Virtual Worlds Explorations and Implications Dr. Cynthia Calongne Institute for Advanced Studies Colorado Technical University Association for Information Technology Professionals February 19, 2009 Licensed under a Creative Commons Share Alike with Attribution License

The Future Looms Near 80% of the world’s active Internet users will be in a virtual world by the end of 2011 (Gartner, 2007) Are you ready? Cover slide: An avatar stands on the Statue of Liberty at Ramapo A class meets in Second Life

Chart Copyright © 2007 by the Virtual Environments Info Group http://www.virtualenvironments.info In April 2008 - over 100 youth-oriented virtual worlds active or in development In Aug 2008 - it grew to over 150 virtual worlds In Jan 2009 - over 200 virtual worlds 59 have microtransactions 57 require subscriptions 46 use advertising From Virtual Worlds Management by Show Initiative http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/2009/youth-01-26-2009.html

Education in Second Life March 2007 Over 400 universities Over 4500 educators SL Education Support Faire 2009 3,785 unique visitors from 93 countries 50 displays 50 presentations Top 10 countries USA 2,123 UK 364 Canada 173 Australia 117 Germany 112 Brazil 91 Italy 66 Netherlands 56 France 53 Spain 53

March 2007

Over 400 universities

Over 4500 educators

SL Education Support Faire 2009

3,785 unique visitors

from 93 countries

50 displays

50 presentations

Top 10 countries

USA 2,123

UK 364

Canada 173

Australia 117

Germany 112

Brazil 91

Italy 66

Netherlands 56

France 53

Spain 53

Virtual Worlds - Science Fiction or Fact? Using a Tardis at the New Media Consortium Symposium Nov 2008

Reality from Science Fiction The teleporter Transports an object to a location in 3D space The holodeck Scenes that appear on demand The scene disappears at a command In Second Life (SL) Avatars teleport to new locations and request/use/delete temporary scenes

The teleporter

Transports an object to a location in 3D space

The holodeck

Scenes that appear on demand

The scene disappears at a command

In Second Life (SL)

Avatars teleport to new locations and request/use/delete temporary scenes

Why Use Second Life? 3D graphical websites accessed using slurls Users visit the site and see other users Users interact & chat using VoIP and text Grid computing architecture Users can create, own and sell their content Users attend classes, conferences, seminars, concerts and socialize

3D graphical websites accessed using slurls

Users visit the site and see other users

Users interact & chat using VoIP and text

Grid computing architecture

Users can create, own and sell their content

Users attend classes, conferences, seminars, concerts and socialize

What can you do inside Dr. Who’s Tardis? A navigation map of SL regions in the Tardis Navigating between Second Life’s regions Inside the NMC’s Tardis There are a variety of ways to teleport between SL sites. This Tardis in SL was exhibited at an NMC symposium

A Visual Tour Let’s take a tour of Second Life Examine how it is used for education and research Explore how information technology professionals can leverage and support these environments

Let’s take a tour of Second Life

Examine how it is used for education and research

Explore how information technology professionals can leverage and support these environments

Virtual Training at MyBase Second Life region for AF virtual world projects and game simulations

AF Global Learning Forum - Serious Game Simulation - to rescue relief workers

Metanomics in Second Life

National Physics Laboratory Presentation on the innovations in nanotechnology

Lyr explores the Nanotechnology Lab. Interactive objects demonstrate the procedure and give info on notecards Field Trips to Science Sites

Science Comes to Life The National Physics Laboratory presents the advances in Nanotechnology Interactive Nano Labs

Eric McLuhan in Second Life SLCN machinima October 27, 2007 http://slcn.tv/media-ecology-eric-mcluhan

Blended Reality Conferences A MacArthur Foundation panel on games in education answers an avatar’s question. Alternatively, a chat bridge can integrate web and Second Life participants

Stepping inside the content during a conference presentation

CTU exhibit booth at the NMC Rock the Academy Symposium 2008

Meeting Minds in Immersive Literature Roleplay and conflict, an immersive literature experience for teens on the Teen Grid Suffern Middle School students at Ramapo portrayed the roles from the book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Imagine living the scenes from literature and history rather than memorizing them. A juror hollers “Boo!” when Curley takes the stand

Literature Comes Alive Literary discussion of The Charge of the Light Brigade at Caledon Library

Does this look like your office? Meetings in an underwater office. Come on in! The water’s fine!

