Kristin Scott

I attempted to attend the SL Education Support Faire today, but find the virtual forum absolutely frustrating. In theory, getting educators together from all over the world is a great idea; in practice, at least for me, I find it rarely works well and often proves more difficult than productive. Not only is it nearly impossible to move when so many folks are all in one virtual space, but even when I locate a space to sit and am able to do so, the sound of the speaker goes in and out (despite zooming in on him/her and attempting to adjust view for best sound), and I often experience this sort of virtual vertigo - where suddenly the visuals go crazy, and all I see are spinning blocks and bursts of colors. Sometimes my avatar dips under the earth and goes into a veritable digital blackness. Most of the time, within about five minutes or so, I’m just booted out altogether.

But even when I am able to stay online and seated for a while, I find the conversation almost impossible to follow. In addition to fading voice chat, text-speak scrolls up the side of my screen in rapid succession, disappearing before I can wrap my brain around the moving sentence. Some presentations are better than others, of course. It just seems there would be a better way. I’m sure there are some folks that have no problems at all, but I can’t be the only one experiencing difficulties, either. Although I have a new computer, it’s not the most powerful or has the ultimate in graphics, so I’m sure that’s part of the problem. On the other hand, virtual environments should be more accessible to those of us who aren’t high-tech enabled. This, of course, has been my primary complaint with Second Life for educational purposes, because I (with my average new computer) represent the majority of my students, I think, not the minority. But if SL is ever going to be truly productive for the average educator and/or student, I think these issues need to be addressed.