Andy Powell from Eduserv, the funders of Virtual World Watch, did a presentation earlier this month around the findings of the snapshots to date:
Oct 23
If you blog using Wordpress, or are considering blogging, you might want to try out the “Nice Wee Theme” theme, available here:
This is a variation on the Kubrick theme, the key difference is that the blogger can easily put their gravatar, avatar, or just a picture of their cat in the top right corner:
This theme was developed by Scotproof, who I am hoping is looking after my cat properly while I Amtrak around the USA.
Oct 19
Virtual World Watch is at the following events, if you want to discuss the use of Second Life and Virtual Worlds in UK universities and colleges:
- Internet Librarian, Monterey, California. October 20th to 22nd. Note that there is a dine-around at this conference dedicated to Second Life; I’ll be there.
- ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium, Chicago, Illinois. November 2nd to 4th (election day!).
- (Provisional) University of Austin, Texas. November 10th.
Oct 17
Virtual World Watch and the Eduserv Foundation are pleased to release the latest snapshot of virtual world activity in UK Higher and Further Education.
The report can be downloaded in PDF format. Feel free to pass it on to anyone who may be interested; cheers.
Summary
This is the first snapshot survey where a significant number of respondents were supported by external, often research-based funding. The spread of funding sources is diverse, including national sources (JISC are mentioned by several respondents), European funding and non-academic sources. Of the other respondents, the majority had institutional support, e.g. from central funds, the department, or a Pro-Vice Chancellor’s fund; such funding is sometimes multi-departmental in nature.
Many respondents had either carried out some kind of teaching and learning activity, or were planning such events for the new academic year. These included collaborative learning and design, seminars, workshops, tutorials and induction courses. Several lecturers and supervisors were using Second Life to hold tutorials, or communicate with remote undergraduate or PhD students. A significant number of universities are carrying out research as to the effectiveness of using Second Life especially in teaching and learning.
Some, but not all, teaching and learning activities were assessed, with no particular method of assessment being predominant. Positive benefits were mentioned by the majority, such as student skill acquisition, ease of communication and the ability to meet peers one would otherwise not meet. Problems such as the amount of work required to run in-world sessions were also reported.
As with previous snapshots, the two issues of obtaining funding for virtual world development, teaching and learning, and technical problems, predominated. Several respondents indicated a need for guides and tutorials, as well as a ready-to-use ‘kit’ of high quality, education-specific resources.
The general reaction of peers and academics to virtual worlds seems to have improved over time. More respondents reported largely positive, or a mixed, attitude locally and in the wider university sector. Some academics who were previously cautious or negative about the use of virtual worlds in education become more positive after using the technology, or seeing the benefits. Funding for research and virtual world projects has also had a positive effect on academic attitudes.
Looking ahead, most respondents who chose to answer thought that virtual worlds were more likely to be a ‘mainstream’ feature of UK education, rather than a ‘niche’ or ‘novelty’. However, several of these respondents felt this would be a gradual long-term development over several years.
Many respondents had used, or were considering examining, virtual worlds and online environments other than Second Life. A dozen such applications were cited. Of these three were mentioned by far the most: Google Lively, Wonderland and OpenSim. Lively was found to be disappointing in terms of education-relevant functionality, Wonderland had considerable communication potential, and OpenSim had attractive options for creating a closed virtual environment.
This theme, that Second Life is not the only option for teaching, learning and other educational activities in virtual environments, will be explored in future snapshots and activities of Virtual World Watch.
Oct 15
Virtual World Watch officially started today. The service was launched at Demuths restaurant in Bath. A round of Lassi’s kicked off proceedings. Andy Powell, Head of Development at the Eduserv Foundation (the funders of VWW), then ordered a bean-based main course, while the VWW officer, John Kirriemuir, ordered something with noodles, beetroot, creams and cheeses in it:
Further launch calorie ingestion with more people will take place tonight; be upstairs in The Raven public house in Bath Spa from 8pm if you wish to join us.
The project runs from October 15th 2008 to March 15th 2010. And this is what we’re going to do.
Oct 11
One of the noticeable elements of the recent snapshot survey was that JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee) was funding several initiatives in this area. These include:
- The M3 project at the University of Southampton, one output of which will be ‘a set of demonstrator Second Life teaching activities and learner feedback presented as case studies.’
- The DELVE project at the Open University and the University of Nottingham, which will ‘evaluate a range of 3-D virtual learning spaces, immersive and non-immersive, realistic and non-realistic, with students, in order to propose models for a variety of pedagogical requirements.’
- The EMERGE project whose ‘primary aim is to support the creation of a sustainable community of practice (CoP) that will develop and exploit new emergent technologies (e.g. social software, pervasive computing) for use in educational settings.’ Here’s a forthcoming presentation from Dr Steven Warburton of the EMERGE project which mentions the snapshots early on:
- Examining Intellectual Property Rights in virtual worlds.
