Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - Volume 2, Number 1 - Pedagogy, Education & Innovation

Vol. 2. No.1 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Guest Editors Leslie Jarmon Kenneth Y. T. Lim B. Stephen Carpenter Editor Jeremiah Spence Technical Staff Andrea Muñoz Amy Reed Barbara Broman John Tindel Kelly Jensen

This issue was sponsored, in part, by the Singapore Internet Research Centre, the Department of Radio, TV & Film at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Texas Digital Library Consortium.

The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is owned and published by the Virtual Worlds Research Consortium, a Texas non-profit corporation. (http://vwrc.org)

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Volume 2, Number 1 April 2009 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” ISSN: 1941-8477 Table of Contents • Introduction: Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in Virtual Worlds o Leslie Jarmon, University of Texas at Austin; o Kenneth Y. T. Lim, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; o B. Stephen Carpenter, II, Texas A&M University, • Virtual Worlds as educational experience: Living and learning in interesting times o B. Stephen Carpenter, Texas A&M University • An Ecology of Embodied Interaction: Pedagogy and homo virtualis o Leslie Jarmon, University of Texas at Austin • The six learnings of Second Life: A framework for designing curricular interventions in-world o Kenneth Y T Lim, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore • Leveraging Game-Playing Skills, Expectations and Behaviors of Digital Natives to Improve Visual Analytic Tools o Theresa A. O’Connell, National Institute of Standards and Technology; o John Grantham, Systems Plus; o Kevin Workman, Millersville University o Wyatt Wong, Forterra Systems Inc. • Second Life ® and classical music education: Developing iconography that encourages human interaction o David T. Schwartz, Music Academy Online • Questions and answers in a virtual world: Educators and librarians as

information providers in Second Life o Lorri Mon, Florida State University • Use of a virtual world system in sports coach education for reproducing team handball movements o António Lopes, CIDESD – Centro de Investigação em Desporto, Saúde e Desenvolvimento Humano, Portugal o Bruno Pires, Márcio Cardoso, UTAD – Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal o Arnaldo Santos, Filipe Peixinho -PT Inovação, Aveiro, Portugal o Pedro Sequeira Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, Portugal o Leonel Morgado, Hugo Paredes UTAD, Portugal o Oleguer Camerino - Universidad de Lleida, Spain • Beyond the game: Quest Atlantis as an online learning experience for gifted elementary students o Jackie Gerstein, Kaplan University, Argosy University • A virtual environment study in entrepreneurship education of young children o Ângela Pereira,Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal; o Paulo Martins ; Leonel Morgado, GECAD / UTAD – University of Trás-osMontes e Alto Douro, Portugal. o Benjamim Fonseca, CITAB / UTAD, Portugal • Virtual Education: Teaching Media Studies in Second Life o David Kurt Herold, Hong Kong Polytechnic University • Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning in Computer Science Programming o Micaela Esteves, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal; o Benjamim Fonseca, Leonel Morgado, Paulo Martins ,University of Trás-osMontes e Alto Douro, Portugal.

• Second Life physics: Virtual, real or surreal? o Renato P. dos Santos, ULBRA - Universidade Luterana Brasileira, Brasil • 3D virtual learning in counselor education: Using Second Life in counselor skill development o Victoria L. Walker, Regent University • Learning in a different life: Pre-service education students using an online virtual world

o Chris Campbell, La Trobe University/University of Notre Dame, Australia • Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management o Peggy Daniels Lee, Pennsylvania State University • Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life o Andrew S I D Lang, Oral Roberts University o David C Kobilnyk, Oral Roberts University • An integrated framework for simulation-based training on video and in a virtual world o David Chodos, University of Alberta, Canada o Parisa Naeimi, University of Alberta, Canada o Eleni Stroulia, University of Alberta, Canada • Can we move beyond visual metaphors? Virtual world provocations and Second Life o Pamela G. Taylor, Virginia Commonwealth University • Games, learning, and 21st century survival skills o James Paul Gee, Arizona State University • Between Snapshots and Avatars: Using Visual Methodologies for Fieldwork in Second Life o Paula Roush, London South Bank University, United Kingdom; o Ming Nie, University of Leicester; o Matthew Wheeler, University of Leicester • Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College o Ken Hudson, Loyalist College, Canada o Kathryn Degast-Kennedy, Loyalist College, Canada • A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities: A Case Study of the Virtual Ability Second Life® Island o Marjorie A. Zielke, University of Texas at Dallas o Thomas C. Roome, University of Texas at Dallas o Alice B. Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc.

Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Introduction Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in Virtual Worlds Guest Editors: Leslie Jarmon, University of Texas at Austin; Kenneth Y. T. Lim, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; B. Stephen Carpenter, II, Texas A&M University,

Virtual worlds such as Second Life are no longer the preserve of the stereotypical geek, nor are they just technical or social curiosities that educators and other stakeholders in schools can safely ignore. Gartner, Inc. (2007) estimates that by 2011, 80 percent of active internet users, including Fortune 500 enterprises, will have a “second life” in some form of virtual world environment. It also seems clear, however, that virtual worlds in whatever form will be a widely used knowledge- and social-interaction tools and will become another part of the social-technical system people use for teaching and learning in the foreseeable future.

These virtual environments have gained a cultural currency among the general population – and among the youth of today and 30-somethings in particular – that is reflected in continual references to them in more traditional forms of popular broadcast media. One result of this heightened awareness within the general population has been an increase in the number of virtual environments targeted - with varying degrees of educational and pedagogical intention - at children, adolescents, and adult learners in general. Some recent and diverse manifestations of this increased activity have been the approximately 300 educational institutions which have established some kind of presence in Second Life, the Children in Virtual Worlds Conference held at the University of Westminster, and the US Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds.

Increasingly, school districts, colleges, and universities are establishing virtual buildings and campuses in which they are offering courses, lectures, recruiting events, summer camps, and conferences.

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In contrast to the blogs, essays, and published reports promoting and contesting the potential educational impact of virtual worlds, research has increasingly begun to focus on the particular affordances of more established virtual environments, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, to inform changes and innovations in pedagogy. This new research focus on the actual teaching and learning practices and on their assessment in the virtual learning environment is occurring across traditional domain disciplines and in both formal and informal social contexts. For this special issue, educators, curriculum designers, and researchers in the learning sciences already working in these virtual environments have much concrete experience to bring to our dialogue on effective pedagogies and educational best practices.

This special issue of the journal examines the influence that learning in virtual worlds has on a variety of topics in education, including student achievement, literacies, curriculum, and instruction in K-12 settings as well as in higher education and research. The authors, who are both learners and teachers themselves, investigate what instructional affordances of virtual worlds educators are already using effectively as well as what limitations and constraints have presented themselves. Furthermore, some of the papers in this issue address how real world educational ethics and research practices translate in virtual worlds.

The special issue explores the breadth of designs, pedagogies, and curricular innovations that are actually already being applied to teaching and learning in virtual worlds. Our authors describe a virtual instructional Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College, a learning model for virtual world residents with disabilities, simulation-based training on video and media studies curriculum, operations management, classical music education, Second Life physics, visualizing atomic orbitals, computer science programming, and sports coach education. Several papers describe educational application for children, including entrepreneurship education for young children and the learning experience for gifted elementary students. Others look at the training of educators, including counselor skill development and training for pre-service education students. The roles of educator and researcher can be conflated, as seen in the study on educators and librarians as information providers in Second Life. Research methodologies are examined, including using visual methodologies for fieldwork in Second Life. In addition to the peer-reviewed research papers, interactive online exhibits are also described and included.

We received many submissions for this special issue, and we deeply appreciate the authors’ creativity and efforts to contribute to our growing understanding of teaching and learning in virtual worlds. We especially want to extend our profound gratitude to all of the educators and scholars who volunteered to peer-review the papers selected for this highly competitive special issue. Your efforts contributed to the excellence of the collection presented here.

Keywords: pedagogy; education; innovation; virtual worlds.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Editors’ Corner Virtual Worlds as educational experience: Living and learning in interesting times

By B. Stephen Carpenter, Texas A&M University

The limits of Second Life as a virtual environment for engaging educators and learners as active participants in the educational experience rather than passive recipients of someone else’s pre-constructed curricula are confined to the users themselves. For the past two years, I have been one of those educators who has been using Second Life as a context to merge the theoretical and practical aspects of computer technology and social learning methodologies primarily through a course focused on exploring contemporary visual culture. In these experiences, learners explore this virtual world through the perspective of their avatars as they seek to interpret their real world experiences through the digital lens of their virtual existence.

Second Life as virtual world thus becomes a lived learning experience and a means of reflection on that learning experience. We live in interesting times.

Among the key features of Second Life as a persistent environment is its claim that everything one encounters is created by its users. Such claims are rarely among the characteristics of typical learning environments where lesson objectives, unit goals, and other formative and summative outcomes are governed by predetermined curricula as mandated from school, district, state, or national levels. What the uninitiated may not realize—myself included in my early days as a user—is that Second Life and other virtual worlds are more than the pixels, scripts, or virtual locations. Second Life and other virtual worlds are themselves experiences.

When they become the site for pedagogical exploration and application, they become educational experiences and therefore, by definition, become curricula. That said, the educational experiences of virtual worlds do not exist inherently within these worlds but rather within the ways in which the users engage their ideas within these worlds. Therefore, the curricula of virtual worlds includes what happens as well as when, how, with whom, and why. The contributors to this issue of The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research provide vivid examples of some of the most engaging, experimental, and effective virtual world curricula today.

While some users of Second Life replicate options, practices, and expectations of real life education, this and other virtual worlds never expect users to do so. One must remember that

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Second Life—and most virtual worlds like it—was not designed initially to be a virtual environment for educational purposes but rather as an experiment in virtual culture, virtual society, and virtual worlds. The contributions to this issue of the journal would have us think otherwise—but in a good way—as they present numerous variations on how they, their colleagues, and their students have used this digital technology medium as educators to advance, question, enrich, extend, trouble, mirror, and complicate the possibilities of virtual worlds in the hands of educators.

Contemporary virtual world technology is comprised of more than the computer software and hardware that enables numerous users to simultaneously share, compare, and construct new knowledge, information, and experiences. The virtual world technologies we have become familiar with over the past few years also enable users to invent and reinvent what those worlds can be and how they are used. Whether for the purposes of playing games, constructing simulations, or expanding the possibilities of how, what, who, and when we teach, contemporary virtual world technology also brings new ways to consider the parallels between social networks and social learning environments. That is, with synchronous and asynchronous access to users from around the world at any time of the day or night, virtual world educators and learners expand the range of whom they include as co-learners within the context of any given educational experience. Further, online virtual worlds may be the most expansive form of social communication media in which users share information and simultaneously consider its limits. In the context of education, this means that educators and learners are constantly shaping and redefining not simply what, when, where, and how education could be but rather how it is at now.

I extend my sincere thanks to my co-editors Kenneth Lim and Leslie Jarmon for sharing the experience of working together on this issue of the journal. Our work, like Second Life and other virtual worlds, was an ever-expanding and interconnected collaborative experience that combined online and real world narratives. From my perspective, what we have as a result is an issue of The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research that seeks to accomplish is to present a set of articles from a wide range of pedagogical practices and disciplinary fields that offer empirical real (virtual) world examples of how teaching and learning happen in online virtual world environments. Simply, the contributors offer a collective response to a larger but general question of what really happens in virtual learning environments. The two “think pieces” by James Gee and Pamela G. Taylor assist in locating the collection of articles within a philosophical and epistemological context of “what if” and “what next” and “why not.” The contributions by Gee and Taylor enable the collection to do more than serve as a snapshot of some of the very best examples of what is being accomplished in education in virtual worlds.

These “think pieces” place us in an intellectual context to better consider the examples illustrated in the articles, a context not dissimilar to how education in virtual worlds themselves encourage educators to question what is possible in real world contexts given their experience in virtual ones. May we live in interesting times, indeed.

Keywords: contemporary virtual world; curricula; educational experience; Second Life.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Editors’ Corner An Ecology of Embodied Interaction: Pedagogy and homo virtualis

By Leslie Jarmon, University of Texas at Austin

Online virtual world environments have generated a public-private space that is being used for education across many sectors. Evidence is slowly accumulating that supports the idea that these spaces may be used as effective virtual learning environments because they comprise an interesting ecology of embodied interaction (Jarmon, 1996) – albeit virtual. Three critical elements for engagement in learning in the digital age are interactivity, connectivity, and access (Dresang & McClelland, 1999), and these are three key elements of the online virtual world environment of Second Life (SL). Research has suggested that such a learning environment can enhance student engagement through a sense of shared experiences, offers opportunities for collaboration, and provides access to information about the virtual environment and user-created content (FitzGerald, 2007). Users of SL are represented through their virtual avatars, and research on pedagogical agents has found that the presence of avatars can increase engagement and learning beyond computer-mediated communication without such agents (Atkinson et al., 2005). Learners can now inhabit a broader landscape, and we are previewing the emergence of homo virtualis.

Research on shared virtual environments (SVEs) and on collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) is particularly relevant to our concerns because this research examines participants’ sense of presence, co-presence, and place-presence. Three-dimensional virtual worlds such as SL provide both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration environments and, compared to text-based online learning settings, create an enriched sense of place with the visual projection of oneself and other individuals.

Collaboration can occur because SL virtual technology provides conditions for an experiential, embodied, and social reality, and this social reality provides a virtual “new space” wherein existing communication practices and social networking tools are converging. As Stahl et al. (2006) have argued: “CSCL [computer-supported collaborative learning] requires a focus on the meaning-making practices of collaborating groups and on the design of technological artifacts to mediate interaction” (p. 409). In SL, the participants themselves, as users, can become the creators of content, that is, of the artifacts that mediate their own interaction and learning, homo virtualis.

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The construct of the self, that which experiences its own embodiment, can be both persistent and mutable. For example, as humans, we regularly “attach” tools to ourselves to extend our abilities beyond normal human-scale reach; a hammer attached to a hand leverages greater force, and a user “attached to” the Internet connects virtually with an online course. Gibson (1986) suggests that “the boundary between the animal and the environment is not fixed at the surface of the skin but can shift” (p. 41). Similarly, logging-in to the SL platform (attaching to it) provides users with a set of 3-D sensory-orthotics including robust camera controls, navigation capabilities (e.g., flying, teleporting, walking underwater), and the ability to create completely new virtual objects. These capabilities comprise embodied experiences for the user, and in interesting ways, the perceived boundary of the embodied self shifts from skin-bound into the highly extendible and socially-constructed world within and with which users dwell in SL (see Polanyi, 1966; and see extensible self in Adams, 2005).

Without the experience of actual immersion, conceptualizing a 3-D virtual world environment like SL can be a challenge. It is helpful to think of two co-evolving systems, one social and the other technical (Jarmon, 2009). The social system includes the users, the entire SL community of residents, and includes their extensions in real life. The technical system includes the SL software, the individual computer and Internet connection of each user, and the vast expanse of virtual simulations that comprise the SL metaverse (a combination of the real world with the virtual world). One approach for considering the development of the social system of SL is to view it as “constellations of interconnected practices,” multiple communities of practice that are related depending on the perspective one adopts (Wenger, 1998; p. 127). Because of the co-evolution of both the technology and the social systems, SL is inherently a learning organization (Senge, 1993).

Suchman’s research on human-machine communication has provided a useful framework whereby researchers can explore the relationships between everyday embodied communicative practices and the design of the socio-technical systems in which they can occur (Suchman 1987; 2002). The construct of embodiment and learning is of great interest to researchers when explored through the lens of the interactions of people’s avatars with virtual objects, landscapes, sounds, and spatial constructs.

Furthermore, the individual SL user’s connectivity within the socio-technical system includes interacting with other people via their avatars, using a computer, monitor screen, keyboard, headset, and computer mouse with hands, body, and mind. All these elements also become parts of an extended system of experience and interaction, and they constitute, following Lave and Wenger, what might be called a complex situated learning environment (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Similarly, Siobhán Thomas, in his study of hybrid games (2006), uses a similar concept for describing what he calls pervasive learning games, and he suggests that what is most important is “not the use of so-called pervasive technologies but the social processes that connect learners to communities of devices, people, and situations (p. 42).

For example, the Educators Coop (signifying both co-op and a space of close proximity) is a three dimensional virtual world residential community of university faculty, librarians, and K-12 teachers actively teaching or conducting research in SL. Participants are from 42 different educational institutions and the large majority first met one another and have only known one another virtually. They meet regularly in SL to share virtual world teaching strategies, to design virtual world and real world research projects, to collaborate on interdisciplinary conference sessions, and most importantly, to create a support system for geospatially separated academic practitioners interested in teaching and conducting research in virtual worlds (Jarmon & Sanchez, 2008).

Preliminary results indicate that these researchers and educators are using the virtual world in very practical and concrete ways to carry out research and educational projects collaboratively. In other words, 4

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the diverse participants in the virtual Educators Coop community, their students, and their guests, create what Gee has called “cross-functional affiliations” (2007, p. 327). They have their real life and virtual areas of specialization, but they also collaborate and share their knowledge and resources. According to de Nood and Attema (2006), in open-ended online simulations such as SL, the: … distinction between the physical (real) world and the virtual world tends to disappear. As the distinction between these two worlds fades in the experience of the visitors, one speaks of ‘inter-reality.’ When these virtual worlds continue to grow and develop, they would then seem to offer practically unexplored opportunities for our society, in economic, cultural and social terms. (p. 3)

Exploring the concept of what it might mean to be “virtually co-present” presents a number of very complex challenges, and this theme cannot be fully addressed here. While in some ways similar to real life face-to-face interaction in that virtual participants seem to be improvising on real life communicative practices (and as yet the relationship between the “real” and the “virtual” is far from being clearly understood), virtual face-to-face interaction, generally, involves an ecology of actions including chat and speech, virtual movement and alignment, virtual gaze direction, virtual touch, virtual proximity, and a whole range of multimodal communicative resources (including channel-availability and access) and their relationship with one another as they unfold in real time and asynchronously (for face-to-face ecology of interaction see, e.g., Goodwin, 1986; Jarmon, 1996).

Researchers examining collaborative virtual environments are particularly interested in the relationship between co-presence, the sense of being with other people, and place-presence, the feeling that a virtual environment is a place (Steed et al., 1999). To measure co-presence and place-presence, experiments are conducted with small groups of participants where they are typically asked to perform a short problem-based task such as solving a puzzle (Sonnenwald, 2006). The act of solving a puzzle is thought to give participants a shared experience, which in turn leads them to report higher feelings of copresence with one another. As Myers (1999) points out, “The process of simulation is intrinsically related to the process of play”(p. 486).

However, it is the experience of embodied social connection with others and the immediacy of social co-presence that users repeatedly reference, and these interactions suggest sites for future research.

Educators and learners in SL may experience a new sense of connection with others, with their professional networks, with organizations, and thus not feel so isolated in their work or social life.

Another approach to understand co-presence that is based on the principles of embodied cognition (Riva, et al., 2006) defines presence as the “non-mediated perception of successfully transforming an intention into action,” rather than a notion that persons are physically occupying the same geographical space. A 2009 study (Jarmon, et al.) found that some students reported that the three-dimensionality of the SL environment facilitated the sense of personal presence and tangible experiences as factors that enhanced learning. For example, here are some comments the students made during a focus group about their class experiences in SL: Yeah, the embodiment of it [SL]. You generally somehow do feel more like a human being.

The other thing about SL is that I think it can enhance learning, is that it’s very evocative. Like, if you had to build the model of those Alley Flats [in the real world] you never would have been able to capture the alley with like those pigeons, the papers blowing in the wind and everything. And especially with those big screens [virtual images of Austin skyline]. I just felt I was there. And so I had a very visceral connection to what was being built. I don’t think you can get that in a model or anywhere except real life or virtual reality. (italics added for emphasis).

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In addition, this extended sense of co-presence in a virtual world may have real life healtheducation implications for people. Health researchers Gorini et al. (2008) have studied online technology and health issues and they suggest that: … compared with conventional telehealth applications such as emails, chat, and videoconferences, the interaction between real and 3-D virtual worlds may convey greater feelings of presence, facilitate the clinical communication process, positively influence group processes and cohesiveness in group-based therapies, and foster higher levels of interpersonal trust between therapists and patients. (p. 2)

A user’s ability to view or observe his/her own avatar while engaged in interaction adds an additional perspective to research on virtual co-presence, embodiment, and learning. Recent research in neuroscience and psychology has suggested that a network of mirror neurons in the human brain constitutes an experiential “simulation” and provides the basis for empathic understanding of one another in interpersonal relationships and thus in collaboration (Gallese, Eagle & Migone, 2007; Freedberg & Gallese, 2007). This research may have critical implications for some special needs populations as well as athletes and older adults. For example, stroke victims visiting the protected virtual area in SL for people with disabilities called SL Dreams have reported that the experience of seeing themselves walking aided in their recovery (Stein, 2007).

A better understanding of virtual co-presence has worldwide implications with clear relevance for the education industry globally. The European Community has appropriated funding for 2002 through 2013 for a research initiative aimed at continuing the study of presence but to also include presence engineering: the deliberate manipulation of technological and non-technological factors to create those forms of presence that enhance users in primary activities. Moreover, it enlarges the scope and ambition to mixed realities, to social interaction, to persistent effects and to a wider range of technologies, including mobile and low-end ones. (Information Society Technologies, 2009).

For purposes of analysis, it is important for researchers to begin to make some distinctions between various participation levels regarding SL. The experience of embodiment and co-presence with others is in many ways driven by these distinctions, and much of the talk about education in virtual worlds often fails to take into account students’ degree of entry into the virtual world in terms of both duration and frequency. For now, however, at one end of the spectrum and speaking generally, some learners may only read or hear about SL but never actually log in to the online program, and this level of participation can be considered to be minimal at best, because their understanding of a “virtual world” is not based on first-hand experience.

Second, as may be the case for a number of educators and students, virtual activities in a class may be mediated through the instructor and his/her avatar in SL by way of the projection of the laptop’s monitor onto a large screen in the classroom. Although students may be able to watch and hear the interaction with others through an instructor’s avatar, these students had no agency themselves; however, they may have experienced some minimal degree of co-presence or participation in the virtual world.

Third, in many virtual learning activities, students log into the SL program on their own and may began to experience participation levels with a fuller sense of personal agency. Finally, depending on both the duration of time spent in SL and the frequency of students’ visits to SL, the probability increases that they may experience a sense of fuller participation, agency, and co-presence with others. This discrepancy of degrees of participation in SL can influence how students respond to survey questions and can impact educational research findings accordingly.

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In conclusion, user acceptance of 3-D virtual world environments may be one of the most critical challenges to overcome (Fetscherin & Lattemann, 2007, p. 20). The fact that there is no predefined structure on how to use virtual worlds suggests how critical instructional design can be to facilitate learning in such environments (Mayrath et al., 2007; Sanchez, 2007). Lynch and Tunstall (2008) have suggested that projects attempting to develop educational simulation games require a development framework and design process that is integrated into course design, is engaging, relevant, useful for students, and is flexible, cost effective, and reusable (p. 383). More basic research is needed to demonstrate how effective learning activities are being designed in virtual spaces and how virtual space are influencing what we imagine education itself will become.

Effective applications in SL will result from educators developing skillful mental flexibility and a deeper understanding of other perspectives, of underlying worldviews, of virtual artifacts, including new technologies, and of the special affordances of virtual space. Just as people’s exposure to the alphabet can pull them into a new landscape inhabited by their empowered literate-selves (Waiba, 2009), so does exposure to the virtual world pull us into a broader landscape where “real life” plus “virtual life” yields a reality that is rapidly growing more vast and that is inhabited by – and being created by - homo virtualis.

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Stahl, G., Koschmann, T., & Suthers, D. (2006). Computer-supported collaborative learning: An historical perspective. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 409-426).

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Steed, A., Slater, M., Sadagic, A., Bullock, A., & Tromp, J. (1999). Leadership and collaboration in shared virtual environments. In Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality (March 13 - 17, 1999). VR. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, 112.

Stein, R. (2007, October 6). Real hope in a virtual world. Washingtonpost.com, p. A01. Retrieved February 28, 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/05/AR2007100502391.html Suchman, L. (1987). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication New York: Cambridge University Press.

Suchman, L. (2002). Practice-based design of information systems: Notes from the hyperdeveloped world. The Information Society, 18, 139–144.

Thomas, S. (2006). Pervasive learning games: Explorations of hybrid educational gamescapes. Simulation & Gaming, 37(1), 41-55.

Waiba, C. (2009). The Magic in Letters. This I Believe Series, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, February 15, 2009. Retrieved March 7, 2009 from http://thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=59634&keywords=alphabet&yval=0&start=0 Wenger, Etienne. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Keywords: virtual world; Second Life; embodiment; co-presence; virtual learning environment; pedagogy; education; homo virtualis.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Editor’s Corner The six learnings of Second Life: A framework for designing curricular interventions in-world

By Kenneth Y T Lim, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract In this paper, a framework for facilitating effective and targeted planning and design of learning environments within Second Life and other similar virtual worlds and environments will be shared. A possible scenario faced by school-leaders and teachers, with respect to thinking about incorporating virtual worlds as a complementary pedagogical strategy alongside traditional classroom environments is first described and then the Six Learnings framework will then be elaborated upon, including its use discussed as a metric against which such learning interventions can be planned and subsequently evaluated.

Keywords: Second Life; six learnings; curriculum design.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Editor’s corner Kenneth Lim 4

Editor’s Corner The six learnings of Second Life: A framework for designing curricular interventions in-world

The past few years have seen a surge of interest in Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) and virtual worlds – such as Second Life and World of Warcraft (WoW) – especially in terms of the unique affordances these worlds potentially offer to education. There is now an extensive representation of universities, schools, and libraries in Second Life, and this representation has been supported by communities of educators that have emerged and grown around social software tools such as Ning and Plurk.

Policy makers and senior management in these schools and institutions suffer a high opportunity cost to spending much time in-world themselves because of the very seniority of their respective positions. One consequence is that despite the investments in time and money that are committed to such projects, these senior positions might not reap as many dividends as could reasonably be expected. That is to say that because senior management are not likely to be natively literate in operating and navigating in virtual worlds, they are somewhat at the mercy of the vendors and service providers who are competing to help these very institutions establish presences in these environments. Concomitantly, it cannot be assumed that these service providers – technically competent though they are likely to be – have had formal training in either the learning sciences or in curriculum design.

Social mediation and place in Second Life The American writer Gertrude Stein famously commented to the city of Oakland that “there is no there, there.” Writing in Everybody’s Autobiography in 1937, her words form a useful lens through which to examine twenty-first century multi-user virtual environments in general, and Second Life in particular.

It might seem a far reach from the Californian suburbs of Oakland to the sub-Saharan expanse, but such a conceptual leap in landscape would be appropriate in a metaverse where teleportation is a reality. The geographical indulgence is justified because it is in sub-Saharan Africa that the humanist ethic of ubuntu originates. The wikipedia entry (2007) on ubuntu defined it as the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity – such a bond is manifested, for example, in the Zulu maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which is to say “a person is a person through other persons.”

If one accepts – at least for the moment – this conception of humanity as defined in relation to the other, then it is not too much of a cognitive jump to make that what is true of fleshand-blood human beings is also true of their avatar representations. While it is beyond the scope of this paper to engage in a debate about the metaphysical constructs of sentient beings and the nature of identity, a point of relevance to the present discussion is that as humans, we find virtual representations of self meaningful and believable only to the extent that these same representations are able to participate in constructions and collaborations with other avatars.

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Indeed, this very point was made by Cory Ondrejka – former Chief Technology Officer at Linden Labs – in an interview with Edge magazine in 2004 when he contrasted socially-focused virtual environments such as Second Life with visor-based virtual reality (VR) tools. Ondrejka referred to social collaboration between non-co-located humans as “a hook – you experience that, and you want it everywhere else . . . collaborative, realtime, realtime, realtime . . . it’s part of what makes this so different.”

A second strand that serves to define the boundaries of this paper is more explicitly geographical in nature. The conjecture that distance is dead, in a metaverse in which avatars can reliably and safely teleport, has already been alluded to in the preceding outline. If this conjecture were indeed true, it would ironically have far-reaching implications to the relevance of geographical understandings and skills in Second Life (and, by extension, other virtual environments). Superficially, pronouncements of the death of distance in Second Life appear reasonable, not least because it is extremely difficult – if not impossible – to gain an appreciation of the sense of spatial layout and orientation of any one sim (region) to another. There does not appear to be a publicly accessible master-atlas of the thousands of sims in Second Life, and even if there were, the sheer number and spread of these sims would present significant challenges to interface design and user-intelligibility, not to mention timeliness of updates.

However, it is this author’s contention that reports on the death of distance in Second Life have been exaggerated or, at the very least, ill-considered. If distance were indeed dead in Second Life, avatars would be able to be in multiple places synchronously. Indeed, such a virtual learning environment does exist, in the form of a technology infrastructure known as the Croquet Project, developed by the Croquet Consortium, a not-for-profit foundation. Although the Croquet environment superficially resembles that of Second Life, it attempts to go one better by enabling portals to be opened, which essentially serve as wormholes connecting various parts of the Croquet world.

For better or worse, Second Life does not (yet?) have a similar implementation of such portals. If an avatar needs or wishes to be in a place other than the one in which he/she/it presently finds itself, then that avatar would have to remove itself from its present location to walk/fly/teleport to the new one. Unlike in the Croquet environment, the avatar could not simply just call up a door to step through and maintain visual contact and some degree of physical presence with the original location.

This is not a trivial difference, for it means that (for the foreseeable future, at least) Second Life is constructed as a world in which one’s physical location vis-à-vis other locations inworld matter; and as long as one inhabits a world in which relative locations matter, distance cannot be meaningfully proclaimed to be dead.

The fact that locations matter relative to each other in Second Life is important to educators and instructional designers. To elaborate, because learners, through their avatars, cannot be in more than one place at a time, they need to decide where – at any given moment – they wish to be. Depending on the nature of the learning activity (for example, informal selfpaced tutorials versus highly-structured mandatory group activities), the very decision-making process implied by the preceding sentence might itself be worthy of investigation.

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To the extent that the learner has some control over his time and place, then instructional designers in Second Life need to take extra care to ensure that the learning environments are not just defensible from the point-of-view of the subject-discipline itself, but also provide opportunities for learners to invest meaning (and therefore time and effort) in. It is worth noting that this point is arguably more critical in presence-based learning environments such as Second Life than in web-based environments. This is because the latter (by definition) are hyperlinked – or, at the very least, part of a loose and larger network that allows simultaneous multitasking on the part of the learner – whereas the former are not.

The corollary of the preceding argument is that, of course, learning environments in Second Life should potentially be designed according to the same principles that have been tried and tested in real life (simply because in real life, one cannot be in two or more places at the same time – one has to choose, and therefore, to prioritize). However, to take this too literally would also be self-defeating because the creative and inspired instructional designer could well conceive of and design environments in Second Life which enable engagement and interaction which is simply not possible (without great cost, however defined) in real life.

To take a trivial example, the possibility of personal flight permits learning environments to be structured and differentiated not only across latitudinal space, but also altitudinal space. Put another way – and this would be of relevance at the very least to teachers of mathematics and/or geography – Second Life (and mapping/terrain-modelling software such as Google Earth) has precipitated a discovery anew of the z-axis.

Other examples of the way in which Second Life permits learning environments to be designed differently from those in real life include the alteration of physical parameters (such as how solids behave, how gravity changes) to the extent of altering basic shape and size (such as avatars assuming non-human form (e.g., a golf ball or a pollinating bee) and the modeling of biological organs in the body).

The Six Learnings framework To address the gap between the needs and resources available to school management on the one hand and the likely profit motives and relative lack of professional training in pedagogy of the technology service providers on the other, a theoretical framework is proposed that might be applied to the planning of and design for curricular interventions in-world. This so-called Six Learnings framework has been derived after careful consideration and relatively extensive and sustained in-world experience over sixteen months by the present author. The author has conceptualized the framework after bringing to bear his own professional training and experience as a classroom teacher, curriculum designer, and academic researcher in the learning sciences. It is suggested that the probability of effectively meeting learning goals through in-world interventions be maximized only if there is an equal and mutually respectful multi-partite relationship between school management, content developers and service providers, and curriculum designers (i.e., the teachers), as informed through the Six Learnings framework.

The framework consists of six lenses through which curricular interventions designed for virtual worlds might be analysed and critically evaluated, hopefully even during the early planning stages. These lenses – termed the six ‘learnings’ – are not conceived of as either hierarchical or 6

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mutually exclusive. Instead, they serve the twin purposes of at once highlighting to the curriculum designer the breadth of potential learning designs in Second Life (so that, for example, the design team not be lock-stepped into conceptualizing designs which might have been transposed more or less wholesale from contexts dissimilar to the immediate one), while at the same time providing a constraining focus on the scope of individual interventions as they are situated within the broader gamut, so that the criteria by which these individual interventions might be evaluated could be much more tailored and targeted. In turn, such tighter criteria would serve to inform subsequent reflection and redesign, as to increase the likelihood of the interventions meeting their design goals.

In this way, it is hoped that the schools and institutions applying the Six Learnings framework to in-world curricular design would get their money’s worth with interventions designed from the start to closely align with the mission statements and values systems of the respective schools, rather than be encumbered under a one-size-fits-all intervention adopted out of inexperience and (to some extent) ignorance of in-world cultures and educational affordances.

Briefly, the six learnings are: Learning by exploring; Learning by collaborating; Learning by being; Learning by building; Learning by championing; and Learning by expressing.

Although the preceding framework was developed through the present author’s experiences and metacognitive reflections in Second Life, it seems likely that many (if not all) of the learnings might equally be applied to other virtual worlds such as There and WoW. It is important to understand that it is the professional opinion of the author that no single in-world curricular intervention be designed to meet all six of the learnings in the framework. It is likely that such an intervention would be unwieldy and ultimately fall between six stools, not to mention costing the parent department/institution, its clients, and stakeholders a great deal of time, money, and other resources. Instead, it is recommended that such interventions be planned to target just one or two of the six learnings and that these selected learnings be chosen on the basis of how well they align with the mission and values of the school and the learning objectives as decided upon by the curriculum designer/teacher. Each of the six learnings will now be considered in turn.

Learning by exploring By ‘Learning by exploring’ is meant the learning that results from explorations (structured or otherwise) of installations, communities, and landscapes within the virtual world itself.

Depending on the nature of the learning task, such explorations could be scaffolded to varying degrees and could possibly include inferential tasks to do with the conduct and subsequent analysis of fieldwork within the virtual world. Thus, for example, a group of learners in a geography class might collect data on wind patterns at various parts of the Second Life grid so 7

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that they could subsequently test their hypotheses on various aspects of meteorology and climatology.

Learning by collaborating By ‘Learning by collaborating’ is meant the learning that results when students work in teams, either on problem-solving tasks or in other forms of structured inquiry. The focus here would be on helping the learners increase their metacognitive habits as well as their understanding of distributed cognition and the social dynamics of group work in general. This learning draws on the rich body of established literature on the benefits of learning collaboratively, as opposed to learning competitively (e.g., Johnson & Johnson, 1994).

Learning by being By ‘Learning by being’ is meant the learning that results from explorations of self and of identity. This type of learning is congruent with Brown and Duguid’s (2000) understandings of ‘learning to be.’ Such learnings involve the assumption of identities and dispositions through enculturation. Role-play is a common learning design in Second Life, as witnessed by the use of holodecks in English as a Second Language (ESL) learning at the English Village sim, for example. Another example would be the performance of the works of Shakespeare by several groups within Second Life, to varying degrees of authenticity. The relative ease with which avatars can be customized and changed facilitates ‘Learning by being’ to the extent that this be a specific learning goal of the design intervention.

Learning by building By ‘Learning by building’ is meant the learning that results from tasks that require the learners to build objects and/or script them. Such activities could potentially involve the demonstration of mathematical understandings of trigonometry and physics, the learners’ sense of aesthetics, as well as their grasp of the logical algorithmic flows inherent in a scripting language.

Departments in a school that might wish to focus on ‘Learning by building’ include the design and technology department and the mathematics department, as well as the computer Club.

Learning by championing ‘Learning by championing’ refers to the many initiatives by various communities in Second Life to adopt, champion, and evangelize causes from Real Life. Especially active in this regard are groups to do with health education, such as the Heron Sanctuary. ‘Learning by championing’ could easily be a focus of a school’s social studies/humanities department, in which, for example, learners might be tasked to design an installation/exhibit in-world which sought to raise awareness and educate the general public about particular causes that might be meaningful to them.

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Learning by expressing Finally, ‘Learning by expressing’ could be argued to be distinct from the preceding five Learnings, in the sense that while the five are to do very directly with the learnings that results from activity in-world, ‘Learning by expressing’ focuses more on the representation of in-world activity to the ‘outside world’ (that is, to an audience who are not necessarily in-world). This kind of learning is congruent with Hungs and Chen’s (2008) notions of the dialectical interaction which they term ‘self to reification.’ They elaborate thus: [T]echnologies – at the cognitive, emotive and social levels - can be used to allow learners to articulate their understanding by externalizing. When meanings are made overt through multi-modal forms of expressions, these constructions can be brought into the open for individual and social reflection and knowledge is built upon by others (p. 92).

Thus, for example, ‘Learning by expressing’ would encompass the authoring and editing of blogs, podcasts, and machinima about in-world activities and tasks. The learning that results would encompass storyboarding, the technical aspects of audio- and video-editing, as well as the principles of literary critique and creative writing. ‘Learning by expressing’ is an obvious ‘learning’ to be adopted by a school’s media department and/or languages department.

Compatibility of the Six Learnings framework The Six Learnings framework can be applied to virtual worlds other than Second Life.

The success to which it is able to be thusly transposed would depend on several factors, such as the maturity and extent of the building tools, the affordances for collaboration, and the richness of the cultural economies within those worlds. The framework also facilitates an understanding of the differences between what might be termed virtual worlds and virtual environments. The present author suggests that the former is a term most accurately applied to environments with robust economies and diverse cultures; thus, for example, Second Life and WoW are virtual worlds in a very literal sense. On the other hand, a good example of a virtual environment would be Lively by Google, which resembled more closely a 3-D chat environment. In such virtual environments as Lively, few of the Six Learnings would seem to apply.

It is of course recognized that the Six Learnings framework is but one way of deducing a taxonomy of virtual worlds/environments with respect to education. At a level of abstraction higher than the Six Learnings, an educational technologist whose avatar is Topher Zwiers has devised a threefold classification known as content-class virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life), business-class virtual worlds (e.g., Croquet), and scenes (e.g., Lively). Topher’s classification is not incompatible with the Six Learnings, as he focuses more on the defining characteristics of the respective worlds/environments.

Another framework has been put Santo’s “Program Models for Education could have for education in Second Life. settings, combinations of face-to-face and Again, Santo’s conceptualization and the

forward by Rafi Santo (SL avatar: Bhikku Beeks). in Second Life” lists various so-called ‘set-ups’ one These include face-to-face settings, distance-learning distance-learning settings, and asynchronous learning.

Six Learnings are compatible, as the former focuses

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more on the logistical structure around which learning environments could be designed, while the Six Learnings focus more on the nature of the learning that such environments promote.

Finally, in the July 2008 issue of Daden UK’s newsletter Datum, an article entitled “Building Schools of the Future” sought to offer policy makers and educators a description of learning spaces as the ‘conventional classroom,’ the holodeck, and the bespoke space. Once again, such a conception of learning spaces is compatible with the Six Learnings framework.

To summarize, not only are there various classifications within a typology of virtual worlds, but there are quite a few ways of cutting the cake, too. In truth, from the point of view of a policy maker thinking seriously about investing significant amounts of money and training time, among other things, into an educationally-focused intervention in virtual worlds, one could do worse than to use a combination of typologies, at the very least describing the nature of the learning outcomes, the logistical structures, and the types of learning spaces. As to which would inform the other, decisions taken with respect to the logistical structures and the types of learning spaces should be congruent with the desired learning outcomes of the intervention. Tempting as it may be, policy makers, school management, and curriculum designers should steer clear of trying to reduce the decision-making process into a pat series of universally-applicable steps which follow a strict linear rationality. Such is not the nature of new media nor new literacies.

Concluding remarks The theoretical framework proposed is deliberately broad and largely generic in its envisaged range of application. Arguably, such is the nature of many proposed contributions to a nascent corpus of theory (in this case, the theory informing the design of pedagogies for virtual worlds). As such, while no specific rungs on the education ladder were borne explicitly in mind during the conceptualization of the framework, it is the contention of the present author that – based on his own career-experience with learners aged thirteen to sixty, the framework is sufficiently encompassing as to be more or less equally applicable across several sectors of education.

The overall intention of the proposed framework, after all, is to help policy makers, school management, and teachers make more informed choices as to the nature and extent of curricular forays in virtual worlds.

The English poet W H Auden wrote in 1968 that “Every human being is interested in two kinds of worlds: the Primary, everyday world which he knows through his senses, and a Secondary world or worlds which he not only can create in his imagination, but which he cannot stop himself creating.” The prescience of Auden, as reflected in this quotation, is remarkable. It is this author’s contention that looking toward the not too distant future, the most exciting learning experiences will be crafted at the nexus between Auden’s Primary world and the Secondary.

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The term ‘quantum classroom’ has been used to describe learning environments in which the protagonists operate simultaneously across various spatial scales (Lim, 2007). In the context of Second Life, such inter-operationality would also describe scales between the universe of real life and the metaverse. Already, there are real life–Second Life installations which permit humans in real life to interact with avatars in Second Life in socially-constructed environments and spaces.

Two examples include the Chillerie gallery installation at Amsterdam (real life) and in-world at the Lhotse sim; and the afore-mentioned visit of Gee to Teen Second Life, which was telecast not only into the main grid of Second Life, but also live over the internet of real life. As we continue to design more such quantum classrooms – as we continue to design learning spaces which situate themselves at the nexus of Auden’s Primary and Secondary worlds – we and our avatars would be more fully actualizing ubuntu as we jointly construct and explore the there that is there.

Bibliography Auden, W. H. (1968). Secondary Worlds: Essays. Random House.

Brown, J. & Duguid, P. (2000). The social life of information. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

The Croquet Consortium. Retrieved July 26, 2007 from http://www.opencroquet.org/.

Daden Limited .(2008). Building schools for the future. Datum,8.

Hung, D. W. L. & Chen, D. T. (2008). Learning within the worlds of reifications, selves, and phenomena: Expanding on the thinking of Vygotsky and Popper. Learning Inquiry, 2, p. 7394.

Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1994). Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive and individualistic learning. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Lim, K. Y. T., Oei, G. L., Chatterjea, K., and Chang, C. H. (2007). Geographies of a changing world: Global issues in the early 21st century. Singapore: Pearson.

Ondrejka, C. (2004). An interview with Cory Ondrejka. Edge,142.

Santo, R. (2008). Program models for education in Second Life? Retrieved August 18, 2008 from http://www.rezed.org/profiles/blog/show?id=2047896%3ABlogPost%3A7945.

Stein, G. (1937). Everybody’s Autobiography. Random House.

Topher, Z. (2008). Your thoughts? Scene vs. business vs. content. Retrieved August 18, 2008 from http://muveforward.blogspot.com/2008/07/your-thoughts-scene-vs-business-vs.html.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Editor-in-Chief's Corner Leveraging Game-Playing Skills, Expectations and Behaviors of Digital Natives to Improve Visual Analytic Tools

By Theresa A. O’Connell, National Institute of Standards and Technology; John Grantham, Systems Plus; Kevin Workman, Millersville University Wyatt Wong, Forterra Systems Inc.

Abstract We report gaming research aimed at improving innovative visual analytic (VA) tools. Digital natives are entering the information analysis workplace. There are similarities between innovative visual analytic (VA) tools used by information analysts and the video games digital natives play. These similarities provide an opportunity to leverage the game-playing skills, expectations and behaviors of digital natives in the design of VA tools that will help them perform information analysis. To this end, we performed a user-centered usability engineering (UE) study of digital native video game players’ interactions with each other and with a collaborative virtual environment (CVE). We measured player success (in terms of efficiency and effectiveness) and satisfaction with PanelPuzzle, a puzzle-solving game. Players were digital natives, having grown up surrounded by technology. The study showed that roleplaying positively impacted their success and satisfaction.

Despite an expectation for immediate feedback, digital natives found workarounds to mitigate impacts of delayed feedback. Teammate communication was essential to collaboration and thus to success. In particular, players used communication records to build collaborative knowledge. This work provided data for a future study on discourse during gameplay. Findings will provide user-centered feedback to improve the design of innovative visual analytic (VA) tools.

Keywords: avatar; collaboration; digital natives; immersion; virtual worlds; video game; visual analytic tools.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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Editor-in-Chief's Corner Leveraging Game-Playing Skills, Expectations and Behaviors of Digital Natives to Improve Visual Analytic Tools

By Theresa A. O’Connell, National Institute of Standards and Technology; John Grantham, Systems Plus; Kevin Workman, Millersville University Wyatt Wong, Forterra Systems Inc.

Our research derives from similarities between video games and VA tools, software information analysts use to visualize and understand massive data sets (O’Connell, Choong, Grantham, Moriarty & Wong, 2008). Our ultimate goal is to improve the design of innovative VA tools to leverage the game-playing skills, behaviors and expectations of digital natives while helping them perform information analysis. Our prior work on riddle solving in a CVE (O’Connell et al, 2008) showed that gameplay collaboration in VEs leads to higher success in gameplay and might be transferable to collaboration among information analysts. Information analysis resembles assembling puzzle pieces. Building on this metaphor, we constructed a game that required players to collaborate in finding and assembling puzzle pieces.

A rich literature addresses games in education (e.g., de Freitas, 2006). Our interest is an aspect of e-learning not often studied: analytical skills digital natives develop when playing games, whether the games be serious or for enjoyment. Squire (2005) offers that gamers develop skills for decision making and problem solving and posits that gaming provides practice for transferring these skills to out-of-game domains. The line between business software and the gaming paradigm is diminishing (ESA, 2008; Chao, 2001; Chao, 2004, Malone, 1982). Gaming approaches are fusing into software designed for digital native defense workers (Capps, McDowell & Zyda, 2001; Hendrick, Knight, Menaker, O'Connor & Robbins, 2008). The merger of VE work and gaming is amply documented (e.g., Zyda, 2005), as is CVE use in analytic workplaces (e.g., Maybury, 2001). However, there is a dearth of literature on studying gameplay to improve VA tool design. Thus, an innovative approach was required. Our user-centered approach adapted UE best practices developed for VA tool studies (Choong & O’Connell, 2008), examining players’ skills, expectations and behaviors and measuring their gameplay success and satisfaction. This work differs from classic UE because its goal was not to assess or improve the game’s usability. Instead, we examined three factors common to gameplay and information analysis: team dynamics relating to collaboration in a CVE; the impact of roles on collaboration in a CVE; and the impact of the timing of feedback delivery on players’ success and satisfaction in solving puzzles.

Digital Natives Prensky (2001a) established the term, digital natives, to describe a generation that grew up surrounded by electronics. They are comfortable using text messages, social networking sites, video game user interfaces (UI), and other recent technologies. Prensky’s work started in the educational sector, but an inflow of digital natives also affects business, research, and government (Prensky, 2005).

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Digital natives who play action video games have higher visual acuity and the cognitive ability to handle larger amounts of information than their predecessors (Green, & Bavelier, 2003, 2007). Because of their immersion in technology, their brains differ from those of people who grew up without technologies such as personal computers, the internet, and video games (Prensky, 2001b). They have developed new communication models, using cell phones and the Internet to communicate quickly and frequently. They are very collaborative and comfortably communicate with several parties simultaneously utilizing several forms of communication (Prensky, 2004).

Digital natives blur the lines between education and fun, between work and play. Thanks to their rapid-fire style of interacting with digital devices and UIs, they expect immediate feedback from technology and other people (Prensky, 2005). False or unshared expectations can lead to misunderstandings. People we call digital foreigners often mistake digital natives’ impatience for inaptitude. Digital natives expect digital foreigners to follow the protocols of new communication models. Such opposing viewpoints impact the workplace causing it to evolve as digital natives gain employment.

Digital natives defy definition because they are the constantly evolving products of technology and social interaction. As digital foreigners retire, digital natives will replace them, bringing evolved forms of working and communicating. The first step to helping digital natives perform to the best of their ability in the VA workplace is to understand how they use technology and how to leverage their technology-induced adaptations.

Hypotheses VA tools are applied to problems so complex that analysts must collaborate to solve them (O’Connell & Choong, 2008). Thus, our studies focus on collaboration skills. We are also interested in how digital native gamers’ expectations and behaviors affect their gameplay. To understand the collaborative aspects of gameplay as manifested in communication and as affected by the imposition of roles and the timing of feedback and to understand the experiential dimensions of teams’ interactions with PanelPuzzle, we formulated three hypotheses.

H1: Communication among teammates will facilitate collaboration, resulting in higher scores for teams that communicate most effectively. The social aspects of gaming are widely recognized as motivational and integral (e.g., Chao, 2001; Zubek & Khoo, 2000; Whang & Chang, 2003). We considered communication to be the essential aspect of society among players as it is among analysts. We expected teammate communication to facilitate collaboration.

Studies show that voice communication and text chat impact collaboration (e.g., Jensen, Farnham, Drucker & Kollock, 2000), but give little attention to differences among voice chat, text chat and forum communication. We investigated whether differences existed and if so, how they impacted engagement and scores. Because digital natives are frequent digital communicators, we expected constant streams of voice and text chat to accommodate tactical communication. We expected the players forum to be reserved for strategic communication on building collaborative knowledge.

Although we did not find literature on transferring gaming language to VA tools, an emerging body of literature discusses transferring gaming language to the workplace. Chao (2001) reasons that using gaming language and gaming metaphors in workplace applications will 5

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facilitate the experience of users who grew up digital. He posits that communication among children and even adults who are not digitally savvy has incorporated gaming slang. Khoo and Zubek (Khoo & Zubek, 2002; Zubek & Khoo, 2000) identified characteristics of chat during competitive gameplay. They observed disconnected discourse with poor spelling and grammar.

Topics change frequently. Simultaneous threads cause players to miss parts of discourse. We expected to see these trends in player discourse.

H2. Roles positively affect group dynamics in a CVE. We expected digital natives to collaborate and build collaborative knowledge to solve puzzles. Collaboration is the key to resolve VA problems. Usually, analysts’ workplace culture strictly defines roles, e.g., senior analysts supervise junior analysts. The potential of CVEs to promote collaboration is a rich area of research (e.g., Benfield, et al, 2001), but few discuss the role of roles in CVEs. Maybury (2001) identified the need for role-based access, with defined rights, to communication in a CVE. Our work aligned with this in defining roles based on access to communication with a game master (GM). Maybury (2001) also identified the need for a leadership role in a CVE, noting that without a leader, group interactions are not successful.

Our definition of role was narrower than gaming literature usage. For example, Yee (2006), in his definition of roleplaying, includes story improvisation by the role player. Because PanelPuzzle was straightforward in its goals, we did not expect role improvisation. We expected higher efficiency and higher satisfaction in mandatory-role conditions because they defined responsibilities and restricted communication with the GM to one player. We expected roles to facilitate collaboration, with voluntary-role players refusing roles and collaborating less successfully than mandatory-role players.

H3. Deferred feedback will impact gameplay strategy. Digital natives often expect immediate feedback, but VA tools give both immediate and deferred feedback. We expected delayed feedback to reduce satisfaction. Gergle, Kraut & Fussell (2006) demonstrated that, in a shared workspace, millisecond-long delays in visual feedback impaired communication, negatively impacting the performance of two collaborators solving puzzles on computers. We expected their findings to extend to longer delays. We wanted to see whether players modified gameplay strategies to remedy problems caused by delayed feedback.

Independent Variables PanelPuzzle was designed to force player collaboration to foster investigation of two sets of independent variables, roles and feedback. For roles, there were two variables. The mandatory role (RM) variable compelled players to select a role. Under the voluntary role (RV) variable, players decided whether or not to play one or more roles. Under both RM and RV variables, players had autonomy in choosing among four roles. Under RM conditions, the GM responded only to a designated player. Under RV conditions, the GM responded to any player.

Feedback pertained to the GM’s responses to players’ requests for insertion of puzzle pieces into puzzles. A change in the state of a panel, i.e., the filling of a section, was considered visual feedback. For feedback, there were two variables, feedback deferred (FD) and feedback immediate (FI). The FD variable constrained players to request piece insertion through the GM forum. The GM waited up to five minutes to insert pieces. With the FI variable, the GM received messages through text chat and inserted pieces immediately upon request. Players using text chat 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 7

sometimes issued so many simultaneous requests that the GM needed a moment to catch up.

Despite occasional brief intervals between requests and feedback, we called the second variable immediate because the GM inserted pieces with no intentional or purposeful delays.

Players Before gameplay, players took a demographic survey. All questions were optional.

Fourteen males and two females below the age of 29 participated in the study as players. All fit the definition of digital natives, e.g., all had grown up surrounded by technology. Eleven played interactive video games weekly: seven for one to five hours; three for 6-15 hours, and one for 1625 hours. Five were not gamers. To protect anonymity, players received gameplay names, e.g., Zulu_Delta. Because communication was an integral aspect of PanelPuzzle, we surveyed players about their communication behaviors and preferences. Players were familiar users of telecommunication devices and technologies. Chat rooms and forums, both important means of communication in PanelPuzzle, were among the least frequently used and least popular means for communication with friends.

PanelPuzzle Platform To examine how digital natives interacted and collaborated in a VE, we required a platform on which to organize a multiplayer game. To monitor how digital natives use different communication forms, the platform had to accommodate text and voice chat and support their recording. We chose Forterra’s On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment (OLIVE) platform which provided a rich collaborative experience in a persistent 3D (three-dimensional) VE. OLIVE supports capabilities essential to communication and inter-player interaction, including avatars, text and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) communication. Its session record and playback capabilities save and replay the entire VE simulation from any viewpoint.

OLIVE is a complex system with various interfaces, controls, and synchronous communication channels. To this, we introduced PanelPuzzle, an application with uniquely different interfaces, controls, and asynchronous communication channels. PanelPuzzle required players to operate OLIVE as well as Web-based forums. The default OLIVE graphical UI and virtual city filled many PanelPuzzle requirements, requiring few customizations to support game design and analysis. To accommodate gameplay, we changed the layout of UI elements; removed unnecessary controls; and added controls for new functionality. Avatar customization and establishing the avatar-player bond familiarize players with the environment and the conditions and representation under which they will play (de Freitas, 2006). So, we modified the OLIVE client to launch in face view, empowering players to see and customize their avatars. We modified the OLIVE client to log text chat and the OLIVE server to log voice chat.

For in-game communication, binaural headsets with microphones (mics) enabled VOIP proximal communication, projecting players’ voices from their avatars using 3D-audio techniques. Consequently, as in the real world, players’ voices faded as distance increased between their avatars. We provided the text forum for distal exchanges.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 8

The Projection Screen (ProjScreen) in OLIVE resembles a real world projection screen, where custom content can be loaded and displayed. The GM’s computer contained a folder of PowerPoint slides named by piece identification number. The GM loaded these onto ProjScreens to display puzzles.

