The Second Life (SL) assignment had challenges I wasn't expecting but definitely turned into a learning situation, especially for me. My SL COE project was on accessibly and distance education and features stations focusing on the topic. I decided to try and simulate student set-ups for receiving and using SL. My usual set-up has high speed internet access via the UH and my computer has mega-RAM, high speed processing, and multiple large screen monitors, making SL relatively easy to use. I tried using a WiFi 3G phone company internet access device with a 14" basic laptop computer. Technically, SL is suppose to help the user adjust the settings to fit their configuration; for the most part this worked but the small monitor soon became cluttered with SL windows showing how the connection and other aspects of the program where working. Next, I found out my 3G internet connection had time periods of very low bandwidth action (usually between 6-9 pm) something I had experienced with cable connections at the same location but not to same degree. Location had a large bearing on how well the service worked (at my weekend place, I was able to stream full feature movies). This resulted in making the entire SL experience, cumbersome and not very enjoyable.
I am looking at accessible collaboration technologies and have found a profound lack of available and easy to use programs. I'm sure there are ones out there.
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