Second Life: Education in a Virtual World

Bernadette Daly Swanson Danielle Kane University of California Davis University of California Santa Cruz

Academic Library 2.0

Library Association

University of California Berkeley

November 2, 2007

Mica & HVX: Taking on a Second Life Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faeXGPB5coA

Rise of Gaming• MMORPG

Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

• MMO Massively Multiplayer Online game

• MUVE Online, Multi-User Virtual Environments, sometimes called virtual worlds

http://www.opencroquet.org/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml

http://secondlife.com/

http://www.activeworlds.com/

What is Second Life

• Chat / IM / Voice• Import / Export• Video / Snapshots• 3-D graphics• Rich Build Tools• Streaming Audio• Creativity• Collaboration • Ownership• Community• Expressive

• Lag• Distracting• Griefing / Harassment• No Preconceived Objective • Experiment• Economy• Slang• Social Environment• User Generated / Owned

Content• Social Networking

Why should educators and librarians pay attention to virtual worlds?Question from http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/virtualworldsenetworks07

Academy of Second Learning: ASL Eson 32, 162, 351

New Media Consortium (NMC)

• An international not-for-profit consortium of nearly 250 learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.

• Serves as a catalyst for the development of new applications of technology to support learning and creative expression.

• Sponsors programs and activities designed to stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration, and recognize excellence among its member institutions.

Virtual World Education2007 Horizon Report:

http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf

Time-to-adoption: 2 to 3 yearsWhy: Offers effective learning spaces

Second Life Offers:

• Shared experiences• A feeling of presence• Visual component• Visual and social cues• Closer to face-to-face conversation• Real-time collaboration• Immersion• Engagement

NOAA: Science on a Sphere

NOAA Virtual Island in SciLands Meteora 175, 155, 26

NMC: The Horizon Project• How well do lessons learned in a virtual world translate into real-

world applications?

• Do immersive learning experiences engage learners? In what ways?

• Why are virtual worlds so compelling to some and not to others? What are the essential factors that make one person willing to spend hours exploring these spaces and others much less so?

Book Island 128, 128, 35

The Horizon Project Call to Scholarship. The New Media Consortium 2007. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Horizon-Project-Call-to-Scholarship.pdf

New Media Consortium White PaperSocial Networking, the "Third Place," and the

Evolution of Communication

• White Paper just released in a variety of formats • Part of NMC's New Scholarship Initiative• Paper released in advance of conference to spark discussion,

discourse, and critical thinking on the topic

NMC Symposium on the Evolution of Communication: Dec. 4-5, 2007www.nmc.org/pdf/Evolution-of-Communication.pdf

New Media Consortium

NMC Survey of Educators in Second Life

• 33% were 36-45 years of age• 52% are female• 58% have experienced other virtual environments

– but 73% have not participated in any massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.

What is your prediction for the future of Second Life? • 26% achieve some great applications but will not go

mainstream• 24% future of the web• 12% offers great potential but won’t be around in five years.• 2% mostly hype and will implode any day now• 36% had other comments both positive and negative

So, what are librarians & educators doing in Second Life…

Participants

UCLA Library

San Diego State University

UCI Anteater Island

UCB ALA California State University – Pomona Nature Publishing Group

Stanford Indiana University SDSU MIT UCI Columbia University The Bay School of San Francisco UCSB Chapman University Drexel University IEEE Harvard University UCLA New York University The Art Institute of California-San Diego Pennsylvania State University New Media Consortium UCD Ball State University Pepperdine University UCSC University of Colorado

University of California Libraries

• UC Irvine– Anteater Island - experimental distance learning initiative

• UC Los Angeles– Exhibit's extensive digital collections– Provide Web links to an array of its existing services– Esther Grassian taught a graduate course in Information Studies

• UC Davis– Librarian supervision of Service Learning Projects with SJSU

MLIS Program LIB 246 (hybrid course in Second Life & Real Life)

• UC Santa Cruz– Currently in the planning phase of a Second Life project

UCLA Libraries

SLEDSecond Life Educators

Second Life Education Workshop Aug. 2007

“In the year since the first SLCC Education Workshop, we’ve witnessed the growth of an international community, the evolution of an extensive Second Life ecosystem that includes blogs, wikis, mashups, and the development of model projects and practices that are shaping new policies for the integration of Web 2.0 and the 3D Web in education.”