Playing PanelPuzzle Solving puzzles was analogous to building collaborative knowledge by coordinating distributed knowledge, e.g., when one player found one piece of a puzzle, and teammates found others. We wanted to see how players handled knowledge that is useless by itself, but solves a problem when combined with other players' knowledge.

Four sessions each accommodated four players. Players worked on whichever puzzle they wanted at any point in the 75 minutes allotted. Puzzle pieces were placed throughout the city, inside and outside of buildings. This caused players to move throughout the city and to use the communication mechanisms. Each puzzle piece had a random numerical identifier to facilitate discussion. Pieces also indicated the size of the panels to which they belonged. Enough pieces were scattered throughout the CVE to solve nine puzzles. After finding a piece, players asked the GM to insert it into a specific section on a panel. The center of Peninsula City contained three panels: each with sections to accommodate one three-piece, four-piece, or fivepiece puzzle. There was no area large enough to display nine panels. Thus, only one puzzle of each size was visible at any time. Maybury (2001) notes the importance of context, i.e., a focal point, in a workplace CVE. The city center where the puzzle panels were located provided this context. It served as an assembly point where teammates received visual feedback on progress.

Figure 1. (Left) A player finds a puzzle piece labeled “4 Piece” and numbered (7172). (Right) A player (center) directs the GM (right, in distance) to insert a piece into the rightmost section of a panel.

A variety of styles reflected the variety of cognitive abilities characteristic of digital natives and information analysis. For each puzzle size, there were three types of puzzle. Math puzzles contained common equations e.g., the Pythagorean Theorem. Word puzzles contained common words or sentences. Image puzzles contained pictures, e.g., a scene from a familiar video game.

The GM was a human who provided feedback according to strict rules, e.g., requiring players to identify the puzzle piece, the panel size and the exact section in a panel where they

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 9

wanted the piece inserted. Within such constraints, the GM followed players’ instructions, even when players requested piece insertion into the wrong panel or section. To earn points, a player informed the GM that a puzzle was complete. Teams earned 50 points for submitting a correct three-piece puzzle, 100 points for a four-piece puzzle, and 200 points for a five-piece puzzle.

Assembling pieces incorrectly and then reporting the puzzle as solved resulted in a 25 point penalty. Upon completion of a puzzle, the GM informed players of their success and the points won, using the forum or text chat.

PanelPuzzle resided in the virtual Peninsula City. Its 36 city blocks covered 1,300 scaled kilometers, with over 100 architectural models. Ten models had unique interiors. Avatars walked and ran at a pace that scaled to real life walking or running; they teleported to major destinations.

Figure 2. An overhead view of Peninsula City shows much of the downtown area.

Four white square puzzle pieces are visible.

Players had an enormous amount of information to process, and their choice of communication tools could impact puzzle-solving. Players could communicate with each other and with the GM synchronously using text chat, or asynchronously through the forum. Players could use a mic to communicate with each other, but not with the GM. Players in RV and RM conditions had the same choice of four roles. A GM Coordinator communicated with the GM through either text chat or the GM forum. A Communications Coordinator oversaw player forum communications. A Map Coordinator used the map to coordinate player activities. A Puzzle Piece Coordinator directed puzzle assembly. We expected the GM Coordinator to be the team leader, although the rules did not designate this responsibility. In RV conditions, players had the option of adopting an unofficial leader. Prior to gameplay, each team had ten minutes in a virtual conference room to discuss strategy, roles, and teamwork. Seventy-five minutes after players left the conference room, gameplay stopped.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 10

Experimental Environment The experiment ran on four desktop computers, each with an Intel Xeon 3.0 GHz processor; two GB of memory; and an nVidia Quadro FX 1400 128 MB 3D graphics card. To support multi-tasking, each player had two monitors. Peripherals included a standard 101/102 keyboard; a three-button click/scroll-wheel mouse; two monitors (19”, 20” or 21”) set to maximum resolution; headphones and a noise-cancelling, free-standing desktop PC mic.

Peripherals varied slightly, but were functionally equivalent, e.g., display areas were roughly equal. The operating system on each computer was Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2. Other software was limited to the Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Web browser and OLIVE 2.0.1.

Figure 3. On their left monitor, players viewed Peninsula City, the text chat box and a teleportation destinations box. On their right, they viewed the forums.

Sessions Four three-hour sessions each accommodated one condition, i.e., one combination of the variables.

Bravo

Charlie

Feedback Deferred (FD) Roles Voluntary (RV)

Feedback Immediate (FI) Roles Mandatory (RM)

Delta

Echo

Feedback Deferred (FD) Roles Mandatory (RM)

Feedback Immediate (FI) Roles Voluntary (RV)

Figure 4. Four conditions each accommodated two variables.

Each session presented the same activities in the same sequence. After a demographic survey, players received written gameplay instructions specific to the session’s conditions. A self-paced fifteen-minute tutorial showed how to customize an avatar; navigate the CVE; communicate with teammates and the GM; find pieces; instruct the GM to insert pieces; and teleport. Players customized avatars and explored the world before gameplay. A competency test verified that players could exercise PanelPuzzle’s basic functionality. Then, players received 10

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 11

paper maps of Peninsula City. Out-of-game communication was prohibited. An exit survey followed gameplay. A discussion completed each session.

Measures And Metrics Measures of players’ interactions with PanelPuzzle derived from the three attributes of usability defined by the International Standards Organization (ISO, 1998): efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. These attributes are not discrete; each impacts the others.

Efficiency and Effectiveness Efficiency and effectiveness equate with player success. Measuring efficiency in gameplay studies has been discouraged because efficiency is often defined in terms of the game, not player success. An example is to define efficiency in terms of resources a game provides to players (Federoff, 2002). We defined efficiency in user-centered terms of player success. We measured nine dimensions of efficiency:

-

Number of requests to insert a piece into the correct section Number of requests to insert a piece into the wrong section Minutes taken to correctly solve a puzzle Ratio of puzzles started to puzzles completed Number of duplicate requests to GM Number of sections in each puzzle solved Number of requests for piece insertion into a wrong panel Number of instances of incorrect request formatting Number of penalty points for incorrect puzzle solutions.

To measure efficiency of communication among teammates, we counted text chat, voice chat and player forum messages. We looked at the number of messages in terms of the independent variables and success. We examined the relationship between the number of text chat messages and satisfaction with roles.

Effectiveness is not a typical measure of human interaction with games although points and progression to higher levels are reported to players as engaging feedback. An exception is to define effectiveness as following the ideal path to a game’s end goal (e.g., Federoff, 2002).

However, PanelPuzzle offers many equally appropriate paths to its goals. A user-centered approach assessed effectiveness in terms of players’ success, i.e., results. Our metrics addressed five dimensions of effectiveness. We counted

-

Puzzles solved Points earned Unique puzzle pieces found Unique pieces inserted correctly into panel sections Sections in correctly populated panels.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 12

Satisfaction Satisfaction surveys that quantify subjective user feedback are common in UE. An exit survey used 1-to-7 ascending Likert scales with open-ended questions for players to explain their ratings. In gaming, satisfaction indices reflect ratings of game aspects e.g., sound, scenario or graphics (e.g., Ham & Lee, 2006). We measured satisfaction across dimensions of the player experience rather than game attributes. We measured enjoyment, engagement and comfort, factors associated with human interaction with games (e.g., Federoff, 2002), although not always considered measures of satisfaction.

Enjoyment. Jegers (2008) epitomizes the literature on enjoyment in saying that a game becomes pointless if players do not enjoy it. Enjoyment is sometimes measured in terms of time spent in gameplay (e.g., Malone, 1982). Imposing a time limit required us to rely on other metrics. For example, we assessed roleplay enjoyment and enjoyment in general.

During gaming, digital native analysts develop an expectation for immediate feedback that they transfer to their use of VA tools (O’Connell & Choong, 2008). In this study, we considered messages from the GM to players as system feedback. Because these messages pertained to notification of points won, we equated system feedback with the performance feedback that is considered integral to game enjoyment (e.g., Malone, 1982).

Engagement. Van Eck (2006) stresses the need to engage digital natives. We anticipated engagement to be impacted by communicating with other players; customizing avatars; exploring the world; interacting and collaborating with teammates; and roleplay. Challenge contributes to enjoyment of video games (Malone, 1982; Von Ahn & Dabbish, 2008). We expected challenge to also contribute to engagement, so we surveyed players on how engaging they found four dimensions of challenge: accumulating points; hunting for puzzle pieces; assembling puzzle pieces; and trying to finish as fast as possible.

Data Collection Recordings of all in-game activities in the CVE, but not in the forums, were manually started and stopped by the GM, stored on the OLIVE server with automatically date- and timestamped filenames, and converted into MPG format via video-out to a camcorder during recording playback. Surveys were Web-based.

Figure 5. The chat message (C) represents chat-window content. (A) and (B) appeared in the logs.

The OLIVE client produced text chat logs in time-stamped text files. Forum logs automatically collected data on all messages posted to the player and GM forums. At the end of each session, forum logs were manually archived in individual MS Word documents for each thread. Their format preserved the title of each thread/message, player/poster identification, the date-and-time stamp, and the message contents. The OLIVE server generated voice chat logs from its VE recordings during playback of recorded sessions.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 13

Figure 6. Voice-chat recording files (A) registered speaking events (C), capturing start and stop times (B) relative to the recording start time, whenever the mic was open.

The GM kept an electronic record of puzzles solved and incorrect submissions.

Usability engineers took electronic, time-stamped notes on players’ activities, using a fly-on-thewall protocol, having no interactions with the players. Video and audio recordings of sessions facilitated investigation of incidents flagged in observers’ notes. During post-gameplay discussions, observers noted comments about participants’ experiences playing PanelPuzzle.

Results Bravo (FD, RV) ranked fourth (last) in points (0), fourth (last) in the number of puzzles solved (0), and third in the number of unique pieces found (23). Charlie (FI, RM) ranked third in points earned (200), third in the number of puzzles solved (1), and first in the number of unique pieces found (27). Delta (FD, RM) ranked first (tied) in points earned (250), first (tied) in the number of puzzles solved (2), and fourth (last) in the number of unique pieces found (18). Echo (FI, RV) ranked first (tied) in points earned, first (tied) in the number of puzzles solved (2), and second in the number of unique pieces found (24).

Communication during Gameplay We consider discourse essential to collaboration. Players’ comments reinforced this.

When asked how they collaborated, all players except one in Bravo (0 points) discussed collaboration in terms of communication. Players rated the helpfulness of collaboration: Bravo 6.7; Charlie (200) 6.8; Delta (250) 6.8; Echo (250) 5.5.

Usefulness of Communication Types 7.0

7

6.3

6.0

5.8

6

5.0

4.8

5 4.0

4

6.0

3.8

Forum

3

Voice Chat

2.5 2.0

2.0

2

Text Chat

1 0 Bravo (FD, RV) Points = 0

Charlie (FI, RM) Points = 200

Delta (FD, RM) Points = 250

Echo (FI, RV) Points = 250

Figure 7. All teams found text chat the most useful communication type and voice chat the least.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 14

Bravo (0 points), was fourth (last) in the number of text-chat messages sent (177), and second in forum messages posted (50). Charlie (200) ranked second in the number of text-chat messages sent (273), and fourth in forum messages (20). Delta (250) was first in text-chat messages (395), and third in forum messages (23). Echo (250) was third in text-chat messages (221), and first in forum messages (51).

Moments after gameplay started, joking ceased and communication focused on strategy and finding pieces. We asked players what percentage of in-game time they spent communicating with teammates and then averaged the responses to understand teams’ perceptions of time spent on team communication.

Table 1. Players communicated with each other via text chat, a forum or the mic.

They communicated with the GM via a forum.

Condition Points earned Total messages Total messages among players Gameplay time spent communicating with teammates Text chat messages to GM Text chat messages to teammates Total chat Messages Forum messages to teammates Player forum threads Forum messages to GM GM forum threads Total forum messages Total time in minutes spent in voice chat Average length in seconds of messages Messages with human speech Button presses not followed by voice chat

Bravo (FD, RV) 0 398 338 50.5%

Charlie (FI, RM) 200 307 301 60.5%

Delta (FD, RM) 250 506 499 36.8%

Echo (FI, RV) 250 279 276 45.5%

8 273

1 395

2 221

281

396

223

20 6

18 5

48 7

60 24

0 0

7 3

3 2

79 Voice Chat 17.2

26

25

51

.87

6.2

.29

4.42

.10

2.74

.97

142 93

0 7

85 51

5 13

Text Chat 0 177 177 Forums 19 6

Despite complaints about its usability, players favored text chat over voice and forums.

Zulu_Delta explained why, “[The] forum takes too long for a game that is timed and the voice chat was only for talking locally.�

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 15

Efficiency Players were aware of a defined end game condition with a 75 minute time span from start to end of gameplay. Efficiency metrics were collected within this time span. Speed of gameplay was important and, in this way, efficiency impacted effectiveness, e.g., Delta (250 points) posted a correct solution just after time ran out, gaining no more points.

Table 2. For gameplay speed and errors during requests for piece insertion, the lower the value, the higher the team’s efficiency. Gray areas indicate no puzzle was solved.

Condition Points earned Minutes to solve first puzzle Sections in first puzzle solved

Bravo (FD, RV) 0

Charlie (FI, RM) 200 62 5

Minutes to solve second puzzle Sections in second puzzle solved Requested panel and section correct Requested section wrong Requested panel wrong Requested undo, cancel, or clear Request formatting wrong Total requests (includes inserts and moves, no duplicates) Duplicate insertion requests

Delta (FD, RM) 250 48 3

Echo (FI, RV) 250 40 5

11 5

25 3

14

8

8

13

13 3 0 7 37

12 0 0 1 21

0 0 0 0 8

14 0 4 0 31

1

2

0

2

No team submitted an incorrectly assembled puzzle. In the ratio of puzzles started to puzzles completed puzzles started refers to puzzles for which at least one piece was inserted into a panel, regardless of whether the panel or section were correct. Delta (FD, RM, 250 points) had a 2:2 ratio; Echo (FI, RV, 250) had 5:2; Charlie (FI, RM, 200) 6:1; and Bravo (FD, RV, 0) 9:0.

Effectiveness Effectiveness assessed outcome success, and was impacted by communication. Charlie (200 points) found all the pieces for a four-piece puzzle, and communicated about them within the time limit, but only discussed inserting one. Completing this puzzle would have resulted in the highest point total.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 16

Table 3. In assessing effectiveness during gameplay, pieces inserted refers to pieces the GM was asked to insert at least once.

Condition Points earned Puzzles solved Unique pieces found Requests for unique (not necessarily correct) piece insertion Pieces inserted or moved correctly into panels

Bravo (FD, RV) 0 0 23

Charlie FI, RM) 200 1 27

Delta (FD, RM) 250 2 18

Echo (FI, RV) 250 2 24

21

12

8

17

14

8

8

13

5

3 5

5 3

Sections in 1st puzzle solved Sections in 2nd puzzle solved

Bravo (FD, RV) used panels as a visual aid to puzzle solving by inserting and moving pieces frequently to obtain different views of puzzles-in-progress. Bravo inserted more pieces (21) than any other team, but solved no puzzles.

Satisfaction Table 4. Team averages for overall satisfaction and comfort were positive to high.

Condition Points earned Overall Satisfaction Comfort

Bravo (FD, RV) 0 6.0 6.3

Charlie (FI, RM) 200 5.3 6.3

Delta (FD, RM) 250 5.0 5.0

Echo (FI, RV) 250 5.3 5.3

Foxtrot_Charlie based his rating (6) for overall satisfaction on the fact that he found PanelPuzzle to be engaging. One Bravo (FD, RV), two Charlie (FI, RM), one Delta (FD, RM) and one Echo (FI, RV) player reported that ease of playing motivated their high comfort ratings.

Zulu_Echo said lack of team organization caused discomfort, but still gave a high comfort rating (6). Bravo’s satisfaction scores were high because they were enjoying the environment and remained engaged.

Players perceived challenge as a dimension of both enjoyment and engagement which, in turn, are dimensions of satisfaction. Two players reported challenge as the motivation for their very high overall satisfaction ratings (6). Hotel_Bravo said, “… it was challenging to distinguish what the puzzle actually was and actually putting the pieces in the correct position … I love a challenge.”

Table 5. Team averages for enjoyment were positive to high.

Condition Points earned Enjoyment

Bravo (FD, RV) 0 6.3

Charlie (FI, RM) 200 6.3

Delta (FD, RM) 250 5

Echo (FI, RV) 250 5.7

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 17

Players’ comments supported our assertion that enjoyment is a dimension of satisfaction.

One player from each team attributed their very high overall satisfaction ratings to the fact that PanelPuzzle was fun. Some players factored collaboration into their satisfaction ratings, e.g., Tango_Bravo cited the “team element” as motivation for his enjoyment rating (7). Higher point totals did not coincide with higher enjoyment ratings. Bravo (0 points) and Charlie (200) gave ratings of 6.3, but the teams that tied for highest points (250) gave lower ratings Delta, 5 and Echo, 5.7.

Seven Dimensions of Engagement 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

6 .5 6 .5 6 .0

5.8 5.3

5.3 4 .5

6 .3 6 .5 6 .3

6 .0

6 .3 5.5

5.3

5.0

4 .8

4 .5

4 .8 4 .3 4 .3

4 .0

5.3 4 .5

3 .5

3 .3 2 .5 2 .5 2 .0

Customize Avatar

Roleplay

Bravo (FD, RV) Points = 0

Interact & Collaborate

Team Text Chat

Charlie (FI,RM) Points = 200

Team Voice Players Forum Explore World Chat Delta (FD, RM) Points = 250

Echo (FI, RV) Points = 250

Figure 8. Players reported the degree to which seven factors impacted engagement during gameplay.

Challenge fostered engagement. Four players responded to a question asking for the top factor that kept them engaged. Of these, three cited challenges, including puzzle assembly and inter-team competition. Ranking engagement factors over all the dimensions of engagement and challenge combined, ten players reported dimensions of challenge as the top factor that engaged them: four cited hunting for pieces; four, assembling pieces; one, accumulating points; and one, trying to finish as fast as possible.

Four Dimensions of Challenge 5. 3 6 .8

Accumulating points

6 .3 5. 3

Bravo (FD, RV) Points = 0 6 .5

Hunting for puzzle pieces

6 .5

Charlie (FI, RM) Points = 200

5.8 6 .0

6 .0 5.8

Assembling puzzle pieces

Delta (FD, RM) Points = 250

5.0 5.8

6 .0

Trying to finish as fast as possible

6 .8

Echo (FI, RV) Points = 250

5.5 6 .5

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Figure 9. Ratings for four dimensions of challenge as measures of engagement were positive to high.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 18

Findings

H1: Communication among teammates will facilitate collaboration, resulting in higher scores for teams that communicate most effectively. The principal factor impacting success was the effectiveness of collaboration strategies. Communication was the key to collaboration. Usually, one player stayed near the panels; others checked them, then dispersed to seek pieces. Thus, teammates rarely shared visual feedback. Teams depended on communication to solve puzzles. Bravo (0 points), which had little collaboration, sent more messages than Charlie (200) or Echo (250), but earned no points because of ineffective communication. Delta (250), which exhibited the most intra-team communication tied for the highest score.

True to Prensky's (2004) claim, digital native players preferred text over voice. All teams except Bravo (FD, RV) gave voice chat very low engagement ratings. Early in the game, players used the mic to organize before commencing their tasks, then abandoned it. Players preferred text chat for tactical communication and the forum for strategic communication. Mic abandonment may be attributable to several factors. Players were in the same room and could hear each other. They sometimes did not understand or forgot that mic activation required pressing a button. As players dispersed in the CVE, mic capacity diminished and it was not possible to hear other players. Possibly, having three communication mechanisms was counterefficient; most games provide no more than two. Human factors also impacted, e.g., Lima_Charlie said, “I like typing to people while I play. It felt weird to use the microphone, so I didn't.� Text chat and forums provided histories that proved integral to executing team strategies; voice chat did not.

The most successful team, Delta (250 points), were the most active and effective communicators with 506 messages. Delta solved two puzzles faster than Echo (250), manipulating only those pieces that they inserted. As gameplay ended, Delta were on the brink of solving a five-piece puzzle. They made no requests for incorrect insertions. They sent the most intra-team chat messages. They were second for number of player forum messages.

Teams gave their highest engagement ratings for communication media to text-chat messages. RM conditions sent more text messages than RV conditions. Charlie, (FI, RM, 200 points) sent 281; Delta (FD, RM, 250) sent the most text messages, 506. Bravo (FD, RV, 0), sent the fewest text chat messages, 177. Echo (FI, RV, 250), sent the lowest total number of messages, 279, and was third in text chat messages, 223.

During text chat, we expected players to import linguistic traits from emailing and text messaging. Both were popular in the demographic survey. Chat analysis disclosed brevity, quick topic changes and deviations from Standard English, aligning with the observations of Zubek, Khoo (2000, 2002) and Chao (2001).

PanelPuzzle success depended on building collaborative knowledge. Teams approached this differently, depending on their assigned condition and their success at communicating and collaborating. Different strategies arose for teammate communication. The players’ forum proved a locus for strategic communication. Each team stored piece information in the forum.

Each used text-chat for discussions. Teams developed collaboration strategies at different points 18

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 19

in gameplay. Echo (FI, RV, 250 points) developed their forum strategy quickly, in the eighth text-chat message, approximately five minutes before gameplay started; Delta (FD, RM, 250) approximately seven minutes into gameplay (in the 102nd text-chat message); and Charlie (FI, RM, 200) approximately 16 minutes into gameplay (in the 110th text-chat message). Only one Bravo (FD, RV, 0) player posted information on pieces to the forum (13 minutes into gameplay).

Bravo evidenced no strategy for collaboration, instead devoting planning time to a strategy for finding as many pieces as possible by distributing avatars geographically.

All teams gave neutral ratings to the engagement of team communication via the forum, but all used the players forum. Organizing pieces in the players forum varied among teams. Delta (250 points) chose to post all information regarding pieces in one thread allowing teammates to view all pieces found in one location without needing to navigate multiple threads. However, this approach may have increased the time taken to find information about pieces belonging to a particular panel. Charlie (200) posted piece information in two separate threads, one for piece numbers with descriptions and another for assembling pieces. Echo (250) organized piece information in three separate threads, one for each puzzle size. This approach facilitated puzzle solving by making it easier to view pieces of the same size puzzle together; but made it more difficult to view all of the pieces found at once (e.g., in order to avoid duplicate postings).

H2: Roles positively affect group dynamics in a CVE. H2 proved true. Roles helped teams organize and collaborate and made them more effective. If teams did not adopt roles at the outset, they experienced little collaboration and no success. Even when lines between roles blurred, the advantages of having roles from the outset carried teams forward to earning points.

Both RV and RM players were self-organizing in determining roles and sometimes changed roles in-game. Contrary to our expectations, most RV players assumed roles. Players who abandoned their roles or did not play roles said after gameplay that they wished they had done so. Roles provide structure. Lacking agreement on roles, Echo (FI, RV) had two competing solvers, resulting in conflicts. Successful teams took roles seriously; they did not consider roles to foster enjoyment. Conversely, Bravo (FD, RV), which had the least organized roles gave the highest rating (6.8) for enjoying roles and the highest rating (6.0) for impact of roles on progress.

RM conditions did not experience higher satisfaction. Successful teams did not perceive roles’ positive impact on progress, giving this factor neutral to negative ratings. Players focused on winning rather than roleplay. Indeed, across roles, high point totals did not coincide with high enjoyment ratings. Bravo (RV, 0 points) and Charlie (RM, 200) gave ratings of 6.3, but the teams that tied for highest points (250) gave lower ratings Delta (RM) gave 5 and Echo (RV) 4.5.

Delta, the highest achiever, gave the lowest rating (4.5) to the engagement of roleplay.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 20

Roles: Enjoyment & Impact on Progress 7

6.8 6.0

6 4.8

5

4.3 3.8

4

Enjoyment

3.8 3.5 2.8

3

Impact on Progress

2 1 0 Bravo (FD, RV) Points = 0

Charlie (FI, RM) Points = 200

Delta (FD, RM) Points = 250

Echo (FI, RV) Points = 250

Figure 10. Other than Bravo, teams gave neutral ratings to roles' impact on progress.

As Yee (2006) observed, players changed the story. Roles evolved during gameplay; players switched roles and assumed multiple roles, even in RM conditions. When the Delta (RM) Puzzle Coordinator became confused, a teammate solved puzzles alone on a sheet of paper and posted them to the forum. When two Echo (RV) players fought over the role of GM Communicator, their teammates redefined their own roles to maintain efficiency in finding pieces. Collaboration on finding pieces became the priority goal for most players; sometimes even the GM coordinator sought pieces. Zulu_Delta observed, “Everyone was working together.

It seemed like everything was working smoothly without people being sticklers for their roles.”

As expected, players perceived the GM Communicator role to be the leader role.

Leadership emerged differently in each condition with at least one player becoming the GM Communicator. In RV conditions, players either adopted an unofficial leader or later indicated that they would elect a leader if given another chance to play PanelPuzzle. We expected roles to facilitate collaboration, resulting in superior collaboration in RM conditions. Positing that the leadership role empowers group interaction as Maybury (2001) asserted, a survey question asked how helpful collaboration was in solving puzzles. RM teams Charlie and Delta gave 6.8 ratings.

These were higher than RV teams, Bravo. 5.7 and Echo, 5.5. Echo, where there was competition for leadership, gave the lowest score. The RM teams’ very high ratings support the expectation of more efficiency in RM conditions.

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed between the number of chat messages sent by each player and that player's answer to the question, "How enjoyable was your role?" The analysis was significant, F(1, 14) = 9.488062, p < .01. A regression test indicated that the number of chat messages sent and a player’s enjoyment of roles were negatively correlated with a p value of 0.008145. We interpreted this to mean that while effective communication was crucial to a team's success, ineffective communication diminished role enjoyment. Players who were forced to repeat themselves or ask teammates for clarification enjoyed their roles less than those who communicated effectively with their teammates. This showed us that although communication is a key to success in a CVE, more is not always 20

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 21

better. A CVE must give its users the ability to communicate effectively. Otherwise, enjoyment diminishes as players are forced to repeat themselves or ask teammates to do so.

H3: Deferred feedback will impact gameplay strategy. Observational evidence supported H3. After experiencing deferred feedback, Delta (FD, RM) adopted an efficient and effective strategy for working under this condition. Teammates from FD conditions Bravo and Delta complained about delayed feedback. One instance supported the observations of Gergle et al (2006) that delayed visual feedback impairs communication. A Charlie (FI, RM) player’s impatience with the GM’s response time caused a duplicate insertion request.

There were two principal strategies for communicating with the GM. We called these piece-at-a-time and panel-at-a-time, referring to how the teams communicated piece movement instructions to the GM. Bravo (FD, RV), Charlie (FI, RM), and Echo (FI, RV) requested insertion as pieces were found. Bravo correctly expressed 21 requests for single-piece insertions, waiting an average of 2.5 minutes for feedback. Once, Bravo requested insertion of eight pieces simultaneously, waiting seven minutes from the time of the request until the last piece was inserted. The least successful team experienced the longest feedback delay, yet did not change its strategy. Delta (FD, RM) alone waited until they were confident they had all the pieces assembled, then requested insertion of an entire panel. This proved the most effective strategy.

Delta made only two requests, one to insert three pieces and one for five pieces, each time completing a puzzle. Although Delta waited an average of 4.5 minutes between request and insertion of the last piece, they minimized their waiting time by minimizing requests. In both FD conditions, searches continued during delays.

Players’ comments uncovered an issue related to delayed feedback which aligned with our expectations for digital natives: a desire for fast gameplay. Anticipating this, we had provided teleportation and the ability to run, but some players found these insufficient.

Golf_Echo (overall satisfaction, 4) explained, “I want to fly to travel faster, what is the point of having the same constraints of the real world in the virtual one?” Three players complained about the avatar’s speed. Others were impatient with the responsiveness of PanelPuzzle. FI players complained about the GM’s speed. Players wanted keyboard shortcuts.

Conclusions Our UE approach investigated efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction during gameplay.

We examined factors common to gameplay and information analysis: communication, roleplay and feedback. Although there were only four players in each of four sessions, the study uncovered many aspects of team dynamics during gameplay. The dimensions of satisfaction we identified, engagement and enjoyment, with challenge as an aspect of each, coincided with players’ mental models of what makes gameplay satisfying. Several factors influenced the ability to accrue points in PanelPuzzle. Good communication strategies promoted collaborative play and building collaborative knowledge. Satisfaction kept players engaged. No players abandoned the game and none gave low overall satisfaction ratings. For satisfaction, engagement is more important than winning. Leadership promotes team success. Digital natives developed strategies to prevent deferred feedback from impeding success.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 22

To leverage digital nativesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skills and expectations, the next generation of VA tools must promote engagement. Analysis is tedious and answers can remain elusive. Engagement is integral to the satisfaction that fosters perseverance. To leverage digital native behaviors, it is essential that VA tools facilitate collaboration by providing effective communication mechanisms and access to a history of these communications. Players consulted communication histories to organize collaborative knowledge. Indeed, the most organized team, Delta (FD, RM) was the most successful. Digital natives can handle delayed feedback in VA tools. Obligating roleplaying is not necessary for VA tools, but they should accommodate a leadership role because it is likely that leaders will emerge.

Future Work Digital nativesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; gameplay behaviors and the potential to reflect them in VA software combine to offer a rich area to investigate from a UE perspective. We found collaboration among digital natives building collaborative knowledge during a video game to be a complex area where findings generated questions opening opportunities for research as richer CVEs become part of VA tools.

Our next step is analysis of linguistic data from PanelPuzzle. Khoo and Zubek (Zubek & Khoo, 2000; Khoo & Zubek 2002) observed that emotional involvement is key to gameplay enjoyment. They cited emotional involvement and verbal posturing as key to social interactions during gameplay. Does dialog during PanelPuzzle gameplay indicate these factors and their impacts on team success and satisfaction? PanelPuzzle required the analytical skills of decision making and problem solving. Are there are discourse patterns that evidence collaborative decisions? Are there patterns that facilitate puzzle solving and information analysis?

Will collaboration change in a more controlled collaborative environment? If players are geographically dispersed and voice chat facilitated, will communication change? We identified innovative metrics for human interaction with CVEs. Can we expand and apply them to VA tools? For example, we want to further study measuring engagement. Will players who establish a bond with their avatar become more engaged in the CVE and their task?

We designed the PanelPuzzle game to be played in a "mirror world" environment, a literal representation of the real world in digital form. What if we design the PanelPuzzle game in a true virtual world, where the environment, simulation, and physics can be modified to place the player in a figurative space that better matches the cognitive model required by the game?

Will the game fundamentally change â&#x20AC;&#x201C; will the CVE be the actual game? Will adapting to the laws of the CVE differ significantly for each individual as the frames of reference to the laws of the literal world no longer apply? The possibilities for further research are intriguing.

Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Forterra Systems Inc. The authors would like to thank Yee-Yin Choong at NIST for contributing to the experiment and Alex Wang for supporting this work during his NIST internship.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Leveraging Game-Playing Skills 23

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Choong, Y. and O’Connell, T. (2008). Planning user-centered evaluations for interactive information visualizations. Proceedings of Usability Professionals Association (UPA) Annual International Conference. (CD-ROM). June 16 – 20, 2008, Baltimore, MD. de Freitas, S. (2006). Learning in immersive worlds: A review of game-based learning. JISC (Joint Informational Systems Committee) Report. Retrieved February 5, 2009 from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearninginnovation/gamingreport_v3. pdf ESA (Entertainment Software Association). (2008). Video games and the workplace. Retrieved January 2, 2009 from http://www.theesa.com/gamesindailylife/workplace.asp Federoff, M. (2002). Heuristics and usability guidelines for the creation and evaluation of fun in video games. Unpublished master’s thesis, Department of Telecommunications, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Gergle, D., Kraut, R., & Fussell, S. (2006). The impact of delayed visual feedback on collaborative performance. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1303–1312). April 22 - 27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Green, C., & Bavelier, D. (2003, May). Action video game modifies visual selective attention.

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Green, C., & Bavelier, D. (2007). Action-video-game experience alters the spatial resolution of vision. Psychological Science, 18 (1), 88–94.

Ham, H. & Lee, Y. (2006). An empirical study for quantitative evaluation of game satisfaction.

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Jensen, C., Farnham, S., Drucker, S., & Kollock, P. (2000). The effect of communication modality on cooperation in online environments. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on 23

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Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 470–477). April 01 - 06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands.

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O’Connell, T., Choong, Y., Grantham, J., Moriarty, M. & Wong, W. (2008). From a video game in a virtual world to collaborative visual analytic tools. Journal of Virtual World Research, 1(1). Retrieved February 5, 2009 from http://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/292/246 Prensky, M. (2001a). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part I. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–6.

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Certain commercial equipment, instruments, materials, services or companies are identified in this paper in order to specify the experimental procedure. This in no way implies endorsement or recommendation by NIST. 24

Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worldsâ&#x20AC;?

April 2009

Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College

By Ken Hudson and Kathryn Degast-Kennedy, Loyalist College, Canada

Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe the process and results of a Canadian border simulation run in Second Life for students at Loyalist College. Recent security restrictions at the Canadian border limit access for college students to serve their placement at the actual border, thus eliminating the possibility of first-hand experience. Additionally, in class role-plays designed to practice border interview skills were not adequate to instill the interview process. Using Second Life to simulate the border environment and procedures allows students access to a simulated real life environment and provides them with the sufficient real world practice they require to grasp and retain essential interview skills. The results of this learning experience translated into greater levels of confidence and significantly improved grades.

Keywords: Second Life; Loyalist college; border simulation; applied training.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College 4

Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College

By Ken Hudson and Kathryn Degast-Kennedy, Loyalist College, Canada Loyalist College is a modest-sized, rural, applied learning and technology college located between Toronto and Ottawa in eastern Ontario, Canada. The college has been active in Second Life since the fall of 2006, when it became the first Canadian college to both establish a presence and begin teaching classes in Second Life.

As part of its Justice Studies program, Loyalist offers a customs and immigrations track for students who aim to pursue a career in customs related fields, including those offered by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). Many graduates of the program join CBSA and train to become Border Service Officers (BSO). The skills essential for a BSO include proficiency in mandatory traveler interviews, the standard screening contact when crossing the border into Canada.

The challenge in teaching interview skills is in creating a suitable practice environment that supports learning outcomes and that also replicates the style of scenario that will typify real life situations. Traditional in-class role-plays angle away from the complexities of real life into a rigid, formulaic, and dry situations, rendering them wholly unrealistic.

Prior to 9-11, CBSA (then Canada Customs) participated in a program whereby students involved in Customs related studies at Loyalist College experienced field placement opportunities at frontier customs ports. This arrangement allowed learners to gain first-hand knowledge of the customs function and operations at points of entry into Canada. Following 911, the need to reconsider security related matters at our points of entry resulted in the termination of placement programs. This being the case, learners within the Customs Program at Loyalist lost the opportunity to experience the operations at ports of entry.

In order to address these circumstances and to ensure a continuance of this value added experience, Loyalist College undertook to explore other available options and teaching strategies that would provide the same benefits to the learner. Among these were strategies where the learner was provided with written scenarios that required them to address customs related issues and take action to address these matters. Other strategies included role-plays where learners actually acted out scenarios and thereby developed competency in handling matters that could potentially arise at a port of entry.

Although these strategies were useful in some ways, it was apparent that they were deficient largely because they lacked the element of realism. It was determined that learning through scripted strategies failed to meet the goal of providing the learner with the advantages of first hand experience.

In early 2008, as a result of the continuing effort to reinstate the realistic component into customs studies, a plan to incorporate Second Life into the curriculum emerged. As this plan developed, an entire Customs Port in Second Life took shape. The resultant product was a real to life port that would allow the student user group not only to observe (as was the case pre 9-11) but also to actually become involved in every aspect of travel processing. With Second Life, learners were no longer just observers. Rather, they were virtual BSOs who were expected to 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College 5

handle all of the duties of both primary and secondary officers and to deal with emergent issues that could reasonably be expected at a port of entry. In effect, the Second Life customs application took student learning beyond what it had been prior to 9-11.

The collaboration between the Virtual World Design Centre and the Customs and Immigration program aimed to create a simulation that would address the challenges of creating realistic role-play experiences set in a true to life environment. While simulated environments for security related role-plays are not new, Loyalist College demonstrated that a relatively small institution with minimal resources can leverage virtual world platforms like Second Life for their own unique purposes. The border simulation innovates in its customizable response to real world pedagogical issues â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a response that would have been previously impossible. It points to further innovative contributions by modest institutions in the applications and methodologies in virtual worlds.

The project operated under the working hypothesis that virtual environments provide an adequate replacement to actual environments and that participants learning in these environments experience them as if they were real, or at the very least, realistic. This assumption was confirmed both by noted virtual worlds researcher Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University who says that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;our virtual identity is not separate from our physical identity,â&#x20AC;? (Foster 2008) and by the dramatically positive results of this project.

Development The process of developing a fully functional Canadian border simulation was only realizable with the affordable simulation tools that Second Life provides. The development process was initiated three months prior to launching the simulation and represents an intense collaborative process between faculty, instructional design, 3-D designers, and builders. The border environment, processes, props, and scenarios were verified in authenticity by the faculty lead on this project, an active BSO with CBSA for the past twenty-eight years. The academic content is founded on the mandatory traveler screening questions as defined by standard CBSA practices.

It was determined that the project would utilize the closest border crossing to the college, in Lansdowne, Ontario, just east of Kingston at the Thousand Islands, as the model for the build.

Team members were dispatched to the location to photograph the buildings, specifically the BSO booths. The overall layout was viewed by using Google maps, which provided an excellent aerial perspective. It was felt that the simulated border should accurately reflect the real border, and every effort was made to duplicate it faithfully.

Additionally, for the border interview process to have all realistic elements, vehicles were created that could be customized for each scenario. Each vehicle had doors, trunk, and glove box that could be opened for searching. As well, each of those areas had textures that could be changed to display various contraband items. The vehicles also generated a random license plate from a database of images, and that license tag was displayed both on the vehicle and on the computer monitor inside the booth. The booth monitor also provided any vehicle flags in a percentage accurate to actual traveler statistics. Warning holds such as stolen vehicle,

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immigration and smuggling issues, and so forth, added realistic data for the BSO who must evaluate all factors throughout the interview.

A crucial element of any border crossing is the evaluation of travel documents. The development team created a range of passports and other identification that would be passed to the BSO for inspection. The travel documents were made in a style indicative of international passports. The key information to be gained from the documents is proof of citizenship.

The final development element was the creation of accurate uniforms for the BSO students to wear. The uniforms were created using real examples brought to the team from faculty members. The uniforms were required for each student participating in the exercise, and added an incredible amount of realism for the roles the students were playing.

Instructional design Once the environment for the border learning experience had been determined, the next key task for the project was to define how the learning would proceed in the classroom. While role-plays had been conducted in person previously, the new simulation would require a different approach.

Three key groups were identified to participate in the border simulation: â&#x20AC;˘ Active Student Learners: Those who are participating hands-on in the simulation. The student BSOs work in the primary inspection lane as well as working on secondary/search duties. Among the significant Second Life benefits is one that is provided to individuals on secondary/search duties in these scenarios. In these cases, the learner encounters situations where contraband is concealed in vehicles arriving at the port for admission into Canada. The learner must recognize the situation and interpret the circumstances. Following these steps, the learner must develop, implement, and assess the effectiveness of an appropriate strategy and make adjustments to that strategy when circumstances so dictate. This process reinstates the element of realism in that the event and all of its related circumstances occur in real time. â&#x20AC;˘ Passive Student Learners: Those who are watching the simulation in the classroom. For this group, the Second Life simulation reinstates the benefits of the pre 9-11 model where observation was the primary function of the placement student. Observing the simulation allows these learners the opportunity to discuss decisions made by their peers. This process would spark discussion among the learners, with these discussions leading to further and deeper learning. â&#x20AC;˘ Volunteer Traveler Participants: Those who will play the roles of travelers. It is important to point out that these individuals are completely unaware of the questions they will be asked by the active participants. It is this circumstance that once again adds realism to the learning experience because the possibility of scenario-scripting is totally eliminated. What results is a more realistic encounter that provides both active and passive learners with learning opportunities that are sound and that promote retention of information.

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In structuring the simulation, it was determined that one to four students would staff the border crossing, in both the primary interview and secondary search zones. The remaining class of students would observe each interview or search and then respond to the role-play during a post-simulation discussion. While both active and passive student participants would be in the same classroom, the third group of travelers would be separated from the students to maintain the element of the unknown. Students would not be aware of who, or what scenario would be run at any given time and therefore would need their full range of observational skills to conduct the interview.

Training and technical support For a complex simulation like the border experience to run effectively, technical requirements need be addressed at the start of the project. For this exercise, a dedicated computer lab was booked, with the current and updated versions of the Second Life client installed. Each student would have a workstation and computer with headset and microphone. The traveler room was also required to maintain division between the two groups. The technical requirements and set-up were the same as for students.

All participants were registered for Second Life and trained on SL essentials during class training time. The hands-on sessions focused on only those elements of Second Life that would be used for the simulation, ignoring broader tools like building that exist in the client but that were extraneous to the experience. The elements covered in the training were: • Basic movement, with focus on walking to get into the booth; • Basic clothing change, to put on BSO uniform; • How to sit, to enable BSO to sit in booth; • Camera controls, to enable BSO to view car, occupant, and computer monitor; and • Voice Chat controls, for communication.

Pre-experience interviews Prior to the simulation being run for the first time but after initial training, an independent researcher was contracted to interview the students about their attitudes and expectations for the border simulation. While students were receptive to the general idea of using Second Life to augment their experience, a high degree of skepticism as to its value was evident during the interviews.

Questioned about using Second Life as part of their coursework, students responded: • Skeptical of video games for learning; • SL not a helpful learning tool yet; • Nervous; • Need to take baby steps; • More tutorials needed; • Too late in semester to start.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College 8

Asked about their expectations for using Second Life for the simulation, students responded: • Don’t think it will be true to life; • Experimental; • May be true to life when SL develops further; • It will be a good experience; • Just want to get it done; • Forces you to know course material; • For now it’s an unknown; and • In other classes instructors are talking, here you are doing it yourself.

The tones of the interviews were skeptical, reluctant, and pushed back against the newness of the experience. Even with this resistance, students were still willing to participate.

Running the border simulation The running of the border simulation was a highly organized dance of various elements.

The classroom was the focus point for students running the simulation, with a secondary room reserved for travelers. Students would each take turns conducting border interviews, while the remaining students observed. The class would pause and discuss each traveler interview, which, because of its realistic complexity, generated significant and topical discussion.

Travelers passing through the border were able to concoct their own scenario from the artifacts provided ( which included identification, avatars, clothing, ethnicity, gender, citizenship, and license plates). Scenarios were intended to be representative of typical border crossings including shopping trips, vacations, business trips, and so forth. For variance, immigration issues and other flag issues such as firearms, smuggling, and vehicular issues were occasionally added to the mix. Additionally, travelers were encouraged to express specific emotional states as a part of their characters such as anger, defensiveness, agitation, overt friendliness, and others.

The student BSO used an interview flow sheet as their initial guide to the process. This process includes a bilingual greeting, a question of citizenship, and for the traveler to specify their place of residence. Once resident status is determined, an interview flow exists for both residents and non-residents. These questions build on traveler responses, with some responses requiring additional questions.

The interview questions revolve around citizenship, length of stay, importing goods, restricted items, and monetary possessions. By asking these questions, BSOs determine if a traveler is eligible to enter Canada, whether they require further questioning or searches, or whether they will be denied entry.

The unknown quality of each crossing initially made the process more difficult for the BSO students, but ultimately led to an accelerated pace in learning the material. Both verbal and visual cues were used by students to analyze each situation. As a result, while training in elementary mandatory interview process, students were also exposed to the more complex analytical approach that the role of BSO carries with it: expectations that will be crucial for their future employment.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College 9

Post-experience interviews Once the class had run the simulation for four class periods, or twelve hours, the simulation was complete, and the students were again interviewed about their opinions on the various elements of the experience. While there was some initial reluctance, in the postexperience interviews all of the students found the simulation to be a valuable part of their coursework.

Role-play experience in Second Life: • Exceeded expectations; • Takes the place of traditional role-play but has more benefits; • More variety as it is more real; • Helps us to learn because we have to multi-task; and • More realistic because of the time constraint with other vehicles waiting in line.

What did you enjoy most about the exercise?

• More interactive than in-class role-plays; • There was pressure but no consequence (rehearsal); • Learned from watching others; • Critique of classmate interviews was a great learning experience; • Good to be able to speak to people in vehicles; and • Better than traditional role-plays.

Students commented on using virtual worlds as part of workplace training: •Beneficial; • Could cut training time; • Realistic; • Could train from a distance.

Finally students were asked to sum up their entire learning experience in Second Life: • Met or exceeded expectations; • As close as it could be to being true to life; • Great alternative to traditional role play; • Advantage over people who have not used Second Life; • Made the course more interesting; and • Seeing, hearing, and doing: we were actually there.

Observations and Conclusions The Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College demonstrates the potency of virtual worlds for applied training contexts. There was a tremendous excitement and commitment generated throughout the experience, which translated into an exceptional learning experience for the students. While engagement is certainly a valuable component of any learning experience,

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College 10

faculty and students look to final grade performance as the benchmark for measuring true success of any new learning approach.

Students were evaluated on their interview skills using a standard rubric for mandatory traveler questioning. The evaluation was administered in a live action role-play, using a physical mock-up of a port of entry. Students were graded on their introduction, residency determination, question flow based on residency, mandatory questions, correct interpretation of regulations and guidelines based on traveler response, and professionalism. The evaluation process and content is consistent with CBSA procedures and content for testing within the agency.

The results of this project were both impressive and surprising to everyone involved.

Students participating in the Second Life simulation achieve a grade standing 28 percent higher than the previous class who did not utilize virtual worlds.

Figure 1. Final Grade Result for Interview Skills Comparing Second Life Experience with Previous Year’s Results.

Other than the improvement in interview skills as noted, there were no other divergent trends between the two sample classes. From this, it is concluded that the learner population in 2007 compared equally with that of 2008 on all other facets of the coursework and that the two groups were relatively equal in learner intelligence, academic intellect, and final performance.

Additionally, the confidence level of the entire class increased palatably as they progressed through the experience and is mirrored in many of the student’s comments about the experience. The students left the project with a sense of accomplishment and one of having participating in a ‘real world’ experience. The confidence made them perceive themselves at an advantage in a competitive workplace screening process, where most felt they would outperform those without this type of prior training.

While the assumption was made at the start that students would gain from this experience, several unexpected benefits emerged as the project proceeded. The most dramatic of 10

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College 11

these is the number of teachable moments that came from the open-ended nature of the roleplays. By allowing for real world complexity, students were led into scenarios that challenged them to draw together all the information they had learned into applicable examples. The amount of discussion was staggering, and the range of topics broached by this approach was impressive.

The other main unexpected benefit was the speed with which the students were able to commit to memory the interview process. While using crib notes is normal at first, students quickly began using the full range of their observational skills during the interviews, rather than relying on a script. This gave them a much stronger sense of the process at the real border, where observation is the key to a successful job performance. This accelerated learning is also evidenced in the increase in average grades for these students.

While it is beyond the scope of this paper to speculate as to whether this experience had a lasting effect on workplace proficiency, the results have gained the attention of CBSA, who is now working with the Virtual World Design Centre to develop a similar training model for their new recruits. It is anticipated that this Second Life project will also impact the CBSA training processes is a positive manner.

In both cases, the focus of the virtual world border experience is the mandatory interview process. Students at Loyalist College who pursue a career with CBSA will immediately focus on this process as the core of their training. The mandatory interview process will also represent a large portion of their proficiency testing to become accepted as a BSO. The CBSA training facility currently stages live border crossings as an examination method. It is strongly believed that the experience Loyalist College students gain using virtual worlds will positively impact their performance in qualifying for this profession.

The Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College is the most successful project that the college has undertaken in Second Life to date. While initial hypothesis were followed in the course of the project, the outcomes far exceeded the expectations, both from faculty and from the students. The lessons learned from this success will inform all future applied learning experiences in virtual worlds that the college will undertake. The outcomes also reinforce the belief that virtual worlds hold a significant power for shaping the educational landscape of the twenty-first century. If the results from this experience are indicative of the types of results that virtual world training will yield, it is expected that virtual worlds will become the platform of choice for those experiences that are not feasible in real life and for enlivening traditional roleplays with a potent learning approach.

Bibliography Foster, Andrea L. (2008). What Happens in a Virtual World Has a Real-World Impact, a Scholar Finds.

Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2008. Retrieved April 21, 2008, from http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i30/30a01402.htm

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worldsâ&#x20AC;?

April 2009

Learning in a different life: Pre-service education students using an online virtual world

By Chris Campbell, La Trobe University/University of Notre Dame, Australia

Abstract Second Life is an online virtual world that is three-dimensional and uses rich graphics that allow the user to be engaged in this environment. There has been a significant increase in people using this virtual world and those conducting research in it in the recent past. This research study analyses a project where pre-service education students accessed Second Life as part of a 4th year elective course. The students had not used this virtual world prior to being introduced to it in class. They completed a problem-based learning experience in Second Life that allowed the students to explore the virtual world, as well as develop an activity that could be taught to a high school class. This study used case study methodology within a qualitative research framework. Although it was only a small pilot study, results suggest that the students learned how to navigate around Second Life and were open to this new technology. Half of the students reported that they would use this technology or similar technologies in the future.

Keywords: Second Life; pre-service teacher education; problem based learning; virtual words.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 4

Learning in a different life: Pre-service education students using an online virtual world

By Chris Campbell, La Trobe University/University of Notre Dame, Australia

Background to the study I learnt so much about Second Life as I had never heard of it before. It brings up some great points of interest.

I knew nothing about Second Life, so this gave me an opportunity to understand the new technology that is out there.

If this is where the future of education lies, I feel informed and confident about my ability to use it.

It showed me that this technology has potential in the classroom as a teaching tool.

These comments were made by students about the effects of the introduction of a program using Second Life as part of a pre-service education course and are indicative of the comments made by the group. This research paper goes on to analyze how Second Life, a virtual world, was used by these pre-service education students in a final year educational technology course. The students used Second Life to engage in and experience new technology. Second Life is an online world in three dimensions where each user has an avatar that represents his or herself. Using this avatar, users can travel around in the Second Life environment and are able to adapt and change their avatar, as well as transform their environment. Because their avatar is an animation, they can give themselves a new age, gender, or even alter if they are human to create a completely original persona and organism. Second Life can offer the user new ways to communicate, collaborate, and cooperate, thus making it an exciting new tool for use in educational settings. Research in this field has been conducted over the past few years, with some studies now becoming available. Anderson, Hristov, and Karimi (2008) conducted a small investigation as part of a thesis and concluded that Second Life can be used as a pedagogical tool in higher education institutions. However, they also suggested that due to slow graphics and the high demands of computer hardware, Second Life should be used as a learning tool to complement rather than as a substitute for other teaching methods.

The increased reporting on virtual worlds is due to the huge interest across the world, with people from many countries accessing Second Life. In May 2007, there were 6,888,765 residents of Second Life, of whom almost two million had logged in during the past sixty days, showing that Second Life has many active users internationally (Diehl, 2007). More recently, there were 499,986 residents logged in during a seven day period in September, 2008, with a total of over fifteen million residents in Second Life (Linden Research, 2008). It has been suggested that by the end of 2011, approximately 80 percent of internet users will have a virtual self, although perhaps not in Second Life, but in other virtual worlds (Gartner Group, 2007).

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 5

A substantial body of research has been undertaken on the sociology of both virtual communities and virtual worlds. One group of researchers report that Second Life is an educational game and that it should be both informative and engaging (Slator, et al., 2005). They conducted research on virtual world games, in particular Dollar Bay, which is intended to teach retailing principles and practices to students playing the game, it is meant to assist them in acquiring both real life skills and concepts. The rationale then, is that this learning is subsequently transferred to real life situations (Slator, et al., 2005). One study investigated whether learning can be improved through interaction with a virtual environment. Although the results were inconclusive in this complex issue, they suggest more investigation might be beneficial in increasing the body of research knowledge (Roussou, Oliver, & Slater, 2006).

Another group of researchers also suggest that â&#x20AC;&#x153;there are limitless possibilities for educational research and evaluation within the Second Life environmentâ&#x20AC;? (Sherman & Tillies, 2007, p.

7367). Another type of virtual world is SimCity which Devich (2008) suggests is an example of a strategy game. This means that a player needs to win and to do so, must acquire a level of skill.

In Second Life, one of the aims of the virtual world is to socialize, making this quite unusual in gaming strategies.

More specifically, Second Life is a multi-user virtual environment or a virtual world with a rich social network. It has evolved from the context of computer based games and is part of the current explosion in the use of Web 2.0 technologies. It is a commercial enterprise created by Linden Labs in 2003 selling and renting virtual land, as well as managing a virtual economy and providing a level of administration, policing and censorship (Linden Research, 2007). A portal is also provided for educators to exchange ideas and for researchers to network. This virtual world is free to use, although many users pay money (called Lindens in the virtual world) to purchase items virtually. Linden Labs also provides a secure environment for under age users called Teen Second Life. There are a number of comparable virtual worlds on the market, such as The Sims Online and the Active World environments.

One of the most recent educational studies using Teen Second Life is the Schome pilot project report from the Open University in the United Kingdom. This project in Teen Second Life investigated the level of engagement of 149 high school students (The Schome Community, 2007). The results of this study are positive and suggest that the teenagers who participated developed a wide range of skills needed in Second Life, such as walking, building, scripting, and other skills. Although these are Second Life related skills, these manipulation and problem solving skills are transferable to other activities. Other results from this study include enhanced knowledge and skills including communication, teamwork, creativity, and leadership skills.

Importantly, this research suggests that Second Life can offer some learning opportunities that other media can lack, thus providing flexibility in curriculum. Although the Schome report was from an initial study, it was the first of its kind to use Teen Second Life and as such, informed our current study by suggesting that there are positive outcomes for those using Teen Second Life and by suggesting it is an avenue that could be further investigated.

Researchers report on the limitations of using virtual worlds, particularly technical limitations, including latency. Brainbridge (2007) suggests that, in general, the deficiencies of the internet are highlighted when using Second Life. This is, in part, because of bandwidth problems causing latency or lag in downloading times. This is particularly noticeable in countries

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 6

such as Australia that have slower internet speeds than other developed countries. A recent paper

by Fetscherin and Latteman (2008) found that even with improving technology available there are still technical challenges for users of Second Life. Despite the problems in using Second Life that have been reported, many feel that these problems can be overcome and the benefits make it well worth the effort. One of the positives of Second Life is that it allows the instructor or teacher to create educational simulations and games (Livingstone & Kemp, 2008). Moreover, one advantage that Second Life has over other virtual worlds is that all users can create content, as it is not limited to the teacher.

Educational Context Second Life is increasingly used in educational contexts. While educators have to deal with limitations in Second Life, it is a quickly evolving technology and remains the most accessible of these newer virtual worlds. According to the recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of Second Life Mark Kingdon, one goal is to continue with innovation as more competition increases from new virtual worlds (Prokofy, 2008).

Some early research suggests that virtual worlds, and in particular Second Life, may provide pedagogical advantages for specific learning styles and learner groups and for particular subject areas (Bradshaw, 2006; Roussou, et al., 2006; Slator, et al., 2005; The Schome Community, 2007). Rather than segregate specific learner groups, this study embraces a whole class context and gives attention to the whole school community. This applied research study aimed to build on previous knowledge gained by investigating emerging teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pedagogical approaches to using Second Life for specific cohorts and curriculums. As many students in this study are considered to be digital natives, this study hoped to examine the digital convergence of their learning. The research methodology has reflected this and as such, includes a preliminary questionnaire in order to examine the specific technology background of the pre-service education students. The students who participated in this study will benefit in several ways. It was hoped they would learn a new set of skills that may help them in their teaching in the future.

These skills included being able to learn to coordinate a new set of prompts in the virtual world and being able to integrate a completely new range of in-world cues. It was also hoped that the students could adapt these skills in various ways once they are teaching.

There are a number of universities using Second Life both to teach curriculum and as an extra curricular tool. Often it is used to represent a real life environment; for example, at Harvard Law School they have created Harvard Extension Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s moot court, where students learn about court proceedings in the Second Life environment (Nolan, 2006). Another example of this is the Theatron 3 Project building of replicas of historical European theatres (The Higher Education Academy English Subject Centre, 2006). Others, such as the Open University-based Schome community, have focused on specific learner groups and on allowing students a high degree of creative freedom. Universities are also beginning to use virtual worlds to support research. In Australia, Swinburne Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Centre for Advanced Internet Architectures is using Quake 3 to model statistics and monitor their computer network as part of the L3DGEWorld project (Turner, 2008). Stanford University is teaching virtual world creation in their computer science programs as well as using them in research (Timmer, 2007). Brainbridge

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(2007) contends that the evolution of online virtual environments is enabling new types of social science research and can be viewed as virtual laboratories.

This study used Second Life as a tool to equip final year education students with the skills to critically and purposefully engage with emerging technologies to enhance their teaching practice. At the time of the study there were no other courses at the university that either taught Second Life or teach using Second Life as the medium. A community of practice at the university is slowly developing, and a number of faculties and centers have expressed interest in using Second Life for teaching curriculum and to support research and networking activities.

This study was inspired by the researcher’s experience of conducting a single seminar on Second Life that was conducted with 4th year primary pre-service education students during the second semester of 2007. The high level of engagement by this group of tertiary students with Second Life impressed the researcher. It was observed that the students appeared to be very comfortable exploring Second Life and at assessing its potential value and its limitations for users and for themselves as educators. This group readily identified the potential to incorporate Second Life into their technological knowledge and teaching practice and how to relate it to the curriculum. This suggested that Second life has potential to support deep learning in secondary and higher education. Thus, with the next cohort of students, Second Life was embedded into the course.

Research Design This study aimed to investigate the emerging teachers’ initial responses to and potential use of Second Life as an example of a virtual world and a new technological teaching tool. This research investigated education students’ responses to and perceived usability of virtual worlds.

Thus, a case study method was used for this study as this is one discrete cohort (Yin, 2003).

From the review of literature, research questions were devised within the context of the overall aim. The research questions were: • How do emerging teachers respond to using Second Life as a potential teaching tool in their future classroom?

• What are some of the potential uses of Second Life within a secondary school classroom context?

• What specific learning activities can utilize Second Life?

This project focused on 4th year pre-service education students who were enrolled in an elective course called Interactive Technologies in the summer semester of 2008. The course is an intermediate educational technology course where students create websites, gain experience using interactive whiteboards, and learn about emerging technologies. The course was taught in block mode over one month and included several assessment tasks, of which only one pertained to Second Life. By incorporating this project into the course it was hoped the students would undertake an enriched course using a new and emerging technology as well as have the opportunity to reflect on the unique characteristics of virtual worlds and what relevance these may have to contemporary teaching practice. Several important goals were thus set, which

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 8

included students being able to identify new learning demands on their students once they are teachers. Another goal was for the introduction of the project to support the current learning goals of the course as well as the acquisition of student skills. These skills included the generic skills universities teach students, such as team work skills, improved problem solving ability, as well as having curriculum experiences.

Data collected included student questionnaires, focus group interviews, as well as an online journal. This online journal was worth 10 percent of the total assessment for the course.

Other data included lesson plans from each group and audio recordings of class presentations that utilized Second Life. The type of data that was collected is shown more fully below in Table 1. Due to the number of students who were enrolled in this class the group was broken into two separate cohorts and they were taught a week apart for the entire course. This meant that one class completed all tasks a week later than the other class. As the course was taught in block mode, the entire class went for five weeks, with students participating on several full days.

Table 1. Data Collected and Number of Responses.

Data Type

Number of Responses

Pre questionnaire

36

Post questionnaire

25

Online journal

36

Learning activity report

10

Focus group interview transcripts

4 groups of 6 students

Audio recording of presentations

4 group presentations

Thirty-six students participated in this study, which were all the students from the two classes involved in the study. However, not all students participated in the final questionnaire or the focus group interviews. Twenty-five students completed the final questionnaire and there were two focus groups from each of the two classes. One of the limitations of this study is the small sample size, but as this is a small pilot study it could perhaps be repeated at a later time, strengthening this study.

Participants completed an online pre-questionnaire at the beginning of the course and another online questionnaire at the end of the course. The questionnaire was conducted using the online website called Survey Monkey, where a variety of questions were developed by the researcher and then hosted in a secure online space. The questionnaire contained a mixture of open ended and closed questions, including matrix style questions that focused on students Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use, including general use of technology both at home and at work, including mobile phone usage, emailing and social networking website use, as well as any preconceptions of Second Life prior to being introduced to it. The

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 9

students were also asked if they had used Second Life previously and how they think they may be able to use Second Life for educational purposes. The students were also asked about other virtual environments and if they have used them before. The final questionnaire asked students about their use of Second Life during the course, as well as how they anticipate they will use Second Life for educational purposes in their future teaching. Questions included asking the students how many hours during the course they used Second Life, as well as how they used Second Life for educational purposes. They were also asked if they might use Second Life in the future, when that might be, and how they might use it.

To add to the depth of the data, collected focus group interviews were conducted at the end of the course. Questions asked at this time involved asking about their experiences using Second Life both prior to undertaking the class as well as during the class. They were asked about the learning activities they created in class and if they thought they would use Second Life in the future, as well as if they feel they might use Teen Second Life after they are qualified teachers. The focus group interviews were conducted to add depth to the questionnaire data and to gain further answers from the students regarding their use of this technology. There were two groups who participated in the focus group interviews from each of the separate cohorts, which meant a total of twenty-four students participated in these interviews. Students were asked to volunteer for the interviews during their final class of the course, with the interviews being conducted by a research assistant in a room adjacent to the class.

Students had access to their own online journal in WebCT 6, which is part of the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Learning Management System. This journal allowed students to reflect on their virtual world experiences and was kept private between the course instructors and the individual.

The journal was worth 10 percent of the total assessment for the course. The students were able to reflect on their experiences such as working as a group, moving around their avatar in Second Life, and the advantages and uses they think they will have when they are classroom teachers.

They were able to reflect on class discussions about the learning styles teaching with Second Life might be useful for and how it may fit in with the curriculum taught in schools in the Australian state of Victoria or extracurricular activities. The students were also given two or three academic readings on Second Life, as well as a report on the Schome pilot study. The journal was designed to be open ended so that students could record any of their thoughts and not just comment on the areas suggested. Class discussions also revolved around these readings. The journal was not meant to be an arduous task for the students, and it was expected they would complete approximately five entries in the journal, although some students completed more than this.

Students were given a choice of either obtaining their own avatar (which requires signing up) or using a generic avatar while undertaking the course. By allowing the students a choice in the avatar they used, it allowed time for the students to decide if they really wanted to create their own. It also meant that class time did not have to be allocated for signing up and choosing an avatar name. Initially all students used the created avatars, although during the second and third Second Life sessions, several groups of students created their own avatars either just prior to the commencement of the class or at home. No records were kept on the number of students who created their own avatar, but from observation it is thought that at least 30 percent of the students created one. The lessons were all conducted in a computer laboratory, in a face to face

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 10

teaching situation. The students had wide access to these labs, not just during their class time, so they were able to access Second Life on campus other than just in class. They also had access to other online tools such as email and discussion groups. In class the main focus was on the students completing a group learning activity. This is described in-depth later in the paper.

Data analysis was completed in the following ways with the data being collected and then synthesized from the participant questionnaires, focus group interviews, and other data collected.

The emerging themes were then categorized and explored. Once the categories were assigned, the analysis relied heavily on description rather than inference. The data was coded through the qualitative analysis software called NVivo. In this software program there was a coding of how the students used Second Life as well as their opinions on others using Second Life and how it might be used in educational ways in the future. This allowed for analysis by the researchers.

This is a pilot study and thus, unexpected themes were expected to emerge at this time.

Results The first section of the results reveals the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; previous experience in technology.

They all had some background in using technology, whether it was mobile phones or accessing social networking sites. The students were asked this information in order to ascertain the amount of technology they use in their daily lives. The next section reports on the actual activity the students completed, as well as their responses to the activity and their expectations of using Second Life with their future students in a classroom.

Background in using technology Students used a variety of technology in their everyday lives; however, these technologies were not generally used in their work environments. Only six (16.7 percent), out of the thirty-six participants had heard about Second Life prior to undertaking the unit. Five of these participants commented on what they knew about it, with all thirty-six participants either saying or inferring it is a virtual world.

From this group of participants, none had ever used Second Life before. The participants were asked what they thought Second Life might be about. From a total of thirty-three responses, half the participants (N = 16) had no idea what Second Life was, while eight participants thought it is a virtual world. Four participants thought it is a computer program or online game, while two assumed it is similar to the Sims game. Two comments were regarding it being a tool for learning with one participant stating â&#x20AC;&#x153;I guess I think it's probably an application that can be used as a tool for teachers and students: a learning tool?!â&#x20AC;? One comment could not be categorized.

Students used technology at home and at work in several interesting ways. Email was used extensively at home with 58 percent (N = 21) of students using it either daily or several times a day. Students were more likely to use Facebook, than My Space, with 60 percent (N = 21) using Facebook once a week or more and 23 percent (N = 8) using My Space. Generally, students mostly did not use email, mobile phones, text messaging, or social networking sites while at work.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 11

The learning activity The students’ learning experiences were part of a well developed and defined set of tasks that they undertook as part of the course. Working entirely in groups, the students were introduced to Second Life, and using an enquiry-based learning model, they completed a scenario which required two class sessions of about one and a half hours each. Day one consisted of the students initially exploring Second Life while also listening to a presentation, which included a history as well as practical information about Second Life. The students then logged into Second Life in groups and began exploring the aspects Second Life including navigation, flying, talking, and other in-world skills.

The pre-service students were given focus questions so that after they were able to use basic in-world navigation, they were actually investigating how high school students may use a virtual world as a learning tool and how Second Life might teach high school students in a different way than how the students are traditionally taught. This task fit in well with the overall course goals, which were to: • •

Use information technology to develop flexible teaching approaches to students with diverse learning needs and abilities; and Use emerging technologies such as Second Life and gain experience using it as an educational tool.

These goals were in addition to the generic university goals, which were to: • Develop skills in working as a team member; • Improve problem solving skills; • Gain experience in refining writing skills; • Develop and refine planning skills.

In their second session, the students were given an enquiring and designing task to complete. This was a problem-based learning experience where the task was for the students to design a learning activity that they would like to try with a high school aged class using Second Life. The learning activity needed to support inclusive practice; that is, the practice of ensuring everyone’s learning needs are included. The pre-service education students were then required to examine the scenario they were given, decide on how to approach the task and assign roles, and then locate and analyze recent Second Life research. After reflecting on the research, they were to identify their cohort, as well as relevant curriculum and their learning objectives. The students then began designing their learning activity.

The third session involved the students giving an oral presentation to the class that was five minutes in length. Each group also wrote a 500 word summary called a learning activity report. This brief summary of their learning design including a rationale and critical reflection.

These presentations were audio recorded and the entire class reflected on the activities presented after each group’s presentation. The class then reflected on using Second Life as an educational tool.

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By the end of the sessions, the students had created a variety of activities to use with secondary students. The activities mostly used environments already available in Second Life and Teen Second Life, although one group’s activity used building skills with the creation of the ideal classroom. These included different groups focusing on activities such as: • • • • • • • • •

Cyber bullying; Going on an excursion; Mapping; LOTE (x two groups); Scavenger Hunt; Role playing occupations; Communication skills; Children building/creating an ideal classroom; and Exploring water channels, ie Maths angles, depth and volume.

The students took this problem-based learning task very seriously and produced quality detailed summaries of their activity. The summaries included learning objectives for the activity, as well as evaluation and assessment sections. Through witnessing the student presentations, it was evident that the learning activities that students designed were realistic to be taught to children and resourceful in that they used readily available resources.

Students thought the activities they created during the class would work in environments such as Teen Second Life, with 87 percent of students reporting this. One student reported “students are always willing to try new things and technology is in this day an [sic] age a very popular means of doing so. Our activity- re-design and build your own classroom, i [sic] feel would be appealing to Teens in Teen SL” while another also thought that Second Life “encourages students to develop their technical skills in second life.” A third student reported “students will realise that there is an educational purpose for using SL, not just socialising. If they respect that, they are likely to appreciate SL as a different type of learning tool within a unit of work.”

This suggested the students thought they had developed child centered activities well.

However, only six (25 percent) from a total of twenty-four responses by the students thought they would use Second Life in the future. Students reported that in the regional schools they were about to get jobs teaching in, they felt they would not have the opportunity to teach using Teen Second Life. One student recorded in the survey “I will use it to get the students to build structures in maths, e.g., creating a shopping centre or creating their dream home,” while another recorded “I will encourage students to enter Teen Second Life as part of a Peer Skills training program. The emphasis will be on students interacting in a "help-seeking" scenario, that is, reflective listening.” In the focus group interviews, students were asked why they might not use Second Life in the future. Responses included security being a concern by students in two of the focus groups. One student commented, “I still think even ‘Teen Life’ – there’s too big an age gap between 12 year olds and 18 year olds. Tweleve year olds are still kids whereas 18 year olds, they’re adults.”

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Learning in a different life 13

The majority of students felt that completing the activity made them more comfortable exploring new technologies. One student in the final questionnaire recorded “I may not have looked at these emerging technologies if they were not introduced into this class.” Another student recorded “practice and sharing information in the classroom (lab) is great, it's when I do the most learning!” While another student had a further perspective “having been in Second Life at the Uni, I am more willing to try it at home and also to try other new technologies.” However, one student disagreed with this as s/he “was already comfortable exploring all areas of technology.”

Students kept a private journal in WebCT 6, which was read only by the researcher. In this, they reflected on their use of Second Life and on the readings they had been given. Students posted between three and ten reflections during the course. The journals reflected the change in the student’s knowledge and thinking. For example, one student commented in her first posting “I thought initially it looked like the virtual world of SIMS . . . I never had this game . . . This was fairly hard to grasp . . . Social skills and role playing is not meant for the internet, nor any virtual world”..This student’s second post consisted of “I was surprised, after reading a number of the readings, that Second Life could be/and was being used as an educational tool. Although I am still fairly reluctant to the idea of allowing students to explore a virtual world, I can understand that it could be beneficial.” Interestingly, this student’s third post continued with her pedagogical development as she stated: Whilst doing the SL learning activity I finally understood how Second Life could be a beneficial learning tool for teachers and students in the classroom. Our activity looked at allowing students to design their own classroom, and physically build their room whilst in the Virtual World of SL. This student’s final post included the statement “overall, after reading the article I feel that Second Life has a lot of strengths and I can see how SL is being used in classrooms.”

Although just one sentence from the final post, it is representative of how this student and others changed their view of Second Life through the use of it during the course.

The online journals also show student development in being able to control the avatar and how they would use Second Life as an educational tool. One student stated “It was difficult at first to manipulate the avatar to turn and to move forward,” but then reported, “I believe with more practice that I will get better at controlling the avatar.” Other students reported similar experiences, while others commented on wanting to personalise their avatar. One student stated “I found it interesting how quickly I wanted to change the avatar’s appearance.” Even with limited knowledge about Second Life, this student went on in her first journal recording to state “I do believe it’s important to design your own avatar as it is a representation of yourself or how you would like to see yourself in this virtual world,” which supports research on avatar creation.

Several students reported in their journal that using Second Life assisted them in ‘thinking outside the square.’ Students also reported that they found the readings helpful and that they showed examples of how to use virtual worlds like Second Life for educational purposes.

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During the class sessions there were no undue technical problems, although some students did come across some anomalies. These were reported primarily in the focus group interviews with students commenting on things such as being jostled by three men and being glued to the one spot (which this could have been due to lack of user control rather than foul play). Mostly the students reported positive experiences with others in Second Life. Overall, the students did not particularly have any negative experiences in Second Life.

Overall, students felt that completing the activity in class made them more comfortable in exploring new technologies. They commented that they normally would not be able to experience these new technologies as well on their own. They also commented on how using Second Life in class opened their minds to new experiences. One student commented about using new technologies in the future “we’ll probably jump in there because we’ll be a bit more familiar with how it works.” While another student stated “I do see it as part of the 21st century learning – that’s what it is.”

Through the completion of the task and subsequently the course, the pre-service education students achieved the overall goals of the course. Through the evidence gathered, including the focus group interviews, survey, work samples, and observation of the presentation, the conclusion can be drawn that the students achieved the goals of the course.

Conclusion

Although Second Life is increasingly used, research in this area is relatively scarce so the research and evaluation opportunities are limitless (Sherman & Tillies, 2007). It is a new and exciting area to work in and this pilot project, although limited by the small size of the group, offers a valuable contribution to the current knowledge base. This research has some natural further directions, which include using Teen Second Life in schools with high school students.

Other potential research is with pre-service education students, perhaps also with those students in high schools. This is an exciting new area that, although still being researched by many, has a lot of scope, particularly in education and with students studying teaching.

The students were all exposed to a new and innovative technology. While none of them have ever used this virtual world before, they could see the potential for its use for educational purposes, particularly with high school classes. The students used a problem-based scenario approach to investigate Second Life and determine activities they could use in a high school setting. These activities were innovative, varied, and appear to be achievable in that they can be taught to high school students, perhaps using a closed environment, such as Teen Second Life.

Before teaching this course several goals were set. The evidence presented here demonstrates that the students’ learning was enhanced through the focus of Second Life and the goals were achieved. The new skills the students learned will be transferable into their general teaching skills when they teach children. Thus, this paper demonstrates that it does add to the literature on Second Life being used in the field of education. This is particularly important because to date, there have been almost no research published in the field of pre-service

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education students using Second Life, although this will change in the near future. These positive results demonstrate that it will be beneficial for more research to be conducted in this new area.

With improved broadband speed and access to the internet throughout the world, there has been extraordinary growth in new internet technologies. Researchers are only beginning to understand the potential of virtual worlds, as well as being able to evaluate the educational applications of many of these newer internet technologies. Second Life is one of the new technologies currently being investigated, and it is important that pre-service education students have access to these new technologies, in order to best teach their future students. This course was able to provide that, along with a new and valuable set of skills that the students have learned and will continue to use in the future.

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Bainbridge, W. (2007). The scientific research potential of virtual worlds. Science, 317(5837), 472 - 476.

Bradshaw, D. (2006). New practices in flexible learning: Virtual worlds - real learning!

Pedagogical reflections. Retrieved 17th December, 2007, from http://virtualworlds.flexiblelearning.net.au/reports/VWRL_pedagog_reflect.pdf Devisch, O. (2008). Should planners start playing computer games? Arguments from SimCity and Second Life. Planning Theory & Practice, 9(2), 209 - 226.

Diehl, W. C. (2007). The new social networking technologies: Educators get a Second Life.

Paper presented at the Twelfth Cambridge Conference on Open and Distance Learning, Cambridge.

Fetscherin, M., & Lattemann, C. (2008). User acceptance of virtual worlds. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 9(3), 231 - 242.

Gartner Group (2007, 24th April). Gartner says 80 percent of active Internet users will have a "Second Life" in the virtual world by the end of 2011. [Press Release] Stamford: Garner Research.

Linden Research (2007). What is Second Life? Retrieved 19th December, 2007, from http://secondlife.com/whatis/ Linden Research (2008, 18th September, 2008). What is Second Life? Economic statistics.

Retrieved 21st September, 2008, from http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php Livingstone, D., & Kemp, J. (2008). Integrating web-based and 3D learning environments: Second Life meets Moodle. Upgrade, IX(3), 8 - 14.

Nolan, R. B. (2006). At law school, 'Second Life', in the cards, and the course catalogue. The Harvard Crimson: Online Edition Retrieved 19th December, 2007, from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=514500 Prokofy, N. (2008). Interview: Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon. Virtual Worlds News.

Retrieved 2nd May, 2008, from http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/04/interviewlinde.html Roussou, M., Oliver, M., & Slater, M. (2006). The virtual playground: an educational virtual reality environment for evaluating interactivity and conceptual learning. Virtual Reality, 10(3-4), 227.

Sherman, G., & Tillies, R. (2007). Educational research and evaluation data collection procedures in Second Life. Paper presented at the World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2007, Quebec City, Canada.

Slator, B. M., Chaput, H., Cosmano, R., Dischinger, B., Imdieke, C., & Vender, B. (2005). A multi-user desktop virtual environment for teaching shop-keeping to children. Virtual Reality, 9(1), 49.

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The Higher Education Academy English Subject Centre (2006, 11th December, 2007). Theatron 3 - Educational undertakings in Second Life Retrieved 17th December, 2007, from http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects/archive/technology/tech23.php The Schome Community (2007). The schome-NAGTY teen second life pilot final report: A summary of key findings and lessons learnt Retrieved December 17, 2007, from http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/getfile.cfm?documentfileid=11344 Timmer, J. (2007). Researchers hope to enable crowdsourcing of virtual worlds. Ars Technica: The Art of Technology Retrieved 30th March, 2008, from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071230-researchers-hope-to-enable-crowdsourcingof-virtual-worlds.html Turner, A. (2008). Quake gives 3-D control. Tech: Case Studies and Profiles. Retrieved 26th April, 2008, from http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/quake-gives-3dcontrol/2008/04/21/1208742844690.html Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods. (3rd ed. Vol. 5). London: Sage Publications.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Second Life physics: Virtual, real or surreal?

By Renato P. dos Santos, ULBRA - Universidade Luterana Brasileira, Brasil

Abstract Science teaching detached itself from reality and became restricted to the classrooms and textbooks with their overreliance on standardized and repetitive exercises, while students keep their own alternative conceptions. Papert, displeased with this inefficient learning process as early as 1980, championed physics microworlds, where students could experience a variety of laws of motion, from Aristotle to Newton and Einstein or even “new” laws invented by the students themselves. While often mistakenly seen as a game, Second Life (SL), the online 3-D virtual world hosted by Linden Lab, imposes essentially no rules on the residents beyond reasonable restrictions on improper behavior and the physical rules that guarantee its similitude to the real world. As a consequence, SL qualifies itself as an environment for personal discovery and exploration as proposed by constructivist theories. The physical laws are implemented through the well-known physics engine Havok, whose design aims to provide game-players a consistent, “realistic” environment. The Havok User Guide (2008) explicitly encourages developers to use several tricks to cheat the simulator in order to make games funnier or easier to play. As it is shown in this study, SL physics is unexpectedly neither the Galilean/Newtonian “idealized” physics nor a real world physics virtualization, intentionally diverging from reality in such a way that it could be called hyper-real.

As a matter of fact, if some of its features make objects behave “more realistically than real” ones, certain quantities like energy have a totally different meaning in SL as compared to physics. Far from considering it as a problem, however, the author argues that its hyper-reality may be a golden teaching opportunity, allowing surreal physics simulations and epistemologically rich classroom discussions around the “what is a physical law?” issue, in accordance with Papert’s never-implemented proposal.

Keywords: Second Life, physics, realism, hyper-real, surreal.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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Second Life physics: Virtual, real or surreal?

By Renato P. dos Santos, ULBRA - Universidade Luterana Brasileira, Brasil Among all the virtual worlds that exist today, Second Life (SL), which appeared in 2004 almost out of the blue, has now the largest user base. Its older competitors like AlphaWorld, Active Worlds, the Croquet Project, and other virtual worlds, all have different strengths, but none of them matches the popularity with the general public and the commercial companies that SL has conquered (Bestebreurtje, 2007).

SL is an online 3-D virtual community developed by Linden Research, Inc. founded by Philip Rosedale, better known in the SL world as Philip Linden (Linden Lab Management, n.d.).

SL is hosted and operated by Lab of Linden Research, Inc., also known as Linden Lab. The entire world of SL, called the grid, (including all avatar data, objects, landscapes, textures, and texts) is hosted on servers run by Linden Lab. SL is still seen as a game, but its residents have disputed this notion because there are essentially no rules imposed on the residents (Bestebreurtje, 2007). The only exceptions are the restrictions on areas that are not open to the general public and the physical rules that make objects to interact realistically. To access it, users only have to download and install client software locally. Once logged, SL users, called residents, can walk around, explore the world, enjoy the 3-D scenery, fly, drive cars and other vehicles, interact with other avatars, play, or create objects. There are a wealth of resources for building complex objects, with many different textures, such as chairs, clothes, jewels, vehicles, guns, and even entire buildings. In fact, most of SL world has been built by the residents themselves, which has been characterized as a shift of culture from a media consumer culture to a participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006).

The ease in which new users can join SL, combined with support from several educational and library groups, discussion forums and a wide range of free communication, graphics, design, and animation tools, makes many educators from around the world see SL as a versatile environment to conduct pedagogical activities (Calogne & Hiles, 2007). Bradley (2008), for example, relates how in his Introduction to Organic Chemistry students created a lifesize model of a molecule around which the teacher is able to walk, with the students, and comment real time. Calogne and Hiles as well as Conklin (2007) list various educational uses of Second Life, including Art, Law, Religion, English, Programming, Geography, Politics, Economy, Mathematics, Biology, and physics teaching.

The first idea that comes to mind is to use SL to offer courses online. But, this author aligns himself with Eliëns, Feldberg, Konijn & Compter (2007) in considering this approach rather naïve and outdated while there are other much more appealing alternatives such as simulations and modeling (Borba & Villarreal, 2005).

Although many authors stress the SL “potential” for simulations that promote physics learning, this author did not succeeded in finding any concrete example of physics simulation.

There are, however, many artifacts left to free manipulation by visitors in places like the Institute of Physics Experimenta, situated in the coordinates Rakshasa (207, 26, 25). Furthermore, researchers at Denver University are planning to build the first virtual nuclear reactor to train new nuclear engineers (Medeiros, 2008).

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The physical verisimilitude of the metaverse, in the sense that an avatar cannot pass through walls and stones tossed into water will behave as expected, relies on the obedience to physical laws and principles such as gravity, buoyancy, mass, friction, and so forth. This obedience is usually ensured by means of third-party software called physics engine. Vehicles are one application of the physics engine.

Differently from other metaverses, such as Google Lively, where physical laws are not seriously taken into account, SL is possibly the most realistic virtual environment in the market, as objects are controlled by the Havok software. This powerful software has been used in creating many internationally acclaimed films over the years such as Troy, X-Men: The Last Stand, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, among others (Havok in the movies, n.d.).

In this work, SL physics will be studied through a comparative analysis between the Newtonian physics taught in schools and the SL world physical features and physically interesting LSL functions, as described in the following sources, in addition to the author’s own experiences: • Havok Physics Animation v. 6.0.0 PC XS User Guide ; • LSL Portal ; • Guidelines for educators; • LSL Wiki; • SL Wiki; and • SL Wikia.

Also discussed are the differences found between SL physics and that physics that is taught at School within the framework of the notions of Reality in Science and of Virtuality, according to Lévy (1998) and Eco (1986).

After this analysis, pedagogical implications and alternatives, based on Papert’s (1993) never-implemented physics microworlds proposal will be discussed.

Second Life Physics Analysis “Morpheus: [. . .] yet their strength and their speed are still based on a world that is built on rules” (Irwin, 2002).

The Second Life world consists of many interconnected, uniquely named simulators, referred to as sims or regions. Each simulator keeps track of the objects and agents within its region, simulates physics, runs scripts, and caches and delivers object and texture data within the sim to clients.

The aim in Havok’s (2008) design is to provide simulation that gives the game-player a consistent environment to explore (p. 374). In principle, Havok deals with Newtonian mechanics, or the high school laws of motion that describe the behavior of objects under the influence of other objects and external forces (p. 375).

SL, through its Linden Scripting Language (LSL), offers resources to attach behaviors to objects such as fountains, guns, or vehicles so that an object can change its color, size, or shape, while it can move, listen to your words, talk back to you, or even talk to other objects. LSL 5

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follows the familiar syntax of a C/Java-style language and features almost 400 built-in functions for manipulating physics and avatar interaction, many of which of special interest to physical studies in this metaverse. For example, llGetPos()2 and llGetVel() return vectors that are the object’s region position and velocity, respectively; llGetOmega() returns its angular velocity, while llGetForce() and llGetTorque() return vectors representing the force and the torque, respectively, acting upon the object.

As Havok deals with game genre specific problems like vehicle simulation, human ragdolls, physical interaction of keyframed characters within a game environment, and character control (2008), it does not even try to simulate any physics beyond Mechanics, excluding any possible electromagnetic or nuclear interactions.

While many physical quantities have their physical counterpart in SL, certain quantities have quite different definitions in SL when compared to the Newtonian physics ones, as will be seen below.

Time Still today, time, one of the most fundamental physical quantities, usually refers to the classical Newtonian conception of an "absolute" and "equably" flowing time, used to compare the intervals between events and their durations and to sequence them, therefore making possible to quantify the motions of objects and to formulate a prescription for the synchronization of clocks. This, of course, is quite different from Einstein’s proposal of a new method of synchronizing clocks using the constant, finite speed of light as the maximum signal velocity, which gave birth to the Theory of Relativity.

In SL, being a Massive Multiplayer Online Reality Game, time is needed to keep things moving in (or out of) sync with everything else. However, SL physics can be impacted by network lag and server load, and therefore may not be particularly accurate. All physics and scripts generate simulator lag which can make avatars experience a slowed-down (slow-motion, "bullet-time") movement from its usual region frames per second (FPS) value of 45.0, as returned by the llGetRegionFPS( ) function. When the sim server cannot keep up with the processing of its tasks, it will use a method called time dilation to cope with it. Time dilation will slow script time and execution down to the limit when time dilation value reaches zero and script execution halts. The function llGetRegionTimeDilation() returns the current region simulator time dilation, the ratio between the change of script time to that of real world time, as a float value that ranges from 0.0 –full dilation – to 1.0 – no dilation (LSL Wiki, llGetRegionTimeDilation and LSL Portal, llGetRegionTimeDilation). A collection of lag reduction tips is provided at LSL Wiki under Lag. While SL is able to run qualitative experiments and to cope with simple mechanics experiments with a corresponding decrease in accuracy, it will definitely not give response time down to milliseconds consistently (Guidelines for educators, 2008, Technical essentials, § 5).

Mass The concept of mass is one of those basic physical concepts whose real significance is never fully disclosed in textbooks or lecture courses (Jammer, 1997). In fact, it is a rather abstract concept whose meaning evolved from the ancient metaphysical opposition of matter and spirit to the present relativistic equivalence to energy or to space-time curvature. However, its 6

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most common meaning is still related to the object's resistance to accelerate when a force is applied on it.

In SL, mass is the measure of translational inertia, the tendency of a body to resist accelerations, expressed in lindograms (Lg). The mass of an object is reported by functions llGetMass() and llGetObjectMass(). For example, a typical avatar mass is around 2 Lg. Contrary to the Newtonian (1947) definition of mass as arising from the product of its an object’s density and volume, in SL object mass depends only on its size and shape, not on its material type, set through the constant PRIM_MATERIAL to one of the eight different available materials, such as glass, metal, flesh, and so forth. However, avatar mass depends only on its height, irrespective to its fatness, thickness, muscle, or other factors. Attachments will not alter avatar mass, except for shoes, which change avatar height and therefore its mass.

Gravity In physics, gravity – or, more generally, gravitation – refers to the natural phenomenon by which objects attract one another. A direct consequence of it is the well-known weight force that every object experiences.

In SL, every physics-enabled object with mass m will be subject to a constant force P given by P = m ⋅ 9.8 m/s 2

applied in the negative z-direction to simulate the acceleration under gravity (LSL Wiki, n. d., Gravity). However, the function llSetBuoyancy() can cancel the effects of gravity, as seen below.

Acceleration In Havok (2008), the quantity acceleration has the usual physical definition as “the rate of change of velocity over time” (p. 380). In Newtonian terms, the acceleration a of an object with mass m , when subject to the action of a force F , is given by

a=F

m

.

However, the SL function llGetAccel(), instead of returning its acceleration, returns the vector (llGetForce()/llGetMass()) + <0, 0, -9.8> which is a sum where the first term corresponds to the dynamical object acceleration, due to the action of some force, as seen above, and the second term is a vertical downwards acceleration that simulates the terrestrial gravity effect (LSL Wiki, n. d., llGetAccel).

For an object resting on the floor, the value for its acceleration, as returned by llGetAccel(), should be always <0, 0, 0>, which corresponds to real world physics, if we consider a normal force acting on the object by the floor which exactly offsets the force of gravity.

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However, random, fast-changing values for llGetAccel() were observed for a still object, as shown in Figure 1. This is possibly due to the action of the omnipresent SL “wind,” whose velocity can be obtained through the function llWind() (LSL Wiki, n. d., llGetAccel),.

Although aerodynamic or hydrodynamic effects of viscosity with air or water have not been implemented, the value for the acceleration of a free-falling object, initially equal to the gravitational acceleration, will be gradually reduced to zero in order to simulate the air resistance effect that makes the objects asymptotically approach a terminal velocity, as in the real world.

On the other hand, as there is no “real” air resistance, “any impulse off the vertical (gravity) axis will cause the object to keep moving forever” (LSL Wiki, n. d., llApplyImpulse).

As a consequence of the points above, users are advised to trackvelocity and measure its changes to get the actual acceleration values, which means to use the well-known acceleration formula ∆v , ∆t where ∆v denotes a velocity change during a certain time interval ∆t . a=

Figure 1. Random Acceleration in a Still Object.

Energy In physics, the concept of energy was developed by various scientists since the eighteenth century, initially with the purpose of studying free falling objects and collisions, and it was formalized through the discovery of various conversion processes until the middle of the nineteenth century. It is a very abstract, theoretical concept and its conceptualization comes from 8

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the principle of conservation of energy (Elkana, 1974). Throughout history, various forms of energy were defined, including kinetic, potential, electric, and chemical, which are interconvertible.

In Havok (2008), “energy management is concerned with identifying objects in a scene that are not doing very much and removing these from the physical simulation (known as deactivating or turning off the object) until such time as they begin to move again” (p. 379).

Therefore, SL “energy” is somehow nearer to activity in Havok.

In SL, energy is a dimensionless quantity ranging between 0.0 and 1.0 and used to control how effectively scripts can change the motion of physical objects: if the energy of an object is 100 percent, LSL functions will have their full effect; yet, if it has a value lower than 100 percent, the same action on the same object will have a proportionally smaller effect, and when it reaches 0, actions will have no effect at all (LSL Wiki, n. d., Energy).

Instead of the usual physics kinetic energy, calculated in terms of its mass m and its velocity v as E = 12 mv 2 , in SL, energy behaves more like a momentum transfer p ( p = mv ).

This makes it easier to achieve high speeds with light objects (small m) but vehicles will probably cause smaller damages in collisions.

An object expends energy when scripts call functions to change its motion but objects continuously receive energy from the SL grid through a stipend at a rate of 200/mass units of energy per second until the 1.0 full energy limit. Kinetic functions demand energy at different rates and some of them may even not be able to act on heavy objects if they “eat” energy faster than the grid can refill it (LSL Wiki, n. d., Energy). See, for example, the function llSetBuoyancy() below.

Contrary to physics, where energy is defined only for the system where the object is inserted, in SL, energy is stored inside the object, in an impulse energy “reservoir” proportional to its mass (SL Wikia, n. d., Impulse Energy). Each time an object is rezzed (the act of making an object appear in this metaverse by dragging it from a resident's inventory or by creating it via the edit window) or its mass is changed (as in by changing its size or shape), its energy is reset to 0.

It should be noted, however, that the “real” object energy value is inaccessible, since the llGetEnergy() function merely returns object activity “as a percentage of maximum” (LSL Portal, n.d., llGetEnergy()). But, contrary to what one could think, in the real world, too, one cannot directly access the energy of a system by a simple measurement – there is no energymeter. As Sexl (1981) explains, “the total energy of a system has to be calculated from observable quantities like velocities, distances, charges and so on.” This is the exact procedure one will have to follow to obtain the energy value in SL. Friction In physics, friction is the contact force resisting the relative lateral motion of solid and/or fluid surfaces in contact. It depends on the normal force exerted between the surfaces, as a result from the objects’ weights; heavier bodies will show higher friction. It also depends on the materials in contact and on their surface roughness, both quantified by a coefficient of friction.

In SL, friction is defined as “the effect of multiple collisions with other objects, e.g. air or water molecules” (LSL Wiki, n. d., Friction). This definition, however, describes other effects 9

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known as drag forces, such as air and water resistance, which also depend on the speed of the object moving through the medium. Moreover, drag forces, which increase with object speed, can reach the force of gravity value, canceling it and imposing a constant terminal velocity on the object (see Acceleration above).

In SL lighter, less massive objects are simply affected to a lesser extent by friction than heavier, more massive ones under identical conditions. Although there is no coefficient of friction to be altered, an object's friction can be indirectly changed by modifying its material type among the available ones, listed here from least to most friction: glass, metal, plastic, wood, plastic, rubber, stone, and flesh (LSL Wiki, n. d., Material). On the other hand, object buoyancy, as set by function llSetBuoyancy(), affects friction (LSL Wiki, llSetBuoyancy).

As before mentioned, aerodynamical or hydrodynamical friction effects were not implemented in SL, except for air resistance on free falling objects.

Buoyancy In physics, buoyancy refers to the vertical upward force on an object, such as a ship or a balloon, exerted by the surrounding liquid or gas and equals the weight of the fluid displaced by the object, according to Archimedes’s principle.

In SL, the buoyancy of an object is a dimensionless quantity and is set by the function llSetBuoyancy(). The default value is 0.0. Values between 0.0 and 1.0 mean a gentler than regular fall, the closer to 0.0 the closer to normal behavior. Setting this to exactly 1 will cause the object to float as if no gravity exists and buoyancy greater than 1.0 will make it to rise. Negative buoyancy values are allowed and will simulate a downward force, which will nonetheless also cause the object to vibrate considerably on the ground while the physics engine tries to "settle" it (LSL Wiki, n. d., llSetBuoyancy).

Buoyancy applies to “physical” objects only, as seen below. It is often used to make an object like a balloon float up slowly, as if gravity did not affect it. Wind can cause the object to drift.

It must be noticed that water has limited meaning in SL and buoyancy does not take water level into account: the object will float up the same rate whether it is under or above water.

Unlike some other characteristics, this is cancelled if the script that sets buoyancy is removed from the object. This function drains energy to keep the object floating. Therefore, it will not make a 90 kg object to hover, unless an extra upward force is applied.

As one sees, SL buoyancy is quite different from the real life one and to get a more accurate value for buoyancy, a simple llSetBuoyancy call does not suffice. It could be calculated from the object's displacement based on volume and on the density of the material being displaced.

Light As in the most primitive conceptions of light (LaRosa, Patrizi, & Vicentini-Missoni, 1984), it is a phenomenon totally pervasive in SL life. It is part of the environment, simply “is there” without any physical mechanism involved in its production or propagation. As expected, the main illumination comes from the sun and the moon replicas in SL, and their direction and their light intensity are uniform not only over the entire simulator but over the entire world. The 10

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sun and the moon are directly opposed to each other at all times, and as a result, the moon always appears full. Their orbital centers and speed are such that SL day and night corresponds to three and one RL hours respectively. Private island owners are even able to fix the position of the sun irrespectively of the direction seen in most of the world (LSL Wiki, n. d., llGetSunDirection()).

On the other hand, any object, to a limit of six per region, can be made a light source through the mere activation of a checkbox in its properties list, while the color and intensity of the emitted light can also be easily set, as well as the distance it will reach and even its intensity falling-off.

Physical and “Phantom” Objects It must be noted, however, that all that has been mentioned above applies only to objects made physical through the constant STATUS_PHYSICS. The attribute physical essentially enables inertia and gravity to act on the object which can then be moved and rotated using kinetic functions such as llMoveToTarget(), llSetForce(,) or llApplyRotationalImpulse(). A moving physical object will follow the real world rules and come to a halt and settle, but that depends on the object's velocity and/or its buoyancy, as a negatively buoyant object proportionally bounces around more before it settles. An object subject to a continuous impulse/collision will tend to never settle, however, unless it interpenetrates something.

Objects may also be made “phantom” by means of the constant STATUS_PHANTOM, in the sense that it can freely pass through anything except the terrain, objects, and avatars, without collision; phantom objects are not transparent, however. Curiously, phantom objects can be made physical when they will start colliding with land; the difference between phantom and nonphysical objects is not clear.

On the Realism of Second Life Physics “Morpheus: What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain” (Irwin, 2002).

“Cypher: I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious” (Irwin, 2002).

Bachelard (1934) argued “every fruitful scientific revolution has forced a profound revision in the categories of the real” (p. 134). Therefore, in order to fully understand the present thesis that, while SL physics is neither the Galilean/Newtonian physics nor a real world physics virtualization but intentionally diverges from reality in such a way that it may be labeled hyperreal, SL provides a richer environment for physics teaching than (still) positivistic lectures and classical simulations, a brief historical discussion covering those different worldviews is needed.

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Real world ancient physics Dynamics and kinematics appear in antiquity as philosophical discussions only. The Aristotelian “Law” nullum violentum potest esse perpetuum* implies that as soon as the force applied to the body ends, its motion ends too. This is in good accordance to our everyday experience, to the intuitive physics we develop by ourselves by interacting with our environment, and which will later constitute a serious learning obstacle to the Newtonian physics (McCloskey, 1983).

According to Dugas (1955), Aristotle’s intuitive theories have their origin in observations most routinely made in daily life, as they take the passive resistances to motion in account.

Therefore, Aristotle tried to build a real world physics.

Ideal-world classical physics In the Scientific Revolution, Galileo avoided the endless medieval discussions about the Aristotelian causes and focused on describing the course of the motion of falling bodies and projectiles in an exact mathematical manner (Dijksterhuis, 1969). As a matter of fact, he arrived at the correct conclusion that all bodies of any substance fall with the same acceleration only by abstraction from the air resistance and considering motion in vacuum, a method which paved the path for the Newtonian perpetual inertial motion (Crombie, p. 298). Doing so, Galileo put himself – and physics – immediately and conscientiously out of reality as an absolutely slick plane, an absolutely round sphere, both absolutely rigid, which are not found in our physical reality (Koyré, 1978) but only in Plato’s World and, of course, in the abundant, standardized, and repetitive end-of-chapter textbooks exercises. This, the Physics still taught in schools, restricted to the classrooms and positivistic laboratories — hard, abstract and detached from student’s everyday reality — is an ideal-world physics.

Counter-intuitive modern physics and surrealism The introduction of technologies that enhanced the vision, such as the camera obscura, the telescope, the zoopraxiscope, and many others, allowed for the creation of images that were disconnected from the tangible and began to define the real (Jones, 2006). A well-known example is Eadweard Muybridge’s pioneer study on the horse motion (Figure 2)

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Figure 2. The Horse in Motion, Eadweard Muybridge (1878).

It showed that horses never fully extended its legs forward and back, hooves all leaving the ground (Eadweard Muybridge, 2009), as contemporary illustrators tended to imagine (Figure 3):

Figure 3. Le Derby d'Epsom, Théodore Gericault (1821).

Such an “obvious” common sense, horse legs position was unfortunately not true. The real position is non-intuitive and intangible, made conceivable only through an instrument: phenomenotechnics (Bachelard, 1934, p. 12).

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On the turning of the century, our physical intuition took a major blow from Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, and Chaos Theory with all their concepts such as entanglement, gravitational lensing, and Hausdorff dimension that nobody understands (Feynman, 1967, p.

129). This fascinating physics populates imagination, sci-fi movies, and books but is unfortunately almost absent from classrooms, reserved to physics majors. At the same time that new physics was revolutionizing Classical Science and Popper’s Critical Rationalism was refuting the Classical Scientific Method, Modern Art was questioning the axioms of the previous age and struggling to find a language for the “new reality” revealed by the physicists, trying to capture the essence of the schizoid wave-particle duality (Parkinson, 2008). Surrealism in particular, according to Breton (1971), is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association heretofore neglected. Most popular context of the word “surrealism” is associated to political or social critiques through art but a few surrealist artists went further and criticized the limited rationalistic and positivistic physics worldview through idiosyncratic appropriation and juxtaposition of its parts as a means for imagination to recover its rights (Breton, 1971). While the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics states that we cannot talk about the real, but only the representations we make of it, Magritte produced various paintings in which he explores and denounces, in a witty and thought-provoking style, the difference between the real world and its representation, such as in his well-known 1935 work La Condition Humaine (Figure 4).

Figure 4. La Condition Humaine, Magritte (1935).

As was so well put forward by Bunge (2003), whereas Mechanism had proposed a unified picture of nature, the new world-view looks like a cubist painting. It is not only mosaic: it is also highly counter-intuitive.

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Virtual and hyper-real In common use, the word virtual often designates the absence of existence, a fake or illusory world, opposed to the real, material, concrete world. The term virtual comes from Medieval Latin virtuälis, equivalent to Latin virtus, which means virtue, force, power. For Lévy (1998) and for the Scholastics, virtual does not oppose to real but to the actual and is something that is in a potential state, not yet expressed or actualized.

In our so-called post-modern era, more modern technologies – like film, television, or the computer screen – created “realistic” images that did not rely necessarily on anything actual, but rather, by tricking the eye, on realities that are simultaneously constructed subjectively by the senses of the observer. People are now inundated by flickering images – legitimate cultural and material heirs from the camera obscura, the magic lantern, and the stereoscope – that forms the present discourse on virtual reality and virtual environments (Jones, 2006).

However, with such a multitude of technological resources at our disposal, virtual does not seem to be enough. We live in a more to come consumer culture, according to Eco (1986).

For a game to be funnier, more exhilarating, more absorbing, its designer will make it “better.”

Even if the virtual environment implements physical laws, game designers may not want to follow real world rules and allow, for example, players to drive faster, jump farther or bounce harder than normal (Havok, 2008).

Those simulations that, to be labeled as true must look true, have the appearance of being more real that the original – much like Caesar’s wife, who must not only be virtuous, but must be seen to be virtuous (Plutarch, 1919) – Eco (1986, p. 13) designated as hyper-real. Notice, however, that this is distinct from Baudrillard’s (1983) hyperreality, which is a sense of reality created by technology and made so similar to true reality, as to be indistinguishable from it – not more real than reality, as in Eco’s one. It should also not to be confused with Hyperrealism, a genre of painting and sculpture so meticulously detailed as to resemble a high resolution photograph.

SL physics As discussed in the previous section, while SL implements various real world features such as wind, air resistance, terminal velocity, and settling of moving objects, SL physics is not a mere real world physics virtualization, as other important features such as water resistance were not implemented. On the other hand, various physical quantities have quite different definitions in SL when compared to the Newtonian physics ones, as seen in the previous section, and therefore, it is not either a mere implementation of idealized Newtonian physics as offered by the Havok engine.

Havok, while embodying Newtonian physical laws, also allows and even encourages the building of hyper-real simulations, a path apparently followed by SL implementation. As a matter of fact, Philip Rosedale, in an interview quoted in Eliëns et al. (2007), affirms that one of the main reasons for the success of SL is “the fact that it offers a set of capabilities, which are in many different ways superior to the real world.” Therefore, SL deliberately chose to implement physics in a basically hyper-real way.

The author of the present study wants to stress, however, that SL can go far beyond that.

The possibility of making an object non-physical, switching off the standard SL physics and programming new unusual physical behaviors through LSL scripts opens the door to imagination 15

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - Second Life Physics 16

and experimentation. As two very pale examples, Havok (2008) suggests alternative gravity settings along an alternative axis. The Guide also suggests adding up to three times the normal gravity to a car with the basic effect of “accelerating the subjective time” (Havok, p. 330). One could use SL as a lab world, where one could easily make objects that repel themselves from one another or that follow strange dynamical laws. The experimenter would, however, not do it just for fun but mainly to liberate imagination and be able to critically question the closed mechanistic, positivistic physics taught in schools. These motivations, resembling those of the Surrealism approximation to modern physics, as discussed above, is the reason why the author prefers to use the adjective surreal when referring to the possible use of SL as a simulator.

To sum things up, Havok physics can be interpreted as hyper-real as well as the usual resident experience in SL. Yet, at the same time SL offers resources to build a surreal simulator in this metaverse. Its pedagogical implications are interesting as will be discussed in the next section.

Pedagogical Implications Trinity: "The Matrix isn't real."

Cypher: "I disagree, Trinity. I think the Matrix can be more real than this world." (Irwin, 2002).

Most learners – including many science majors – have difficulty in understanding physics concepts and models, both at the qualitative level and the quantitative formulation (Reif & Larkin, 1992). That difficulty often arises from alternative conceptions (Driver, 1989) built from their common personal experiences, based on a lifetime’s experience and is very difficult to remediate with instructionist pedagogical strategies (Dede, 1995).

Papert, displeased with this inefficient learning process, has strongly defended the introduction of IT in the classroom as a means to actively engage students in constructing mental models and theories of the world since the 1970s. For Morgan & Morrison (1999), models are mediators between theory and the real world, between classroom abstract scientific knowledge and the student’s concrete, empirical experience. It must be remembered that simulation is not a new concept, as scientists and programmers have used computers to simulate complex situations like rocket trajectories (ballistic motion), liquid flows (fluid dynamics) and other complicated projects probably since they started dropping off the assembly line (Havok, 2008, p. 371).

Papert, as early as 1980, offered a “Piagetian learning path into Newtonian laws of motion” (Papert, 1993, p. 123). For Papert, the phrase laws of motion usually raises difficult questions like What other laws of motion are there besides Newton's? (p. 124). To him, learners should be acquainted with other laws of motion, not so subtle and counter-intuitive. This would be viable in a physics microworld, where they could build an infinite variety of laws of motion, progressing, thus, from the historically and psychologically important Aristotelian ones to the "correct" Newtonian ideas and even to the more complex Einsteinian ones, via as many intermediate worlds as they wish (p. 125), in a way that short-minded teachers “may refuse to recognize as physics” (p. 122). And so many can be these worlds that “the logical distinction between the ‘real world’ and ‘possible worlds’ has been undermined” (Eco, 1986, p. 14), in the sense of immersion and experimentation, of distinction between possibility and necessity (Piaget, 1987). It is worth remembering that this experimental progression from Aristotelian physics to

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Newton mechanics closely resembles the psychogenetic succession investigated by Piaget & Garcia in their paramount work Psychogenesis and the History of Science (1989).

Various microworlds have been built, from the original Papert's Logo Turtles (1993) to present educational environments with Augmented Reality (Azuma et al., 2001). However, almost thirty years after Papert’s proposal, besides the primitive diSessa’s (Abelson, H. & diSessa, A., 1981) Dinatarts, to our knowledge there is no microworld implementation which allows the experimentation with physical laws, as conceived by Papert.

On the other hand, present high-performance computing and communications capabilities create a new possibility (Dede, 1995). It allows learners to immerse themselves in virtual, synthetic environments, like Alice walking through the looking glass, becoming avatars that can collaborate and learn-by-doing using virtual artifacts to construct knowledge (Walker, 1990).

This possibility shifts the focus of constructivism, “‘magically’ shaping the fundamental nature of how learners experience their physical and social context” (Dede, p. 1). According to Dede, “this instructional approach enhances students' ability to apply abstract knowledge by situating education in authentic, virtual contexts similar to the environments in which learners' skills will be used” in the future (p. 1).

This mediation may be even improved in an immersive 3-D metaverse as SL, shifting the education from the traditional classroom layout and dynamics to a multisensory learning environment “where students can be part of the system that is being studied” (Calogne & Hiles, 2007). In fact, “Havok provides low-level access to core functionality so that you can construct complex physical behaviors that are specific to your game and don’t come as standard with Havok” (Havok, 2008, p. 96).

By comparing SL with a traditional simulation environment like Modellus, the SL physics hyper-reality could, as previously discussed, constitute at first sight an obstacle to its utilization as a simulation environment for physics teaching. However, it is this author’s understanding that this same hyper-reality and, even better, its surreal potential, is a golden opportunity. An SL physics lab could allow a surreal experimentation with successive or generalized physical laws, as proposed by Papert, in a Piagetian historical-psychogenetic framework (Piaget & Garcia, 1989) which could be pedagogically effective. At the same time it would allow extremely rich epistemological discussions on the nature of physical concepts and on issues such as what is a physical law? (Feynman, 1967), what is Science?, what kind of reality does Science describe?, and who makes the Science decisions?, to name a few.

That is the proposal of the project this author is starting.

Conclusions Trinity: "No one has ever done anything like this."

Neo: "That's why it's going to work." (Irwin, 2002).

Garcia, discussing the new Internet “upload” concept for education, warns that: “Some authors foresee that in few years’ time textbooks will be totally replaced by electronic media. Some of them believe that even classrooms will disappear. We cannot predict what will happen in the future with our educational models, but changes will be 17

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - Second Life Physics 18

enormous and many things that we do today will belong in museums. We have to be prepared”(2008).

In this work it was shown that, after all, SL physics is neither the Galilean/Newtonian idealized physics nor a real world physics virtualization; rather, it concludes that SL physics is hyper-real and provides resources for building a surreal physics lab that allows experimentation with successive or generalized physical laws. Also, it still provides a rich environment for classroom epistemological discussions around the reality/unreality of the physical laws seen in school, in good accordance with Papert’s (1993) never-implemented proposal.

That was the reason for our travel in Second Life hyperreality, “in search of instances [. . .] where the boundaries between game and illusion are blurred .[ . .] and falsehood is enjoyed in a situation of ‘fullness’” (Eco, 1986, p. 8).

