on this session, see the link "Module 1--Creating an Avatar."

Students under 18
There are two SecondLife worlds--one for adults 18 and over, and one for teenagers from 13-17. Adults cannot enter Teen Secondife, and teens are not allowed to enter the adult SecondLife. It is important to abide by this rule and make certain that students under 18 register their account at [|http://www.teen.secondlife.com.]

They've got avatars--What now?
Your students have all created their avatars. Have the students write their FirstLife names and SecondLife names for you on a class list. Then you can send each student a "friend" request in SL. Why do you want to do that? Once you are friends, you can give the students important things like Landmarks and objects.

Get them to Evergreen Island ASAP!
You'll not want to leave your students wandering SecondLife, particularly on Help Island, where avatars are born. Get them to the peaceful sanctuary of the Washington State Board of Community and Technical College's own island in SL, [|Evergreen Island]. They will land in a place where Jon Miller, Nursing Faculty has created an area where avatars can learn everything they need to know, including how to walk, run, fly, sit, and even get free clothing and hair.

Attached is a handout you can use or, alternatively, give students which shows step-by-step how to find an avatar in SecondLife, send him/her a Landmark and get everyone together on Evergreen Island.



The SLURL (SecondLife URL) is [|http://slurl.com/secondlife/Evergreen%20Island/76/165/28.]

And now that you're on Evergreen Island...
You can get started with the series of modules listed on the menu bar on the left. Once the students have created and modified their avatar to their satisfaction, you can have them work on Module 2, introducing the avatar to the class. As you can read at the top of each module, the modules here are sequenced in order of skills the students have acquired in SL as well as the outcomes for Level 1 grammar and writing. You can adapt your own modules to suit your particular level and class's outcomes...and...

you can have a lot of fun!!
//**EAP 95 Class Photo, Fall Quarter 2009 (our first day in SecondLife as a class)**//