Sheila Webber responds to snapshot #9

Sheila Webber, from the Information Studies department at the University of Sheffield, responds to the current VWW snapshot.

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1. What are you doing in virtual worlds? Teaching, learning, research, publicity, and/or anything else?

1. Teaching
For the 3rd year running I used SL with a 1st year undergraduate class and a Masters level option. This year I was able to schedule attendance at the Virtual world Best Practices in Education conference into the Masters class, which worked well (apart from me not checking out that the headphones worked in our lab, so some people had voice issues) and I will look for more ways of doing that. The main problem is finding events that are on during the scheduled class time.

The School of Education also used it again with a Masters level distance learning class.

Someone in our English Language Teaching centre has used SL and may be working with students in SL – colleagues in other departments have also shown interest.

2. Events and CPD.

Use of Infolit iSchool as a venue increased, in particular I bid for an ESRC Festival of Social Science (March 2010) event, and put on one of the few online events “Searching, shopping, sightseeing: literacies in virtual lives” in SL, and in June 2010 the island was venue for the final dissemination seminar in an ESRC Research Seminar series that was organised by Sheffield University, Sheffield Hallam University and Lancaster University (“Children’s and young people’s digital literacies in virtual online spaces”). There has also been the continued Infolit iSchool series of one hour discussions or presentations. There has been an international mix of presenters and participants (e.g. in an Information Literacy “mini festival” in May a colleague in Puerto Rico did a talk and tour of her information literacy installation in Spanish and then later in English, and at the ESRC Research seminar we had three well-known researchers from North America presenting to an international audience).

Personally I have also benefitted from attending a lot of events, from small get-togethers like the UK Educators meetings, to the big conferences in SL. As in life outside SL, I find that offering to do things and getting involved means that you get more out of things.

3. Awareness raising of Information Literacy (and, probably, me and my Department)
In terms of what happens in SL, I know that people visit the island to look round: not hordes, but I bump into people reasonably often, and they are usually there because they are interested in information literacy and learning. There are increasing numbers of things to look at and explore on Infolit iSchool, and I think that (as with a website) it is valuable to keep it fresh with new content and to have things going on there (the events) to bring people in periodically and make it a live place for them. Since I have a commitment to information literacy, and international dialogue on IL, I think this is a good thing )

I got asked to talk about SL and libraries/information literacy almost as soon as I got involved in SL, so it has an impact on my profile. Interestingly, invites tailed off rather last year, but last week I did one presentation in Bath and have been asked to deliver a session in Prague in September, so perhaps there is a second wave of interest.

4. Research
I have one Masters student using SL as the focus of her dissertation this summer and there will be at least one PhD student starting fairly soon looking at virtual worlds. I have co-authored a paper with a colleague in the US (met only in SL) and she has also agreed to be co-editor on a substantial research book, I put in one small research proposal with another colleague in the USA (failed, but made some use of the text of the bid for something else!), have one refereed paper published, have presented at several research conferences about my work, and am currently putting together a substantial research bid concerned with use of SL. Essentially it has become one of my research fields, but it has also provided me with new research contacts (particularly in the USA): people I had heard of and who might have heard of me, but we had never physically met up.

2. Going well? Not? Want to say why?

I think I probably answered this in the last question? Basically, the teaching side could be improved by having better kit and broadband connections, and more access for the students throughout the campus. This might also then lead to more use by colleagues elsewhere and then some critical mass which would mean it would be taken seriously centrally by our e-learning people.

I think the other aspects are not so dependent than this though (for example) if there was better on campus access then I would use it more with specific cohorts to promote its use as a venue for Continuing Professional Development.

3. Money is tight. The ‘golden age’ of education money may be ending. How are you getting funded? How do you think your virtual world activities will be funded in the future?

Our island is still being funded jointly by the Information Studies Department and the School of Education: i.e. it is still a special item (rather than part of regular e-learning, funded centrally). Central funding is still concentrated elsewhere, with no investment in virtual worlds (to my knowledge).

4. Long distance travel is increasingly precarious. Ash, strikes and airlines going under ground flights. Travel is expensive (even in the UK with extortionate train fares) and takes up a lot of time. Virtual Worlds could, possibly, be used instead of many workshops, conferences, meetings et al. Your thoughts on this? And how do virtual worlds such as Second Life stack up against other event-replacing media such as Elluminate and Skype?

