Purple OR orange
Aspects of information literacy in
virtual worlds
LILAC 2009 (1 April 2009)
Vicki Cormie, Denny Colledge, Marshall
Dozier, Lyn Parker, Sheila Webber
This slideshare pdf has slides used for a handout distributed in the LILAC
symposium. There are introductory slides, followed by 3 short sets of slides;
created by Sheila Webber, Lyn Parker and Marshall Dozier.

Sheila Yoshikawa Maggie Kohime
s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk L.a.parker@shef.ac.uk
Ishbel Lulu
Hartmann Quinnell
Vicki.cormie@st-
Denny.Colledge
andrews.ac.uk
@ed.ac.uk
Pancha Enzyme
marshall.dozier@ed.ac.uk

http://delicious.com/LILACSL
Links to websites, articles, tutorials, videos, and
places in Second Life
Topics: Education in SL and Libraries/Librarians
in SL

Second Life
• 3-D Online Digital world, owned by Linden Labs
• Most things created by SL residents: SL fashion
designers, architects, bakers, animal makers ….
• Avatars- 3D representation of yourself – free to
signup and can live on freebies, but need Linden
dollars if want to own land, buy clothes etc.
• Communication through text chat, Voice and
Instant Messaging
• 40-80,000 people online simultaneously
• http://www.secondlife.com/

Sheila
Webber/
Yoshikawa
s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/

What is “information”
Information tools inworld:
in SL?
These slides highlight
1 - Search in SL
some ways you can
get information in SL

2-
Avatar
info in
SL

3-
Object
info in
SL

4 - Land info in SL

Study in information behaviour
• 40 semi-structured interviews (2 per student) carried out
in SL late Nov - early Dec 2008 (for assignment)
• Students undertook critical incident interviews with SL
residents (a time when they had an information need
relating to a SL activity) in SL itself
• Informed consent, and chat transcripts logged
• Convenience sample, mainly solicited through the SL
Educators & (UK) Virtualworlds discussion lists
• 11 Canadian undergrad students; the rest educators,
librarians or SL developers from various countries
• Not a full analysis for this study
Sheila’s students have interviewed people in SL about “a time when they needed
information for a SL activity”. This tells us some more about information and
information behaviour in SL

Observations
• Examples of topics: buying land; obtaining
things (e.g. business clothes; tables; games);
how to open a virtual parachute; finding good
“camping” sites; preparing for a job fair
• My students (and I) able to identify behaviour
relating to real life research models of
information behaviour (patterns of
information seeking etc.)
Sheila Webber, 2008

Observations 2
• People important as sources of information and advice
• People and web search common starting points; also
one’s own inventory
• Mixture of tools and people. inside and outside SL
• Information encountering common (as with Ostrander,
2008)
• Rich mix of sources used
• Undergraduate students exhibited less complex
information behaviour and were using SL-specific
techniques/tools less
Note: there are links here with research into “everyday information seeking” in RL –
but people actually emerge as important in most studies where the researcher bothers
to ask about “people” sources.

Implications – information literacy as
an enabler in a virtual environment
• As in real life: empowering and helping problem solving
• As in real life, problem solving and Inquiry Based Learning
approaches synergistic with IL development
• May not be supported by real life formal information
literacy teaching, which focuses on text and on searching
(rather than browsing & encountering) individually
(rather than collaboratively)
• SL Information literacy may be fostered when exploring
SL information is part of educational aims/activities
e.g. developing a build about a novel; creating a virtual shipyard
• As more use of virtual worlds – more need to think of SL
information literacy (but which need to include “real life”
information literacy)

IL models & tools in SL -
3 types in SL
• Complete models – more holistic understanding
& examples (e.g. the 7 Pillars model on the next
slide)
• Tools/quizzes/information related to specific
aspects of IL (e.g. the puzzles on Knowhow
Island)
• Tools etc. related to specific library resources
Questions include:
- What approaches to teaching & learning are implied? (possibly –
transmissive approaches which are not really aligned with higher-
order learning goals concerning evaluation etc.)
- How could the models and tools be used? (the same object might
be used in a rather transmissive, or a more constructivist, way)
- What aspects of IL are covered most? (searching & evaluating?)

The example is a problem (should we panic about bird flu) with material
created by Sheila’s students (e.g. mindmaps)
Model by Sheila Webber/Yoshikawa on Infolit iSchool in SL

Some interactivity e.g. you can click on posters or pillars
for more information or for web links

Images have been removed for this Slideshare version in case they
breached copyright
We showed the University of Nottingham’s Library Garden, which has
areas where (for example) you can click on flowers to find out about
different types of material, or release balloons as you learn about
dissemination of research
We also showed Knowhow Island, which has a number of well-built
puzzles relating to information literacy, including a fun “Boolean Logic”
swimming pool!

