Face to face with Abe Lincoln

Today I started this course run by The University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, entitled ‘Setting Up an Educational Presence in Second Life’. I came across this through the neat SL Educational Events calendar, which you can import into your google calendar. It just came up at the right time as I had been lurking around on SL Edu spaces trying to get an idea of where to start!

The first (of four) sessions today consisted of getting to know everyone, a general discussion, and a field trip to 2 Edu locations. Of course between meeting the diverse group of participants and the instructors I’m now overloaded with things to check out. But I have more of an idea about what is involved with planning and running an edu space within SL. The importance of having a general philosophy and guidelines before you start was stressed by our guide during the first field trip- Daisyblue Hefferman. She has done a lot of work at the impressive Land of Lincoln, which aims to educate visitors about the life and times of Abe Lincoln, all of which was built by volunteers. The second spot we visited was Bradley University- another well-developed edu space.

At the moment over 250 uni’s have a presence in SL, and there over 14 million users registered. I seem to be coming across more benefits of a virtual world daily. This is a good article about the support groups within SL (it would also serve as food for thought for any SL skeptics!).

Virtual worlds have been in the news recently with the launch of Google’s Lively. Even if it’s not up to the level of SL at the moment, there’s certainly lots of dosh being invested in them. The actual virtual world you inhabit might not matter soon enough as Linden Lab have managed to teleport an avatar from SL to an open-SIM server. The whole thing sounds more like William Gibson every day…

Finding my way around Second Life

Today I attended my second Second Life event, which was a discussion by students (under the leadership of Joe Sanchez) at the University of Texas about their experience of learning within SL through building within it.

We took some guided tours of their creations, which where really impressive- especially the Wellness Centre (saunas, Zen garden, meditation level) and the Quiddich arena (that game from Harry Potter- didn’t have a clue how to play it but it was fun!).

As I am (relatively) new to SL, I am still getting over the real sense of embodiment between you and your avatar. On the meditation level (a floating pad with cushions overlooking the sea), it actually felt quite peaceful. I wouldn’t believe this if someone had told me but its true. There were 4 or 5 of us there and we all reported the same calming effect in real life of having your avatar meditating as the sun went down (our guide Demarest Baxton said that this was common- try it out here). I also wondered about the relationship between the avatar and its environment in general. I read a while back that virtual environment such as SL could be used as a safe, controllable environment for people who had experienced trauma (personal attacks, rape etc.), to re-integrate into society.  Could we tackle phobias in this environment -vertigo, arachnophobia etc?

One of the challenges I face is trying to ‘sell’ the idea of virtual worlds to educators and the Q&A session at the end was interesting, as the students and teacher reflected on their experiences. Some of the obvious advantages were spoken about- remote collaboration (and learning how to collaborate and organize effectively), networking capabilities and the remote delivery of classes. They also spoke about how the students and educators were ‘on the one level’, and working together in SL, as opposed to the traditional f2f classroom setting. They all felt more comfortable with this arrangement. Another point raised (which I heard mentioned a couple of days ago in another session) was how easy it was to meet and talk to experts in particular fields.

The biggest problem I see about using SL in education is the initial hurdle encountered- that of getting comfortable with navigation, finding the cool places and being convinced that it is worth coming back to. North Lamar (aka Joe Sanchez in First Life) reckons you have to get the students in, guide them around (instead of being alone in Navigation Island) and then get them doing/ building something that interests them straight away. Gamers might think the graphics and capabilities of SL a bit basic, but they soon find the benefits. Everybody was in agreement also about having a tutor available in SL for task based activities like this one.

As one of the students mentioned- SL is still in its infancy- comparing it to the web 10 years ago. Like the web now, SL’s content comes from users (100% in fact), so the (educational) benefits seem endless.

Q&A Session

Check out the Educators Coop here

My head is full!

I’ve decided to start blogging as my head won’t accept any more information, so it will serve as my outboard memory! This blog will mainly concern what I encounter and would like to share regarding eLearning and its developments. And maybe some other stuff too…