071031 Njedge

Virtual Worlds: Second Life Dr. Laura Nicosia Assistant Professor English Department AJ Kelton Director CHSS Technology Services Unit College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University

What do you already know about Second Life? Second Life? Why talk about Second Life?

What is Second Life?
Started in 2003
“ Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.”
A flexible space for learning and exploration
An opportunity for people to interact in a way that conveys a sense of presence lacking in other media.
Generalized rather than contextual, applicable to almost any discipline.

What is Second Life?
Second life is NOT a game - there are no rules or a fixed goal-oriented purpose.
15-20K sign ups daily - over 10.5 million total
25 - 50K residents on at one time
over $1 million spent daily (real US dollars)
Well over 200 educational institutions
Over 250 “sims” dedicated to education

What is Behind Second Life
a scaleable co-located grid of servers running Linux
Real-time 3D streaming at DSL/Cable modem (or higher)
Rigid body physics simulation, streaming positional audio (distance and direction)
Persistent desktop access - everything resides on the grid
Cross-platform portability
Infinite avatar customization - no two avatars alike
Uploadable textures, audio, Quicktime video can play in-world.
International Language Support - chat and communicate in local languages, inc. Asian character sets. European keyboards supported.

Technical Requirements
Highest speed connection (no dial up)
Best Graphics Card (specific)
Windows 2000 / Mac OS X 10.3.9
800MHz Pentium III / 1 GHz G4
512 MB RAM

A Universe of Virtual Worlds Second Life Active World There SL Teen Grid Whyville Toontown Sims Online Virtual Earth Home Metaverse Protosphere Muse Coke Studios Sora City Dreamville TowerChat Traveler Habbo Hotel The Manor Mokitown Cybertown Virtual Ibiza Voodoo Chat Playdo Worlds.com Moove The Palace

A Universe of Virtual Worlds
22 virtual world platforms listing over 11.8 million users, and that only includes numbers from 7 of the 22
18 virtual worlds for Teens and Tweens listing over 52.3 million users from 12 of the 18
15 virtual worlds for kids listing over 16.7 million users from 9 of the 15
Do the math: 55 virtual platforms w/ 80.8 million users

Show me the money
“ We don't see any slowing in the market adoption of virtual worlds technologies and expect investment in the space to continue. In fact the market is growing significantly, with the rate of adoption of virtual worlds increasing as the technology matures and has more to offer both consumers and enterprise customers.”
Christopher Sherman
Executive Director of Virtual Worlds Management

Pedagogical Validity for Teaching with Second Life

First, we recognize…
There is significant media hype focused on the “darker sides” of the in-world experience - violence, sex, drugs and rock & roll
The label of “gaming” poses an image problem for SL insofar as its potential uses in secondary and/or higher education
Without proper directions, goals and objectives, SL is as aimless and as pedagogically bereft of meaning as any other poorly designed or poorly deployed classroom lesson

However, with constructivist pedagogies
Comprehension soars when millennials engage with their avatars and co-journey through the learning environment’s unfolding episodes and processes (Dede)
Learning communities are fostered
Collaborative knowledge-building develops and cognitive capital is distributed among groups and individuals

Meet Students in “Interesting” Places

Immersion yields enhanced motivation
Hands-on, constructivist practices pose challenges and peak curiosity
MMUVEs reach learners who do not succeed in conventional classroom settings, as well as “traditional” learners
The use of MMUVEs allow for delivery of sophisticated content in context and application
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/
Dede’s research on MMUVEs shows

Second Life permits the use of unconventional educational settings and hands-on experiences that would be difficult/impossible in Real Life. Such as…

Dante’s Inferno and Linden Hills

Second Life provides
Guided Inquiry, where experience is central to learning
Scaffolding of in-world prior experiences through seeking, sieving and synthesizing experiences
Decentralization of the class, where knowledge is created across a community rather than delivered from an individual

In the process, we…
Share and exchange resources, cultural knowledge, stories and experiences
Engage in social exploration using a multiplicity of perspectives and points of view
Apply critical thinking and problem-solving in context and in process
Unlearn assumptions about communities and the “Other”

Exposure to the “Other”

But, how do we teach content and skill sets using Second Life

Second Life: Cybergogy and Cyberpraxis

Pedagogical considerations:
Asynchronous participation and deep reflection at each user’s pace
Synchronous virtual exchanges to heighten immersion and foster interactions
A combination of mediated, situated learning-environments (teacher established challenges) and free, evolving situated learning environments (to experience virtual exploration)

If you build it, they will come

Construct 3-D Sites

Autonomous Learning

Students visit the always available site

They enter the learning space

Explore and orient themselves

Encounter your assigned tasks

An effective virtual learning environment (VLE) may:
Supplement face-to-face interaction
Be used in combination with other multi-media (e.g. videoconferences embedded within the SL platform or concomitant with SL)
Be an adjunct to Blackboard or another more linear, asynchronous interactions with discussion groups and blogs

Hold Meetings In-world

Ultimately, We Must
Make the environment part of the learning experience—not an end unto itself
Enable metacognitive reflection on the SL experience
Construct feedback loops and self-renewing frameworks to inform our praxis
Investigate the pedagogical successes and failures of using Second life for our classes and disciplines

Now that we have the site, content and tasks:
Who owns the material?

Copyright vs. Creative Commons
Intellectual Property Issues:

Valid for 70 yrs past the death of the creator
Grants permissions that are “all-or-nothing” (Public Domain or Creator Ownership)
Copyright

Creative Commons Licensing (CC):
Offers the option for full permission to modify, copy, and use (with attribution)
Allows creators to reserve some rights
Permits varying levels of public use:
May specify “No derivatives”
May restrict “commercial” uses
May require “Share-Alike” uses

Institutions of Higher Ed such as:
MIT uses OpenCourseWare for all graduate and undergraduate courses (Non-Commercial, NoDeriv, Share-Alike permissions)
Rice University uses Connexions (Full attributions only)

How do I use CC?
Go the website: http://www.creativecommons.org
Answer a few questions
The site indicates appropriate license for your needs
Site provides HTML code to add to the online work page
Code includes logo that links to CC page for use instructions

There are nagging questions…

Question 1:
What is acceptable attribution?

Question 2:
What is the definition of “commercial” use?

Question 3:
Must attribution accompany the image immediately?

Question 4:
If I use Share-alike item, must my entire project be Share-alike as well?

How will these rules be enforced?
Question 5:

For discipline-specific uses of SL in the class:
“ 101 Uses for Second Life
in the College Classroom”
Dr. Megan S. Conklin—Elon University http://trumpy.cs.elon.edu/metaverse

The CHSS Pilot Project

Recreate What Exists

Walk into a story

Always “On” Content

Traditional Spaces

Create Something New

Engage Your Students

Challenges

Genome Island

The Second Louvre

Business

Spaceport Alpha and Delta

Renaissance Island

San Francesco Assisi

InfoIsland

Princeton

The Sistine Chapel Vassar Vassar

Vassar Island

The Lost Gardens of Apollo

Abbott’s Aerodrome

071031 Njedge

by AJ Kelton on Oct 31, 2007

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