 

– Second Life Educators (SLED) listserv has close to 3900 members

– 161 colleges and universities active in Second Life– The Second Life K12 community—SLEDT—has 475 members

Claudia L'Amoreaux / Claudia Linden & John Lester / Pathfinder LindenLinden Lab, August 2007

http://metaversedl.org/slcc07.htmhttp://www.simteach.com/wiki/

SLED mailing list: https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators

Games for the WebField Research in Second Life

CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion Virtual World Librarianship in Second Life

• Social presence• eCommerce • eBusiness• Machinima• Organic chemistry• Health• Computer Science• Scripted Robots• Historical Re-creations• Multimedia and Games Design• Virtual Tourism• Social Science• Anthropology• Real Estate• Product Design• Architecture Design• Urban Planning

What are they Teaching

Globe Theater: Renaissance Island 189, 44, 26

University of California Faculty

• UC Berkeley– CITRIS: Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society – Archaeologist Ruth Tringham is having undergraduate students work as research apprentices

• UC Santa Barbara– ReCVEB: Research Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior– Transcriptions Project: Rita Raley and Alan Liu, created its own experimental classroom space.

• UC Los Angeles– Dario Nardi and Francis Stean in Human Complex Systems. Dario is using it in an

undergraduate courses

• UC Davis– The Virtual Hallucinations project is a continuation of the work of Dr. Peter Yellowlees and

group– Dr. Peter Yellowlees Bioterrorism Research Project

• UC Riverside– eLab City, Sloan Center for Internet Retailing (working laboratory environment for studying

virtual consumption.

• UC Irvine– The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

UC Irvine Anteater Island Experimental distance learning initiative

The primary purpose of the island will be to support UCI courses wishing to use it as a platform for computer design projects and to use it as an innovative

learning environment.

Peter Yellowlees, MD (UC Davis) Bioterrorism Research Project:

disaster recovery - work flow - training

Two private islands in Second Life• collaborating with the Department of Health on a

Bioterrorism research project for disaster recovery purposes.

• uses a 3D version of a field station (based on a local building) where patients would receive inoculations and health assistance after being exposed to a bio-terrorism outbreak. 

• medical students are currently using the facility • Planning, work flow and training

What is your prediction for the future of virtual worlds in education?

The Botanical Gardens 193, 59, 38

A few of the International Conferencesmoderated & streamed live into Second Life

with participation from Second Life attendees

• Educause/ELI (Atlanta) & Educause 2007 (Seattle)• MiT5 (MIT: Media in Transition), Boston• UNESCO eLearning Conference, Barcelona• CILIP, UK : Umbrella 2007 (discussion panels in Second Life)• Second Life Community Conference 2007 (SLCC), Chicago

Held Entirely in Second Life:• Second Life Best Practices in Education 2007 – 1300 attendees with

workshops/presentations over a 24 hours, held on several sims • Beyond Broadcast 2007• New Media Consortium (NMC), Symposium on Creativity• Dr. Dobb’s LIFE 2.0

New Media Consortium

What sort of experience do you or your library have with Second Life or other virtual worlds?

ALA Arts InfoIsland 41, 173, 22

Second Life World Map: view of Info Archipelago Library Islands, Caledon Victoria City & Partner Islands

StatisticsSecond Life Library / Info Archipelago & Caledon

• Libraries with a Second Life Presence in the Info Archipelago: 50+ libraries• Volunteers (with & without institutional presence): 700+ librarians • Google Group: Alliancesecondlife list: 600+ • “By 2011, 80 percent of Internet users will be in virtual worlds”.

