Hi all:

Would like to ask if you are on Second Life and if you are, would you talk to an academic adviser if you knew a reliable one from your college was on there? Just curious how many are already using it and would be open to receiving academic info in this way.

Thx

3/31/2008 12:46:54 PM

huge negative from me personally. college needs to keep the little human interaction still left in school so these kids can learn some social skills.

unless you are taking distance ed for a legit reason (ie like not living in the same city) any online option should come after a physical appointment or a phone call. Thats how it is preferred in the professional world and I knew kids in college who ALWAYS emailed professors to avoid having to talk to them in their office or after class because they were intimidated, and thats just not right for someone who is 22 years old.

furthermore, if i do something online like email a professor, I always save a copy of the sent and received emails since it would be easy for them to deny the conversation later. this may or may not be able to be done on something like second life im not sure.

3/31/2008 1:05:28 PM

ECU is starting to build a second life campus. there are several professors with avatars and they hold meetings sometimes.

3/31/2008 3:13:31 PM

welcome back

3/31/2008 3:24:59 PM

i think this would be a terrible idea

I second CalledToArms' post

3/31/2008 3:58:07 PM

I would take advantage of it.

NCSU needs a campus on there if easyU has one

3/31/2008 5:07:05 PM

what in the hell is second life?

3/31/2008 5:09:38 PM

Basically a glorified and complex MMORPG


with real money changing hands.

[Edited on March 31, 2008 at 5:17 PM. Reason : i dont even know if it should be considered a game, persay.]

3/31/2008 5:17:12 PM

i logged onto a computer in the library today and there was a shortcut for Second Life on there

3/31/2008 5:30:12 PM

Second Life® is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.

* From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.

* You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow Residents. Because Residents retain intellectual property rights in their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other Residents.

* The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the inworld unit of trade, the Linden™ dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden dollar exchanges.

3/31/2008 8:15:19 PM

lets start with providing halfway decent academic advising in real life before doing it on the internet

and also, i think this is a dumb idea. a live chat would be better if you cant meet in person and dont want to use a phone or email. old people think that all young people are on second life when really most of them have never heard of it.

3/31/2008 8:17:36 PM

I hope I never have to participate in this secondlife thing, sounds a little creepy and wierd to me

4/1/2008 8:08:47 AM

Hey all:
Thanks for the opinions. I really appreciate it. I am glad to hear you all prefer real human advising interaction versus a virtual substitute for it. I also agree we need to have good advising in place on the ground before we weaken scarce resources into developing something somewhere else. If there were a huge demand for it, perhaps that would warrant an exploration, but it doesn't seem to be so yet from what you all are saying. I love your comments especially Pooljobs. Old people don't always know what you all are into and at least from an advising standpoint, we want to know, for the very same reason that you guys want real human interaction: We don't want to lose contact with you. And so, we have to be open minded as to where you are/ where you are talking, going, etc/// so that we can meet you there rather than act like we have our heads in the sand.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably still explore it, just to be familliar with it, but won't make any big initiatives into it.

4/18/2008 10:24:36 AM

and i apologize that my comment was harsh, you have always gone above and beyond for students on the message board. but in general, at least in my department, the academic advising has always been sub par. i don't have a solution, but right now it is not a good system in my experience. i think academic advisers are probably over-worked and don't have the time to form the relationships with the students that i hope they want to form. i worry that this would just take away more of their time and distance them from students even more.

4/18/2008 8:47:12 PM

I gotta say, I like the idea of having advising available moreso through live chat over the internet. There's all kinds of established software you all could use to do this. I imagine a lot of students would appreciate it if they could go onto a live web chat (one on one) with an available adviser and just see if you could set up your schedule in a certain way, etc.

4/18/2008 10:22:21 PM

Second Life is a horrible medium for doing anything serious. It's a great place for furries, people with other bizarre sexual fetishes, and people who enjoy making fun of furries and people with other bizarre sexual fetishes. The creators of it have done a great job nurturing a small cottage industry of firms that specialize in creating Second Life properties and hyping up the importance of Second Life to big companies and organizations like universities.

However, that doesn't change the fact that Second Life is a second-rate virtual world with little to no mainstream value. The appeal is that it's a free-form world where perverts can create their own fantasies and have sex with unicorns. The physics engine and graphics are obsolete and can frequently crash the game if a lot of other people are in the same area (by a lot, I mean 40+).

If you want to move into virtual advising, I would highly recommend a more professional solution that doesn't require custom software installation by the student and doesn't carry any risk of the student being assaulted by an army of flying penises (seriously, this has happened in the past at events sponsored by major media companies on Second Life).

4/20/2008 3:06:02 PM

lmfao at the flying penis assault.

4/20/2008 4:31:47 PM

I agree that in person is the best way. Through e-mail or message board or what have you isn’t a bad 2nd choice though. Sometimes having to put things in writing forces you to think out what you are going to say, formulate your thoughts, and have a record of it later. I’d imagine an advising effort being extended to facebook, being a social networking site centered around college students, before going to something like 2nd life. Now that high schoolers can get on there too it would be interesting to see if any of them would reach out and ask questions about schools they are interested in attending. But all in all, in person interactions do have a certain quality and create a trust level that is hard to achieve through other mediums. And trust is obviously an important element in an adviser/advisee relationship.

4/20/2008 5:40:09 PM

what is second life?

4/20/2008 5:54:47 PM

^ Tww in 3d.

4/20/2008 7:17:55 PM

Shadowrunner, that is the most hilarious thing I've read all day.

Back on topic, I signed up for Second Life as part of an extra-credit assignment. I felt awkward doing so, almost like a virtual reality/D&D type of person, but I happened upon an area (free area) that featured live (so-to-speak) bands and thought it was kind of cool. The music was really good.

For the person who asked what it is, it's a virtual reality-style site. You make an avatar, you can walk, make purchases, run, fly, visit different areas within the Second Life realm. It's your "second life," so-to-speak. Some stuff costs money, but I'm not sure if it's real money or you can earn some on the site, it's all new to me, so I don't know.

4/20/2008 7:22:58 PM

Hey all- great comments. I really appreciate it. I don't want to run into flying penises so I appreciate the warning. I do like live chat and used to have one on NC State's virtual advising center (Advising Central), and it worked really well. Some advisers even used it to get quick answers from the advisers who staffed Advising Central when they had a student in their office with an unusual question.

And Pooljobs- don't worry, I didn't take your comments on advising as insulting. I took them as honest and real and I don't think we should ever be afraid to be either of those things. I have done research in the past on the state of advising at NC State and know that advising needs ds help. To that end, I do believe the Provost is trying to address many of the issues that our report brought to light. Since there is still no campus-wide annual assessment of advising (some colleges do it, others do not) it is good for students and others to share their thoughts and opinions in various avenues (student government is one place). But, for you individually, if you want to PM me and let me know what major you are in, your situation and any questions you have, I will do my best to help you.

4/21/2008 10:20:48 AM

And if anyone thinks that an army of flying penises could never happen on an NCSU private island, then obviously you haven't spent enough time in Chit Chat.

4/21/2008 6:59:26 PM

lol

4/21/2008 7:43:46 PM