GameTech_Teaching in an Avatar World

Teaching in an Avatar World Dr. Cynthia Calongne Institute for Advanced Studies Colorado Technical University GameTech March 9-11, 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: Lyr Lobo and Larry Johnson with a ghost, a guest and a Tardis Not all avatars look alike

Chart Copyright © 2007 by the Virtual Environments Info Group http://www.virtualenvironments.info
Virtual World Choices
In April 2008 - over 100
youth-oriented virtual worlds
were 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

Why Use Second Life?
3D graphical websites accessed using slurls
Presence - users visit and see other users
Users interact using voice, text, emotes, animations & gestures
Field trips to educational content
Content creation tool; create and sell content
Users attend classes, conferences, seminars, concerts and socialize

Visually stimulating - how many avatars do you see?

Avatars creating genie chairs in a Second Life class

Space Shuttle simulation at Spaceport Bravo

An avatar floats by during our pre-flight check The International Space Museum

March 2007 More than 400 schools More than 4500 educators Educators come in all shapes, sizes, and walks of life (on the right) Pathfinder Linden and Lyr Lobo

Education Support Faire 2009
SL Education Support Faire 2009
January 25-30, 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
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire

Educational Conferences in Second Life Examining Technology at the NMC Symposium Nov 2008

Entering the Tardis A navigation map of SL regions in the Tardis The Tardis at the New Media Consortium Avatars navigating between Second Life’s regions, noted by squares on the map

Virtual World Simulation Features
The teleporter - navigate between regions
Transports an avatar to a location in 3D space
The holodeck - changing environments
Ephemeral scenes that appear on demand
The scene deletes and disappears when finished
In Second Life (SL)
Avatars teleport to new locations and request/use/delete these temporary scenes as educational settings

Simulation Immersive particle light show before and during the show

A Visual Tour
Let’s take a brief tour of Second Life
Examine how it is used for education
Discuss how to use virtual worlds
References provided at the end of the slides

Svarga Primitive life simulation with automated tour vehicles

Using 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
Cases & problem-based learning
Virtual office hours, support
Activity-based learning
Web 2.0, tools, multimedia
Create content & an environment

Second Life - 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?
Lyr and her robot avatar

How Will Your Avatar Look? Teen and main grid avatars Who are these people?

Designing an Educational Space
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
Planning for success

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

AF Global Learning Forum - Serious Game Simulation

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

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

CTU Class Island by Night

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

Virtual World Considerations
System & bandwidth
Create content?
Requires skills & time
Buy and use content?
Custom design?
Visit other sites
Successful operations and support
3D media, voice
Own, control & adapt
Reuse and share
Quality site & brand
Professional image
Community
Site access, cleanup, control and activities

Teaching Activity-based learning and class discussion. How to design a tour heads up display device (HUD).

Mahjong in Second Life Cooperative 3D Each layout rezzes To rez: to render an object and it appears in the virtual world.

The floating book holds handouts as Lyr prepares for class

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

Not Your Typical 8th Grade Class 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

Teen Creates Content 8th Grade student on the Teen grid scripts a keyboard override he created with futuristic display textures. It appears when he types and disappears when he is silent. Ryl (Lyr) mentors at Ramapo. 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

Teaching Students New to Second Life Presence Concepts Roleplay Interaction Content Creation Authentic Assessment MGT 845 Strategic Thinking - a doctoral class

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

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

Game Design Class A student created a monorail and sent it up 300 meters to the visit the game maze. Not unlike running down the hall to visit a different class

Game Traps and Arsenal Hand swats at players Freeze trap delays players - easy targets Armory offers a choice of weapons Game Scoreboard

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

Community Collaboration Guests from other schools perform usability tests on student projects

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 UK and Sweden presenting

Science at The Port - DNA strand Lyr designing a robot and drone Science and Robotics

Eric McLuhan as Pharaoh “ The alphabet is dead.” 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 participation from web browser & Second Life participants

Library Presentation - Wikipedia and YouTube in research

Stepping inside the content during the conference presentation

CTU exhibit booth at the NMC Rock the Academy Symposium 2008

Engagement via immersive experiences - Zombies!

Zombies Attack at the NMC Simulation visible when avatars wear special sunglasses

Modeling the Problem

Crooked House You never run out of house as it rolls over while you walk

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/

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/

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/

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/

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

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/

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

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

Teaching in an Avatar World 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:

GameTech_Teaching in an Avatar World

by Cynthia Calongne on Mar 05, 2009

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