As the Worlds Turn3-black[1]

The Reality of Transcending the Virtual – SL Conference – Dona Cady 3-13-10

1.   “Not Natives & Immigrants but Visitors and Residents” by Dave White presents this dichotomy in an insightful and useful fashion in terms of planning for distance learning with students.

2.  In another blog post, Rob Paterson takes a broader look at the evolution of society through a Web 2.0 lens in his commentary  “The Social Web – A New World.” He compares the current transition to an earlier period in United States history.

“I think that Web 2.0 is not just a set of tools but is more a label for a real “New World” that shares many of the characteristics of America in its more innocent years – post the Civil War.  If it was just tools, any one could pick them up. No I think that Web 2.0 is a place.”

The first list was compiled by Jane Hart of the Center for Learning & Performance Technologies.    Her top ten tools for 2009 include a number of interesting possibilities ranging from SlideRocket (an online presentation alternative to PowerPoint) to Posterous which allows you to create and maintain a blog simply by using email.

If ten new tools are not enough to satisfy your desire for new technology goodies take a look at Larry Ferlazzo’s 31 top educational Web 2.0 Tools for 2008.  Larry teaches English language learners at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California.

Larry offers a number of  additional technology lists on his blog, including the best online learning games for 2008.  I found his number one pick “Play the News” to be a well designed critical thinking activity.

There are three ways to travel to a specific location:

A. The first method is to click on one of the links below. These will open up a website with a “teleport” link. Clicking on the link will either open the Second Life application (or open a teleport if you’re already in Second Life). Once you sign in you will automatically arrive at the desired location. Teleporting is a quick way of moving from one area to another in Second Life.

B. The second method makes use of the search function in Second Life (like using Google). Once you’re logged in, open up your Second Life “search” window. Enter the name of the area you are interested in visiting. Click on the desired link and choose “teleport” to be transported to the location.

C. Finally, if someone you know is already at a location, they can choose to teleport you to their area. When you find an area you would like to return to, you can bookmark the site (Under the “World” menu choose “landmark”)

Here are some sites to consider visiting:

1. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE): This is a nicely designed conference area that is open to groups exploring Second Life. http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/94/70/30

2. Music Academy Online: Various buildings each focused on an era of classical music. Music is streamed into each building. Click on the musical note icon located at the bottom right of your interface to turn the music on or off.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utwig/126/162/28

3. Better World: A site which focuses on awareness of world issues. A museum atmosphere with powerful images http://slurl.com/secondlife/Better%20World/55/211/22

4. Medical Library: A number of medical resources. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/172/205/26

5. Info Island (Information & Communications Technology Library) : A site created to provide information related to using Second Life as an educational tool. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/55/216/33

6. SploLand: A colorful and imaginative site that plays with technical, mathematical and scientific symbols http://slurl.com/secondlife/SploLand/96/81/29

7. Waterhead (Heart Murmur simulation): A learning environment dealing with heart conditions.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Waterhead/137/52/30

8. University of Derby : Several European educational buildings and sites. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/16/152/23

9. Democracy Island (New York School of Law -Virtual Supreme Court) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Democracy%20Island/116/220/128

College Campuses: A number of colleges have created virtual replicas of their campuses.

10. Vassar College (includes a replica of the Sistine Chapel!) : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vassar/165/91/24

11. Ohio University: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ohio%20University/51/108/26

12. Texas State (Bobcat Village) :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bobcat%20Village/161/93/27

13. Austin Hall (Harvard Law School): Another good location for a meeting or small conference. This will be our backup meeting location. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/69/52/25

Stepping Out – If you in the mood for fun, reflection or something a bit different here are some areas that might be of interest:

14. The Botanical Gardens: A lovely place to walk and meditate.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Botanical%20Gardens/68/209/40

15. Jades Jazz Island: The experience is a bit like the alien bar scene in Star Wars if you remember that portion of the film. A pretty wild collection of avatars will be trying out their dance moves on the ballroom floor most evenings. If you enjoy popular jazz, the performers (vocal and instrumental) can be quite good. Some of the artists perform live via streaming audio. (Note: if you want your avatar to try out his/her dance moves, walk to the colored crystal ball hanging on the far side of the ballroom and right click on the object. Select the “touch” command, then accept the dance animation and off you go). http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jades%20Jazz%20Island/38/32/28

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Bridging Cultures

Our theme will be “Bridging Cultures,” exploring new teaching strategies and technologies to bridge the gap between the digital culture of our students and the culture of school. In addition, given that the majority of college faculty at most institutions are age 40+, we have a generational gap to challenge us. While we will be focusing on one social technology, that of virtual worlds, there are a range of tools from podcasting, blogging, streaming video, interactive voice and video, computer simulations and games, instant messaging, etc. that can be of use.

