Virtual worlds

Here's an interesting article on Edutopia.org that shows how virtual worlds can provide "a shared online universe in which students can play to learn": Get a Life: Students Collaborate in Simulated Roles,

It mentions Whyville, "a Web-based virtual world that provides inquiry-based education for middle school students" and some of the projects that schools have done using it, as well as looking at some of the benefits and (ahem) "challenges".

Whyville isn't Second Life -- it's not so sophisticated, as you can see from the avatar I was starting to create (above right) -- or Teen Second Life, but it's simplicity might just appeal to kids, if you're teaching them.

Edutopia [about] (the cynic in me loves that name! .-) provides "Information and Inspiration for Innovative Teaching in K12 Schools".

CSI in Second Life

I've not been in Second Life for several weeks (and haven't missed it). In fact, I doubt if even my favourite TV show -- CSI -- will persuade me to head back, though there's a new CSI:NY episode featuring Second Life, though the latter is not named, which aired on CBS in the States October 24.

The episode, says New World Notes, led to "an explosion of new account sign-ups -- as many as 100,000" joining Second Life, that is. It would be interesting to know how many of those would rather spend time in SL than they would watching CSI on the telly, once they've experienced SL. Not many, I would guess...

You can watch the promotional machinima on YouTube.

Elsewhere, on virtualworldsreview.com, there's are reviews of some of the (many) alternative virtual worlds, though not many of them are making as big an impact as SL, not at least in the media.

Second Life posts

A list of the posts here on Tech ELT Blog on Second Life... so far! In reverse chronological order:

• Second Life: where to find out more
• Second Life: the hype
• Virtual worlds here to stay
  
• Second Life: where to get started
  

There is an index of all posts -- on all other topics -- here.

Some day I'll get round to labeling them all properly!

Will new technology get adopted?

One of my favourite technology blogs is Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog.

From my Blue Skunk RSS feed [explanation] this morning, this chart enabling you to work out the probability that technology will get adopted large scale.

Doug asks, "What are the chances of large scale adoption of (...) Second Life?"

I make that low...!

Web 2.0, Web 3.0...

The term "Web 2.0" gets bandied around a lot these days. It refers to things like blogs and wikis... For a fuller definition, this article on oreillynet.com explains What is web 2.0?

But Web 2.0 isn't in fact so cool any longer, as we now have Web 3.0 as well. PC Mag explains What is web 3.0?

Web 3.0 would include things like Second Life (a virtual world). On the Second Life Educators List, Gary Hayes had a neat explanation of it:

To me, evolution of the web order can be defined in single sentences:

1.0 the pushed, one way only web
2.0 the two-way shared web
3.0 the real time collaborative web (3D, isometric or just 2D)

3D is probably actually a better term for it. 3D might well be what the web becomes; 3.0 looks like a clever-clever way of saying "I'm even more up-to-the-minute than all those people (still) talking about Web 2.0".

Even when we get to Web 4.0, however, or Web 14.0 for that matter, don't forget that to you as the teacher what's important is not the technology, but the learning.

Second Life: where to find out more

Second Life: waiting for something to actually happen... Meanwhile, places you could find out more:

In order to keep up with the speed of developments in SL, a news aggregator supplying you with RSS feeds is useful: don't search, have things come to you, as I always say. Those of the resources below with an RSS feed are marked [RSS].

In alphabetical order:

• 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom [.pdf file]
  
• "Intellagirl" blog (Sarah Robbins) [RSS]
• Jane Knight has a list of SL resources
  
• NMC, the New Media Consortium, a "not-for-profit consortium of more than 225 world-class colleges, universities, and research centers", has an excellent blog for keeping up with serious events for educators in SL [RSS]
• NMC is not to be confused with the NWN or New World Notes blog, which is particularly good on games in SL and machinima [define], and has a great weekly "picks" post of what not to miss in SL [RSS]
• Second Life education websites listed by Schome (which modestly describes its work as "a new form of educational system designed to meet the needs of society and individuals in the 21st century")
  
• SimTeach is "Information and Community for Educators using M.U.V.E.'s" (Multi-User Virtual Environments, and not just SL), and has a blog [RSS], wiki and forum; see also SimTeach's Second Life education FAQs
• SLED is a Second Life Educators group, with archives and a hyperactive mailing list
• Theodore Wright has an excellent collection of links relating to Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment
  

More Second Life eductation links via del.icio.us.

Er... Actually, I'd rather have a book
There is also an official SL guide, available from Amazon.

Second Life: the hype

Unless you go to an event of some kind, much of Second Life in fact looks like this... What on earth is all the hype about?

In case you missed it all, here is some of the hype about Second Life (SL):

This BusinessWeek article (1 May 2006) thinks "virtual worlds may end up playing an even more sweeping role -- as far more intuitive portals into the vast resources of the entire Internet than today's World Wide Web".

It also repeats the oft-heard assertion that residents of SL (the likes of you and me) "can build anything they can imagine". The hype doesn't point out what that will cost you, or that that's only possible if you have 3D design skills.

This article (10 Nov 2006) by Fortune senior editor David Kirkpatrick says "No, Second Life is not overhyped", in case you thought it was, and then proceeds to grossly overhype it as "the future of the Net".

People are getting excited about virtual worlds, Second Life in particular. The Times reports (19 April 2007) that real world (aka RL) companies are recruiting (real) people for (real) jobs via Second Life.

