Second Life skills required of course participants

This page contains list of useful SL skills to have. We have ordered them according to skills that will be needed in order to participate in the activities in a particular week. We also added some skills that might not be absolutely necessary but still useful so that in the end you will have a good range of skills when you want to start teaching. The best way to go about learning these skills is to first watch a tutorial and then log in to SL and try it out. Sometimes, you will need one or two partners to try out skills so make friends quickly ;-) 

Week 1:

• Outside of Second Life: Signing up to, configuring one's profile and navigating the courses grouply page
• Configuring your PC/laptop: see Barbosa's system requirements guidelines
• Logging in to Second Life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBWeRkuyUGE).
• Avatar care 1: editing appearance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4v6kK0ZKwE).
• Avatar care 2: editing profile (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLLeAirhwG8).
• Locomotion 1: Using SLURLs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceIzvl0TYVc).
• Locomotion 2: walking and flying (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK2bczvyHoM).
• Communication: using public text and voice chat; see Barbosa's audio setup guidelines
• Controlling camera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDD13njjCE.
• Using the pie menu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuA41VKqzZg.

Week 2:

• Locomotion: teleporting & creating landmarks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL5aqEERlrI).
• Communication 1: a series of video tutorials explaining the communication features of SL ( http://slexperiments.edublogs.org/2009/11/15/how-to-communicate-in-second-life/)
• Communication 2: private chat (IM - Instant Message) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSpNYwcvwD4 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh7qIH0NcDE).
• Spatial orientation: world map (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOYwHT7Xag).
• Searching 1: in world (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAkho5z8TSw).
• Searching 2: in inventory (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLpcjhbQRdc).
• Photography: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prno9o9n2ic).
• HUDs: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3rsGO2Wqho).

Week 3:

• Viewing skills: hover tips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd-LMggqNHk).
• Locomotion: navigating in small spaces(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63bxfweC5iE&NR=1).
• Spatial orientation: mini map (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEeVrX-qMs).
• Communication 3: notecards (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwSIYGhZbT4).
• Communication 4: recording tect chat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O42SKhXesQo).
• Inventory skills: organizing, moving, deleting, searching, Library (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AULw9Oa_1Bw).

Week 4:

• Communication 1: recording voice chat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LylShCJklJI).
• Communication 2: group IMs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_JHUvUKd4M).
• Advanced environment settings: time-of-day selection (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbKvUlYgf1s).
• Advanced Menu (ctrl+alt+D): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrndvDk-pzY.
• Uploading textures: http://youtube.com/watch?v=r8w4Zw00UaA.

Week 5:

• Second Life skills previously learned.
• How to select an object in order to edit it (reposition, resize, take back, etc).
• How to create (rez) an object or take one out of one's inventory and how to delete (derez) it.
• How to prepare slides, upload and show them in SL
• Presenting slides (images) in SL with the Presentation HUD and Screen.
• How to create and join a group in SL

More useful tips

• Newbie tips

• Second Life Tutorial by Graham Davies (Word document)

• Keyboard shortcuts for SL (pdf)

• Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts (pdf)

• Second Life Quickstart (pdf)

• Newbie Woman's SL Survival Kit

• ISTE island (beginner orientation, teacher support and resources; within SL)

• The Virtual Learning Library on Info Island; within SL

• Alphabetical list of some of the menu items, buttons and tabs of the SL viewer created by Dennis Newson (some might look slightly different now in the latest version).