Archive for December, 2007
Educationally Relevant Virtual World Trends for 2008
Dec 6th
Stuart Dredge at Tech Digest compiled a list of “20 trends and ideas [he] picked up” at the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe conference held recently in London. Reading that list, I believe several are particularly important to educators working in Second Life.
Trend/Issue 1. Shedloads of virtual worlds will be launched in 2008.
Trend/Issue 2. Teen-focused virtual worlds are huge.
Trend/Issue 19. Is Second Life going to stay a niche?
I think these are relevant to education as a combination. The number and variety of virtual worlds will most definitely grow, and 2008 could see a relative explosion in different MUVE’s populating the landscape. This could bring into the market a viable competitor to Second Life; that doesn’t justify bailing on Second Life, it still has specific benefits for educators, but educators should remain open to trying different platforms. And, as virtual environments grow, so does the adoption rate by younger users. Dredge even comments:
It’s my big takeaway from the conference: the sheer size and popularity of virtual worlds like Club Penguin, Webkinz and Habbo Hotel. Us geeks talk about Second Life like it’s the be-all and end-all of virtuality, but the kiddyworlds have way more active users. More importantly, a whole generation of children are growing up with the sense that virtual worlds are just a part of their lives.
This is an argument I’ve made before as one that makes educational exploration and use of virtual worlds an imperative.
Trend/Issue 5. There will be big growth in corporate use of virtual worlds. Companies holding meetings in Second Life . . . Training for staff . . . although it takes a fairly big leap of faith by a company to get its employees used to virtuality, it’s happening . . . one of the more common criticisms of these spaces – ‘What do you actually DO?’ . . . what you do is improve productivity and save money.
While it takes more time and investment to prepare for the use of Second Life with a live learning environment and learners, I believe it’s more immediately possible for educational institutions to fall in line with this trend: use virtual worlds to conduct virtual meetings and professional development opportunities. In addition to saving time and money on local travel between campuses (where relevant), business use of Second Life within an educational institution may, at the very least, support the learning curve necessary to support the instructional uses of the environment. At the very most? I imagine educational institutions could potentially find Second Life development resources in unlikely, internal places (i.e. imagine an Office Manager attending a meeting in SL to record minutes – only to become interested in and developing the skills necessary to build resources).
Trend/Issue 9. Is it an online game or a virtual world, or both?
Dredge talks about the distinction between online games and virtual worlds – which do not have predefined rules, objectives and outcomes. The trend may be blurring between the two, rather than drawing distinctions, as virtual worlds begin to include more games; he uses the CSI:NY Second Life project as a case on point. I think this potential trend will be important to education in several ways. First, designing and developing learning experiences within virtual worlds already presents new issues for faculty and instructional designers accustomed to more traditional instructional design models (discussed here). With increased blurring between games and open virtual environments will put more pressure on those designing and developing instruction. Second is the potential on the other side of that coin; as we, as an educational community, become more accustomed to virtual environments, we’ll be more capable of designing effective games that engage learners in new and meaningful ways. Third, our learners will face more distractions, as if there weren’t already enough within Second Life.
Trend/Issue 11. Interoperability is important.
I’ve also discussed this previously as one of the primary reasons (second in the list from that blog entry) why educational institutions should engage Second Life.
Trend/Issue 13. Virtual worlds need to become easier to use.
This is certainly true within education K-20. It becomes a feasibility issue within a learning environment. Time and again, we hear about the issues educators face when it comes to orienting a number of learners in a class to use Second Life. JS Vavoom mentioned a several hour learning curve when training his nursing/health science learners in preparation to use the NESIM simulation. I think this issue being discussed at the Virtual Worlds Forum signifies a burden that educators should engage collaboratively; there are many issues common to all learners first engaging Second Life. The solution is a collaboratively developed and freely available orientation area to be shared among educators. The New Media Consortium has the orientation island for educators; the education community needs a similar environment for learners available as a freely available copy/mod package.
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Loading ...Second Life Instructional Designers Group
Dec 4th
I’ve encountered more than a few instructional designers working in Second Life, but until recently, I hadn’t encountered any specific network of instructional designers within Second Life. The natural thought was to create a group, but when I searched first, I found an “Instructional Designers” group already created by Stargazer Blazer, an instructional designer at Miami of Ohio.
