Reflections on Each Letter:

Due to the differences of each persons' knowledge about Second Life and their relationship to me, changes were necessary in each letter.  In the first letter I kept the tone informal because I was writing to my mom.  Because of our close relationship I tried to relate Second Life to experiences that we shared.  This would provide her an opportunity to understand Second Life and how it relates to me personally.  The second letter was to Antoine who is part of my editing group in class, thus he understands the capabilities and uses of Second Life.  Because of this knowledge of Second Life I discusses my personal experiences with Second Life, instead of the world itself.  The third letter was to my political science professor.  For this letter I tried to relate Second Life to my political science class because then Second Life becomes important and useful to my professor.  I changed each letter to make Second Life relatable and important to each recipient of my letters.

Letter to a Parent:

Hi Mom,

For my English 103 class we recently had to create an Avatar for use in Second Life.     Second Life is a virtual world in which you can do things that you could never do in the real world, like go to the Sistine chapel and then immediately go to International Space Flight Museum to gather information about NASA.   When I first learned that we were going to be using Second Life in class, I was nervous because all of my previous notions about Second Life were negative.  This is from the common and incorrect stereotype that gamers are "30 year old men living in their mom's basement"  and television shows like The Office depict virtual worlds negatively. However, I realize now that the virtual world is a very useful educational tool.   With Second Life, you can go and see things that you could nave not even imagined all in 3-D so it looks like the real thing.  You could be walking down the streets on New Orleans and then teleport to the University of Richmond’s island to have a meeting with your teacher.   Then you can go to the Globe Theater and all other interesting and informative places.  I noticed all of the interesting places that you can visit in Second Life because I have been to many of them, like the Globe Theater, in real life.   Second Life is a great place that you can use for all purposes and you can go places you never though you could go to with just a click of your mouse.

Love,

Jordan

Response:

Jordan,

Second Life sounds really interesting. I’m happy you are visiting places that you have already been too. I bet that you learned a lot!  I’ve never been to any of those places, but I bet that they are really interesting!  I can not wait to here more about it!  Talk to you soon!

Love,

Mom

Letter to Classmate:

Dear Antoine,

So, I just finished my part of the scavenger hunt for our English class.  I was amazed at all of the places you could go in Second Life!  You can go to Mexico, the Sistine Chapel, and even the Globe Theater.   I think the best thing about Second Life is the ability to travel anywhere you want with the click of a button.   I was walking around in Second Life and noticed how someone was talking in German.  So it got me thinking at how interesting it is to have the ability to talk to people from other cultures and then get their opinion about things, like the Globe Theatre or the Sistine Chapel.  Do you like visiting all of these interesting places and seeing other people’s reactions to them?

Sincerely,  

Jordan S.

Response:  None yet  

Letter to a professor:

Dear Professor Simpson,

For my English 103 class we are using a virtual world called Second Life.  With Second Life you have the opportunity to travel around the world to visit places like the Sistine Chapel, the Globe Theatre, and the International Space Flight Museum.  This got me to thinking about how much we can learn about politics using Second Life.  We have the ability to go to all of these places and talk to people from other cultures about what we see and how these things affect or world.   I thought that Second Life provided multiple forums for anyone to discuss politics and Second Life provides you with the opportunity to travel to places, like Morocco, where you can learn about different political systems.   I can not wait to see how political science exists in this virtual world and how political science influences Second Life.

Thanks,  

Jordan S.

Response:  None yet

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