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Like the death of Second Life and virtual worlds in education, the apparent or hailed end of Virtual World Watch is premature

Version 5 of snapshot 10 (making it #10.5) will go live on here on Monday May 14th, at the same time as a few new things on this website, and out of date stuff is deleted. That version of #10 will be in PDF format only, will contain the accepted submissions from last winter (all of which are on here) if you go through back entries, as well as some much more up to date information on UK academic virtual world activities.

That will pretty much mark five years that, in some form and on and off, Virtual World Watch has been peering at what some academics on this island (and Northern Ireland) have been doing with Second Life, OpenSim, Wonderland, Blue Mars, Kitely, and some of the other virtual worlds. I don’t think a month has gone by in that time without some academic or educational commentator saying “The virtual world [in education] is dead”. Hmmmm.

Snapshot #10.5 – Zombies Can’t Fly: The continued use of virtual worlds in UK education will be here on 14/5/12. Some of this website won’t work between then and now, due to stuff being deleted and the URL format being changed.

The updated snapshot will also contain an update on the future plans of Virtual World Watch, and an answer to Evelyn McElhinney’s tweet. Here’s a picture of the old front cover:

Toodle pip,
John Kirriemuir
Virtual World Watch

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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)

We have been active in virtual worlds since mid 2006…

As curator, I have been running the Arts Council England funded 2ND LIVE programme in Second Life, to complement my real life role as performance curator at Exeter Phoenix.

As an artist, I have been exploring walking and site-based practices in Second Life and real life (e.g. commission for ANTI Festival, Kuopio, Finland). As an educator, I’ve been teaching in Second Life as part of ‘Interdisciplinary Spatial Practices’ (level 2 UG module). And as a Knowledge Transfer possibility, I’ve been running workshops for other artists (e.g. 3-day workshop for Live Art Development Agency as part of DIY programme).

2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

Second Life – it was the easy (and intriguing) option when I started.

3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?

None to date. There has been one other active member of the University (in European Law). There has been a little more activity very recently, through an interdisciplinary ‘Bridging the Gaps’ initiative (the impact of this is not clear yet).

4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?

Plus:

• Creative possibilities (in terms of space and event) not available (for reasons of cost or practicality) in real life (‘not possible in real life’ attitude).
• Offers a side-step to examine real life methods afresh.

Minus:

• Cost – I jettisoned my island after 2.5 years and significant personal expense.
• Steep learning curve for new participants.

5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

There’s a mixed reactions from students – some fly, some don’t. Students are also often surprised by the ‘ghost town’ nature of Second Life. Experiencing the virtual world really needs more time than really able to give it.

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UEL has had a presence on Second Life since 2008 in the form of UEL Island, and more recently UEL HABitat owned by the school of Health, Sport and Bioscience. Second Life has not been widely adopted across the university, but some staff and students in healthcare and psychology have been using it quite extensively.

Health simulations

The main focus of interest on UEL HABitat is the virtual polyclinic, which continues to be used by herbal medicine and physiotherapy students, and is soon to be used by podiatry students from UEL and Plymouth University under a collaborative arrangement. Each discipline has its own area where students interact via their avatars with virtual patients and surrounding objects to practice procedures and develop their clinical reasoning skills.


Staff and student evaluations of the simulations indicate a general level of satisfaction and highlight the advantage of Second Life over paper based or role-play exercises in the classroom. However, there are ongoing challenges, not least the fact that a significant minority of students still struggle to master Second Life and the skills required by staff to operate and configure the environment beyond the core development phase. Reliance on Second Life development expertise is a further consideration in the current climate.

Psychology conferencing and tutorials

Second year Psychology students on an elective module “Psychology of physical illness’ upload posters to a designated area in their school’s conference suite on UEL island and spend a morning discussing them with staff and students from their module and beyond. Using Second Life in this way extends the reach that a physical poster display would typically have. It also removes inhibitions that students might otherwise have in face to face conversations. A few psychology staff also use Second Life for tutorials and one recently reported that students repeatedly rate Second Life higher than most other aspects of his module delivery.

Integration

UEL is in the process of changing from Blackboard to Moodle VLE, so we will be taking a closer look at SLOODLE, the main interest from academics at this stage being in linking Moodle and Second Life for assessment purposes.

Future

To date it has been relatively straightforward to cover our Second Life costs but in anticipation of a much tighter funding regime, we continue to look at OpenSim as an alternative. However, due to network configuration conflicts, we are as yet unable to carry out a thorough investigation of OpenSim, and therefore hope to retain at least one island on SL until mid 2013.

