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Virtual Worlds? “Outlook Good”

Virtual Worlds? “Outlook Good” AJ Kelton (“AJ Brooks”) Whether it is Second Life or another virtual world, this foundational movement is not going away. The question to be addressed in the coming months and years is how higher education and, subsequently, individual institutions will determine the best way to continue to move forward with virtual worlds.

Higher Education as Virtual Conversation Sarah Robbins-Bell (“Intellagirl Tully”) Virtual worlds can become an important tool in an educator’s arsenal. But using this tool requires a shift in thinking and an adjustment in pedagogical methods that will embrace the community, the fluid identity, and the participation—indeed, the increased conversation—that virtual spaces can provide.

Today, from Eloise Pasteur Educational Designs, a memory game/pelmanism game tool.

"2007 - Without using Second Life, student interview skills average grade: 58%," Ken Hudson of Loyalist told New World Notes. "2008 - after using Second Life simulation, student interview skills average grade: 86%."

I was asked if I made a scorer tool and the answer was, sadly, a no. So, I made one. I quite often make things in this way - simple requests for items that are generally useful so I stop and make them and sell them at Linden Dollar prices.

This tool is available in world in all the normal places, and on SLEx and OnRez

I’ve been using FriendFeed for awhile and if you subscribe to my feed you’ll see just about everything that I do online. My feed includes all the articles I bookmark with delicious. When I write a new blog post it automatically shares it on my feed. Every time I tweet on Twitter and when I update my status on Facebook, they’re included here. When I add a video to my favorites on YouTube it is shared here as well. Currently there are 58 different sites that you can link to your FriendFeed, so it’s like the one stop shopping place for everything online!

FriendFeed also has a search function where someone without even registering on the site, can easily search all FriendFeed updates.

Facebook has been in the news quite a bit this week which they started off with the announcement that they have acquired the social-identity aggregator, FriendFeed.

There is now a page on assessment within Second Life in the Second Life Skills section of the EPED website which includes a couple of different assessment rubrics for student work in Second Life. One is aimed more at assessing a traditional class which has some presentation of the work in Second Life. The other is aimed much more at a fully in-world assessment where the students create a fully interactive build and are assessed on all aspects of it. It also forms a useful check-list for educational builds of all types! If you have comments, please feel free to add them in the comments here. If you would like to add additional content, let me know and I will add it for you.

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.