Aspects of information literacy in virtual worlds

Aspects of information literacy in virtual worlds

LILAC 2009 (1 April 2009)Vicki Cormie, Denny Colledge, Marshall

Dozier, Lyn Parker, Sheila Webber

Purple OR orange

This slideshare pdf has slides used for a handout distributed in the LILAC symposium. There are introductory slides, followed by 3 short sets of slides; created by Sheila Webber, Lyn Parker and Marshall Dozier.

Pancha Enzymemarshall.dozier@ed.ac.uk

Maggie KohimeL.a.parker@shef.ac.uk

Lulu Quinnell

IshbelHartmannVicki.cormie@st-andrews.ac.uk

Sheila Yoshikawas.webber@sheffield.ac.uk

Denny.Colledge@ed.ac.uk

http://delicious.com/LILACSLLinks to websites, articles, tutorials, videos, and

places in Second Life

Topics: Education in SL and Libraries/Librarians in SL

Second Life

• 3-D Online Digital world, owned by Linden Labs• Most things created by SL residents: SL fashion

designers, architects, bakers, animal makers ….• Avatars- 3D representation of yourself – free to

signup and can live on freebies, but need Linden dollars if want to own land, buy clothes etc.

• Communication through text chat, Voice and Instant Messaging

• 40-80,000 people online simultaneously• http://www.secondlife.com/

Sheila Webber/

Yoshikawa

s.webber@sheffield.ac.ukhttp://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/

Information tools inworld: 1 - Search in SL

What is “information” in SL?These slides highlight some ways you can get information in SL

2 -Avatar info in

SL

3 -Object info in

SL

4 - Land info in SL

Study in information behaviour• 40 semi-structured interviews (2 per student) carried out

in SL late Nov - early Dec 2008 (for assignment)• Students undertook critical incident interviews with SL

residents (a time when they had an information need relating to a SL activity) in SL itself

• Informed consent, and chat transcripts logged• Convenience sample, mainly solicited through the SL

Educators & (UK) Virtualworlds discussion lists• 11 Canadian undergrad students; the rest educators,

librarians or SL developers from various countries• Not a full analysis for this studySheila’s students have interviewed people in SL about “a time when they needed information for a SL activity”. This tells us some more about information and information behaviour in SL

Observations • Examples of topics: buying land; obtaining

things (e.g. business clothes; tables; games); how to open a virtual parachute; finding good “camping” sites; preparing for a job fair

• My students (and I) able to identify behaviourrelating to real life research models of information behaviour (patterns of information seeking etc.)

Sheila Webber, 2008

Observations 2• People important as sources of information and advice• People and web search common starting points; also

one’s own inventory• Mixture of tools and people. inside and outside SL• Information encountering common (as with Ostrander,

2008)• Rich mix of sources used• Undergraduate students exhibited less complex

information behaviour and were using SL-specific techniques/tools less

Note: there are links here with research into “everyday information seeking” in RL –but people actually emerge as important in most studies where the researcher bothers to ask about “people” sources.

Implications – information literacy as an enabler in a virtual environment

• As in real life: empowering and helping problem solving• As in real life, problem solving and Inquiry Based Learning

approaches synergistic with IL development• May not be supported by real life formal information

literacy teaching, which focuses on text and on searching (rather than browsing & encountering) individually (rather than collaboratively)

• SL Information literacy may be fostered when exploring SL information is part of educational aims/activitiese.g. developing a build about a novel; creating a virtual shipyard

• As more use of virtual worlds – more need to think of SL information literacy (but which need to include “real life” information literacy)

IL models & tools in SL -3 types in SL

• Complete models – more holistic understanding & examples (e.g. the 7 Pillars model on the next slide)

• Tools/quizzes/information related to specific aspects of IL (e.g. the puzzles on Knowhow Island)

• Tools etc. related to specific library resources

Questions include:- What approaches to teaching & learning are implied? (possibly –transmissive approaches which are not really aligned with higher-order learning goals concerning evaluation etc.)- How could the models and tools be used? (the same object might be used in a rather transmissive, or a more constructivist, way)- What aspects of IL are covered most? (searching & evaluating?)

