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Randolph Hollingsworth

The Avatar Will See You Now | home visits via "virtual assistant" AI from Nuance and 3D... - 0 views

www.technologyreview.com/...the-avatar-will-see-you-now

media digital technologies design avatar artificial intelligence AI virtualworlds virtual world

shared by Randolph Hollingsworth on 11 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Randolph Hollingsworth on 11 Jun 13
     
    Use of artificial intelligence and avatar as "virtual assistant" (from Nuance) to check in at home with patient's progress ".... sometimes patients are more willing to share sensitive information with a nonjudgmental avatar than with a doctor." Jessica Leber, MIT Tech Rev
Ann Steckel

The Power of Real-World Gender Roles in Second Life - Pixels and Policy - 0 views

www.pixelsandpolicy.com/...female-avatars.html

virtual_worlds virtual worlds virtualworlds research secondlife avatar gender

shared by Ann Steckel on 19 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Ann Steckel on 19 Apr 10
     
    "The Power of Real-World Gender Roles in Second Life Pixels and Policy recently tackled the issue of how racial bias crept across the real-virtual divide and found a home in the virtual world. Dozens of our readers responded with their own stories of virtual prejudice as well as their critiques of our research. As we researched the role of race is Second Life, more and more female residents asked us to take a look at how female avatars reflect real-world gender expectations. The topic is too important to pass up. Over the course of three weeks, Pixels and Policy conducted interviews with over 40 residents of Second Life to see just what gender in the Metaverse meant to them."
Eloise Pasteur

Nursing in Second Life - 1 views

www.nursingtimes.net/...ife_virtual_world_avatars.html

education Second Life nursing glasgow

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 13 Dec 08 - Cached
  • From next year, lectures at Glasgow Caledonian University will encourage the student nurses to test their knowledge and skills by entering the virtual world of Second Life and create their own online character, known as an avatar. The student nurses can then assess a range of virtual patients which lecturers have programmed in advance with a variety of ailments. Nursing lecturers hope students will use an avatar to explore the virtual hospital in Second Life and treating the virtual patients. This will allow the student nurses to practice their theory in a safe environment without fear of making mistakes.
  • 'Avatars have been created to represent typical patients and they can interact with our nursing students' avatars to allow them to carry out patient assessments. Each patient can be controlled by a tutor or by artificial intelligence and has a different history and reason for being admitted to hospital, as well as the ability to respond to a broad range of questions. The assessments are recorded and can be analysed later with the student's tutor.'
Eloise Pasteur

Drawing a Roadmap: Barriers and Challenges to Designing the Ideal Virtual World for Hig... - 0 views

connect.educause.edu/...47223

barriers education life second virtual world

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 18 Sep 08 - Cached
  • So why should higher education be concerned about virtual worlds for those under eighteen? There are several reasons.
  • First, an increasing number of colleges and universities are enrolling students who are younger than eighteen.
  • Second, allowing interaction between high school and postsecondary students increases the potential for mentoring and outreach. As institutions become more competitive, many are trying to attract high school students earlier, sometimes starting when they are freshmen.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Third, a secure multi-age virtual world would provide educators with a rich environment in which to study instructional practices.
  • Individuals using computer resources belonging to The University of Arizona must act in a responsible manner, in compliance with law and University policies, and with respect for the rights of others using a shared resource. The right of free expression and academic inquiry is tempered by the rights of others to privacy, freedom from intimidation or harassment, protection of intellectual property, ownership of data, and security of information.” Although this policy seems fairly straightforward, the ten “Acceptable Use Guidelines” meant to clarify this policy instead introduce confusion. For example, Guideline 3, which instructs the computer user to “clearly and accurately identify one's self in electronic communications,” adds: “Do not forge or misrepresent one's identity. Concealing or masking the identity of electronic communications such as altering the source of an email message by making it appear as if the message was sent by someone else is a violation of this policy.”14 So a student knows that altering the sender of an e-mail is against policy, but what about creating an avatar? And what about the faculty member who asks students to create an avatar with a totally fictitious name? Are the faculty member and the students in violation of this policy?
  • an instructional technologist at the University of Arizona,was supporting the implementation of Second Life in a General Education class. She was concerned about the interesting style of dress, or lack thereof, that is often seen in Second Life and felt she needed to develop a dress code for the virtual class.15 But when the vice-provost for instruction and I were discussing the process for modifying the current dress code of the university, we discovered that the university does not even have a dress code for everyday life.16
  • For example, at the University of Arizona, faculty have expressed frustration because they cannot learn how to sit down in virtual worlds or because they cannot figure out how to correctly set the hair on their avatar. Because of these frustrations, they tend not to invest the time needed to explore the world as an instructional resource. However, as the NMC’s Levine has pointed out: “In our first life, it generally takes us maybe eighteen years . . . to get to be fully functional adults. It’s an evolutionary process. A virtual world that had a short learning curve would be something not very interesting. So I think an ideal virtual world needs some of that complexity.”17 The challenge thus becomes how to select a virtual world that has the necessary complexity to keep users engaged while developing strategies and structures to support them as they learn.
  • Even more important is that if an institution wants to implement a virtual world of any type, it needs to convince faculty that the early adopters are, in fact, not all mad and that the tool does have value. Instruction may just be in a form with which the faculty is unfamiliar. Therefore the institution must begin by offering faculty, staff, and students the time and support to perform simple tasks like learning how to navigate the environment. Faculty must then be assisted in visualizing something outside of their understanding of what it means to be a teacher.
  • Perhaps as important as setting goals and providing resources is developing realistic assessments of the project’s success. For example, in a virtual world such as Second Life, what are the metrics that will be used to determine the institution’s return on investment?
  • Eloise Pasteur on 18 Sep 08
     