Acknowledgements The author of the present study deeply acknowledges the enlightening comments from Prof. Dr. Maurício Rosa (Ulbra/PPGECIM) and the detailed and constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers of my ambitious manuscript which helped me to make my points clearer and stronger, as well as Felix Nonnenmacher’s meticulous copyediting that made a nicely readable text out of my awkward and confusing phrases.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Questions and answers in a virtual world: Educators and librarians as information providers in Second Life

By Lorri Mon, Florida State University

Abstract The education community in Second Life has grown rapidly since the launch of the virtual world by Linden Labs in 2003, with an influx of universities, colleges, and libraries seeking land on the digital frontier to build campuses, libraries, and educational workspaces. However, these new virtual educational settings have also challenged educators and librarians to adapt or to innovate new ways of providing information for learners. This study explores the varying roles that educators and librarians fulfill in Second Life, examining techniques they have evolved for teaching, providing information, and answering questions within a virtual world. Semistructured interviews were conducted with twelve educators and librarians who worked within a variety of virtual world education settings including colleges, universities, and academic and public libraries, as well as “embedded” workplace settings in Second Life’s roleplaying or themed communities. Snapshots, artifacts, and observational data were collected during visits to fifty library and education workplaces in Second Life and were examined in combination with interview results to document tools, tasks, problems, and best practices in virtual world education.

Findings of this study demonstrate how educators and librarians have used information tools such as notecards, landmarks, whiteboards, language translators, and heads-up displays (HUDs), as well as reveal problems that educators and librarians have encountered, including limitations of existing information tools. A wish list of new informational tool features desired by librarians and educators is provided. Other issues found in the design of virtual education and information spaces ranged from accommodating needs for avatar personal space to understanding accessibility issues for disabled users. Playful and immersive experiential environments were among the examples of new ways of teaching and presenting information within a world where “real life” limitations no longer constrain educational designs.

Keywords: Second Life; distance education; virtual reference.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Questions and answers in a virtual world 4

Questions and answers in a virtual world: Educators and librarians as information providers in Second Life

By Lorri Mon, Florida State University

Educators and librarians have long held an interest in using virtual world environments as settings for distance education and online information interactions. Educators taught a variety of classes during the 1990s in text-based MUD and MOO virtual worlds such as LinguaMOO, schMOOze University, and MOOSE Crossing (Holmevik and Haynes, 2000; Peterson, 2000; Bruckman, 1998). MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) and MOOs (MUD Object Oriented) emerged from text-based online adventure game-playing. Within the MOO and MUD text-based virtual worlds, descriptive language rather than graphical images was used to create the environment through which users traveled using text commands (e.g., “go north,” “read sign”). In 1995, librarians built and operated IPLMOO, an early live reference experiment at the Internet Public Library, using a MOO-based virtual world question-answering service (Shaw, 1996 and Eustace, 1996). The ARKMOO resulted from librarian/educator collaborative efforts to create a MOObased online writing laboratory (D'Angelo & Maid, 2000) and in July 1995, a University of Texas at Dallas doctoral student even successfully defended a dissertation during an online session held within a MOO (Grigar and Barber, 1997).

However, as text-based worlds began to give way to a new generation of more graphical, image-based virtual worlds, educators and librarians followed in exploring what Castronova (2003) describes as the “avatar-mediated life” (p.35). Within the visually-based virtual worlds, users typically traveled by using arrow keys or a joystick to operate an avatar self-representation, sending this image of the “self” walking, swimming, running, and/or flying through a world rendered in game-like graphical images. Active Worlds (http://www.activeworlds.com), initially launched as ‘Alpha World’ in 1995, became the setting for a business computing course at the University of Colorado at Boulder and for exploration of science education at Cornell University (Damer, 2008 and Corbit, 2002). In Active Worlds, visitors could walk into virtual library environments designed by Appalachian State University or Eastern University to ask questions of librarians or to initiate searches of library resources (Mon, 2006; Bronack, Riedl, and Tashner, 2006). These examples represent just a few of the uses by librarians and educators of AWEDU, the Active Worlds educational universe.

Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com) is of the next generation of graphically intensive, image-based virtual worlds that followed upon the example of Active Worlds and other early virtual world efforts. Launched in 2003, Second Life (SL) has been especially successful in attracting a large and active community of educators and librarians, in no small part due to its implementation of several features amenable to educational needs. In 2003, Linden Labs granted its residents intellectual property rights over their own in-world creations, and in 2004, Linden Labs announced a “Campus: Second Life” initiative offering free account access for instructors and students (Ondrejka, 2004). By 2006, Linden Labs had dropped the requirement for paid account membership entirely, except for those users wishing to purchase virtual land. As a result, a rapid influx of new users joined Second Life beginning in 2006. By 2007, a research study identified 170 educational institutions such as colleges, universities, and schools represented within Second Life (Jennings and Collins, 2007). Linden Labs CEO Philip Rosedale estimated in testimony before Congress during April 2008 that Second Life had six 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Questions and answers in a virtual world 5

million unique registered users and occupied approximately 390 square miles of virtual land, a space roughly equivalent to six times the size of Washington, D.C. A review of Second Life’s history finds that educators had already begun teaching classes in-world even before the virtual world’s beta launch in 2003. In the summer of 2002, assistant professor Anne Beamish of the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture taught an urban planning course in Second Life. Early classes taught by educators during 2003-2004 were Aaron Delwiche’s Games for the Web course at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and Jane Veeder’s course Design of Virtual Worlds at San Francisco State University’s Department of Design and Industry (Childress & Braswell, 2006 and Terdiman, 2004).

The interest of some non-librarian Second Life residents in having libraries within the virtual world can be seen as early as 2004, when Jade Lily spearheaded the original and nowdefunct Second Life Public Library on Gualala. In 2005, Wandering Yaffle opened _blacklibrary on Hyperborea (91, 30, 26), featuring writings and artworks by SL residents.

Another early effort, the Librarium at Abitibi (189, 21, 38) was originally part of a virtual university project by OmegaX Zapata in 2005, but under the directorship of JJ Drinkwater became affiliated with the professional community of librarians who were arriving in increasing numbers in Second Life during 2006 and joining in a collaborative effort to provide information services through the Second Life Library 2.0 project, headed by Lori Bell, Kitty Pope, and Rhonda Trueman of the Alliance Library System in Illinois. April 2006 marked the official launch of Second Life Library 2.0 that was later to also become known as the “Info Islands” as the project grew and expanded.

The Info Islands archipelagos of the Alliance Library System in Illinois quickly became a key center for innovation in supporting the efforts by librarians and educators, averaging 5,000 visitors per day, hosting three or more social and educational events in-world each week, and staffing a collaborative live reference service for 80 hours each week (Bell, Pope & Peters, 2008 and Bell, Pope & Peters, 2007) By 2007-2008, nearly forty islands were associated with it, providing land for libraries, colleges, universities, and museums, as well as non-profit organizations and educational associations. This study explores how librarians and educators have learned how to work as information providers within Second Life and examines the tools and techniques used in providing answers and information to questioners within a virtual world.

Literature Review While there is some published work on the growing presence of libraries and educational institutions in virtual worlds, comparatively little research has been done to explore how virtual worlds are used as information spaces or how educators and librarians conduct information interactions in an avatar-mediated setting. Most of the research on library services consisted of case studies of a specific virtual world library describing the extent of its in-world collections and services. Statistics on numbers and types of questions from Info Island’s reference service suggest that a preponderance of questions asked there focused on Second Life topics. For questions asked at Second Life Library during 2007, 91.2 percent of ‘directional’ questions concerned Second Life as compared to only 8.8 percent of ‘directional’ questions concerning ‘real life’; likewise, only 11.1 percent of the ‘reference’ questions focused on ‘real life’ issues as compared to 88.9 percent focusing on Second Life. (Bell, Pope & Peters, 2008) This represents

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a notable divergence from the patterns of questioning that information providers in a ‘real world’ library reference service would expect to receive.

The influence of the physical workspace on the interactions between avatars was another issue emerging in the literature review. Heim (2001) mentioned the problem of creating a “comfortable intimacy” within which to engage avatars in teaching and learning interactions in Active Worlds. In addition to maintaining a sense of spatial closeness between teachers and learners, there was also a problem with the visual field in being able to see other avatars during the interaction. Heim advocated the use of architectural design for avatars (or “avatecture”) to subtly influence the behavior of avatars in ways that would better support educational efforts.

Jakobsson (2003) recommended the use of “position markers” such as railings to guide avatar behavior, for example leveraging workspace design in order to prompt avatars to face the right direction and avoid “milling around” during lectures.

Further issues raised in information workplace design concerned choices for reproducing real life objects in the virtual world and for designing immersive experiences. Bronack, Riedl, and Tashner (2006) advocated the use of immersion as a way to communicate information, giving the example of telecommunications students learning about network components by walking through an immersive recreation of a network. However, Heim (2001) criticized some designs which reproduced conventional metaphors in the virtual world, such as a schoolroom with chalk boards, questioning whether these types of representations truly supported more effective interaction and learning.

Jones (2006) and Ford (2001) pointed to the impact of the virtual world on disabled users who may be able to interact with others online in ways they could not in “real life.” Their discussions about disability suggest that information interactions and information workplaces will not be experienced in exactly the same ways by all users; some users of virtual world settings have real life disabilities affecting the way that they perceive, experience, and engage with the interaction and setting. This also indicates a potential for issues arising from the impact of special needs on information interactions, as when users have disabilities that influence the ways they can perceive and interact with information providers in the virtual world.

Method This study sought answers to the following research questions about how information providers conduct information interactions within a virtual world.

• • • •

What questions are answered by information providers such as educators and librarians in Second Life?

How are answers provided within the Second Life virtual world setting?

Are there aspects of the design of Second Life information workplaces that help to facilitate information interactions?

Are there aspects of the design of information workplaces that work to hinder information interactions?

This research study took a qualitative, ethnographic approach to the study of the subjective perceptions and experiences of information providers in Second Life. Early in Spring 2007, I met a researcher who strongly criticized shortcut-style methodologies of dropping in 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Questions and answers in a virtual world 7

briefly to complete surveys or interviews, only to log out forever after spending comparatively little time in-world. This researcher then turned her critique on those present. “Do you live here? Do you have a job here?” she asked. At the time, my answer was ‘yes and no.’ I had rented a small cottage and learned enough to adopt the visual appearance of a “resident” (longtime participant) rather than a “newbie,” (new arrival) but otherwise still had comparatively little experience with Second Life.

In the months that followed, over the course of time from my “rez date” or first appearance (avatar birth) in Second Life in August 2006 to the beginning of my information provider interviews and workplace observations in May 2008, I spent five or more hours each week gaining experience with life “in-world.” I learned about “money trees” where new arrivals can collect free Linden dollars and about “camping” as a job to earn money in exchange for lending my avatar’s virtual presence to build the ‘popularity’ of an in-world location. I also joined groups and participated in Second Life meetings, activities, discussions, social events and fundraising events, rented land and lived in two residential communities, traveled throughout the virtual world visiting different types of “sims” or locations, took classes as a student, and brought in two of my own classes there as an educator, assisted with other classes and with building an in-world campus, taught workshops, presented in virtual conferences, asked questions as a library patron, and answered questions as a librarian in Second Life. This ethnographic approach involving over a year and a half as a participant-observer prior to beginning the interview phase was invaluable in establishing an insider’s knowledge of the educator and librarian communities in Second Life, as well as in building the necessary expertise and vocabulary to understand the terms and concepts used by research participants in the interviews.

Funding for this study by the ASIS&T SIG-USE Elfreda A. Chatman Research Proposal Award in October 2007 supported the costs of the virtual world space and research center where interviews were conducted and provided a remuneration of $1000 Linden dollars per participant (approximately $4 US) for time spent in interviews. From May 2008 until December 2008, I conducted one hour interviews in SL with twelve educators and librarians on their role as information providers. I also visited fifty information workplaces identified from the Alliance Virtual Library Infoisland Archipelago directory of libraries and organizations SimTeach education wiki (http://infoisland.org/directory/index.php), (http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL), and prior travels through the virtual world. Data collected included text transcripts of interviews, snapshots of information providers and of information workplaces, and artifacts such as notecards, landmarks, and other objects collected at information workplaces. An iterative process of coding and analysis included note-taking, memoing, theory notes, and member-checking through presentation of preliminary results to individual research participants for review, discussion and feedback.

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Results Questions in Second Life The Linden Labs motto for Second Life is ‘a world imagined and created by its residents.’ Within the virtual world, users can play any role and transform themselves into any visual appearance that they choose. Indeed, some information providers spoke of carrying within their inventories various non-human shapes and skins such as a monkey, the Kool Aid man, a lion, a bear, a butterfly, a solar system, a neko (cat-like) avatar. Thus it is perhaps not surprising that one question librarians mentioned commonly being asked was: Are you really a librarian? In a world where everything from personal appearance to the surrounding environment is so easily mutable, establishing trust becomes more difficult (see Figure 1).

Figure. 1. Mutability of Personal Appearance.

Questioning flows from the situation and context of questioners. Information providers found that when questioners were situated within Second Life, their most immediate questions tended to be about Second Life, and the activities they were trying to accomplish there: I get very few questions about things outside of SL. I don't think I've gotten any typical reference questions in SL yet.

I would say that the majority of questions are about SL itself.

Questions dealt with Second Life on two different levels – basic questions about navigating the virtual world and using the features of the interface and more advanced questions about understanding the physical and social structures within the virtual world. As can be seen in Table 1, questions also could require information providers to understand the vocabulary of Second Life, such as “sims” (from ‘simulations’ but referring to specific locales within SL), “terraforming” (shaping the virtual world landscape), “scripting” (writing programs or ‘scripts’ in Linden Scripting Language or LSL), “poses” (referring to animations that allow an avatar to stand, sit and move) and “prims” (from ‘primitives,’ the building blocks of Second Life; all objects in the virtual world are created from prims).

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Table 1. Types of Questions Asked about Second Life.

Basic Questions Wayfinding of places • Where are interesting sims?

Obtaining items • Where are the books?

Controlling the avatar • How do I dance/stop dancing?

Presenting the self • Where did you find that pose?

• Who is the designer of that outfit?

Advanced Questions Understanding the virtual world • What is a prim?

Living as a resident • How do I earn money?

• How do I rent an apartment?

Understanding society & governance • What is proper etiquette/behavior?

• How to get Linden Labs to intervene?

Shaping the environment • How do I learn building, scripting, terraforming?

Questions asked about non-Second Life topics predominated in subject areas where there was no direct applicability to avatars, such as health/medicine. An information provider for health and medicine had been asked many “real life” questions in Second Life including: • • •

migraines, a rare genetic disorder, and caretaking for a disabled child.

An information provider with expertise in law reported most commonly being asked SLrelated law questions, such as “how Intellectual Property or contract law applies in Second Life” and “how someone can enforce an in-world agreement.” Only rarely did this provider recall receiving “questions about people's RL [real life] legal situation (e.g. divorce).”

Overall, the experiences of these information providers suggest that an institution establishing information services in Second Life should expect to attract questions that are not the same as those typically asked at the institution’s “real world” service points. One librarian recommended that preparation for establishing an information service in Second Life should include “becoming as familiar as possible with SL in general, due to the nature of the questions.”

Exceptions may be for providers in those areas where there is no virtual world analogue for the information need, such as health/medicine and nutrition.

Answers in Second Life The many and varied forms in which answers could be provided was a distinctive feature for librarians and educators in Second Life, as compared with ‘real life.’ While both venues offered the ability to communicate via text chat, voice, instant messaging, and email, Second Life information providers reported that they also answered questions by “gifting” objects such as ‘textures’ (images), ‘scripts’ (programming code), and ‘LMs’ or ‘landmarks’ (essentially ‘bookmarks for places’ allowing users to click on a landmark and teleport to an SL location).

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One participant said “I can drag notecards, objects, scripts, textures, LMS, everything from my Inventory directly into their profiles.”

Notecards, which are analogous to scribbling a note and handing it to a questioner in real life, were in common usage among the information providers in Second Life. Information providers sometimes prepared notecards in advance with pre-written answers to questions commonly asked in their venues such as basic SL info, etiquette, how to start a library and how to dance; these notecards could be handed out directly to questioners, or if the information provider was unavailable at the workplace, could be automatically dispensed from ‘giver’ objects.

These ‘giver’ objects could be of any shape, size, and appearance, and were programmed using LSL ‘scripts’ to give out information items when touched by the questioner. Besides notecards, ‘giver’ objects could also be set up to dispense landmarks (location markers), textures (images), and other objects.

Gifting of notecards and other items was one method for providing information to questioners, in which the information providers ‘dragged and dropped’ from their own personal inventories to the questioner a variety of Second Life information objects, tools, and resources.

Information providers also gave questioners referrals to individuals, groups, and organizations within or outside of Second Life, wore augmenting information devices called HUDs (“heads-up displays” used to operate information-providing gadgets such as language translators and radar sensing devices for awareness of other avatars), and used information objects in the environment such as posters and calendars among various other techniques for locating and supplying answers, as seen in Table 2.

Table 2. Techniques Used in Providing Information and Answers Connecting with social Referrals to avatars, support groups, SL or RL libraries, SL networks classes Gifting of items Animations, landmarks, notecards, objects (e.g. clothes, books), scripts, sounds, textures/images Linking out-of-world Individual and group e-mails and Web sites (including blogs, Web-based tutorials, definitions, journals/newspapers about Second Life, and YouTube videos) Navigating SL interfaces SL search, SL events listings, SL interface menus, text chat, instant messages, group notices, voice chat Using workplace Artificial intelligence object, books, calendars, comment information objects boxes, exhibits/posters, information architecture and immersive learning environments, rss feed displays, surveys, teleportation boards, time zone map, sounds, tour cars, audio and video, visitor counters, virtual guides, whiteboards Using/wearing Costumes/historical attire; HUDs (heads-up displays) for informational tools radar awareness of approaching avatars, foreign language translation, and Second Ability referral network help alerts

Information workplaces offered various displays such as videos, posters, books, whiteboards for showing slides and devices which looked like computer monitors that, when touched, opened a menu of links to web pages (such as university homepages, library catalogs, 10

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Questions and answers in a virtual world 11

and subject area resource links). Information providers also augmented their own awareness and answering abilities by using ‘heads-up displays’ or HUDs, devices that performed informational functions such as notification of the name and presence of another avatar entering within the twenty meter chat range, allowing the information provider to give a friendly greeting even before seeing the new avatar approaching on screen. Other HUDs served as translators to enable multilingual chat communication or facilitated referrals, such as a Second Ability network HUD which connected the wearer to a network of volunteers willing to help disabled users with their questions about Second Life (“when someone needs help, they can ring a bell and it notifies a network of SecondAbility mentors that someone is in need”).

Most referrals were not mediated by a HUD technology, but instead initiated either through SL-based communication tools (chat, instant messaging, landmarks, maps, Second Life URLs or ‘SLurls’ which functioned as clickable links to in-world locations, and SL searches for avatars, groups, or places) or through external communication tools, such as web sites, blogs, email, and email groups. Referring questioners to the live reference question-answering service at Info Island’s Second Life Library was mentioned by both librarians and educators; other referral sources mentioned were the SL Bar Association and dispute mediation services, Second Life mentors and Second Ability mentors, and one librarian mentioned a general wish to be able to call upon a network of knowledgeable experts (“It might be nice to have backup brains in certain areas, like building/scripting”).

Experimental efforts described by the information providers included the use of an external artificial intelligence decision-tree database linked to an in-world object (“a giant cigarette … when you click on it, you're asked: what would you like to know about smoking? you choose, and are led through to find info on cessation, physiology, etc.”) and the designing of immersive environments in which the entire workplace setting surrounds the visitor in an ‘information architecture’ conveying a learning experience, such as the recreation of a historic time period (e.g., Renaissance Island with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Library of Alexandria on Roma within a recreation of classical Rome, and Land of Lincoln which recreates the U.S. Civil War era) or the design of other interactive surroundings (“a musical garden where you can walk through colors that play notes”). In another technique for using the environment to convey information, an educator spoke of teaching a building skill by creating a series of example objects made out of ‘prims,’ the basic building-blocks of Second Life, each example in the series being slightly more finished than the last, to visually demonstrate the consecutive steps of building the final object: “i have found it to be effective to leave a trail of prims out in sequencial steps with a little text to teach people how to build instead of using my voice or chat.”

Text can be left with the objects (or prims) through methods including signs posted nearby, notecards given when the object is touched, or embedded scripts (programming code) which causes explanatory text to ‘float’ in the air above the object.

Through observational visits to fifty Second Life information workplaces, two additional information-conveying techniques not mentioned in the interviews were identified and added to this list: •

Games, such as an interactive sorting game in which visitors could rearrange periodicals on shelves to learn which were considered ‘popular magazines’ and which were ‘scholarly journals’; and

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•

Chatbots, or automated representations of an avatar with a limited text-based repertoire for greeting and giving information to visitors. Tour cars, which carry visitors throughout an area and narrate the visuals in passing, can be seen as somewhat similar to the chatbots in function but lacking in interactive capability.

Figure 2. Game, U. of Notre Dame Libraries and Chatbot, _blacklibrary Beyond the ‘one-to-one’ model for conveying information and answers to individual questioners and learners, educators and librarians also proactively offered information on a ‘oneto-many’ and ‘many-to-many’ basis to in-world groups through arranging and running events such as classes, workshops, lectures, group discussions, tours, presentations and demonstration activities, and social events. A librarian commented about the wide range of activities undertaken in SL for information-giving and outreach efforts as compared to work in a ‘real world’ information service setting: “here [in SL], it feels as if I have to do everything.”

Information Providers’ Workplaces Types of information workplaces Information workplaces can be typified according to various broad categories such as institutional affiliation (e.g., university, college, public library, state library, association, business, or not affiliated with any institution); subject area focus (e.g. general, health, law) or location within Second Life (mainland or island). However, in terms of fit within the society and culture of Second Life, the representational style of the information workplace is a particularly useful distinction to consider. Representational style can be broadly defined as falling within a continuum from reproduction of real life to Second Life adapted to immersed or immersive.

The typical information workplace in Second Life is a reproduction of real life, replicating the visual elements that would be seen in a real-life setting. For example, a library or university may be set in a building with bookshelves and classrooms, with perhaps even a façade recreating the building’s real life outer appearance. While some concessions may be made for better navigation (e.g., ramps instead of stairs), the main representational focus of the landscaping and buildings is to give visitors a sense of ‘really being there.’

A Second Life adapted information workplace contains some of the trappings that stand as metaphors for evoking real world settings, but takes greater liberties with realism in adapting the workspace design to Second Life needs. Walls and ceilings might be entirely open so that avatars can fly in, rather than having to open doors and climb stairs. A classroom or library reference area may be placed in an outdoor, open setting rather than inside a building, yet still retain some traditional visual elements, such as maintaining a library ‘reference desk’ or 12

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Questions and answers in a virtual world 13

bookshelf as a visual metaphor even though it may rarely be used for an actual workplace purpose.

Both the ‘reproduction of real life’ and ‘Second Life adapted’ information workplaces tend to be isolated from a larger sense of Second Life community, beyond attracting other likeminded neighbors (like libraries, colleges and universities clustering near other libraries, colleges and universities.) However ‘immersed or immersive’ information workplaces include those that are integrated with the larger Second Life community and cultural experience. Alexandrine libraries, for example, are situated within existing communities and have adopted the cultural backstory and architectural styles shared by local residents. Library staff adopt culturallyacceptable appearances and costumes, play appropriate roles within the community, and use speech patterns that fit in with local styles. Both the library’s architectural design and contents are adapted as befits the needs and cultural mores of the local residents, such as an informational exhibit situated within a nineteenth century dirigible as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Library Exhibit in a Dirigible, Caledon.

Other ‘immersed or immersive’ information workplaces use the entire setting to convey information and learning, through, for example, interactive games and recreations of literary scenes, scientific visualizations, or historic periods that visitors can walk through and experience as if transported to that time, place or space. An educator commented: “Info transfer in SL is more like the real world (the school of hard knocks), not the world of book-learning. You have to make it immersive, engaging, and immediate.”

Information objects and information environments in fully immersive settings create a literal ‘information architecture’ in which even the walls and landscaping become part of information sharing experience.

Information spaces and physical settings The setting for a typical information workplace was within a building structure, although some buildings featured open walls allowing avatars to more easily fly or walk in. Interior spaces commonly offered chairs for avatars to sit in, posters on walls, and items that visitors could touch to open web links for access to subject resources (e.g., consumer health, law, and 13

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Questions and answers in a virtual world 14

local city/state resources) and sites with relevant information about the sponsoring institution.

Some institutions further augmented this basic setup by adding notecard givers, whiteboards for showing slides, video players, and other such combinations of informational tools as listed in Table 2.

The commonplace use of chairs, while not needed for an avatar’s physical comfort, may afford a psychological sense of comfort. Seating allows equalization of avatars who are at different heights and eye levels when standing and clears the visual field making it easier to see all participants in a conversation or meeting. An educator commented that looking for a chair to sit the avatar down seemed to be a preferred strategy among some new users: “they TP to a place and they won't walk around....they will look for a sit ball or dance floor but once they get set they don't move.”

Information workplace designs generally sought to minimize visitor difficulties with controlling the avatar by providing clear central spaces while placing furniture and other items back against the walls. One participant stated "I keep the displays around the edges of the room so that people don't bump into things." The need for larger areas of space was mentioned by educators in terms of providing a sufficient space for setting up teaching materials as well as providing questioners with room to try out skills such as building. Proximity to other avatars and a comfortable interaction distance were also issues in providing working areas with sufficient open space. A librarian commented regarding her avatar, “there's still a personal space issue…I feel weird when someone is right next to me.” A common experience of ‘griefing’ (harassment) in Second Life is the invasion of personal space that occurs when one person’s avatar deliberately ‘pushes’ into another and keeps pushing to slam and pin the other avatar into a wall.

Ideally then, information working spaces should be designed to bunch avatars closely enough together that they would be able to communicate (that is, within a twenty meter circular “chatting distance,” outside of which the avatars would not be able to hear each other) yet not so closely as to impinge upon ‘elbow room’ in establishing a mutually comfortable interaction distance between avatars.

Working spaces and accessibility Among the questions encountered by the educators and librarians were problems of disability and accessibility in Second Life, particularly in the impact of workplace designs. A librarian mentioned the differential height of floor levels in her workspace as an issue for standing avatars due to “the height difference thing” while an educator pointed out the height difference issue for avatars in a wheelchair, which necessitates designing “places to sit so a standing avatar can sit down and be at eye-level with someone in a wheelchair.”

The wheelchair user who perceives certain terrain or building features as difficult, dangerous, or impossible to navigate in the real world may react negatively upon encountering the same perceived barriers when using a wheelchair in the virtual world. As one participant stated, “Accessibility is mostly about mind set.” Recommendations from the librarians and educators for designing more accessible working spaces for all avatars, including avatars in wheelchairs were:

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• • • • • •

create open spaces for better maneuverability; use ramps rather than stairs; use elevators; include places to sit so that avatars can be on eye level with wheelchair users avoid perceived indoor space impediments such as differential floor levels and rugs on the floor; and avoid terrain textures that would be perceived as barriers, such as sand, gravel, or flagstone with grass growing in between the stones (“you and I know it's a flat texture but mentally, it's not”).

Users with visual disabilities such as color blindness, sensitivity to bright or flashing lights, and blindness or near blindness faced further challenges in navigating the virtual world.

One information provider spoke of helping a questioner who was colorblind to figure out ways of building: “understanding how the menus work in SL and how his colorblindness can affect his building...I spent several hours going through different options and trying to build him a "building studio" where he could work and see what he needed to see.”

For legally blind users, ability to even see their own avatar could be a challenge. An educator described how a visually impaired user “immediately made her avatar white and featureless…and the reason was so that she could track herself across the screen.” Using the ‘gifting’ technique, the educator provided this user with a folder of white clothes “so she could look more normal and still track herself”.”

Integration of voice chat into Second Life in August 2007 was a key improvement in supporting information interactions with visually impaired users who could not participate in text chat. However, personal preferences of some SL residents for only using text chat to communicate can exclude visually impaired users from an interaction, just as use of voice chat only can exclude deaf users. An educator described experiencing a problem with a referral of a legally blind user to a Second Life mentor: “the SL mentor was most insistent that he use text chat…that was just impossible.” In using existing Second Life communication tools for information interactions with disabled users, recommended techniques were: • • •

Be flexible in terms of willingness to use both voice and text chat during initial communication until it is clear which methods will work best for all participants in the information interaction; Be patient, as a ‘good wait time’ is essential to allowing a participant with a disability a sufficient amount of time to respond; and Keep the ‘typing animation’ enabled, as it is useful in signaling to text chat interaction participants that a response is still in process

Problems and wish lists for information providers To improve their abilities in answering questions and meeting the information needs of users, the information providers identified a wish list of tools and improvements that would help them to more effectively conduct information interactions in Second Life as seen in Table 3.

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Table 3. Wish Lists of Information Providers Improvements to Existing Functions New Functionalities

New Information Tools

A smoother /easier interface More prims per parcel Richer communication abilities for groups Being able to drag from my desktop into SL -- like WORD documents To be able to do real html ... create and display interactive html pages in world Ability to create or at least easily display external databases to store info To be able to search my inventory by creator of item To be able to query the system for where all the things I've made are To be able to query objects for their scripts NOT by opening them one at a time To be able to track when people copy and pass around an infoobject that I made Databases of SL literature An inventory of great notecards to handout for all types of questions with tips, landmarks, and instructions

Information provider wish lists sought improvements on existing Second Life functionalities such as an easier-to-use interface, more allowed ‘prims’ for building, and better ways of communicating in-world. New functionalities desired included integrating web pages and word processing files into the virtual world, expanding in-world searching to include searching for one’s own objects, and searching within objects (e.g., searching for books within the virtual world, and searching the contents of each book.) Information providers also wanted a searchable index to the published literature of Second Life and a collection of information resources to hand out to questioners with answers and information. While some progress has been made on this list of wishes by Linden Labs, such as an initial integration of web pages, many of the ideas have yet to be addressed.

The information provider as institution A notable aspect of avatar-mediated information work was that many tools and techniques used by information providers did not require their presence at a specific workplace location in Second Life. In the real world, information provision historically had been focused around repositories of knowledge in physical form (books, clay tablets, scrolls) – physical places housing the world's inscribed knowledge, around which scholars, learners and information seekers gathered. However in the virtual world, information providers do not need to gather at any particular Second Life location for proximity and access to reified knowledge.

“I do my work anywhere, everywhere.”

“It can be ... just about anywhere.”

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“Since everywhere I go…people know me as That Librarian, I'm never really off duty.”

The information providers themselves served instead as mobile storehouses as of the institution’s knowledge and information objects. Each information provider answered questions with the help of their own personal 'inventories' of hundreds or thousands of items – essentially transforming their avatars into walking, talking 'libraries' or 'universities.’ Indeed, it is possible for an avatar to carry the institution’s entire campus in inventory and simply pull out and deploy the buildings, displays, and landscaping whenever and wherever needed. The ‘empty world’ phenomenon of Second Life in which visitors complain about wandering through locations devoid of other people underscores the importance of the avatar as the true center of knowledge, activity, and interest in the virtual world.

Discussion

Answers within the virtual world were observed to be both proactive and reactive in nature. Reactive answers were seen in terms of the information providers answering a question from a user when asked, while proactive answers encompassed information providers’ additional efforts to anticipate questions and build or implement tools such as chatbots and notecard “givers” for giving automated answers during their absences from the workplace, or to create group events such as classes, workshops, discussions, demonstrations, and social gatherings where information could be given.

In their personal experience as information providers, librarians and educators perceived the majority of the questions that they answered to be situated and contextual – that is, focusing mainly on Second Life itself, where users were currently located and engaged in activities.

These subjective perceptions from the educators and librarians tended to support the 2007 questioning statistics from Alliance Library System’s Second Life Library reference service which suggested a preponderance of questions asked focused on Second Life topics, rather than ‘real world’ concerns (Bell, Pope & Peters, 2008). Exceptions to this among the information providers were for observed for the subject expertise area of health/medicine – a topic with limited applicability to avatar-mediated life as compared to other subjects such as law or business, which do have virtual world analogues in their applicability to Second Life businesses.

The issue of a different type of questioning experienced by the information providers in Second Life has key implications for information services considering the launch of a virtual world service point. It should be anticipated that questions via the Second Life service point will differ from those received via the institution’s other information service points such as chat, email, and real world help desks or reference desks. Staff handling the Second Life information service point will require training in Second Life skills and knowledge and should expect to handle a preponderance of Second Life-related questions - unlike the questioning patterns that would be expected at the institution’s other information service points.

Architecture of information workplaces was observed to help to shape the nature of information interactions through issues of accessibility and avatar ‘personal space.’ In the case of ‘immersed or immersive’ workplaces, the ‘information architecture’ of the workplaces through historic recreations, interactive exhibits and games became part of the information interaction.

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Bell, Pope, Peters & Galik (2007) predict, “Architecture serves different purposes in Second Life than it does in real life, and over time the form and function of the two types of architecture probably will diverge.” There have been suggestions that experiences within virtual worlds will influence ideas for how information interactions in the real world might similarly become more immersive, interactive and participatory. Peters (2007) described the next iteration of libraries from Library 2.0 to Library 3.0 as “not only participatory but constructive” in encouraging users to “construct or modify their environments” (p. 7).

Castronova (2007) has predicted that there will be an influence pushing back on real world institutions from virtual world users to make real world experiences as fun and engaging as virtual world experiences, something he terms the “fun revolution.” An example of “pushback” from the virtual world can be seen in this comment from a participant in this research study who suggested: “maybe the Sandbox idea in SL should be taken to RL for example, a place where it is safe to work and play and nothing is hurt and can't be fixed or started over.” New ways of thinking about real world information interactions could eventually follow from the work of educators and librarians currently experimenting with providing services in virtual worlds; indeed, this interactive process of reshaping and rethinking information interactions may have already begun.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worldsâ&#x20AC;?

April 2009

Beyond the game: Quest Atlantis as an online learning experience for gifted elementary students

By Jackie Gerstein, Kaplan University, Argosy University

Abstract Quest Atlantis (QA) is a learning and teaching project that uses a 3D virtual environment to immerse children, ages 8-15, in educational tasks. It allows users to travel to virtual places to perform educational activities known as Quests. The core elements of QA are: 1) a 3D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE), 2) inquiry learning Quests and unit plans, 3) a storyline involving a mythical Council and a set of social commitments, and 4) a globally-distributed community of participants (Barab, Arici, & Jackson, 2005). These inherently engaging environments are natural motivators for this age-level student, who can be considered members of the Club Penguin generation. To determine the perspectives of the users, themselves, a survey was conducted with a group of 35 gifted elementary students. The results, gathered through both closed and open-ended questions, identified the strengths and limitations of this media as a viable pedagogy for teaching more traditional content area subjects. Teacher observations of student behavior both in the real life classroom and in the online environment present additional insights how digital natives engage in and interact with this media. Implications for using virtual worlds such as Quest Atlantis for distance learning of upper elementary students are proposed.

Keywords: virtual learning; elementary students; online learning; virtual worlds; Quest Atlantis.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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Beyond the game: Quest Atlantis as an online learning experience for gifted elementary students

By Jackie Gerstein, Kaplan University, Argosy University

Even though multi-user virtual environments (MUVE) are commonplace to gamers, this type of interface is rarely utilized for substantive teaching and learning, especially for students under 13-years-old (Dieterle & Clarke, in press). A few MUVEs have been developed for educational rather than entertainment purposes. One example is Quest Atlantis. Quest Atlantis (QA) is a learning and teaching project that uses a 3-D virtual environment to immerse children ages eight to fourteen in educational tasks. It allows these young users, called Questers, to travel to virtual places to perform educational activities known as Quests. These inherently engaging environments are natural motivators for this age-level student.

To determine the perspectives of the users themselves a survey was conducted with a group of thirty gifted elementary students from a school in southern Arizona. Student perceptions about the strengths and weaknesses of Quest Atlantis were gathered through both closed and open-ended questions. Teacher observations of student behavior both in the real life classroom and in the online environment, using Quest Atlantis and other learning technologies, provided additional insights how digital natives engage in and interact with this media.

Implications and suggestions for using 3-D virtual worlds as a viable pedagogy for distance learning of upper elementary students are proposed.

Quest Atlantis Overview As a learning and teaching project, Quest Atlantis combines findings from educational research with strategies from the gaming industry to immerse children ages eight to fourteen in educational tasks embedded within a 3-D multi-user environment. The students, called Questers, visit virtual worlds, perform educational activities, text-chat with other students and teachers, and develop virtual identities. The virtual space is organized into different 3-D worlds. By using their avatars, students move through these virtual worlds, meet the avatars of other students, participate in virtual activities, and explore different quests. By moving their avatars through the immersive environment, students travel to virtual worlds where they can read about and listen to the themes of these worlds, complete quests, and submit their responses as essays, slideshows, and art projects (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun, 2005).

Quest Atlantis possesses the characteristics of 3-D multi-user virtual environments in that it enables multiple simultaneous participants to: access virtual contexts, interact with digital artifacts, represent themselves through â&#x20AC;&#x153;avatarsâ&#x20AC;?, communicate with other users, and take part in experiences similar to those in real world contexts (Dede, Nelson, Ketelhut, Clarke, & Bowman, 2004). As an educational-based MUVE, Quest Atlantis has some unique properties: (a) inquirybased learning Quests and unit plans, (b) a storyline involving a mythical Council and a set of social commitments, and (c) a globally-distributed community of participants (Barab, Arici, & Jackson, 2005).

Quest Atlantis situates this academic learning in the context of important social issues and aesthetically-rich dramatic playâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;establishing both a use and entertainment value for the learning activities. Only a few other virtual worlds have been developed with the intentional 4

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goal of being educational platforms and that can be used by students under the age of thirteen: Whyville, River City, and McLarin's Adventures. A review of these MUVEs can be found in Czarnecki (2008).

Pedagogy and educational foundations Underlying the learning tasks, curricular units, and experiences of Quest Atlantis is a participatory framework that stresses hands-on action and reflection as components central to the learning process. This learning process is based on: experiential learning, inquiry-based learning, and portfolio assessment (Barab, Arici, & Jackson, 2005). In addition, all of the lessons, or quests, adhere to state academic standards and reinforce important informationliteracy skills (Lau Whelan, 2005).

Previous research The developers of Quest Atlantis from Indiana State University conducted a long-term study to explore the efficacy of Quest Atlantis. All of the 153 fourth- and fifth-grade boys and girls surveyed rated Quest Atlantis as more enjoyable than any learning activity in their lives.

The researchers also found that students participating in Quest Atlantis showed significant increases over time in their learning retention levels. The researchers found that “The fact that we found statistically significant learning gains with respect to science, social studies, language arts, and metacognitive skills does indeed suggest that academic learning was occurring alongside of or in the process of the experience of playing.” (Barb et al., 2005, p. 19).

The Purpose of this Study The intent of this current research is not to explore the efficacy of Quest Atlantis, as Barab et al. (2005) demonstrated its usefulness as a learning tool. Instead, this study explores how upper elementary gifted students interact with Quest Atlantis to discover the specific elements that can lead to enhanced learning. Additional observations about student use of inclass and online media also provided insights on how virtual worlds can be developed to meet the learning and developmental needs of the upper elementary school population. New Media Consortium (2009) suggests, “The success of game-based learning strategies owes to active participation and interaction being at the center of the experience, and signals that current educational methods are not engaging students enough.” These observations provided insights by which to make recommendations for using virtual worlds as online learning venues.

Current research of Quest Atlantis and other educational 3-D virtual learning environments indicated positive results in terms of student engagement and achievement (River City Research Team, n.d.). In order to increase efficacy and develop credibility, these learning venues need make concerted efforts to identify those individual learning components and elements that resulted in the increased achievement. As de Freitas (2008) explains, “It is important that we ready ourselves for the wider spread of learning in immersive worlds and identify, and where necessary, develop the best methods for use, evaluation, validation and accreditation in our institutions” (p. 6).

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The Population Gifted third through fifth grade elementary students from a school district in Arizona receive gifted services through a pull-out program. Students from the district’s three elementary schools come to a single location for one day per week of gifted programming. Fifty-five students receive services with fourteen fourth and fifth graders on Mondays, another group of sixteen fourth and fifth graders on Tuesdays, twelve third and fourth graders on Wednesdays, and thirteen third graders on Fridays. Afternoons are devoted to computer-based learning of which Quest Atlantis is a component. Participation in Quest Atlantis is voluntary. The students were provided with a formal introduction to Quest Atlantis through the legend video, and a minitour of the virtual world by the teacher.

Survey of Student Beliefs The subjects included thirty of the thirty-five students who voluntarily participated in Quest Atlantis. The survey group took a ten-item online survey using PollDaddy. Their responses were anonymous. The demographic data included their gender and age. This group consisted of fifteen boys and fifteen girls with two 9-year-old boys, eleven 10-year-old boys, two 11-year-old boys, two 9-year-old girls, eight 10-year-old girls, and five 11-year-old girls.

When asked to rate Quest Atlantis on a scale from one to five, thirteen (or 43 percent) of the students rated it as five – “It is one of the best learning games I've ever played”; twelve (or 40 percent) of the students rated it a four – “It is a lot of fun”; and five (or 16 percent) of the students rated it as a three –“It's fun - not the greatest, but fun.” No students rated it with the lowest ratings of two or one. The previous research by Barab et al (2005), discussed earlier, indicated a 100 percent high satisfaction rate with Quest Atlantis. The discrepancy between their research results and this one may be due to the rapidly occurring technology advances with major companies like Disney and McDonalds producing virtual worlds for kids. The 3-D virtual worlds have highly sophisticated interfaces. Quest Atlantis, when it was conceived made use of the best technologies of its time, but now may lack the sophistication that these young people expect. This will be further discussed in the Implications and Recommendations section.

When asked the open ended question, “What do you like best about Quest Atlantis?,” the most cited response was going on Quests (N = 12), followed by a reference to talking and interacting with others (N = 10), learning new things (N = 7), earning clothes and cols (N = 4) and saving the world (N = 2).

Some of the most valuable and interesting responses came from the question, “What is the one BIG thing you learned from Quest Atlantis?” Responses included: 

 

Caring and Stewardship: “I think it has taught me a little bit about caring for the world.”

“To keep the world safe.” “I learned that it is good to recycle, and help out.” “How to help the environment.” “To be more of a environmentalist.”

Respect for Others: “No teasing.” “That you shouldn’t be mean to other people and treat things with respect.” “To be nice to others.”

Going Beyond Self-Perceived Limitations: “That I can do things that I think I can't. Like there were a few missions I kept saying I couldn't do then I did it!”

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  

Creativity: “It’s fun to learn about art when you are in the creative expression project.” “I learned about being creative.”

Computer Skills: “The internet can be a good thing.” “That computers CAN be fun. Before quest, I didn't really understand computers.”

Commitment: “That commitments are VERY important.” “I learned about Social Commitment.”

These learnings identified and generated by the students were congruent with the goals of Quest Atlantis developers.

The most cited response when asked, “What is the worst thing about Quest Atlantis?” related to its difficulty – “The directions are hard to understand,” “The worst thing about Quest Atlantis is that it is really difficult to figure out things if you do something wrong,” “It’s hard to find places,” “Getting lost,” and “Getting where you want to go.”

Finally, the students were asked, “If games like Quest Atlantis were used by all teachers to help teach your school subjects, what advice would you give to the game designers?” Their response included the following: 



  

Interactions with Teachers: “Tell about school subjects (math, writhing, language arts, etc.) and make classrooms where a teacher is in each and they give you a school subject quest.” “To let teachers interact with students online.”

Difficulty Level: “You would have to make it easier for those that can’t really think out side of the box and that are younger.” “Try making it a little bit easier for kids.” “To make more quests that are hard, and to make it so it seems educational.” “Better directions.” To maybe make it a little easier because some kids who aren't in gifted may have a hard time with it.” “I would just say to maybe make different levels of difficulty so that maybe more advanced Questers are able to really enjoy the game and be challenged at the same time.”

Content Based: “To make the games just like this with more reading and math.”

Online Safety: “You should have monitors to prevent someone saying their address, phone number, or email.” “Create chat censors.” “I would tell them to block bad talking.”

Virtual World Environment: “To make better graphics (no offense) so people will go on more.” “Let the children completely customize their avatars.” “To put things that help you learn but have fun, too.” “To make a lot of extra things.”

Observations of Student Behavior Previous research by Barab et al. (2005) about Quest Atlantis was survey and outcomebased. This study was unique in that the students’ daily interactions with learning mediums were directly observed. Observations included Quest Atlantis, use of Web 2.0 tools, and hands-on activities. For a one month period, the teacher/researcher would record student comments and behaviors while they interacted with these media.

Naturalistic observations of student behavior as they interacted with and within this virtual world were accessible due to the learning environment. First, as stated earlier, participation was voluntary. Second, except for providing a time during the school day to participate in Quest Atlantis, no other restraints, guidelines, or restrictions for participation were 7

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given. In fact, students working side by side with other students were permitted to ask one another for assistance if they ran into difficulties. These “face-to-face” student-to-student, realtime interactions while they worked on their own quests and missions allowed for teacher observations as they interacted with the media and with one another.

Consistent from student-to-student and class-to-class were the following findings.

Age and developmentally appropriate Even though Quest Atlantis has been designed for 8- through 14-year-olds, all of the third grade students, ages eight and nine, and some of the older students had difficulty with the program – noting that these are gifted students. Both the student surveys and classroom observations confirmed this. The difficulty level was mentioned by five (or 16 percent) of the students in the open-ended responses about the worse thing about Quest Atlantis. Understanding the written directions presented in the missions and then following through with these directions proved difficult for this age group. Similar difficulties were observed when this age group attempted to build Lego robotics following the direction books, a task much easier for the fifth graders, ages ten and eleven.

This difficulty may be attributed to their development level. According Jean Piaget, most of these students are functioning in the concrete operational stage of development with the younger students just entering into this stage. Learning experiences, during this stage, are associated with personal experience in concrete situations. The limitation of the concrete operation stage of cognitive development is that operations are only carried out on concrete objects, and limited to two characteristics at the same time (Lin, 2002). Following multi-step and complex directions is difficult for the concrete operational thinker.

Hands-on and concrete learning experiences In the survey, the students were provided with a series of learning activities and asked to choose which one would prefer to do during class time. These choices were (1) play Quest Atlantis, (2) do other online activities, (3) make something with art materials, (4) play board games, or (5) use the Legos. Seventeen of the students stated “play Quest Atlantis,” twelve identified one of the real life hands-on activities, and one stated another online activity.

Interestingly, a discrepancy was seen between their reported behavior and their actual classroom behavior. In any given task in which a choice is given to do that task as a hands-on or a computer-based activity, the students almost always selected the hands-on activity. These results – the preference for hands-on, real life activities – are congruent with the characteristics of the concrete operational learner in that they learn through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects (Huitt, & Hummel, 2003). McAnarey (1978) believes, “Piaget's research clearly mandates that the learning environment should be rich in physical experiences. Involvement, he states, is the key to intellectual development, and for the elementary school child this includes direct physical manipulation of objects” (p. 33, as cited in Haury & Rillero, 1994).

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Personal identity The students immediately and strongly connected with their avatars. Examining their initial avatars was the first thing they did upon their first entrance into the virtual world and seeing their avatar names over their heads created great joy and excitement. Quest Atlantis gives all entering students the same avatar only differentiated by genders. After completing their initial quests, they can modify their avatars giving them some personalized features and clothing.

This is a great motivator and accomplishment for the students. This need for personalization continued as students went on quests and did “jobs” in order to buy more clothes and personal items for their avatars. These observations were consistent to the Quest Atlantis designers’ experiences. Their virtual persona has been shown to be a powerful motivator for engaging participation in online worlds (Barab, Arici, & Jackson, 2005).

Working for the rewards – Missions completed and cols earned By completing Quests, students earn cols, the in-world currency. These points can be exchanged at the Trading Post for items such as QA stationery, stickers, and pins, and even trading cards about famous people (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun, 2005).

As shown in the student survey, all students checked that they liked earning cols. Their real time discourse as they worked side by side in Quest Atlantis often included explanations about how to earn cols. For example, when one student learned how to jobs for cols in Quest Atlantis, the students eagerly began showing each other how to do so.

Low tolerance for frustration but high ability for persistence This is the generation of instant gratification. While participating in the Quest Atlantis activities, students expected to be able to move easily through the learning activities, interface, and virtual world. If one of these areas proved difficult, most students moved quickly to another task. Problems finding an in-world object or location led to loudly expressed frustration and an avatar running in all directions. These frustrations were not due to the learning tasks themselves but to lack of understanding the tasks, the inability to find objects and locations, and/or technology problems. Almost paradoxically, though, when students were able to progress through their learning tasks, they did so with great concentration for long periods of time.

Students as mentors The instructional model used in this classroom during most of the learning activities revolves around students seeking understanding from one another. It is a students-as-mentors model. As self-pacing is built into Quest Atlantis and encouraged by the teacher, the students easily shared their expertise with one another. This student behavior is consistent with what Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robison and Weigel (2006) describe as the participatory culture of the twenty-first century. A characteristic of a participatory culture is some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices (Jenkins et al., 2008).

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Virtual Worlds As Online Learning: Recommendations and Future Research This study provided observable and detailed information about how upper elementary students interact with a virtual world containing strong instructional content. What began as a simple survey to explore how one group of gifted elementary students perceived the value of Quest Atlantis evolved into a more naturalistic study about how these students interact with this media as well as with other technological and non-technological instructional media in the classroom. These observations coupled with my ten year background teaching online college courses provided some insights and related recommendations about how 3-D virtual worlds can be used as a powerful media for online learning by upper elementary students. Given the age and developmental characteristics of this age group, recommendations include the following: Pedagogy before technology Sarah Robbins has stated that the pedagogy should come first then the technology.

Concerning this generation of students, she says, “If we can bring our learning pedagogy to closer to where they choose to be voluntarily, we’ll get then closer to where we (the teachers) want them to be. It is easier to go where they are and bring them back to where we want them to be” (Robbins, 2008). Barab et al. (2005) echo that thought in their discussion of Quest Atlantis, “Our goal is not to rid the educative experience of hard work or even traditional learning practices. However, we believe that hard work should and can occur in the context of an activity to which the student is already engaged” (p. 19).

Anderson (2008) believes that the use of virtual worlds as learning environments will require a pedagogical shift by educators, writing that, “Content-rich curriculum can be developed using virtual worlds but it will require the teacher to make a pedagogical shift. This shift will necessitate a move away from reliance on heavy direct instruction to a more constructivist learning environment where students work at their own pace and instruction is tailored to the individual” (p.8).

This constructivist and student-centric educational philosophy represents powerful pedagogy, whether in the classroom or in a virtual world with principles that include:    

Knowledge is constructed, emergent, situated in action or experience, distributed; Reality is a product of mind; Meaning reflects perceptions and understanding of experiences; and Symbols are tools for constructing reality. (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999).

The developers of Quest Atlantis were very intentional about designing their learning environments and tasks around a constructivist methodology. Developers of MUVEs as learning platforms would gain valuable insights about these foundational pedagogies by reviewing the works of Sasha Barab and his colleagues.

Given their student population and content area, teachers will need to develop a foundational pedagogy to promote optimum ways to enhance the learning experience (deFreites, 2008). As with any learning task, then, the educator needs to determine first the desired outcome; second, the type of pedagogy that would increase the chances of those outcomes being achieved; and finally, those tools that would best serve that pedagogy. Villano (2008) suggests, 10

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“The reality is that the responses to these options will be different for every educator in just about every subject. It's up to each instructor to discover how the new technologies will serve his or her curriculum best”. Although seductive in nature, the tools themselves should never take precedence over the goals of learning. While MUVEs are excellent venues for bringing together the use of a range of different media (e.g., streamed video and audio, email, live chat, social network software, and mind mapping software), questions remain as to how best to integrate these media to support enriched learning experiences (de Freitas, 2008). The 3-D virtual world itself, along with all the tools available within that world should be used very strategically to achieve specific goals and outcomes.

Marzano and Pickering (2004) wrote Classroom Instruction That Works, a collection of effective strategies culled from a meta-analysis of decades of research on what works in classrooms to improve student learning and increase student achievement. These were not proposed for virtual worlds but have application for these environments. They provide a framework around which some sound instructional practices and pedagogy can be built. What follows are their nine essential strategies along with examples of possible technology tools that can be used in virtual worlds to support these strategies.

Essential Nine Identifying Differences

Technology: Example Tools

Similarities

and

Summarizing and Note Taking

Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

Homework and practice

Nonlinguistic representations

Cooperative Learning Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback

Generating Hypotheses

and

Testing

Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers (Adapted from Sandler, n.d.)

   

Use of interactive and 3-D Graphic Organizers such as Exploratree.

Group chats.

Creating own audio and video recordings.

In-world note taking with the use of tools such as inventory notecards, virtual sticky notes.  Blogs, Wikis, and Ning Networks.  Effort and recognition provided through a reward system for completing assignments.  With Quest Atlantis, by completing Quests, students earn cols as the in-world money, get lumens that increase status in world.  The use of Quests or the learning tasks require independent work and practice.  Submission of assignments for review by the teacher.  In-world simulations.  Creating photo essays of in-world experiences.  Creating “builds” symbolizing most significant learning experiences.  Co-Questing.  In-world collaborative projects.  Self-selection of Quests and learning tasks.  Student electronic profile, learning record and artifacts. In Quest Atlantis, this is the Q-Pod).  In-world voting tools and polls.

Through strategically designed in-world simulations and Quests Quest Atlantis examples include Taiga: Water Quality, Virtual Mesa Verde, Plague World, Biological Indicators, Two Cells, One World Mission (Quest Atlantis Teacher Resources).  In-world maps, mind maps, notecards, signs.  In-word multimedia mash-ups.

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Interestingly, the students observed using Quest Atlantis were naturally drawn to or developed strategies that paralleled Marzano and Pickerling’s (2004) research-based strategies.

One student, in his survey response about how to make Quest Atlantis better, stated, “There is no map. I would make a map.” He needed a cue, an advance organizer of sorts. Also, as described earlier, this group of students created their own collaborative experiences within Quest Atlantis even though formalized in-world venues for collaborative learning did not exist.

Drawing knowledge from higher education distance learning Distance online learning in higher education has a longer and broader history than K-12 virtual learning. Several higher education practices can be applied to using virtual world learning for upper elementary students. 

Online Learning is Not for Every Student. Villano (2008) explains that, “Not every student embraces virtual learning environments, and experts warn that educators must be careful not to abandon traditional teaching methods as they embrace MUVEs”. With all the press on digital natives, what follows may be an assumption that all kids use and enjoy twenty-first century technologies. This is not the case. There are still students growing up in a world of technology who no not enjoy nor use computers and the internet, especially for learning. Just as with adult learners, the face-to-face, in class learning environment, with only limited and supplementary technology, is the best choice for this population of elementary-aged students.



