Introduction

“The next big killer application for the Internet is going to be education. Education over the Internet is going to be so big it is going to make email usage look like a rounding error.” (Chamber, 1999)

Research questions:

How is the virtual world such as Second Life utilized as a learning environment in a higher education?

What are the main advantages of this virtual learning environments regarding to the widely used e-learning, usually asynchronous collaboratories?

What is the future of e-learning? Can we say that learning environment in Second Life is just a milestone in evolution of online learning?

Three dimensional virtual worlds in education

Online education is gradually becoming a viable alternative to traditional campus education due to the rapid development of information technology (Petrakou 2010, 1020)

For many in the field of communication achieving engagement, interactivity, collaboration, experimentation and idea generation has been an ongoing challenge.

Bryson defines virtual reality as “the use of computers and human-computer interfaces to create the effect of a three dimensional world containing interactive objects with a strong sense of three-dimensional presence”. (Bryson in Eschenbrenner et al. 2008, 92)

Collaboratories vs Virtual learning environment

The typical distance education experience, although often quite valuable, still lags far behind the face-to-face classroom experience. (Nesson and Nesson 2010, 277)

The main problem is that Web site visitors are usually unaware of the presence of other simultaneous visitors and reinforce the unlikelihood of one visitor-student to contact another, even with courseware that allows the students to see whether others are logged in. (Nesson and Nesson 2010, 279)

Two main differences between situated experience of SL and usual chat room

experience First, the lack of any visual representation of

physical presence acts as a deterrent to speaking – rather than feeling like one among many in a classroom where the others are visible, a chat room where no one is speaking appears as an empty screen.

Second, as documented by Brown and Bell (2004), the existence of a shared view of each other as well as of objects and resources within the environment provides a context for the discussion, making discussion flow more easily.

Benefits of the 3-D virtual environment in education

As Dickey cites benefits include being able to experiment without concern for real-world repercussion and being able to learn by doing, Ondrejka mentions greater level of comfort in asking questions and ability to develop a sense of shared learning and Conway cites that it could provide opportunities to introduce more creativity into the classroom (Dickey, Ondrejk, Conway in Eshenbrenner et al. 2008, 95).

Benefits of the 3-D virtual environment in education

As Eshenbrenner et al. stated benefits of education in virtual worlds include a sense of presence, immediacy, movement, artifacts and communications unavailable within traditional Internet based learning environments, plus they noted that instructors and trainers were able to have interaction with their students in more fluid and natural ways.

Issues of the 3-D virtual environment

in education

Mainly technical problems (slow internet connection, problem with servers, etc.)

Some of the applications within Second Life should be improved, maybe some of them should be left out, and new one should be added

Learning Process in Second Life – Case Study

After brief review of Second life, we realized that many teaching institutions have their virtual

copies in the vast area of Second life (complete list of these institutions was also provided in the first seminar paper; available on SurfGroepen).

They provide users with lectures and represent mass education in virtual life.

We visited several Teaching institutions, but at the end we focused on one, tried their teaching methods and experienced their virtual campus, located somewhere in the never ending area of Second life.

List of some virtual Universities in SL

Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) The Australian Film TV and Radio School Digital Worlds Institute (University of Florida) Drexel University Edinburgh University (aka The University of Edinburgh) Elon University Emory University Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston Great Northern Way Campus - Centre for Digital Media Hong Kong Polytechnic University of Communication Leeds Metropolitan University (West Yorkshire, UK) Link Campus University (Rome, Italy) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nottingham University Ohio University Polytechnic University (Brooklyn, NY) Princeton University

Pre-recorded lecture on ‘’Inovation for Value’’

Zotero Mendeley One Note

Skype E-mails Google Chat Zotero

Most of our communication was made via Skype, simply because it enables synchronous and asynchronous communication , that is fast and without interruption. The collaboration through Skype was simple and natural, with no technological problems, partly because both of use are familiar with it and were using it before.

We communicated by emails as well and used Google talk We communicated by emails as well and used Google talk application in our Google mails. application in our Google mails.

For the purposes of the research project we formed a group inFor the purposes of the research project we formed a group in Zotero, where we uploaded several materials, drafts and notes. Zotero, where we uploaded several materials, drafts and notes.

Hello from world of Second Life