EOTB: Second Life University

 

On Wednesday, Linden Lab announced on their blog "Second Life University." These will be livestreams viewable on Youtube that can be seen at any time later made with the purpose of instructing residents about Second Life.

Welcome to Second Life University, a new project that aims to teach people all about the vast virtual world of Second Life! 

There are many videos and tutorials out there for Second Life already, including Second Life Tutorials on our YouTube channel as well as those created by our Residents, — and we’d like to consolidate information in one place as well as ensure that all content is up-to-date. We will begin with topics that are particularly relevant for newer users. This is a huge project that will take time, and we’re excited to work on and collaborate with the community to make it easily understandable and fun.

The first of the livestreams, "Viewer Basics," was yesterday, Thursday April 7 at 2PM SL time, hosted by Strawberry Linden. A better title might be "Official Viewer Basics" as the Firestorm viewer, which is more popular, isn't necessarily the same. It handles things like customizing the toolbar, editing one's profile, using the Destination Guide to explore places, and more.

In the forum thread on the topic, there seemed to be qualified overall approval, one saying, "Depending on the quality of the courses for 'advanced learning and building,' I think this could be a good thing.  In fact, I think it's a LONG-overdue thing.  LL should always have taken responsibility for teaching SL at all levels with this sort of program.  So, congratulations LL! But I think this announcement would have been MUCH more graceful had it acknowledged the resident-run universities that stepped into the vast knowledge gap over time, and still offer inworld in-person interactive classes where actual humans answer actual questions." She would bring up two places to learn inworld, Builders Brewery, and Caledon Oxbridge University. 

There will be more such videos in the future, some may be hosted by different Lindens.

To check the blog post, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Second Life's Entry Areas: Learning And Social Islands

When yours truly decided to check out Linden Lab's new starting avatars for Second Life, the method done was to do so with a new alt, and as a result discovering the starting locations for newcomers, Learning Island and Social Island, had changed. So what are this new areas like, and how do they compare to previous first areas for newbies? This reporter took a large number of pictures to give you the readers a good look.

Read the article in Places.

Learning Island: Second Life's New Starting Area

Everyone new to Second Life starts out at a place just them. Over time, this has changed from the beach islands from Second Life's heyday to high tech buildings, to last year's simple tutorial and portal. First impressions do not count for everything, but a bad one can be difficult to overcome. And with the first newcomer areas having only a ten percent retention rate, the Lab has been trying to find something better. Recently, Second Life Newser found out about the new place for those brand new to the Grid: Learning Island. So one reporter created an alt to check it out. So was it an improvement?

Read more in Places.

Feed a Smile at the Lavender Field

Grey Lupindo reports on the "Feed a Smile" charity at Lavender Field. Representing a real-life charity based in Kenya, Brique Topaz runs both the organization and the location on the Grid, which offers both a nature area one can relax in, and a concert area for raising money during events.

Read more in Places.