Submitting Assignments Via an Online “Dropbox.” A unique aspect of Quest Atlantis that does not exist in other MUVEs is that the students’ work on quests is submitted directly to the instructor through an interface integrated with the client software. In other words, all completed quests go directly into the teacher’s toolbox with no additional steps required by the student nor the teacher. Interestingly, as part of the back story, students believe that their quest assignments and reflections are being submitted to the Atlantis Council for review. Both the content-based findings and the personal, process-oriented reflections are assessed by the teacher (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun, 2005). This allows for specific feedback to be provided to the students regarding the quality of their work. The instructor then has the option to accept the assignment or request a revision, a built-in aspect of this interface. This is a similar structure used in online college courses. Students submit assignments via the “dropbox” or discussion board. Feedback is provided and the college student has the option to revise. Both of these venues support mastery learning, a model based on feedback being growthpromoting.



Discussion Boards. The typical college online class promotes student-to-student interaction and feedback. Quest Atlantis has a real time chat board and email capabilities, but it is structured more for social, rather than educational, networking.

Students cannot easily view and discuss one another’s Quests or assignments. Quest Atlantis and similar learning platforms could be enhanced by including a type of dropbox and discussion area whereby students could view and discuss one another’s work. The discussion board or chat area then becomes a venue for discussing the content and quality of the work rather than one used for socializing. This supports a key finding of this research in that students enjoy mentoring one another.

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Real time social interaction One of the key draws to the twenty-first century technology is social networking. Online learning’s capacity to foster interaction and collaboration among a diverse and geographically dispersed group of students is among its most positive attributes (Watson & Gemin, 2008). This is supported by the survey findings in that several students referred to the social aspects of Quest Atlantis as being the best thing about Quest Atlantis, stating, “You can interact with other people” and “It’s a fun place to hang around and with your friends.”

Calongne (2008) noted that one of the benefits of virtual world learning over traditional classroom learning is the emphasis on interaction, real-time discussion, and shared experiences, with the addition of back-channel communication features such as with chats and instant messaging. As such, it is recommended that Quest Atlantis and similar learning venues include a more strategic use of real time discussions and chats.

A key highlight of this research was the richness of student-to-student interactions when working on their missions in the same physical environment. An increase in student use and enjoyment of Quest Atlantis occurred when students worked side-by-side interacting with one another simultaneously in person and in the virtual worlds. Their expressed joy in their Quest Atlantis experience increased when they shared their experiences and did troubleshooting problems with one another. A very exciting and entertaining student-to-student interaction occurred was when students arranged to have their avatars meet up in the virtual world so they could lead one another to various in-world locations - avatars following each other in-world while conversing about it in the real world.

Virtual worlds as online learning experiences can be enhanced if groups of students can work together in real time in the same physical workspace and/or if the online platform had more immersive workspaces for real-time interactions. A possible solution could be giving students their own individualized learning areas similar to the virtual office space found at Meetsee, where the avatars have the capacity to showcase their work, and interact with other student avatars in their own personalized learning home areas.

Collaborative projects Quest Atlantis has the capacity for co-questing – the ability to work together on Quest responses – but the Quest team admits that it is complicated and that they are working on a simpler system. The Quest Atlantis developers are headed in the right direction by creating the means for students to work together on their Quests. When given the opportunity to work alone or with other students, students in this age group almost always choose to work with others.

Recommendations for 3-D virtual learning platforms include setting up collaborative, projectbased learning experiences or quests. Examples include Virtual World Webquests whereby each student in the group takes a different role in order to successfully complete the Quest (see Anderson, 2008).

Rich and timely feedback guidance Cavanaugh (2008) noted that the heart of technology-mediated teaching and learning is the interactions that happen within a virtual learning environment, “Just as in the classroom, 13

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online learning is enhanced when teachers are actively involved in the learning process. In the absence of meeting face-to-face at established times, frequent communication, feedback, and scheduled tutoring or skill checks are needed”. In the survey results, several students expressed the desire to have interactions with teachers in Quest Atlantis. This actually means more work for teachers, as they are required to support students undertaking quests and review student work (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun, 2005).

Rich immersive interactivity Virtual worlds for kids have become big business. More than 150 virtual world sites focused on the 18-and-under youth market sprang up in the last couple of years, according to research from Virtual Worlds Management (Keefe, 2008). The rapidly emerging virtual worlds are increasingly becoming more sophisticated. In other words, these big companies keep “upping the ante” in order to attract this young age group. Quest Atlantis, which was very unique at the time of its development, appears to have an older interface based on the perspectives of the students. One student commented that Quest Atlantis could be improved by, “making better graphics so people will go on more.” The overriding recommendation, then, is that any 3-D virtual learning environment will need to reflect the trends being spearheaded by the business industry. These advances will not only keep the interest and motivation of the student, but also ensure that the best learning technologies are available to the learner. These more advanced technologies can help in the evolution and development of rich and immersive simulations that have the potential for advanced learning.

Hands-on and movement activities Based on the work of Piaget and confirmed by this research, students aged eight to twelve still prefer hands-on activities to computer-based ones. This is developmentally appropriate for this age group. Huitt and Hummel (2003) state that, “It is recommended that teachers use a wide variety of concrete experiences to help the child learn (e.g., use of manipulatives, working in groups to get experience seeing from another's perspective, field trips, etc)” . Dede (2009) stated that “the more a virtual immersive experience is based on design strategies that combine actional, symbolic, and sensory factors, the greater the participant's suspension of disbelief that she or he is "inside" a digitally enhanced setting” (p. 66). This is especially relevant for the concrete learning style characteristic of this age group. In order to address movement needs, 3-D virtual world environments could include actual physical movement in real life – possibly with some form of very popular and age appropriate Wii Fit – a peripheral movement-based tool that is integrated with the client software.

In order to address their need and desire for hands-on activities, students can complete real life, hands-on projects and showcases their activities within the virtual world. Quest Atlantis has integrated some real world activities into some of the Quests. Some quests require that students participate in the real world through conducting environmental field studies, interviewing families and friends, researching community problems, examining current events, writing autobiographical anecdotes, producing advocacy media, or developing real world action plans (Barab et al., 2005). It is recommended that developers also include additional kinesthetic activities.

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Student directed learning As deFreitas (2008) has noted, “the opportunities for learners to meld and define their learning experiences or pathways, using the virtual mediations within virtual worlds, has the potential to invert the more hierarchical relationships associated with traditional learning, thereby leading to more learner-led approaches based upon activities” (p. 6). Based on classroom observations, this appeared to be one of the best attributes and biggest draw for this group of students. They liked working through the Quests at their own pace, choosing which ones they wanted to completed, and choosing other Quest Atlantis related activities such as building, chatting, and emailing one another.

Students as co-producers of content, interface, and the virtual world Students have an active role in Quest Atlantis as a form of digital media in which they are positioned as the true producers (Dodge et al., 2008). Beyond a simple curriculum, Quest Atlantis engages them in a set of participatory opportunities in which they were both producers and consumers of the environment The example that Dodge et al. (2008) provide is that students can produce content that is used by other children. This takes the form of suggestions for Quests.

With the advancements in technology, the role of the student as a producer has to be reconceptualized in terms of applications to virtual learning. Recent developments in emerging technologies have given young users the ability and skills to also produce the virtual-based interfaces. They can help build and populate the virtual world itself. Students can produce media that includes (but are not limited to) blogs, wikis, RSS, tagging and social bookmarking, music-photo-video sharing, mashups, podcasts, digital storytelling, virtual communities, social network services, virtual environments, and videoblogs (Reinhart, 2008). As Robbins (2008) suggests, “We need to learn to embrace more participatory pedagogy if we’re to make the most of the technologies that are available to us”.

The research group was observed embracing programmable technologies such as Scratch and Pico Cricket, with excitement and full engagement. During computer time, these 9- to 11year-olds also made movies, created electronic books, and developed their own online games.

The skills and passion of the Club Penguin generation should become part of their learning experiences in virtual worlds.

This is taking the students-as-a-producer, proposed by the developers of Quest Atlantis, one step further. They should be permitted and encouraged to produce some of the more technical content. The learner then becomes a producer of content with control over how the environment looks and how social interactions are supported. They become further invested in their learning process. deFreites (2008) explains that, “For learners, the future holds a vision of increased interactivity with virtual environments and more engaging learning experiences relating to production of content as well as information access” (p. 33).

Dede (as cited in Pruitt, 2005) sums it up nicely “Instead of synthesizing information, neomillenial learners will synthesize and process experiences. Instead of being taught passively, kids will learn actively, using experiences online and in the real world. They will help to design their own virtual learning environments, and sometimes even ask the questions they must answer”.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Beyond the game 16

Conclusions We are living in a mash-up world of highly immersive, quickly developing types of media. As the New Media Consortium (2009) explains, “A recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that massively multiplayer and other online game experience is extremely common among young people, is rich and varied, and that games offer opportunity for increased social interaction and civic engagement among this group”. The majority of young people under 18-years-old are coming to school using immersive kinds of applications daily and therefore have different expectations about how education should be delivered to them. deFreites (2008) suggests, “With the proliferation of virtual worlds, more educational uses and dedicated education-based virtual worlds will continue to emerge supporting different and more specialized learning scenarios, enabling the formation of conceptual skills and greater reflection” (p. 30).

Observation of this group of gifted upper elementary students demonstrated that they easily adapt to new technologies, find those that are engaging, and move quickly from those they do not. The literature shows and the students demonstrate a propensity towards situated and immersive learning environments, although hands-on, real world experiences are still preferred by these students. Even though they are growing up digital, the developmental needs of the eight to twelve age group include the use of concrete and hands-on experiences.

The course and content developers of these online programs need to continually assess how to use technologies in order to make the virtual worlds simulate real life learning.

Technology-based pedagogies need to address these students as active users and producers of their content, who learn best by movement and hands-on experience. Developers of programs such as Quest Atlantis have to find ways of incorporate tactile, kinesthetic, and sensory experiences into their 3-D learning experiences as these technologies continue to evolve.

Much press has been given to this generation as digital natives. This term does not fully describe the Club Penguin generation who are experiencing and who are expecting rich, realistic, engaging, and immersive technologies. Quest Atlantis has a well-conceptualized and actualized foundational pedagogy based on social responsibility and inquiry-based learning. But the developers of 3-D virtual learning environment will have to continually assess the developmental characteristics, user-patterns, and expectations of this generation, as well as stay current with the 3-D virtual technologies targeted at this population.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Beyond the game 17

Bibliography Anderson, C. (2008). Virtual world webquests: Principle elements of research supported learning experiences within virtual learning environments. Lulu. Retrieved from http://www.lulu.com/content/2287172.

Barab, S, Arici, A., & Jackson, C. (2005). Eat your vegetables and do your homework: A designbased investigation of enjoyment and meaning in learning. Educational Technology 65, p.

15-21.

Barab, S., Thomas, M., Dodge, T., Carteaux, R., & Tuzun, H. (2005). Making learning fun: Quest Atlantis, a game without guns. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 53, p. 86-107.

Calongne, C. M. (2008) Educational frontiers: Learning in a virtual world. EDUCAUSE Review, 43.

Cavanaugh, C. (2008). Real learning happens in virtual schools. Threshold. Retrieved from http://www.ciconline.org/thresholdfall08.

Czarnecki K. (2008). Virtual environments and K-12 education: A tour of the possibilities-Part 2.

MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 15, p. 12-16.

Dede, C. (2009). Immersive interfaces for engagement and learning. Science 2, 323, p. 66 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 69.

Dede, C., Nelson, B., Ketelhut, D., Clarke, J., & Bowman, C. (2004). Design-based research strategies for studying situated learning in a multi-user virtual environment. Paper presented at the 2004 International Conference on Learning Sciences. Mahweh, NJ. de Freitas (2008) Serious virtual worlds: A scoping study joint information systems committee.

Prepared for the JISC e-Learning Programme. Retrieved from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/seriousvirtualworldsreport.aspx.

Dodge, T., Barab, S., Stuckey, B., Warren, S., Heiselt, C., & Stein, R. (2008). Children's sense of self: Learning and meaning in the digital age. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 2, p. 225-249.

Dieterle, E. & Clarke, J. (in press). Multi-user virtual environments for teaching and learning. In M. Pagani (Ed.), Encyclopedia of multimedia technology and networking (2nd ed). Hershey, PA: Idea Group, Inc. Dodge, T., Barab, S., Stuckey, B., Warren, S., Heiselt, C., & R. Stein. (2008). Children's sense of self: Learning and meaning in the digital age. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 2, p. 225-249.

Huitt, W. & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved January 13, 2009 from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html.

Haury, D. L. & Rillero, P. (1994). Perspectives of hands-on science teaching. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, Retrieved February 28, 2009 from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/eric/eric-2.htm.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Beyond the game 18

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago: The MacArthur Foundation.

Jonassen, D. H., Peck, K. L., & Wilson, B. G. (1999). Learning with technology: A constructivist perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.

Keefe, B. (2008). Virtual worlds still mainly playgrounds. Cox News Service.

Lau Whelan, D. (2005). Let the games begin. School Library Journal, 51, p. 40-43.

Lin, S. (2002). Piaget's developmental stages. In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational technology. Retrieved March 1, 2009 from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/piaget/start.htm.

Pruitt, C. (2005). The next decade of educational media. Digital Divide Network.

Marzano, R. & Pickering, D. J. (2004). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. New Media Consortium. (2009). 2009 Horizon Report. Retrieved March 1, 2009 from http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2009/chapters/trends/.

Quest Atlantis Homepage. (n.d.). http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/.

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River City Research Team. (n.d.). The River City project. Retrieved February 22, 2009 from http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/index.html.

Rheingold, H. (2007). Using participatory media and public voice to encourage civic engagement. In W. Lance Bennett (Ed.) Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Robbins, S. (2008). Virtual worlds as web 2.0 learning spaces: Talk given at Educase 2008 Retrieved January 3, 2009 from http://hosted.mediasite.com/flash/ELI/VirtualWorldsasWeb2.0LearningSpaces/.

Sandler, S. (n.d.). Classroom instruction that works. Retrieved January 10, 2009 from http://web2thatworks.com/index.php?title=Classroom_Instruction_That_Works.

Villano, M. (2008). Immersive learning: 13 tips for virtual world teaching. Campus Technology.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worldsâ&#x20AC;?

April 2009

Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life

By Andrew S I D Lang and David C Kobilnyk, Oral Roberts University.

Abstract We demonstrate the usefulness of Second Life as a platform for enlivening major concepts in chemistry education. These concepts include absorption spectra, selection rules, quantum numbers, and atomic orbital shapes. We have built several exhibits in Second Life which provide 3-dimensional interactivity for each of those areas: an interactive experiment showing the absorption spectrum of hydrogen, an interactive model of selection rules showing allowed and forbidden transitions for each state, a 3-dimensional grid of orbitals showing the constraints on the values of quantum numbers, and a large-scale interactive orbital display allowing the user to choose and rotate to-scale atomic orbitals based on quantum numbers.

Keywords: virtual worlds; physical chemistry; hydrogen; atomic orbitals.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life 4

Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life

By Andrew S I D Lang and David C Kobilnyk, Oral Roberts University.

Atomic orbitals has been identified as an area of chemistry education needing significant improvement due to student comprehension difficulties (see for example, 1, 2, 3). Standard software tools, such as Gnuplot (4), have been employed to visualize some concepts of orbitals.

While these tools do provide a way to view 3-dimensional objects, they lack another important element -- interactivity. Trindade, et al (5), using a desktop application of their own creation, have presented some encouraging evidence that using computer-based tools to present interactive 3-dimensional representations of atomic orbitals can "increase student's understanding of atomic orbitals overcoming, at least partially, previous misconceptions." Second Life offers a platform for relatively simple development of complex 3-dimensional, interactive objects, without the need for engaging in application programming. Virtual environments such as Second Life have also been shown to provide an element of presence, which is reported to contribute to more positive student learning outcomes (6). Second Life is increasingly being used for education and not just for chemistry (see for example, 7), with three clear benefits, whatever the discipline: Visualization, Immersion (Presence) and Collaboration.

We have used Second Life as a platform to enliven atomic orbitals and related concepts by creating several interactive exhibits. These exhibits will engage a chemistry student in four basic topics from hydrogen energy levels and atomic orbitals education: absorption spectra, selection rules, quantum numbers, and atomic orbital shapes and relative sizes. Our works are examples of the kind of 3-dimensional interactivity available within Second Life. The exhibits constructed include an interactive experiment showing the absorption spectrum of hydrogen (Figure 1), an interactive model of selection rules showing allowed and forbidden transitions for each eigenstate (Figure 2), a 3-dimensional grid of orbitals showing the constraints on the values of quantum numbers and the relative sizes of atomic orbitals (Figure 3), and a large-scale interactive orbital display allowing the user to choose and rotate to-scale atomic orbitals based on quantum numbers (Figure 4). These exhibits are also freely available for others to customize and improve.

In this paper, we will first briefly discuss our method for creating the atomic orbital shapes within Second Life. Then we will give a detailed presentation of each of the four exhibits.

Finally, some concluding remarks will be offered.

Orbital Shapes Second Life allows for the construction of objects by simple primitive objects, such as a sphere or box. It also allows for sculpted-prim maps which specify custom details about the object's shape. With these tools, exact orbital representations would be difficult to dynamically create within Second Life in the same way as other computer-generated images are usually created2. Instead, we created several sculpted-prim maps of the lobes of orbitals based upon the roots of a ninety-percent integral of the square of the radial function. These root values served to mark radial boundaries for the orbitals. The lobes created from the prim maps were then re-sized

4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life 5

and positioned according to this data. Once the lobes were accurately positioned, colored to show positive and negative wavefunction values, and textured, we linked them together to form toscale 3-dimensional orbitals in Second Life.

Exhibits Some of the important concepts in hydrogen energy levels and atomic orbitals education are those of energy level transitions and spectra. We have provided a demonstration of the Balmer Series by passing white light through a container of hydrogen orbitals that absorb light and visibly jump to higher energy states, and then through a prism. The resulting absorption spectrum is cast onto a screen, which includes a description of the spectrum. The system can be turned on or off by touching the light source. When the light source is off, the light and the spectrum disappear; when on, the light and the spectrum are visible. The user can also cause more hydrogen orbitals to appear inside the container by clicking on it, and photons of appropriate color (wavelength) can be observed being emitted from the orbitals as they decay back to lower energy states. There is a slide nearby which briefly explains spectra and includes a link to a web page having more information about the topic.

Figure 1: An interactive model demonstrating the absorption spectrum of hydrogen.

Another exhibit demonstrates valid transitions between states as prescribed by selection rules. It has a box for each orbital. Each box shows the quantum triplet associated with that orbital. The boxes are arranged with n varying with height, l with depth, and m from side to side.

This arrangement is similar to the stereoscopic depiction presented by Graham (8). The user selects a box as the initial state by touching it. The exhibit then highlights the states which mark allowable transitions. A slide explains the demonstration and provides a link to a web page with more detailed information about selection rules.

5

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life 6

Figure 2: An interactive model demonstrating selection rules.

Another exhibit shows all of the orbitals from n = 1 to n = 4, inclusive. These orbitals are arranged similarly to the boxes in the selection rules exhibit. The exhibit is a visual display showing the constraints on the values of quantum numbers and their relationship to orbital shape and size; however, the visual experience is enlivened by the ability to move around (and within) the exhibit to get different views of the orbitals.

Figure 3: A 3-dimension model of to-scale atomic orbitals arranged by quantum numbers.

6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life 7

Lastly, we have an exhibit which allows the user to manipulate and display orbitals using a control panel. To begin with, the control panel has a button which gives the user usage instructions when pressed. The panel also has a set of buttons to control the quantum numbers n, l, and m and thereby control which orbital is displayed. For each of the quantum numbers, there is an up button and a down button. Pressing the up button will increase the value of the associated quantum number, and pressing the down button will have the opposite effect. These buttons follow the rules of quantum number combinations. For example, suppose that the current quantum number selections are n = 2, l = 1, and m = +1. Then, the l and m up buttons are faded, and pressing the up button for m specifically results in the receipt of a message: "The absolute value of m cannot be greater than l." Thus, a student could develop a better grasp of the rules governing quantum number combinations simply by "playing" with these buttons and reading the messages.

Figure 4: An interactive model that allows for the selection and rotation of all orbitals up to and including n=4.

Along with the display of the orbital is the name of the orbital (not visible in Figure 4).

Furthermore, the control panel has a button for switching to a solid cutaway mode for the s orbitals, so that the student can more readily see the concentric spheres. The panel also has a button for rotating the orbital. The rotation can be controlled by altering the x, y, and z values which determine the axis of rotation. The speed can also be specified in radians/second.

Additionally, each orbital's Cartesian axes are labeled so that the student can more readily see the correlation between the name of the orbital and its orientation with respect to those axes.

7

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life 8

Conclusion The exhibits that we have created provide examples of how Second Life can be used to strengthen and enliven chemistry courses in the area of atomic orbitals. Nevertheless, a true appreciation of our work can only be attained in-world. The exhibits are displayed on Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Elucian Island3. They are provided for anyone to use them as they are; additionally, the exhibits have been released to the general public via Xstreet SL. Thus, we present this work as more than a set of exhibits to use; we present them also as a set of tools for individual use and adaptation.

For example, a chemistry educator could set these up in a personal lab area in Second Life, with slide presentations, and conduct one or more classes within Second Life. Additionally, the original scripts and objects themselves can be modified to include other desired features.

Notes 1. The Orbitron provides a resource of 3-d orbital images. See http://winter.group.shef.ac.uk/orbitron.

2. SLurl to our virtual lab housing the exhibits: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Elucian%20Islands/26/50/353 3. You may obtain full permissions versions of all our exhibits here: http://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=180472

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Visualizing Atomic Orbitals Using Second Life 9

Bibliography

1.

Taber, K. S. (2002). Conceptualizing quanta - Illuminating the ground state of student understanding of atomic orbitals. Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 3, 145-158.

2.

Tsaparlis, G. (1997). Atomic orbitals, molecular orbitals and related concepts: conceptual difficulties among chemistry students. Research in Science Education, 27, 271-287.

3.

Dimopoulos V. and Kalkanis G. (2005). Simulating Quantum States of the Atom of Hydrogen: A simulation program for non-physics major’s students. In: Proceedings of the fifth International ESERA Conference on Contribution of Research to Enhancing Students’ Interest in Learning Science, 548-552, Barcelona, Spain. Edited by Pintó R. and Courso D.

4.

Moore, B. G. (2000). Orbital Plots Using Gnuplot. J. Chem. Educ., 77, 785-789.

5.

Trindade J., Fiolhais C. and Gil V. (2005). Atomic orbitals and their representation: Can 3D computer graphics help conceptual understanding? Rev. Bras. Ens. Fis., 27, 319-325.

6.

Kontogeorgiou A. M., Bellou J. and Mikropoulos T. A. (2008). Being inside the Quantum Atom. PsychNology Journal, 6(1), 83-98.

7.

Kamel Boulos M. N., Wheeler S. and Toth-Cohen S. (2007). Designing for learning in 3-D virtual worlds: the University of Plymouth Sexual Health SIM experience in Second Life.

In: Proceedings of IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2007), 401-406 Algarve, Portugal. Edited by Kinshuk, Sampson D. G., Spector J. M., Isaías P.

8.

Graham, D. M. (1996). A 3-D Diagram of the Relationships among Atomic Orbitals. J. Chem. Educ., 73(3), 210-211

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

An integrated framework for simulation-based training on video and in a virtual world

By David Chodos; Parisa Naeimi and Eleni Stroulia, University of Alberta, Canada

Abstract Becoming a skilled professional requires both the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and the practice of skills relevant to one’s profession. When learning by doing, students consolidate their knowledge of domain-specific facts by applying them as necessary to accomplish the tasks involved in their profession. Simulationbased learning methods are a family of methods that enable this learning mode. New computer related technologies, including high performance networking, high definition displays, distributed multiplayer game engines, and virtual worlds, bring new opportunities for simulation-based learning methods and systems. In this work, we describe our software framework for specifying simulation-based lesson plans and their implementations on two different platforms: a video based tool and a virtual world environment. We discuss the software architecture of the system, illustrate its functionality with an example lesson on how to conduct oneself in corporate interviews, outline our plans for experimental evaluation, and argue for its usefulness in today’s efforts to creatively use virtual worlds for educational purposes.

Keywords: training; standard patient; annotated video; workflow.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 4

An integrated framework for simulation-based training on video and in a virtual world

By David Chodos; Parisa Naeimi and Eleni Stroulia, University of Alberta, Canada “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” This quote from Aristotle’s “Nichomachean Ethics” succinctly summarizes the compelling intuition behind learning-by-doing pedagogical methods. Most of us learn best “on the job” by trying things out and reflecting on our own experiences, even sharing our experiences with other people who may also learn from them. Learning by doing enables us to consolidate our knowledge of domain-specific facts as well as practice and refine the skills necessary to accomplish the related tasks. This is why post-secondary education institutions include in their curricula capstone project courses, internships, co-op terms, and practicum courses, in the hopes of better preparing their students to professionally conduct themselves in their actual practice after school.

Simulations provide another means for enabling learning by doing. A simulation retains the essential elements of the real situation, abstracts away the less relevant details, and places the learner in the role of one of the participants. In return, the learner brings to bear all his or her knowledge relevant to the situation, to make the decisions required of his or her role, and, generally, to act in accordance with this role. New technologies give rise to many more opportunities for simulation-based learning, in which a person is placed in a scenario or situation and is directly responsible for the changes that occur as a result of his or her decisions. Recent developments in software, multiplayer games, the internet and virtual reality have created richer, more life-like learning experiences for more learners.

Virtual worlds, in particular, are emerging as a platform with huge potential for teaching and learning, in general, and simulation-based training, in particular. Many universities have established a presence in Second Life, including University of Florida, Princeton, Vassar, the Open University (UK), Harvard, Australian Film Television and Radio School, Stanford, Delft University of Technology, and AFEKA Tel-Aviv Academic College of Engineering, just to name a few. At the same time, researchers and educators are grappling with a number of questions around the adoption of virtual worlds for educational purposes. These questions range from how to best exploit this new technology, to how to adapt teaching pedagogy to a virtual classroom, to deciding what types of learners might benefit the most from learning what type of subject matter in them.

Among the most important questions include developing new pedagogical theories and models of how students learn in virtual worlds and corresponding methods for assessing the effectiveness of education in these worlds. Freitas and Neumann (2009) recently proposed an exploratory learning model, adapted from Kolb’s experiential learning model (1984), to guide teachers in rethinking how they teach in 3D and immersive spaces and how to “choreograph” the learning sequences that include peer interactions and exchanges. In our work, we are interested in developing a software framework that will enable the parallel development of simulation-based lessons on different platforms. In this manner, we hope to effectively reuse the effort that goes in the collection of relevant materials and the development of the learning objectives to be fulfilled by a lesson and, more importantly, to establish a test bed for comparatively assessing the effectiveness of learning across the various platforms. In this paper, we discuss our framework that includes the MERITS component for specifying lesson plans and the AVA and SLICE components for developing simulations to deliver these lesson plans through interacting with a video player (in the case of AVA) and in a virtual world like Second Life (in the case of SLICE).

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 5

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews related work on computer based training, using video, and in virtual worlds. Section 3 describes our model for specifying training objectives, course and lesson structure, and the desired (or the expected erroneous) learner behaviors in the context of our video based and in-world training systems. Section 4 explains the video based and in-world training systems and discusses the learners’ run-time interaction with them in the context of an illustrative example. Section 5 discusses our plans for future work and Section 6 concludes with a summary of our work to date and the lessons we have learned from it.

Background and Related Work The term simulation-based training refers to a collection of training methods, all of which aim at bridging the gap between classroom knowledge and actual practice, by placing the learner in realistic situations in the context of which he/she has to bring to bear his/her knowledge (of facts, tasks and procedures, and collaboration strategies) to solve a problem.

From an educational psychology standpoint, simulation-based training is supported by the situated cognition theory, proposed by Brown et al. (Brown et al., 1989). According to this theory, knowledge is not a set of abstract concepts to be absorbed by the student; instead, knowledge is dependent on the context and culture in which it is used. Adhering to situation-cognition principles, Collins et al. developed the cognitive-apprenticeship model of educational practice that incorporates the situated nature of the knowledge being conveyed to students (Collins et al., 1991). This model was later evaluated by Järvelä, who found it to be effective within a technologically rich learning environment (Järvelä, 1995). These theories and studies support the value of simulation-based training, which is based upon presenting students with knowledge and teaching skills in a context similar to that within which they will be using those knowledge and skills.

Our group works in close collaboration with health sciences educators who are interested in enhancing their curricula with a variety of computer-assisted training methods, with a particular emphasis on simulation-based training. There are a range of modalities of simulation-based training in health sciences. Mannequins and part-task physical trainers are used for specializations where tactile and physical interaction with the patients is necessary for diagnosing and treating them, such as nursing or surgery. On the other hand, standardized patient actors play the roles of patients, communicating through their verbal responses and physical reactions, mannerisms and emotions with the (teams of) health science student(s), who are responsible for assessing, diagnosing, and treating them. This type of simulation is essential for training healthcare professionals in taking medical history and carrying out clinical conversations with patients, their families, and their colleagues. 2-D and 3-D desktop visualizations and simulations are being used to enhance in-class teaching of complex physiological phenomena (Holzinger et al., 2009). And more recently, virtual world simulations are being developed as more cost-effective alternatives for training students on tasks involving interaction with patients and collaboration in the context of multi-professional healthcare teams.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 6

Table 1: Comparison of Virtual Worlds.

Arbitrary Positioning

Gestures

Custom Gestures

Physical Touching

Direct Touching

Obstruction

Determinable Eye Gaze

Controllable Eye Gaze

Staring

Voice Chat

Non-verbal Aspects

Chat Pauses

Late Arrival

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

0

MS Virtual Earth

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

0

Qwaq Media Sharing There

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

?

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

10

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

P

P

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

12

Vside Games EVE Online

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

P

Y

N

N

Y

Y

10.5

Y

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

7

Neopets

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

0

ourWorld

Y

N

Y

N

P

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

4.5

Puzzle Pirates

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

P

P

Y

N

N

Y

Y

4

RuneScape

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

P

P

Y

N

N

Y

Y

5

World of Warcraft Y Simulation and Training 3B Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

N

P

P

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

8

N

Y

N

P

N

N

Y

P

Y

N

N

Y

Y

7

ProtoSphere Social Networking Active Worlds

Y

Y

Y

N

P

N

N

Y

P

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

10

Y

P

Y

N

P

N

N

Y

P

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

9.5

Entropia Universe

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

P

Y

N

N

Y

Y

7.5

Habbo Hotel

P

Y

P

N

N

N

Y

P

P

Y

N

N

Y

Y

7

IMVU

N

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

4

Kaneva

Y

Y

Y

N

P

N

N

P

P

Y

N

N

Y

Y

7.5

Karga

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

P

Y

N

N

Y

N

8.5

Lively

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

Y

8

Second Life

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

14

Vivaty

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

5

Total Score

Personal Space

Content Sharing Google Earth

Clearly, a substantially larger number of learners can benefit from a program based on desktop simulation than from traditional standardized patient actor simulation programs. Moreover, since participants can be geographically distributed, students in rural areas have the same interaction and educational opportunities as those in metropolitan centers. These advantages, while certainly quite compelling from both a technological and educational standpoint, are highly dependent upon the verisimilitude of the simulation platform used. In our work, we have chosen to focus initially on video and Second Life (as an example of the new breed of virtual worlds) as two alternative platforms for computer-based simulation training. The former provides a high degree of realism of the simulated environment albeit at a cost to the interactivity between the learner and the enacted scenario. The latter 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 7

enables a greater degree of interaction but somewhat sacrifices the realism of the simulated environment and the expressiveness of the (automatically simulated) characters participating in the scenario through their avatars.

To lessen this shortcoming of virtual worlds as much as possible, we comparatively examined twenty-four virtual worlds, as shown in Table 1. There is a substantial variation in the degree to which the simulated environments and avatars are realistic, somewhat less variety in the types of verbal communication possible among avatars, and a substantial variance in the types of non-verbal cues that these worlds can simulate. Based on the six broad types of non-verbal communication behaviors (proxemics, kinetics, haptics, oculesics, vocalics, and chronemics), we identified fourteen specific behaviors (depicted as labels on the columns of Table 1) and used them as an instrument for comparatively evaluating the capabilities of twenty-four virtual worlds (listed as labels for each of the rows in Table 1). At the time this review was conducted in Summer 2008, Second Life was the only virtual world to have features that would enable the enactment of all fourteen categories of behaviors, though that may no longer be the case. Currently, this includes animated gestures, in-world voice chat, and a highly customizable avatar. However, more subtle forms of expression, such as custom facial expressions, are not currently possible, and may be a stumbling block for certain kinds of simulations.

Another challenge in adopting a virtual world as a simulation-based training platform is the degree to which the behavior of the character standing in for the standardized patient can be automated.

While simple actions such as moving, talking, and listening for phrases have already been implemented, more complex actions may prove more difficult to automate. A related issue is the expressiveness of these automated characters. Today, creating an automated character that can move realistically and act shy, nervous or angry is still impossible in all virtual worlds. However, much of the related work (including ours) relies on the assumption that this lack of expressiveness will not fundamentally destroy the sense of social presence (Wheeler, 2005) required to make these simulation believable. Furthermore, the technology is continuously improving and the field assumes that this problem will eventually become less significant. In the two following sections, we review previous research on the usage of videos and virtual worlds in training, with a special interest in the healthsciences domain.

Video-based training Video has been long used for teaching, usually for demonstration of expert (or problematic) performance for students to mimic (or avoid). This use is relatively passive – the student simply watches the performance – and it is the responsibility of the instructor to focus the students’ attention to the more pertinent aspects of the demonstration and to guide their reflection on how the demonstration relates to the rest of their knowledge and skills. Recently we have witnessed a wave of research on how to use annotated video in an effort to support or even automate the role of the instructor. In the following paragraphs, we will describe several video annotation systems being used in a variety of contexts.

The Shakespeare Video Annotation System (SVAS) “brings us closer to realizing the potential of digital media to transform education across the humanities, arts, and in other subjects in which there is a need for flexible access to multimedia archives and the need for a rapid, conversational pace as the exchange of ideas converge” (Donaldson et al., 2008). The system enables users to compare literary classics to their corresponding versions in modern media. It allows students to view multiple movies (for instance, different Shakespeare performances) at the same time and add text annotations to 7

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different performances and remotely share their online commentaries and discussions. A product of the project is XMAS, the “Cross Media Annotation System,” which provides a multimedia essay editor (where movie clips can be seamlessly introduced into an essay), an online discussion component with references to video clips, and a mechanism for annotating a variety of media, such as DVDs, images, texts, and streaming video.

Butler and his colleagues have used video annotation to facilitate assessment of educational events such as presentations, seminars, and interviews (Butler et al., 2006). Current educational systems tend to use presentations and seminars in their assessment procedure, especially in higher education. These methods encourage deep, as opposed to surface, learning by guiding the learner to focus on the significant aspects of the presentations, relating it to his (her) previous knowledge, and integrating everything in a coherent whole (Marton and Säljö, 1976). However, unlike exams, which can be kept forever, it is difficult to keep records of these transient events. Butler’s system provides the facility to keep some records of transient events during presentation. For example, each user can attach notes or comments to timelines, and defined annotations will be attached to video later. In other words, this system will capture the transient events for later use and will make the process of assessment less complex. eSports is a video annotation system used for distance sport coaching. Supposing that coach and players are in different locations, they can login to the system and watch a video at the same time. Then they can add annotations to interesting and important shots. In this way, they can share their ideas and discuss together, as if they were sitting together in a real classroom.

Video Traces provides users with a simple user interface to change video play speed and sequence, freeze video frame, or point on different parts of the video (using a “finger tool”) while discussing and talking about video content. The user can add comments on parts of video or particular interest. All user changes, including audio comments, gestures, and video playback changes are overlaid on the original video, to produce as a “video trace.” This system has been particularly helpful in teaching dance disciplines, where the focus is on learning by doing, through facilitating critical evaluation and reflective thinking both for dancers and choreographers.

The KLIV system brings video-based learning content on a mobile platform, to be shared by peers. In a really interesting application, nurses produce short video clips on best practices, which are stored on a server and accessed by students through their handhelds within the hospital.

As is evident from the variety of applications mentioned above, video – raw as well as annotated – is used in a range of contexts to enhance teaching and learning. However, current video annotation systems typically use annotations to provide additional explanatory comments to the original video footage. While this is really useful, it does not fundamentally change the passive nature of video as a platform. In our work, we propose actionable annotations, supporting the user’s interaction with the video stream and his/her response or action relative to the content presented. In this manner, video instead of being yet another media for content becomes a simulation platform where learners are brought into a situation and have to make decisions about it based on their knowledge. We have developed our idea of actionable annotations in the Actionable Video Annotation (AVA) system, which in addition to standard passive annotations, supports several types of actionable ones, thus providing an interactive simulation environment which can be of great use in education.

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Training in virtual worlds In spite of the relative recency of the virtual worlds phenomenon, several educational projects that use virtual worlds in various ways have already been reported. A large number of educational institutions are experimenting with setting up virtual campuses, with areas for students to meet and work, and classrooms in which to hold meetings and lessons. Sometimes integrated with 2-D learningmanagement systems, such as Moodle, these virtual campuses are intended to motivate further social interaction among students and instructors and to provide an opportunity for creative activities in the virtual world that can enhance learning.

In addition to such “general” experiments in establishing a presence in a virtual world, several specific virtual world education experiments for providing better instruction on selected subject areas have been reported. These experiments cut across subject areas and use a broad range of technologies.

Vergara and his colleagues at the University of New Mexico teach medical students about evolving hematomas (Vergara et al., 2008). They have developed a virtual character, nicknamed “Mr. Toma,” to provide students with a chance to interact with a person and other associated objects in a 3-D, multiuser virtual environment (MUVE). Several rigorous studies of the system’s effectiveness have demonstrated that it is equally effective as conventional, paper-and-pencil education methods.

Furthermore, it offers additional advantages, including the chance to collaborate with geographically dispersed students and an increased sense of immersion when using the MUVE system. A considerable amount of effort was put into ensuring that the content was presented accurately and effectively, including consulting with an interdisciplinary team of subject matter experts.

Similarly, Adamo-Villani has developed a photorealistic 3-D virtual laboratory for an undergraduate course on microcontroller technology (2006). The project is aimed at students in electrical engineering, and is particularly concerned with offering a lifelike lab experience for students, such as those with physical disabilities, who would not otherwise have access to a lab. Because the project is restricted to teaching students about microcontrollers, the interface – and, indeed, the simulation as a whole – is quite closely tailored to this context and the interactions are limited to those implied by the microcontroller being constructed. The interface is largely two-dimensional, with camera controls enabling students to pan across an item or zoom in on a particular feature. The simulation is not accessible online, and thus there are no opportunities for collaboration with other students.

In a different context, Carpenter (2006) has developed a 3-D crisis-communication training tool to provide communication students with opportunities to practice what are, in a standard classroom setting, largely theoretical approaches to dealing with crises. Through the immersive tool, students get hands-on training and can experience events, rather than absorbing and interpreting them through written information. The tool uses facial modeling for virtual characters, a range of story settings, and virtual reality based user interface devices (a head tracker and wand) to provide an immersive experience for the student. The tool uses a narrative, storyboard-based technique to deliver the educational content, where each student is offered a set of choices at key points in the story.

Afterwards, the students are debriefed and the instructor analyzes and evaluates their choices. Because the system uses storyboards to structure the educational content, a student’s interaction with the system is largely pre-determined and quite rigid. As well, the system does not support collaborative learning, since it is meant for use by one student at a time.

Moving away from using virtual environments to teach discipline-specific knowledge and 9

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skills, Jones focused on the effect of 3-D online learning environments on online discourse (2005). He found that courses using 3-D learning environments attained a high level of online discourse more quickly than those that used conventional web-based systems exclusively. He also analyzed some of the barriers to the adoption of 3-D learning environments, such as the cost of integrating new technology into existing systems, the time and effort required to create new educational materials, and the perception that 3-D environments are meant for gaming, not education. These barriers were weighed against advantages such as high levels of student motivation, improved academic efficacy, and the appeal of an immersive, stimulating 3-D environment. To this list of advantages, the author is able to add improvement of online discourse, which may help push some educators or institutions towards integration of 3D environments into their programs.

In a similar vein, Cai (2008) has taken a broader view of the issue, examining the potential of virtual worlds for any kind of training program. He compared several virtual environments â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Second Life, ActiveWorld, OpenSim, and the Torque game engine â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in terms of their fitness for educational activities and analyzed various common learning activities with respect to their implementation in a virtual environment. He also presented a development lifecycle for creating virtual learning environments and analyzed several virtual learning projects at IBM according to these analytical tools.

There is clearly substantial excitement about Second Life and the socialization opportunities it affords with its large user population. At the same time, specialized virtual worlds exist that support education and/or professional training simulations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Forterra the most recognizable among them. To our knowledge, our work with SLICE is unique in attempting to provide a dynamic-simulation system within Second Life, which should be of interest to the education institutions that have adopted Second Life for their virtual campuses.

An Extendible Framework for Simulation-based Training The long-term objective of our work is to develop an extendible framework for specifying lesson plans and their potential delivery in a variety of computer-assisted methodologies. As computer technologies improve and evolve, including mobile personal computers, interactive displays, and haptic devices, to name a few examples, we envision new ways to include them in teaching and learning. And as we creatively come up with novel pedagogical methodologies, the need to comparatively assess their cost effectiveness will become ever more pressing. This is why in our work on simulation-based training we have focused on separating the lesson specification from the specification of its technologyspecific delivery details.

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Figure 1: High-level Software Architecture of Our Simulation-based Education Framework.

As shown diagrammatically in Figure 1, the MixEd Reality Integrated Training System (MERITS) component is responsible for maintaining course and lesson plan specifications. These specifications are accessible by a collection of platform-specific clients, through a REST (Representational State Transfer) API. To date, we have developed two clients: Actionable Video Annotation (AVA) and Second Life Integrated Curriculum Environment (SLICE). Each of these clients consists of two components: one to be used by the instructor to define how the course concepts are implemented in terms of the specific interaction mechanisms supported by the platform and the second one to be used by students to take the course.

Course specification in MERITS The MERITS component organizes the course specification around three types of knowledge: (a) (b) (c)

an organizational structure, in which the content is stored; record keeping entities to monitor the student's educational progress; and domain-specific concepts of the course.

The organizational structure is a simple hierarchy, as shown in Figure 2. A course is subdivided into modules, each of which, in turn, contains an ordered sequence of educational items, of a variety of types, such as lessons and scenarios. A lesson contains a static piece of educational content and thus, may contain elements such as text, multimedia components (e.g., audio clips or videos), and questions.

A scenario, on the other hand, encapsulates an interactive educational experience and thus, consists of components that describe this interaction. Within a question, one may have multiple options (for a multiple choice question) or a text-entry field for a question with an open-ended answer.

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Figure 2: Structural Entities.

Figure 4: Conceptual Entities.

Figure 3: Record Keeping Entities.

For example, a module could encapsulate a course on how to conduct job interviews. This module, in turn, would contain several lessons and modules that would convey the course material. The course could start with a lesson about how to prepare to conduct an interview. This lesson could contain photos of an office, a video showing how to greet an applicant, and text descriptions of the various questions that one might ask. This lesson could be followed by several scenarios which would give the user a chance to practice conducting an interview. Finally, the module might also contain a lesson about how to conclude an interview and analyze the applicantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responses, which would contain appropriate text and multimedia resources. The record keeping entities are of two types: learning objectives and learning outcomes. A learning objective encapsulates the record keeping involved in assessing a student's competence in a particular area. A learning outcome, on the other hand, corresponds to a particular input from the student indicating their competence. The relationship between the record keeping entities and student assessment is shown in Figure 3.

Finally, the abstract conceptual entities are intended to capture the domain-specific knowledge of the course and in particular, around the competencies that are being taught. Conceptual entities serve some of the same function as modules in that they organize a course into broad, theme-based sections.

However, while modules are organized in such a way as to convey the educational material in discrete, ordered units, conceptual entities have a much looser structure. They do not have an order associated with them and may be associated with each other or even nested within each other to create conceptual hierarchies. Thus, the instructor may begin creating a course by first establishing the set of concepts to be conveyed and then organizing modules, lessons, and scenarios around these foundational concepts.

The relationship between conceptual and organizational entities is shown in Figure 4. Note that structural entities may be connected to multiple conceptual entities and that the hierarchy of a structural entity might not match that of a related conceptual entity.

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As is evident from the preceding paragraphs, fully specifying a course involves substantial work by the content creator, who needs to decide the set of relevant concepts, organize the appropriate educational content, and establish the record keeping mechanisms needed to assess a student's progress in learning the concepts. Moreover, for any existing course, most of this work has already been done – lecture notes have been created, assignments devised, and exams prepared. Thus, requiring that this information be respecified in a new system threatens the system’s adoption potential. Further, it is quite likely that this information is already in digital form, thanks to the prevalence of learning management systems (LMS) such as BlackBoard, WebCT, and Moodle. Thus, taking advantage of an established elearning standard is crucial to encouraging the adoption of the MERITS system.

The Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), initially developed by the Department of Defense, is an XML-based standard for structuring content in an e-learning system. It is followed by all major LMS systems and ensures a basic level of interoperability between the systems.

The MERITS system currently uses a small subset of the concepts and entities described by the SCORM standard and because of the conceptual and organizational overhead involved in SCORM compliance, it does not directly conform to the SCORM standard. However, we are investigating the development of a “translator” for the MERITS system that would convert between SCORM-compliant educational content and the format used by MERITS. This would allow us to take advantage of the interoperability offered by SCORM compliance without unnecessarily complicating the underlying structure of the MERITS system.

Student-behavior specification The development of the lesson plan by the instructor is done in the context of MERITS, since it is client independent. On the other hand, the specification of the student’s interaction with this material depends on the client platform; therefore, it is specified in each of the MERITS clients.

Behavior specification in AVA

Current video annotation tools support a variety of annotation types from very simple annotations such as text labels to some more advanced objects such as descriptive figures, drawings, and images. However, all these annotation types have a common trait; all of them reveal a passive behavior. This means that the user only perceives the extra content provided by these annotations while watching the annotated video. Although passive annotations are very useful, we propose that video could be transformed into a simulation platform with interactive actionable annotations, guiding the learner to act on the video based on his or her knowledge and the context set up by the video content.

The AVA system implements this novel proposal.

AVA’s annotations include passive annotations which only add a set of informative, explanatory notes to the video and actionable annotations which demand an appropriate response from the learner watching the video and appropriately react to his/her response. For example, the learner may be asked to answer a fact-finding or comprehension question based on the current video scene or to point to a relevant point in the video image. In response, AVA may pop out an overlay label with additional information on the learner’s response, change the playing head position to a different scene where additional relevant information can be found, or ask a follow-up question.

AVA defines an XML-based language for specifying passive annotations, such as simple text, URLs, and images, and actionable annotations, such as questions and decision points and their 13

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 14

corresponding operations. All annotations and related operations are stored in an XML file that accompanies the original video as metadata. This document contains three different elements, annotations, assigned annotations, and frames, as shown in Figure 5.

The annotations element, which roughly corresponds to the concept entity of MERITS, is defined in terms of a unique annotation id, its type (whether it is a label/URL/image to be shown, or a multiple-choice or open-end question to be answered, or an interaction to be performed on the video image), its value, and its owner information.

Figure 5: The AVA Video Metadata Schema.

An assigned annotation element associates an annotation to a sequence of frames, starting at from(T1) and ending at to(T2), and to a specific x, y location. At run time, this annotation is superimposed at location x, y on the learner’s video during the defined time period. By separating the actual annotations from their assignments, it is possible to assign a single annotation to several different time slots or have multiple annotations shown at the same time, just as a single concept may be communicated in different ways or a statement may communicate multiple concepts. Each time an annotation assignment is enacted, a unique value is generated for “tag” attribute to distinguish between the various assignments.

The frames element keeps a record of all operations (showing or hiding annotations, at the entry or exit of a frame, or upon receiving from the learner an answer to an actionable annotation) needed to manage the annotations relative to the video sequence. For example, for an annotation assigned to time T1 to T2, two cue-points (two frames) are inserted in frames section. The “ShowAnnotation” operation is added to “OnEntry” part of cue-point T1, and “HideAnnotation” operation is placed on “OnExit” part of cue-point T2. At run-time, the annotation is superimposed on the video between times T1 and T2.

For all actionable annotations such as questions, in addition to two previous mentioned frame elements, one frame element called “OnAnswer” is added. The operations in this subsection vary depending on 14

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the actionable annotation type and the operations defined by user in response to possible viewer actions. Moreover, a “Pause” command is automatically added to “OnEntry” section of the ending cuepoint in order to stop the video to receive the viewer action. For instance, for a multiple choice question annotation, an operation like “Seek” or “Continue” may be assigned to each question option. Then during video play, AVA stops the video on the end time of displaying question to ask the learner for an answer, and depending on how the given answer compares to the answer specified by the teacher, the player will jump to some specific points or continue playing video. A number of operations may be assigned for each option (or in general, each viewer action). For example, conditioned on a specific viewer action, the AVA player may use “ShowAnnotation” command to show another conditional annotation, and then “Continue” or “Pause” to receive another user action (multiple operations per viewer action is not implemented in this version).

The AVA system is implemented in the service oriented style, so it can be easily integrated with other applications and connects to MERITS via the MERITS REST APIs to retrieve questions and store the learners’ answers. Two different sets of services are provided by AVA. The first set includes the services for defining annotations and operations that directly manipulate the content of the XML file associated with the video content. The second set of services is used at run time by the AVA video player to retrieve annotations and operations and appropriately control the interaction with the learner.

Behavior specification in SLICE

In the SLICE component, the concepts defined in MERITS are communicated to the learners via interactive workflows between the student and scripted characters, created by educators (or domain experts). SLICE provides a simple web-based toolkit for efficiently creating such workflows, which is currently implemented using a custom workflow engine. However, we are moving towards expressing these workflows in Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). BPEL is, in essence, an XML-based method for describing workflows. While the simplest workflow will describe a linear sequence of actions (e.g., B follows A), one can also specify more complex workflows which may contain actions which will only occur under certain conditions, for example, or actions which may occur in parallel. As BPEL has become more widely used, variations have emerged which extend its original focus – business processes – to areas such as web services (WS-BPEL) and processes involving humancomputer interaction (BPEL4People). BPEL specifications can be executed by several existing execution engines and can be interactively constructed through corresponding modeling tools.

An important advantage of using a workflow-based scheme for specifying character behavior is that it can be used to describe both macro- and micro-level behaviors. That is, on a small scale, the educator can describe simple, atomic actions such as moving from one place to another or listening for a certain phrase. However, these actions can be combined to create composite, complex actions such as carrying out an interview or assembling a piece of (virtual) equipment. Thus, simple, broadly applicable actions may be composed in various ways to create complex actions that are customized for particular contexts or educational programs.

Once the workflow has been specified, it is stored in an online database and is accessed by the automated character within Second Life to guide its behavior when interacting with a student. These characters may converse with the student, move around, or perform more complex actions. The range of character behaviors is limited only by the workflow specification and the implementation of these behaviors in Second Life. That is, an avatar could be told to scratch its head, as long as the character’s avatar in Second Life knows how to perform this action. The behaviors used in different educational 15

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contexts will likely vary a great deal, and thus, the system will eventually store both a general repository of behaviors for all contexts, and a smaller collection of behaviors relevant to a particular context. The process of creating, storing and running a workflow is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Workflow Process.

The “Corporate Interview” Scenario In this section, we discuss how the student interacts with each of the two training systems (AVA and SLICE) at run time, in the context of a “training for a corporate-interview” example. There is a lot of online advice on the topic, on issues ranging from how to prepare for such an event, how to dress for it, and how to answer specific types of questions that usually arise during the interview. In fact, we found a sequence or related videos on YouTube, which we have used as an example on which to base our first application of our systems.

Figure 7: Core Concepts for Job Interview Training.

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The videos from Denham Resources, a human resources training company in Fresno, California, show job applicants giving good and bad answers to common interview questions. The answers are annotated with brief explanations of what makes that answer good or bad, as the answer is given. For example, after an applicant giving a “bad” answer laughs nervously, an annotation is shown telling the viewer that laughter indicates nervousness or dishonesty. The video series covers questions such as “Why do you want to work here?” and “What is your biggest weakness?”

Using this material as a starting point, we came up with a set of principles and core concepts, diagrammatically depicted in Figure 7. These concepts were organized around three core ideas: communication, content, and attitude. More specific concepts such as “avoiding sarcasm” and “making good eye contact” were then grouped within these three core concepts. While some concepts (such as preparation and avoiding slang) fell under more than one category, most of the more specific concepts fit nicely into a single category. Using these principles, we created appropriate structural, conceptual, and record-keeping entities within the MERITS system. For a description of these entities, see the following section.

MERITS entities We have created an interview training module which encapsulates all of the educational content related to training a student in conducting job interviews. Within that module, we have created scenarios for “good” and “bad” answers to five common interview questions: “Tell me about yourself,” “Describe your biggest failure,” “Describe a time you went above and beyond at work,” “What is your biggest weakness?,” and “Why should we hire you?” These scenarios contain components that allow the student to pose each question to an automated character, the character to respond with a “good” or “bad” answer, and the student to then make observations about the character’s answer. We have also created lessons for each of these interview questions to store static information pertaining to that question. Specifically, each lesson contains multiple choice questions about that interview question, which can be presented as video annotations by the AVA system. Finally, it should be noted that both the student’s observations (in a virtual world), and their answers to the multiple-choice questions (using the AVA system) are connected to record keeping entities, which allow these student actions to be tracked and graded by the MERITS system. For a listing of a representative segment the MERITS entities created for this module, please see the Appendix, which presents a representative selection of these entities.

A complete listing is available at http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~chodos/training/showEntities.php.

Video-based training with AVA The complete lesson, with a manual on its use, is available at http://www.cs.ualbert.ca/~chodos/training/ava.html. As discussed earlier, a course in AVA system is composed of a series of video segments plus a set of commentary (passive) and actionable annotations.

The sequence of presenting video segments depends on the lesson plan and student actions (answers) on actionable annotations. Therefore, in general, a video segment may be played several times whereas another segment may be not reached at all.

Let us consider, for example, the short job interview course that is designed to help the students experience the actual interview sessions. The course is composed of several video clips presenting typical answers of interviewee to the sample interviewer questions. The student sits behind the system in the role of an interviewer and picks one of the available answers to a specific question through a 17

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multiple choice actionable annotation (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: AVA Screen Shot 1.

Figure 9: AVA Screen Shot 2.

In response to the student action, the video player jumps to the corresponding video segment and plays the sample interviewee answer. During or at the end of the interviewee answer, the student is asked to present her/his observations by answering one or more multiple choice questions (see Figure 9). Depending on the accuracy of the student observations, the player may let him (her) watch other samples or replay all or some parts of the current sample to notify the points possibly missed by the student.