There are three individuals who are writing most persuasively about the theme of “bridging cultures” that I can recommend. They include Harvey Jenkins (MIT Comparative Media Studies), James Paul Gee (Arizona State Professor of Literary Studies), and John Seely Brown (visiting scholar at USC, formerly Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation). Here are links to their bios if you want to know more about them.

Henry Jenkins – http://cms.mit.edu/people/

James Paul Gee – http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/about/our-people/gjames.html

John Seely Brown – http://www.johnseelybrown.com/bio.html

Key Resources

The first recommended resource is a short video clip from YouTube entitled “A Vision of Students Today.” It was prepared by a professor and his students at Kansas State and raises a number of issues relevant to the theme above and our work as educators. I’ve watched the video several times and see something new and provocative each time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Secondly, I would recommend that you take a look at the first six pages of Henry Jenkins white paper “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” prepared for the MacArthur Foundation. While the whole document is worthwhile, it is lengthy. The first part might make a good handout for faculty. The MacArthur foundation launched a five year, $50 million digital learning initiative in 2006 that supports virtual world and educational gaming technologies as well as other tools. Here’s the link.

http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

If the above link doesn’t work (it’s a long one) go to the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning site, look in the “Library” link at the top of the page and select “occasional papers,” to find the article.

http://digitallearning.macfound.org

Digging Deeper

Finally, here are two additional resources for anyone wanting to investigate the topic a bit more.

1. If you have access to past issues of Change Magazine take a look at (and perhaps make copies for others) John Seely Brown’s article “New Learning Environments for the 21st Century: Exploring the Edge” in the Sept/Oct. 2006 issue. The whole article is applicable, and the second half of it directly addresses virtual worlds and educational gaming.

2. Here’s a link to an online article “The Classroom of Popular Culture: What video games can teach us about making students want to learn” by James Paul Gee on the connection between video games and learning: http://www.edletter.org/current/gee.shtml

Note – Virtual Worlds and video/computer games are often mentioned together although they are somewhat different animals. They share some of the same technology and both can be very engaging, but they can have different purposes from an educational perspective and provide different experiences.

Additional Resources (to be updated over time) :

1. Educational Resources for Second Life: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

2. Pop Cosmopolitanism: http://popcosmo.org/ – Constance Steinkeuler, Assistant Professor of Educational Communication and Technology at University of Wisconsin-Madison shares her ongoing research on virtual worlds in this blog.

3. An example of doing chemistry in Second Life: http://usefulchem.blogspot.com/2007/12/camphor-in-second-life.html

Cultural Experience

The suggestions here represent my experiences and feedback from others. Clearly there is some subjectivity involved and your mileage may vary. One of the safest environments is the Active Worlds Educational Universe. It tends to draw primarily students and teachers and others interested in education. In addition, you can make your world a private one, so that only you and class members can enter. The down side to this world is that it is not well populated unless an event is scheduled, so students will be more or less on their own if they come during non-scheduled times.

Second Life has been drawing a great deal of attention as of late, and is well known for its educational applications. However, it is also a highly social world and some of the communication in the public areas can be of an adult nature. You can have students meet in a specific area if you are concerned about this issue, and it is possible to create your own island that is private, but there is a cost to land ownership.

There.com appears to have a very friendly, helpful community with guides available to assist newcomers. General behavior seems to be moderate in nature, although flirtation is not uncommon.

Nonverbal Communication

Often, the nonverbal animations or “emotes” provided for avatars can give clues to a world’s culture and expected behaviors. If “kiss” is one of the emotes available, you can be sure someone will send you a kiss at one point or another. Many of these worlds, particularly MMOs, will allow your avatar to dance. In World of Warcraft, some of the dances are quite provocative and it’s not unusual to see some avatars dancing nude in a town square. However, in Lord of the Rings Online, one’s dance involves clapping and a bit of a jig and usually occurs in the company of a Minstrel who is playing a tune. They are very different cultures facilitated by the options made available to members.

MMORPG Cultures

World of Warcraft is the largest massive multiplayer online world, but its culture is regarded by many as more immature (see above example) than a number of others. On the other hand, Everquest 2 appears to have a more mature player base and the conversations on the general chat channel are often more related to game related issues. Arguments, “flaming,” and derogatory comments are found much more frequently on the chat channels of some worlds than others. Veteran members of some worlds tend to monitor the chat and someone who steps out of line will frequently hear from others if their comments are not considered acceptable. “Go back to WoW” (World of Warcraft) is a frequent response to a “newbie” (new member) who might be exhibiting what is considered immature behavior in a particular world.