In resolving the OpenSim issues we may be able to draw on the experience of the Europe-wide Pandora project ‘Advanced Training Environment for Crisis Scenarios’ which counts UEL amongst its partners and is using OpenSim.

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What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)

My involvement with virtual worlds grew fairly slowly. About two years ago I started a part-time PhD loosely based around games-based learning. As my research has progressed I’ve strayed from that start point into virtual worlds, but of course there can be significant overlap between the two.

Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

I’ve experimented with Second Life and Opensim, but currently I’m spending most time with Open Wonderland.

What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?

The support from University of the West of Scotland has been really good. I’ve been given access to the technical infrastructure I need to progress my research, and my colleagues are very supportive. On my Christmas wish list would definitely be more time for research!

What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?

I like the fact that Open Wonderland is java-based, which removes any problems around allowing network access or installing a special viewer. The downside is that java applications always look like java applications! I’m hoping that won’t be a limiting factor.

If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

It’s early days for me just yet – I’m currently planning a pilot study to assess feasibility for a large-scale implementation. Watch this space.

Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?

I’m not quite sure what you mean by this question. One of my colleagues, Dr Daniel Livingstone, has worked extensively with a mashup of Second Life and Moodle called SLOODLE. I think that’s an interesting direction to take. Open Wonderland supports a variety of technologies for in-world collaboration, and I see that as essential for enabling learning in virtual worlds.

The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?

Wish me luck!

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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it)

I have been in Second Life since 2007 and for most of that time I have been working on our island. The island is run for staff and students at the University of Worcester but it is not an official site of the University.

The first activity we started on the island was the research meetings. These meetings eventually evolved into our current education research seminars approximately two years ago. The resulting machinima are then posted to the Digital Literacy blog for those who did not have time to attend. The Research Seminars are held on the last Thursday of every month during the academic year on the island. Seminars are held at 1200hrs (lunchtime) UK time (4am SLT), we found this the most popular time with people on the European side of the Atlantic. That makes it sound as if we are trying to exclude others from the meeting but far from it; it is really fantastic when we get people from all over the world joining us. We find that most of the non-British people who attend are from East Coast America but we have a few Antipodeans, others from West and East European countries and others from as far away as Japan. If anyone would like to present and discuss their work they are more than welcome to do so, all they need to do is contact Bluesky Larkham. We welcome everyone from seasoned conference presenters to new PhD students.

Hovering in the sky above the island we also have the Library of Babel, where students can experience a book in a very different way. This installation has been created under the direction of Liz Swift who is Subject Leader for Drama in our Institute of Humanities and Creative Arts. Liz says this is an “Exploration of Narrative Collaboration and Control [which creates] an immersive experiential narrative work based around ideas from Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, The Library of Babel (1941)” – at least that’s what she said in her article “Loosing the Plot” (Swift 2010).

Dr Barbara Mitra, Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, and I are carrying out some research into identity. This research is based around a first year module (Introduction to New Media) to help students explore the relationship between identities in “real” or corporeal life and identities in virtual worlds. The research also addresses the issues lecturers experience in relation to students’ reactions and behaviours to being in Second Life.

There are also two institutes where lecturers are interested in writing Virtual Worlds into new modules they are currently creating. Maybe this is an indication that with the current pressures on costs and space, the use of Virtual Worlds is becoming an interesting option.

2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

I am currently using Second Life; I suppose this is partly because this is where I started off and partly because of all the work we have put into the island. I had quite a few dismal discussions with friends when the Lindens stopped their support of education but at the moment I still feel this is the most mature virtual world and, as a result, it offers the best experience for students.

I do not want students to be shut off from the rest of the corporeal world or the virtual world. They need to experience what it is like to be online in a virtual world, they have to learn to manage both their avatar and their interactions with others. Worlds like this are one of the potential areas they will work in once they graduate and the university has a responsibility to produce employable people. Students need to develop skills in communication, behaviour and understanding of ethical stances required in this type of 3D social media. Even though these worlds are virtual, real communities exist within them and from my experience do offer genuine friendship and support.

3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?

I’m “the support” for our little community. I am hoping that our University will agree to keep our island as more and more lecturers are hoping to use it as mentioned above. The island was originally set up with monies provided through our then Director of Learning and Teaching, the Head of E-Learning and some money from a small research activity funded by JISC. Unfortunately we will come to the point in June 2012 when we will have to stand on our own two feet. Obviously, students and staff can enter and use a virtual world without any help or support from a university – after all many people do every day – but a great deal of tools and support are already provided on our island and students need a “home” they can feel comfortable in.

4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?

I like the friendly community spirit that can be found in Second Life; you feel as if you are in a “real” place. This feeling of being “real” is probably supported by being able to socialise in clubs and groups with people with similar interests, and the ability to create and buy goods that further define your identity. I cannot think of anything I particularly dislike but I do wish the Lindens would value the dependability of educationalists a little more. There are things that would be helpful too, such as being able to run Second Life on mobile devices or an interface that helps the average lecturer to build what they need. One of the things that prevents a technology from becoming mainstream is their “incompleteness” (Wiefels 2002). Which of the things I have mentioned might we consider prevent Virtual Worlds from being perceived as complete?

5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

So far being with students in Second Life has been quite good fun. The students generally enjoy it but do not realise they are learning and therefore often see the virtual world as irrelevant to their studies. I think that as we develop what we do with the students in the module to help them explore identity, they will appreciate why Barbara decided to use it.

6. Any thought on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?

My thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies are not technical ones. I think we need to stop making virtual worlds “special”. Once virtual worlds become just another social media that can be used as a learning and teaching tool, the sooner we will start to appreciate how we can integrate them with other learning technologies. One of the main things I would like to see is the integration of virtual worlds with student portfolios – not just being able to print off a chat log, but being able to grab a short video of an interaction that a student can add to their portfolio. I know this can be done now but the average student would not be able to do it.

There is too much I would like to say but I will just restrict myself to two more things that I consider to be important issues.

There is an idea that I would like to take issue with – I have heard it before and was reminded of it a few days ago by an IT colleague. There seems to be this belief that HEI cannot afford to provide support for “new” technologies unless 50% of lecturers are using them. For anyone who knows the Technology Adoption Life Cycle there is an obvious clash between the 50% idea and the way in which technologies are adopted. Virtual worlds are still trying to cross the Chasm (Moore 1991); to attract the Early Majority also known as Pragmatists (Wiefels 2002), we need more research in this area but it is quite obvious that many educational technologies take a comparatively long time to reach the 50% mark.

It is well known that disruptive technologies take something like 20 years to come into general use, that is to reach the 50% mark. Do we wait that long before we support a technology? Please do not quote VLE usage at me as evidence of a technology being accepted; everyone knows that currently the majority of lecturers do not use VLEs – they just dump information in them because there is a requirement that they do so. Things are changing (even with VLEs); we know what attracts the Pragmatists to adopt a technology (good return of investment, proof of concept, ease of implementation, experienced support, proof that ‘people like me’ use it and that it is no longer a discontinuous technology but is now the new paradigm) but we need research to tell us how we apply these successfully to virtual worlds in HEI. A plethora of pilot studies tends to indicate a stagnating technology (Wiefels 2002). We do not need more pilot studies on how to use virtual worlds in education, we need research that helps us to properly implement and embed it.

In one sense the second point I want to raise is linked to the first. Managers are pragmatists and they are attracted to a technology for the same reasons as all pragmatists. Some of these reasons are given weight by the instructions and direction the government of the day gives to HEI. The current government has not provided any direction to universities on the issue of using new technologies in education. All the push for modern educational technologies came from the previous government; and HEIs are not interested in the previous government. American educational establishments are being encouraged by their government to use a greater range of communication technologies in their teaching and to use them more frequently. Where is there a similar demand from our current government?

References

• Moore, G.A. (1991) Crossing the Chasm, Harper Collins Publishers, New York
• Stacey, P. (2011) Technology Adoption Life Cycle, Musing on the edtech frontier (blog), http://edtechfrontier.com/ 
Accessed 5th December 2010
• Swift, E. (2010) Losing the Plot – an Exploration of Narrative Collaboration and Control in Second Life in International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Issue 6, Volume 2
• Wiefels, P. (2002) The Chasm Companion: A fieldbook to Crossing the Chasm and inside the tornado, Capstone Publishing Limited, Oxford

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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)

The virtual world activities here at Bromley College started in 2006 using Second Life and then in 2009 OpenSim. The virtual world activities have been driven by the initiatives of two lecturers – Clive Gould and Barry Spencer.

At the present time we have a single virtual worlds activity (Comenious) running at the college, currently in the stages of full participation.

