virtually where? are 3-d virtual worlds such as second life having an impact on learning?

July

20

08

Andy Powell, Eduserv FoundationSL: Art Fossett

andy.powell@eduserv.org.ukwww.eduserv.org.uk/foundation

Virtually where?

Are 3-D virtual worlds such as Second Life having an impact on learning?

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 2

Outline

• a presentation in and of Second Life but intended to apply to virtual worlds more generally1. some issues to think about

2. Sloodle

3. SL usage in UK HE and FE

4. the wider MUVE environment

5. concluding remarks

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 3

some issues to think about

1. some issues to think about

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 4

Orientation can be disorienting

• high percentage of new users never make it past the SL orientation experience…

• why?

• technical issues

• identity issues

• coolness issues

• orientation isconfusing

NMC Orientation: http://sl.nmc.org/create.php

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 5

Technical issues…

• the SL client may require special ports to be open in your firewall

– are you or your techies willing to do this?

• the SL client requires a reasonably high end machine (memory, processor, graphics card)

• a well spec’d gaming machine will give best results

– can you (or your students) afford this?

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 6

Identity issues…

• every avatar has a name

• but in SL it’s not your real life name

• suspect that some people feel uncomfortable about this

• it also means that the teacher has to remember 2 names per student

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 7

Appearances can be misleading…

• on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog

• in SL no one knows you’re a bloke

• appearance can be changed instantly

• wings and tails (‘furries’) seem oddly popular!

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 8

Embodiment

• some people (students and staff) simply do not “get it”

• they do not relate to being “in” a virtual world

• possibly as many as 90% will feel alienated

• therefore not safe to build pedagogic activities solely around SL

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 9

Coolness issues…

• don’t assume that SL willnecessarily appeal to a youngaudience

• demographics indicateotherwise

• some ad hoc evidence thatvalue of SL more obvious in‘distance learning’ scenariosthan ‘on campus’

July 2007 survey of 501 students aged 16 to 18 from across the UK,commissioned by the JISC http://tinyurl.com/yw8mvx

When discussing Second Life, students felt that games and virtual worlds as part of learning could easily become “tragic” – technology being used for its own sake, and used rather childishly. They would need to understand the educational benefits of virtual worlds or games, it is not enough that they are simply ‘new’.

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 10

SL is a big “group hug”

• SL is an open world

• where all sorts of activities are undertaken

• mostly good but some bad, e.g. ‘griefing’

• this probably won’t impinge on your use of SL for teaching

• but best to be aware of what is out there

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 11

A world divided

• one consequenceof this is that SLis segregated

• 14-17 year oldslive in Teen SL

• 18s and over livein SL

• this divide isexclusive

• if you teach across both age groups then you’ll have to deal with this – e.g. by replicating work

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 12

Communication / collaboration

• multiple modesof in-worldcommunicationsupported

– chat

– IM

– group IM

– voice

• each modebrings with it some issues in terms of usability

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 13

Pedagogy

• SL can be used to deliver lectures, but…

• most suited to “active” learning styles

– building

– coding

– discussion groups

– machinima

– drama production

– role-play

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 14

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July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 17

Sloodle

2. Sloodle

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 18

We’re all familiar with this…

• ‘traditional’ online learning environment

• sharingdocuments andlearning objects

• managementand tracking

• discussion

• courseworksubmission

• assessment

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 19

… but not so much with this?