But my own Bull(SL)it prize (a term I just made up) is for this comment on futuretag.net:

In other words, 3D is a much better user interface. This is not surprising: while we have been working with documents for only a few hundreds of years, we have evolved fast responses to the real 3D universe, like running from predators and hunting prey, for hundreds of thousands of years. Now that technology permits doing so, 3D VR will become the preferred online interface for users with powerful PCs and enough bandwidth. Nothing exceptional though: your home PC and DSL are probably more than good enough to run Second Life.

Chances are your home PC is not good enough [test that], for starters. The hype is one of the reasons why I dislike Second Life.

To keep up with the hype, stay tuned to Millionsofus.com (and its RSS feed).

But whether you like them or not, virtual worlds are here to stay...

Virtual worlds here to stay

Whether you're keen on Second Life (SL) or not, virtual worlds (VWs) are coming, and not just for entertainment or education. Elearnmag has an article on Another Life: Virtual Worlds as Tools for Learning which is well worth a read.

Reading stuff on SL generally requires you to sort out the sensible from the hype. This article is no exception, but it does have a number of sensible things to say:

We encourage you to examine this technology with fresh eyes and begin by asking what sensibilities it can bring to the learner that aren't found in traditional learning technology. So instead of asking "How do I build a virtual classroom?" we might ask, "What can this technology do that will enhance the learner's experience that my current learning technology portfolio cannot?"

In other worlds, if we were going to use SL for language learning (and I've got some serious doubts), we shouldn't just be seeking to replicate what we do in our face-to-face classrooms.

The article continues:

Major corporations are creating a lot of buzz around VWs but most of it is promotional. It's hip, and compared to alternatives, it's cheap. But it holds few answers to our questions about how to improve learning with VWs.

As with any other form of technology you might use in your classroom, if it helps your learners to learn more, and better, let's use it. If not, let's not.

Second Life: where to get started

Yikes! A tree! Hang-gliding in Second Life... Perhaps I should have stayed on Orientation Island longer?

Assumption #1 You haven't been lost in the jungle for the last three years
You've heard of Second Life (aka SL), right? If not, the SL home page gives you a good overview of SL and what it's all about.

Assumption #2 Your PC is up to spec
Assuming that your computer is up to the technical specifications for Second Life, you've downloaded it, entered it, wondered who the hell wrote all the hype about Second Life but are still curious... then the following are decent places to begin:

Getting started guides

• The New Media Consortium (NMC) has an excellent Getting Started guide
  
• The brief getting started guide provided by Red {an orchestra} I found useful
• You also have the Unofficial Complete Fool's Guide to SL
  
• Inworld you can bring up "Help" by pressing F1 (note particularly the section on basics)
  
• Back in the real world, you might want to go to the Second Life Knowledge Base for further information
  

Tips I wish someone had given me

• Spend sufficiently long on "Orientation Island" in order to be able to find your way around, and do things: you particularly want to be able to move and view comfortably
• Start by attending an event people actually turn up for, or else arrange to go "inworld" with friends -- otherwise you'll probably find most islands are totally deserted, and playing Robinson Crusoe is very boring. The NWN blog has regular posts of upcoming events in SL
  
• Learn the keyboard shortcuts for things like moving, and flying and viewing (this cheatsheet of SL keyboad shortcuts is very handy)
  
• Learn how to make gestures (control+G)... they were the first thing I found fun
  

Videos of Second Life
And if you're one of the millions who can't get into to SL because your computer isn't up to spec, you could resort to YouTube, where you'll find lots of videos of Second Life which will show what you are (not?) missing... Like this one, of the NMC Campus.

Alternative sources of SL videos include:

• The videos on Second Life itself
• The videos on the unofficial fan site secondlifevideo.com
  

I hate Second Life

Second Life: 4.6m+ "residents", supposed to be exciting... But frankly, it's not

Second Life (or SL), a 3D Virtual Reality platform, is being touted as the next big thing for learning, and just about anything else you care to think about, for that matter.

Here's the Future Technologies Advisory Group (who describe themselves as "a consulting and media group") raving about it:

In other words, 3D is a much better user interface. This is not surprising: while we have been working with documents for only a few hundreds of years, we have evolved fast responses to the real 3D universe, like running from predators and hunting prey, for hundreds of thousands of years. Now that technology permits doing so, 3D VR will become the preferred online interface for users with powerful PCs and enough bandwidth. Nothing exceptional though: your home PC and DSL are probably more than good enough to run Second Life.

First of all, it would be interesting to have some stats on what percentage of the population are currently "users with powerful PCs and enough bandwidth" and what percentage could fix things if their home PC doesn't prove to be "good enough to run Second Life"... Like, you've got the wrong kind of videocard. Duh! What do I do now...?

Beware of, be skeptical of any and all claims that are made for any and all technology, I say. To say that "3D [and hence Second Life] is a much better user interface" strikes me as being utter nonsense. To suggest that we've been "running from predators and hunting prey, for hundreds of thousands of years" and will thus take to SL like ducks to water is, frankly, utter crap.

What percentage of the population... :

• have ever run from predators or hunted prey in the real world?
• actually like First Person Shooter (FPS) video games?
  
• actually like any video games?
• actively hate video games?
  

I mention FPS video games [definition] because that's essentially what SL is. You "see" yourself in a virtual world, and wander round doing things (er, what things, if we're supposed to be teaching/learning languages...?).

But there is one important exception: SL is not exciting (unless you happen to be into cybersex, that is) -- you don't run away from anyone, shoot anything, get excited or feel scared (etc).

According to Wikipedia: "[Although] Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, it does not have [my emphasis] points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy." Er, the point of "playing" it...?

What percentage of FPS video games players like SL...?

More about Second Life
Second Life | Wikipedia entry | Second Life Education Research