Comenious Overview and Rationale: Provide a collaborative face-to-face working environment. Explore the practical use and reliability of web 3 technology. This project will be used to enhance student communication and social skills both within the college and as part of the Comenius project which links us with two colleges in Holland and one in Belgium. Students will be able to communicate through the Internet and share ideas and resources.

2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

Second Life and OpenSim. Second life with viewer 2 facilities represents a more fully immersive experience. OpenSim, while not at the same level of deployment, does have the advantage of cost and minimal port requirements.

3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?

Given the problems encountered with the demands of port access for Second life, we were able to make use of a proxy bypass option for one teaching room. With the arrival of OpenSim and its much reduced port requirements, we now have access to this facility in a number of teaching rooms.

4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?

Current projects (Comenius) make exclusive use of OpenSim. My principle issues are in the lack of full physics engine implementation and the availability of a viewer that supports Shared Media.

5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

I have found that in using virtual worlds my teaching was able to take full advantage of problem Based learning scenarios in support of collaborative learning for my students, activities that are realistically not bound by the traditional demands of time and location.

Generally speaking the response of students in using both Second Life and OpenSim have been sufficiently encouraging and below I have included links to historic student surveys that you may find useful:

• http://cd.bromley.ac.uk/bteccourses/sl/pdf/OpenSimSolarCell2010.pdf
• http://cd.bromley.ac.uk/bteccourses/sl/pdf/WTreport09.pdf
• http://cd.bromley.ac.uk/bteccourses/sl/pdf/island_report_07-2010.pdf
• http://cd.bromley.ac.uk/bteccourses/sl/pdf/maze_report_07-2010.pdf

These reports can also be accessed in-world in my sim at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Star%20Beach%20Island/209/222/23.

6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?

Now that we have Shared Media in Second Life and I assume it will arrive in OpenSim in the near future, I see little need for actual integration from a technical perspective. Using recent trials at my Coders Central base in Second Life, students are now able to collaborate in real time coding exercises with full access to our VLE features such as forums, content and assessment.

7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?

I feel that the use of virtual worlds continues to represent for me one of the most innovative and exciting prospects for student collaboration and learning beyond the classroom.

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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)

We are using games technology (specifically the Source Engine and Unity) to create games for training purposes. Depending on your predilection, the products we create are either Serious Games or Persuasive Games, and we have been creating a series of products under the umbrella branding of Maritime City for internal use since late 2009/early 2010.

2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

We are creating our own, rather than using off the shelf worlds like Second Life. The reason for this is due to the content; currently, Maritime City is based in the training of healthcare professionals (specifically, in the current scenario set, social workers and childcare professionals) and as such we require the avatars in the world to be extremely realistic.

This means we need to have a lot of control over the facial and body animation, something that not all current virtual worlds
provide, but that is more prevalent in games engines such as Source.

3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?

We have been fortunate to have an extremely supportive environment for using this type of technology from all levels of the University, from DVC level down to local School level. We have a great deal of input from all manner of areas within the University as well as outside experts, which is extremely valuable!

4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?

Likes: Technical capabilities. Proven track record in use in demanding applications. Constant updates with new features.

Dislikes: Constant updates with new features (breaks existing work sometimes!). Restrictive licensing.

5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what¹s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

In the small scale testing we have completed so far, we are extremely happy with the results. The use of the game allows us to work in similar areas, educationally, to role-play without some of the drawbacks. Anecdotally the students have been extremely positive, both in terms of “wow” factor and the actual educational content of the game. A series of more in-depth analyses of how the game has been received by the students is in production and will be published in the next year.

6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?

Yes. We have done work previously on using LAMS as a means of scaffolding learning content into and out of the game experience (see http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/italics/vol5iss3/flynnnewbutt.pdf) and found that the addition of learning technology to the use of games can be very positive, but requires a lot of planning and hard work to ensure it runs in the right way!

The use of games in education is getting ever more pervasive, and the connection between the different areas of technology is key to this being a useful addition to the teacher’s toolset in the future.

7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?

Can’t think of anything at the moment, other than to encourage everyone working in this area to keep up the great work – there is so much potential in the use of technology in education!

We are always open to collaborative work, and putting together funding bids.

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What are you doing with virtual worlds?

MissionV Education Ltd is running a 20 school virtual world learning programme, supported by the National Centre for Technology (NCTE) in Ireland.

Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

MissionV uses the OpenSim platform and provides cloud hosting to schools and other educational establishments. As well as the NCTE MissionV is supported by Discover Science & Engineering and the Centre for Talented Youth in Ireland (at Dublin City University).