Creating a Culture Within a Culture

Regardless of the world you choose there are measures that increase the chance that students will have a positive experience. It is usually possible to turn off some of the general chat channels if one wishes, and you often have an option to “ignore” someone who may be bothersome to you. Many people more or less ignore the general culture and instead focus on their smaller community, generally known as “guilds”. Since guilds vary significantly in terms of their makeup, one can often find (or create) a small community that provides a good fit, even if the larger culture has its problems. Finally some worlds offer “role-playing” servers which often draw people looking for a more mature player-base.

One of the more interesting communities resides in the related worlds of City of Heroes and City of Villains where one’s avatar is a superhero or super villain. In my experience these are highly social worlds where people collaborate in groups frequently. Instead of describing these worlds in terms of the maturity of the members, I would say these are “open” worlds allowing for a great deal of personal expression, often in a creative way. Generally, I found this to be a positive aspect of the experience, although other aspects of these worlds might make them less suitable for educational use.

Sites that review and discuss virtual worlds such as mmorpg.com will frequently comment on the nature of a world’s culture and can be a good source of information. Spending some time in a world before using it with students is probably the best approach to choosing your educational virtual space.

In this entry we’ll look at the process of exploring the theme based “gaming” worlds called MMORPGs (Massive Mulitplayer Online Role Playing Games) or MMOs. These worlds have the largest number of members world wide (15+ million), and while not used as widely for educational purposes, they have a number of potential applications. Among their participants are a significant number of educators who play for fun, challenge and connections with others. It’s not uncommon for real life friends, family members and colleagues to spend time adventuring together in these worlds. They have also been the subject of a number of research studies which investigate their social aspects, virtual economies, cultural dimensions and skills developed in the process of playing.

Worlds of Imagination

These worlds tend to be less realistic than the worlds mentioned in the earlier post. Instead MMO’s provide fictional worlds inspired by novels and films. One observer noted that there will always be a gap between the real world and the worlds created by our imagination, but MMOs come as close as we may get to bridging that gap.

Although they are referred to as “games” since they draw their basic design from single player role playing games, many people see these environments as persistent virtual worlds instead. Unlike a game, you don’t win or lose, there is no end or finishing point, and most people are not active role-players. However, they generally provide a storyline or historical lore to frame the experience, there are structured activities to pursue, and your avatar evolves in a number of ways over time. These worlds provide ample opportunities for social interaction through group collaboration and larger communities (guilds) which become a kind of “in world” family.

Getting Started

If you want to give one of these worlds a try, what are the steps to follow? First be aware that although there are some free MMOs and others have free trial periods, the most highly regarded worlds eventually will require a monthly fee to continue play (usually $10-15 per month). Given that there are no time limits with regard to time spent in these worlds, they can provide a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment and socialization. However, since at this point you’re exploring these worlds as a newcomer and not committing to any long term involvement, you can get by for a week to a month with little or no financial investment.

Technology Requirements

The primary barrier is computing power, in particular your computer’s graphic capabilities. While most modern computers purchased in the last few years have the processing power to run these worlds, they often fall short in their graphics area. These worlds require a lot of visual processing and the computers purchased for schools and the less expensive computers purchased for the home usually don’t measure up.

The key component is a device known as your video card. In the past virtually all computers came with video cards, but now in order to save costs, many manufacturers combine the video processing with another component (generally the motherboard). This has led to the availability of lower cost computers, but it does limit their versatility. Fortunately virtually all computers can accommodate a seperate video card as an upgrade.

Upgrading Your Video Card

These cards range in cost from under $100 for a basic card to $300 or more for the high end cards used for professional graphics work (and very serious gamers). However, for somewhere between $100-150 you can get a solid mid-level video card that should run most of the currently available MMO’s without difficulty. It’s also recommended that you have 2 gigabytes of RAM (working memory) on your computer.

While computers are designed to be relatively easy to upgrade at home, if you’re not comfortable working under the hood there are usually computer stores in your area that will sell you a video card and upgrade your memory and install the products. If you’re using a school computer and are exploring these worlds for potential educational applications, your IT department may provide (and install) a memory and video card upgrade.

If you’re thinking of purchasing a new computer keep these requirements in mind. Many of the computers available in retail stores do not include competent video cards for virtual world use. Online companies like Dell and ABS have models designated specifically for this purpose (both desktops or laptops). Toshiba makes a relatively affordable line of “gaming” laptops that include competent video cards. These computers can also easily handle all the usual demands of work.

Taking the Plunge

Once your computer is ready to go, it’s a matter of choosing a world, installing the software (downloaded or purchased at a store), creating an account and logging in. You’ll generally be given the opportunitiy to select and customize an avatar and then off you go. Many worlds now have tutorials and hints for beginners to assist you (as well as paper manuals and guidebooks). In a future post, we’ll talk more about some specific worlds you may want to consider, and what to do when you arrive. An earlier blog post “Which Virtual World to Choose” can be helpful reading to get you started.

