Fiona Littleton's presentation from Eduserve/CETIS meeting 19 January 2009

1. Virtually, My Life Fiona Littleton [email_address] 15 th January 2009

4. @130 on-programme Austria, Germany, Greece, Japan, The Philippines, Cyprus, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Switzerland, UK, University of Edinburgh …. Part time, fully online learning Aimed at professionals in HE, FE and training

5. The Vue group is a virtual educational and research institute bringing together all those interested in the use of virtual worlds for teaching, research and outreach related to the University of Edinburgh. Virtual Campus for the University of Edinburgh

6. Vue, Map View, 11 th April 2007

7. Vue, 15 th May 2007

8. Vue, Map View, 14 th January 2009

10. A Marketing Space

11. Vue South, 16 th July 2007 An Open Space

12. Holyrood Park, 19 th September 2007 A Learning Space

13. Redefining Learning Spaces "Some of the [educational ] ideas, like recreating places and experiences that are impossible for students to visit made a lot of sense. The idea of role play seems like a natural fit. Other ideas seemed to contradict the whole idea of Second Life. Isn't the idea that you are not constrained by the concepts and rules of the real world? The suggestions to build a virtual classroom with chairs and show the students a Powerpoint slideshow seemed particularly disappointing. I can't see what the benefit of doing that in Second Life would be at all. If you wanted to do something non-interactive, why use a platform that is designed to be interactive " IDEL student on WebCT discussion board, November 2007

14. “ My initial impression of in-world 'talk' is that there is a significant shift in dynamics when three dimensions are involved. A 'person' can move around, approach people, fly, and visit things much like we do with our physical bodies. This is a quantum leap from a simple text discussion , like we experienced in the early weeks of this course, and adds a far more intuitive dimension to communication - like taking the 'smileys' a great leap forward. ” student weblog, October 2006

15. Use virtual to manifest the theoretical Manipulate your manifestation and directly experience whether or not it has an impact "I find particularly interesting the potential of role-play, of consciously experimenting with your avatar in ways that could prove invaluable for fields such as social sciences or just to explore issues of racism and inequality within the classroom. Changing age, sex, race can be thought provoking, revealing and can provide useful lessons” student weblog, October 2006 A Tourist Space

16. “ The appearance of an avatar may sadly be a 'put-off' for those with which it interacts. … Choice of animal heads for avatar faces may send a terribly wrong message in my culture. Such an avatar may be considered a sorcerer or witch / wizard. Who would want to interact with such a 'person'?” student weblog, October 2006 Highlighting issues of identity

17. A Social Space

18. Highlighting learning as socially grounded “ One of the advantages of avatars is the increased sense of presence I think. It's different imagining the presence of your other classmates in a chat room compared to seeing their virtual representation in Second Life environment. … .The possibility of gestures and facial expressions as opposed to emoticons also contributes to more direct communication and to the feeling of stronger physical presence and also deeper sense of team spirit and collaboration.” student weblog, October 2006 Digital co-presence

19. "And even though I'm not hugely drawn to Second Life, the visual memory of our SL fireside tutorials for IDEL [Introduction to Digital Environments for Learning] is very strong.” student email conversation, May 2008

20. Arts, Culture & Environment: Social Augmented Duality A Play Space

21. An Assessment Space

22. “ [The Student Learning Game] is an example of the kind of creative pedagogical engagement that is possible, and of the kinds of challenges such spaces pose to existing understandings of text, assessment, learning and learning spaces; issues we engage with in a rigorous and critical way over the course of the MSc“ Siân Bayne , MSc Programme Director, July 2007 Highlighting Active Learning Student production as well as consumption Learning by Design

23. Highlighting Active Learning Learning by experience "I think as a demo of possible means for assessment, I've achieved what I set out to do; there is academic content, there are hyperlinks, there is access to external web resources, and best of all it is immersive ..... you are not just sat at a computer reading a script. In terms of hypertext writing, the ability to create ones own pathway through the text (by wandering around the exhibits) follows hypertext theory but is a novel approach. The environment the text is presented in is also important. I am using Second Life to manifest the theoretical. “ student SL conversation , MSc IDEL, January 2009 “ I think it's no more or less [a place for learner's to learn] than any other digital space – [it is still] dependent on curriculum design, assessment flexibility, support for students” Clara O’Shea , MSc IDEL Tutor, January 2009

24. A Building Space

25. Investigating the potential of role-play within Second Life to substitute for and possibly improve face-to-face role-play in performance appraisal training. Upcoming Chapter “Challenging our People Perceptions: The Potential for Performance Appraisal Training in Second Life” in the book “Higher Education in Second Life” (2009). A Research Space

26. A Research Space EPSRC/AHRC Branded Meeting Space http://ace.caad.ed.ac.uk/NonPlace/

27. Virtual Hallucinations, Sedig Island Someone Else’s Space

28. Scilands Map View, 14 th January 2009 A Guided Space

29. Open Vue represents the use of open source virtual worlds technologies. An OpenSim Space Holyrood Park Open Vue, 31 th October 2007 Open Vue, 6 th January 2009

31. TruSim Triage Trainer TruSim Triage Website, 14 th January 2009

32. Acknowledgements Jeff Haywood, Brian Martin and Ray Land Siân Bayne (Sian Pankhurst) Hamish Macleod (Kimberley Pascal) Jen Ross (Blake Canadeo) Marshall Dozier (Pancha Enzyme) Austin Tate (AI Austin) Rory Ewins (Algernon Twang) James Stewart (JK Jakobus) Ian Graham (Radetzsky March) Naomi Nunn (Anwen Munro) Clara O’Shea (Klara Otsuka)

33. (Answer = Sweden) [email_address] www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/HolyroodPark/ Vue: www.vue.ed.ac.uk Special Issue of ALT-J on virtual worlds (2008) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=g906960349~db=all~tab=toc~order=page Questions?