Using Opensim allows MissionV to provide a private, secure and safe environment for the 10 to 12 year olds on the programme. In addition, it allows us to tap into a huge community of expertise among Second Life developers.

If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

Teachers and students on the MissionV programme have provided positive feedback as regards the benefits of learning in a virtual world. For example, Anne McMorrough, a teacher at St. Martin de Porres primary school in Tallaght, Dublin, responded:

“I love to play with it.. but watching kids work is fascinating. Correcting copies will never be same again – virtual learning is so colourful”

Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?

MissionV sees exciting opportunities for enhancing virtual world interaction by integrating new gesture-based technologies such as the Microsoft Kinect. As such, planning is underway to develop a Kinect interface in collaboration with the Institute of Technology, Tallaght.

2012 will see the MissionV programme moving into Phase 2 with Moodle VLE and voice integration.

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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)

We are using a virtual world to enhance our teaching on taught postgraduate programmes (Certificate/Diploma/ Masters) in equine science at the University of Edinburgh’s Veterinary School, which is taught online at distance.

2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

We are using the Virtual University of Edinburgh (VUE) on Second Life as our colleagues in the University are experienced with this and can provide support for us using it.

3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?

We have excellent support from our e-learning advisor in virtual worlds at the University.

4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?

What I like about using Second Life is the ability to link in real-time with students from across the globe and to see them in virtual person. What can be problematic is some students have technical issues with using Second Life due to the specification of their home computer.

5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

I have enjoyed using Second Life – I feel it is a stimulating and engaging teaching tool. The student feedback has been mostly positive, though a small number have not engaged with it, mainly due to technical problems.

6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?

It would be good to integrate this into our VLE.

7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?

Second Life acts as our virtual campus – it gives our online students a sense of “being” at the University of Edinburgh Veterinary School.

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1. What are you doing with virtual worlds? (And how long have you been doing it?)

At the moment, we are running 2 modules for students in virtual worlds. The ‘Media Futures’ module for undergraduate media students is now entering its 4th year of delivery, and has not significantly deviated from how it has been described in previous snapshots.

This academic year, we have established a new module called ‘Identity in Virtual Worlds’, which is a combined honours programme elective open to students from any discipline. This module is a modified version of ‘Media Futures’, which is designed to fit with students from a variety of subject areas.

2. Which virtual worlds are you using? Why those in particular?

We are still using Second Life for delivery of these modules and students are also required to engage with gaming worlds. Second Life is primarily used as it has one of the largest active communities out of all of the social worlds available. Students need to be able to interact with a range of other users and environments within the virtual world that we use, and Second Life currently provides the best opportunity for this. Gaming environments are also used, as this provides a basis for students to analyse differences between the two environments.

3. What support do you get in your institution in your use of virtual worlds?

Our institution has supported us in purchasing some island space and if anyone wants to use some of this, quite happy to arrange something if anyone wants to get in contact with me! Also, the fact that we have established the elective module shows a degree of support from our institution. We do still have a variety of ongoing technical issues each year with regards to providing access to Second Life on campus. These are usually related to ICT infrastructure changes, with Second Life always being low down on the list of priorities when rectifying problems that are related to these changes.

4. What do you like/dislike about the virtual worlds you are using?

As mentioned, Second Life provides a large active user base that is essential for the success of the modules, and this is the primary reason why I like using this. I do usually have a natural leaning towards using fully open source systems that are free of constraints, and if the future of accessing online resources lies within the realms of a metaverse / 3D web, I would prefer it if this did not lie in the hands of Linden Labs!

5. If teaching using virtual worlds, what’s the experience been like, for you and/or the students?

For me its fantastic, really enjoy it and I really consider it as a massive upside to working as a Lecturer at Newman. It’s also provided some interesting opportunities in relation to collaborating with others. Dr. Mark Childs from Coventry University has really helped out by actively contributing to the modules that we provide, and research work is currently being undertaken to look at student experience on these interventions.

6. Any thoughts on the integration of virtual worlds with other learning technologies?

I’ve been playing around the SLOODLE integration via a moodle test server that i’ve set up. It’s satisfying my desires to mess around with something tekky and also provides an interesting point for student reflection in assessments. However, I think this type of thing still has a long way to go before it provides a meaningful and attractive proposition for student use.

7. The catch-all: anything else you’d like to say?

Yes, but not enough time unfortunately, have to go to bed so I can get up in time for teaching