Getting your project/institution listed is dead simple – just visit www.daden.co.uk/bsf/ and follow the link to the entry form – it should only take a minute or so to complete. We are interested in how virtual worlds are being used both for science research and for science education/communication/outreach. For our purposes a virtual world means a space which is a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE), with each user being represented by an avatar who can communicate and interact in-world, and where there is a shared sense of place and time.

We are also looking for some good images to illustrate the project page – so please add a link to a good image as part of your form submission.

We hope to run a virtual safari as a fringe event as part of the Festival – if you’d like to take part in that then please let us know.

If possible please make your entry by 10th September so that we can get the map ready for the opening of the Festival.

Many thanks and we hope you can find the time to participate. If there is enough interest we hope to keep the directory and map running permanently as a resource for virtual world users and researchers.

–

Andrew Jinman
PIVOTE Product Manager
Daden Limited

E: andrew.jinman (@) daden.co.uk
W: www.daden.co.uk
sl: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/daden%20prime/160/184/26
SL IM: AndrewDaden Eiren

Discussion: Contribute your ideas for future events on Infolit iSchool.

When: Tuesday August 31st, 12 noon SLT (which is 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/323l83u for start time in other countries)

Where: Infolit iSchool
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/127/236/22/

We already have lined up for Oct/Nov: talks from Alexandria Knight (Esther Grassian) & Adra Letov (Diane Nahl) and Sheila Yoshikawa (Webber) plus a reading group! But we want more! Come with more ideas of visits, discussions, events to do with information literacy and learning.

* * * * *

Apologies for the lack of the summer snapshot #9. Proofreader number 3 (don’t ask) is currently processing it. It’ll be live monday morning.

We are pleased to announce The Virtual World Conference 2010, a unique event exploring the use of online virtual worlds for learning, collaborative work and business ventures, which will be hosted over a 24-hour period entirely in Second Life on 15 September 2010.

The one-day conference, following the sun, will bring together 21 international speakers from around the world to share ideas, showcase innovations and applications, and hold debates with a world-wide audience. This is an excellent opportunity to get a snapshot of leading research and expertise in the field, as well as network with like-minded peers.

Anna Peachey (The Open University/Eygus Ltd) and Professor Sara de Freitas (SGI/Lab Group) will chair in the European zone, with Andreas Schmeil (PARC/University of Lugano) in the American Pacific Coast time zone and Claus Nehmzow (Alcus International Ltd/Hong Kong) in the East Asian time zone.

The conference will consider how virtual worlds can change the way we learn, work and socialise, focusing on three core themes:

• Social interaction, societies and communities in virtual worlds.
• Business applications and strategies for using virtual worlds.
• Formal and informal teaching and learning in virtual worlds.

The Virtual World Conference 2010 will host trainers, experts, teachers, policy-makers, managers, consultants, tutors and researchers from industry, academia, schools and policy development, with representation from a wide range of different sectors including:

• Education: schools, colleges and universities.
• Research: universities, institutes, industrial labs.
• Training: training organisations, private foundations.
• Industry: international companies, SMEs.
• Health: hospitals and training institutions, care trusts.
• Environment: planning agencies, environmental agencies, emergency response organisations.
• Government: central government departments, agencies and local government authorities.

For more information, and to register, please see the website at www.thevirtualworldconference.org

Places are limited, so early registration is advised.

Despite the suspicions of some virtual world sceptics – and fanatics – VWW takes a neutral view on the use of virtual worlds in education; we say what we see, and what others do – both positive and negative. Here’s Bex Ferriday, the lead teacher of the school of education and training at Cornwall College with a downbeat submission about their Second Life prospects, in this age of austerity.

+ + + + +

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

Still managing Cornwall College Island in Second Life – and have just been given some land for Cornwall College to develop on the Education Grid. At the moment everything just seems to have ground to a halt and I am, quite honestly, at a loss as to what to do about it. Pockets of activity are evident: the Foundation Degree in Arts and Media group are displaying their work on the island and their tutor wants to write a new module for the course that involves mandatory use of Second life, and the RaPAL group meet there regularly. I have just delivered an introductory teacher training course using moodle, Second Life and web 2.0 elements such as wikis and blogs and hope to deliver a second course soon – but cannot see when I will find time. The college has suffered crippling funding cuts, and has had to make a percentage of staff redundant, so with so many people bearing the burden of others’ job losses (by taking on departed colleagues jobs on top of their own), there is no time to indulge in what are seen as ‘luxury’ items such as Second Life.