In a complete course on job interview training, the questions and interviewee answers to those questions may be chosen according to a predefined specific order, and the students not only may be asked to give their observations on each specific question but also may be asked to give their overall observation on the total interview session. In this way, the job interview session environment will be simulated for the student; instead of simply watching the interview and the running commentary, the student may, in fact is asked to, provide his (her) own input on interesting aspects of the interview 18

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process, thus engaging more with the training process.

Training in Second Life with SLICE The complete lesson, with a manual on its use, is available at http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~chodos/training/SLICE.html. The course, when viewed by the student within a virtual world, is conveyed through a series of interactions with scripted characters. While other modes of interaction – such as multiple choice quizzes, for example, or conversation with an instructor – are possible within a virtual world, these interactive workflows are a very engaging way of presenting certain kinds of educational material and are particularly effective within a virtual world.

Figure 10: Screenshot of Virtual Office.

In the context of training students to conduct job interviews, the student is placed in an office setting and is joined by an automated character representing a job applicant. Figure 10 is a screenshot of the student and applicant in the virtual office.

The student can ask the applicant any of several standard job interview questions. For each of these questions, the applicant is scripted to respond with either a “good” or “bad” answer, which the student should be able to evaluate. These responses can either be shown on screen (as in the following screenshots) or played as a series of audio clips. To demonstrate recognition of the relevant qualities of the interviewee’s answers, the student can make observations at any point during the applicant’s answer. A flowchart showing this interview process is shown in Figure 11. These observations currently operate using a simple keyword-based system, although we are planning on creating a more robust, natural language system in the near future. See Figure 12 for a screenshot of the interaction between the student and the applicant, which includes the student making both correct and incorrect observations about the applicant’s answer. See Figure 13 for a list of the characteristics shown in one of the questions.

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Figure 11: Flowchart of Interview Process.

Figure 12: Interaction Between Student and Applicant.

Figure 13: List of Characteristics.

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Finally, it should be noted that the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s observations, including multiple choice answers or any other kind of feedback, are linked to the appropriate record-keeping entities defined within the MERITS system. Thus, the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interactions in the virtual world are linked to, and thus become an integrated part of, a broader online course in interview training.

Future Work: Experimental Evaluation The most important task to be accomplished in the short-term future is an experimental evaluation of our infrastructure. To assess the effectiveness of the virtual world based training scenarios, we propose comparing it with the video annotation system, using a common educational context. We will focus on the field of training human resources staff to conduct job interviews. Using previously generated material from a web based course as a starting point, we came up with a set of principles and core concepts. Using these principles, we created appropriate structural, conceptual, and record keeping entities within the MERITS system. Then, using a set of interview training videos from Denham Resources, we created interactive scenarios and annotated videos that address the educational goals of the program. Thus, a student can be taught the course material via either the virtual world or annotated video clients.

With this ability to deliver educational content using multiple delivery methods, we can take a class of students and divide them into several groups: conventional, virtual world, annotated video, and blended. The conventional group will not use any MERIT-based client and will act as a control group.

The virtual world group will use the virtual world client exclusively, and the annotated video group will, similarly, use the video client exclusively. Finally, the blended group will have access to both clients and will be able to choose which client to use for each part of the course. The division of the students will be performed randomly, and will take potentially confounding demographics (e.g., age or gender) into account. At the same time, since students from the same course (and education background) will form all groups we hope to eliminate any other confounding variables, such as the educational environment and the course instructor. The experimental evaluation will investigate the following questions: 1) Does the use of a MERITS-based client have an effect on students' performance?

2) Is there a difference in students' performance when using the video-based client, as compared to the virtual world based client?

3) Does offering a choice of either client, as opposed to offering one client exclusively, have an effect on students' performance?

A key component in all of these questions, of course, is the measurement of students' performance in the course â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that is, the extent to which the students are able to learn the material being presented. At a superficial level, students' grades and exam scores may be compared, but this offers a one-dimensional view of each student's performance. Rather, we propose a multi-faceted measure of the students' performance, based on the following metrics: academic performance, level of involvement, and aggregated quantitative survey results.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 22

Summary and Conclusions In this paper we discussed a software prototype designed to support simulation-based learning on multiple platforms, including video and Second Life. Our system consists of three related components. (a) The MixEd Reality Integrated Training System (MERITS) component serves as the repository of platform-independent information about courses, lesson plans and their associated materials, as well as information about the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance when taking these lessons. (b) The Actionable Video Annotation (AVA) supports instructors in specifying passive and actionable annotations on video, through which to communicate the MERITS lesson plans. It also includes a player component that, at run time, controls the video play, the delivery of the specified annotations and the interaction with the learner. (c) The Second Life Integrated Curriculum Environment (SLICE) component guides instructors in specifying workflows through which to enact the MERITS lesson plans in Second Life and through a reengineered Second Life client, controls the environment and the automated workflow characters at run time letting the learners play the remaining workflow roles.

Admittedly, the prototype is not mature and unfortunately, we do not yet have experimental evaluation results on its effectiveness for teaching and learning. Nevertheless, we believe that the software architecture we have developed clearly delineates the boundaries between the different types of information necessary for developing simulations for learning and flexibly supports, and hopefully more in the future, environments for simulation-based learning.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 23

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Donaldson, P. Shakespeare Video Annotation Project. Retrieved from http://icampus.mit.edu/projects/Shakespeare.shtml and http://web.mit.edu/shakspere/xmas.html Fielding, R. T. & Taylor, R. N. (2000). Principled design of the modern Web architecture. In Proceedings of the 22nd international Conference on Software Engineering, Limerick, Ireland, June 4 - 11, 2000. ACM, New York: ACM, p. 407-416.

Holzinger, A., Kickmeier-Rust, M. D., Wassertheurer, S., & Hessinger, M. (2009). Learning performance with interactive simulations in medical education: Lessons learned from results of learning complex physiological models with the HAEMOdynamics SIMulator. Computer Education, 52, p. 292-301.

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Appendix: A Selection of MERITS Entities - <message> - <module moduleID="4" moduleTitle="Interview Training"> - <items> <itemListDescription> A module is composed of items, which may be either "lessons" (static content) or "scenarios" (dynamic content).

In either case, each item has an order within the module, and may have associated learning objectives and concepts. </itemListDescription> - <lesson lessonID="7" itemOrder="1"> <lessonTitle>Interview Question: Tell Me About Yourself</lessonTitle> <lessonText>This lesson explores the interview question "Tell me about yourself."</lessonText> - <textSegments> <textSegment segmentOrder="1"> A good answer will: <UL> <LI>start with most significant point <LI>describe qualities and behaviour relevant to the job <LI>use examples to "paint a picture of success" <LI>mention traits that will make the applicant successful <LI>share qualities used in position <LI>the applicant will confidently say that he or she is right for the job </UL> </textSegment> <textSegment segmentOrder="2"> An applicant answering poorly may: <UL> <LI>giggle, which can be a sign of nervousness <LI>fail to back up claims with examples <LI>admit unpreparedness, which shows lack of seriousness <LI>say sorry repeatedly, which amplifies nervousness <LI>repeatedly use "um" and other filler words <LI>not end in a firm tone, which may cause the applicant to seem disinterested </UL> </textSegment> </textSegments> - <videoSegments> <videoDescription> Each video entry stores basic information about the clip. A link to each video is presented within the relevant lesson. </videoDescription> - <video videoID="2"> <videoName>Tell Me About Yourself (good answer)</videoName> <videoLength>00:01:30</videoLength> <videoURL>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR-IhZJOq3U</videoURL> </video> - <video videoID="3"> <videoName>Tell Me About Yourself (bad answer)</videoName> <videoLength>00:01:30</videoLength> <videoURL>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDhbLdFJAF4</videoURL> </video> </videoSegments> - <lessonObjectives> <objectiveDescription> Each objective encapsulates a particular skill or concept to be conveyed by the lesson. The objective contains a set of "outcomes", which are student inputs that indicate understanding of the skill or concept. </objectiveDescription> - <lessonObjective objectiveID="14" objectiveWeight="1"> <objectiveName>Tell Me About Yourself assessment</objectiveName> - <lessonOutcomes> <outcomeDescription>

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 26

Each outcome encapsulates a specific student input that indicates the student's understanding of a skill or concept. This outcome might be an answer on a multiple-choice question, for example, or an observation or action within a scenario. </outcomeDescription> - <lessonOutcome outcomeID="41" pctMark="1"> <outcomeName>Described skills and abilities</outcomeName> <outcomeText>That is correct.</outcomeText> </lessonOutcome> - <lessonOutcome outcomeID="42" pctMark="0"> <outcomeName>Did not describe skills and abilities</outcomeName> <outcomeText>No, that is incorrect.</outcomeText> </lessonOutcome> </lessonOutcomes> </lessonObjective> </lessonObjectives> - <questions> <questionDescription> Each question entity stores a question and a set of answers. These answers are linked to outcomes -- and, thus, to lesson objectives. The questions are displayed within the MERITS system, and are also shown as interactive video annotations via AVA client. </questionDescription> - <question questionID="6" objectiveID="14"> <questionName>Tell Me About Yourself analysis</questionName> <questionText> Did the applicant describe skills and abilities that are relevant to the job? (good answer) </questionText> - <options> - <option optionID="14" optionOrder="1" outcomeID="41"> <optionName>Yes</optionName> <optionText> The applicant did a good job of describing their skills and abilities.</optionText> </option> - <option optionID="15" optionOrder="2" outcomeID="42"> <optionName>No</optionName> <optionText>The applicant did a poor job of describing their skills and abilities.</optionText> </option> </options> </question> </questions> - <lessonConcepts> <lessonConceptDesc> A lesson may have one or more concepts with which it is associated.</lessonConceptDesc> <lessonConcept conceptID="7" /> <lessonConcept conceptID="12" /> <lessonConcept conceptID="18" /> <lessonConcept conceptID="19" /> <lessonConcept conceptID="16" /> </lessonConcepts> </lesson> - <scenario scenarioID="8" itemOrder="6"> <scenarioTitle>Tell About Yourself</scenarioTitle> - <components>

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - An integrated framework for simulation-based training 27

<componentDescription> A scenario is made up of components, which describe either actions taken by a programmable avatar, or reactions by this avatar to actions taken by the user. The state of a scenario determines which components are acted upon; hence the "start state" and "end state" parameters given for each component. Also, each component can be associated with a graded outcome, which will cause a grade to be recorded when that component is acted upon. </componentDescription> - <component componentID="23"> <componentName>Tell About Yourself Speak First Phrase Good</componentName> <componentType>Speak</componentType> - <parameters> <parameter paramType="SpokenPhrase" paramValue="Well I have six years of medical sales experience, covering a large area to bring to this position" /> </parameters> </component> - <component componentID="25"> <componentName>Hear Tell About Yourself Question</componentName> <componentType>Listen</componentType> - <parameters> <parameter paramType="ListenPhrase" paramValue="tell me about yourself" /> </parameters> </component> <componentName>Tell About Yourself Speak First Phrase Bad</componentName> <componentType>Speak</componentType> - <parameters> <parameter paramType="SpokenPhrase" paramValue="I'm hard working...<nervous laugh>" /> </parameters> </component> </components> - <scenarioObjective objectiveID="21" objectiveWeight="1"> <objectiveName>Tell Me About Yourself scenario assessment</objectiveName> - <scenarioOutcomes> - <scenarioOutcome outcomeID="31" pctMark="1"> <outcomeName>Correct Observation: Tell Me About Yourself</outcomeName> <outcomeText>That observation is correct!</outcomeText> </scenarioOutcome> - <scenarioOutcome outcomeID="32" pctMark="0"> <outcomeName>Incorrect Observation: Tell Me About Yourself</outcomeName> <outcomeText> That observation does not match the answer given by the applicant.</outcomeText> </scenarioOutcome> </scenarioOutcomes> </scenarioObjective> - <scenarioObservations scenarioType="good"> <scenarioObservationDescription> A scenario may have one or more observations with which it is associated. These observations will be recognized as correct, and are linked to appropriate graded outcomes. Note that the scenario may include different cases (for example, the avatar giving either a "good" or "bad" answers), in which case the observations will only be correct for the specified case. </scenarioObservationDescription> - <observation observationID="1">

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<keyword>start significant</keyword> </observation> </scenarioObservations> - <scenarioObservations scenarioType="bad"> - <observation observationID="6"> <keyword>admit unprepared</keyword> </observation> </scenarioObservations> </scenario> </items> </module> - <observations> <observationDescription> Observations are specific characteristics of a scenario, which the student may be asked to identify. The student refers to these observations using the specified keywords. </observationDescription> - <observation observationID="6"> <observationKeyword>admit unprepared</observationKeyword> <observationDescription>Admitted that they were unprepared</observationDescription> - <observationConcepts> <obsConceptDescription> An observation may have one or more concepts with which it is associated. </obsConceptDescription> <observationConcept conceptID="15" /> </observationConcepts> </observation> </observations> - <concepts> <conceptDesc> A concept encapsulates an key idea in a module. A concept may be independent, or may form part of a hierarchy. </conceptDesc> - <concept conceptID="3"> <conceptName>Attitude</conceptName> <conceptDescription> Encapsulates factors relating to the applicant's attitude</conceptDescription> <noParents>No parents found for this concept.</noParents> </concept> - <concept conceptID="7"> <conceptName>Avoid "ums"s</conceptName> <conceptDescription> The applicant should avoid using "um" and other "filler" words.</conceptDescription> - <conceptParents> - <parent conceptID="1"> <conceptName>Communication</conceptName> </parent> </conceptParents> </concept> </concepts> </message>

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worldsâ&#x20AC;?

April 2009

Virtual Education: Teaching Media Studies in Second Life

By David Kurt Herold, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract Following the adoption of the virtual world Second Life by tertiary educational institutions worldwide, a limited study was conducted at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to test the feasibility and desirability of employing a virtual environment to conduct classes. Thirty tutorials were held in Second Life over a period of five weeks in support of a course on Media Studies with sixty students. Feedback was gathered continuously from students and the lecturer via informal interviews, feedback forms, and participant observation. The results did not support most of the hypotheses, but supported the value of virtual teaching and learning in a wellsupported institutional environment. The paper emphasizes the need to integrate virtual environments into the educational framework of courses and for a careful consideration of the educational aims and uses of virtual worlds within specific courses.

Keywords: Second Life; higher education; tutorials.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Virtual Education 4

Virtual Education: Teaching Media Studies in Second Life

By David Kurt Herold, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This paper was written to report an attempt to use Second Life as a setting for university tutorials. As such, it does not intend to prove or disprove educational theories, but rather to provide feedback from students and lecturers on the suitability of Second Life for Higher Education courses.

During the past decade, educational institutions worldwide started employing serious games and simulations in training situations. Politicians, the mass media, as well as educationalists across Europe and North America presented the use of interactive technologies (e.g., online visualisations, virtual worlds, or simulations) as a way to better equip students within an increasingly market-driven educational setting.

Educational institutions were also repeatedly challenged to adjust the educational experiences of students to their increasingly digital lifestyles. Students entering universities after 2000 came to be labelled as “digital natives” and were portrayed as needing a more media and IT driven learning environment than the “digital immigrants” of earlier student (and educator) generations (see Prensky, 2007 or Van Eck, 2006). Educators at all levels were urged to embrace these new technologies, as they represented a more natural medium for the digital natives: We live in a world that is becoming more networked every day, and the Internet has grown into an essential medium for communication, socialization, and creative expression. Virtual worlds like Second Life represent the future of human interaction in a globally networked world, and students who have grown up with the Internet naturally swim in these waters. These “digital natives” eagerly embrace tools such as Instant Messaging, social networking spaces, and massively multiplayer online games (Zhu, Wang, & Jia, 2007, p. 201) The interactive and networking aspects of new media, especially since the advent of Web 2.0 on the internet, have been praised in many publications and held up as models worth emulating in education (see Hagel & Armstrong, 1997; Oblinger, 2003; Annetta, Murray, Laird, Bohr, & Park, 2006; and Kamel Boulos, Hetherington, & Wheeler, 2007). The online virtual world of Second Life in particular has been promoted as a highly effective learning and teaching environment in which students have the opportunity not only to learn from a teacher, but are also encouraged to learn independently through the use and exploration of the virtual environment (Childress & Braswell, 2006; Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2007).

Only very recently have researchers started to question this comprehensive approval of all learning activities within digital environments. Once the development of technology and the emergence of Web 2.0 had made the use of technology in education easier and more affordable in terms of time and money invested, educators were fast to discover that even with the use of new technology and in new virtual environments, teaching still had to be planned carefully and with a view to student needs (Van Eck, 2006). Research has started emerging that showed that 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Virtual Education 5

[W]hile it is important to understand the structure and meaning of innovative approaches to learning such as those being influenced by information and communication technologies, the results of this study reinforce the importance of looking at wellestablished learning activities, such as face-to-face discussion, in ways that are likely to reinvigorate our approach to their use and, more importantly, to see how their benefits can be coupled with those of online discussions (Ellis, Goodyear, Calvo, & Prosser, 2008, p. 280).

It is in this context that a study was undertaken at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in early 2008 to test the feasibility and desirability of university-level teaching and learning within the 3-D virtual online world Second Life. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University was the first university in Hong Kong to enter Second Life and to explore its educational possibilities.

The decision was based on the already established educational presence of other universities in the USA and Europe, including Harvard and Stanford, and the universities of Edinburgh and Nottingham in the UK. When this study was originally planned in late 2007, there was surprisingly little data published on actual experiences of students and teachers with Second Life in a university setting.

There were numerous websites and email lists dedicated to discussions about using Second Life in education. However, these lists and websites served mostly as an initial guide on how to start in Second Life or as a collection point for ideas on how to use Second Life in classroom settings.

For the purpose of introducing Second Life or any other virtual environment as a venue for normal university teaching, these websites did not provide sufficient data. As a result, this study at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University was designed to provide some data on the use of Second Life in tutorials for a regular university course.

Initially, staff at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) drove the involvement of the university in Second Life because they had previous experience designing a virtual hotel. They had used the virtual environment for role-playing purposes and were keen to explore the possibilities Second Life had to offer. Teaching and forms of learning other than role-playing had originally not been envisaged by the SHTM, but were quickly aimed for after a successful first use of Second Life in an orientation programme.

Teaching Media Studies in Second Life Background During September and October 2007, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) and the School of Design (SD) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University had organised an orientation programme for interested secondary school and new university students in a specially designed campus within the virtual world Second Life. A total of 450 students and ten staff participated in a variety of activities held on a virtual island designed to look similar to the real life campus of the university.

The orientation program was built upon the experiences of the SHTM who had previously designed a virtual environment to allow students to become familiar with several aspects of the operations of a hotel through the use of role-play. Second Life was chosen for the 5

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Virtual Education 6

orientation instead of a more proprietary solution because of its development tools and possibilities and the presence of many other educational establishments in Second Life.

The program was well received by both staff and students, and the SHTM started to expand their plans for the virtual campus. Their revised plans included the creation of teaching areas for interested staff, and an appeal was made to staff at the university for ideas and proposals to use Second Life in undergraduate teaching. This was in addition to their efforts to use the virtual environment for hotel and tourism related role-playing scenarios within their own school and the continuing use of the space for student orientation programmes.

In November 2007, the Educational Development Center (EDC) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University called for volunteers to submit proposals to use the SHTM-created virtual campus for their teaching, which lead to the decision to use the term two (January-April) course “Media and Everyday Life” taught by the department of Applied Social Sciences to test the feasibility of teaching student tutorials in Second Life. The SHTM made a part of their campus available for tutorial use, and the EDC supplied a technical support team to design the teaching area, to support the lecturer, and to adjust the teaching area and teaching facilities as necessary.

The course “Media and Everyday Life” was proposed by the lecturer to improve student motivation in this general education course. At the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, students are required to pass at least two general education courses outside their own department in addition to their subject courses to obtain an undergraduate degree. Motivation of students is usually low and background knowledge about the general education subjects very limited.

This particular course was taken up by just over sixty students, and over the course of five weeks during a period of three months between mid-January and the end of March 2008.

Thirty tutorials were held in Second Life for six groups of up to ten students each per week. The tutorials served to support the weekly lectures on Media Studies topics through discussions and virtual field trips, and students were required to complete a number of set tasks as part of their course assignments. This limited use of Second Life within a regular university course was designed to serve as a test for the virtual teaching of university courses that could then be evaluated and expanded upon.

Objectives and expectations for teaching in Second Life While there had been a lot of discussion of the educational possibilities of virtual environments in general and of Second Life in particular, accounts of the experiences of teachers and students during actual teaching in Second Life were not easy to find in 2007. Beyond the occasional guest lecture or special event, there were only a few publicly accessible, regular education events in Second Life. Discussions of such activities in academic journals were limited to newly established journals or online reports. As a result, the teaching of tutorials in a virtual environment for an undergraduate course at the university had to contend with numerous problems and questions. Besides testing the general feasibility of holding classes on a virtual campus within Second Life, the study was supposed to test a set of hypotheses and expectations about such teaching before virtual teaching could even be considered for wider use at the university.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Virtual Education 7

The first hypothesis to be tested,was the assertion that young people today, so-called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;digital nativesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; who have grown up surrounded by technology, would welcome any increased use of technology or media on the part of lecturers or teachers. This positive attitude of the students towards the increased use of technology and their ease in navigating a virtual environment was thought to bolster student motivation, and to provide additional learning incentives.

A second hypothesis was that the similarity of the virtual environment to the real world with the addition of the comparative safety of Second Life would lend itself to independent learning and exploration. Students were expected to be able to explore environments and situations similar to real life without exposing themselves to the dangers of the real world and without incurring the high expenses required for real world field trips.

A third hypothesis that is closely connected to the first two was that the similarity of Second Life to online games would encourage students to start exploring this world in their own.

In this way, student learning could be supported but students would not need the external motivation of things like graded exercises to follow up on lecture topics and to learn more about life in a mediated world.

A final hypothesis was that the accessibility of Second Life from any computer connected to the internet would help promote space- and geography-independent student learning, thus obviating the need to book scarce room resources for tutorials. This was additionally seen as a first stepping-stone towards attempts to provide long-distance educational programmes via Second Life sessions to students living outside Hong Kong.

Results and Discussion Students as digital natives The expectation that students would have few problems with Second Life, as they are digital natives who have grown up with computers, could not be proven. Almost all of the students initially found it difficult to register for and to gain access to Second Life, and over 40 percent of the students continued to struggle with the virtual world throughout the tutorials.

Almost 20 percent of the students were only able to start attending tutorials and to complete tasks after additional, individual tutoring by the lecturer during one-to-one sessions in the lecturerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office.

Despite the detailed step-by-step instructions that students had received both during the lecture as well as on a handout, most of the students struggled with elementary computer game specific tasks such as the movement of their avatar, the picking up of objects, and the chat interface. Over 15 percent of the students stated that they had never played a role-playing game on the computer before and as a result, needed to acquire basic gaming skills at the same time as they were struggling to attend tutorials on a subject that was new to them in an environment they had never before encountered. Even students who had previously played role-playing games on the computer commented on their difficulties in getting used to the Second Life interface which requires the use of the keyboard rather than the mouse for most movements.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Virtual Education 8

These obstacles did not prove insurmountable, but they required additional time and effort on the part of the lecturer who had to provide far more support to the students than originally anticipated and planned for. For each fifty minutes of actual tutorial time the lecturer needed at least twice that time for set up and student support in addition to his own lesson preparation.

With both lecturers and students struggling to come to terms with Second Life as a teaching environment, the study demonstrated that any wider deployment of Second Life at university level would require the setting up of an adequate teaching and learning infrastructure before Second Life could become a viable alternative to classroom-based teaching.

Experiential and independent learning Students did find some aspects of Second Life very similar to real world settings and were able to explore the virtual world without endangering themselves and without additional expenses. Throughout the duration of the course, students expressed surprise at the variety of places and people that could be found in Second Life when they encountered them during tutorials or lectures. In emails to and conversations with the lecturer, as well as in feedback questionnaires, the majority of students repeatedly expressed surprise at the complexity of the virtual world in Second Life. The following were some of the thoughts students provided in their direct feedback: “It [Second Life] is difficult to use” “[T]he avatars were too realistic and most importantly, not CUTE!!!!”

“I have read some articles online and find out what people think SL is different with other online games--it is real money!!! The $L can be exchanged to USD!!! Together with a currency fluctuating everyday (OH MY GOD!!)”

“I felt amazed when I played the SL for the first time. The software is so interesting that the virtual world created by it is so similar to the real world. People can just do what they want there. We can live in the virtual with a total different identity and create the dream world for ourselves.”

For a graded exercise, students explored a range of areas within Second Life, encountering a variety of Second Life users – called residents – and were able to both broaden their horizons as well as deepen their understanding of lecture topics. Despite the success of the graded exercises, though, students did not explore Second Life beyond what they had to do for their course work and over 90 percent of the students expressed disapproval of the residents of Second Life who “wasted their time” in this “game” designing such complex areas in a virtual world instead of living in the real world. Students commented: “Still, I’m not feeling it’s a place that deserves people to pay so much time and effort.”

“I thought SL is boring and it is not very attractive. Besides, I am surprised that so many people all over the world enjoy playing SL.” “I can hardly be interested in this unreal world to be honest.”

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Virtual Education 9

When the students were shown a British documentary that portrayed how some people found love in Second Life and the effects this had on their real life, all the students on the course expressed a strong disapproval of the couples shown. In discussions, in emails, and in feedback questionnaires, students repeatedly stated that they had thought Second Life a game, and they could not understand why some people would engage with it to such an extent. They stated: “I was also stunned when I was first told in the lecture that SL players become lovers in the real world. […] It seems that the SL players take this social utility very seriously, taking it more than just a game. The game can really be the ‘second life’ of a serious player.” “[The] lecturer has played a video that is the real case that talking about some people who are addicted on SL. It is a quite interesting topic that told us, although SL may brings us interesting stuff and fun, it may also gives us the some drawbacks such as affecting our real life.”

“I think Second Life is good if it acts as a game. However, when I knew there were real example[s] that some people are married in real life because of SL, I think the game is dangerous.”

The strong, negative feelings students expressed about Second Life and its residents resulted in an unexpected emotional barrier to the use of Second Life in education. The lecturer had to carefully contextualize all Second Life activities within the framework set by the lectures and had to make many of the links between lecture ideas and Second Life examples explicit, instead of relying on students to learn independently through assigned, general tasks. The students preferred guided tours to specific locations and discussions at those locations in realtime to independent exploration or learning. During tutorials, the lecturer took groups of students to the SL sites maintained by the news organisations Reuters, CNN, and SkyNews to explore issues of representation, intended audiences, and audience (self-)perceptions, while during another tutorial students were asked to discuss the self-representation and interactive strategies employed by the companies Mercedes Benz and Sony-Ericsson: “I have never expected that companies would set the outlets in SL.” “If I played this game by myself, I definitely will not know that some of the brands and news agency is using an online game to promote themselves. I discovered that it is not simply a game, but a communication tool-not only for human to human, but also organisation to human.”

Independent exploration As mentioned above, the students on the course did connect Second Life with 3-D games.

However, this similarity did not have a beneficial influence on the tutorials in Second Life, due to a lack of actual first-hand experience of many of the students with such games and due to almost universal negative associations with 3D games among students. In student feedback forms, as well as during tutorials and in assigned tasks, students repeatedly expressed negative feelings for Second Life which they classified as “only” a game and for its inhabitants who were seen as “wasting their time playing a game.” They explained: “There are pros and cons of using SL as a teaching tool. I think it is quite funny to use an online game as a study tool and teaching aid. It somehow encourages to do assignment (as the assignment is playing game only~). On the other hand, as it is a game only, I may not take it so 9

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serious as other assignment...And when I was doing the SL task, I thought that I’m playing for my own entertainment rather than finishing school work.”

“Actually I don’t think it’s very effective to use SL for teaching. Some of us are not familiar to this kind of virtual game and need long time to know about it and then control the person’s movement and activities. […] I wastes a lot of time connecting to SL. Of course, using SL for teaching can give us a better understanding of media presentation and virtual identity. However, I don’t think it’s quite justified to use SL.” “It takes time for students to adopt how to use the second life and it seems better for playing rather than teaching.”

The articles mentioned in the introduction above interpreted Second Life in the context of social networking, interactivity, and connectivity similar to sites like Facebook, and they classified it as a “serious game” that lacks many game-specific features such as missions or tasks, goals, achievement, and competition. The students on the Media Studies course, though, did not make the same connection. While almost all of the students stated that they did use Facebook and some described themselves as very active users, frequently accessing or contributing to blogs on Xanga.com and Yahoo HK blogs, they did not see Second Life as a form of social networking. Even when confronted with networking situations, e.g. in the meeting of avatars from different parts of the world in a virtual bar in the virtual city of Dublin, they did not interpret this as a new form of social networking. The majority of students only discussed this meeting, which they observed and took part in during one of the tutorial sessions, in terms of its lack of entertainment value as a game. Several students in different tutorial groups expressed surprise that people would go to a virtual bar and a few students asked whether these people were students of other universities who had been told by their teachers to be there.

When asked directly about the social networking and interactive communication value of Second Life, all the students asked expressed the sentiment that they did not find Second Life interesting in that respect as “nobody in Hong Kong uses Second Life” and all their “friends are on Facebook and Xanga.” They showed little interest in interacting with people from outside Hong Kong, and the lack of interest in Second Life within Hong Kong made the platform useless to them as a networking platform. They commented: “I feel that SL is not very popular, usually very few people are in one place.”

“It is not easy to meet friends there” “I can ensure [=assure] that Second Life will not be popular in Hong Kong. First, Hong Kong people only like the violent online game. Second, they also require good quality of the interface which second life cannot provide. Third, if people want to construct building, they can play “SimCity”. If they just want to chat with somebody, MSN or chat room can provide this kind of function. Finally, this game is not suit[able] for Hong Kong people because they just want excitement which Second life cannot provide.”

“I think Second Life will become more popular but only in the foreign countries and attract adult[s] but not teenagers. It is because teenagers love exciting, interesting and etc, Second Life is providing some things that’s similar to the real lives, the different is that you need not to have so much responsibilities in Second Life, but from my view, Hong Kong people and also the teenagers will like and want a online game that can fulfil their wants, exciting, interesting.”

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This lack of interest in Second Life within Hong Kong meant that students were not even familiar with Second Life as such, and only two students indicated they had previously heard or read about the virtual world. As a result, the lecturer had to motivate the students to use Second Life, instead of being able to rely on the attractiveness of the virtual environment. Students displayed no knowledge of any of the features Second Life offered, which meant they needed far more training in using the Second Life environment than originally envisaged. The lecturer had to design tasks for the students to introduce them to different areas and possibilities of the virtual world in addition to course-related activities. The lecturer took students to several places providing free clothes, accessories, and vehicles and challenged students to make full use of the offers to equip their avatars. This was later followed up with an assignment that asked students to critically examine the choices they had made for their avatar and to discuss the reasons for their choices and how they represented their avatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personality. One of the coursework assignments for the course required students to find at least three to five strangers in Second Life and to engage them in conversation. Based on these conversations with strangers, students were then required to write a short paper about the relationship between audiences and media, focusing on media uses. At the same time, the assignment served to encourage students to explore Second Life further and to engage with people from different backgrounds, which resulted in noticeable improvements in student motivation.

A further disadvantage of the lack of competence the students displayed in using Second Life and in employing 3-D game-playing skills was the necessity of keeping tasks both short and simple, as can be seen in the above examples. Tasks had to be short, so that even slower students still managed to finish them within a reasonable timeframe. They had to be simple, as most students could not cope with complicated tasks in the virtual environment. During tutorials this meant that the lecturer was unable to ask the students to complete several comparative tasks on their own but had to pass a teleportation address to the students via the chat interface, wait for all the students to teleport to that destination, join the students at the new destination, ask the students to look around the new destination for a few minutes, gather the students together for a discussion of the features that were to be compared, and repeat the procedure for the next destination. The step-by-step teaching resulted in a need for a radical rethinking of the tutorials and in much additional planning by the lecturer to ensure that tutorials were both at a level the students could cope with and still useful as support for the lectures.

Easy accessibility of Second Life One of the main advantages of teaching in Second Life for educational institutions is the independence from specific teaching locations. This is important both in the context of a small campus university with increasing student numbers, as well as for the purposes of long-distance or online education. Second Life allows for the design of teaching facilities within the virtual world that are accessible from any computer in the world through the freely downloadable software from Linden Labs. The high bandwidth and graphic card requirements of a 3-D world with the complexity of Second Life negate this advantage to a large extent, though. Even on a university network with comparatively high bandwidth, the high volume of online traffic, especially at peak times, often slowed down Second Life to the extent of making it almost unusable due to the lag between keyboard or mouse input and avatar reaction.

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Additionally, the underlying assumption that students could log into Second Life using their own computers from their own homes, proved to be wrong as the majority of students either did not own computers with good enough graphic cards or did not have access to a fast enough internet connection. While the graphic card requirements of Second Life have been lowered over the course of its development through more efficient programming, Intel corporation’s efforts to design more affordable motherboards for computers that included an integrated graphics processor meant that many of the computers targeted at the education market come equipped without an additional graphics card, making them almost unusable for Second Life. This proved to be the case even for the lecturer’s notebook used for presentations during lectures, and any use of Second Life during the lectures had to be pre-recorded as either picture or video files that could then be used in class.

As many of the computers used by students were inadequate for Second Life as well, the tutorials would have failed completely, if it had not been possible to arrange two computer labs on campus for the use of students during tutorial times. To maintain the ‘virtuality’ of the tutorials, the lecturer still taught from his office, but many of the students began attending the virtual tutorials from the same physical location of the university’s computer lab. When the lab was unavailable during one of the tutorials due to a prior booking, the lecturer ended up teaching a tutorial in his own office with six students and himself grouped around a single computer screen.

Conclusions Lessons from the pilot Throughout the pilot project, Second Life proved to be less of a cure to perceived educational difficulties and more a new teaching environment with teething problems. Second Life, and other virtual worlds are a relatively new development and not quite as well established as some of the mass media hype surrounding Second Life might suggest. Consequently, the virtual environments offer still lack the extensive support that less sophisticated computer users require and presuppose high levels of computing skills, great flexibility, and an acceptance of rough edges in their users. To employ virtual worlds in education requires that students and lecturers are provided with the necessary support within their educational setting. In Second Life such support is not available from the providers and designers of the virtual world, and therefore, educational institutions will have to develop and deploy their own support structures and materials.

While teaching in Second Life is possible and in some cases highly advantageous, educators wishing to employ Second Life for their teaching should ensure that Second Life is well integrated into their course planning and that the reasons and goals for the use of Second Life are made explicit and transparent for their students. Students can profit from the use of technology in education, but the use of technology does not equal education. Educators will have to be very aware of the students’ use of the virtual environment and will have to be flexible enough to adapt their educational plans for the virtual environment to their students’ actual experiences and needs.

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In setting up an educational presence within a virtual environment, educational institutions will also need to be aware that their staff will require additional support and resources to manage the challenges of teaching, guiding, and supporting students in this new media use. While enthusiastic educators can and will develop their own individual strategies to cope in Second Life or similar worlds, institutional guidelines and support structures are necessary for such teaching to become incorporated fully into the educational setting, or even to be viable as a setting for externally verifiable student assessment.

Finally, the introduction of Second Life or similar virtual online worlds requires the existence of reliable, fast connections to the internet on computers with good graphics capabilities. To ensure that all students can access the facilities on offer within the virtual world, educational institutions will have to provide students with networked computers in the real world, such as through the installation of the Second Life software in computer rooms on the university campus. Only if students have guaranteed access to the virtual environment can the virtual environment be used to teach and to assess students without exposing a university to accusations of unfair evaluation practices. While this seems a trivial point to make, both the administration and IT departments will often have to be convinced of the educational value of installing a â&#x20AC;&#x153;computer gameâ&#x20AC;? on the computers of an institution. Given the often negative and highly sensationalist reports in the mass media about Second Life and its dangers, they may be reluctant to expose students to such an obviously dangerous environment filled with perverts and criminals (see Holahan, 2006; Lafsky, 2007; Hudson, 2008; and McNamara, 2008).

Why use Second Life in teaching at all?

Despite the challenges educators face in setting up the use of Second Life or similar virtual environments within their courses, there are definite benefits they offer that argue for their adoption in many courses. As mentioned above, the integration of Second Life into a course is important, though, and educators will have to conduct their own analysis of the costs and benefits of using a virtual environment for their specific course.

One of the more obvious advantages of virtual worlds is the ease with which role-playing scenarios can be set up. Not only are worlds like Second Life ideal for workplace simulations, but they are also ideal for the simple setting up of student role-play, for which the students can even easily change their own appearance to match the role they are playing. The very sellingpoint of virtual worlds that their users can become whoever they want to be means that roleplaying is already built into the system and can be used for educational applications, such as in language learning, research methods training, and others. Within the tutorials for the Media Studies course above, the lecturer asked students to consciously change the appearance of their avatars, including the avatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skin or hair colour, height, weight, and other attributes to discuss issues of representation and (self-) perception of identity.

A second advantage of a large virtual world like Second Life is the availability of many areas for students to explore. For the Media Studies course, students were able to visit the sites of Reuters, CNN, and Sky News in Second Life to study the way these media organizations presented themselves in the virtual world. Other areas of interest to different academic subjects include areas within Second Life that have recreated parts of ancient Rome, nineteenth century England, or the modern-day cities of Dublin, Berlin, Moscow, and others. While not being able 13

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to offer a substitute for genuine visits to such places in the real world, the possibility of virtual field trips for educational programmes provide a valuable addition to courses on urban studies and tourism.

Of further advantage in this context is not only the easy access to faraway places, but also the possibility to invite guest lecturers to give their presentations without having to travel to the actual classroom. While this option was not attempted for the Media Studies course, the SHTM invited a guest lecturer to give a presentation to students during the same term, and the lecture proved a great success, even though the lecturer stayed in the USA and the students remained in Hong Kong. Such use of the virtual environment might improve the possibilities for educational exchanges, collaborations, and maybe even team teaching between educators living in different countries or different continents. Additionally, such long distance exchanges could enhance student learning through the creation of multi-national courses in which students from, for example, Japan, the USA, and Hong Kong follow the same course via Second Life and are able to exchange views, work on projects, or discuss issues with each other.

A final advantage that should be mentioned here is the mediated immediacy of virtual worlds. While communication between the avatars of students and lecturers are instant and direct, students and the lecturer themselves are only communicating indirectly and students can hide to a certain extent behind their avatar. This form of anonymity did help students on the Media Studies course to express themselves more freely than Asian students usually do in classroom situations. The lecturer who has taught in Asia for over eight years noticed on numerous occasions that students were more willing to express their opinions, ask questions, or even to disagree with the lecturer than Asian students usually are when facing a teacher in a classroom. Although this impression of the lecturer needs further research to confirm the findings of the study, it constitutes an additional and unexpected positive result of the tutorials that is worth mentioning. Other positive results students experienced are explained: “What I really like about the SL teaching is that, all people are active to voice out their opinion and answer questions during the tutorials(including myself!) In the real lectures, no one want to answer questions even they know(including myself!). The most important factor is that even I am wrong in SL, no one knows who am I !!!!I think this is an really effective learning method.”

“I love the tutorial. The places we visited are interesting and inspired. It helps student to think more about media and our daily life. As well, through the Second Life, students can feel more easy to express and discuss, although I’m not sure whether it’s good or not, because seems students become to communicate better in front of computer.”

“I think it is a good method for us to see different people and different media in this way. I also think that having class in second life is quite relaxing and free, as during class, I may not brave enough to ask many questions, and talk with other students freely, but in second life we can share our views, opinions freely.”

Plans for the future Within the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the attempt to hold Media Studies tutorials in Second Life has been evaluated as a qualified success. It produced a number of benefits that made further teaching in the virtual environment desirable, while highlighting a 14

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number of steps the institution would have to take to support its students and staff in virtual learning.

In the summer of 2008 a new funded project was created at the university to expand the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence in Second Life and to further develop the necessary structures for a wider adoption of Second Life in university teaching. Besides the EDC and SHTM who continue to show an interest in Second Life, staff from the School of Design, the departments of Applied Social Sciences and Computing, as well as the University Library decided to become involved in developing Second Life for use within the university. The project hopes to create campus-like facilities within the virtual environment, to include teaching areas, resource rooms, a university library, a student area, and other areas to provide spaces for teaching and learning activities.

At the same time, the project wants to work on developing guidelines and easy access start-up-packs for students and staff wishing to use Second Life for teaching and learning purposes. As a first step, a booklet was designed and trialled with students during August and early September 2008 that contains detailed instructions on registering for, setting up, and entering Second Life, as well as a brief guide to the facilities available on the virtual campus.

During the two years of the project, it is planned to gradually expand the scope of educational provisions in Second Life by offering lecturers virtual facilities for embedding in their courses and by creating a structural and organisational interface between the virtual and the real world university. The goal is to make teaching and learning in Second Life easier and more accessible, so as to enable more educators and learners to benefit from the possibilities the virtual environment offers without having to deal with the difficulties of an emerging technology.

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Bibliography Annetta, L. A., Murray, M. R., Laird, S. G., Bohr, S. C., & Park, J. C. (2006). Serious games: Incorporating video games in the classroom. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 29, p. 16-22.

Childress, M. D. & Braswell, R. (2006). Using massively multiplayer online role-playing games for online learning. Distance Education, 27, p. 187-196.

De Laat, M., Lally, V., Lipponen, L., & Simons, R.-J. (2007). Online teaching in networked learning communities: A multi-method approach to studying the role of the teacher.

Instructional Science, 35, p. 257-286.

Ellis, R. A., Goodyear, P., Calvo, R. A., & Prosser, M. (2008). Engineering studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conceptions of and approaches to learning through discussions in face-to-face and online contexts. Learning and Instruction, 18, p. 267-282.

Hagel, H. & Armstrong, A. (1997). Net gain: Expanding markets through virtual communities.

Boston, Mass: Business School Press.

Herrington, J., Reeves, T.C., & Oliver, R. (2007). Immersive learning technologies: Realism and online authentic learning. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 19, p. 65-84.

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Holahan, C. (2006). The dark side of Second Life. Business Week. Retrieved February 17, 2009 from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/tc20061121_727243.htm.

Hudson, C. (2008). Find romance and sex online in Second Life. APC. Retrieved February 17, 2009 from http://apcmag.com/secondlifesex.htm.

JSMillerRN. (2008). Virtual nursing education in Second Life. Retrieved February 17, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD4dRTR1nVI. Kamel Boulos, M. N., Hetherington, L., & Wheeler, S. (2007). Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual world in medical and health education. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 24, p. 233-245.

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Kim, B. & Reeves, T. (2007). Reframing research on learning with technology: in search of the meaning of cognitive tools. Instructional Science, 35, p. 207-256.

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Lester, J. (2009). Educators info page. Retrieved February 17, 2009 from https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators.

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McNamara, P. (2008, September 4). Getting up close and very personal in virtual worlds. The Guardian. Retrieved February 17, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/04/virtualworlds.secondlife.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Second Life ® and classical music education: Developing iconography that encourages human interaction

By David T. Schwartz, Music Academy Online

Abstract Since January 2007, Music Academy Online 1, a web-based business dedicated to generating interest in classical music, has been developing a ‘Disney World for Classical Music’ in the virtual world of Second Life®. The virtual world provides a unique opportunity to teach classical music in an interdisciplinary fashion, the ability to reach out to a population that is hesitant to explore classical music, and a way for reaching out to those who have been disenfranchised by traditional educational paths. This has led to the development of iconography in Second Life that exploits the virtual world’s inherent ability to put seemingly disparate information together in a way that encourages questioning and discussion. But above all, this has led to the conclusion that the importance of human interaction and the Socratic method are the key elements in virtual world education2.

Keywords: classical music education.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

1

www.musicacademyonline.com The focus of Music Academy Online® is not scientific inquiry but classical music education through stimulating interest in the art form. The success of the pedagogical methods that are currently being applied are measured through increased traffic, paid sponsorship, and capital investment as a result of the effectiveness of our ability to stimulate interest in classical music.

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Second Life ® and classical music education: Developing iconography that encourages human interaction

By David T. Schwartz, Music Academy Online Background In my time spent teaching courses about Western Art Music (classical music) including music appreciation, music composition, music history, and music theory, it is almost a given that most students bring with them a great deal of trepidation about the subject. Regardless of their educational background, it is often the case that people feel intimidated by classical music and generally doubt their ability to properly ‘understand’ and therefore, enjoy the music. Ironically, people growing up immersed in Western culture often have fewer misgivings about encounters with music that is not rooted in Western culture.

For example, a highly educated lawyer may be intimidated and frustrated by an experience with a Haydn symphony performance and yet be completely enraptured by a concert of Hawai’ian mele hula, a music that includes a language he or she does not understand in the slightest. Part of the explanation for this lies in the fact that classical music is generally viewed as elitist music while non-Western music is seen as ‘folk’ music and therefore, a more readily accessible aesthetic experience. Both are misconceptions. And yet, perceived distance between the music and the listener is often a key factor in an encouraging or a discouraging new and enjoyable musical experience.

Estelle Ruth Jorgensen (2003) has explored and discussed this issue and observed that classical music “seems now to have acquired (in some quarters at least) a negative connotation as a bastion of elitism and privilege. Instead, popular musics (with a nod to musics of other cultures) have pride of place in much elementary and secondary music education and in many university and college offerings designed for students whose principal fields of study lie outside music” (p. 130).

I myself did not learn to appreciate Western Art Music until I was in my early 20s. This is not an unusual story. In the United States, more often than not, popular music such as rock is the gateway to other genres of organized sound such as classical music. My journey toward the appreciation of classical music followed this path. As I went from self-taught drummer to college-trained composer, it turned out that my non-classical background became an advantage for me as a teacher. I remember full well what it is like to be unable to follow and be bored with Beethoven’s music. I also know what it is like to be unable to imagine a world in which Beethoven’s music does not exist. I understand the steps that it took for me to get from one musical world to another. I also recall some of the issues that confused me along the way. This has allowed me, in many instances, to identify with students and the intimidation they feel.

Furthermore, I am able to understand and convey to my students the similarities between a Richard Strauss tone poem and an extended rock composition by a band such as Rush or Yes, and therefore help to remove some of the artificial barriers that exist between the listener and the music.

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It was during graduate school that I began to develop a teaching style that is interdisciplinary3. I began to realize how an interdisciplinary approach to teaching music appreciation and music history especially, is particularly effective with respect to non-music majors. An interdisciplinary approach allows people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse interests to help participate in the learning process. Including the social and cultural context as part of the discussion of a particular musical style invites students from a broad range of disciplines including anthropology, art history, history, literature, and science to contribute their understanding and knowledge of that particular age. It gives them a frame of reference for understanding the music as part of the larger picture of human endeavors. Most importantly it tends to instill a sense of curiosity and openness to explore the music on their own as it relates to their own particular field of study. In the words of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1758), “To illustrate one thing by its resemblance to another, has been always the most popular and efficacious art of instruction. There is indeed no other method of teaching that of which any one is ignorant, but by means of something already known; and a mind so enlarged by contemplation and inquiry that it has always many objects within its view, will seldom be long without some near and familiar image through which an easy transition may be made to truths more distant and obscure.”

An example I am particularly proud to share and one that reflects the success of an interdisciplinary approach to music education comes from personal experience with a college level music survey course. During one class, I had the privilege of discussing the life and music of American composer Aaron Copland. Most people are familiar with Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” Its use in popular culture has even made this tune banal in the ears of many.

When I discussed that this work premiered in 1942 during a time when the fate of the ‘common man’ was not altogether certain, namely during World War II, this helped a retired couple who had been auditing the course to identify with the social and cultural context of Copland’s piece.

After class they confided in me that they had never thought much about Aaron Copland or his music, as it had always seemed trite. But after that lecture, they intended to seek out and purchase his entire catalog. I can think of no better compliment for a music teacher.

There is one other factor motivating my interest in working with non-musicians. Namely, if a guy like me can go from Led Zeppelin to Igor Stravinsky, then it must be possible for any music lover to find something in the classical world, given the right approach and the right environment. The problem I perceived lies with the custodians of classical music, namely academic and other institutions of music. How often has a young music lover been told that the music he adores and means something to him is ‘garbage’ and that he should be listening to Felix Mendelssohn? How often has a college music survey course been conducted by a TA or preoccupied professor who is ‘too busy’ to genuinely care about a 100-level survey course? How often has that course resulted in frustrating and turning away from classical music a class full of 3

Interdisciplinary education refers to the blending and incorporation of several disciplines in order to teach a single subject. An interdisciplinary music educator might incorporate art, literature, science, history, and philosophy as a way of elucidating the music of a particular era. An application of interdisciplinary education in a music appreciation course during a discussion of the rock music of the 1960s would definitely incorporate a review of the politics, the war in Viet Nam, the development of technology, electronics, and the space program, drug culture, and the literature of the day. Giving this music a social, cultural, and historical context helps students new to the music of the 1960s understand why the Beatles or the Who or Jimi Hendrix composed the music that they composed and the target audience to whom they were speaking through their lyrics and the musical processes they employed.

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pre-medicine, pre-law, art history, biology, chemistry, and computer science students? These are opportunities to reach out and inspire the professionals of tomorrow, the future ticket and CD buyers, and the future music program donors. Instead of perpetuating the ‘cultural divide’ between classical music and potential audiences we should be reaching out to them. We should be generating new audiences4.

Music Academy Online In 2004, I founded Music Academy Online, a web-based business with the goal of becoming a unique resource for those interested in classical music. But just as importantly, I wanted to create a resource for those who want to be interested in classical music but do not know where to start exploring. The internet is arguably the most significant technological advance in education since John Dewey started moving desks around a classroom. Vast amounts of information are available at the click of a button. The problem is, most classical music web resources are either dedicated to the initiated listener or they are resources designed specifically for kids. Our goal was to design a website that packaged information in a way that appealed to an intelligent and curious population of serious music lovers. We also wanted to balance our approach with resources that a novice would find helpful and friendly.

When I am introducing a new piece of music to a class, I always begin with a biography about the composer. The biography allows me to introduce elements of the social and cultural context for that person’s life and in many cases, the social and cultural context for the composition in question. Relating the life of a composer also helps to break down the barrier between the composer as one who possesses some ‘mystical’ ability to create music and allows students to relate to a human being who, more often than not, has had to work very hard to develop their skill. Life experiences also allow students to relate more easily. A composer biography, in short, is a tried and true way of organizing material.

As we developed the material for our website, we began to produce original composer biographies that, inspired by the great rock biographies that I had grown up reading about groups like The Who and The Beatles, would discuss the composer’s music in the context of their life and not the other way around. Furthermore, following my belief that interaction is a key element for attracting new listeners and breaking down common barriers, we developed databases of information that we could use within the context of a biography and also took advantage of then current web technologies. Essentially, what we created was a biography that included ‘rollovers’ that tried to anticipate questions a typical student might have. The databases at the heart of our rollovers included definitions of musical terms and historical dates. In the course of reading about Beethoven, one could learn that in the year 1792 when he moved to Vienna, George Washington was the President of the United States and a sentence later learn the definition of 4

There is supporting evidence. On October 1, 2002 the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation published “Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study: How Americans Relate to Classical Music and Their Local Orchestras.” Authored by Alan S. Brown, this study was commissioned by 15 American Orchestras and the Knight Foundation in order to “…assist the orchestras in understanding prospects and in capturing additional market potential.” Their findings support that there is a large population of underserved classical music lovers in the United States. Furthermore, the report “offers a sweeping view of an art form in transition and an orchestra field increasingly detached from its potential customers.” The study also suggested that new media could play a tremendous role in not only retaining but also growing audiences.

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counterpoint, as that is what the young composer began studying in Vienna 5. For a web resource that is primarily on a two-dimensional plane of existence, cross-referencing is a main function for allowing browsers to explore information in-depth. While this is empowering for the consumer of information, it does require patience and the desire to approach the subject. As much as I had tried to anticipate a Minority Report type web experience in which consumers could sift through vast amounts of appropriate and relevant information in real time, the limits of a web browser are too great at this time. To truly interact with potential students require a stronger tool.

Second Life On January 28, 2007, I discovered Second Life (SL) and immediately realized that the kind of immersive, interactive, three-dimensional environment it provides has dramatic implications for those of us dedicated to generating interest in classical music at all levels, including music appreciation, music education, and especially for the promotion of new music. A brief overview of the first year of developing Music Academy Online’s presence in Second Life is important to an understanding of the conclusions I have made about the most effective ways of using this virtual world for music education.

After several weeks of investigating Second Life, we rented land, having decided that a single building/museum approach would be the most cost effective. Throughout our first year, we developed a single tower that would house Music Academy Online-SL. Each floor was to be dedicated to a particular function or time period of music history. By the end of 2007, we were regularly holding recitals, lectures, and other events designed toward creating a community interested in classical music. We had filled the tower with installations that included animated musical instruments, time period appropriate artifacts, slide presentations with text and images that helped to elucidate the time periods of music history and the composers that defined them, and we had created a special exhibit dedicated to the life and music of Gustav Mahler. We also had portals that allowed visitors to take advantage of the original content we have on our website including composer biographies, images, and music samples.

What became clear by the end of our first year in Second Life was that a museum approach was too rooted in the ‘real world.’ With a museum tower, displays and exhibits are confined within the space allotted them on each floor. Even with the implementation of unique Second Life technology, such as a ‘rezzer’ that allows users to alter a single space into different scenarios (think only of the ‘holodeck’ as used by the crew of the starship Enterprise in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation), we were confined by the ‘walls’ of the tower.

It became apparently clear that what we had done was confined our use of virtual space in a place where space is not traditionally defined. One does not need walls or a roof or a floor to be protected from the elements. Tables and chairs do not need legs, as there is no gravity.

Despite the fact that our group was growing and our presence was becoming larger in the classical music community6 of Second Life, I was noticing several significant visitor trends.

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www.musicacademyonline.com/composer/biographies.php?bid=22 There are several groups dedicated to the presentation of classical music in Second Life including, most notably, Classical Music and Classical Music Aficionados. Combined membership of groups dedicated to classical music in 6

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Typically, visitors would stop by and explore each floor of the tower. Occasionally they would do this over several visits. But, once they had seen everything there was to see, they would only return for a visit if they were showing our facilities to a friend of theirs who was new to Second Life. Or, they might return for an event.

I also noticed that those who were inclined to return regularly were eager to talk with me in real time about music. They usually had been through our museum of music history and had gone through all of the information that we had provided, but what they were seeking was human interaction. They wanted to share their thoughts and they wanted feedback. In other words, when I engaged in what might be construed as virtual ‘office hours,’ not only did guests return more frequently, but they also tended to spend more minutes visiting and they became more loyal supporters of Music Academy Online. By December 2007, our average daily visitors were roughly eight unique avatars that spent roughly three total hours in our facilities.

Music Academy Online-Second Life Academy (n.) - A society or institution dedicated to fostering art, literature or science; a place of study. The word comes from the Greek name of a garden near Athens where philosophers, most notably Plato, regularly held discussions.