Model by Sheila Webber/Yoshikawa on Infolit iSchool in SL

The example is a problem (should we panic about bird flu) with material created by Sheila’s students (e.g. mindmaps)

Some interactivity e.g. you can click on posters or pillars for more information or for web links

Images have been removed for this Slideshare version in case they breached copyright

We showed the University of Nottingham’s Library Garden, which has areas where (for example) you can click on flowers to find out about different types of material, or release balloons as you learn about dissemination of research

We also showed Knowhow Island, which has a number of well-built puzzles relating to information literacy, including a fun “Boolean Logic” swimming pool!

Lyn Parker/ (SL) Maggie Kohime

l.a.parker@sheffield.ac.uk

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Overlap with other literacies

• Multi-tasking environment• Digital literacy• Geospatial awareness• Visual literacy• Communication skills and participating in virtual

communities for educational /work purposes• Adapting to new technologies

• Overlap with other Web 2.0 applications

4/6/2009 LILAC 2009

Geospatial information

• Geographic information - navigating by – Maps

– coordinates,

– teleport to landmarks

• Recognition of Real World buildings

• Relates to mash ups in web 2.0 using maps to illustrate information

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

7 Pillars Model in Second Life

• Recognising an information need– As with other platforms, knowing where to start is

the most difficult aspect

– Learning curve getting used to technology

– Acquire information from browsing and encountering initially

– Guided activity needs to be task based, with support (often f2f), list of places to visit or tours provided, teleporting or via balloon rides

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Addressing information ‘gap’

• Different types of resources– In world

• People/Groups

• Help button

• Search

– Internet• People/Groups – Email distribution lists SLED

• Secondlife wiki

• Google search – YouTube videos, blog posts,

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Construct search strategies

• Search engine in Second Life unsophisticated

• No phrase searching

• Tabs – Classified, Events, Showcase, Land Sales, Places, People, Groups

• Ads appear for one week, cost and how much pay determines where appear on list

• Register places and groups so included in search

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Evaluation of information

• People main source of information• Profiles – right click for further information

both Second Life and ‘First Life’• Flatter structure within Second Life, peer to

peer rather than tutor to students• Objects such as presentations, notecards etc

similarly can right click touch and edit to find who created the object, original owner, and any editors and link to their profiles

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Apply, Communicate and Organise

• Ethics

• Systematic record of searches

• Use of notes function within profile

• Organisation of inventory with landmarks, calling cards, objects, clothing

• Keeping track of items added, duplication of entries

• Sort by name and date only at present

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Creation of New Knowledge

• Collaboration – learning together• Synthesise information from variety of sources,

both in world and on Internet• Participation in discussion• Group decisions/team working online• Tracking discussion, keeping track of decisions,

summarising points at regular intervals• Similar skills to other online conferencing systems

– employability skills in 21st century?

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Reference enquiry• [4:27] Maggie Kohime: hi• [4:27] JG Dover: Hello• [4:27] JG Dover: I have not used SL for sometime• [4:28] JG Dover: I cant find any note cards at Education UK• [4:29] Maggie Kohime: what type of notecards?• [4:29] JG Dover: Information about meetings etc• [4:30] Maggie Kohime: ok well SLED have a calendar which lists activities in SL -

educational ones :-)• [4:30] Maggie Kohime: http://sledevents.blogspot.com/• [4:31] JG Dover: I will look for that thank you• [4:31] Maggie Kohime: it is also useful to join groups• [4:31] Maggie Kohime: if you right click on my profile you will see which groups I

belong to, mostly librarian• [4:32] JG Dover: Thanks OK• [4:37] Maggie Kohime: well I will let you continue to investigate you might want to

look at the student village• [4:38] Inventory item offered• [4:39] Maggie Kohime: see you soon, bye for now

4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Marshall Dozier / (SL) Pancha Enzyme

marshall.dozier@ed.ac.uk

Information about the creator is clear in Edit mode

Reproduced with permission from Chez Nabob http://shop.onrez.com/Chez_Nabob

This is a poster from an anti-content-theft campaign amongst SL fashion designers

Reproduced with permission from Chez Nabob http://shop.onrez.com/Chez_Nabob

A few places to peruse

• Warner James Au [blog] How Ironic Are Intellectual Property Rights In Second Life? http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/03/ironic-property-rights.html

• The DMCA and YOU http://secondlife.com/newsletter/2007_01/civiccenter.html

• Outcry as ‘Copybot’ threatens copyright protection http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2006/11/14/outcry-as-copybot-threatens-copyright-protection/

Sheila and Pancha discussing this part in SL, at the weekend before LILAC