NUS Second Life, where the sky’s not the limit

By Seow Hui Hong

Honours year, Communications and New Media

The writer’s avatar in Second Life.

BEING a higher flyer had never been so easy. Now every student in NUS can be a high flyer at the push of the button. Soaring through the university’s skies in NUS Second Life, our new virtual campus where the sky’s not the limit. Besides being a really neat hangout with facilities (like a “Wild Wild Wet!” pool and having a beautiful beach we can even jet-ski along) that are almost too cool for school, NUS Second Life represents a greater ideal. Where a university campus can be co-created, co-owned and co-built by students. That led to the birth of NUS RidgeCat, the student management of NUS Second Life which actively partakes in the operations of the varsity’s virtual campus. For the first time in the world students can co-run a university campus!

I was really thrilled when the NUS Computer Centre started this unprecedented initiative in late 2007 and I was exhilarated to be able to join the pioneering team. Over the past months our team worked in due diligence to ignite the passion of building a spontaneous community which effervescent life and energy. The rite of passage into our establishment had been trying but invigorating, now after eight months of anticipation the NUS RidgeCat is finally at the threshold of the first official student-run team’s formation. Geared with a shared vision, we aspire to mould NUS Second Life into an integrative space which supports a unified albeit ecologically diverse and self-sustaining NUS community.

And closer to my heart, NUS Second Life epitomises what NUS means to me personally. Three years ago when all was dim NUS opened its door to me through the holistic evaluation of its discretionary admission. Being in my honours year now and having taken on as the student lead of this project amongst the myriad of opportunities I pursued in campus have been extraordinary experiences to me as it could not be all possible if I wasn’t given the chance to enter the university. The enabling opportunities made possible by the various NUS initiatives have been empowering and it is my personal mission to be able to actuate enthusiasm and advance them with my peers. My leadership role in NUS Second Life draws a gratifying closure for the enriching varsity life I have in NUS. But that doesn’t speak for the end as with NUS Second Life, alumni members can have an existential second life with NUS and the active sightings in our virtual campus now are already more often than you think so I anticipate joining the “haunting” soon!

In quintessence, NUS Second Life and the rise of NUS RidgeCat encapsulate this spirit of a nurturing education which inspires; it amalgamates the various stakeholders in this metamorphosis of the participatory learning landscape driven by the NUS community. Not only exemplifying the paradigm shift which propels us towards the apex of the knowledge economy where up-to-date knowledge transfer is predicated upon collaborative exchange and sharing in communities, it broadens the scope of education. In that I feel, the varsity has not just given the man a fish or teach him how to fish, but going beyond that to revolutionise the fishing industry. That is NUS Second Life. That is the difference between them n’us.

Click here to get your Second Life.