In January 2008 we moved to an entire sim, Utwig, we purchased thanks to the generous donation of an investor who we met in Second Life and who became a strong supporter of our mission. Since then, Music Academy Online has been developing a “Classical Music Disney World.” We regularly present recitals, lectures, and individual lessons. In fact, this new technology enables us to function just as a ‘real’ physical world campus. Our facilities in Second Life include museum displays, interactive exhibits, classrooms with audio/video capabilities, a lecture and recital hall, screening rooms, open-air concert space, and an in-world staff.

Our virtual island Utwig includes areas (parcels) dedicated to each of the time periods of music history. Each parcel functions as a time capsule for a particular time period. Along with time appropriate music streams, exhibits include both written and visual information and web links that reflect the social and cultural context allowing visitors to glimpse the bigger picture for the music of a particular time period. For example, the Medieval Period is housed in Rosslyn Chapel; the Renaissance Period, Palazzo Strozzi; Baroque Period, J.S. Bach's birth house; Classical Period, Independence Hall; Romantic Period, Lizzy Borden's house; and the 20th Century in John Lautner's Chemosphere. Each building's content, including images of the art and links to salient political documents, is constantly growing.

Our attractions include an 'immersive environment' cave, “From Monkey to Mannheim: The Origins of Music,” that presents an overview of early hominids and the first evidence of music making. One of our latest builds is the Philips Pavilion from the 1958 World's Expo in Brussels, the setting for Edgard Varèse's Poème Électronique, a building that no longer exists in the physical world. We also have a theme park inspired ride, “Virtuality: A Journey Inside Your Computer,” developed in conjunction with composer Amin Bhatia and based on his 2008 album Second Life is in the thousands and they hold regular events. Generally they present either live performances or listening sessions of recorded music.

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Virtuality. This is very much a 'living' music video. The successes of the events we have held in Second Life reflect the power of this virtual world to reach new audiences and generate beneficial results that reach beyond the virtual world.

With the development of a dedicated sim, not only has our traffic increased to more than forty unique avatars per day, but individuals are spending more time (more than 14 hours per day per avatar) exploring and quite honestly, with the immersive environment and dedicated time periods we have created, they are spending more time interacting with others and just ‘hanging out.’

In May 2008, we held a festival, “Exploring Mahler.” Of the nearly 1,000 attendees, many gained renewed interest in Mahler while others enthusiastically discovered his music for the first time.

In August, we held our second annual “Festival in Two Worlds.” This nine day event included lecturers, performers, composers, and artists from around the world. This year's theme was “Virtuality” and our featured guest was award-winning composer Amin Bhatia. Again we welcomed nearly 1,000 visitors.

In December, we hosted a “Toys for Tots” Benefit Music Festival that raised $3,000.00 for the children of New Orleans, Louisiana and several hundred dollars for the children of Santa Ana, California. When one considers the exchange rate between Second Life currency and U.S. dollars – at the time of this writing, $4.15 USD for every $1,000 Linden dollars – it is easy to see that this was also a well-attended event.

Along with lectures and live performances, we also host a weekly live show in conjunction with the web-based virtual television network, SLCN.tv. “Music Academy OnLIVE” reaches an audience of nearly 10,000 viewers a week and presents our audience with prominent guests from the world of serious music. Past guests include composers William Kraft, David Cope, and Stefania de Kenessey, as well as recording artists Alessandro Marangoni and Petronel Malan, to name just a few.

Music Academy Online will continue to develop and generate new and unique content with the goal of reaching beyond Second Life audiences. The ability to create a ride that would be educationally oriented, for example a journey through the history of music notation that would include audio, video, and historical reconstructions, could be filmed and used to teach outside of Second Life.

We also will continue to develop real-time animations for more realistic performances of live music that allows audiences from around the world, and particularly those who do not have access to live performances, to experience serious music. In September 2008, we collaborated with the Analog Arts Ensemble and streamed a live performance of the U.S. premiere of “Cosmic Pulses,” the last piece of electronic music written by the man known as the 'father of electronic music,' Karlheinz Stockhausen.

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In a world where funding for classical music is increasingly being cut, new, efficient, and cost effective solutions are necessary. Music Academy Online has the ability to generate interest and grow the audience for serious music. Furthermore, we will continue to develop Music Academy Online as a resource for audiences and students in and out of Second Life and help generate interest in classical music.

Second Life as a Way for Reaching Those Disenfranchised by Traditional Educational Paths Over the past two years I have had the pleasure of meeting, teaching, and working with a number of people whose life paths have been adversely impacted by traditional educational institutions. Through conversation I have learned that often times these are people who loved music growing up and even showed the initiative of registering for junior high or high school elective music classes. Instead of coming away with positive experiences the teachers tended to turn these ‘fringe’ students away from pursuing a systematic study of music by inflicting their own aesthetic judgments on the music that the students enjoyed at the time. Ironically and tragically, by ridiculing the music that the students liked and that had inspired them to register for the course in the first place, teachers had helped create that artificial elitist barrier. Time and time again, the reason for these frustrations was the antagonism that the instructors displayed toward the music that interested their students. Unfortunately, antagonism breeds antagonism and so this was the attitude that they carried with them about classical music.

In Second Life, these individuals have the opportunity to meet with and talk freely and openly about music with me and other music scholars who work with Music Academy Online.

The virtual world empowers its residents to a certain degree. A friend of mine once described it as if ‘everyone is at the same party and have all had a couple of drinks already, [so] their tongues are loose.’ In other words, as a result of the anonymity that is provided behind the mask of an avatar, people are inclined to share their true thoughts on a subject or at least talk about a subject freely. More often than not, there is never an instance in Second Life where the teacher who opens the floor to discussion is met with complete silence.

Dr. Judith A. Eckelmeyer, a professor emerita with more than 38 years of experience in teaching at the college level and to discussion groups, who regularly works with Music Academy Online and teaches for us in Second Life, relates her experiences with Second Life classes: “But what I'm really enjoying is the degree of enthusiasm I'm finding for the music in the presentations, and the very intelligent interactions I'm having with the “audience.” They ask great questions, and they keep asking till they get an answer that satisfies their curiosity. These SL audiences seem much less intimidated about asking questions than people in RL; I don't know if that because there's no academic onus to “perform,” or their identity is protected by their SL name, or if they are just that much more mature in life-experience. And clearly they are there out of interest in the classical music. Many of them come with a surprising amount of musical experience, and in one session I invited one gentleman to participate in explaining some of the musical features we were discussing. He did a great job and seemed to enjoy sharing his knowledge. Others 10

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are novices but jump right in with questions when they don't understand a term.

There's a huge amount of teaching that goes on but in very pleasant and interactive ways”(Personal Correspondence, 2009).

One thing that is certain, the barriers that separate classical music from those who are apprehensive about the music and their abilities to appreciate the music come down quickly when they are able to talk with someone who they might not otherwise have the opportunity to talk with. Second Life can provide the instance for real time interaction with scholars who have spent years studying a subject. There is no waiting for email responses. In fact, there is none of the writing emails, seeking out addresses, urls, and the like. In Second Life, people are able to attend lectures and other events and ask questions as they occur. Perhaps the one thing that comforts and encourages the hesitant when it comes to classical music is simply giving them permission to not like a particular work. Society has this habit of classifying all classical music as masterpieces. This is simply not true. Being able to interact with hesitant audiences allows musicians the opportunity to reach out in a non-threatening environment in order to cultivate interest.

At this point I would like to relate a marvelous and inspiring story about a Second Life colleague of mine. Doddi is a 32-year-old mother of two. She has been involved in online gaming communities and other web based social networking applications for more than a decade.

Doddi has been in Second Life for nearly three years and in that time has taught herself the craft of building. She is an in-world architect and has turned her skills into a viable real world revenue-generating job that significantly augments her family’s income. Doddi is also a high school drop out.

When I began to develop our sim I hired Doddi to be our full-time builder. Many of our projects were historical reproductions of buildings and other artifacts. While I provided Doddi with the information, images, and other web resources that helped her complete each project, there was still research required on her part. Doddi had often related to me how much she had hated school. In fact, what she hated was the poor inner city public school system of which she had been enrolled. Doddi is extremely bright and has a natural inclination for learning and pulling together information in order to use that information as an informed human being. She began to go above and beyond the call of the tasks that I had assigned her and was researching and absorbing great amounts of information about the buildings she was developing for me. One day she bashfully admitted that it wasn’t learning that she didn’t like, it was school. She was beginning to absorb new information with each project and that fueled her desire to learn more. I noticed that her questions became more frequent and often had more to do with larger historical and cultural issues rather than practical work related questions. I was watching Doddi develop a love for knowledge.

One such building was the aforementioned Philips Pavilion, the building designed as the installation for Edgard Varèse's Poème Électronique. This project had been a vision of mine since first entering Second Life. When the time came, Doddi dove into the project with both feet.

She researched the building, the composer, and his music, the architect Le Corbusier, and the assistant to both men on the project, Iannis Xenakis. She also found that the Pavilion was built in 11

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such a way in the physical world, that replicating it in Second Life would create new issues. One such issue was the use of overlapping pieces for the walls of the building. In the physical world, this is not a problem for design. In the computer world where things line up on a number grid, this can create the optical illusion that the walls are ‘wiggling.’ This ‘flashing’ effect is basically two objects fighting for resolution in the same space. Good Second Life builders avoid this effect with precise placement of each object, thus lining them up. Doddi had to find a way to faithfully replicate the physical building and at the same time in effect, break the laws of Second Life building.

After her research and pre-compositional planning was concluded, Doddi spent five very long days creating the scale replica of the Philips Pavilion. She was determined to finish the building on the fiftieth anniversary of its official opening in May1958, a date she had discovered during her research. Thus, on May 23, 2008, she officially finished the project after eighty-four total hours of work.

Shortly after it was completed, I invited a real world architect I had met in the virtual world for a sneak preview of the Philips Pavilion. It was during this time that the true nature of just how powerful a teaching tool Second Life can be for people whose educational experiences had been lacking became self-evident. After introducing Doddi to this architect of thirty years and a professor at a university who teaches the subject, I stood back and marveled as this high school dropout proceeded to discuss not only the process for creating the replica of the Philips Pavilion in the virtual world, but also the design, history, materials, and construction of the actual physical world building.

The Socratic Method and the Creation of Iconography that Encourages Questioning Throughout Second Life one can find tremendously detailed historical buildings, replicas of cities, and exhibits that cover everything from marine biology to astronomy. For the virtual tourist, the possibilities are seemingly endless. And yet, the more that one journeys the more one notices a peculiar phenomena. Beautiful architecture, detailed and informative content, and spectacular scenery are almost never the main reason for thriving Second Life attendance. It is often destinations where human interaction regularly takes place that tend to have the most traffic.

One of the problems that physical world businesses encounter after building wonderful Second Life facilities is attracting visitors. I spoke with the head of a large music corporation that had developed a vast sim with the intention of promoting their artists and products. They had spent thousands of dollars building and developing the area and had launched their Second Life facility with a grand opening weekend featuring live music performances. Since that successful promotional weekend though, their sim remains essentially empty. Average traffic is fewer than five visits a day. The main reason for this, in my estimation, is that there is essentially nothing to do there. What this company developed is a three-dimensional web site. The architecture, the landscaping, the images and content, every visual element is done quite well. The problem is, the interaction for generating interest in their products is in the way of either written text on signs or through the use of note cards. People are not inclined to spend time in a vast and wonderful computer generated environment simply to read lots of text. Furthermore, most text can be 12

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presented in a much more interesting fashion on a traditional web site. What they should have done is focused on human interaction and the creation of a community. This is the strength that a virtual world offers businesses and educators alike.

Deriving its name from the Athenian philosopher Socrates, the Socratic method is, at its core, teaching through questioning. It is this concept that has led me to some conclusions about the best way for developing educational content in Second Life. Along with displays and exhibits that allow visitors to explore various aspects of classical music in their own time, I discovered that the ability to prompt questions through the use of iconography is a wonderful way of stimulating questions, visitor traffic, and most importantly human interaction.

An example of the kind of iconography and its implementation on our sim is the building I selected to house the Romantic Period. The Romantic Period of music history is generally considered to span most of the nineteenth century. This time period includes the music of the Schumanns, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Mahler, and Verdi, to name a few. An ornate concert hall, Wagner’s own Bayreuth Festspielhaus, or a reconstruction of Brahms’ music room are all obvious possibilities for housing information about the music and the social and cultural context of the Romantic Period. I decided to use something quite unexpected. For our Romantic Period, we used a replica of the Fall River, Massachusetts house where in 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered. Andrew’s daughter, Lizzy, was the prime suspect whose trial and acquittal gained national attention.

While the Borden house reflects my own interest in the macabre, it also serves as a terrific conversation piece for visitors. During tours, I am commonly asked about this building and the question is usually posed in two parts “Why the Lizzy Borden house? It doesn’t seem very romantic.” Those questions are precisely why I selected this building. I want the question to be asked. I usually begin my response by admitting that I wanted them to ask that very question, why? The house is an example of mid-nineteenth century American architecture. But it is also the scene of a ghastly murder and so the house, a bed and breakfast today, is considered to be a haunted house. This allows me to begin to discuss the fascination with the macabre that inspired so much Romantic Period art. Think only of Edgar Allen Poe or Browning’s narrative “My Last Duchess.” Think of the macabre that composers explored in such works as Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, and Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. In these situations there are countless opportunities for me to teach through questioning. And the discussion is always lively regardless of the national heritage, age, or education level and interests.

A concrete example of the Socratic method at work involves Doddi, whom I discussed earlier. I had asked Doddi to build a number of artifacts from the nineteenth century that I would use to populate the Lizzy Borden house. These artifacts included scale models of the U.S.S. Monitor, the first iron clad ship; an Abraham Lincoln stove pipe hat; a light bulb; the train that was there for the golden spike; a cannon; the Nautilus from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; and a number of other objects that reflected the culture and history of the nineteenth century. When Doddi had finished creating these objects, she and I reviewed them in her workshop. She commented that it was an odd collection of objects. I admitted that that is certainly the case. Seeing them there on a table did seem odd. I asked her what they told her 13

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about the nineteenth century. She remarked that the people of that time “didn’t think much about kids.” I asked her why she came to that conclusion and her response was that with all the neat stuff they had created during that time, all the technology that they had developed, the best they could come up with for a kid was a ‘cup and ball’ game. Throughout the course of this discussion I continued to ask Doddi questions, and in a very short period of time she had come to the conclusion that between the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century the role of children had dramatically changed and that a good part of that change was the result of technology. She concluded that technology had given people more free time and had allowed parents to spend more time with their children and nurture them. While my questioning had guided the conversation, her answers allowed her to come to her very correct generalizations.

None of this would have been possible without the ‘conversation pieces’ that we had developed and assembled in one place.

Conclusion The use of virtual worlds as a teaching tool has many possibilities. The landscape is still being defined and the future for this environment is vast. In my work developing Music Academy Online, I view our role as a combination of business and education. In order for my business to thrive, I recognize that we must work very hard to increase and stimulate the audience for classical music. Just as Campbell’s often promotes canned soup with commercials that ‘teach’ customers what some of the ‘possibilities’ for using their products in different ways are, so must we teach and build the customer base for classical music. Classical music is our product, and in order for that product to be desired by the public, many of the preconceived notions about that product must be overcome.

Second Life is an amazing tool for reaching out and engaging folks who would otherwise never give classical music a second thought. The main element for this engagement is human interaction. We have developed icons throughout our Second Life island that promote questioning, that generate curiosity, and that help the visitor formulate questions that arise from their own interests and participate in his/her own exploration of classical music. The interdisciplinary approach to classical music education, especially music history and music appreciation, is a sure fire way for creating a friendly and non-judgmental environment for reaching out to new audiences. And reaching out to new audiences is something that the classical music world desperately needs to do, particularly in a world where so many entertainment options are competing for a place in everyone’s daily life. My recommendation to educators is that they truly immerse themselves in Second Life during their initial foray into the virtual world.

The hours spent as a virtual tourist are invaluable as it allows one to quietly explore and derive inspiration from what others from any number of fields are doing, including educators, artists, musicians, vendors, businesses large and small, media concerns, and casual Second Life residents. Do not limit yourself to exploring educational sims.

As ironic as it seems, the key element I have discovered in the success of the virtual world is good old-fashioned human interaction. While the technology for creating the unimaginable, the historical, and the beautiful in Second Life is just beginning to scratch the surface of what is potential, it is my analysis that only those institutions and commercial enterprises will succeed in the virtual world if they spend the time focusing on human 14

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interaction. A major enterprise can, in a virtual world, have a ‘mom and pop store’ where it connects with its customer base and actually expands that customer base with virtual human contact. Those that realize this will find their businesses in both the virtual and physical world begin to see results. In my case, Music Academy Online, very nearly bankrupt before our entrance into Second Life, has continued to develop and its future, while not certain, is optimistic.

And now I wish to conclude this discussion with comments I received from several of our visitors after our ‘Exploring Mahler’ festival in May 2008. These comments go directly to the heart of how Second Life can provide the ideal resource for music education, outreach, and the ability to inspire the thirst for knowledge that so many have lost as a result of traditional educational paths:

The Music Academy Online with in Second Life Has stirred and inspired feelings within me I had No idea I even had. Having never been exposed to classical music, MAO opened my eyes so to speak, that Classical Music was something I may very well have a deep love for. Aside from the classical music and my constant yearning to learn, aspect, CEO Benton Wunderlich was able to pinpoint my hidden interests and inspired me to check out a book called Arts and Ideas, By William Fleming, which I am currently reading, awakening my interest in historical and architectural art…Without Music Academy Online within Second Life, I may never have been exposed to all of these things, for that I’m [i]ndebted and grateful. Thank you!

As a musician and a teacher, MAO has proved to be a most valuable resource.

Because of MAO (inworld and on the website) I have been inspired to make quite a few important additions to my library. I have acquired several marvelous books including “Arts and Ideas” by William Fleming which my students have loved browsing through and which I am sure many of them will want to own some day soon. I have also added a few new and interesting recordings to my library including the Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 and several art rock albums that I loved when I was exposed to them in the Monday night Art Rock class. MAO is a cutting edge educational experience offering a wealth of information and activities. I find myself turning to it more and more often each day.

I am especially excited about the Leonard Bernstein DVD box set "The Unanswered Question," a product I was unaware of before encountering it at the Academy . . . I had to buy it!

Visiting the Music Academy Online in Second Life has been a real treat. The programming has exposed me to styles of music and artists that I never would have discovered on my own. The Music Academy Online has broadened my musical palate and provided connections between musical genres and time periods that to me never existed. After attending events at the MAO in Second Life I have purchased music ranging from Ives to Zappa. The MAO has taught me how to listen to music in a new way.

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The Mahler series of lectures, concerts and live discussions were a wonderful, wonderful? . . . [N]o, were a superb experience . . . on so many levels. I was as transfixed to your commentaries and exhibits as I was to the music. This is an excellent use of SL . . . the best I have seen so far. You have created an atmosphere that has it all for any level of musical knowledge or appreciation . . .

That this is also an SL extension of the real life Music Academy Onlive/line makes it all the more noteworthy. He mea maika'i nunui! I grand thing, indeed :-) [I] put "conducting mahler" into [N]etflix search [I]i have lost touch with the world" is there with lots of mahler dvds. [I] use[N]etflix as a try before buy service.

It is not enough to simply build it and expect that they will come. In order to exploit the human interaction aspect of the virtual world, iconography can play a major factor. The development of iconography that inspires questions and discussion will go much farther and instill deeper and longer lasting lessons than text on a note card or images on a slide projector can ever hope to achieve. Second Life, unlike the traditional web site, has the capacity to make the world a better place, one friendship at a time.

Acknowledgements Judith A. Eckelmyer, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Cleveland State University Leslie H. Jarmon, Ph.D., Faculty Development Specialist, Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, The University of Texas at Austin J. Garvey Pyke, Ed.D., Asst. Director for Instructional Programs, Center for Teaching and Learning, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Bibliography Brown, A. S. (2002, October 2). Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study: How Americans Relate to Classical Music and Their Local Orchestras. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Johnson, S. (1758, December 9). Punch and conversation compared. Idler, No. 34.

Jorgensen, E. R. (2003). Western Classical Music and General Education. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 11:2, 130-140.

Ludwig van Beethoven,(n.d.) Retrieved January 10, 2009, from http://www.musicacademyonline.com/composer/biographies.php?bid=22 Music Academy Online, www.musicacademyonline.com Music Academy OnLIVE, http://www.slcn.tv/programs/music-academy Sanchez, J. (2007, November 21). Second Life Teaching and Learningâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;y I <3 SL. The Educators Coop. Retrieved January 10, 2009, from http://educatorscoop.org/blog/?p=22

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Use of a virtual world system in sports coach education for reproducing team handball movements

By António Lopes, CIDESD – Centro de Investigação em Desporto, Saúde e Desenvolvimento Humano, Portugal; Bruno Pires, Márcio Cardoso, UTAD – Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal; Arnaldo Santos, Filipe Peixinho -PT Inovação, Aveiro, Portugal; Pedro Sequeira Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, Portugal; Leonel Morgado, Hugo Paredes UTAD, Portugal; Oleguer Camerino - Universidad de Lleida, Spain.

Abstract The continuous need for education and the significant changes in European policies and regulations overseeing sports coaching and training require the adjustment of teaching models and methods to the needs and potential of teachers, students, and technology.

In educational and training programmes for team sports coaching, it is common to use a group of athletes or video to demonstrate physical, technical, and tactical procedures. This requires significant human resources, both while developing the procedures and to reproduce them. Furthermore, both cases (live execution by athletes or video recording) are limited in visual perspective and detail. For this reason, specific software for demonstrating tactical procedures is sometimes used. But existing software presents significant limitations, for instance, when one cannot change procedures in real time nor can one interact with the audience.

This article focus on the development of a new resource: a software system combining tri-dimensional automated avatars in the Second Life world, an external control server, and an helper desktop application. Using this system, coaches enrolled in education/training programs can more easily be involved, even taking a player’s role, and analyze movements from various points of view. This system aims to contribute to the improvement of the team handball coach education programs by supporting the understanding of the dynamics between defensive and offensive players in the organized phase of a handball game, using shared 3-D simulations with avatars.

Keywords: Second Life; handball team; simulation; coaching; coaches; bots.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Use of a virtual world system in sports coach education 4

Use of a virtual world system in sports coach education for reproducing team handball movements

By António Lopes, CIDESD – Centro de Investigação em Desporto, Saúde e Desenvolvimento Humano, Portugal; Bruno Pires, Márcio Cardoso, UTAD – Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal; Arnaldo Santos, Filipe Peixinho -PT Inovação, Aveiro, Portugal; Pedro Sequeira Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, Portugal; Leonel Morgado, Hugo Paredes UTAD, Portugal; Oleguer Camerino - Universidad de Lleida, Spain.

In Portugal, sports coaching education in team handball is held by its national sports federation in cooperation with a private enterprise exclusively devoted to handball coach education.

Recent changes took place at the national and European level in coaching education, regarding guidelines and foundations to the acknowledgment of a team handball coach career. These impacted the scientific and technical structure and mandatory hours in courses. Due the increase in programme hours, courses changed from local concentrated classes to a group of modular sports coaching education activities nationwide. As such, it was necessary to use distance learning approaches so that trainees could be involved in educational activities in different moments and while located in different parts of the country.

E-learning platforms have been used, such as Moodle and Stabos. However, they present some limitations regarding the availability of the specific sports-related learning objects used by educators/trainers for explanation, visualization, and interaction of students with sports techniques and tactics. Files and videos can be downloaded, but there is no provision for trainers and trainees to interact simultaneously with a specific tactics-oriented software. When lecturers approach these subjects, they usually use animations in presentation software or specific animation files; such efforts typically use a top-down view of placeholders (representing players), thus lacking three-dimensional details. For this reason, video files or streams are also commonly used, often lacking in quality for bandwidth reasons. Videos, however, are resource-intensive to produce, since a team of athletes must be trained to perform the various tactics flawlessly. Furthermore, videos can only be played by trainers and trainees: should they wish to change a specific detail of the recorded tactic, they would have no chance of doing so, for that would require a team of athletes to learn and rehearse that change and record a new video. We believe that virtual worlds present an opportunity to overcome several of these limitations.

First, by allowing a teacher/trainer to display on cue a prerecorded animation of a tactic, using automated avatars within a virtual world sports field, trainees/students can analyse that tactic from any angle and discuss it in real time with the trainer and other trainees. By pausing and unpausing the prerecorded animation of avatars, the trainer and the trainees can also place themselves alongside specific (automated) players and demonstrate a specific change to the recorded tactic. That is, while the automated player 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Use of a virtual world system in sports coach education 5

avatar plays its prescribed movement, the student will be doing something else, in effect saying “Ignore him, watch what I’ll do instead.”

Secondly, we propose that the trainer uses a software application to define the movements and actions of players in a tactic, store that tactic as a file in an e-learning platform, and to request its execution on-line, from within a virtual world training session.

This not only simplifies the access to the learning object in education, but in effect, it allows the trainer to change a recorded tactic in response to the development of the educational process: if the discussion with students prompts the need for a change in a tactic, the trainer can readily edit the recorded file, save it, and replay to students the edited tactic. Depending on the complexity of the change, this can be done during the training session, in a break, or within a few hours.

This article presents the ongoing development of such a resource to support and improve the expositive teaching method regarding concepts of interactional dynamics between defense and attack in the organized method of team handball game, using threedimensional avatars in the Second Life virtual world. We intend to use this tool as much more than a “3-D shared video”: we believe it will allow more participative learning methods, since trainees can involve themselves more easily in the players’ role and discuss changes to recorded movements.

Although this work currently focuses only on team handball, the technical structure can be used for other individual and team sports.

This article is divided in three major parts: • Technological support for training/education of handball coaches: here we focus on the different type of approaches used in team handball coaching education, and their supporting technologies; • System architecture: here we present the overall technical architecture, its requirements, components, and goals; and • Virtual world based handball coach education system: here we describe the current prototype implementation of the architecture, including the system components, the underlying technology and the functionality.

Technological support for training/education of handball coaches The sports coach is one of the most import figures in sports because of all the roles the job demands: training athletes, guiding them, tutoring on performance, and socially representing the team, among others (European Network of Sport Science, Education & Employment [ENSSEE], 2007). The existence of qualified coaches is an essential measure to ensure qualitative and quantitative development of sport, respecting ethics, and sportsmanship. Therefore, coaching education is fundamental for the development of 5

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Use of a virtual world system in sports coach education 6

sports. Through training, sports coaches achieve the condition of access to their professional practice by receiving licenses that qualify and certify them. Currently, in Portugal, team handball coach degrees require the attendance of a considerable number of training hours, during which the candidate has to submit and fulfill skills in technical and scientific areas.

Although there is not an historical/scientific follow-up on means and methods used in the team handball coaching education programmes, it is believed that they followed the overall scientific and technological developments, adapting them to their needs: face-toface classes, distance learning, and their associated technological innovations.

Regarding distance learning, trainers of team handball coaches have used various elearning platforms, and both synchronous and asynchronous approaches are common. The e-learning objects in these platforms showed some limitations and resort to presentation files, animation files, and video, as mentioned in the introductory section.

In the sports software market, there is a wide range of team handball applications to support the training of technical and tactical components, observation, and game analysis, using video and two-dimensional animated diagrams. These applications produce files of simulated situations, typically non-integrated or impossible to use as learning objects in elearning platforms. Besides being two-dimensional, these applications are not geared towards synchronous multi-user access, meaning that the only way for a trainer to use them in a synchronous learning session is to share his/her own screen. There is not an integrated system available to the trainers to allow them (during a learning session) to reproduce tridimensional sports movements, stop them, re-run them again as a 3-D movie, involve the trainees in that movie to perform analysis from various perspectives, and edit it.

There are also many well-known videogames dedicated to team sports, which can be used to act out a movement or record it, but these are not geared towards allowing the trainer to define the actions of each player. Furthermore, the recording of actions in such games can be done as a movie but not as an editable sequence of movements. There are also several avatar-controlled animation systems, but these do not contemplate sports.

In three-dimensional virtual worlds, where people can interact with each other and with virtual elements, team sports are also a reality, albeit limited in the same ways as those mentioned above for videogames â&#x20AC;&#x201C; apart from the fact that it is easier for each player to be controlled by a different person. For instance, the already mentioned Second Life virtual world (SL) allows users, known as residents, to create personal content in a collaborative a way and share it with other users. Users are part of a social experience since they have available a variety of forms of communication such as instant messaging, private conversations, voice, streaming video, and animated gestures (Robbins, 2007). SL residents do not limit themselves to content creation: they author activities, events, and services, free or paid, using the SL currency â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the linden dollar â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and being involved in its economy.

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We could have used a number of technological platforms for this virtual world based system. The choice of SL is due to its widespread use, its wide community of users developing content (including automated content), the growing body of educational research and use by educational & research institutions worldwide, and significant levels of satisfaction as a technological platform by post-secondary instructors (Bowers, Ragas, & Neely, 2009).

Regarding team handball sports coaching education, SL fulfils our basic technical requirements: it allows the scripting of movements and interactions, it has documented methods to allow automation of avatars, and it has on-line contact with internet servers besides its own. User-level requirements are also fulfilled: SL users can communicate live and share the same virtual space, they can watch together the same automated animations, and each user can control its own viewpoint and camera movement. Furthermore, other instructor technologies are also available, such as video streaming and slide projection.

System Architecture To assemble a set of requirements and goals for the system, we looked at our own experience: two of the authors of this paper have over twenty years of experience in handball coaching (“top handball coaches”) and are sports researchers; one is in charge of coordinating handball coach education at the Portuguese Handball Federation and is, at the European Handball Federation (EHF), the Portuguese representative within the “Rinck” Convention on the mutual recognition of standards and certificates in the field of coaches' education in handball in Europe.

As put forward in the introductory section, the overall goal is to allow an educator of handball coaching trainees to define a team tactic, store it in an e-learning system so that it can be integrated within a global e-learning plan, and be able to replay it when requested within a multi-user virtual world. That tactic replay will be done by automated humanlooking players (not geometric placeholders) during a training session. Furthermore, the educator/trainer must be able to pause/unpause the tactic replay to allow him/her or the coaching trainees to position themselves amidst the team of automated players. This serves two purposes: to get a particular perspective (“from the point of view of the referee,” for instance) and to allow trainees and educator/trainer to demonstrate intended changes to the tactic that is being replayed by the automated avatars (“colleagues, when that player reaches me, ignore its subsequent movement; instead, look at what I’ll do”). Finally, the educator/trainer should be able to edit a team tactic as quickly as possible, to the point of being able to replay the edited version in the same session.

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Team tactic

Tactics application

Tactic data

E-learning platform

Command data Virtual world

Commands

Movement control

Command system

Figure 1. Data Flow Diagram.

From these overall goals, we devised an overall model for the system, presented in Figure 1. The trainer creates and edits team tactics (team movements) in a non-virtual world piece of software, the tactics application. This application stores and registers the tactics data as learning objects in an online e-learning platform. Then, from within a virtual world, the trainer will use a command system to issue the commands (to, for example, request the execution and pause/unpause of stored tactics). The command system sends the command data to the e-learning platform which then directly controls the execution of the tactic; that is, the movement of all automated players and ball.

The model in Figure 1 does not account for specific features of the virtual world platform. Specifically, it does not address the method for movement synchronization amongst automated players and ball, nor does it specify whether the movement control by the e-learning platform is for every detail or only for higher-level aspects. This is merely the overall dataflow model, conceivably applicable to a wide range of virtual world platforms. Details on how these and other issues were addressed are presented in the following section which describes the current prototype.

Virtual World Based Handball Coach Education System We are developing a prototype implementation in the SL world of the model presented in the previous section. To test it, we built a handball field so that team tactics can be understood in context, seen in Figure 2.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Use of a virtual world system in sports coach education 9

The trainees can use the seats on either side and use SL built-in camera control features to watch the team tactic from any desired perspective without having to position their own avatars. Trainees can, however, move their avatars onto the playing area, in order to better demonstrate a proposed movement to other trainees or the trainer. For this purpose, the field was built on 1:1 scale. It can be visited at the Utopia Portugal VI server in SL, at coordinates 120 X, 208 Y, 606 Z; the url for this is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia%20Portugal%20VI/120/208/606. A video of the system in action is available in YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlVQ4hfbcW4.

Figure 2. Handball Field in Second Life.

In the current prototype, the tactics application was implemented as Windows desktop application. The e-learning platform for this first prototype was implemented as a simple web service on a web server, for prototype development and testing purposes; we are now integrating it into an actual e-learning platform. In this prototype, the command system within the SL virtual world is a combination of virtual world clickable objects and text commands that are issued by the trainer as instant messages to an automated avatar (a “bot” in SL terms). We are still evaluating the effectiveness and adequacy of these specific prototype implementations, but they have sufficed to render the system usable and operational.

The tactics application records the tactics data in a proprietary XML format which we developed arbitrarily, just for the purpose of testing the overall model and data flow approach; a later phase of this research will study the data requirements and establish whether a specific data format needs to be devised or if existing languages and ontologies can be leveraged for this purpose.

For communication with SL, rather than implement a full client of the SLGOGP protocol used to communicate with SL servers, we employed a freely-available open source library written in the C# programming language that provides SL login, communication, and control features ready called “libopenmv” but formerly known as libsecondlife, which can be used in Linux, OSX or Windows environments (Lentczner, 2008 and libsecondlife, 2009).

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Figure 3 shows the various layers of the platform, allowing a better understanding of the system and how the various components are connected with each other.

Trainer & trainees

Tactics application

E-learning platform web service

Second Life client software

libopenmv

Second Life server software

Figure 3. Multi-layer System Components.

Figure 4 presents the overall look of the tactics application. It follows a common placeholder approach to represent the player position on the field, with a timeline to help define movements and actions. Following a common software methodology of iterative and incremental development, several interface features have been developed and refined. For instance, the figure shows that the trainer can start the process of creating a new tactic by selecting from a set of predefined initial player layouts, organized into defensive (“Defensivas”), offensive (“Ataque”), or general (“Geral”) groups. Several such features have been implemented, but their description and listing is beyond the scope of this article.

Using the timeline at the bottom of the application window, the trainer can specify the position of each player at each specific moment; he/she positions the timeline at the desired moment and drags the players to their position at that time. Using buttons and options in the interface, the trainer can specify whether a player should execute the movement by walking or running and whether displacement should be done together with some other motion (for instance, moving arms in a defensive stance). Movements done without displacement can also be defined in a similar manner (for instance, shooting, catching a ball, and others).

While creating or editing a tactic, the trainer can employ the play/stop/record button at the bottom of the screen to preview the tactic execution within this application.

Whenever desired, the tactic can be saved as a file and placed in the folder structure of the 10

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web server where the web service is running (in the final system, this would be the process of publishing the tactic as a learning object in the e-learning platform). Currently, the file names and folder are used as part of the commands issued by the trainer from within the SL world, but this notation will be adapted once we implement the prototype in an e-learning platform.

Figure 4. Tactics Application Prototype.

Within the SL virtual world, we realized that the avatar login process can be slow.

Therefore, we provided to the trainer the option of requesting the “creation” of all automated players at the beginning of the virtual learning session (that is, request that the web server of the e-learning platform logs on all “bots” immediately, instead of having to do that process when a tactic execution is requested). The trainer can then request the “destruction” of the players (i.e., log them out) at the end of the session or whenever desired. This is currently done by clicking (in SL terms “touching”) two button on a virtual control panel, as seen in Figure 5. These buttons are scripts in SL’s LSL language to perform a security validation (used to verify whether the avatar clicking on them is the trainer or not) and send the login request command to the web service/e-learning platform, through an HTTP request message. The web service logs on each bot as a separate processing thread for better performance and responsiveness.

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Figure 5. In-world Control Panel for Logging On and Off Automated Players.

Once the bots logon process has been completed, the handball field and system are prepared for a synchronous learning/training session, with all automated players ready to execute tactics, shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Overview of Handball Field with Bots Logged in; Trainees are Seated.

From this point on, the trainer can issue commands to the web service/e-learning platform as a private textual conversation with one of the automated players, whom we call the â&#x20AC;&#x153;masterâ&#x20AC;? bot (in the current prototype, the goalkeeper) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that is, by sending instant messages (IM) through the internal SL IM system. While other interfacing options where considered, such as the visual buttons of Figure 5, we chose the IM approach due to its higher response rate: visual solutions require some scripted programs to be executed before commands are sent to the web service, but IMs are sent to the recipient directly by the underlying SL system, which in comparison with scripting solutions, is almost instantaneous. This is not relevant for initiating a tactic, but it is critical for pausing it at a precise moment. The trainer's command system is therefore a combination of the visual elements of Figure 5 and the textual commands that he/she issues to the master bot.

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The tactics execution process thus takes place in the following manner: when the trainer issues the command to execute a stored tactic, the master bot receives the trainer’s IM, and that event is detected by the web service controlling the bots, which processes the IM, loads the appropriate tactics-definition file, and initiates its execution by commanding the actions of each player and ball. During this process, the trainer can send an IM command to the master bot requesting that movement pauses or unpauses, as the educational situation progresses. A further development stage will include commands for backtracking the current movement and other options that trainers may find necessary.

Discussion and Conclusions Coaches play an important role in introducing people to sports and in helping players and athletes to improve and achieve success. Coach education programs aim to provide coaches with the competences for this job.

The format of Portuguese team handball coaching education programs includes theoretical and practical sessions. Due to the amount of hours that the candidates need to attend these as part of their educational framework, these sessions are divided into a set of seminars over one year of supervised practice. Our proposed system aims to improve the quality of the educational content by allowing trainee coaches to visualize tactics in threedimensions in a shared environment, where they can analyze them from different perspectives and cooperate by demonstrating changes to the stored tactics using their own avatars alongside automated avatar players (“bots”).

This article presented the software architecture of the system and the current state of the prototype under development, as well as the technical approach and details used in its development.

It is expected to improve the reproduction of movement and tactics, by incorporating in the animation process SL avatar “gestures” to better convey the fine elements of the tactic. The ball movement itself is still under study; while different worlds may require different solutions, for SL we are experimenting with a combination of a ballshaped automated avatar and ball-shaped virtual world objects that can be attached to the hands of automated players and thus follow their motions accurately. Once the full technical process is complete and operational, we will have to focus on the data language, as previously mentioned in the body of this article.

Although this work is focused on team handball, we believe the overall structure can be used as a starting point for developing systems for coaching education on other individual and group sports and physical activities in general. We hypothesize that it may also be an adequate starting point for other areas, such as business training, wherever there is the need to resort to predefined three-dimensional manifestations of human actions that need to be analyzed from different perspectives by a group of people wishing to control their reproduction for cooperative analysis and discussion purposes.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

A virtual environment study in entrepreneurship education of young children By Ângela Pereira,Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal; Paulo Martins ; Leonel Morgado, GECAD / UTAD – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal.

Benjamim Fonseca, CITAB / UTAD, Portugal

Abstract In this article, we present an exploratory study on the use of 3-D virtual worlds in entrepreneurship education for children of primary school in a virtual world from the Activeworlds Educational Universe: “Entrepreneurship in Basic Education – 1st cycle.” This study allowed us to identify a set of technological problems in the use of these environments for teaching entrepreneurship to children. It allowed us to define a range of requirements that must be fulfilled in order to provide a software system that supports these activities in virtual worlds.

Keywords: collaborative virtual environment; virtual worlds; entrepreneurship education; primary school; children.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A virtual environment study 4

A virtual environment study in entrepreneurship education of young children By Ângela Pereira,Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal; Paulo Martins ; Leonel Morgado, GECAD / UTAD – University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal.

Benjamim Fonseca, CITAB / UTAD, Portugal

Currently, much importance is given to entrepreneurship education, even at early stages of education. The Commission of the European Communities (2006) mission of, “Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and learning,” approaches entrepreneurship education from the primary levels up to college, deeming imperative the introduction of basic entrepreneurship abilities in the curriculum of schools and universities. The Commission considers that “At the primary level, nurturing qualities such as creativity and spirit of initiative helps develop entrepreneurial attitudes . . . through active learning based on children’s natural curiosity,” and that “learning about society should also include early knowledge of contact with the world of work and business, and an understanding of the role of entrepreneurs in the community” (p. 6).

This article is divided into three sections. We first present some related work about the motivation to use virtual worlds in entrepreneurship education. Then, the project methodology is described including the procedures and the sessions with children. Finally, the findings and their implications are discussed.

Motivation and related work The importance of the entrepreneurship in economy cannot be overestimated.

Schumpeter defined entrepreneurship as the primary engine of economic development (McGraw, 1991). In the educational system (from primary school to college) value is given to teaching concepts of entrepreneurship through many initiatives spread throughout the world. However, in primary school these initiatives are not so visible, and this is a context where we consider the existence of potential for exploration. It is our aim to support entrepreneurship education (EE) at the primary levels through the use of computer software, specifically 3-D virtual worlds. In some member states of the European Union, primary schools strive to lead children towards taking initiatives and assuming responsibilities as stimuli for entrepreneurship (Commission of the European Communities, 2006).

In Portugal, EE is part of educational programs mainly at the level of high schools and colleges. However, some initiatives on the part of the organizations JA-YE, GesEntrepreneur, and of the Portuguese Ministry of Education implemented curriculums for EE in primary schools. In other countries such as Finland, Luxemburg, Norway, and Spain, the entrepreneurial spirit is explicitly included in the national programs for primary-school education, with the aim of stimulating active forms of learning and spurring the development of personal qualities like creativity and initiative in children, as well as promoting innovation.

Revisions of literature on EE can be found in several works (e.g., Solomon, Duffy, & Tarabishy, 2002; Kuratko, 2005; and Katz, 2003). From them, we can observe that initiatives 4

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aiming to promote the development of entrepreneurial spirit in children are rare; even so, several different examples can be found. In several academic journals devoted to this field like the International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Journal of International Business and Economy, and Journal of Business Venturing, we have found some projects aimed to promote the EE of children. Some of those were based on tangible, real-world activities, others on computer systems developed to support EE - mostly, computer games (Pereira, Morgado, Martins, & Fonseca, 2007). Two examples of teaching entrepreneurship for children based on real activities are: “Boule et Bill créent une enterprise” (translated as “Boule and Bill create a company”), implemented in all basic schools of Luxembourg and in the French sixth grade programme that entirely integrates a unit devoted to the creation of companies (European Commission, 2001). This is based on the comic book with the same name that explains how well-known personalities had success in the business world. “Una empresa en mi escuela” (translated as “A company in my school”), is a program of the Astúrias region in Spain, directed to basic education of 5- to 12-year-olds. This program is managed by Valnalón, a public company of the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Industry, which works in cooperation with the Spanish Ministry of the Education for creation and implementation of programs in the area of the entrepreneurship for different grades. The learners carry out various tasks related to the creation and operation of a company (EME, 2008).

Regarding computer systems for teaching entrepreneurship for children under 12-years-old, there are computer systems that do not provide the level of immersion of a virtual world and require learners to imagine the business operation. Some examples of these types of games are Lemonade Stand and Taller de Emprededores (translated as “Entrepreneur’s Office”). The level of interaction with these games is also somewhat static. But some games do incorporate a few elements of three-dimensional virtual worlds to provide a simulation of the reality. An example of this kind of games, which – we emphasize – is not a real 3-D virtual world, is Hot Shot Business, where we can find avatars, visible products and customers, and the actual space where the business operates, all attempting to provide a better approach to reality (Jason, 2003).

A growing number of researchers have used virtual worlds as educational platforms, typically referring to them as educational Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs). These environments are comprised of a virtual world in which learners control avatars that represent their online persons, explore the world, interact with objects, communicate with other users and create and test hypotheses while they explore (Nelson, 2007). Some examples of educational MUVEs are: Zora, which was implemented in Virtual Worlds Platform, aimed to help children explore their identity by creating a virtual city and its social organization; Vertex, aiming to work with teachers and children to investigate the creative teaching and learning possibilities of shared 3D virtual worlds, and to develop and disseminate innovative practical strategies for their use across the primary curriculum; Round Earth, which investigates how virtual reality technology can be used to help teaching concepts that are counter-intuitive to learner's currently held mental model, in particular, teaching young children that the Earth is spherical when everyday’s experiences tell them it is flat; Quest Atlantis, here students 9- through 12-years-old can take part in a great number of quests to save the people of a virtual Atlantis from destruction through environmental, moral and social decay; River City, a virtual city with a river and various neighborhoods, industries, and institutions, such as a hospital and a university, where students learn to behave as scientists while they collaboratively identify problems through observation and inference, form and test hypotheses, and deduce evidence-based conclusions about underlying causes assessments in biology and ecology; NICE, which provides an engaging setting where children construct and cultivate simple virtual ecosystems, collaborate via 5

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networks with other children remotely, and create stories from their interactions in the real and virtual world (Bers, 1999; Bailey & Moar, 2002; Johnson, Moher, Ohlsson, & Gillingham, 1999; Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun 2005; Ketelhut, 2007; and Johnson, Roussos, Leigh, Vasilakis, Barnes, & Moher 1998). These virtual environments revealed the potential to engage children learners in learning. Along the same line, we present some of the advantages pointed out by several researchers regarding the use of MUVEs in children’s education:           



Virtual worlds are playful, engaging, and interactive alternatives to more passive media, and the child tends to be more involved with the educational content and learns more; The child is becoming a creator and having control over elements of a world; A virtual world helps create mental maps, exploring, and understanding a new world and its systems; Children rehearse having responsibilities and looking after things while at the same time developing their social skills; Virtual worlds provide tools for self-expression and enhance computer literacy; Virtual worlds can act as enablers for children with physical and communicative needs, stimulating the active participation of the child, making the passive child more active; Virtual worlds remove barriers to learning for children who have difficulties in learning in traditional classroom contexts; Virtual worlds allow collaboration and sharing of knowledge, improving the children’s skills of communication and collaboration; Virtual worlds better illustrate some concepts and complex processes; Children show enthusiasm and motivation for using these technologies because of the high degree of entertainment that these environments provide; The use of virtual worlds in educational contexts could make significant links between information and communication technologies and other content curriculum (such as Mathematics and English); and Virtual worlds as learning modules stems, from their ability to implement contexts and relationships, are not possible to achieve in a traditional learning setting.

For all the reasons presented above, we decided to use 3-D virtual worlds in entrepreneurship education for children. Three-dimensional virtual worlds can offer several contributions specifically to entrepreneurship education of children, by allowing the creation of learning activities where children may reproduce the operation of a business or the organization of a social activity. The entrepreneurship activity that children will develop is the creation of a business in a virtual world which can provide rewarding learning experiences that are difficult to obtain otherwise. The virtual business can always be open, so the products can be sold at any time and without the presence of a real person. The virtual world can be effective for helping children understand abstract concepts like the ordering processes into more concrete ones (Bricken, 1991). Children can observe the effects of their changes, such as the dimensions and colors of the store and the positioning of the products for sale, among others. Children can pass from the imagination to the concretization of the business. The products sale can reach a greater number of people/customers. Children can interact and collaborate with one another while developing projects. The creation of a virtual business involves a large variety of different activities that gives children the possibility to create something original and themselves. The costs to create a virtual building are not a problem. In the virtual world, children not only learn to 6

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create the business but also to make work a business that can move from year to year. It is possible in the virtual world to recreate real world elements, through the avatars (persons), the businesses, and the environment, as well as through the operations and challenges of a real business.

Design and Methods In most software engineering methodologies, there are four phases: analysis, design, implementation, and testing. These phases attend to what and how it will be built, the actual building, and its testing.

The main objective of this article is defining the engineering requirements (analysis phase), which is the process of discovering the purpose for what the software was intended (Nuseibeh & Easterbrook, 2000). According to Zave’s (1997) point of view, engineering requirements are concerned with the “real-world goals” that motivate the development of a software system. These represent the “why” as well as the “what” of the system, providing the basis for analysing requirements, validating and defining what designers have to build, and verifying that they have done correctly upon delivery.

Through a real camp experience of the use of virtual environments in entrepreneurship education for children in primary school, we identified technological issues regarding the use of this environment in teaching entrepreneurship for children and that allows defining the engineering requirements that motivate the propose of the development of technical solutions.

The data presented in this article was obtained by the researcher through direct observation in the field and through elements recorded on video, image, and text. The teacher involved also made some class reports of what she had observed.

Participants This study involved sixteen children, aged 8- and 9-years-old in the third grade at the primary school Macieira de Sarnes, Portugal; a teacher; and the collaboration of two assistants of the project Net sobre Rodas (translated “net on wheels”). Net sobre Rodas (NR) is a project of a regional digital inclusion project in Northern Portugal, EDV Digital (2008). NR has two vans equipped with twelve laptops with internet access, that visit institutions like schools, businesses, and communities, among others with four assistants who provide support for people to better use computer technology.

The children involved in this project are from low-income families with little regular contact with the computer. In a questionnaire distributed to the sixteen children, nine of which have a computer at home and use it for the school homework. Most children said that they used computer mainly to play games and do internet searches. Only two children have an email address.

The teacher has about ten years of experience in teaching children and this was the first project in which she participated that involved the use of a virtual world. She enthusiastically contributed for the development of this project dedicating some of their classes to the themes of entrepreneurship and was always present at the NR sessions.

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Technology To carry out this activity, we needed a virtual world that allowed: development of technological solutions (i.e., no closed solutions); access to educators and children less than 10years-old; user creation and editing of objects; and support for collaborative learning. Therefore, amongst all MUVEs, we are not looking into games, but into environments that support the above requirements. These MUVEs devoted to three-dimensional collaborative and social activities are known as Massively Multiplayer Online Social Games (MMOSG). In MMOSGs the emphasis is on socialization between users and personal expression or creation of virtual elements. MMOSGs include, for instance, Active Worlds, Second Life, and There. From the range of available MMOSGs, the Active Worlds Educational Universe (AWEDU, 2008) was selected to develop this activity because it fulfils the requirements listed above. Although Second Life and Teen SL fulfil some of them, they could not be used due to age restrictions, as Second Life is for adults only and Teen Second Life is for teens 13-17-years–old. Another reason we choose AWEDU was the possibility to get an isolated world, accessible only to authenticated/professional users: in this case, educators and children.

Active Worlds is not just a single virtual world but also a network of networks to hundreds of individual worlds where users can create, explore and communicate (Dickey, 2000).

In 1991, Active Worlds created the Active Worlds Educational Universe (AWEDU), which is an entire Universe devoted to the exploration and exploitation of the educational applications of Active Worlds Technology; it was made available to educational institutions, teachers, students, and individual programs. A very important aspect of the AWEDU is that it provides a Software Development Kit (SDK) for programmers to develop applications that interact with the virtual world. The core component of this SDK is a Windows DLL file that implements the entire Active Worlds client/server protocol. The most common type of application developed using the Active Worlds SDK is called a “bot” – typically an automated avatar that inhabits in a virtual world and interacts with users, but which is driven by a computer program instead of a human being. Bots are intended to be helpers, to automate tasks, to control building of objects, or to automatically interface with other visitors.

Thus, we acquired a virtual world and named it “Empreendedorismo no Ensino Básico 1º ciclo (EEB1)” (translated as “Entrepreneurship in Primary Education – 1st cycle”) as seen in Figure 1. It is a secure space separated from the public network we used to develop entrepreneurship activities. During ten sessions of 120 minutes each, eight groups of two children, with the support of two NR assistants plus a researcher and the children’s teacher, used the virtual world EEB1 to develop activities related to the creation of virtual businesses.

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Figure 1. Virtual World EEB1 from AWEDU.

Materials Before starting the activities of entrepreneurship in the primary school Macieira de Sarnes, several weekly meetings were prepared with the NR assistants and their manager. Our goal was to train the assistants on educational entrepreneurship activities and on the use of the AWEDU virtual world. To this end, several materials were produced to support the activities, including: user’s guide of AWEDU (Figure 2); teacher guide book which allows the teacher or assistant develop the activities (Figure 3); an exercise book for the learner which contains activities related with entrepreneurship ideas (Figure 4); and PowerPoint presentations to support the sessions with the NR assistants (Figure 5).

Figure 2. Sample Pages from User’s Guide of AWEDU.

Figure 3. Sample Pages of the Teacher’s Guide Book.

Figure 4. Sample Pages from Learners’ Exercise Book.

Figure 5. Sample Slides “How to Build” and “My Business Idea.”

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This printed material was produced based on the experience of other projects that we mentioned earlier in this article (Una empresa en mi escuela and Hot Shot Business, among others). However, we decided to make our own materials because we needed to combine traditional classroom activities with the use of a virtual world. In the printed materials produced, we incorporated both digital (e.g., activities to be implemented in the virtual world EEB1) and non-digital approaches to develop activities in the classroom, which were related with the creation of a business.

For carrying out this project we needed computers with an internet connection. The EDV Digital project released eight laptop computers so each group of two children could work on a laptop with a 2 Mbps internet connection. The teacher divided the class into eight groups of two children and each group used a laptop computer to access the EEB1 world through a unique avatar character, as illustrated in figure 6.

Figure 6. Pair of Learners Developing Activities in the EEB1 World.

Procedure Before starting this project in the primary school of Macieira de Sarnes, several meetings were done for training of NR assistant, in the AWEDU virtual world and in the activities of entrepreneurship to be developed because these assistants had never contacted a virtual world nor the development of entrepreneurship education activities. As mentioned earlier, the teacher’s guide book and users guide to AWEDU were produced to guide these monitors through the activities. Before we started the project, we also made some meetings with the class teacher. In these meetings, we presented the materials produced, and defined with her that before each NR sessions, she would have to develop with the children the entrepreneurship activities (following the learners’ exercise book) to be implemented afterwards with the help of the NR assistants, in the EEB1 virtual world.

In this project, we had lessons that were developed only with the teacher and children and other activities that took place in sessions with the presence of children, teacher, NR assistants, and a researcher. Both activities were developed inside the classroom and the lessons and sessions alternated (i.e., lesson 1 – session 1 – lesson 2 – session 2, and so on through session 10). During the project, we held meetings with the teacher at the end of each session and several other contacts were established by email.

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In the lessons, children followed a range of activities through the learner exercise book related with the creation of virtual businesses. Some of the activities were the idea of the business, its name, the logo design, specification of the range of products to be commercialized, creation of the product, and the plan of the store. For these activities, children needed to work closely together in pairs. Significant discussion and collaboration emerged between children as part of the process.

During the ten sessions of 120 minutes each, the pairs of children put into practice in the EEB1 virtual world what they had done in the lessons. In a typical session, children converted to AWEDU (EEB1 world) the knowledge from the lessons, using the learner’s exercise book, as illustrated in Figures 7 and 8.

Figure 7. Sample Page “My business is” Resolved by a Children Group from Learners’ Exercise Book.

Figure 8. Children During an NR Session Converting to EEB1 What had Been Done in the Learners’ Exercise Book.

The teacher was very committed and involved in this project and approached during her lessons various topics related to this activity. She was always present at meetings with the NR. This allowed the assistants to focus only on the activities that had to be developed within the AWEDU, as illustrated in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Session with the NR Assistants.