- The MOOSE project at Leicester University, which will ‘investigate the scaffolding and processes needed to enable groups of students in Higher Education to establish their socialisation and engagement for more productive information and knowledge exchange and learning through the medium of online 3-D Multi User Virtual Environments using Second Life.’
- The PREVIEW project, which aims to ‘develop, deliver and test problem-based learning scenarios within virtual worlds.’
- The OpenHabitat project, partnered by Leeds Metropolitan and Oxford Universities and Kings College London,
- Various conference streams and presentations on the use of Second Life and other virtual worlds in UK academia.
There are other JISC-funded things in the pipeline which, all round, adds up to a significant chunk of commited research funding.
Rachel Bruce, the Programme Director of the JISC Information Environment, sent us some reflections on the JISC ethos towards virtual worlds:
I have to say I’m really glad that there is work on Second Life in our Innovation Programmes! Understanding how virtual worlds can be, and are being used in learning by creating simulations or immersive environments or even as a type of scenario planning/ testing environment for universities (even for service providers like JISC) seems important to me. Personally I really like the way in which something like Second Life can bring people together from all over the globe and think it begins to really show how virtual world technologies can support collaboration.
I see SL supporting a lot of the pedagogic practice that was really effective in our Digital Libraries in the Classroom projects; these projects were funded well before SL but they allowed collaboration between the US and UK and helped equip students with technical skills as well as experiencing a “surrogate” experience of a real life situation. So that’s my personal view. I know SL is not very accessible or scalable and there are problems with it on those counts, but it shows potential and I think it helps stretch the way people think.
In terms of JISC Policy we have funded some projects as part of the Users and Innovation programme. We haven’t specified SL, the programme is more interested in exploring the use of multi-user virtual environments generally, especially as a way to explore collaboration. I think we at JISC see virtual environments as something that can be used in a variety of ways and I wouldn’t be surprised it’s use emerged in other JISC programmes. There’s definitely a view that SL and other environments should be explored further. I think this is only the beginning.
VWW looks forward to following the progress of these projects and seeing what deliverables and findings they produce.
Oct 08
While compiling the forthcoming ’snapshot’ report into the use of Second Life and virtual worlds in UK universities and colleges, some quotes ‘caught the eye’.
“Hard to sum up 18 months of experience in a sentence! Overall my experiences have been exciting, perhaps especially when I have been the one learning from teenagers who have developed not only technical and other skills in the environment, but a really effective sense of how to teach!” (Julia Gillen)
“Educationalists need to embrace the idea that environment and interaction are inseparable.” (Simon Bignell)
“There may be a whole range of virtual worlds emerging which might be used for different purposes and subjects. I think that there will still be value in a ‘messy’, more heterogeneous world like SL, as life is messy and heterogeneous and I don’t think students would be done any favours if they were only allowed in sanitised ‘education only’ silos.” (Sheila Webber)
“It has taken around 15 years from the birth of the web for web-based e-learning to become thoroughly institutionalised (with ongoing pockets of resistance throughout academia). The 3D internet could easily take as long.” (Daniel Livingstone)
(On how virtual worlds are perceived in UK universities) “One-third mixture of excitement about the potential, one-third trepidation about the user requirements and the lack of support forthcoming from IT ‘service’ departments and one-third bewilderment about what the value of this for education could be.” (Mark Childs)
(Same question) “Some real enthusiasm, some disgust at moving away from the real-world, some apathy.” (Lorna McKnight)
“In general, adapting our learning approach to virtual worlds has forced us to re-examine our beliefs about education, and we have developed a deeper understanding of what we do well. Abstracting and testing different learning approaches in virtual worlds has enabled us to apply them more effectively on the real life courses that we manage.” (Ian Truelove)
“I think the idea of virtual worlds will not be a dead-end novelty as long as the software gets better with less bugs and continued development, and enough people in UK education see the potential and create examples of virtual world experiences which can be shown to positively benefit the users.”(Lindsay Da Silva)
“Although Second Life is virtual it was clear that a number of experiences can have an unexpected emotional impact: in a positive light when students were complemented on their work by casual passersby and in a negative light with students being harassed, and once imprisoned.” (Simon Walker)
“It reminds me of the early days of the web when HE web pages were put together by some very unlikely people purely because they had the skills and interest. And there were all the pitfalls of having people working on ‘official’ sites who were basically hobbyists who didn’t necessarily have a great understanding of communication and marketing but who liked playing with HTML.” (Kriss Fearon)
“Generally very successful in meeting the needs of distance learners – I have better retention than I do with face to face groups.” (Anna Peachey)
The report will be public in a few weeks.
Oct 02
If you are in UK Higher or Further Education and want to participate in the autumn 2008 snapshot survey, then it’s last chance weekend 
Please get submissions in by the end of Sunday, 5th October, to guarantee inclusion. Thanks.