    A thoughtful analysis of the education institution's barriers to engaging in Second Life or other virtual worlds.
Steven Hornik

Ernst & Young Uses Avatars to Test the Use of Virtual Worlds as a Way to Enhance Traini... - 0 views

www.outsourcing-journal.com/mar2009-acs.html

Second Life EarnstYoung accounting training

shared by Steven Hornik on 11 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Steven Hornik on 11 Mar 09
     
    Ernst & Young Uses Avatars to Test the Use of Virtual Worlds as a Way to Enhance Training for New Auditors
Eloise Pasteur

Advantages of Second Life over web-conferencing - Eloise's thoughts and fancies - 1 views

eloisepasteur.net/...index.php

Second Life education web-conference comparison blog

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 27 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Advantages of Second Life over web-conferencing
  • Experience - whereas video is a one-way, passive experience, SL is a group one. This is a completely different dynamic, if the presentation makes use of it. If they just passively show a video, they might as well be on the web. Think of it, when done well, as comparing sitting in a movie vs at a comedy show where the audience can yell out comments that are instantly worked into the skit. Collaboration - participants get a completely different experience when they 'see' each other. It is more involving and interactive. This gives the speaker a chance to gather instant feedback, adjusting the presentation on the fly. There is even software for SL that allows participants to give feedback at specified times via their keyboard. Also, we find that "leaders" emerge in virtual focus groups, who often bring out information from others but don't dominate as they might in a "real" focus group. Screening - starting with a larger group, sub-groups can be created based on criteria such as beginners, those giving great feedback, gender, etc. These avatars can be instantly transported into other prepared rooms or SL environments for follow up, further Q&A, take a tour, etc. Also, participants can click on each other's profiles and learn about each other, something many like to do.
  • Spatiality - in a three-dimensional space people can move, and use proximity and distance to each other or to objects (for example for group building, voting by feet, to 'physically' separate collaboration tasks from one another, or just to non-verbally communicate preferences). In video conferencing, all you see is somebody else's mimics. There is no concept of space at all - which is crucial, however: remember Nonaka's Ba. Embodiment - being virtually embodied as an avatar can augment the feeling of co-presence, the feeling of being there together with your colleagues, peers, or collaboration team, etc. Directing your virtual representation, you visualize where your attention is at every point in time. In a video conference, nobody knows if you are paying attention or just looking at a totally different application on your screen. Configurability and scriptability - a virtual world can be more than a container for space, physics and avatars. Realized as a reactive, interactive and maybe even intelligently behaving environment it can harbor, support, and augment rich user experiences.
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  • 'Applying it right' would mean here: not to use the virtual world as just a fancy chat system with some visuals in the background provide real interactive experiences instead not to make as many people as possible sit down and watch yet another 2D powerpoint presentation in a 3D world encourage them to use / make them use the new possibilities offered by the system (move, discover, create, modify, interact, ...) not to try to teach them how to use all the menus in the SL software rather let the interactive objects speak for themselves on a simple click (->establish new forms of 'dialogs') leave 2D 'flatland' (info walls, in-world powerpoint presentations) embrace 3Dimensionality
Ann Steckel

