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August 09, 2007, 02:13 PM ET
Educators Debate Voice in Second Life
In the virtual world Second Life, digital characters, or avatars, typically communicate using text. Their hands pantomime tapping a computer keyboard while messages appear on the computer screens of their human operators. It’s a strange sight that some have labeled “air typing.”
Last week Linden Lab, the operator of Second Life, unveiled a much-anticipated voice-chat feature that allows avatars to communicate using the voices of their operators. Many educators have hailed the move. Andy Powell, of Britain’s Eduserv, a nonprofit group that promotes information technology in research and teaching, has even made a YouTube video about how to activate the voice feature.
Alan Levine, a vice president of the New Media Consortium, who has tested the use of voice in Second Life over the last few months, said in a mailing list for educators that “there is a powerful connectedness that happens when a human voice is part of the mix.”
But others have noted drawbacks: People have to be more careful about what they say in Second Life when they are in public or children are nearby, unruly avatars can be more disruptive by interrupting conversations with obnoxious noises or messages, fast talkers can be unintelligible, and the feature is useless to those who are deaf.—Andrea L. Foster
Categories: Virtual-Worlds
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