When I’ve had a chance to talk with educators about virtual worlds I’ve noticed a considerable amount of interest, but also some concerns or apprehensions. One concern is related to the technology as mentioned above, the other relates to time issues. We’ll address them both below.

Guide for getting started

Navigating the waters in a virtual world might seem complex, but it’s really a matter of learning what keys to press. Expect to be confused and somewhat disoriented at first. Resist the urge to flee, hang in there a bit, no one you know is probably watching, so you can proceed at your own pace. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting started:

• Choose a world. I would suggest either the Active Worlds Educational Universe or There.com for your first voyage. If you prefer to get your feet wet without a number of other virtual people around (as well as get a glimpse of some educational uses of this technology) try the Active Worlds Educational Universe. If you’re the sociable type and want to interact with or at least observe others in virtual space right away, select There.com.

• Download the software from their website. It’s free and doesn’t take long to download (5-15 minutes) if you have a high speed internet connection. Save it to a place you can locate on your computer, the desktop is often the easiest. Active Worlds Download There Download

• Install the software (usually just double-click the file) and it will install more or less automatically, leaving an icon on your desktop to start the program.

• Log in. Double click on your world icon and the program will start up and lead to the login page. Active Worlds makes this process quite simple, you don’t even have to create an account. You simply select the tourist option, choose the name you wish to use in the world and provide an email address (don’t worry, they don’t seem to badger you with commercial emails). For There.com you create an account on their website before logging in where you select an ID and a password. Use that information when you reach the log-in screen.

• Choose a character (avatar). Active Worlds simplifies that process by choosing a male or female tourist for you, not glamorous, but simple. You can change your appearance later, but it should suffice for getting started. There.com gives you some choice in avatars, as I recall. Some worlds provide not only a number of choices, but allow you to custom design your avatar down to the type of nose you want, but that’s for later.

• Scotty has beamed you in, now what? There are really only two things you need to know to get started, how to move and how to talk. Use the arrow keys on your computer to move around. To talk using text chat, simply click on the white box or strip (chat box) located on the lower part of your screen and you can now type in anything you wish to say. Press the enter key once you’ve finished and the text will be visible to those around you (in their chat box and/or as a bubble above your head). That’s all there is to it, really. Later, you can learn how to send someone a private message as well. Some worlds also have voice communication available, but get comfortable with chat before moving on to speech.

• Explore, both the interface and the world. You’ll see a bunch of unfamiliar icons and options in your virtual world interface. Don’t be afraid to click on them to see what happens, you won’t break anything. It’s the best way to learn. If you want to be more organized about the process, there is usually a help file available for you within the interface. Some worlds also have “in world” tutorials and during my first trip to There.com a helpful avatar acted as my guide. Just be patient with yourself and the new world around you. It’s like visiting a new country for the first time. Most of the natives are quite friendly and someone is usually willing to help if you ask.

• Other worlds. Once you start to feel comfortable in one of these worlds, you might want to branch out. Second Life is probably the best known of these open-ended worlds, and has received a lot of attention for it’s educational applications, but it is a bit more complex. Trying out one of the theme based Massive Mulitplayer Online Role-Playing Games like Lord of the Rings Online is more involved, but that’s an option you can pursue. We’ll go over the steps to enter those worlds in another post.

Time Issues

One of the roadblocks to trying virtual worlds is time pressures. Most teachers are already overwhelmed with class preparation, grading and other responsibilities. Who has time to investigate and develop something totally new? I have a couple of suggestions.

First of all the initial setup described above doesn’t take long, you can do it in 30 minutes or less: 10 minute download, a few minutes to install, and 10 minutes to create an account if you choose There.com. After the setup, it’s all a question of when you’ll choose to visit the online world.

I prefer spending time in these spaces when I wouldn’t otherwise be doing anything productive (see, no guilt). Most of us have some scheduled downtime during the day. It might be a short break when we come home from school or work. For others, it’s generally in the evenings when you’ve reached a point where you’ve done what you can for the day and need a bit of relaxation before going to bed.

Relaxing and Stimulating

I’ve found that many of these worlds have two psychological effects that might at first seem to be conflicting… they’re both relaxing and stimulating. They can help you relax, reduce stress and provide a chance to “get away” for a while like a good novel or movie. At the same time, even if you’re feeling exhausted at the time, after a few minutes in a virtual world you may discover that your energy will pick up and you’ll be good to go. They can actually function as a good break when you reach the point you think you cannot grade one more test or essay. Jump into your virtual world for about 30 minutes and you’ll return refreshed. I really can’t say that about other “down-time” activities like television or even reading for pleasure.

If you want to explore these worlds to learn more about them while investigating their educational potential the technical skills and time required do not have to present a barrier. Just be careful you don’t enjoy your virtual time too much or you’ll have a challenge finding time for all your other activities.