Different ways to do the same thing - Second Life Wiki - 0 views

wiki.secondlife.com/...rent_ways_to_do_the_same_thing

shared by Ann Steckel on 17 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Ann Steckel on 17 Sep 10
     
    "Camera controls In the Viewer's user interface, there's the Camera controls. Like Move, all camera controls have keyboard equivalents. These shortcuts are more complicated than movement controls because they require pressing several keys (and/or the left mouse button) simultaneously, so there's a healthy proportion of Residents using one way or the other - or both. "Special keys" keyboard shortcut "Letter keys" keyboard shortcut Mouse-inclusive equivalent Change focus point and center it in the Viewer window n/a n/a Alt + left-click Zoom camera in Alt+↑ Alt+W Alt + hold left mouse button and drag up Zoom camera out Alt+↓ Alt+S Alt + hold left mouse button and drag down Zoom in (different than "Zoom camera" above, changes view angle, not distance) Ctrl+0 n/a n/a Zoom default (different than "Zoom camera" above, changes view angle, not distance) Ctrl+9 n/a n/a Zoom out (different than "Zoom camera" above, changes view angle, not distance) Ctrl+8 n/a n/a Orbit up Alt+Ctr+↑ Alt+Ctrl+W Alt+Ctrl + hold left mouse button and drag up Orbit down Alt+Ctrl+↓ Alt+Ctrl+S Alt+Ctrl + hold left mouse button and drag down Orbit left Alt+Ctrl+← Alt+Ctrl+W Alt+Ctrl + hold left mouse button and drag left Orbit right Alt+Ctrl+→ Alt+Ctrlk+S Alt+Ctrl + hold left mouse button and drag right Pan up Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+↑ Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+W Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧ + hold left mouse button and drag down Pan down Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+↓ Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+S Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧ + hold left mouse button and drag up Pan left Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+← Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+A (This conflicts with the shortcut for Debug Avatar Textures) Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧ + hold left mouse button and drag right Pan right Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+→ Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧+D (This conflicts with the shortcut for enabling the Advanced menu) Alt+Ctrl+Shift ⇧ + hold left mouse button and drag left Another variant of the camera controls is found in Build menu > Focus Tool, where
Eloise Pasteur

Dusan Writer's Metaverse » Educational Institutions Spread Their Wings in Se... - 0 views

dusanwriter.com/?p=717

education second life uk us

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 10 Jul 08 - Cached
  • At George Washington University in Washington State, a graduate-level course in instructional design was created by David Cillay, an assistant dean for distance education, as reported on TMC.net. The course was taught completely in Second Life, with the students, using their avatars, communicating with Cillay and one another through the course’s island (learning space) in Second Life. Cillay was impressed with the level of text and voice interaction between the students, even if they were only avatars onscreen. The students discussed what ‘instructional design means’ and took field trips to other SL locales such as a nuclear power plant.
  • Across the pond, City College Norwich in the UK is forging ahead with its own island. The location will give users a virtual tour of the campus and access to training and job vacancies. The school also hopes, down the line, to develop an educational presence. “Second Life has fantastic potential for learning,” said Dick Palmer, the principal, “which we will be starting to use more fully next year. For example, our new diploma students will come from lots of different areas, but Second Life will allow students to get together in an informal learning zone. We are excited to be embarking upon such an innovative initiative.”
  • After the experiment with virtual education at GWU, Cillay offered three recommendations to those thinking of entering the virtual education realm: - Temper your expectations. “There’s a tremendous wow factor for people just discovering ‘Second Life,’ ” he said. Students need some time to adjust and learn how to move and operate in that world. - “Understand what your expectations are,” Cillay said. Rather than expect huge gains in a classroom environment, consider it a first step in educational experimentation. - Give yourself and the students time to explore. “Do some research ahead of time, so you know the environment and find out what other educators are doing there,” said Cillay.
  • Eloise Pasteur on 10 Jul 08
     
    Summary of comments from the US and UK about education in Second Life
Eloise Pasteur

