Virtual World Watch
Summary of Second Life Snapshots
John Kirriemuir(Silversprite Helsinki)
October 2008
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 2
The snapshots so far
funded by the Eduserv Foundation four so far:
June 2007 September 2007 May 2008 October 2008
strictly covering UK university and college activities only
started off being solely about Second Life use lately moving into Second Life and other worlds getting unwieldy; format may need to change
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 3
Things that have changed
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 4
Users/institutions increasing
first snapshot survey (June 2007) found 41 instances of Second Life use in UK HE/FE
by May 2008, some form of Second Life activity detected in 75%+ of UK universities
in many cases, multiple Second Life activities in the same institution
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 5
Growth in funding sources
originally, most development work self-funded i.e. in own time of academic
now there are multiple sources – e.g. from last snapshot: internal i.e. from Pro-Vice Chancellor,
centrally, or multi-department “hardcore research” funders e.g. Leverhulme
Trust JISC (funds several projects) European funding Eduserv Foundation
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 6
Teaching and learning in SL
number of instances increasing class sizes vary up to thirty usually heavily participatory in terms of
communication most students reported as taking to it; a few have
problems with the concept
however… not everyone is evaluating effectiveness no predominant method of measuring this
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 7
Increasing acceptance
academics report less negative responses of late from: peers (other lecturers and researchers) students
this is due to: more people knowing about Second Life 2nd year of teaching and learning use (no longer
a 'gimmick') activities that generate research money become
more popular
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 8
Things that have stayed the same
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 9
Multiple reasons for SL activity
building a representation of the university researching the use of virtual worlds in
education teaching marketing the university, and income
generation through alumni holding seminars remote teaching (one to many) remote supervision of PhD students student design and development skills
acquisition
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 10
Sceptics
sceptics are out there open-minded sceptics (academic approach:
“convince me”) are useful; challenges users of virtual worlds for proof
closed-minded sceptics add nothing to academic debate; often sceptical for seemingly personal reasons
“Some people are bizarrely hostile to it, for no particularly good reason”
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 11
FE (Further Education) colleges
almost total absence in all snapshots searches, list requests, and other contacts
indicate little activity - either public or 'under the surface‘ (unless FE colleges are much more secretive than HE universities!)
a small number of (enduring) exceptions: Myersclough College (Forestry course
promotion) Bromley College (Computer Science promotion)
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 12
The two great “needs”
Funding
... and ...
Time
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 13
Worlds other than Second Life
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 14
Mentions in October 2008
three or less mentions each: Olive The Palace Croquet Metaplace There Neverwinter Small Worlds Active Worlds Twinity
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 15
Mentions in October 2008
eight or more mentions each: OpenSim Wonderland Metaplace
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 16
OpenSim
open source – technical offers more control and privacy than
Second Life
“SL and OpenSim have quite a lead, providing a toolkit rather than an end product.”
“OpenSim does interest us, especially with regard to being able to close access for particular activities, the potential to bulk manage accounts and the opportunity to track activity for learning mapping.”
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 17
Google Lively
high profile and easy to use, so many people have tried it
felt to be 'superficial' for teaching and learning needs
“Google’s new virtual world was disappointing and didn’t seem to get the idea of open access community.”
“The big drawback, especially for educators, was the lack, at least at the moment, of the ability to create your own content.”
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 18
Wonderland
Java-based Collaboration/communication-oriented
“Wonderland was particularly interesting as it allowed groups of people to dynamically edit the same document.
The quality of spatial sound was also appealing, and the fact that the platform is Java based and would allow for complex programming.”
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 19
Other issues of interest
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 20
Needs of developers
they all say funding, so ignoring that -they also said: a toolkit of ready-made high quality stuff for SL “SL on a stick” to circumvent problems with
group and university lab work restrictions guides aimed at academics e.g. how to
successfully run a tutorial or workshop in Second Life
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 21
Disappearing early adopters
some UK Second Life academic developers from the early days, i.e. 2006 and 2007(!), aren't doing this any more funding has finished? development skills have moved elsewhere? fed up of lack of peer support / working in
isolation? technical restrictions? it didn't work out...?
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 22
IPR and related issues
what if... several islands claim to represent one university an academic develops content for his research /
course at home, then 'takes it' with him or her when he moves to a new university
students do design work on their university island – who 'owns' it?
the Vice Chancellor goes for a wander around his institutional island, and is 'mugged' by students
a learning or education feature, developed by an academic at cost to the institution, is 'copied' or replicated by an academic at another institution
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 23
Duplicated effort
many universities are doing exactly the same thing: investigating, from scratch, whether Second Life is useful for teaching and learning peer-review “lag” particularly bad with virtual
worlds due to rapid developments. Plenty of research going on, and has happened; the mound of (public) findings so far small
contact and peer networks being thin the “you don't get it till you've tried it” nature
of SL
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 24
University infrastructure
what happens if/when teaching and other educational activities in virtual worlds become widespread? network traffic more higher specified machines (and graphics
cards) in the labs more labs? Or can wireless campus network
cope with mass use of SL on laptops? voice: making a noise wherever the
participants are
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 25
The future
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 26
“In it for the long-haul”
Second Life currently predominant ... but may not be in the future
the use of virtual worlds in education will take years, possibly many, to be refined
“We will clearly continue to explore virtual worlds – however, it is not clear that Second Life world is the optimal environment.”
“Increasingly used but not mainstream for several years.”
“I don’t think it will go away this time, simply because of the enormous investment. We will also see diminished boundaries with the 2D web that will bring virtual worlds into the mainstream.”
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 27
Virtual World Watch
currently one year (ending Oct 2009) activities funded by the Eduserv:
continuation of the snapshot series, but with focus moving more towards 'many worlds'
identifying the directions and predominant themes in the emerging Second Life and virtual worlds research sector
an independent comparison of Second Life to other virtual worlds, for teaching and learning purposes
other stuff we find interesting :-)
October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 28
Virtual World Watch
Web: www.virtualworldwatch.net Twitter: V_World_Watch are you a UK academic doing “stuff” in
virtual worlds? submit your blog to the blogroll fill in the next snapshot survey questionnaire contribute a few screendumps to the Flickr
picture pool
thanks – that also helps you publicise your work