I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts lately and it seems like one of the “big deals” right now in training is the use of Second Life to host training seminars, forums and the like. A lot businesses have established a presence there, such as IBM, Adidas, Reuters, and Toyota. I honestly don’t know what to think about that.

I do see some value in Second Life such as:

1. Immersion- Imagine not just talking about a place in the world but “placing” yourself in that location as environments can be built and changed at will. It’s like being there with out BEING THERE.
2. Simulations – Several groups have created simulations where people can practice a skill before performing it in real life. HeartMurmur Sim is such an example.
3. Prototyping – Having the place to prototype and idea without spending the actual cash to build your prototype is a great way to avoid some costs.
4. Visualization – NOAA weathermaps is a great example of visualization and transferring information in a visual format.

I for one am not sure about Second Life. I once downloaded the program to try and find out what Second Life was all about. I found it difficult to know what to do, where to go or how to find things. I wasn’t very impressed with the usability of it all. I can’t help thinking about what the costs and benefits would/could be by using Second Life.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m novice when it comes to Second Life but I do wonder what’s the benefit of “meeting” in Second Life? Is there something you as either a presenter/instructor or student get that you can’t get from a net session using something like Webcast? I wonder if the costs out weigh the benefits.

Another concern I have about Second Life is the immersion factor. While I think it’s great to have the ability to immerse ones self into an environment, make connections, etc, I do see a caution there. I can’t help thinking about the people I know that are OBSESSED with Second Life and live in that environment so much that when talking to them it’s hard to know if they’re talking about the real world or Second Life. This leads me to this thought; “What’s the consequences of Second Life?” With every technological improvement comes a cost, what’s the cost here with Second Life besides money and is it worth it? Does Second Life give the training arena something they can’t get somewhere else?

I know I don’t know it all. I’m more that willing to hear other thoughts and insights as I’m not sure what I think about Second Life for training purposes.
Links:
Second Life II: The Value by Ton Zijlstra
Collaborative Building in Second Life by Unknown
IBM’s virtual pioneer by Stephen Shankland
Cisco Enters SecondLife by Unknown

I know it’s been forever since I’ve written, sadly I don’t have a lot going on with my life even though others think so.

Eric and I worked on the back yard this weekend. We, I should say Eric, hauled 6 yards of pea gravel to the backyard. Easy you might think but it wasn’t at all considering that to get to the back yard you have to go over gravel that the builders put down. Eric was AWESOME! He’d haul the gravel to the back and then I’d rake it so it would be level. It took us half of Saturday and most of Sunday. It looks good though. Now we can let Baylee out in the backyard and she can do her business (I get to poop scoop) and we can play fetch out there too and walk around. It’s nice. THe only bad thing is that since it’s pea gravel Baylee thinks she can go anywhere which we let her do so now I’ve got poop patrol but that’s OK. I think we’re done with the backyard for a while. There is so much we want to do with it and I think it’s important that we know what we want to do and how. Like we want a pond and a few other things… so we’ll see.

Eric’s parents we down a few weekends ago. It was a great visit. The whole family went out for Chinese dinner one night and then we just hung out the other day. I made a lemon meringue pie for us for dessert the night Eric made dinner.

Oh, I’ve been working outside work creating a web site for the scrapbook store I love. I’ve been working on it for a while. What’s nice about it is that I get paid in kind from the store so I can get tons of Scrapbook stuff for helping them out and forcing myself to learn more. It’s cool. I went live with the changes today. We’re having issues with the server and a few things working but we’re going to change providers to someone local so things will be better. Check it out… www.scrapbookattack.com I get to keep helping them and posting things monthly since they don’t know how so it should be pretty perfect. I get new products and they get a competent webmaster. WOO HOO!

Oh, we’ve been taking Baylee to training class. I think she’s the top of the class. She does so well. She’s so smart. The only drawback is that she’s the biggest dog there. The other dogs are a pug, a mini dachund and a Chihuahua. SO Baylee plays with the Pug but after a while Baylee gets so excited that we have to hold her for a while. Tonight is another training day. I hope she does as well there as she does at home.

OK, I don’t think I have much else to say and I should be working.