Pete Eidenbach

Historic Preservation Class in Second Life

Posted July 7, 2008 by tiopete

Hello again, campers.

Tonight I want to talk about one of my Fall ‘08 classes. Have you discovered the multi-user virtual world of Second Life, yet? If so, much of this will be redundant. If not, you are in for a treat!

Second Life <secondlife.com> is NOT a game (although you can play games of all sorts there). Second Life (or SL) is a whole world built by its residents whose numbers are estimated at about 10 million people worldwide. Typically, some 50,000 people will be signed in (in-world

) at any particular time. At the moment, SL includes about 400 square miles of real estate on several continents and innumerable islands. It is already big enough that no one will ever see it all. And SL supports full voice so you can talk to other people (or actually their avatars). Its much more fun than the telephone.

Second Life is FREE!!! unless you want to own land (but you don’t need any!).

and anonymous, unless you want to reveal who you are in RL (Real Life).

All you need is a strong internet connection and a reasonably powerful computer (check the requirements on the SL main page).

Once you sign up, you will learn to communicate; manage all the free stuff (clothes, tools, gadgets, even pets) you accumulate; walk, teleport, and fly; learn to search for people, places and events (like free lectures, concerts, shopping, etc.); and customize your (your avatar’s) appearance. 

This Fall I will be teaching my Introduction to Historic Preservationin SL for a class of up to 20 students. Eleven have already signed up, so if you are interested don’t wait. You will get to explore SL, visiting places like the Sistine Chapel, Statue of Liberty, Yankee Stadium (where you can catch an historic game replayed) and help me compile a Register of Historic Places in SL.

You will learn about historic preservation in the real world while experiencing the latest cutting edge technology in education. 

A good place to see the diversity in SL is at Wagner James Au’s New World Notes blog < nwn.blogs.com>.

If you go in-world, look me up. I’m tiopete Renard in SL. 

 

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Tiopete’s Dialog

Posted June 17, 2008 by admin

Hi there!

This is the first of my general blog posts. Here I will keep you and the world updated about my projects, classes, opinions, and events.

My other pages will include:

  • Indra’s Catch, by Demogoras the Navigator which will contain the best peices (or fish) in the virtual sea. Originally, Indra’s was posted in the now defunct NMSUA newsletter. I will add these old (but updated) links as an archive and alert you to new web sites that I find on my perambulations.
  • Tiopete’s Lodge, my virtual faculty office, will contain course pages, essays, and free PDF publications.
  • The Virtual Register of Historic Places in Second Life will provide lists and slurls for virtual World Heritage Sites, National Historic Landmarks, National Register of Historic Places, and Second Life Landmarks which existed or still exist in the virtual world of Second Life where, this Fall semester, I will be teaching my Introduction to Historic Preservation (ANTH 118 at NMSUA).

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