Media Exercise 3

From LIS5313

Second Life or Photo Sharing   (Due: Jan. 29)

Contents 1 Task 2 Steps 3 Submission Instructions 4 Resources

Task

• This week's exercise involves a choice between the following:

• Exercise A: Second Life (Before you select Exercise A, be sure to review the System Requirements for Second Life.)

OR

• Exercise B: Photo Sharing

Steps

Exercise A: Second Life

• This exercise is intended to familiarize you with Second Life and encourage reflection about the potential uses of virtual worlds for social networking and information services. The task includes visiting a library, museum, or educational space in Second Life, as well as attending a public event in Second Life. It also includes taking screen shots in Second Life to share with the class.

• If you are new to Second Life (SL), create a free account and follow the steps to download the software and begin using SL. To get started, go to http://www.secondlife.com and click on the large button that says “Join Now. Membership is Free.” When you launch the program and you are prompted for your first and last name, use the "second life" first and last name you selected when you created your account (not your real first and last names). When you first run the program from your computer, you will be sent to “Orientation Island,” where you will be guided through a set of introductory tutorials about being in SL. Plan to spend at least an hour getting acquainted with SL basics. (Its easy to spend longer at Orientation Island if you choose to do more than "the basics.")

• Once you’re familiar with SL basics, do both of the following:

1. Visit at least one library, museum, or educational space in SL and learn about it by exploring the space and talking to the people there. If you're already familiar with such spaces in SL, find somewhere to visit you haven't been before.
2. Attend at least one public event in SL and participate in the event. (If you can't attend the event in its entirety, that's OK. Test out the event, and then stay for as long as you have time and interest in attending.)

• While you’re engaged in these activities, take periodic screen shots of what you see (this is a capability built into the SL application and is easy to use).

• After you complete these steps, respond to Dr. Tripp’s blog post on Second Life with a short comment in which you provide a description of your SL activities and observations, and a reflection on the current and/or potential uses of SL for education or information services. Your comment should also include 1-2 sample screen shots from your time in Second Life (small size). To do this, you might need to review the blog tutorial on How to embed images from flickr in a blog post. Note that the tutorial applies to embedding images in both blog posts and comments.

Exercise B: Photo Sharing

• This exercise is intended to acquaint you with photo sharing as a form of social networking. The instructions focus on flickr, a popular photo sharing site. You can do the exercise using a different photo sharing site if you like, but only if the site offers good examples of social networking (in addition to photo sharing).
• Early in the week, begin by searching for and visiting a few flickr pages that belong to libraries, museums, or other information agencies. Take note how they are using the site, and what they seem to use it for.
• Next, search and explore Flickr groups, with attention to groups that represent your professional, recreational, and photographic interests.
• Choose 1-2 active Flickr groups to join that you are genuinely interested in (in terms of the type of photography and/or the type of social group they represent), and contribute at least one photo to the group(s).
• Follow the group's activity for the week, and take note how the members interact with each other in the group (e.g. if/how they use comment and/or discussion features of the site).
• After you complete these steps, respond to Dr. Tripp’s blog post on Photo Sharing with a short comment in which you provide a description of your photo sharing activities and observations, and a reflection on the current and/or potential uses of photo sharing for education or information services. Your comment should also include a link to the group(s) you joined, and 1-2 examples of photos you shared with your group (small size). To do this, you might need to review the blog tutorial on How to embed images from flickr in a blog post. Note that the tutorial applies to embedding images in both blog posts and comments.

Submission Instructions

• When you have completed the exercise, please submit the assignment in Blackboard > Assignments > Media Exercise 3. Click "View/Complete Assignment." In the "Comments" box, state whether you completed exercise A or B. Click submit.
• The Exercise is due at midnight EST on the due date (Jan. 29).
• Note: You will only get credit for your work if you complete the assignment submission process in Blackboard.

Resources

• Use this Second Life wiki page to find/share suggestions with each other about places to visit, events to attend this week, and other help and tutorial resources you've found useful related to Second Life.