Second Life - Creating and Naming Your Avatar

Second Life

Your New Avatar

Before choosing your avatar name, you may reflect on the name you wish to identify with and for teaching and learning reasons you may wish to explore the possibility of using a gender neutral name.

Websites for gender neutral names can be found at:

Unisex Names - General discussion

Names

Now Second Life only allows you to define your first name and then you can choose the last name from a pick list of allowable second names.

To access the creation of your Second Life avatar use the following URL:

Second Life - Avatar Creation

(http://secure-web20.secondlife.com/join/)

You need to complete the following:

[1] Enter your First name

[2] Select Your Last Name

[3] Check for availability

[4] Enter your date of birth for security checking in case you forget your password.

[5] Enter a valid email address.

You can use an existing email address or create an email account specifically for the use of your avatar.

It is also recommended that you keep note of the avatar name, email address and your chosen date of birth for the account; if different from your real one!

Created by G. Heap April 2008

CRITE Second Life Blog - Introduction

CRITE Second Life Introduction

Welcome to CRITE's blog on Second Life.

The purpose of this blog is to provide pointers to introductory Second Life information, advice and guidance on the "how to" get up and running in Second Life.

The idea is to use existing web resources as much as possible and to build on the knowledge which is public and widely available through the official Linden Labs Second Life website, blog and wiki:

Second Life Official Website

Second Life Blog

Second Life Wiki

Its important to be aware that there exist an abundance of educational resources, available on the Internet and some very active international educational online communities:

SimTeach

SLCN.TV (Best Practises in Education)

Second Life Educators

Second Life Grid

Extensive Machinima is also available placed on "You Tube" and recommended Machinma tutorials are: Torley Lindens SL tutorials.

As part of Second Life introduction you are taken to Orientation and Help Islands and also it is worth visiting the Welcome Areas and Info Hubs; this will be dealt with by a another blog.

Be advised that the Computer and Graphics card requirements stated by Linden Labs reflect the use of a modern operating systems for the PC/Mac and Linux.

Now it is possible to run the Second Life software on less than the minimum specifications, though this is not recommended (also referred to as the 'client' and the 'viewer') but in each instance you in each instance you will need to test this for yourself.

Also note that the client viewer is updated on a regular basis making higher and higher demands of the computer running the software.

The Second Life website gives in-depth information on Computer Requirements for the PC and the Mac.

Second Life System Requirements

The Second Life website is also abundant with useful information.

What is Second Life ?

You will also need a dedicated connection to the Internet.

Be advised for people wishing to run this within their workplace or educational institutional you will need to make sure that, if you are using an internal firewall, certain ports will have to be opened for you to access Second Life from behind your internal firewall.

Second Life Firewall Configuration

You will also need permissions to access the Second Life software (client or viewer) from the Second Life website and appropriate permission to install onto your computer.

Second Life Downloads

In-world issues on performance or "lag" will be dealt with in a separate blog.

Created by G. Heap April 2008