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

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: