VLE can be very useful for student to submit assignments electronically as well as using the News forums/ blogs to exchange information on various topics with their peers and teachers hence building their knowledge base. The most common functionalities used by most Educational sectors include creating online courses, exchanging information using news forums and blogs, submitting assignments online, creating resources, databases, viewing online users, searching courses, catalogues, using grade books for teachers to grade/ mark the works of students and publish these grades, online library facilities, e-resources, chat rooms, student and teacher profiles, linking educational websites to the VLE among others. So in these different ways the students can learn better and teachers can deliver courses without physically being in the class room. Most VLE providers let their users work from Home as the only requirements include a computer connected to the internet.
Safety Centre Laboratory Safety Precautions Sign – I thought I could guide the students through it, to make it mandatory to stop at every sign posted; then ask them at the end of their tour or experience about the meaning or order for instance to see how much did they learn
Screen – The screen is where students can view their group numbers in order to know which channel to switch to when they get into the lab
Lockers
Lockers are available everywhere in LMU’s Science Lab – as every year each student has their own locker apart from the general used ones where student place 1 pound to rent one then get the pound back once they are done with using it.
When I thought about this, if I applied the same concept in SL it won’t really work as the main point is to engage the user through the steps besides there won’t be enough space to implement this even though expanding
Thus, as a result, I used – script inventory drop box
Which basically allow people to drop inventory items in to an object that alerts you when that happen; In this case this would be used for placing safety glasses, gloves and lab coats into the lockers and to know when a locker is occupied so there won’t be a conflict in knowing which ones are vacant.
As an alert, e-mail basic script would be used to send e-mails form second life this could be used as a way of announcement as well as questionnaires to students.
Teaching LAB
This is where students enter to wash their hands, wear coats, glasses and gloves then get ready to enter their labs to start their lab session.
Problems
Building Issues
There is not an undo button or a way to retrieve deleted objects
Expansion – when I tried to move everything already built upwards as not all the land are on same level (not steady) a problem occurred as it is quite tricky to get the hang of it when linking objects and moving them altogether
Linden Dollars - Had a problem with setting up payment method in order to buy linden dollars to be able to upload some pictures
Sometimes the laptop, software just freezes...which could be very risky as you never know when the work done has been saved even if u do save it every update.
Editing Hollow to form a door properly was a big issue as well
Adjusting colours
Finding Support – the SL scripting groups aren’t as helpful as I thought they would be sometimes I got late responses (if any) and with the wrong or not functioning scripts. Even someone offered to help for linden dollars [though he didn’t mention the word linden!!!] but still some of them do help. Scripting blogs are very useful I think though didn’t test each script to know whether it is working as it should be
Texturing – costs 10 L$ Linden dollars per upload, took a while to get the hang of it as some times the texture is just flipped or stretches so I kept trying to move it around and try different angles in order to adjust it as possible, wasn’t the best in my opinion
Future Plans & Recommendations
Aim: To learn basic things such as How to properly wash their hands, getting their lab coats, gloves and glasses.
where to know the group numbers, which is done through the screen
To go to the lockers in order to place their personal items as students are only allowed to carry a marker and paper apart from their Lab coats.
The skills would be knowing the meaning of specific signs, starting safely, and future plans would be knowing about toxic materials and what to do in case of emergencies (toxic fluids), how to get rid of materials safely...
Create a button below the screen that maximises the view [full screen] for users to see properly, and create a direct link to a webpage, elluminate to update group regularly. Yet, I would make it non-editable by students
To have a tour guide that either explains as default or answers when asked or just have note card to explain every step and where to start
Building the actual entrance form the ground floor guiding students to the third [where labs are located]
Producing - A step by step guide to using material available in the lab
For new comers where to get new lab coats
How to keep updated with groups or notifications
How to act on certain situations
Switching to the student’s channel
Validation – to validate actions for instance
To check in case the lab coat is on
Hands are washed properly
Glasses are on and maybe later to check whether the students have markers, papers and headphones which are picked later when they access the labs
Verification of ID, this could be done by getting the student avatars and add them to a list in order to be recognised
References
[1] Using VLE technology in education and outside educational environments, May 12th, 2010 by Vijay Nair
http://blog.theitjobboard.co.uk/2010/05/using-vle-technology-in-education-and-outside-educational-environments/
[2] http://secondlife.com/
• LSL Portal- wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal
• SL Scripting Tools - http://www.freeslscripts.gendersquare.org/index.php?option=com_weblinks&view=category&id=65&Itemid=28
• Open Source Scripting group - http://www.sparticarroll.com/MainPage.ashx
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