IT in Second Life Self image - avatar Social networks Immersive training SL skills Roleplay Help desk Projects Tool integration Build simulations Sense of presence, identity Attend meetings, conferences Context-sensitive, stimulating Camera, navigation, communicate Team building Office hours, support COTS, custom, data, voice Web 2.0, tools, multimedia Create content & an environment

Self image - avatar

Social networks

Immersive training

SL skills

Roleplay

Help desk

Projects

Tool integration

Build simulations

Sense of presence, identity

Attend meetings, conferences

Context-sensitive, stimulating

Camera, navigation, communicate

Team building

Office hours, support

COTS, custom, data, voice

Web 2.0, tools, multimedia

Create content & an environment

Second Life Basic Skills Self Image Your avatar -- is it your real or ideal self? Avatar movement Using the arrow keys? Do you prefer a Navigation HUD? Camera controls Keyboard or HUD? Lyr and her robot avatar

Self Image

Your avatar -- is it your real or ideal self?

Avatar movement

Using the arrow keys?

Do you prefer a Navigation HUD?

Camera controls

Keyboard or HUD?

Content Creation Ryl mentors an 8th Grade student on the Teen grid as he applies a script to a keyboard override he created with futuristic display textures. It appears when he types and disappears when he is silent. At Ramapo on the Teen Grid

Communicating with others in Second Life Left to right Teleport to servers Group notice 2nd row Voice chat ( * ) Instant message Embedded URLs

Communicating

with others

in Second Life

Left to right

Teleport to servers

Group notice

2nd row

Voice chat ( * )

Instant message

Embedded URLs

Building a Virtual Workplace IT activities Planning Configuration Deployment Operations & support Retirement & disposal Harassment concerns Adult content Abuse and misuse Compliance issues Corporate image Protection of assets Proprietary content Protection of human rights Fair business practices Ethics These are only the tip of the iceberg

IT activities

Planning

Configuration

Deployment

Operations & support

Retirement & disposal

Harassment concerns

Adult content

Abuse and misuse

Compliance issues

Corporate image

Protection of assets

Proprietary content

Protection of human rights

Fair business practices

Ethics

The floating book holds handouts as Lyr prepares for class

Content Considerations Virtual environment Public or private? Buy or build Branding Visual content Signs & textures 3D objects Animations Does size matter? Island, parcel or sandbox Context-sensitive scenes Imaginative spaces Build, texture and script Upload textures into SL Scripted behaviors For avatars and objects

Virtual environment

Public or private?

Buy or build

Branding

Visual content

Signs & textures

3D objects

Animations

Does size matter?

Island, parcel or sandbox

Context-sensitive scenes

Imaginative spaces

Build, texture and script

Upload textures into SL

Scripted behaviors

For avatars and objects

Modeling in Second Life A self-guided tutorial for building a 20-minute project

Budget Concerns Bandwidth ==> Create content? Requires skills & time Buy and use content? Custom design? Visit other sites Successful operations and support 3D graphics, VoIP Own, control & adapt Reuse and share Quality site & brand Professional image Community Site access, cleanup, control and activities

Bandwidth ==>

Create content?

Requires skills & time

Buy and use content?

Custom design?

Visit other sites

Successful operations and support

3D graphics, VoIP

Own, control & adapt

Reuse and share

Quality site & brand

Professional image

Community

Site access, cleanup, control and activities

How do virtual worlds become successful endeavors? Create good content that reflects your company’s brand. Yet, businesses fail when they create lovely, empty sites. People and interaction makes a site come alive. Visitors share experiences, interact with products, explore services and enjoy virtual world activities. Let’s look at some educational examples.

Colorado Tech Island Virtual learning space, alumni center and live music festivals

Sharing Educational Content Student projects are displayed on the Boardwalk

Experimental Design Classrooms Open spaces where CTU students experiment, explore ideas, create content and learn from their mistakes. Imaginative setting in a class sandbox

The Value of Interactivity Human barometer activity Futuring and Innovation students take a stand CTU students shop for academic regalia at the NMC Orientation island

Student and instructor robots on a public class space A 3-week course activity with real world, virtual, and 2D robot designs Amusement park of student projects on a private space Students choose the preferred class location

CS 672 First day in class Student Projects Monorail and rollercoaster Ferris wheel rotation problem & duck shoot Duck shoot

CS 820 Winter 2008 Class Newsstand for low vision users, Electronic Voting Machine Refrigerator for wheelchair use From early ideas to testable projects Students collaborate and work independently

