Virtually there - a quick overview of various genres of virtual worlds

FROM: Virtually there: a presentation for EDayz 2008

KerryJEducation Officer-

Collaborative Tools

Virtually There

Learning Objectives

- Creating an immersive online experience

- What tools are available

- Preparation for an in-world experience in Second Life

This Is Not a Game: Virtual Worlds Coming to Your Business, Forrester Predicts By C.G. Lynch

January 09, 2008 — CIO — In five years, enterprise versions of online virtual worlds like Second Life will be just as important to business as the Web is today, and the trend will make it useful for companies to begin experimenting with 3-D online environments for in-house collaboration projects.

IBM, BP, Intel , Sun, U.S. Army, Healthcare – mental and physicalNASA, museums, art galleries, universities, TAFEs, governments

Are they relevant to VET learners?

• Immersive learning used in military training

• Relationship building for geographically isolated teams

• Architecture - modeling RL structures

• Role playing – customer service, interviews

• Tourism - virtual builds of sites

Are all virtual worlds equal?

Genres

- Sports

- TV/Film/Book

- Games/Fantasy Roleplay/Quests

- Mirror Worlds

- 3D chat

- Content creation Source: Kzero ResearchVirtual worlds marketing

3D ChatRelationships | Bandwidth-friendly | Role-playing

Shared online experiencesRelationships | Bandwidth-friendly | Training

Content creationOnline and LAN-based | Realism or whimsy

Audio chat | High level of customisation

Content creationLearning curve | Resource-intensive

Second Life – my thoughts

• Not the largest, but has critical mass

• Aimed at 30+ demographic

• High level of customisation

• Communities of practice/resources

• Not constrained by game rules / roles

• Mix of fun, business, education

Second Life – What’s required?

• Headset with microphone

• Late model computer with dedicated graphics card

• Broadband internet connection with plenty of download

• Hard drive space for storage/ program files

Pandora Kurrajong

Second Life – basic skills for tonight’s session

• Talk via text chat

• Hear audio

• Walking

• Instant message

• Use a teleport

Second Life – turning night to day

To view video, visit: http://neotenousvid.blip.tv/file/1486600/.

Second Life – Talking via text

Second Life – hearing and responding to audio

Second Life – adjusting audio

Second Life – teleporting

To view video, visit: http://blip.tv/file/1486627

Second Life – Sending IMs

To view video, visit: http://blip.tv/file/1486664

Find me onlinehttp://www.slideshare.net/KerryJ/

http://blogs.educationau.edu.au/kjohnson

http://kerryj.com

http://twitter.com/kerryank

SL: Pandora Kurrajong