Going well? Not? Want to say why?

Honestly? Not going well at all. The island is seldom used – we were featured in the Second Life Destination Guide and were getting 50 visitors or more a day – and many keep returning to this very day – but not for the educational aspects of the island. They return because they want to hang out in virtual Cornwall, listen to the seagulls, drink Scrumpy, eat virtual pasties and hang out on the beach – which is still a marvellous thing! Cornwall College has had frighteningly big funding cuts to make in the next academic year(s), so many members of staff have been made redundant. Those who remain are working harder and have even less time than before to learn about new technologies.

The whole ‘18 and over’ thing still weighs heavy too; as an FE college, every classroom will have cohorts of students under the age of 18 (even on occasion, specialty designated HE classrooms), which means that IT Services will not allow Second Life to be installed ‘freely’ in any classroom. If it’s not available in any classroom, only available to staff if they request firewalls to be changed on their office machines, but staff have less time than before to dabble in anything new – let alone something STILL seen as a virtual ‘knocking shop’…then what hope do we have?!!!

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 tenancy runs out in February 2011. We will have no choice but to abandon the island to Linden Labs. That’s going to be a very sad day indeed. And it’s not because of funding really – though we have had massive budget cuts, if the island was ‘earning its keep’ then money would and could be found to keep it going. The honest truth is that the island remains a glorious representation of the geography, geology, history and folklore of Cornwall – but as an educational establishment remains virtually unused.

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?

I see huge potential in using Second Life as a meeting place, and Cornwall College Island’s most successful usage has been based around just that. I am more than happy for educational groups from all over the world to use the island as a meeting place, and the RaPAL (Research and Practice in Adult Literacy) group recently held two pre-conference meetings there to talk about digital literacy. Skype seems to be the medium of choice for one to one meetings and tutorials, but for larger meet-ups or discussions (the RaPAL group now use the island on the first Monday of every month to hold informal discussion groups) Second Life seems to be a better option. The fact that people from around the globe can meet up without travelling, saving time, money and shoe leather seems to be a glaringly obvious reason why Second Life should be used as a meeting place – I just wish I could convince others to see it the same way!

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

Currently just using Second Life – but have been given some free land on the education grid (set up by the Immersive Education Group). It seems clear that because of increasingly tight budgets and, more importantly, the lack of use that Cornwall College has had, the only way to move forward in to have free land and start again, on a smaller scale. I really don’t want to give up – I see real benefits to using virtual worlds in education – but in the economic climate I can see no other option.

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

Anyone who wants Second Life installed on their machine has to ask my permission; then, I have to ring IT services to have the user’s firewall settings changed remotely, enabling them to install and use the Second Life client. This is not going to change. This has to be a big reason why Second Life has not taken off at Cornwall College: the expectation that the only way to access it is at home along with the the fact that staff can use Second Life on their office and staff room machines but not in the classrooms.

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)?

The same people who raved about how brilliant the new viewer was were exactly the same people who, within a week, had gone back to using ‘Emerald’, complaining that the new viewer was awful. I love the media on a prim element – this opens the door for a much more interactive and immersive experience for users / students. The new viewer isn’t as user-friendly as the previous version – or Emerald, which I do admit to having installed on one of my machines – but with every upgrade the experience gets a little better.

+ + + + +

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

Continuing to use virtual worlds for teaching, learning and research.

Going well? Not? Want to say why?

Quite well. The biggest challenge personally is balancing teaching and research – something that is likely to be increasingly challenging for many folk as the cuts come in.

The best recent development is that our university island is now being used by people in other parts of the university (esp. Lifelong Learning) – this has taken far too long, but it’s happening now.

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?

I was fortunate to receive funding from JISC – it was very competitive, and only possible I think because we had a collaboration where all partners had significant prior experience with virtual worlds. The bar has been raised somewhat I think!

Our project has been funded by the JISC LTIG programme: Supporting Education in Virtual Worlds with Virtual Learning Environments (VW/VLE)

The consortium consists of the University of the West of Scotland (Daniel Livingstone), The Open University (Anna Peachey), University of Ulster (Michael Callaghan) and Imperial College London (Maria Toro-Troconis). The project will run from 1st July 2010 to 30th June 2011.

This project will analyse and catalogue emerging pedagogical opportunities offered by integrating virtual worlds and web-based virtual learning environments. It aims to show how the relative strengths of each platform, i.e. administrative capabilities of virtual learning environments and the presentation layer of virtual worlds, can be exploited and subsequently enhanced through such integration.

The project will develop, evaluate and disseminate effective models of good practice, where little guidance or structure currently exists and based on experiences from pilot groups use this integrated approach for teaching and learning at multiple institutions.

We will be looking into areas such as using VLEs to support greater personalisation of learning in shared 3D spaces, supporting accessibility, and improving reuse.

–

With a squeeze on UK funding, charity and EU funding initiatives will be more attractive, as will work with companies and industries looking to save on their travel budgets relating to training programmes – and where online training will be increasingly desirable.

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?

Virtual worlds ‘must do better’ in this regard. Elluminate doesn’t require a 3 hour induction session – and neither should a virtual world.

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

We have a little work with OpenSim, primarily still Second Life.

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

Generally over it, but staff still need to fill in forms to open the required ports for connecting to services like Second Life.

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)?

New media capabilities are a great improvement. I generally like the new UI – but it does need some streamlining, and some things can be a bit hard to find. Some aspects are not obvious. It is certainly much more welcoming than the old UI. Sadly the new client does not work well with OpenSim.

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?

On the plus side, from my reading of the terms, I can take a screenshot of SL and not have to ask Linden Lab for permission to use that image in a paper or publication. That is different from the legal situation for just about every other software package you can think of!

What I would like is better support (legally and technically) for taking in-world content out of Second Life.

+ + + + +

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

We haven’t used Education UK island for teaching purposes at all since the last snapshot although other activities have been going forward. For some time we have been developing a music venue in the shape of an intimate dance hall; this was given a thorough shakedown in June when it was utilised for a week-long charity fund-raising event. The resident DJ, guest DJs and two superb live performances helped raise in excess of £70 for the charity Avon Walk for Breast Cancer 2010.

Education UK island is home to the Edge of Life, an artificial life ecosystem comprising several species of digital organism which co-exist and interact with each other and with visiting avatars. The organisms are spawned, survive for a period of time defined by the availability of food and the magnitude of lag in the region (used to control the population by rendering some organisms sterile), and die. Each species has characteristics that demonstrate aspects of evolution: for example, one species changes colour with each new generation; whilst others are able to pass on acquired abilities to their offspring. Current work involves the modelling of swarming behaviour. Visitors are welcome and are encouraged to interact with the creatures and thus play an active role in their evolution.

Preparatory work is being undertaken to support future projects in the areas of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and pre-sessional English support for overseas students with the development of a ‘Welcome’ area.  We continue to host an exhibition of contemporary art entitled ‘The Windhorse Project’ by Vanessa Cuthbert, and a new exhibition inspired by the Haunch of Venison’s much talked about show, ‘Shoebox Art’, is to be launched in August.  Participants at a workshop run by the artist Hayley Goodsell at Leeds University’s Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery will be invited to create within a shoe box a bedroom from their past, a dream or one from a photograph.  The works will be photographed and re-created in Second Life enabling visitors to enter into the rooms.

Going well? Not? Want to say why?

Use of Second Life at Leeds University remains a very low key exercise – essentially the preserve of a handful of individuals working in their own time to explore the possibilities. The situation is unlikely to change in the near future since the University’s new Blended Learning Strategy is – quite rightly – primarily concerned with making more effective use of the institutional VLE, Blackboard, in learning and teaching activity.

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?

Current activity at Leeds is funded solely through my one-year Developmental University Teaching Fellowship supplemented by a small grant from the University’s Blended Learning Futures Group. Together this has provided sufficient funding to purchase and sustain the Education UK region for about four years (we’re now in year 2). A few bids for academic development funding within the University have been made, so far without success. We desperately need a successful project to demonstrate the potential; but with staff time limited and technical support rarer than elephant feathers it remains an uphill struggle.

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

Just using Second Life. No time or money to do otherwise.

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

At Leeds access to Second Life is still blocked for most users of desktop machines hard-wired into the campus network, although a port through the firewall will be opened if the need can be demonstrated and authorised. Access to Second Life via the campus wifi network is not constrained; but the penalty is reduced performance.

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

We’ve had up to 40 avatars simultaneously present on Education UK and it’s like herding cats.

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)?

Only looked at it briefly and I wasn’t impressed, so I continue to use either Version 1.23 or Emerald. I guess it’s a familiarity thing.

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?

I do have some concerns over the lack of a facility to back up inventory offline – one can’t keep on asking for a region to be rolled back when things go wrong. It is the nature of educational use of Second Life that the majority of objects created or builds tend to be one-offs: for example, student work, which is essentially irreplaceable. Long-term ownership of artefacts and archiving of installations will become an issue in the future if off-line storage is prohibited.

Information collection for snapshot #10 starts in the latter half of November and runs through to the end of 2010.

However, in the meantime if you would like to have a bit of publicity as an entry on here about your virtual world developments, then get in touch. So long as it’s based in UK education, it’ll probably be okay.

Thank you to all those who contributed to snapshot #9.

Journal Aims

IJTEL fosters multidisciplinary discussion and research on technology enhanced learning (TEL) approaches at the individual, organisational, national and global levels. Its key objective is to be the leading scholarly scientific journal for all those interested in, researching and contributing to the technology enhanced learning episteme. For this reason, IJTEL delivers research articles, position papers, surveys and case studies aiming:

• To provide a holistic and multidisciplinary discussion on technology enhanced learning research issues.
• To promote the international collaboration and exchange of ideas and know how on technology enhanced learning.
• To investigate strategies on how technology enhanced learning can promote sustainable development.

Subject Coverage of Special Issue

This special issue seeks to bring together research, from different perspectives, on a range of 3D technologies that may be used to enhance or support learning.

Suitable topics may relate to, but are not limited to, the use of a range of 3D technologies in enhancing learning:

• Virtual Worlds
• Game-based Learning
• Immersive Simulation
• Augmented Reality
• Cross and mixed-reality
• Assessment in 3D environments
• Pedagogies for TEL in 3D environments
• Communities of Learners in 3D environments
• Standards and Interoperability

Submission

Prospective authors are invited to notify the intention to submit a paper by sending a one-page abstract to the editors by 6th August 2010 and submit the full paper by 6th September 2010.

Abstracts may be sent to the editors at cdk@it.uc3m.es or daniel.livingstone@uws.ac.uk Final papers should be submitted electronically via the InderScience online submissions system at: http://bit.ly/ijtel

Important Dates

• 6th August 2010: Title and Abstract deadline (optional)
• 6th September 2010: Full paper submission deadline
• 15th October 2010: Decision notification
• 12th November 2010: Camera-ready version
• Early 2011: Publication (tentative)

Guest Editors

• Carlos Delgado Kloos, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganés (Madrid, Spain), cdk@it.uc3m.es
• Daniel J. Livingstone, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE (Scotland, UK), Daniel.Livingstone@uws.ac.uk

Editorial Committee

• Ignacio Aedo, UC3M, Spain
• John Belcher, MIT, USA
• Josep Blat, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Spain
• Darryl Charles, University of Ulster, UK
• Thomas Connolly, University of the West of Scotland, UK
• Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, University of Ottawa, Canada
• Lesley Gourlay, Coventry University, UK
• Miguel Lizondo, Deimos-Space, Spain
• Judith Molka-Danielsen, Molde University College, Norway
• Mariano Rico, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
• Pilar Sancho Thomas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
• Kath Trinder, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

VWW is now putting together snapshot #9, which will be out later this summer.

Staff of three UK education funding bodies have requested copies of this particular snapshot. It will also be the last snapshot until December.

A gentle request – if you haven’t already, would you like to have a go at answering a question or two from the list for this one?

If you email me anything by this Sunday, then it’ll go in. Please email to:

john@virtualworldwatch.net

+ + + + + The Questions + + + + +

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

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

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?

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?

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

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

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?

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)?

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?

Thanks for your input – this is much appreciated.

* * * * *

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.