Raskino, Mark, et.al. The IT Revolution Needs You: The Gartner Symposium Emerging Trends Keynote. Gartner Research Group: Barcelona. 2007.

Peters, Tom. A Report on the First Year of Operation of the Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 Project also known as the Alliance Information Archipelago. 2007http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/pdf/07sllreport.pdf

Map created using Google Maps http://maps.google.com/

Volunteer Participation

58 Respondents

Should we be thinking about training & developing skills for virtual worlds?

New Media Consortium Orientation Island

Libraries & Virtual WorldsLori Bell, Director of Innovation

Alliance Library System

"Gartner Research Group predicts 80 percent of Internet users will be in a virtual world by 2011. This is the next phase of the Internetand libraries need to be where users are.

We are investigating and offering library services to people who might not otherwise come to the library and we have an international community of librarians and educators working together to provide high quality services."

Lorelei Junot in Second Life

JJ DrinkwaterDirector of the Caledon Library

JJ Drinkwater. Image used with permission 10/23/07

© All rights reserved.

First, the institutions stated mission: put content out there, teach people, solidify the cultural matrix, whatever. Second, help grow the world. The reason I want to give away not just materials (books, reference collections, whatever) but tools, is to help make more of Second Life. Every time we give away an object, or a script, that someone can play with, can modify, and make into a better tool for their own research or study, or into a different tool altogether, we help seed knowledge and understanding into our world. We're at a point in our world's history where intellectual generosity counts many times more than it will later, when this (or some MUVE) is fully realized.”

“I firmly believe that a library in Second Life has a duty to hew as closely to the tenets of Open Source as it can. This world is just in its incunabular stage. The purpose of an institution like a library or a school here is twofold.

On Virtual Worlds…

“Every library doesn’t need to have a separate library in a virtual world like Second Life so it offers and ideal way to test collaborative service models. Working in 3-D and in real-time is a way to get a fresh perspective on traditional library services and on seeing how to present resources. Some librarians are extending normal services into SL, for example, a map/gis librarian has begun offering GIS consulting at regularly scheduled times on info island. I’m interested in bringing government information resources and services into second Life…the collaborative opportunities are a good fit for this kind of online resource.” Hyacinth Cortes

“I see Second Life as a cost-effective way to collaborate on ideas and projects. And once we've designed something in Second Life, it's easier to communicate our vision and make it a reality.” Lyra Weston

Collaborating Poster Session & Machinima (video)

for ACRL 2007, Baltimore

Three librarians from Illinois, North Carolina, California collaborated in Second Life to develop the posters and machinima (video) for ACRL poster session.

For this presentation, Mica and I collaborated in Second Life and via email. We uploaded files to slideshare.net (we have never met in person)

What am I doing?Teen Second Life & Main Grid

• Providing support and instruction on machinima at the Machinima Institute

• Working with Kelly Czarnecki (PLCMC) & teens in the Teen Grid

• Machinima Weekend: free software, online editing sites, teens & adults co-taught

• Created multiple youtube/ jumpcut accounts for students to test services

• On the main grid, working a weekly reference shift on International InfoIsland

• Volunteered with Peggy Sheehy’s Suffern Middle School team to create a video on the Ramapo Islands for NECC 2007 (now has 800 students)

• Instructor for the machinima portion of University of Illinois Urbana Champagne’s Virtual Worlds Librarianship program offered in SL

NASA has a Presence on Eye4YouAllianceIsland & in Main Grid

Real Time 3D Video InstructionStream QuickTime Video into Second Life

Machinima Institute

Moving from ALA Arts InfoIsland to Eduisland

What is Machinima?Machine + cinema = Machinima

• “Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies.”

Marino, Paul. 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima. Scottsdale: Paraglyph Press Inc. 2004, p.1.

In other words, it is capturing video in a video game or a game-like space such as a virtual world using the built-in recording features or third party software.

Why should we be interested in machinima production?

