virtual world watch - summary of second life snapshots

Virtual World Watch

Summary of Second Life Snapshots

John Kirriemuir(Silversprite Helsinki)

October 2008

October 20008 www.virtualworldwatch.net 2

The snapshots so far

funded by the Eduserv Foundation four so far:

June 2007 September 2007 May 2008 October 2008

strictly covering UK university and college activities only

started off being solely about Second Life use lately moving into Second Life and other worlds getting unwieldy; format may need to change


Things that have changed


Users/institutions increasing

first snapshot survey (June 2007) found 41 instances of Second Life use in UK HE/FE

by May 2008, some form of Second Life activity detected in 75%+ of UK universities

in many cases, multiple Second Life activities in the same institution


Growth in funding sources

originally, most development work self-funded i.e. in own time of academic

now there are multiple sources – e.g. from last snapshot: internal i.e. from Pro-Vice Chancellor,

centrally, or multi-department “hardcore research” funders e.g. Leverhulme

Trust JISC (funds several projects) European funding Eduserv Foundation


Teaching and learning in SL

number of instances increasing class sizes vary up to thirty usually heavily participatory in terms of

communication most students reported as taking to it; a few have

problems with the concept

however… not everyone is evaluating effectiveness no predominant method of measuring this


Increasing acceptance

academics report less negative responses of late from: peers (other lecturers and researchers) students

this is due to: more people knowing about Second Life 2nd year of teaching and learning use (no longer

a 'gimmick') activities that generate research money become

more popular


Things that have stayed the same


Multiple reasons for SL activity

building a representation of the university researching the use of virtual worlds in

education teaching marketing the university, and income

generation through alumni holding seminars remote teaching (one to many) remote supervision of PhD students student design and development skills

acquisition


Sceptics

sceptics are out there open-minded sceptics (academic approach:

“convince me”) are useful; challenges users of virtual worlds for proof

closed-minded sceptics add nothing to academic debate; often sceptical for seemingly personal reasons

“Some people are bizarrely hostile to it, for no particularly good reason”


FE (Further Education) colleges

almost total absence in all snapshots searches, list requests, and other contacts

indicate little activity - either public or 'under the surface‘ (unless FE colleges are much more secretive than HE universities!)

a small number of (enduring) exceptions: Myersclough College (Forestry course

promotion) Bromley College (Computer Science promotion)


The two great “needs”

Funding

... and ...

Time


Worlds other than Second Life


Mentions in October 2008

three or less mentions each: Olive The Palace Croquet Metaplace There Neverwinter Small Worlds Active Worlds Twinity


Mentions in October 2008

eight or more mentions each: OpenSim Wonderland Metaplace


OpenSim

open source – technical offers more control and privacy than

Second Life

“SL and OpenSim have quite a lead, providing a toolkit rather than an end product.”

“OpenSim does interest us, especially with regard to being able to close access for particular activities, the potential to bulk manage accounts and the opportunity to track activity for learning mapping.”


Google Lively

high profile and easy to use, so many people have tried it

felt to be 'superficial' for teaching and learning needs

“Google’s new virtual world was disappointing and didn’t seem to get the idea of open access community.”

“The big drawback, especially for educators, was the lack, at least at the moment, of the ability to create your own content.”


Wonderland

Java-based Collaboration/communication-oriented

“Wonderland was particularly interesting as it allowed groups of people to dynamically edit the same document.

The quality of spatial sound was also appealing, and the fact that the platform is Java based and would allow for complex programming.”


Other issues of interest


Needs of developers

they all say funding, so ignoring that -they also said: a toolkit of ready-made high quality stuff for SL “SL on a stick” to circumvent problems with

group and university lab work restrictions guides aimed at academics e.g. how to

successfully run a tutorial or workshop in Second Life


Disappearing early adopters

some UK Second Life academic developers from the early days, i.e. 2006 and 2007(!), aren't doing this any more funding has finished? development skills have moved elsewhere? fed up of lack of peer support / working in

isolation? technical restrictions? it didn't work out...?


IPR and related issues

what if... several islands claim to represent one university an academic develops content for his research /

course at home, then 'takes it' with him or her when he moves to a new university

students do design work on their university island – who 'owns' it?

the Vice Chancellor goes for a wander around his institutional island, and is 'mugged' by students

a learning or education feature, developed by an academic at cost to the institution, is 'copied' or replicated by an academic at another institution


Duplicated effort

many universities are doing exactly the same thing: investigating, from scratch, whether Second Life is useful for teaching and learning peer-review “lag” particularly bad with virtual

worlds due to rapid developments. Plenty of research going on, and has happened; the mound of (public) findings so far small

contact and peer networks being thin the “you don't get it till you've tried it” nature

of SL


University infrastructure

what happens if/when teaching and other educational activities in virtual worlds become widespread? network traffic more higher specified machines (and graphics

cards) in the labs more labs? Or can wireless campus network

cope with mass use of SL on laptops? voice: making a noise wherever the

participants are


The future


“In it for the long-haul”

Second Life currently predominant ... but may not be in the future

the use of virtual worlds in education will take years, possibly many, to be refined

“We will clearly continue to explore virtual worlds – however, it is not clear that Second Life world is the optimal environment.”

“Increasingly used but not mainstream for several years.”

“I don’t think it will go away this time, simply because of the enormous investment. We will also see diminished boundaries with the 2D web that will bring virtual worlds into the mainstream.”


Virtual World Watch

currently one year (ending Oct 2009) activities funded by the Eduserv:

continuation of the snapshot series, but with focus moving more towards 'many worlds'

identifying the directions and predominant themes in the emerging Second Life and virtual worlds research sector

an independent comparison of Second Life to other virtual worlds, for teaching and learning purposes

other stuff we find interesting :-)


Virtual World Watch

Web: www.virtualworldwatch.net Twitter: V_World_Watch are you a UK academic doing “stuff” in

virtual worlds? submit your blog to the blogroll fill in the next snapshot survey questionnaire contribute a few screendumps to the Flickr

picture pool

thanks – that also helps you publicise your work

http://www.virtualworldwatch.net/

virtual world watch - summary of second life snapshots

Education

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