The group currently has ten members, and I hope that grows over the coming months. Certainly, there’s a great deal of fantastic work being done and learning experiences being created within Second Life by very talented educators. Of course, I do believe there’s a unique contribution to be made by instructional designers. Thus, I’d like to see and hope to facilitate the SL Instructional Designers group growing, having events, generally contributing to the development of quality instructional resources within Second Life, and perhaps offering consultations to faculty working in Second Life.
If you’re interested in joining the group, simply IM me – Topher Zwiers – in world with your RL institution and a summary of your instructional design background. Currently, all group members have access to create proposals, invite new members and post group notices.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Nursing Education Simulator in Second Life
Dec 2nd
I attended a SL Community College group meeting late this afternoon. The focus of the meeting was a demonstration of the NESIM nursing education simulation. I’ve blogged about NESIM before, but the demonstration provided a much better, first-hand experience. I tried posting the details via BlogHUD, but I’m not certain it worked terribly well: I believe it truncated the end of the post which was relatively long. Also, I wanted to post the pictures I took. The NESIM is truly amazing work and a fantastic application of Second Life – pictures are necessary to convey the capabilities.
The meeting was well attended by a group of about 15-20 community college educators; we all teleported to NEWG for a demonstration by JS Vavoom (RL: Jon Miller). The Emergency Room Simulator he demonstrated was based on industry standard simulations: METI and Laerdal. Below, I’ve copied details from the notecard and my attempted BlogHUD post regarding the demonstration:
Jon indicates that it’s a few hours of learning curve for SL engagement. Orientation of 54 learners to Second Life was a challenge. Interesting thing – they’ve “given Lindens to students” in addition to the orientation matierals.
Once the patient lies on the table, the monitors turn on. Instructor and student have control over the system via the HUDs – patient/instructor and nurse/learner.
With the patient on the table, Jon increased the oxygen via the tank. In this simulation, the patient reported and pointed to chest pains; as the instructor, Jon changed the heart rhythm, and as the student, he started an IV, administered a lidocaine injection and started a lidocaine drip which was reported in the chat line. Jon then created a medical emergency via the instructor HUD: the blood pressure dropped, the pulse stopped, O2 levels dropped and the ECG rhythm changed dramatically. Jon demonstrated bagging the patient and turned up the O2 rate. CPR compressions were followed by defibrillation – for which specific settings were added (360 Joules). The patient returned to sinus rhythm.
The simulation – patient responses to learner/nurse actions – is mostly controlled by the instructor; at some later point, there will be scenarios scripted with automated responses. With the two HUDs controlling the simulation, it becomes possible to have roleplay as well. All chat and actions can/are recorded for review and study.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Virtual Social Worlds and the Future of Learning
Dec 1st
In the YouTube video below,
Dr. Tony O’Driscoll describes the 7 Sensibilities that differentiate virtual social worlds from other interactive media and makes the argument that these sensibilities provide us with unprecedented freedom to create true experential learning opportunities.
I believe this ten minute video presents an excellent introduction to Second Life by focusing on the unique capabilities of the virtual environment.
To summarize briefly:
- Sense of Self is the unique capability of virtual worlds to enhance the development of salient identities, particularly in comparison to the 2D/textual web.
- Death of Distance. Virtual distance is only virtual; distance becomes conceptual only; it’s no longer real and no longer an impediment to interaction among individuals. Dr. O’Driscoll demonstrates the teleport capabilities.
- Power of Presence. With the Sense of Self and the Death of Distance, it becomes possible to project a distinctive presence within virtual space. A short video clip of an in world music concert highlights this sensibility.
- Sense of Space & Perception. Virtual worlds can be molded and created with much less limitation than the physical world. That allows a great deal of freedom. A short video clip of Joe Miller’s Molecule Maker demonstrates how virtual worlds can be used.
- Capability to Co-Create. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia describes creative co-production, and 3D worlds take us to the next level of co-creation. Architectural students collaborate in a high speed video to co-create a dwelling in Second Life.
