AI Companions in Second Life by Helena Galani

Hi Helena,

2025-02-07 17:15:47 UTC

Could you please add me to the group Edunation? I wasn't able to attend the lesson but I've just viewed the rocording. I can't do much since I am not part of the group, e.g.build something.

Thank you,

Karla

My Companion and Me

2025-02-09 07:18:52 UTC

Here's a screenshot of my avatar next to her AI companion (the 3D orange triangle) in Second Life. In addition to adding color to the triangle, I created a script that makes it greet residents when touched or when someone is nearby. The greeting says something like: "Hi, .... How are you? I'm...", as shown in the screenshot.

While exploring the island, I interacted with Randall Renoir's "Helena's Holodeck" companion, which gave me teleportation options. I decided to visit Chat Isle, and it was pretty cool! I've attached a screenshot of that as well.

Maria

Relaxing on Chat Isle

2025-02-09 07:19:59 UTC

Maria

AI Agent in FrameVR (Lucia)

2025-02-14 16:43:19 UTC

"Charles Dickens" is the only AI agent I managed to create during the course, but I am glad to say that I was able to show it to a couple of students and have their feedback (while we were playing with it, a naughty teenager entered the space, so that I had to add a password to protect it!)

My students were curious and interested, but only one of the other 24 I gave the password to ever entered the space.

The lesson is this: the Agent goes with a robust teaching scaffolding, as it happens with any other digital tool we use in our profession. When students are given the choice to enter virtual worlds, I suppose they choose to enter their favourite ones and not the spaces created by their teachers, unless there is a good reason (due assignments or a fascinating game...)

Frame VR is an unpretentious virtual environment, compared to Second Life, but it has the huge advantage of being simple to manage and simple to enter. It can be used in schools that are not rich in modern and powerful devices, and by students who use an average desktop with an ordinary graphic card.

Thank you for teaching me to use it!