Early Skill Development Students new to SL learn to build and texture for class activities

Students new to a virtual world create low fidelity interface designs and conduct usability tests in a virtual world

Project Prototypes Newsstand for the low vision users; selecting option 4 to hear Refrigerator for wheelchair users; shelves move out and down

Interaction and Empirical Testing Observed behavior Test plan Test procedure Roles Volunteers Observation Measurements Analysis Results Student interface with objects that render new information when touched

Observed behavior

Test plan

Test procedure

Roles

Volunteers

Observation

Measurements

Analysis

Results

Community Collaboration Guests from other schools perform usability tests on student projects TCC Online Worldwide Conference attendees visit to examine student work

Are You Ready for the Future? We are at the crossroads, gazing at the future. How do we leverage this capability to our best advantage? Photo: Preparing for An Air Force Global Learning Forum Event at the MyBase region in Second Life, a Huffman Prairie design

SL Research Links 1 Second Life http://secondlife.com/ and http://secondlifegrid.net/ Virtual Worlds Comparison Chart http://www.virtualenvironments.info/virtual-worlds-comparison-chart Second Life Education Support Faire 2009 statistics http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire#Second_Life_Education_Support_Faire_2009_-_Statistics http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire Cynthia Calongne’s Classes in Second Life http://ctusoftware.blogspot.com Research in Second Life presentation http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/research-in-second-life Artificial Intelligence in SL http://web.bvu.edu/faculty/schweller/

Second Life

http://secondlife.com/ and http://secondlifegrid.net/

Virtual Worlds Comparison Chart

http://www.virtualenvironments.info/virtual-worlds-comparison-chart

Second Life Education Support Faire 2009 statistics

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire#Second_Life_Education_Support_Faire_2009_-_Statistics

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire

Cynthia Calongne’s Classes in Second Life

http://ctusoftware.blogspot.com

Research in Second Life presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/research-in-second-life

Artificial Intelligence in SL

http://web.bvu.edu/faculty/schweller/

SL Research Links 2 National Public Radio’s Science Friday in SL http://www.sciencefriday.com/ Virtual Worlds Management http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/2009/youth-01-26-2009.html NOAA’s Traffic Analysis http://mayarealities.com/ Best Practices in SL http://www.slcn.tv/bpe-lyr-lobo Annotated Bibliograophy of SL Educational Resources http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib Edumuve http://edumuve.com/tour/ and http://edumuve.com/blended/

National Public Radio’s Science Friday in SL

http://www.sciencefriday.com/

Virtual Worlds Management

http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/2009/youth-01-26-2009.html

NOAA’s Traffic Analysis

http://mayarealities.com/

Best Practices in SL

http://www.slcn.tv/bpe-lyr-lobo

Annotated Bibliograophy of SL Educational Resources

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib

Edumuve

http://edumuve.com/tour/ and http://edumuve.com/blended/

SL Research Links 3 Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment http://www.dokimos.org/secondlife/education/index.html An Educational Tour of Second Life http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/an-educational-tour-of-second-life A View from Second Life’s Trenches: Are you a Pioneer or a Settler? http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/pioneer-or-settler/ Leveraging the Affordances, Minimizing the Barriers of Virtual Worlds http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/edu-panel/ LearnScope in Second Life http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/learnscope-in-second-life NMC Campus Observer http://sl.nmc.org/

Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment

http://www.dokimos.org/secondlife/education/index.html

An Educational Tour of Second Life

http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/an-educational-tour-of-second-life

A View from Second Life’s Trenches: Are you a Pioneer or a Settler?

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/pioneer-or-settler/

Leveraging the Affordances, Minimizing the Barriers of Virtual Worlds

http://sl.nmc.org/2007/06/09/edu-panel/

LearnScope in Second Life

http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/learnscope-in-second-life

NMC Campus Observer

http://sl.nmc.org/

SL Research Links 4 Using Second Life www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07025A.pps Beyond Course Management Tools: Second Life www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07014.pps Virtual worlds in Online Education: Are You Ready to Teach in Second Life? http://www.telecoop.org/conference/materials/CalogneTeachinginSecondLife.ppt What Can We Learn from World of Warcraft & Second Life? http://archive.nmc.org/events/2006fallregional/materials/calongne.ppt SL Podcast by Bayne, Walker and Calongne http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastusingsecondli/44967?time=1188754831 TCC Preconference Wiki -- SL from a Flash drive tips http://tccpre-conference.pbwiki.com/