• Useful, cool and fun• familiar to gamers of all ages (many games have built-in video capture)• popular media & has been around since the early mid-90s• to learn new skills & move into new environments• to engage youth & adults on group movie projects• to create content that can edited, shared & mashed up on popular video

hosting sites and streamed into Second Life• to use in library programming, instruction, marketing and outreach

37

Machinima / New Media Books

Kelland, Matt, Dave Morris, and Dave Lloyd. Machinima. Boston, MA: Thomson / Course Technology. 2005.

Marino, Paul. 3D game-based filmmaking : the art of machinima. Scottsdale, Ariz: Paraglyph Press. 2004.

Hancock, Hugh, Ingram, Johnnie. Machinima For Dummies. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing Inc. 2007

Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Library Related Projects Using Rich Visual backdrop of Second Life:

Community Service Projects for San Jose State University’s MLIS Program LIB 246 (hybrid course in Second Life & Real Life)

• Creation of a bibliography on Machinima seeking sources in both Second Life and Real Life, to be published in Second Life & on the web.

• Supporting video shared on YouTube (audio mixed on YouTube’s new TestTube service).

Visualizing Information Literacy: depicting the ACRL IL Standards using Second Life:

Melissa Browne (UC Davis), Yemila Sanches (SJSU) & Bernadette Daly Swanson (UC Davis)

Using animations and Second Life camera tool to create interesting imagery for marketing campaign to appeal to undergraduate audience at UC Davis - images, instructions & documentation uploaded to Flickr.com (available Nov. 2007)

Caledon Library

Branch of the Alexandrian Free Library • Serves the intellectual and cultural life of Caledon • Dedicated to immersive learning about the 19th

century imagination• Sponsors events of interest to the residents:

– celebrations, story sessions, lectures, etc• Increasing popularity

The library collects:• Primarily Victorian source material• Research materials concerning the world

of the 19th century • Secondary materials for studying

Caledon’s important genres.

http://thelibrarymilitant.net/blog/about-the-library-militant.html

What am I Doing?• Displays

– Prinney: Cartoons satirizing the Prince of Wales (Group effort by several Caledon Librarians)

– Notes of Love: excerpts from love letters of British Victorian poets, novelists, and playwrights (Feb 2008)

• Google Custom Search Engines– Aetheric Search Gizmo http://google.com/coop/cse?

cx=015330499799466611175%3Aaf0xg9rscyg– Planning on the creation of several others

• Collections– Needlework & Airships

• Harry Potter Celebration – 4 locations, included music, dancing, and trivia costume contest

Turing WeylandImage used with permission 10/23/07

© All rights reserved.

Possible Questions

How can we add value to our current services with

a presence in a virtual world?

Question from http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/virtualworldsenetworks07

New Media: Cross Platform (TV, Web, Virtual World, etc.)

Web 2.0: Selected Mashups

SLoodle: moodle meets Second Life - open source Daniel Livingstone &Jeremy Kemp: learning tools & structures for educators exploring 3D multi-user virtual environmentsConnect Facebook Users to your SL Presence : Second Life link beta (see if your friends are in SL)Gridmarker.com: store, share, view other people’s locations from the webLife2Life: integrating Amazon’s remote shopping cart system in SL Flickr in Second Life: bring your Flickr images into SLDel.icio.us & Second LifeSlurl Maker & Second Life: bounce into SL from the web

Intellectual PropertyIt’s all yours… it is built into the code

“Second Life has taken the Creative Commons license a step further…Creators in Second Life can mark their content with the license they want. If it is marked with a CC license, someone can take a picture of it without express permission. If it is not marked with a license, then if you try to take a picture of it, the object will be invisible.”

“If a right is violated, it gets remedied through the law.”Lessing, Lawrence. Code: Version 2.0. New York: Basic Books. 2006

CC Atribution-ShareAlike

Machinima:Filmmakers are migrating to Second Life as it is one of few games or game-like spaces where machinima can be created and used/sold commercially.Few games offer this freedom.

Summary of Top Two ThingsGeneral• Unlimited bandwidth. • Seamless transition from SL to RL search & discovery• personal electronics that could "sense" the presence of a virtual visitor and convey this information

to its owner so that the two may interact by VoIP or SMS

Real Life• Would like my AV to be able to work RL (real-time) reference. • Stream Second Life into Real Life• Dedicated computer for Second Life with a projector and large screen

Second Life• Monitor or marquee or video screen that could display RSS feeds.• Full web functionality INSIDE SL• Stream Real Life into Second Life• Seamless Digital content (ebooks, ejournals, etc.) available in SL on a text reader• Scan something directly into a file in SL and creating a searchable archive• New organizational scheme for information that can be retrieved in-world• spell check• A "walk through" manipulatable catalog/database interface• Historical or geographical sims that the library could move around in based on discussion topics• Unicode for anything textual• Seamless built-in translation/interpretation capabilities for anything textual or audible. • Receive text or the audio in the language you set

On Virtual Worlds…“In a library notably absent of huge ranges of books and rows of computers we can create new services or rethink what it means to be a library. What I have noticed is that the librarian becomes even more important and visible to the residents of SL, in RL librarians might be approached last when students are desperate. In SL if you have a librarian tag be prepared to be stopped at anytime.”

“I can test out my ideas without the worry of making mistakes… brainstorm with librarians from around the world with an opportunity to rethink media and services in 3D and traditional environments. We need to be thinking of multi-platform strategies & participating alongside library users on group and open media projects."

HVX SilverstarHVX Silverstar

What’s our point!• Explore collaborative service models

• Use SL as a mode of networking by attending conferences and talks

• SL projects don’t need to be large, start small

• Think of added value, what can your library contribute in terms of unique resources

• Explore Second Life:– What would you need to know to move to another MUVE– Envision instruction in 5+ years and a MUVE is more integrated in instruction, how

would you support those students and faculty.

• Get an account, create an avatar and explore the educational and library spaces

Land for Projects or Students?educators | librarians | researchers | non-profit

Campus: Second Life (Linden Labs)• Apply for free temporary space on Adult or Teen grids • Spring 2008 semester - space limited

http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Campus:Second_Life

Private Islands or Mainland Plots (Linden Labs)• http://secondlife.com/community/land-islands.php• 50% discount for verified real world educators and schools/academic

institutions or 501(c)3 non-profit http://secondlifegrid.net/programs/education

3 New Islands, Suffern Middle School, Teen Second Life

Land for Projects or Students?educators | librarians | researchers | non-profit

Info Archipelago (Alliance Library System & Partners)• Move your own island to the Info Archipelago OR• Lease small or large parcels: $100-400 year (lots)

http://alliancelibraries.info/secondlife.htmhttp://groups.google.com/group/alliancesecondlife

NMC “Sparkling Innovative Learning & Creativity”

http://sl.nmc.org/

New Media Consortium (NMC)• Leasing small or large parcels: $100-400 year (lots) - $5540 (sim)

http://www.nmc.org/pr/virtual-worlds-lease-available http://virtualworlds.nmc.org/docs/NMC_announces_EDU_communities_in_SL.pdf

Info International and Info Island

Resources• Peters, Tom. A Report on the First Year of Operation of the Alliance Second Life Library

2.0 Project also known as the Alliance Information Archipelago. 2007 http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/pdf/07sllreport.pdf

• The Horizon Project Call to Scholarship. The New Media Consortium 2007. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Horizon-Project-Call-to-Scholarship.pdf

• The Horizon Report 2007. The New Media Consortium 2007. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf

• Simteach -http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

• Social Networking, the “Third Place,” and the Evolution of Communication. The New Media Consortium 2007. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Evolution-of-Communication.pdf

• Spring 2007 Survey Educators in Second Life. The New Media Consortium 2007.http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc/sl-educator-survey

• Raskino, Mark, et al. The IT Revolution Needs You: The Gartner Symposium Emerging Trends Keynote. Gartner Research Group: Barcelona. 2007.