Second Life: Education in a Virtual World

Bernadette Daly Swanson University of California Davis

Danielle Kane University of California Santa Cruz

Academic Library 2.0

Library Association

University of California Berkeley

November 2, 2007

Education

Libraries

Collaboration

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.there.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