"get the hat"

 

User & Administrator guide on how to get into Second Life

and how to introduce interactions between 2D and 3D environments

 

Overview about Your Experience Preparations Required Computer Set-up get a Headset: for speaking and listening... Install the Quicktime™ software Install the Second Life™ software  How to find "AVALON Learning" island – print this help page First steps in Second Life Your first quest – “get the hat”

 

This document is licensed under a "Creative Commons Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Austria“ Licence (“Creative Commons Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Österreich”). Further details see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/at/

 

Author: Klaus Hammermüller, Robert Danzmayer

 

 

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

 

Second Life is a registered trademark of LindenLab Corp., San Francisco other mentioned trademarks are respected properties of their owners.

 

Remark:

 

The following document is written to address a potential user. This is done by a "quest", an assigned task to find a specific place (where AVALON learning events take place) and acquire a specific item (the "hat" which interfaces to the learning management system). This quest helps on-boarding participants to AVALON events and serves as a "quick start" user guide.

 

As the user interface from Second Life has changed, some general screen-shots from the first chapter have been removed from this document to avoid confusion.

 

 

Overview about Your Experience

 

To join:

• Consider some set-up time to prepare your computer (approximately 40 min)

• Do the initial “get the hat” quest to get an impression of the environment.

 

During your participation:

1. Scenes: Everything is built on small scenarios like on a ad-hoc theatre stage (you will be one of the actors :-) and usually last 25 minutes each.

2. You are the focus: The scenarios are designed to allow you to co-create your experience. Some people are looking for the glamour of a stage, some like to work more behind the curtain. It's up to you!

3. Projects: In small teams you can develop a topic of your choice together with native speakers like producing a movie, a marketing presentation, a drama play, … we have quite a big portfolio for you to choose!

4. Role-Plays: Some scenes will provide a special atmosphere to inspire you to live a role and tell a story

5. Quiz-Shows: Some of the “serious drilling” exercises will be really fun. Enjoy!

6. Bonus material and more: There are additional learning materials. These are designed for self-study but we facilitate meeting others to do the study together whenever possible. Some will be presented “in class” to provide some information about theory and practice in conversation.

7. Continuous feedback about your improving abilities is built in.

 

This service is beta:

• We are looking forward your feedback and thank you in advance for your support.

 

Payment:

1. This is a not-for-profit project, but we have to pay some of the trainers. Therefore we will collect some money from all participants upfront (not if your attendance is organized by another organization like universities or companies).

2. Money back guarantees, if you are not satisfied or need not attend.

 

Trainer or student - join us in one of these roles … or both!

1. In some scenarios you may be the learner, in others you may be the expert. Depending on your desire we are looking forward to your participation in one of these roles … or both!

2. We are planning to provide a bonus system to reimburse those who are providing their time and expertise for the learning experience of others. In the same way offset the student fees for those who act in both roles.

 

Preparations

 

To prepare your computer you will need:

1. Approximately 40 minutes time for software installation, test and get the hat.

2. A computer with Internet connection and some 3D graphic capabilities (just try if it works with your computer).

3. Important: Get a headset for to make your voice heard! Don't rely on the built-in microphone.

4. Install Quicktime™ to be able to receive streamed video “in world” and install Second Life™ as the virtual world environment we use – see next chapter.

5. Take your first steps spend 10 minutes to get comfortable – we are here to assist you  – see chapter 4.

6. Get the hat! – see chapter 5 (also jump here if you are already familiar with Second Life ™ )

 

No license fees or cost besides Internet connectivity are required to perform these tasks.

 

Required Computer Set-up

get a Headset: for speaking and listening...

 

… even if your computer has a built in microphone. This increases the voice quality for you and all other participants and avoids painful audio feedback-loops.

A headset enables you to talk to other people in high quality:

• A headset with USB connector is preferred because it does not require an additional configuration - just plug and play

• A headset without USB (using the line-in connector) and a Microsoft Windows™ operating system might require to activate the “microphone boost”:

• Find the “Volume Controls” in your “Accessories” (Click “Start” – “Programme” – “Accessories” – “Entertainment” – “Volume Controls”)

• In the Menu of “Volume Controls” select “Options” and “Advanced Controls”

• In the “Microphone” Column which is visible when the “Advanced Control” option is activated, hit the “Advanced” Button

• In the “Advanced Controls for Microphone” check the “Microphone Boost” checkbox.

• Remarks: If the computer has more than one Line-In connectors, make sure that the Line-In connector with the attached microphone is enabled.

 

 

Install the Quicktime™ software

 

Some learning content will be provided using streaming media. This may be a facial video feed showing a language trainer, or it may be realtime interactive content.

• Start a Web-browser and type in http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download and follow the instructions to install the software provided

 

Install the Second Life™ software

 

All learning activities are located in a virtual world where the participants will meet each other live.

1. Start a Web-browser and type in https://join.secondlife.com and follow the instructions to install the software provided.

Remarks: Maybe you will need to register your account at home because the number of accounts one can register at every Internet-address is limited. Thus, if there are already many users registered under the Internet-address of your current location you might be blocked.

You might be invited to register a “premium account” or join some communities. No need for that. Just stick to the free basic account, everything else can be added, if required, later.

