Web Tools on a Prim

 

This is a list of tools that we have played with in Second Life and the things we have found out.

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When adding to this list please include information about:-

Name - a link to the website

Display - whether the tool displays correctly and whether it updates properly when edited

Collaborate - if different users can work with the tool at the same time and see the same thing

Notes - other useful information

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Anything that uses a pop-up window doesn't work, as there is nowhere for the pop-up to display. Anything we use needs to avoid pop-ups. :-)

 

Mind Mapping

Mindomo

This seems to display OK but it doesn't seem possible to share this on a prim. Only one user can have lock on the workspace at any one time so people need to sign in and out each time they want to add something - not exactly practical. However, it's a nice tool and a bit more experimenting may show a way of making this collaborative.

I have played around with the various share options - it seems you can make it publicly editable - but it always seems to require a log-in.

 

MindMeister

Haven't put out for full edit, but mindmap created with this displayed properly on prim

 

Whiteboards

DabbleBoard

This works fine. Just use the URL of your drawing as the media on the prim. Nice clear shared whiteboard. Displays and shares just fine.

 

Twiddla 

This is another option that works well. I find the interface slightly easier to use. Displays and shares just fine.

 

skrbl 

This is another simple whiteboard, though this is better for text than the two previous ones. However, I haven't managed to get this working. It doesn't seem to display properly in SL and doesn't appear to function. I need to test it further.

 

board800

This is another whiteboard. It's fairly basic but it is simple to use and works well. One nice thing is that it allows you to switch between different pages - you can work on a number of different pages at time. This means, for instance that each student could be working on a different page and then share them with the whole group. (I haven't tried this out yet). Another good thing is the "Save" button. Clicking this downloads the current page to your hard drive. Handy for keeping/sharing board work.

 

FlockDraw

I haven't been able to get this to work properly. For some reason it doesn't seem to display very well on a prim - there is advertising on the left hand side of the screen and this seems to mean that there is not enough space to display the toolbar on the right hand side. Without the toolbar, FlockDraw doesn't really work...

 

Video Conferencing

Adobe ConnectNow

This displays fine and all the features work seem to work fine in second life. I was using the free version which allows three users to be logged in at a time. It is an easy way to share a screen and as Dan Holt commented on Teaching in Second Life, this can be used to display your SL browser live in SL to help students find their way around the browser.

I also streamed a video from my desktop into SL. This displayed well but there were issues with sound because the sound was being used by my AV in SL. Need to figure out how to get around this.

 

 

 

Collaborative Writing

Etherpad

This works perfectly using the ability to manage several users in real time on the same web page : you can log in at the bottom right with a name, choose a color, and them writein real time on the same web page, save, and share the url.

 

GoogleDocs

This is a tool I use a lot. And I'm glad to say it works just fine in SL. It's important that you make sure that you share the document so that everyone can see it, and that you allow everyone to edit the document. Once you've done that, all you need paste in the URL for the document, and that's it.

 

Thinklinkr

This is a rather cool outlining tool which could be very handy when working on student writing. Unfortunately there are some issues with the tool. I created an account and opened a new ThinkLinkr page. Using "Invite more collaborators" I published it to the web and set it so that anyone could edit the page. However this actually means that it is publicly editable by anyone with an account - so each user still needs an account and needs to log in. Not a big deal as the process is quick and simple. A bigger problem is that there seem to be synchronisation issues. When a SL user adds to the outline this is synchronised for users accessing the page from the web. Unfortunately, when a web user adds to the outline the page is not synchronised in SL - SL users need to click the reload button to see the latest version. This makes it very hard to use - users won't know when they need to reload the page. So for the time being this is not really a viable tool in SL.

 

TypeWith.me

This is a straightforward writing tool based on EtherPad. Most of the basic features work in SL. Unfortunately it is not possible to save the document from within SL; however one user could do this from their web browser and distribute a copy to others. The other problem that I encountered is that it doesn't seem possible to import a document - neither in world or in a web browser. This is a bit of a shortcoming, as collaborative writing tool needs to offer the possibility of working on existing documents.

 

EditGrid

This is a fully featured spreadsheet program. In order to display a spreadsheet in-world that is shareable, it is necessary to set up an account and create a new sheet that can be viewed and edited by anyone. Once you have done this you have a URL which can be pasted onto the prim. All aspects of this tool work as expected - data is synchronised correctly.

 

Slide Presentation

GoogleDocs

The presentation tools is very easy to use. An existing PPT can be uploaded or a new one created online. Then, you click the share button, get the URL (or the public URL). This shows fullscreen on a prim without any kind of editing and controls of Download What's Your Number like back and forward button work perfectly. However, it is not synchronous, which means that the slides would have to be numbered and presenter would have to say which slides s/he is on. 

 

Web Conferencing

DimDim

Was looking for way to do application sharing...at first it appeared that DimDim was working, but now having trouble getting multiple people to be able to log in successfully.

 

App Sharing

PowWowNow

Was looking for way to do application sharing...at first it appeared that this was working, but now having trouble getting more than one av to log in.

 

eLearning Modules

Articulate Presenter

Public Articulate Presenters modules played on a prim...to include sound.  Seems like they are fully functional.

 

 

Videos

YouTube can now be viewed directly without any conversion. To view a video fullscreen, I first tried clicking on the small arrow above the top right corner of the video (which turns red when you hover over it). However, this opened a separate fullscreen window on my computer behind the SL window and I couldn't get rid of Boxing Glove. Then I found out the link which clicking on this arrow creates. The difference between normal view link and fullscreen link is "_popup" after "watch". Here is an example: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5pKGnkcQHo Social Media Agency Manchester

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=H5pKGnkcQHo (this link shows the video fullscreen on a prim)

 

Other video portals also work now (e.g. vimeo, blip.tv)

Videos are not seen synchronously - in other words each user will have to start the video.

Note: If a portal is blocked in your country, district, or institution, it will not work in SL either.

 

Other

Moodle

Moodle displays fine and I can log in and update the site from within SL. I haven't tried this extensively. One problem is that quite a few features in Moodle involve pop-up windows; for example, assignment, which allow students to upload a file. However, Moodle 2.0 may be a bit different.

 

 

Outlook webmail - seems to function well, but when two avs logged in at same time, the sync between pages goes between them and messes things up.

 

Tweetgrid - able to bring pre-defined twitter feeds in