Lyn Parker/ (SL) Maggie Kohime
l.a.parker@sheffield.ac.uk
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Overlap with other literacies
Multi-tasking environment
•
Digital literacy
•
Geospatial awareness
•
Visual literacy
•
Communication skills and participating in virtual
•
communities for educational /work purposes
• Adapting to new technologies
• Overlap with other Web 2.0 applications
4/6/2009 LILAC 2009

Geospatial information
• Geographic information - navigating by
– Maps
– coordinates,
– teleport to landmarks
• Recognition of Real World buildings
• Relates to mash ups in web 2.0 using maps to
illustrate information
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

7 Pillars Model in Second Life
• Recognising an information need
– As with other platforms, knowing where to start is
the most difficult aspect
– Learning curve getting used to technology
– Acquire information from browsing and
encountering initially
– Guided activity needs to be task based, with
support (often f2f), list of places to visit or tours
provided, teleporting or via balloon rides
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Addressing information ‘gap’
• Different types of resources
– In world
• People/Groups
• Help button
• Search
– Internet
• People/Groups – Email distribution lists SLED
• Secondlife wiki
• Google search – YouTube videos, blog posts,
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Construct search strategies
• Search engine in Second Life unsophisticated
• No phrase searching
• Tabs – Classified, Events, Showcase, Land
Sales, Places, People, Groups
• Ads appear for one week, cost and how much
pay determines where appear on list
• Register places and groups so included in
search
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Evaluation of information
• People main source of information
• Profiles – right click for further information
both Second Life and ‘First Life’
• Flatter structure within Second Life, peer to
peer rather than tutor to students
• Objects such as presentations, notecards etc
similarly can right click touch and edit to find
who created the object, original owner, and
any editors and link to their profiles
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Apply, Communicate and Organise
Ethics
•
Systematic record of searches
•
Use of notes function within profile
•
Organisation of inventory with landmarks,
•
calling cards, objects, clothing
• Keeping track of items added, duplication of
entries
• Sort by name and date only at present
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Creation of New Knowledge
• Collaboration – learning together
• Synthesise information from variety of sources,
both in world and on Internet
• Participation in discussion
• Group decisions/team working online
• Tracking discussion, keeping track of decisions,
summarising points at regular intervals
• Similar skills to other online conferencing systems
– employability skills in 21st century?
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Reference enquiry
[4:27] Maggie Kohime: hi
•
[4:27] JG Dover: Hello
•
[4:27] JG Dover: I have not used SL for sometime
•
[4:28] JG Dover: I cant find any note cards at Education UK
•
[4:29] Maggie Kohime: what type of notecards?
•
[4:29] JG Dover: Information about meetings etc
•
[4:30] Maggie Kohime: ok well SLED have a calendar which lists activities in SL -
•
educational ones :-)
[4:30] Maggie Kohime: http://sledevents.blogspot.com/
•
[4:31] JG Dover: I will look for that thank you
•
[4:31] Maggie Kohime: it is also useful to join groups
•
[4:31] Maggie Kohime: if you right click on my profile you will see which groups I
•
belong to, mostly librarian
[4:32] JG Dover: Thanks OK
•
[4:37] Maggie Kohime: well I will let you continue to investigate you might want to
•
look at the student village
[4:38] Inventory item offered
•
[4:39] Maggie Kohime: see you soon, bye for now
•
4/6/2009 Lyn Parker/Maggie Kohime LILAC 2009

Marshall Dozier /
(SL) Pancha Enzyme
marshall.dozier@ed.ac.uk

Information about the creator is clear in Edit mode

This is a poster
from an anti-
content-theft
campaign
amongst SL
fashion
designers
Reproduced with permission from Chez Nabob http://shop.onrez.com/Chez_Nabob

Reproduced with permission from Chez Nabob http://shop.onrez.com/Chez_Nabob

A few places to peruse
• Warner James Au [blog] How Ironic Are Intellectual
Property Rights In Second Life?
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/03/ironic-property-
rights.html
• The DMCA and YOU
http://secondlife.com/newsletter/2007_01/civiccenter.
html
• Outcry as ‘Copybot’ threatens copyright protection
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2006/11/14/outc
ry-as-copybot-threatens-copyright-protection/

Sheila and Pancha discussing this part in SL,
at the weekend before LILAC