- Pervasiveness of Practice. Alluding to Jay Cross’ book, Dr. O’Driscoll paraphrases,“Avatars are free range learners and virtual social worlds are the learnscape in which they live.” The key to virtual environments is the pervasiveness of the phrase, “How do I . . .” In short, peer-to-peer learning is baked into the environment.
- Enrichment of Experience. Chris Davis’ Agora Ballroom demonstrates the enrichment of experience. Virtual worlds uniquely present the opportunity to augment or enrich real life experiences, and in some cases, to make experiences possible in the first place.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Lisa Dawley on Instructional Design for Virtual Worlds
Dec 1st
I had the opportunity to watch a recorded archive of Dr. Lisa Dawley’s online presentation from Tuesday, November 27: Persistent Social Learning: An Emergent ID Model for Virtual World Design. Dr. Dawley (SL: Mali Young) is Chair & Associate Professor of the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University and the designer of EDTECH Island in Second Life. The presentation focuses on what she believes is an emerging instructional design (ID) model for the development of virtual learning environments.
Initially, Dr. Dawley describes potential shortcomings of traditional ID models regarding the development of virtual learning environments and resources; specifically, the literature suggests the traditional models (e.g. Dick & Carey’s model and the more generic ADDIE model) are too process oriented, too static and too linear – leading to games or environments that don’t meet user expectations. I certainly understand the D&C model fitting into that category; I’ve always understood it to have more cognitivist, information processing philosophical underpinnings. The ADDIE model, as I understand it however, does not inherently have a cognitivist orientation; the instructional designer’s philosophy of teaching and learning influences specific strategies within the design phase, so the ADDIE model may be used to guide the development of more constructivist learning resources.
The challenge, according to Dr. Dawley, is to create a virtual environment that is engaging and draws learners in, and we can’t necessarily do that using traditional ID models. I agree entirely with that issue. I do believe there are two issues we, as an instructional design community, must address to meet that challenge. First, we must design and develop engaging virtual environments. Second, perhaps more importantly, we must design and develop engaging learning experiences within those virtual environments. I think the situation is somewhat analogous to an issue I’ve encountered recently regarding the use of iTunes: many colleges and universities are signing on with iTunes, but that’s only the delivery mechanism – the key to effective podcasting is the auditory content.
The presentation focuses on the first challenge: lessons learned while developing an effective and engaging virtual learning environment – specifically, Dawley’s work with EDTECH Island. For me, the first three phases of her research empirically corroborates the observational data published by Jennings & Collins (2007). For example, Jennings & Collins’ research compiled data regarding the educational institutions’ use of signage, pathways, maps and teleports on land parcels to facilitate visitor engagement and use of the space. Through the first phases of research, Dr. Dawley has collected empirical data validating the impact of those build design strategies; more importantly, her research also reveals the relative importance of building tutorials for learners, information sharing tools, meeting places, social/living areas, and group notices for increasing traffic and engaging visitors. As she summarizes, the evidence indicates navigational pathways and group notices have a definitive impact on engagement with social events and living spaces being less influential.
There were three other notable aspects of the presentation, in my opinion.
First, the data collection tools were new to me. I am familiar with visitor counters, but Maya Realities Second Life Traffic Analysis is quite impressive, to say the least. The metrics very easily evaluate the ROI of an institution’s SL space. I could try to explain it in detail, but it’s much easier to take a look at the presentation starting at the 25:30 mark (roughly halfway on the progress bar) and browse the Maya Realities website.
Second, one suggestion for increasing traffic to certain areas was to “put the milk in the back” – the grocery store notion of placing the highest volume product at the back of the store. That requires visitors to walk past everything else on the way to the high volume product. From a marketing perspective, that principle may work. From an instructional perspective, I believe it will be counterproductive. In any educational environment, we’re not trying to sell product; we’re trying to get learners to engage specific content in certain ways. Placing that content “behind” other interesting content which is ultimately a distractor is inconsistent with instructional and web design principles.
That leads to the third idea. An attendee suggested that we’re beginning to encounter and engage usability and design issues for virtual environments that are analogous to the earliest issues regarding the usability of web-based learning environments. Certainly, observing and participating in the convergence of architectural, game, instructional, and web design principles will influence the effectiveness of virtual learning environments.
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