2. Start the Second Life™ client by clicking the “Second Life” icon on your desktop.

3. Login using the account you created in step 1. You will need to accept the usage agreement from Linden Lab, then allow your client to use “Second Life Voice” and to use “Streaming Media”.

Remark: Your firewall might ask you to accept “Second Life”, “Second Life Voice” and the “Quicktime viewer” to access the Internet. You will need to allow these applications to access the Internet permanently.

 

 How to find "AVALON Learning" island – print this help page

1. Start your Computer

 

 

          Username: .................. Password: ..................

 

2. To enter Second Life start a Web-browser and enter http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20LEARNING/12/206/77 .

 

On the Website which will open you will find an orange button called “teleport now”. Click this one...

 

Your Second Life software will start and you can sign in.

 

Secondlife-name: .................. Password: ..................

 

If you are already signed in, you may be prompted again to “teleport” to a place called “AVALON Learning”. That’s us. Welcome!

 

Common problems

• Login does not work – try again and check http://blog.secondlife.com sometimes maintenance is blocking the service;

• Voice does not work – check if it is enabled in your preferences menue. Restarting the client may help;

• Funny graphics everything needs to downloaded. Make sure you have at least full 3G phone (UMTS) bandwidth, and – if you have a choice – use a cable to connect to the internet for more speed.

How to find us and get help

• When things are happening: have a look at the calendar http://avalon-project.ning.com;

• If you get lost in Second Life– push the “Map” button and search for “Forum Europe”, then teleport;

• You need help inside Second Life you might also send an instant message to the “AVALON Learning” group;

• If this does not help - look up who is available, we have our phone system integrated we can use Skype in emergency cases.

 

Skype-name: .................. Password: ..................

 

• You cannot be heard -- check your headset by calling to “echo123” with Skype. If you cannot hear yourself your headset is not properly installed;

• Look for news – maybe just something happened what explains your experience: http://avalon-project.ning.com/

 

First steps in Second Life

 

Basically start with launching Second Life™ as described in the previous section. We are available to assist you (for service times please see the calendar on http://avalon-project.ning.com )

The your first time in Second Life is different:

1. You will find yourself on “Help Island”, which is a place to learn how to navigate. We just want to test, if your avatar is materializing in Second Life™ and you can move around a by using the arrow keys. It may take some seconds until the scene makes sense for you to view, as the Linden Lab server are situated in the U.S. and things need time to download.

Optional: It will take you approximately 10 minutes to do this basic training, follow the instructions you find there.

In addition there are some nice video tutorials to learn about how use Second Life™. Have a look at them – they are short and funny: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Video_Tutorials

2. Test the built in voice-chat tool to communicate. Dependent on how you configured your client (default is “push to talk”) you need to activate your microphone before speaking like a walkie-talkie. If you speak you can see a green bubble hovering about your avatar's head which contracts with the volume you speak at.

Remark: If voice doesn't work there are two places to look: First in the microphone setting of your operating system and second in the voice chat settings of the Second Life client's preferences (which can be found in the Edit menu). There you can also adjust the input level.

3. Test if you have the media control available. If you have installed the Quicktime viewer correctly, you should find a movie symbol and a start-button next to the Push-to-talk-button as well.

 

 

Your first quest – “get the hat”

 

This hat is a fine one. It will help you and guide you through our school and all the other quests and stuff. It is your most important tool in our school.

 

Of cause, first you have to register with the “AVALON community”. You can do this only by getting that hat.

 

1. Start a Web-browser, enter http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20LEARNING/12/206/77  and hit the orange “teleport now” button in the centre of the page.

 

If things worked out fine, Second Life should have started, and you should find yourself on an island called “AVALON learning”.

 

2. Look out for the red reception desk with the hat.

3. Buy the hat for 0L$ (this means you get if for zero bucks): Click with the right mouse button on the hat on the desk. (Mac user: hold the apple key while clicking). Then select the “buy” option …

 

Congratulations! The hat is yours! Now you have to wear it. All stuff you own gets into your inventory. You will soon have loads of stuff there. It accumulates like in an oversized handbag. Now the trickiest part of this quest: Get the hat out of your inventory again!

 

 

4. Click the “Inventory” button on the lower right of your Second Life client.

5. The inventory opens and type “AVALON-talkademy hat” in the search field.

6. Click with the right mouse button on the inventory entry named “AVALON-talkademy hat…” and select “attach to” and “skull”.

 

Voila! Now you should wear your hat on your head. Your hat is red now. Still there are some things left to do. You have to learn about how to use the hat next:

Your hat can talk to you using the chat commands. This way you can also command your hat to do some things for you. But you might also simply click on the hat to get access to the commands:

7. Click on your hat.

8. Click on “register” button from the blue pop-up window.

 

The click on the “register” button will ask you to open the registration page of our learning management system to organize quests and classes.

 

9. Please provide us with:

• An e-mail address of yours to notify you about classes we launch. We will send you an e-mail with a link to validate the address, please check your mail for that mail;

• The country you are currently are to calculate the time-zones correctly for invitations;

• Optional -- your mobile phone number if you like to receive text notifications about quests you have enrolled;

• Optional -- languages you would like to learn (we plan to add languages every other week);

• Optional -- a rough estimate when is the best time for you to attend

 

Thank you and welcome as a participant of AVALON Learning experience! Your hat should be green after you confirmed your registration by clicking the link in e-mail we send to you - now and your first quest is successfully completed!