Research Article: A Second Life PCR lab evaluation - 1 views

www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/...beej-13-5.aspx

Second Life education biosciences research

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 06 Jul 09 - Cached
  • This study examines students’ reactions to the virtual biosciences laboratory developed in Second Life® (SL) at the University of East London. Final year undergraduates and masters students studying biotechnology took part in a trial of a virtual Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) experiment in Second Life and evaluated their experience by anonymous questionnaire. Learning gains were measured at various points during the study using pre- and post-tests, and interaction with demonstrators was monitored and compared during the real life (RL) practical. Both groups showed a significant increase in learning gain over the pre- and post-tests, although no difference in gains between the two groups was detected. However, students who conducted the PCR experiment in SL required significantly less demonstrator assistance during the subsequent RL practical. The SL practical was well received by students, with 92% of participants reporting that they would like to use the system again and many requesting other experiments to be made available in this manner in the future.
  • The aim of this study was to determine whether conducting the PCR experiment in the virtual world of Second Life produced similar learning gains to those observed in the physical world laboratory and to see if working in the Virtual Lab enhanced students understanding of the experiment. The student perceptions of the Virtual Lab as a teaching mechanism and the perceived impact on their learning was examined through questionnaires.
  • The SL group completed a pre(virtual) Lab quiz and then individually registered for Second Life to create an avatar under instructor supervision. Each student completed some orientation exercises on UEL Island to become adequately skilled in using the Second Life environment (e.g. flying, putting on clothing etc.). The student avatars then met in the Virtual Lab to perform the PCR experiment. This was initially demonstrated by a member of staff before each student completed the virtual experiment themselves. Throughout this teaching session the students received face to face and virtual communication from their instructor.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Participants in both groups then completed the physical world PCR practical individually in the laboratory. During the physical world practical the number of questions asked of staff and demonstrators by students in each group was recorded. After the real-world practical all participants completed the in-class quiz once again as a measure of overall learning gain.
  • Pre-, mid- and post-tests were used to examine the learning gains seen in the students at each stage of the teaching process. The learning gains of each group at the three stages of testing are illustrated in Figure 2. Using a mixed (or split-plot) ANOVA there were found to be no significant difference between the learning gains achieved by the SL and non-SL groups, with both groups achieving the same mean increase in test score between the pre and post tests. Interestingly however, there was a significant difference between the scores achieved by students in the SL and non-SL groups overall (p<0.001), with the initial average pre-test score of the SL group being significantly higher than the initial average pre-test score for the non-SL group. Quiz scores increased significantly across the study for students in both groups (p<0.001).
  • The number of questions asked by students during the physical world laboratory practical was recorded for the non-SL and SL groups. As can be seen in Figure 3, the non-SL group (Demonstration) asked significantly more questions (p<0.001) during the practical than the SL group. Furthermore, the staff supporting the practical sessions reported the SL group students to be more organised in their conduct during the class and appeared to take less time to complete the task.
  • Overall, satisfaction with the Virtual Lab was high. Ninety-two percent of respondents said they would use Second Life again and many had commented during the teaching session that they would like to see other experiments in the Virtual Lab. There were no significant differences in opinion between the sexes and between those who are re-sitting the module (11 students) and those that were not. Students who had already completed one Semester of the course joining the programme in October 2008 (21 students) found the in world instructions on how to complete the Virtual Lab experiment more useful than those (29 students) who started in Semester B, February 2009 (p<0.05).
  • A moderate negative correlation was found between age and overall satisfaction (r= -0.54, p<0.001). Younger students were generally more satisfied with Second Life than older students.
  • Those who had used Second Life before the study (16 out of 50 students) differed significantly in their expectation of in-world feedback whilst undertaking the Virtual PCR experiment from those who had no prior Second Life experience (p<0.05). Of the 16 students that had used SL before 6 students answered Q11 of the questionnaire (Table 1) with 3 or lower while only 4 students out of the 34 who had not used SL before answered Q11 in this way. Those who had used Second Life before thought that they had not received sufficient feedback during the experiment.
eMarket Education

Twitter the Major Players in the Social Media Marketing - 0 views

www.emarketeducation.in/players-social-media-marketing

social media marketing training digital Online

shared by eMarket Education on 24 Mar 17 - No Cached
  • http://www.emarketeducation.in/ Published On : 24 Mar/2017 | Posted By :   eMarket Eduaction
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