Using Second Life

www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07025A.pps

Beyond Course Management Tools: Second Life

www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/SAC07014.pps

Virtual worlds in Online Education: Are You Ready to Teach in Second Life?

http://www.telecoop.org/conference/materials/CalogneTeachinginSecondLife.ppt

What Can We Learn from World of Warcraft & Second Life?

http://archive.nmc.org/events/2006fallregional/materials/calongne.ppt

SL Podcast by Bayne, Walker and Calongne

http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastusingsecondli/44967?time=1188754831

TCC Preconference Wiki -- SL from a Flash drive tips

http://tccpre-conference.pbwiki.com/

SL Research Links 5 Who’s on Second? Educational Podcasts http://www.rabble.ca/rpn/podcast.php?id=wos Second Life Development -- VITAL Lab http://vital.cs.ohiou.edu/vitalwiki/index.php/Second_Life_Development Suffern Middle School in Second Life http://rampoislands.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html Second Life Library 2.0 http://www.infoisland.org/drupal/ and http://www.myspace.com/73899784 Second Life Education Wiki http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki LSL Wiki -- programming tools http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=HomePage

Who’s on Second? Educational Podcasts

http://www.rabble.ca/rpn/podcast.php?id=wos

Second Life Development -- VITAL Lab

http://vital.cs.ohiou.edu/vitalwiki/index.php/Second_Life_Development

Suffern Middle School in Second Life

http://rampoislands.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

Second Life Library 2.0

http://www.infoisland.org/drupal/ and http://www.myspace.com/73899784

Second Life Education Wiki

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

LSL Wiki -- programming tools

http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=HomePage

SL Research Links 6 Secondary Worlds http://secondaryworlds.com/ Reuters -- Doors to open on Google Virtual world(s)? http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2007/10/24/doors-to-open-on-google-virtual-worlds/ SL and Google Earth are Transforming the Idea of Architectural Collaboration http://archrecord.construction.com/features/digital/archives/0701dignews-2.asp Timeline - History of Second Life Wiki http://secondlife.wikia.com/index.php/Second_Life_Through_The_Ages UberNoggin: Big Brains - Big Ideas http://www.ubernoggin.com/

Secondary Worlds

http://secondaryworlds.com/

Reuters -- Doors to open on Google Virtual world(s)?

http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2007/10/24/doors-to-open-on-google-virtual-worlds/

SL and Google Earth are Transforming the Idea of Architectural Collaboration

http://archrecord.construction.com/features/digital/archives/0701dignews-2.asp

Timeline - History of Second Life Wiki

http://secondlife.wikia.com/index.php/Second_Life_Through_The_Ages

UberNoggin: Big Brains - Big Ideas

http://www.ubernoggin.com/

SL Research Links 7 - News Reuters in Second life http://secondlife.reuters.com/ The SL Newspaper http://www.sl-newspaper.com/ Second Life Herald http://www.secondlifeherald.com/ Metaverse Messenger http://metaversemessenger.com/index.html SLNN http://www.slnn.com/index.php

Reuters in Second life

http://secondlife.reuters.com/

The SL Newspaper

http://www.sl-newspaper.com/

Second Life Herald

http://www.secondlifeherald.com/

Metaverse Messenger

http://metaversemessenger.com/index.html

SLNN

http://www.slnn.com/index.php

SL Research Links 8 New Worlds Notes http://nwn.blogs.com/ SL A Virtual Universe for Real Engineering http://www.designnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6490691 Just Virtual http://www.justvirtual.com/index.php/category/second-life/ Seifert Surface - Math in Second Life http://www.segerman.org/2ndlife.html Eric McLuhan in Second Life - Playing Media Ecology http://slcn.tv/media-ecology-eric-mcluhan

New Worlds Notes

http://nwn.blogs.com/

SL A Virtual Universe for Real Engineering

http://www.designnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6490691

Just Virtual

http://www.justvirtual.com/index.php/category/second-life/

Seifert Surface - Math in Second Life

http://www.segerman.org/2ndlife.html

Eric McLuhan in Second Life - Playing Media Ecology

http://slcn.tv/media-ecology-eric-mcluhan

Virtual Worlds Explorations and Implications Dr. Cynthia Calongne Lyr Lobo in Second Life http://ctusoftware.blogspot.com www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo Twitter Lyrlobo For more information Lyr Lobo http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo For a copy of these slides, visit: