Virtually educated - the reality of using Second Life and other virtual worlds in FE

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Andy Powell, Eduserv FoundationSL: Art Fossett

[email protected]/foundation

Virtually educated…

…the reality of using Second Life and other virtual worlds in FE

June 2008RSC Summer Conference 2008, Bridgewater 2

Outline – 4 parts

1. some issues to think about

2. Sloodle

3. SL usage in UK HE and FE

4. the wider MUVE environment


some issues to think about

1. some issues to think about


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


Technical issues…

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

– are 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?


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


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!


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


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’.


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


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


Communication / collaboration

• multiple modesof in-worldcommunicationsupported

– chat

– IM

– group IM

– voice

• each modebrings with it some issues in terms of usability


Pedagogy

• SL can be used to deliver lectures, but…

• most suited to “active” learning styles

– building

– coding

– discussion groups

– machinima and drama production

– role-play





Sloodle

2. Sloodle


We’re all familiar with this…

• ‘traditional’ online learning environment

• sharingdocuments andlearning objects

• managementand tracking

• discussion

• courseworksubmission

• assessment


… 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)


Sloodle intended as bridge…

• Second Life as aMoodle client

• providing bettersupport for in-worldlearning & teaching

• Second Life andMoodle ascomplimentary andintegrated learningenvironments


Sloodle tools

• authentication

• toolbar

• classroom tools– chat support

– blogging

– glossary

– drop box

– quiz tool

– gestures


SL usage in UK HE and FE

3. SL usage in UK HE and FE


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

• active development at over 80% of UK universities

• most of the developments are team-driven, rather than by individuals

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

http://tinyurl.com/3ps2f3


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


The wider MUVE environment

4. the wider MUVE environment


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


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


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/


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/


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/


Conclusions

• SL remains the 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


Questions

questions…

Business

Virtually educated - the reality of using Second Life and other virtual worlds in FE