As noted above, this is already a major (possibly the major) use of the island. In terms of SL vs. Physical face to face, I think that face to face still has value for initiating and cementing connections. There is still more “hanging around and networking” time at a good physical world conference. For example, the COLIS conference (information science) I just went to, wandering round at lunch and coffee breaks to follow up with questions and discussion, and I ended up going to (and enjoying) some sessions because I was physically there, there I might have skipped out on in a SL conference. Voice is more reliable too )

In terms of SL vs. Elluminate or Skype – really no contest as far as I’m concerned, SL is the winner. I haven’t used Elluminate or Skype that much as conference tools – the one time I was presenting with Elluminate, the voice didn’t work (so it’s not just SL!) and obviously you can’t do things that you can in SL (e.g. the demonstrations, tours, displays), plus you REALLY don’t get any “networking”, the best you can hope for is the sound of the “real” conference delegates going off for their refreshments and some amusing uncensored remarks when speakers forget to take off their mics. You do get the backchannel and audience interaction, plus people hanging around just chatting after an event (I have the evidence in chatlogs!) Plus, the conference delegate goodie bags are so much more exciting – I’ve had helicopters, whiteboards, musical instruments, bluebells etc. And even with my limited building skills I managed to give delegates at the last event I organised a complete set of logo-ed virtual clothes. Skype has much more reliable voice (and for discussions between a few people it can have advantages), obviously, but I’m someone that does not find a small squinty view of someone’s nose that engaging (from a visual perspective).

5. Second Life. Using just that, or considering other virtual worlds? If so, why?

Basically I concentrate on SL, but I keep my ears open about other worlds. In particular, I’m putting together a research bid using SL and will have to say what I will do if SL disappears partway into the project. Opensim seems the most obvious, in that it is something you can have control over. I feel I can make a case for using SL as the venue for a multiyear research project, but I think it would be difficult to do that (in terms of stability) with any of the others. (I’m talking about VWs other than gaming VWs like WoW) in terms of research, I’ve had 2 or 3 students focus on World of Warcraft for their UG or Masters dissertations, but I’ve felt I could supervise them without actually using it myself. It’s sounds horribly gendered, but for leisure interest I prefer virtual clothes shopping to virtual orc-bashing.

6. Problems with universities blocking access to Second Life. Is anyone still having that, or are we over it now?

It’s not blocked, but it is still not on the managed desktop, therefore as far as most students/lecturers are concerned it IS effectively blocked. Bit depressing, frankly, as there is periodic interest from colleague sin other parts of the uni, but when the students can’t access it on campus except in those Depts which have labs under their control ….

7. Handling large numbers of students in virtual worlds simultaneously i.e. more than 30. Do you have experience of this? How did it go?

There were 35 in my 1st year class this year. I had to manage it in 2 or 3 groups, since our own lab (see problem above) does not have 35 computers in it. Actually I would probably have broken them down into smaller group anyway for induction, but it would have been nice to have them all inworld for some activities later on. I was able to have other people tutor with me – I do think that is helpful – and in my case some of them were librarians at other universities who were enjoying getting the experience as well as me and my students benefitting. In particular, in my first class with students I am in the lab with students (so I can see what they are seeing and troubleshoot, though obviously they help each other too, which is part of the process) and have a colleague (in their office) inworld. I don’t do lectures inworld, it will be different kinds of activities, usually involving pair or group world, so it is helpful there too to have a couple of you taking special responsibility for specific groups.

The largest number I’ve had inworld simultaneously have been for meetings/seminars, about 40 people, but that’s easier to manage (although it is still a good idea to have a couple of people organising e.g. one to chair and one to sort out any problems, guide latecomers in, IM people who seem troubled etc.)

8. What do you think of the new Second Life viewer, both the UI/usability changes and the new functionality it enables (e.g. media on a prim)?

Must confess I have not yet swapped over.

9. Do you have a view on the new Second Life Terms of Service conditions and ownership rights which are creating a bit of a hoo-hah in some quarters? Do you think it will affect you? Does it matter in the grand scheme of things?

Um, despite being in an iSchool, I’m not sure I have read them properly ;-( At the moment I’m not contemplating using another VW and I haven’t built a huge amount, so I haven’t seen it as a major worry.