Global Agenda series debuts in Second Life simulcast
UD’s ‘island’ on Second Life includes an amphitheatre within sight of a realistic representation of Memorial Hall and Mentor’s Circle.
5:01 p.m., March 19, 2008--The University of Delaware's Global Agenda speaker series has gone where no UD speaker series has ever gone, with an appearance on Second Life, an Internet-based 3-D virtual world entirely created by its residents.

UD entered the world of virtual reality from Mitchell Hall on March 12, when New York Times environment writer Andrew Revkin's presentation, “The Media and Climate Change,” became the first UD event to be simulcast in Second Life.

During the simulcast, visitors from beyond the UD campus were able to watch, listen and interact with the Global Agenda program that appeared on a digital UD campus called an “island.” The island and its amphitheatre, within sight of a realistic representation of Memorial Hall and Mentor's Circle, had not been previously open to the public.

The spring 2008 Global Agenda series, titled “Boiling Point: International Politics of Climate Change,” is organized and mediated by Ralph Begleiter, Rosenberg Professor of Communication and Distinguished Journalist in Residence at UD. All lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. on the designated Wednesday, and are held in Mitchell Hall.

The next lecture, slated for Wednesday, March 26, features Janet Hall, senior policy adviser at the United Nations Foundation in Washington, D.C., who will lecture on special challenges faced by the poorest nations in the fight against global warming.

“We're planning to continue using Second Life for the remainder of the Global Agenda series this semester,” Begleiter said. “Because it is so new for us, I feel bound to ask permission from each speaker to do this. At some point, however, I think this could become as routine as videotaping the events and podcasting them, something we have been doing at UD for a few years now.”

Begleiter said he had heard about Second Life before, but had never checked it out until Debra Jeffers, a consultant in UD's Informational Technologies-User Services, told him that UD was building a site, or island, that was being professionally designed for educational purposes.

“Debra Jeffers asked me if I'd consider launching UD's Second Life presence with a Global Agenda event,” Begleiter said. “I jumped at the chance to use this new technology for something educational.”

Although using Second Life is time-consuming for novices, Begleiter said the site is intriguing and definitely has its potential as an educational and informational tool, particularly for distance learning students.

“Traditional distance learning seems to involve very traditional classrooms with traditional lectures, mostly with little opportunity for 'live' interaction,” Begleiter said. “Second Life offers the chance to engage in discussion and Q & A with lecturers among people all around the world with a 'live' interactive setting that is much more attractive than the traditional distance learning classroom.”

Jeffers said that UD selected New Media Consortium, an international not-for-profit consortium of nearly 250 learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies, for their management and design expertise in creating UD's Second Life "island."

“They did a beautiful job,” Jeffers said. “The UD Second Life island has a great representation of Memorial Hall. The site [http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20Delaware/56/151/26]also has an underwater classroom and a tunnel that users can explore.”

Begleiter added that although Second Life technology is still in its infancy and requires very high quality Internet access and computer power, it has great potential as a teaching and informational tool.

“For now, we just have to start experimenting,” Begleiter said. “I'm encouraged that several universities have begun to use the technology in productive and innovative ways, and we should be proud that UD is among them.”

Upcoming Global Agenda presentations include:

Wednesday, March 26, Janet Hall, senior policy adviser at the United Nations Foundation in Washington, D.C., will lecture on special challenges faced by the poorest nations in the fight against global warming.

Wednesday, April 9: John Byrne, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at UD and Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at UD, as well as a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Panel on Climate Change, will lecture on the importance of making sustainable energy into public policy.

Wednesday, April 23: “Making Climate Change Policy for the U.S. Government” with Daniel Reifsnyder, deputy assistant secretary of state for environment. He is responsible for a broad range of issues related to environmental protection and conservation. Reifsnyder has been developing, negotiating and implementing climate change policy for the United States government since 1989. He was a member of the U.S. diplomatic team at the Bali climate change conference last
December.

Wednesday, May 7: John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Company and adviser to the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy, will lecture on achieving energy security through sound public policy.

Wednesday, May 14: “Implications for National Security” with Maj. Gen. Richard L. Engel USAF (Ret), who is U.S. Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Science and Technology in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He has served as a senior military analyst with the Strategic Assessments Group of the Office of Transnational issues of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The series is free and open to the public. For more information, visit [www.udel.edu/global].

Article by Jerry Rhodes