Mar 04

What next for Virtual World Watch?

Events, News, Presentations, Surveys, VWW 1 Comment »

As you may be aware, Eduserv Research (formerly the Eduserv Foundation) no longer funds virtual world stuff. This isn’t due to any derogatory feeling about virtual worlds, or the research they have funded, on their part, but due to changes in internal policy directions. It’s a pity – Eduserv have funded a nice array of projects, and through conferences (massively over-subscribed) and funding calls (also massively over-subscribed) lifted a lid on a lot of interest, and actual activity, in virtual world use in UK academia. They’ve also pontificated, blogged and disseminated on a wide range of virtual world issues – Art Fossett’s blog has over 300 postings, and the eFoundations blog has some recent reflective material too.

So kudos to Andy, Pete and Ed for their Heineken ethos (i.e. refreshing the projects other funding bodies cannot reach).

So, what next for Virtual World Watch? Well, it’s carrying on through 2010 and 2011, at least. VWW is a part-time service run by one person, so it doesn’t cost megabucks to run. There’s sufficient momentum in the use of virtual worlds within UK academia, and enough interesting things happening (not just technically and academically, but socio-economically) to make it worthwhile. And it fits in with my business plan for the next few years.

Anyway, having previously worked on one too many digital info projects which are gathering dust online, it’s nice to see how long such a project or service can be kept active, useful and relevant for.

Funding and advisory group

To maintain perspective (as opposed to one person going off on his own tangent) and replace the support and steerage Eduserv have given over the years, an advisory group of academics is being formed. These people will, well, advise VWW on what it does and what directions it takes, as well as advise on the political situations that regularly face VWW. Academia. Politics. *sigh*

Funding. The initial temptation was to change the name to the “Bank of Virtual World Watch” and approach HM government for a multi-billion pound bailout. This seems to work for others. Instead, VWW is keen to try different models of funding for this service, so the rest of 2010 and 2011 gives plenty of opportunities for this.

Current snapshot (number #8) and other reports

VWW is currently working on three reports/snapshots in parallel. This is not good :-(

  • Report: “What is virtual world research? What is it not? Hmmm?” The troublesome hangover from the end of last year, which has turned into a reflective piece about the nature of virtual world research. This is (finally) coming out very soon. Thanks especially to contributers who wondered what the heck happened to their submissions.
  • Report: “Swimming to Jerusalem: four years of virtual world trend-spotting.” Partially a “final report” for Eduserv, and partially a reflective piece on the last few years of watching trends and developments. Out at the end of March/start of April.
  • Snapshot #8 of virtual world use in UK higher and further education. Also out at the end of March/start of April, the final snapshot under Eduserv funding.

On that last report. As ever, many people have submitted for snapshot #8, and it’s nice that there are a few new people who have submitted for the first time. Though you’ll have missed the draw for people who got theirs in by the end of February, VWW can still take submissions for this snapshot. The final deadline is the end of Sunday March 14th.

Seoul

Seoul

Future snapshots: 2010 and 2011

After snapshot #8, VWW is settling into a bi-annual approach to snapshots; one at the end of the academic year (June-ish), and one at the end of the calendar year (December-ish). This has the advantage of putting about 6 months between each; one of the main problems with the current compressed cycle is contributers passing as they haven’t had enough time to do significant ’stuff’ since the last snapshot. And they’re probably quietly fed up of being asked every few months.

So, the snapshot schedule for the rest of 2010 and 2011 is:

  • Snapshot #9: June/July 2010
  • Snapshot #10: December 2010
  • Snapshot #11: June/July 2011
  • Snapshot #12: December 2011

Presentations

VWW is out and about doing presentations in the near future:

Want VWW to come and speak to your posse? Here’s some details.

Book

Steady progress is being made on a book about the use of virtual worlds in teaching and learning, based on the last few years experiences in the UK and other research, teaching and use elsewhere. The proofreader and a few reviewers are lined up, and we seem to be pencilled in for a December 2010 release to the masses, just in time for the Christmas book market. Now you know what to get for that aunt who sends you a hand-knitted Rupert Bear jumper every single ******* year, even though you are 41.

Also putting this in writing is another incentive, as I know that if I don’t produce it, there’ll be reminders on public twitter from certain people (hard stare in general direction of Teesside :-) ).

Other stuff

There’s some other stuff that may be produced by VWW, that the advisory group are and will be chewing over; it will be good to reflect on the past few years work first though. Everything, including the book, will go up on, or via, this website.

That’s enough for now. A big thank you to the many UK academics, and other people, who have contributed to the snapshots, Flickr group, and other materials over the last four year. To infinity, and beyond…

Tagged with: • •
Feb 24

Leeds Metropolitan University in Virtual Worlds: update

News No Comments »

Here’s the submission from Ian Truelove, from Leeds Metropolitan University, for snapshot #8. As with other people who get their accounts of what they have/are doing in by the end of the month, Ian goes into the draw to win a freshly minted ten pound note.

Ian can be followed on Twitter.

+ + + + +

The pressures of running a large undergraduate provision have left little time for virtual worlds lately. However, having ultimate responsibility for the learning of 330 students does tend to focus the mind on the practicalities of scaling up the use of virtual worlds in a real world educational context. Motivated by its potential scalability and configurability, I have redoubled my efforts, and have finally got my OpenSim grid up and running. It’s currently only running behind the University firewall, but it’s working exactly as I had hoped. I can pre-register all of my students, which cuts out the nightmare prospect of a Second Life registration session multiplied by 330. I can get student’s real names floating above their new avatar’s heads, which helps them to make the connection between avatars and their real life puppet masters, and avoids premature fantasy identity overload. I can avoid the complications of noob-learners making fools of themselves in front of rude strangers and, most importantly for design students, I can get them building things straight away.

I see OpenSim as a means to an end, rather than the end itself. It will provide me with a safe training space – a studio space – for my students to mess about in and learn the ropes. I’ll then encourage any intrigued students to venture out into a truly massive multiuser virtual world like Second Life. I don’t think I’ll need to hold their hands in the same way that I did when we all jumped straight into Second Life in the early days. Once acclimatised through fun-time in the OpenSim playground, students should be able to confidently explore Second Life and beyond without a tutor cramping their style. They can always ask for help if they need it, and we will provide guidance and coaching as we do for all our students, but they will be in control. They can go where they like and do what they like, just like in real life. We will encourage them to report back on their discoveries, if they are relevant to their learning. They can show us snapshots of their exploits, and they can quote freely from their chat-logs as they reflect on their learning. They can even log-into our OpenSim studio and discuss their pseudonym’s exploits with their real life virtual friends and tutors.

I am of the opinion that students should have access to a private, institutionally managed virtual world, which is linked to their authentic, accountable, assessable and accredit-able enrolled identity, but should also be free to roam a public virtual space in whichever manner and attire they choose.

Tagged with: • • • •
Feb 22

Bromley College in Virtual Worlds: update

People, Surveys, Worlds No Comments »

One of the updates in from Bromley College for snapshot #8 comes from Clive Gould:

+ + + + +

This academic year at Bromley College we have moved away from using Second Life to trialling OpenSim.

We have production and test Linux servers running OpenSim 0.6.8 and staff and students have access to OpenSim, both from within College and externally.

We have found that two of our computer rooms already have graphics cards which are Meerkat compatible and are converting two more rooms of PC’s by adding appropriate graphics cards.

Using a standalone installation of OpenSim means that it is much easier for us to provide and control access to the MUVE. Although OpenSim is currently in in alpha we have found it works well in the classroom environment.

This academic year we are using/planning on using OpenSim with two groups:

1) National Diploma IT year 2 – Developing and assessing skills in Object Orientated Programming.

2) FdEng Software Development year 2 – Investigating Web services practically as part of a Database Development course.

I am continuing to maintain the Linden Script exhibition in Second Life on Hyles Infopoint. However I have also ported it to OpenSim to help our students learn LSL. Additionally, I have made the exhibition available as a download so that others can install it into their own OpenSim standalones.

For more information please visit our blogs:

http://bcopensim.blogspot.com/
http://www.linuxtraining.org.uk/blogger4.html

Tagged with: • • • •
Feb 16

Cornwall College in Second Life: update

People, Surveys No Comments »

Submissions to the latest snapshot are coming in, so some of them will be run on this website (if the submission author wants) ahead of the snapshot report coming out. Here’s one from Cornwall College, submitted by Bex Ferriday (who goes into the draw to win ten pounds) – thanks:

+ + + + +

Cornwall College’s School of Education and Training (SET) has been successfully running the Level 3 Award in Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) as a blended learning course for three years. This eleven week course is delivered with 7 sessions studied in students’ own time using moodle and remaining sessions taught using traditional methods in the classroom. However, with the college’s island on “Second Life” now complete, SET has decided to pilot a version of the course that replaces college-based sessions with content delivered in a virtual environment. This is a first in terms of Cornwall College and use of Second Life as a teaching and learning environment. To date several courses have taught users how to teach in Second Life – but an officially accredited course has never been offered that teaches real world, transferable teaching skills in a virtual world environment.