• multi-user virtual learning environment

• relatively informal and open-ended

• non-obvious goals

• rich social &technicalenvironment

• collaborative (butdifficult to setobject permissionscorrectly)

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 20

Sloodle intended as bridge…

• Second Life as aMoodle client

• providing bettersupport for in-worldlearning & teaching

• Second Life andMoodle ascomplimentary andintegrated learningenvironments

http://www.sloodle.org/

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 21

Sloodle tools

• authentication

• toolbar

• chat support

• blogging

• glossary

• drop box

• quiz tool

• gestures

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 22

SL usage in UK HE and FE

3. SL usage in UK HE and FE

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 23

Use of SL in HE

• the Eduserv Foundation has funded a series of 4 snapshots - undertaken by John Kirriemuir (Silversprite Helsinki)

• last one due Sept 2008 - if you have something to contribute, please get in touch

• 80%+ of UK universities have one or more teams of people developing and/or teaching in SL

– many academics unaware of SL activity in their institution or departments

– some academics developing, using SL “under the radar”, self-funding works

http://tinyurl.com/3ps2f3

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 24

Use of SL in FE

• FE use is much lower but there is some out there, e.g.

– Bromley College (SL: Clive Pro and Skipper Abel)

– Myerscough College (RL: Gary Elliot)

• there appear to be some examples of use in schools but this mostly seems to be in collaboration with a university

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 25

Institutional attitudes

• from the institution: generally good and supportive

• from technical support: mostly good, isolated problems, e.g. port access, old PCs

• from peers: mixed… curious through to hostile

“With enthusiasm and imagination by a minority,and with doubt, fear and even derision by the rest…”

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 26

What academics want…

• more funding opportunities (but don’t we all?)

• more time to develop – SL very time consuming to build in

• better technical facilities within SL, or a viable alternative environment

• more efficient “land” management

• some evidence that people are starting to look seriously at alternative virtual worlds

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 27

The wider MUVE environment

4. the wider MUVE environment

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 28

Life beyond Second Life

• SL is one of many virtual worlds

• there.com, Project Wonderland, Entropia Universe, Active Worlds, OpenCroquet, Metaverse, OpenSIM, HiPiHi, Twinity, …

• it is not clear that SL is the answer

• SL client now released as open source software

• clear demand for server to made OSS also

• some commitment to this by LL (partly because people are reverse-engineering the server anyway) and working with IBM on OpenSim

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 29

Some examples…

• OpenSIM, HiPiHi, Twinity

• not the only options but chosen because they are all ‘SL-like’ environments

– open-ended, multi-user – MUVEs, not games

– modifiable avatars

– pseudonymous

– support for building and scripting

– in-world currency

– chat, IM and voice for communication

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 30

OpenSim

• Open source SL-compatibleserver – i.e. can use standardSL client to access it

• alpha release

• full functionality under dev.

• easy to install (on PCs) instandalone mode

• can be run in ‘grid’ mode

• used as the basis for production environments such as CentralGrid

http://opensimulator.org/

http://www.centralgrid.com/

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 31

Twinity

• dedicated client

• closed beta

• ~4000 members

• can use RL names

• currency (Globals)

• based in Europe

• real world geographicmetaphor

• slow and somewhatprimitive to use

http://www.twinity.com/

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 32

HiPiHi

• dedicated client

• based in China

• only partialtranslation ofuser-interface anddocumentation intoEnglish

• non-intuitive to use (for those used to SL) but some nice features, e.g. built in support for swimming

• empty but clearly getting new registrations

http://www.hipihi.com/

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 33

Conclusions

• SL remains the ‘education’ market leader by far

• despite all the negativity around SL it remains the best educational MUVE offering

• but… competition is coming

• which is good for everyone (except Linden Lab!)

• it is probably too early (i.e. expensive) for most educational institutions to experiment with other virtual worlds right now

• most HE SL activity bottom-up rather than top-down – i.e. not embedded in strategy

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 34

Finding out more

• SLED list – run by Linden Lab, US-centric but is the main forum for learning-related SL issues

• secondlife@jiscmasil.ac.uk (UK)

• alliancesecondlife@googlegroups.com (libraries)

• in-world UK Educators group (open and free to join)

• lots of Second Life Facebook groups

• pointers to other resources on the Linden Lab Second Life Grid education page

http://secondlifegrid.net/programs/education

July 2008UCISA User Support Conference 2008, Reading 35

Questions

questions…