The document discusses the potential sustainability benefits of using virtual worlds for teaching. It provides an example of IBM that held a virtual conference in Second Life, which saved them $320k compared to a physical conference due to eliminating travel, accommodations, and increasing productivity. Virtual worlds could provide similar benefits for universities by reducing the need for physical classrooms and resources. When combined with other online tools, virtual worlds may help improve the sustainability of teaching through reduced transportation and allowing remote learning. However, viewer software requires adequate computers and lacks face-to-face contact between students.

1. TEACHING
Is it virtually sustainable?
Russell Merryman - Senior Lecturer, Journalism @ LCC

2. QUIZ
Q1: How many litres of fuel does it take to fly one airline
passenger 100 kilometres?
(a) 0.6 litres
(b) 1.6 litres
(c) 3.1 litres
(d) 4.7 litres

3. QUIZ
A1: How many litres of fuel does it take to fly one airline
passenger 100 kilometres?
(a) 0.6 litres
(b) 1.6 litres
(c) 3.1 litres
(d) 4.7 litres
Source: DEFRA

4. QUIZ
Q2: How far is it from Tokyo to London, using the shortest air
route?
(a) 7,541kilometres
(b) 8,716 kilometres
(c) 9,224 kilometres
(d) 9,583 kilometres

5. QUIZ
A2: How far is it from Tokyo to London, using the shortest air
route?
(a) 7,541kilometres
(b) 8,716 kilometres
(c) 9,224 kilometres
(d) 9,583 kilometres

6. QUIZ
Q3: Given a tonne of kerosene is 1,250 litres, approximately
how many tonnes of air fuel does a student from Tokyo use in
a return flight to London?
(a) 0.1 tonnes
(b) 0.25 tonnes
(c) 0.33 tonnes
(d) 0.5 tonnes

7. QUIZ
A3: Given a tonne of kerosene is 1,250 litres, approximately
how many tonnes of air fuel does a student from Tokyo use in
a return flight to London?
(a) 0.1 tonnes
(b) 0.25 tonnes
(c) 0.33 tonnes
(d) 0.5 tonnes
Source: DEFRA

8. QUIZ
Q4: Given each passenger km generates 0.175 kg of carbon
dioxide - how many tonnes of carbon dioxide does each
student generate during a return trip from Tokyo to Japan?
(a) 2.5 tonnes
(b) 3.3 tonnes
(c) 5.0 tonnes
(d) 6.7 tonnes

9. QUIZ
A4: Given each passenger km generates 0.175 kg of carbon
dioxide - how many tonnes of carbon dioxide does each
student generate during a return trip from Tokyo to Japan?
(a) 2.5 tonnes
(b) 3.3 tonnes
(c) 5.0 tonnes
(d) 6.7 tonnes
Source: DEFRA

10. QUIZ
Q5: How many international (non-EU) students were there
at UAL in 2009-10?
(a) 3,199
(b) 4,581
(c) 5,286
(d) 7,952

11. QUIZ
Q5: How many international (non-EU) students were there
at UAL in 2009-10?
(a) 3,199
(b) 4,581
(c) 5,286
(d) 7,952 - this is the number of International & EU (2,666)
Source: UAL

12. QUIZ
Q6: Singapore Airlines recently removed in-flight entertain-
ment systems from some planes, replacing them with iPads.
How much weight did that save?
(a) 2 kg
(b) 20 kg
(c) 200 kg
(d) 2,000 kg

13. QUIZ
Q6: Singapore Airlines subsidiary Scoot recently removed in-
flight entertainment systems from their planes, replacing them
with iPads. How much weight did that save?
(a) 2 kg
(b) 20 kg
(c) 200 kg
(d) 2,000 kg
Source: Bloomberg

14. ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS
A range of online tools already exists allowing students and
tutors to communicate online:
Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Tumblr, Wordpress, Flickr, Pinterest,
YouTube, Vimeo, Blogger - Networking & sharing
Skype, Wimba, Google Talk - Video and voice calls
Blackboard, Moodle - Dynamic websites for course content
Google Docs, Podio, Scribd, Slideshare - Content sharing
Second Life, OpenSim, Avination - Virtual worlds

15. VIRTUAL WORLDS
Lecture at Virtual Hamburg University

16. VIRTUAL WORLDS
Virtual worlds have advantages over other social software:
They allow many users to be in the same place at once,
facilitating open discussion
They allow media to be streamed into that space, allowing
presentations, video and audio to be heard by everyone
Access is via a viewer, available for all types of computer,
almost all viewers are free
Residents can create their own content inside the virtual
world

17. VIRTUAL WORLDS
Complex disaster scenario teaching
University of Augsburg

18. VIRTUAL SUSTAINABILITY
What are the sustainability benefits of virtual worlds?

19. VIRTUAL SUSTAINABILITY
What are the sustainability benefits of virtual worlds?
Do we have evidence to support this?

20. CASE STUDY: IBM
IBM has 220,000 technical staff worldwide, and holds annual
developer conferences
First virtual conference of IBM’s Academy of Technology held
in secure region of Second Life in October 2008
Normally 200+ staff, flown from all around the world to one
location, accommodation and subsistence for 3-5 days each

21. CASE STUDY: IBM
• Virtual conference halls
• Smaller break-out rooms
• Plaza for social meetings
• Employees still at work
• Discussions tailored to take account of time zones
Next: Costs

22. CASE STUDY: IBM
• Normal costs: $400k
• Travel & venue: $250k
• Productivity: $150k
• Cost in SL: $80k
• Total savings: $320k

23. CASE STUDY: IBM

24. CASE STUDY: IBM
“When you meet once a year, it’s hard...but we could now
have discussions throughout the year. I would watch myself
walk around and talk to people. Colleagues would wander
over to talk to me. So there was that serendipitous meeting.”
Joanne Martin, President, IBM Academy of Technology
“It would have been difficult for many participants to take time
off to attend a live event.”
Neil Katz, IBM Distinguished Engineer, Academy of Technology Member

25. CASE STUDY: IBM
“When people woke up the morning after the virtual
meetings and thought about the day before, it wasn’t like
remembering a webcast or a phone conference. We truly felt
as if we’d attended a real-time meeting, inter-acting with
others and carrying home practical information.”
Craig Becker, Global Architect, IBM Digital Convergence
IBM now hold many of their conferences, including their
Annual General Meeting, in a virtual environment

26. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
IBM found improvements in sustainability of holding
conferences - no flights/travel, no hotels, improved productivity
What other areas of improved sustainability might they have
seen?
What other areas of improved sustainability could we see
from using virtual worlds in university teaching?

27. IMPACT ON TEACHING
Virtual worlds can be used as one of a suite of technologies
which can be used to reduce our reliance on physical
classrooms, and the associated resource costs.
Teamed with other tools, such as Skype, Blackboard, Moodle,
Vimeo etc, remote learning potentially becomes an achievable
and sustainable operation.
Virtual worlds are free, creative, communicative, transnational
and could help to improve sustainability of teaching

28. DOWNSIDES
Viewer software is resource-heavy - cannot run on older
computers
Lack of face-to-face contact - achievable through other
technologies, but still no physical contact and limited social
contact between students
Are there any others?

29. ANY QUESTIONS?
ANY FEEDBACK?
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