Twelve students have signed up to work through this pilot: by enrolling a group that are based in locations such as Italy, Portugal, France, Romania, England, Wales and Spain there are no issues with time zones and by ensuring that the group consists of qualified, real world practitioners au fait with using Second Life, any technical and delivery issues can be ironed out before rolling the programme out internationally and to people who have no teaching and / or Second Life skills. The group are enthusiastic, excited by the prospect of being part of this ground breaking new project and are all fully involved in the activities. Feedback has been wholly positive, with many members of the group commenting on how well they feel they have bonded as a group. This has led to a slight revision of the course schedule, with regular discussion-based get-togethers now being offered as a way of keeping students motivated and maintaining this group dynamic.

The course is still in its early stages and anything can happen. However, if the course continues to run as well as it has so far The School of Education and Training will be looking to offer this to an international audience, and on a regular, twice-yearly basis.

A second group of students are also making creative use of the island. The Foundation Degree in Arts and Media has begun a building project, and are experimenting with the physics of Second Life, adding textures to prims and honing their building and scripting skills in order to make works of art that simply could not be made in real life. Their tutor is building an art deco-style art gallery in which to house these creations, and currently sits at the bottom of Dozmary Pool, the bottomless body of water from which Excalibur was reputedly held aloft by the mythical Lady of the Lake in Arthurian Legend.

Experiences of teachers using the island are that there are few differences between teaching in Second Life and traditional classroom delivery. This comes as something of a relief as if there were a generic Initial Teacher Training course that contained no classroom or face to face delivery would be destined to fail. Planning is still written on traditional documentation, web-based delivery means that it makes sense to have a dry-run and to make sure there is a Plan B should anything go wrong – but this is how any session with an element of ILT should be planned. Ground rules need to be set at the start of the course, and though these may be different – for example, to only use text-based speech when the teacher is using live voice rather than ensuring mobile phones are switched off – this again is something that needs to be done at the start of all courses. The common notion that body language is impossible to read in Second Life is, to some extent, an exaggeration. Poses are sophisticated enough for avatars to be able to show how they feel by the way they choose to sit, inactivity means that the word “Away” appears above avatars’ heads – an explicit signal to the teacher that the avatar in question is distracted or bored, and the frequency and content of both written and verbal responses from students also shines a light onto the way they feel. Nuances may not be as subtle as they are in the real world – but there are enough signals to be able to get a sense of individual and group moods.

Use of the island continues to grow and attitudes towards this virtual world as a teaching resource appear to be growing ever more favourable. While the island lay empty people couldn’t really see the point. Now that things are starting to happen and both filmed and photographic evidence in available for all to see on flickr and YouTube, minds are slowly changing and the pace is picking up.

Tagged with: • • •
Feb 06

Second Tuesday meeting – newbies welcome

Events, People No Comments »

A message from Sheila Webber, who is hosting the next event in the series. This is where UK academics, and other folk interested in teaching and learning in virtual worlds, get together for an hour or two in-world (Second Life) to be exact. All are welcome; the debate veers between the serious and the casual, as does the dress code:

I think I was designated the next host for the Second Tuesday meeting, 9th Feb at 8pm UK time, noon SLT:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/223/36/28/

Peter/Graham suggested we should take a theme, and my proposal is:

1) Discussing/drafting a proposal for the VW Best Practices in education conference (at the last meeting it was suggested that we put in a “Dance your way through the UK sims” proposal)

AND

2) SL tools for discussion/brainstorming in groups in particular applying 2) to 1)

*However* if it turns out that people now think that doing a VWBPE proposal is a rubbish idea, we could still demo or chat about 2). This does not rule out the usual free-form discussion about life the universe and everything.

—
Sheila Webber
Senior Lecturer, Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield,
211 Portobello Street, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
0114 222 2641
s.webber (@) sheffield.ac.uk
The information literacy weblog – http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
Sheila Yoshikawa (SL) blog: http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/

Tagged with: • • • •
Feb 06

Bromley College in OpenSim

News No Comments »

From Barry Spencer at Bromley College:

In the last week we have begun to open our OpenSim platform for student access here at Bromley College. We thought it would be a good idea to have a record of their progress in the virtual world, and so we have launched a new blog: http://bcopensim.blogspot.com.

Please feel free to visit and comment.

if you have any particular questions or requests then again please feel free to contact either Clive Gould (Clive Pro) cliveg (@) gmail.com or Barry Spencer (Vega Starlight) barrys (@) bromley.ac.uk

Tagged with: • • •
Feb 01

Call for info: Snapshot #8 (Spring 2010)

Surveys, VWW No Comments »

This is a “Request For Information” for the eighth Virtual World Watch snapshot survey. As with the others, this is an opportunity to publicise what you are doing, to your peers, potential collaborators, users of your “stuff” and funders.

There’s one main question which can be interpreted as broadly, or as narrowly, as you wish. As per usual, the scope is limited to UK Higher and Further Education.

The question

How are you using virtual worlds in your teaching, learning or research?

Things you may want to include:

  • Why you are using a virtual world.
  • If teaching using a virtual world, how it fits into your curriculum.
  • Any evaluation of the experience of using the virtual world.
  • Will you do it again next year? Why (or why not)?

secondlife-postcard

A few side points

  • Do you know of any other individual, group or project at your institution using virtual worlds for teaching, learning or research? If so, a contact detail would be appreciated.
  • Do you have any interesting screenshots of what you’ve been doing in virtual worlds? If so, then please consider submitting them to the Virtual World use in UK Education Flickr group – thanks.

Deadline

As per normal there is a backlog of “stuff” to process. *sigh* If you get your submissions in by mid-March, then they’ll make it in. After that, and they *may* make it in.

Thank you for any and all contributions.

Sending information in

Please send your contributions, in whatever format (e.g. email, Word, text) to john (@) virtualworldwatch.net

Please note that these reports are fully public – and available under creative commons – so what you say will be readable by anyone.

This is the last snapshot funded under the Eduserv Foundation/Research regime, before Virtual World Watch moves to the new funding streams. More on that later in the Spring.

Update…

Oh btw – if you get your response in by the end of February 2010, then you could be one of five lucky people to win ten pounds.

Tagged with: • • • • •
Nov 05

Cornwall College in Second Life

People, Surveys, Videos, Worlds No Comments »

Information from UK universities and colleges on their virtual world activities is still welcome for the latest snapshot survey.

One of the responses in so far is from Bex Ferriday, the lead teacher at the School of Education and Training at Cornwall College. Here’s what she says:

What we are doing

Cornwall College is using Second Life to collaborate with other in world educational establishments and to deliver teaching and student support to Higher Education students studying a range of subjects. We have also designed our sim (Cornwall College Island) to function as an interactive representation of the architecture, geology, geography, sociology and politics of Cornwall. As a result, visitors to the island are as welcome to surf, sunbathe on the beach, hang-glide, share a pasty or walk around a virtual tin mine as they are to enrol on a course of study, have a tutorial or join a class.

A number of projects are currently at various stages of development. Cornwall College’s School of Education and Training (SET) has been delivering a successful introductory teacher training programme using blended learning methods for a little over three years now. Course members study using a mix of asynchronous online sessions uploaded to the college’s Virtual Learning Environment (moodle) and attendance at traditional classroom based sessions. In February 2010 the college will pilot a version of this course whereby all classroom based sessions will be delivered in Second Life. This opens the course to students from all over the globe, and also asks the question – can traditional teaching skills learnt in a virtual world transfer to practice in the real world?

Partnership

The college is also involved in setting up a partnership with Université de Bretagne Occidentale at Quimper using Second Life. It is hoped that students from both sides of the Channel can meet each other and staff can share lessons and resources. This should enhance the college’s current involvement in the Erasmus (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) partnership and hopefully lead to students visiting one another in the real world.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Arts and construction

Arts and media students are looking to hold an exhibition of 3D art and sculpture in the gallery that floats above the island as part of their assessed coursework, making work that defies the laws of physics in the real world yet still adheres to assignment briefs and course requirements in the real world.

Meanwhile, construction lecturers are setting up a project which involves a group of students building a house in Second Life while peers studying for accreditation in other construction-based trades such as plumbing and carpentry work closely together in order to make the house function. This will have the duel benefit of honing students’ skills in a safe environment and giving them the opportunity to learn how to work as a team.

Spreading the word

“Spreading the word” is still proving to be difficult. Despite a flurry of interest at the college’s annual ILT Fair held in July (with four Second Life introductory workshops being full to capacity) teaching staff with packed schedules and low confidence in their personal ICT abilities feel that they don’t have the time or ability to engage with Second Life – and many fear they don’t have the imagination to use it effectively or dynamically.

Reasons cited commonly include the lack of time because of workload pressures, the perceived (or real) steep learning curve that is attached to learning to navigate in a virtual world, age (it being seen as something for “young people” despite the suggested average age of a typical Second Life user as being 36) and it just being “weird”. Typically, this “weirdness” boils down to a group assumption that Second Life is a glorified orgy of virtual sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, though in recent months this world view hasn’t been as vehemently stated as, say, this time last year. A sign that attitudes are changing, perhaps?

The future

With momentum starting to build, it would seem rather churlish to stop now. With the new Nebraska “Behind the Firewall” project in alpha stage the college can consider running a standalone instance of Second Life and in doing so could make access easier for students under the age of 18, as well as those students who are considered more vulnerable. It may even help to allay the fears that many still seem to have regarding adult content. As more and more educational establishments seem to be joining Second Life in order to collaborate and educate, this can only be the start of something good!

Tagged with: • • • •
Jun 22

Early summer 2009 snapshot

Quotes, Reports, Surveys, VWW No Comments »

The early summer 2009 snapshot of virtual world activity in UK HE and FE is now available in PDF format.

Executive summary

Second Life (SL) was launched on June 23rd, 2003, making it nearly six years old. Virtual worlds such as SL are therefore not ‘new’. This is apparent when noticing the growing number of UK universities who are into their second or third year of teaching and learning using this technology.

Second Life remains, by far, the ‘virtual world of choice’ for academics in UK universities and colleges. Though OpenSim is mentioned by a minority of vocal academics, the number of non-SL uses and investigations across UK academia is still a small fraction of the SL uses. This does not mean, of course, that Linden Labs should remain confident, or that academics should focus solely/blindly on Second Life. Though well developed (and well used) in academia over the past half-decade, SL still throws up a number of technical, administrative and logistical hurdles for academic practitioners and their institutions.

Second Life in particular is being used in a very wide range of teaching and learning activities. The number of students who take part in these activities varies wildly from just a few to over a hundred in several cases.

A core of universities, most significantly the Open University, Edinburgh and Coventry, have many groups, courses and departments using virtual worlds as a central technology for teaching and learning activities, e.g.

“Virtual worlds have become a core technology for our teaching, learning, research and collaboration.” – Fiona Littleton, Virtual Worlds Development Adviser, University of Edinburgh.

Other universities, such as Lancaster, Teesside, Southampton Solent, Glasgow Caledonian and Strathclyde, are also developing a significant virtual world presence, e.g.

“Lancaster University’s long term plans are grand. We are laying the ground work for more courses to be taught, more students to have access and more research to be conducted.” – Michele Ryan, Department of Management Learning & Leadership, Lancaster University.

Some universities, such as Glasgow, Oxford and Cambridge, report little or no virtual world development, though investigation often shows more activity than is being stated in some of these institutions. Activity in further education remains difficult to quantify, locate or obtain clear information on (this is becoming a long-term problem with the snapshot series).

Trends, especially subject areas of use, are becoming clearer. The academic health and medical science sector in particular has a disproportionate number of virtual world activities. This could be because the subject matter lends itself more easily to such development, and also due to the (relative) ease of funding for such applications. For example, hands-on maternity and birthing simulations have been developed in several UK universities (Coventry, Nottingham, Teesside and Worcester). The full experience is especially difficult to convey in mere textual words, and the author of this report recommends trying one out as a good introduction to the experience of learning in virtual worlds.

Other emerging subject areas where there are several instances of virtual world use include health and safety, art and design, and computer science. However, none of these exhibit anything near the activity of the health and medical sector in its use of Second Life. Fewer academics are complaining about technical issues, such as equipment and Second Life viewer update access in universities. This reduction is most likely due to a combination of some academics giving up in ‘unfertile’ institutions, whilst other institutions are now more supportive of virtual world activities.

Tagged with: • • • • •
Jun 15

Virtual Worlds Forum, 16th July, Worcester.

Events No Comments »

[Message below from the Virtual Worlds mailing list. Note that the RSC-WM are active in Second Life and have recently taken possession of an island; enquire with Jane Edwards for further details.]

Dear colleague (apologies for any cross-postings),
 
The RSC-WM invite you to take part in the next Virtual Worlds Forum taking place in Worcester on Thursday 16th July 2009, 10:00 -15:30.
 
This free forum provides a good opportunity to share experience, information and good practice of using a virtual world in a teaching context and to share projects in which you may be involved in using a virtual world (eg Second Life®), your thoughts and ideas on using virtual worlds for education.
 
The forum is open to people from across all post-16 sectors in the West Midlands including HE, FE, ACL, Specialist Colleges, WBL and Offender Learning.
 
Bookings are now being taken via the RSC-WM website : http://info.rsc-wm.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=451
 
We hope you can join us!!

Tagged with: • • • • •
Previous Entries
preload preload preload