Sessions The teacher made the presentation of this project during one of her lessons. Afterward, the NR assistants began their first session in the primary school of Macieira de Sarnes. The first session was dedicated to the familiarisation with the basic functions of the Active Worlds 11

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interface. Children learned to login, navigate in AWEDU, change the avatar, communicate via chat, add contacts, and explore different worlds from the AWEDU. Before this session, the teacher showed the AWEDU to learners so some of the concepts were not new for these children. The NR assistant during the presentation of AWEDU made some questions to the class: NR assistant: “What did your teacher say about a virtual world?”

Children’s answers: “That I could change the toy,” “[C]hange the world,” and “We can do a factory, shops.”

NR assistant: “What is an avatar?”

Children’s answers: “An avatar is a toy,” “Could be an animal,” “A bicycle,” and “A robot.”

NR assistant: “What can you do in Active Worlds?”

Children’s answers: “We can build things,” “Visit other worlds,” and “The toy can move, jump.”

NR assistant: “What English words from the animation bar do you know?”

Children’s answers: “Yes,” “Jump,” and “Karate.”

After this presentation, the children started up the activities of exploration in AWEDU. The NR assistants projected the AWEDU in a panel and showed the steps to perform the tasks.

The students began to introduce the login and password to enter AWEDU. Then, the monitors asked them to access the world EEB1. After entering the world, they were asked to change their avatars, and one of the children said: “I want one that has shorts.” Then, the NR assistant showed how they could navigate. Before moving to the explanation of teleporting, the NR assistant asked “What is teleporting?” And someone replied: “Go to another world.” They were taught to set the EEB1 world as their residence so that the next time they would access Active Worlds, they would enter directly there. The NR assistant continued the session with an explanation of some of the taskbar buttons, including buttons relating to the vision and the ways of viewing the avatar. Moreover, the NR assistant taught the children to type messages in chat and use the keys with special characters to show their emotions. Then, children added the contacts of each other, including the teacher’s. Finally, the children visited other worlds beyond the AWEDU and EBE1, including the Egypt world and Dirticity, among others.

The second session was devoted to a presentation by each group of the idea and name of the business which had been previously determined in the teacher’s lesson. The eight businesses proposed by children were a: decoration store; art gallery; cushions store; stationery store; pet store; sports store; florist; and jewellery store. The names assigned to these stores were: “Decorate to Shine”; “Art Colour”; “Little Cushions”; “Paper and Company”; “Small Funny Animals”; “Sports and Company”; “Beautiful Flower”; and “Golden Ring,” respectively.

The teacher made some observations about the activity undertaken by children in this lesson: “I was quite surprised (positively!), not only with the ideas that were emerging for the names of business, but also with the care that they put into creating palpable business” (Classroom Teacher).

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“[T]hey are exploring the possibility of construction and development of the final product for sale, the fact that they could be doing what they will sell in their shop” (Classroom Teacher).

In this session, children began to develop their business in the EEB1 world through the presentation of panels with the idea and name of their businesses. The suggestion for the creation of this activity was based on the idea of an area where everyone can view the business of each other and from this area has access to business.

To insert a text panel in the AWEDU is necessary in order to duplicate a pre-existing object, modify the object model to a panel, and write the text that should appear in the panel.

Since this was the children’s second contact with AWEDU, this task could be difficult for them.

Thus, we facilitated this process by pre-creating the panels for each group to insert the idea and name of business, as illustrated in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Text Panels for Each Group to Insert the Idea and Name of the Business in the EEB1 World.

With the help of the NR assistants, every group could create their panel with the idea and name of business - the final result is illustrated in Figure 11. However, there were some problems in fulfilling this task, discussed ahead in the results section.

Figure 11. Presentation in the EEB1 World, the Ideas and Names of the Businesses of the Eight Groups.

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The third session was devoted to the creation on MS Paint of the business logotype that has been previously designed in the learners’ exercise book during the lessons. All logotypes have elements related to the business and include its name. One of the eight logotypes sketched by the learners in their exercise book is shown in Figure 12 and its reproduction in MS Paint is shown in Figure 13.

Figure 12. Logotype of “Almofadinha”/“Little Cushion” Business Sketched in the Learner’s Exercise Book.

Figure 13. Logotype of “Almofadinha”/“Little Cushion” Business Reproduced in Microsoft Paint.

After the conclusion of the logos creation, the NR assistants led the children into the EEB1 world, because this revealed to be a complex task for children (we discuss this in the results section).

The aim of the fourth session was to teach children how to build their business in AWEDU. In the lesson before this session, children were encouraged to design their ideas through activities such as writing and drawing in the learners’ exercise book. These drawings formed a working blueprint for the design of the business in the virtual world. In this session, the NR assistants taught children how to construct their own virtual buildings using the duplication and built-in editing tools, using lists of downloadable building objects existing in the Megapath and Building worlds of the AWEDU. Children took some notes of relevant objects regarding their work from Building and Megapath worlds, such as walls, doors, and floors to household objects such as chairs, tables, and beds from which to select and customize.

From the fifth to the ninth session, children developed their buildings for business through duplication and editing tools built from AWEDU. This task was revealed to be little complex for children. The problems detected in this task are discussed in the results section. Two of the finished business buildings done by children in the world EEB1 are shown in Figures 14 and 15.

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Figure 14. Inside and Outside of the Business “Decorate to Shine.”

Figure 15. Inside and Outside of the Business “Beautiful Flower.”

Since these activities were initiated near the end of the school year and considering that it is a work in progress, the children did not create real products for their businesses. Instead, we initially suggested that children search the internet for images of products that were related to their business, but this was not the proper option. In Dewey (1966) and Piaget’s perspectives (1973), defenders of constructivism learning theory, learning is a process of actively constructing knowledge from experiences in the world and people construct new knowledge with particular effectiveness when they engage in constructing personally meaningful products, which are meaningful to themselves or to others around them. Furthermore, Papert (1980) believes that learning takes place when engaged in the construction of a personally meaningful artifact, such as a piece of art work, a story, or an interactive computerized object. Thus, we consider that in future works, the children should create their own products and use those images. Moreover, it is important that the learning environment can be authentic and situated in real life.

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Bearing this in mind, the teacher started with her children the physical creation of leather bags (from leather leftovers offered by several businesses operating in the region), as illustrated in Figure 16, to be sold in the last day of classes, during the school party described as “Feirinha” (translated as “Little market”). There, some products made by children of the various school classes were sold to raise money for the school.

Figure 16. Examples of Leather Bags Created by Children.

Thus, in addition to the business already created by the children, the teacher also decided to build a store called “A carteirinha” (translated at “The little bag”) in the EEB1 world to exhibit the bags created by them. Together, the researcher and the teacher created the store building in the EEB1 world to present the bags created by children, as illustrated in Figure 17.

Figure 17. Inside of the “Little Bag” Store.

The last session was held on the final day of classes of the school year, and the NR assistants provided two laptop computers with AWEDU for parents, teachers, and other children from school so they could visit the eight virtual businesses and the virtual “Little Bag” store, developed by the third grade class. Figure 18 shows students from other classes visiting the EEB1 world.

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Figure 18. Students from Other Classes Visiting the EEB1 World.

Children also showed their parents their businesses in the EEB1 world, as seen in Figure 19.

Figure 19. A Child Showing Her Business to Her Mother.

Children worked remarkably well together both in the classroom and at the computers, discussing ideas, negotiating the direction of the activity, and solving certain design and technical problems. They developed ways of working together, helping each other build or help less experienced users navigate and use the controls.

Results From the field work carried out with the NR assistants, the teacher of the primary school of Macieira de Sarnes, and sixteen children, we identified several technological problems in the use of virtual worlds in entrepreneurship education that had to be solved manually. We classified these problems in three phases, in accordance with the evolution of the activities:  First phase – Preparation of the educational activities related with the organization of the virtual world for a new activity;  Second phase – Development of the activities related with the implementation of the entrepreneurship activities by children inside the virtual world; and  Third phase – Connection with the community.

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First phase – Preparation of the educational activities Since the educational activities involve collaborative work, we needed to organize the virtual space because the class was divided in groups; for each group we wanted to assign a piece of land for them to develop their business. To solve this, we divided the world manually by changing the texture of the land to simulate roads and separate the world into several “lots.”

In some virtual worlds, land is a continuous space, as in AWEDU and Second Life; often, the logical organization is supplemented with virtual objects to visually organize the space. Other virtual worlds like Moove are not based on a continuous space, but rather divided on rooms “by design,” with each room managed separately. While this “isolated room” approach simplifies group management, it prevents a visitor from grasping the overall perspective of the several areas where the various groups are developing their activities.

Another problem that we realized would surface later, but was not initially identified in this activity because we worked with just one class, was that of management of all the information about schools, classes, teachers, groups, learners, and allocation of avatars to a group. This problem will surface if we enlarge activities to encompass multiple classes and/or schools.

Second phase – Development of the activities One of the problems shown above was the presentation in AWEDU of text panels to present the idea and business name by children and the organization of those panels in the AWEDU space. To insert text inside the 3-D virtual world, users have to use objects for that purpose from the lists of downloadable building objects and replace the text in the field “description” of the objects properties. In fulfilling this task, the students indicated some confusion about how they could replace the text of the idea and name of business, and in some cases, learners overlapped the panels. For comparison purposes, if we were using the Second Life virtual world, to insert text panels the user must create an image in an external application and then upload that image as a texture and apply it to a surface.

The insertion of images like the logos and the products was another difficulty detected because in AWEDU, to insert an image the user has to make a series of steps that revealed to be complicated for a child. In order to present the logo of each business in the EEB1 world, the NR assistants uploaded each image to a web server and inserted in the EEB1 world an object of the type “signpost” that allows one to link its appearance to a server where an image is hosted.

While developing the buildings, children found some problems, too, including not realizing which object was selected; forgetting which key should be pressed to duplicate an object; and trying to insert objects that do not exist, due to typing errors or not including the object extension “.rwx” in the filename. This was very confusing and not practical because children had to know the exact filename of the object models. Children took some time building because they spent a lot of time searching for object files.

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Third phase – Connection with the community An activity that was not possible to develop but is very important in a subject like entrepreneurship is the interaction between the entrepreneurs (children) and the potential targets (the community at large), whether for the sale of products (targets are potential clients), or for awareness campaigns (targets are citizens in general). This interaction was not possible in the virtual world “as is” because our entrepreneurs are children 9- and 10-years-old and other virtual world users could be anyone, children or adults, with good or bad intentions. In a virtual world, children can be exposed in many ways: harmful illegal content, such as pornography and gambling; undesirable contacts, such as from adult impostors posing as children; disclosure of personal information leading to risk of physical harm or harassment; identity theft; and physical harm through real life encounters with online acquaintances, among others (ENISA, 2008).

In an entrepreneurship activity such as a business or awareness campaign, however, there must be contact with potential customers or the community at large – including adults. In the activity that was developed, the bags being sold in the “Little Bags” store were not available for sale directly in the EEB1 world: there was no ordering system, so the store was just a virtual display and purchases had to be done physically at the school.

We need to make children’s entrepreneurial activities available to society in general, but in doing, so children could be at risk. Therefore, for using virtual worlds for EE of children, not just as a “sandbox” of make-believe entrepreneurship, a solution is needed to protect our children entrepreneurs online. We discuss a possible approach in the following section.

Conclusions Based on the problems presented in the results section, we identified a number of specific requirements to promote the learning activities and the entrepreneurial education in virtual worlds.

At the beginning of a new project with a school or class, it is necessary to prepare the virtual world space, gathering information about the schools, classes, teachers, learners, groups, and assigned avatars. We need all this information to know who is who in the virtual world and who develops what. In this specific case with the class of Macieira de Sarnes, it was not difficult to identify this because we worked with a single class of eight groups, in a single school; in the future this could be an issue, if we have in the same world several schools, several classes, teachers, learners, and groups with avatars defined or assigned by different people. It is our intention, in a following stage, to work with other schools or classes, but we need to organize all of this information in a management system. Although this is not a specific requirement of the teaching of entrepreneurship, it is important to organize the educational activity.

Another requirement is the division of the virtual world space. This is necessary because this kind of activity is based on a model of learning that organizes learning around projects (called Project-Based Learning or PBL for short). PBL involves groups of students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities and gives students the opportunity to work relatively autonomously and culminate in realistic products or presentations which are features that fit well within the overall goals of entrepreneurship education (Jones, Rasmussen, & Moffit, 1997; and Thomas, Mergendoller, & Michaelson, 1999). Therefore, each group needs to 19

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develop their project (creation of a business) in their own space and also organize the world to avoid the overlap of the businesses created. This requirement is not specific to entrepreneurship education but is necessary to support the educational activities.

Other management-oriented requirements of the same kind were found: backing up and restoring of classes in the virtual world and cleaning up objects from previous virtual world activities, for instance. Another challenge came through providing monitoring information to the teacher, so that he/she can more easily follow the development of the learners’ efforts.

Regarding the development of the activities, as mentioned in results section, the learners had some difficulties in dealing with some tools of the virtual world and required the intervention of the NR assistants to solve some problems. Thus, we identified some requirements that must be implemented to support learners in the course of their learning activities to better orient and improve their learning.

One requirement is the presentation of business information including the business name, business idea, and others. This information will be sent automatically to the common area of the world and presented on a panel that is updated as children enter information. This will allow children to be more readily aware of one another’s businesses and respond accordingly.

Another requirement is related to the necessity of uploading images into the virtual world easily. Again, this is not a specific requisite of entrepreneurship education, but it is necessary to insert relevant images for the business activity like the logo or product pictures.

As mentioned above, the children experienced some difficulties creating objects in the virtual world. Thus, we identified the improvement of the methods for creating and developing objects as essential. Some requirements to this regard are the classification of objects into categories, being able to search objects, place objects through the position (coordinates) of the avatar, preview objects, and their actual creation. These must be seen for the moment as requirements specific to Active Worlds and thus to the particular platform being used, since they are closely linked to the interface methods and features of the virtual world software. All these requisites will be incorporated in a system to assist children in the development of their businesses.

Yet another significant requirement is allowing learners to provide information in the virtual world about the products that are available for sale including quantities, price, and so forth when they finish their physical products. This requirement may at first sight seem to be associated with entrepreneurship education, but one must realize that plenty of other educational activities using virtual worlds may require similar information-posting actions. For instance, the requirement in a biology activity to display on a virtual world the level of growth of a beanstalk.

It is our opinion that the one aspect that provides a strong requirement and one that is more important in EE than in other educational activities is that EE requires a strong connection with the overall community. That requirement is the need for interaction between children entrepreneurial activities and the targets of those activities, either other children or adults. This interaction can be useful in other subjects, like mathematics, history, or biology, but in entrepreneurship, it is more than simply “useful,” as its presence significantly changes the nature and content of the educational activity from make-believe entrepreneurship into real 20

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A virtual environment study 21

entrepreneurship. We deem it essential, allowing learners with businesses to conduct real business activities.

We stress that this requirement is very significant for learners: in the project developed with the class at Macieira de Sarnes, the teacher stated that“they are exploring the possibility of construction and development of the final product for sale, of the fact that they could be making what they will sell in their shop.” As in the real world, in the virtual world visits to a business and purchase of products can be done by any person. Because customers can be anyone, we are concerned with the children’s security, but we are determined to find a solution that does not prevent the contact between entrepreneurs and targets. A possible path, we hypothesize, is the creation of a mediated environment, by automatically reproducing in an adult-accessible space the children’s businesses, thus allowing a teacher to analyze feedback from that adult space into the children’s space, before enabling it.

At a simpler level, another requirement is the overall monitoring of entrepreneurial activities so that children and teachers get information on customer sales, customer feedback, public feedback of awareness activities, and so forth in order to be able to respond. For instance, in commercial activities, an ordering and delivery system is necessary.

In Table 1, we present all these requirements. We plan to base future development of technological models and solutions upon them.

Table 1. Requirements Found in the Research Process.

Phase Preparation and monitoring of the educational activities Development of the activities

Connection with the community

Found requirements  Management of information about schools, classes, learners, groups, and avatars  Division of the virtual learning space  Monitoring the learners activities  Presentation of business information  Inserting images (logos and products)  Supporting the creation of objects  Providing products/element information  Secure interaction between entrepreneurs and targets  Monitoring entrepreneurial activities

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Final Thoughts and Future Work The identification of the presented requirements supports researchers in the development of technological and educational models as well as solutions for the development of entrepreneurship education activities with primary school children.

We believe that most of these requirements are useful not just for entrepreneurship education but also for other educational activities that involve children actively creating and developing projects in virtual worlds.

Entrepreneurship education brings to front the need to find a solution that allows virtual world interaction between children and the community at large. We hypothesize that this may be possible through a mediated system which replicates information between a virtual spaces accessible only to children and authenticated adults and a public virtual space, with teachers or other education professionals mediating the replication.

From a wider perspective, such a solution, while critical for EE but not for other subject matters, may end up expanding the richness of virtual world educational activities in general. In the real world, children are not imprisoned inside schools: they live within the world of adults, accompanied by their parents, and their educators. We believe that the research and education communities should strive to achieve such a balance between children and adults in the use of virtual worlds for education.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Between Snapshots and Avatars: Using Visual Methodologies for Fieldwork in Second Life

By Paula Roush, London South Bank University, United Kingdom; Ming Nie, University of Leicester; Matthew Wheeler, University of Leicester.

Abstract For a Digital Photography degree Second Life presents a unique teaching and learning environment. It is one of the most photographed 3-D Immersive Virtual Worlds with snapshots (digital images) of its residents and locations circulating abundantly online and in the media. Crucially, in addition to offering its own photographic tools, it is a rich social space with many possibilities for art-based photographic research. However, in spite of the large community of educators now working in Second Life and the increasing number of universities extending their presences in-world, pedagogical frameworks to bring art and media students for fieldwork in Second Life are still relatively rare and educators wanting to explore creative approaches may find themselves in a situation similar to other “newbies”: with a dressed up avatar…but nowhere to go! This paper addresses this issue with a discussion of a case study that fostered collaborative learning in a Second Life photography-based research project. We delineate the use of photographic tools available in Second Life to both capture and display images and describe the activities used for situated ethnographic work. This experiment demonstrates a good example of how to use Second Life for supporting group discussion and interaction through the development of interactive objects. The results also show the potential of Second Life for researching into subcultures and promoting students to consider broader ethical issues when conducting photo-based fieldwork in Second Life and other environments.

Keywords: Second Life; photography; immersive virtual worlds; education.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Between Snapshots and Avatars 4

Between Snapshots and Avatars: Using Visual Methodologies for Fieldwork in Second Life

By Paula Roush, London South Bank University, United Kingdom; Ming Nie, University of Leicester; Matthew Wheeler, University of Leicester.

In-world snapshots from the digital photography study in the Media Zoo http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2422 Current media interest for 3-D Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs), such as Second Life, are visible in the headlines (Good, 2008; CNN, 2008), exploring the differences between in-world avatars and their first life counterparts, contrasting life styles based on diversity of looks and leisure pursuits, whilst revealing a rich area of research on issues of digital representation of the self. Second Life appears in this sense as a prolific site for research on the ‘postmodern “persona”’ (Shields, 1992) and the fluidity of its identity construction, moving between a succession of ‘site-specific’ gatherings, and whose ‘multiple identifications form a dramatic personae - a self which can no longer be simplistically theorized as unified’ (p. 16).

At London South Bank University, the Digital Photography course has been working on a Photographic Index since 2007, a photographic project on youth cultures and contemporary notions of subcultures, exploring through photographic fieldwork and ethnographic methodologies, the way artists can engage with documentation of young people’s cultural practices, both online and off-line. More recently, as a result of collaboration with the University of Leicester’s Beyond Distance Research Alliance MOOSE project (MOdelling Of Secondlife Environments), a pilot case study was developed, using the tools of photographic representation to research subcultures within the medium of online 3-D IVWs. The University of Leicester opened up its Media Zoo Island in Second Life in December 2007. The space provides an open ground specifically set up to demonstrate the educational potential of emerging technologies like Second Life and to research the pedagogic options to successfully integrate IVWs into education. By enabling small, pilot groups of students and staff to experiment in their own subject areas, it provides the possibility for a type of exploratory learning described by Jenning and Collins (2008) as characteristic of the Operative Virtual Campus. The Media Zoo Island is set in close contact with vegetation and animal life and there, one can find display screens that stream media in open spaces, side by side with vast domes created as sheltered areas for creative studio workshops.

This paper reports the findings of a pilot study that examines how working in such an environment can provide opportunities to foster collaborative learning in a photography-based research project.

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Background The academic community shows strong interest in the use of 3-D IVWs for education (JISC, 2007a; 2007b; Eduserve Symposium, 2007). The Horizon Report of 2007 forecasts that 3-D environments will have “strong potential for teaching and learning,” and become “closer to the mainstream education year by year” (EDUCAUSE, 2007, p. 25). However, these environments usually developed for gaming, recreation, and entertainment are little researched in terms of their educational uses. We urgently need to identify affordances of these environments for learning.

Research into Second Life and other 3-D IVWs identify several areas that can be particularly beneficial for education. First of all, as social environments, they offer opportunities for socialisation and collaboration. Dickey’s (2005) research shows that 3D environments afford a collaborative learning experience, and foster a sense of place, presence, and community. Jarmon and Sanchez (2008) report that a shared virtual environment enables the creation of a community of practice, with an increasing level of productive collaboration. Bronack, Riedl, Tashner, and Greene’s (2006) study of a 3-D virtual campus suggests that “virtual worlds offer participants a sense of presence, immediacy, movement, artefacts, and communication unavailable within traditional Internet-based learning environments.”

Second Life is particularly suitable when the activity involves role-playing (Gao, Noh, & Koehler, 2008; Berger, 2008). This is very useful for medical and health education (Boulos, Hetherington, & Wheeler, 2007). Second Life offers simulation (Berger), for example, how mountains are formed, how a car is built on an assembly line, how to use a piece of equipment or instrument; and simulate how to run a business, sell products, provide services (Antonacci & Modaress, 2005). Another area Second Life is good at is collaboratively creating objects (Boulos et al.). Livingstone and Kemp (2006) identify the potential of Second Life in development of re-usable learning objects and building collaborative tools.

Studies that look at the potential of Second Life to develop group work emphasise the possibilities for fieldwork, as opposed to virtual traditional classrooms, this implying a socially situated constructivist pedagogical framework. Hobbs, Gordon, & Brown (2006) write that the social characteristics of the virtual world can be explored by students through collaborative tasks such as field trips and other opportunities for interaction and communication with the extended online community, and beyond the virtual classroom “where learning is achieved by exploration, reflection and collaboration.”

Whilst the authors report this approach within a computer science curriculum, the use of fieldwork in 3-D IVWs (e.g. Everquest, World of Warcraft, and Second Life), namely, ethnographic methods to teach new media critical theory to undergraduate students is described by Delwiche (2006) in the context of a communication course.

Working in a situated learning theory framework, the author emphasises the view of 3-D IWVs as social spaces arguing that they “are living, breathing textbooks that provide 5

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students with first-hand exposure to critical theory and professional practice.” The study concludes that it is by building bridges between the domain of the game world and an overlapping domain of students own professional interest and practice that game-based assignments can be most effective.

The Case Study The course Photographic Index has been designed to teach visual methodologies to first year digital photography students and develop photographic work around the theme of youth cultures and subcultures. It was launched in 2007 in the Arts, Media, and English Department of London South Bank University. The course has since developed work around young subcultures both offline and online, from the study of young Muslim girls in London’s East End, London’s South Bank skate boarders and BMX riders, to online pop cosmopolitan and fandom communities (Photographic Index, 2007–2009).

Through art and photo-based research, students explore critical cultural theories, with a particular focus on studies of youth cultures. We review earlier subcultural theory, as developed by Dick Hebdige (1988) and its sociological explanations of the relationship between social class, street fashion, style, and the ambiguous politics of youth as a spectacle, translating “the fact of being under scrutiny into the pleasure of being watched.

It is a hiding in the light.” We also look into current cultural theories, and its more fluid concepts of tribes (Maffesoli, 1996), neo-tribes and life styles, referring to “a certain ambience, a state of mind, and is preferably to be expressed through life styles that favour appearance and form” (Bennett, 1999).

In terms of visual methodologies, the classical documentary practices, with its alignment with potentially repressive identification photography, such as those used by the surveillance systems to identify the “deviant body” and described by Sekula (1992), are contrasted with other ways of doing research. Ethnographic methods, as used in practice-based art research, have been introduced as they offer an alternative paradigm, with its focus on participatory approaches, the reliance on fieldwork, and the use of photography supplemented with interviews and personal documents, as a way to shift the unequal power relations between photographer and subjects.

In 2008, an online pilot was introduced for this course and was thus moderated in Second Life. As previously noted, ethnographic methods have been used to research critical theory with undergraduate journalism and game-design students. Additionally, an anthropological study of Second Life culture has been undertaken by Boellstorff (2008), who writes about participant-observation in Second Life. The author goes as far as equating culture with the virtual, defending that the challenge of ethnography in Second Life consists in capturing the daily life, not necessarily the unique memorable moments that make it into the headlines but the way its residents go about creating day to day identities in a virtual world.

Adopting critical subcultural theory, Bakioglu (2008) is another author researching emergent griefer subcultures in Second Life. Departing from Dick Hebdige’s 6

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definition of subcultures, and his description of dissent subcultures that use spectacular fashion to display their objections to dominant culture, the author claims that “the performative activities of griefer groups designate a vernacular creativity that establish the cultural capital necessary to constitute them as a legitimate subculture in which (as it had been in the punk culture) spectacle takes a prominent role.”

Placed within this debate and research on youth cultures and subcultures, and other reports of artists using a practice-based art research approach in Second Life (Nash, 2007), our pilot study aimed at finding if we could extend our current course on youth cultures into Second Life. Six students from the BA in Digital Photography (Year 2) participated in the pilot study. They attended three 2-hour group sessions, meeting face to face in the media-lab on campus, to work synchronously in Second Life.

We wanted to research: 

 

If the 3-D IVW of Second Life provides the adequate teaching and learning environment to teach a Digital Photography course in relation to research into youth cultures and subcultures; What kind of activities can be developed to facilitate collaborative group work and reflective learning; How can the learning outcomes, assessment and feedback be articulated in a way that reflects an authentic and student-centred perspective?

The learning outcomes related to the broader aim of training students to integrate ethnographic practices into the research phase of the photographic project. The methodologies when used in new media art research practice are characterised by these aspects (Genzuk, 2003):







The use of fieldwork, which “relies heavily on up-close, personal experience and possible participation, not just observation” (thus being also called participantobservation.) The purpose is to develop an insider’s view of what is happening.

This means that the researcher not only sees what is happening but also “feels” what it is like to be part of the group and the culture; The development of a multimodal process of data collection, to conduct photoresearch inside Second Life, experimenting with one of the photographic options available, the snapshot tool, and one of the communicating devices available, the chat tool, adding photo diaries, observation, and interviewing, “to generate new analytic insights by engaging in interactive, team exploration of often subtle arenas of human difference and similarity”; The awareness of the ethical aspects of working with others, doing photographic research that is collaborative, participatory, and sensitive to the needs of the group or community.

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Before the first session, participants were e-mailed an introduction pack, which included the document Second Life: Guide for Learning prepared for the MOOSE project (Wheeler & Salmon, 2008). The guide has three parts with related links and YouTube videos as additional visual learning tutorials.

Part one of the guide takes first time Second Life visitors through the initial steps in setting up their account and creating their avatar. Part two, reviews the basic skills required to operate in Second Life successfully, including familiarisation with the Media Zoo, whilst part three is about taking part in a group for learning in Second Life; describing group roles for avatars, and the use of in-world communication tools, such as audio and text chat, personal IM, and presentations. This section also includes a description of techniques for group building, to encourage participants into having a productive contribution to the group process.

Figure 1: Second Life Training in the Media Zoo Figure 1 shows the initial in-world training that took place in the Media Zoo in Second Life. This included both students and members of staff. http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 425&g2_serialNumber=2

SL-tivities To structure the group work and facilitate a mixed use of individual and collaborative tasks, three Second Life based learning activities or SL-tivities (Wheeler, Nie, & Salmon, 2008) were developed for this project. These consisted of photographicresearch assignments, mapped onto the three key features of Salmon (2004) tripartite emoderation model, containing: (1) the purpose or spark—a small piece of information that works as the stimulus or challenge; (2) the task—the in-world activity that involves a photographic activity and the sharing of the result; (3) the response—a participatory element that involves the group reflecting together and giving feedback to each other’s contributions.

In SL-tivity 1 (week 1) “Snapshot Tools in Second Life,” the purpose was to introduce participants to the basic use of the snapshot tool and photography as a social practice in Second Life, which are important skills in making new in-world friends and

Figure 2: Developing Second Life Camera Controls

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using photography for ethnographic fieldwork.

Figure 2 shows a student practicing the camera controls to take a close-up snapshot of an avatar in Second Life. http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 440&g2_serialNumber=2 The first task was to learn how to use the snapshot tool and to save snapshots to a disk. Participants started by snapping their way around the Media Zoo and then when confident venturing into further explorations of other Second Life territories. The aim was to introduce students to other people’s avatars and the exciting subcultures; some of which are well known for their vibrant looks and fashion styles.

Being creative with tools also means practicing with the point of view to get more “cinematic shots,” so participants needed to feel comfortable to experiment with different ways of using the camera and snapshot tools to create the most stunning images. The aim was to take 6 to 12 snapshots that reflected their first experiences of Second Life.

Students were encouraged use the text chat to participate in a discussion in which each explorer explained what they liked about Second Life and what they see as potential opportunities for further photographic explorations.

SL-tivity 2 (week 2) “Virtual StoryCubes” adapts the StoryCubes methodology developed by Proboscis (2008). StoryCubes are a tactile thinking and storytelling tool for group work, used for exploring relationships and narratives (Figure 3). Each face of the cube can illustrate or describe an idea, a thing or an action; placed together it is possible to build up multiple narratives or explore the relationships between them in a novel threedimensional way.

Figure 3: Building Virtual StoryCubes

http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 479&g2_serialNumber=2

In Second Life, Virtual StoryCubes are not only simple to construct but add a new dimension to the end story because they are not affected by gravity as the paper-based cubes are in a physical classroom. Plus, the size 9 Figure 4: An example of a Second Life Subculture

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Between Snapshots and Avatars 10

and flexibility of the cubes are potentially unlimited in an IVW, enabling more complex and interactive stories to be told. Adding high quality images, in contrast to the hand drawn illustrations in real life, they are also straightforward and offer amazing end products.

Participants were asked to produce their own cube of digital images relating to the snapshots they had taken of subcultures/communities around Second Life (Figure 4 is an example); a new level of complexity was introduced with the uploading of images into Second Life (a feature that requires payment), in order to use them as textures for the Virtual StoryCubes. After the task was completed students were instructed to participate in a discussion and explain how they came to create their Virtual StoryCube photonarrative and debate the different narratives generated by each photographer. http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 449&g2_serialNumber=2 In SL-tivity 3 (third and final week), entitled “Explorations,” the aim was to further explore and debate the wider potential of 3-D IVWs for digital media and digital photography in relation to research into youth cultures and subcultures. In this task, the collaborative Virtual StoryCubes were further developed and adapted. To create the group narrative and to tell the avatars’ stories about the Second Life communities, the individual cubes needed to be arranged together, and this Figure 5: Virtual StoryCube Story required some negotiation and debating, regarding which snapshots to keep and which ones to hide (Figure 5). http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 500&g2_serialNumber=2 After the task was completed, collaborators debated the different narratives that were developed in the group’s story. This further encouraged a critical discussion, and a reflection on issues related to training in Second Life, comparing and contrasting it to previous experiences of researching subcultures in real life. The debate included considering how certain image-making possibilities in Second Life, like zooming in without being noticed, or flying over to photograph, impact on photographic practice and ethical relationships to other Second Lifers.

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The Findings Focus Group The focus group relied on the method of photo-elicitation (Harper, 2002), which consists of inserting the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Second Life screenshots into a thematically structured conversation. The images were organised into three groups: the images taken whilst doing fieldwork in Second Life, the images selected for the StoryCubes narratives, and finally, the images of the students in the Second Life teaching and learning environment, both individually and working together.

Culture, identity, and place The images taken in Second Life reflect the pursuit of avatars that use spectacular fashion and differentiate themselves through their visual style (Figure 6). In parallel, they reveal an interest for distinct places, both as background for the avatarsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; poses or as spaces in their own right, locations that might represent the uniqueness of cultural practices in Second Life. These include clubs, shopping malls, and Second Life replicas of real life sites.

Figure 6: Spectacular subcultural styles

http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 467&g2_serialNumber=2

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A participant who photographed the Second Life Globe Theatre, a virtual reconstruction of the original London Globe (Figure 7), stated: “The existence of replicas like this in Second Life indicates that it is not only about fantasy world and there is a lot of copy of the real world. The site or property, the commercial aspect, could be a good entry point into Second Life.”

Figure 7: Place as a cultural practice

http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 461&g2_serialNumber=2 Participant-observation

The participants reported that just following people around and scouting for locations was a result of the short time frame they had to develop the brief. If this were a 12-week project, they would plan to spend more time in Second Life doing fieldwork, getting to identify the groups they would be working with, building relationships, and working towards a more complex form of representation, including interviews collected via the chat tool.

Different forms of participant-observation were suggested, along a continuum that included total immersion in Second Life culture. One of the participants suggested he would work with a distinctive group of Second Life entrepreneurs and live with them to document their cultural practices. “I would be interested in following someone who is really serious about Second Life, someone who spends a lot of time there, who has an occupation in Second Life and would follow him for days, photographing and interviewing, that would be my kind of approach. Doing more ethnographic work.”

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Self-representation as a group Participants chose the images of the group above those of themselves individually in Second Life, as the most significant memory of their experience. Their favourite image was one in which the group visiting the Media Zoo Island looked at a large screen displaying a black and white photo (Figure 8). In it, a skeleton lays in an open grave in a Kalash village cemetery. They referred to the cognitive meta-levels embedded in the image: “What attracts me is the connection between us who don’t appear real but the photo that appears very real … . what I like is the contrast between the fact that we knew we were in Second Life, and the photo represented real life; this was a striking contrast for me … .we are all avatars in a 3-D world looking at a picture in real life.”

Figure 8: Self-representation as a group

http://www.msdm.org.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2 434&g2_serialNumber=2

This is in tune with what they find as the most gratifying aspect of working in Second Life: the ability to collaborate on tasks such as the group StoryCube, which involves moving 3D objects around and agreeing on a collective narrative.” The most gratifying aspect was that of working together as a group in Second Life. What surprised me was how it worked so well, negotiating how to place the cubes. In a way every disagreement whilst using chat could become very messy; that’s why maybe everyone agreed to agree!”

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Figure 9: Exploratory group work tasks

Participants prefer such situated tasks to repeating traditional classroom delivery in a virtual environment: “Fieldwork, group work … these are the best approaches for projects in Second Life. I thought was kind of weird to have a classroom environment in Second Life when we are in a classroom environment in a computer anyway. I’d rather be up with my feet in the air in Second Life. If you can do something different why not do it?” (Figure 9).

Interviews Interviews with students revealed several areas where Second Life has a real potential for digital photography projects.

Visualisation The students found that the visual aspect and graphic interface of Second Life is quite appealing and engaging for learning.

The visual aspect is really nice, walking about, flying about, and seeing all these things people have been creating, really colourful, it’s just kind of interesting for the eyes. All the little gages you got, taking pictures, be able to teleport from one place to another is really nice.

The visual element was particularly important for engaging digital photography students because they are sensitive and responsive to visuals.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Between Snapshots and Avatars 15

“We are photography students, we’re all creative artists, visual people that are turned on by things that we see …. because we’re all visual students, it definitely helped us.”

Research into subcultures The students think that Second Life can be an interesting place for researching into subcultures.

“I think Second Life could be very interesting in terms of research, to get research about youth culture… and I think it gives you some ideas for real life as well because it’s about the same thing really, you can find the same thing as well, just easier…Also I think it wouldn’t be as easy as taking pictures from so many different places in real life because you can just go to everywhere you like, and in real life you can’t travel to China …. So you see different subcultures within a few minutes, then that’s a bit difference.”

Some think that Second Life promotes them to consider broader ethical issues when taking photos in Second Life “[In real life] I have to speak to the real person, ask them to pose for me, while in Second Life I don’t need to because if I took the photo from far away, they are unaware of this at all.”

Virtual exhibition The students like the idea that Second Life can be used as a virtual place to displaying their work. They think that it is cheaper and that the space is less constrained when running a virtual exhibition or gallery in Second Life than in real life.

“I think it will be quite different from the real life … you would have to think about where to put on, on the wall or on the space. In Second Life you don’t need to worry … .you don’t have to worry about the space.”

Additionally, people from all over the world can potentially view their work.

“It’s just a complete different way to advertise yourself …. If you were having an exhibition in London, you get real people from that area in London to see your pictures, [whereas in Second Life] you can invite people from all over Second Life to come from all over the world in real life to see your work. It’s really good at networking as well as displaying and exhibiting.”

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Development of interactive objects The students are fascinated by the potential of Second Life for building and developing objects. One of the students completely changed his view on Second Life after taking part in the StoryCube and telling a story about it. He reflects:

“The StoryCube thing is a very good experience for me. Before, the whole Second Life thing, I think we all had this idea of Second Life that it was very geeky; I don’t know, really a weird world or whatever. That perspective has really changed for me.”

The students are also fascinated by how easy and cheap it is to build things in Second Life.

“Well I didn’t realize you could, that anybody could do it. I thought you’d probably need to get some sort of, it sounds weird, but building permit. Because I think you have to pay to build things if you’re going to leave them in Second Life.”

The development is easy, as well, because it doesn’t require a high level of technicality such as scripting and coding as some students thought.

“It’s quite easy and simple. I think you still need certain level of expertise to do that sort of thing …. I think once you’ve been shown the basis, you realize you don’t actually do in 3D software, putting all the scary numbers or something. As long as you don’t need to do that, it’s a lot less daunting.”

They find the group activity based on developing story cubes and storytelling fun and engaging. One of the students describes how easy the group discussion and negotiation can be done in Second Life.

“It was so easy to create the cubes and put pictures on it, and even negotiate how we’re gonna do that. That was incredibly easy. And that really surprised me. So you can learn something definitely.”

One of the key elements contributing to this engaging experience was that the group discussion was anchored by the development of an interactive object.

“This is interactive, involving you in what’s going on, you know, it’s not like lecturing something, it’s quite easy just sit back, not really being able to pay that much attention, while that keeps you involved, because it amuses you …. It’s really important to keep people interest, and definitely Second Life does that.”

The fact that students were able to see how the story cubes were built in Second Life enhanced their overall experience.

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“It sort of seems more real if you can see how it’s done. I think it’s quite a cool way to do things in terms of building stuff and seeing what you’ve made as well.”

This experience also speeded up the whole process for group negotiation.

“I thought the fact that we could actually see the planned material as we would discuss it. So seeing it happen makes it a lot easier because otherwise I think, if you were doing something via MSN for example, if I’m planning something with a friend, you can plan it and when you do it, it takes ages; you’d have to send the file or describe it, which will take ages. But with Second Life you could see it straight in front of you, what is happening, so if you want to make a few changes you could do it there and then which made it easier, generally, be able to see it, see whether or not they agree with as it was going on.”

Discussion and Future Considerations The pilot study indicates that we can find in Second Life a “produsage” environment as described by Bruns (2008), characterised by the creative collaboration of its residents, one of the most visible outputs being their appearance and environments, a collective work of art that provides a prolific site to extend our previous work with photography and subcultures. In the words of one of the participants, this might lead us ultimately to ask: “Is every location in Second Life related to a specific subculture? Or are we taking Second Life as a subculture in itself? Or alternatively, is there anything as a mainstream culture in Second Life?”

As pointed by Robbins (2007), Second Life is a unique tool to create community, and if we provide student-centred materials, we can yield engagement, community bonding, and create a community of learners. This can be done through sharing enjoyable experiences (experimenting, collaborating, having fun), and exploring all of Second Life as a learning space.

To encourage curiosity towards difference, in a space where flexible identity facilitates identity experimentation, it might be of interest to further investigate issues related to perceptions of identities in Second Life. This can be done through experimenting with avatar names and changes of appearance over time, allowing for the students to try out different roles and characters. As a participant noted: “One can create one’s scene, start a new tribe, and this can become a project in itself.” This suggests that playful engagement with ethnographic modes that has been the hallmark of artistic practice (Morley, 2006) is possible and desirable in Second Life.

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Boulos, M. N., Hetherington, L., & Wheeler, S. (2007). Second Life: An overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 24, 233–245.

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Dickey, M. D. (2005). Three-dimensional virtual worlds and distance learning: Two case studies of Active Worlds as a medium for distance education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(3), 439–451.

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Gao, F., Noh, J., & Koehler, M. (2008). Comparing student interactions in Second Life and face-to-face role-playing activities. In K. McFerrin et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2008 (pp. 2033–2035). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Genzuk, M. (2003). A synthesis of ethnographic research. Occasional papers series.

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Hobbs, M., Gordon, M., & Brown, E. (2006). A Virtual World Environment for Group Work. Retrieved December 10, 2008, from http://www.formatex.org/micte2006/pdf/1369-1373.pdf Jarmon, L. & Sanchez, J. (2008). The educators coop experience in Second Life: A model for collaboration. Journal of the Research Centre for Educational Technology, 4(2), 66–82. Retrieved October 6, 2008, from www.rcetj.org/?type=art&id=89928& Jenning, N. & Collins, C. (2008). Virtual or virtually U: Educational institutions in Second Life, International Journal of Social Sciences, 2, 180–186.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities: A Case Study of the Virtual Ability Second Life® Island

By Marjorie A. Zielke, Thomas C. Roome, University of Texas at Dallas; Alice B. Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc

Abstract Many benefits are available to people with disabilities who wish to participate in a virtual world. These include self-efficacy and the ability to share in virtual world community support. Further, many disabled residents of virtual worlds can vicariously experience physical activities through their avatar such as dancing, walking, and running – actions sometimes not possible in real life. However, learning the technology in a virtual world can be daunting for many new residents.

Virtual Ability Island in Second Life® offers a platform for adults with disabilities to learn the functionality necessary to enter a virtual world. This article lays out a learning model based on the andragogy theory of Malcolm Knowles, often called the father of adult learning, and complemented by other recent research on eempowerment and virtual designs for those with disabilities. A composite construct is then created as a framework to study the development of Virtual Ability Island as a destination where new residents to Second Life® with disabilities can learn basic functionality and enjoy social and physical e-empowerment.

Keywords: virtual worlds; pedagogy; disabilities.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities: A Case Study of the Virtual Ability Second Life® Island

By Marjorie A. Zielke, Thomas C. Roome, University of Texas at Dallas; Alice B. Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc “Why do those of us with disabilities want to be in Second Life®? Why do we struggle to overcome access barriers to participate? That’s the key. In Second Life® we can do things more like everyone else than we could in real life. It’s to be part of a community. I think those of us with disabilities find it hard to be part of a social community or network in real life so we look to Second Life® to fulfill that need.”

–Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc. Virtual Worlds such as Second Life® (SL) can be a safe environment for adults with disabilities to explore heretofore impossible activities, such as running, dancing, or talking, and achieve camaraderie among peers with similar challenges. However, SL presents a steep learning curve to anyone wishing to enter and participate. For example, in 2007, Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale stated that the estimated time to learn to use SL was 4 hours (Reuters, 2007). In 2008, Linden Lab estimated a retention rate of those entering SL of about 10% (Wagner, 2008).

Further, a 2007 study of user acceptance of SL showed that only 56% of regular users perceived SL as easy to use (Fetscherin & Lattemann, 2007).

This technology challenge can be even more daunting for those with physical impairments. Virtual Ability Island teaches new SL residents with disabilities how to master virtual world technology. The developers of Virtual Ability Island have centered their design largely on Malcolm Knowles, known as the father of andragogy or adult learning. This article lays out a learning model based on the andragogy concepts of Malcolm Knowles, complemented by other recent research on e-empowerment and optimal virtual designs for those with disabilities. A composite construct is then created as a framework to study the development of Virtual Ability Island as a destination where new residents of SL with disabilities can learn basic functionality and enjoy social and physical e-empowerment.

Virtual Ability Island People with disabilities, especially those with sensory, communicative, cognitive, or motor issues, may already be using assistive technology to interface with 2-D websites.

However, as supported by the statistics presented above, entering and functioning in a 3-D virtual world can be quite daunting. Nevertheless, there are compelling reasons why people with disabilities would want to participate in a virtual world. For example, SL offers residents with disabilities the opportunity to participate in fantasy play, learn a new skill, socialize, and make new friends. People with disabilities can do things in SL like everyone else can in real life and do not have to be socially isolated – readily finding peer support and information important to understanding their situations. In short, they can be part of a functional community.

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Virtual Ability Island is managed by Virtual Ability, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation based in Colorado. Its mission is to enable people with a wide range of disabilities to enter into virtual worlds like SL and provide them with a supportive environment once there. The group and its support community offers members information, encouragement, training, companionship, referrals to other online resources and groups, ways to contribute back to the community, and entertainment. Based largely on the tenets of adult-learning pioneer Malcolm Knowles, Virtual Ability Island offers specific functionality and design strategies so that adults with disabilities can learn both technical and social skills, feel comfortable and safe, and overall enjoy their entry into virtual world life.

The Target User Population A clear understanding of target users is a key component for developing optimal design for the Island. For example, Goh and colleagues identify several target user population characteristics to take into account when designing effective psychotherapeutic gaming interventions for children and adolescents (Goh et al., 2008). These characteristics include gender, culture, socioeconomic status, and genre of the game (Goh et al., 2008). In the case of Virtual Ability Island, it is assumed that the residents are male or female adults of varied socioeconomic status with either mental, emotional, or physical disabilities. Visitors to the island are not asked to reveal their disability status. In fact, approximately half of the Virtual Ability group in Second-Life® is made up of people without disabilities. The environment is the SecondLife® virtual world.

The Benefit of E-Empowerment, Support Groups and Community for Adults with Disabilities Substantial benefits appear available to people with disabilities who are empowered to participate in virtual technology. For example, Yalon-Chamovitz and Weiss (2008) examine the potential of using virtual reality (VR) game environments to provide leisure activities for young adults with considerable physical and intellectual disabilities. The authors observe that taking part in VR allows participants to experience control over their environment and success in activities that are usually inaccessible to them. The authors conclude that as a result of participation in a virtual environment, VR game participants with severe intellectual and physical disabilities could be attracted to more active and physically demanding leisure activities in real life.

Amichai-Hamburger, McKenna, and Tal (2008), suggest that for beneficial empowering processes to unfold, barriers must be broken, and posit that the Internet is a powerful avenue to achieve this goal, terming the ability of the Web to empower, “e-empowerment.”

According to the authors, e-empowerment comprises reframing identity, increasing selfefficacy and skills, social compensation, and high self-disclosure. Other benefits of online empowerment include stereotype use reduction, finding similar others, and group reinforcement (Amichai-Hamburger et al., 2008).

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Finally, Barak and colleagues summarize that support groups in general base themselves on the simple premise that people who share similar difficulties, misery, pain disease, condition, or distress may both understand one another better than those who do not and offer mutual emotional and pragmatic support (Barak, Boniel-Nissim, & Suler, 2008). The authors list the psychological impact of writing, expression of and connecting to emotions, the impact of emotion and knowledge, effects of interpersonal relationships and social processes, and influence on decision-making and resulting action as other reasons for the success of online support groups (Barak et al.) .

Using Malcolm Knowles Theory of Andragogy as a Way to Facilitate the Entry of Adults with Disabilities into a Virtual World “One of Knowles’ assumptions is that adults need to know why they are learning…. In K-12 we tell kids to learn this because it is in the curriculum or because they will need to know it at some unspecified later time. Adults won’t usually stand for that.”

–Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc. Malcolm Knowles was one of the first educators to recognize that adults have different learning styles and motivations than children. His tenet is that adults are more self-directed, seek relevance, leverage their experience, have an orientation toward current problems, and are internally motivated (Smith, 2002).

However, in 1995 when Knowles wrote one of his final missives, Designs for Adult Learning: Practical Resources, Exercises and Course Outlines from the Father of Adult Learning, he likely did not envision the new canvas of e-empowerment the Web would offer to his theories. At that time, the network-enabled distance education environment that would connect students and professors globally was just beginning. Yet his basic precepts of selfdirected adult education are the essence of collaborative virtual education.

Likely further yet from Knowles imagination at that time would be the emerging 3-D Web and the way this environment brings new possibilities to his basic concepts of selfmotivated adult learning. A comparison of how Knowles’ theory of adult education supports inherent features of virtual worlds offers some interesting parallels. Table 1 lists Knowles basic precepts of adult education with a conceptual perspective of how Virtual World Technology can help fulfill the theory.

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Table 1 Knowles’ Essential Concepts of Andragogy Compared with Features of Virtual Worlds Concept Virtual World Feature Self-concept: As a person matures, he moves • Being able to learn independently of an from looking to others for instructional instructor or mentor. guidance toward self-directed learning • Setting own pace for learning.

(Smith, 2002).

•Availability of asynchronous technology •Real-time feedback Experience: As a person matures, she • Comparing novel topics to be learned with accumulates life experiences to use as a “common knowledge.” learning resource (Smith, 2002).

• Environment that allows sharing acquired knowledge with others.

Readiness to learn: As a person matures, he • Seeing the use of learning a skill in its is ready to learn relevant skills and immediate application. knowledge oriented toward the •Motivation for increased skill level for use developmental tasks of his social roles in work or hobby.

(Smith, 2002).

• Choosing what to add to virtual-world inventory.

Orientation to learning. As a person • Viewing practice opportunities as problem matures, she becomes less interested in solving. acquiring knowledge for future use, and is • Immediate application of material to be more likely to learn in order to solve learned. problems (Smith, 2002).

Motivation to learn: As a person matures, • Entering voluntarily into a virtual world. he operates more from a sense of internal • Determining start/stop points. motivation rather than for external rewards • Checking own progress, and re-learning if (Smith, 2002). needed.

Clearly virtual worlds offer specific enabling technology that facilitates the implementation of Knowles’ concepts.

Interactive Design Considerations to Facilitate the Andragogical Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities As outlined above, e-empowerment constructs and the Knowles model suggest specific elements that could be useful in designing a platform to teach technical skills to adult virtual world residents with disabilities. Further, Goh and colleagues, in their review of psychotherapeutic gaming interventions for children and adolescents, offer several interactive design suggestions which could also facilitate an adult learning model for teaching virtual world technology to those with disabilities. The authors’ suggestions include:

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        

Considering mental and emotional states as well as cognitive and socioemotional development, Utilizing the senses, i.e., vision, hearing, and touch, Incorporating fine motor control and coordination, Incorporating a sense of control, Allowing opportunity for strategy development and the discovery of information, Encouraging repetition of an activity until it has been mastered, Designing for multiple levels or sub-goals allowing opportunity to achieve a sub-goal even when the ultimate goal is beyond the reach of a player, Offering a degree of realism, and Providing animated conversational agents or avatars for human touch, real-time feedback, and acknowledgment of actions (Goh et al., 2008).

These elements and other specific design strategies for constructing a space to teach people with disabilities how to use virtual world technology will be discussed further below.

Essential Elements of a Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities The above analysis provides a framework for exploring Virtual Ability Island based on the factors of e-empowerment, adherence to Knowles’ model of andragogy, and interactive design characteristics for psychotherapeutic gaming interventions as per Goh et al. (2008). These parameters as they manifest in Virtual Ability Island design are discussed below.

Design of Virtual Ability Island Virtual Ability Island leverages the motivation of its inhabitants, the Knowles model, and specific design strategies to optimize the user experience on Virtual Ability Island for adults with disabilities. These design elements are discussed below.

Overarching Design Metaphor – The Tropical Island “Speaking of metaphors … we tried several different design metaphors for the whole island.

We chose a tropical island because it allowed folks to practice all the skills we wanted to teach, but in a fun setting – dancing on the beach, catching dragonflies … that kind of thing.”

–Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc.

In their review of psychotherapeutic gaming interventions, Goh and colleagues (2008) offer some guidelines for visualization that include utilizing the senses, i.e., vision, hearing, and touch, and offering a degree of realism. While Virtual Ability Island does offers some degree of fantasy, the overall design metaphor is set in a tropical island, a place the target audience may have visited on vacation, seen in a movie, or dreamed of going to someday. Figure 1 is a snapshot of a mountain and waterfall on Virtual Ability Island. It is a “real” setting in a virtual world.

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Figure 1. The tropical natural setting of Virtual Ability Island in Second Life offers trainees a somewhat realistic experience in a digital environment as per the Goh and colleagues (2008) construct.

Copyright © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

This tropical island visual metaphor provides an environment where new residents can learn all the necessary skills for success within a stress free and supportive setting. These basic virtual world skills include moving, communicating, obtaining and managing an inventory of belongings, navigating throughout the island and the world, and creating a personal identity.

Within Virtual Ability Island, these basic skills metaphorically translate into activities such as dancing under paper lanterns, catching dragonflies, picnicking, wearing tourist clothes, chatting with Bob the intelligent monkey, and taking photographs.

Usability for the Target Audience

“One bit of our training concerns a danger inherent in Mouselook. A quadriplegic isn’t going to be able to crawl under the desk and turn off the computer and turn it back on to reset the darn thing. So in our training we put up a warning about it. That’s something we’ve never seen elsewhere. We gave a tour to employees of Linden Lab, and they were surprised. They did not know about this issue. No one had pointed it out to them.”

–Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc.

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A variety of heuristics guide the overall usability for the target audience. For example, signs throughout Virtual Ability Island are slightly tilted and have a beige textured background in contrast to many other signs in SL that are flat vertical with white backgrounds or other colors.

The Virtual Ability Island sign approach was tested with visually impaired users to discover optimal design constructs. Figure 2 shows these carefully tested signs.

Figure 2. Background color and angle of the instructional signs throughout Virtual Ability Island were tested and designed with the target users in mind.

Copyright © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

Further, the New Resident Orientation Course on Virtual Ability Island teaches these skills linearly in approximately 1 hour, which is the fatigue limit for many in the target population. All of the functionality on Virtual Ability Island leverages the initial avatar default settings that a new user has when entering SL with the idea that users don’t yet understand how to change them, or why they should be changed.

One of Knowles’ tenets is internal motivation, which includes accepting responsibility for planning and evaluating one’s own learning experience. While the newcomer course is linear, builds on critical basic skills, and is intended to be completed in a single hour-long session, some people go through it one skill at a time, signing off between sessions. The course is designed modularly, with each acquired skill being practiced and reinforced in the next activity area. In this way, trainees can pace themselves according to how much content they can retain in one session and their own physical stamina. For example, some new residents in the target audience cannot sit upright at a computer for an entire hour.

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Further, many of the new residents with disabilities who enter SL use adaptive inputs on their computers, and it is difficult for them to easily reboot their machines to get out of a setting.

Therefore, there is training in the Virtual Ability skills session that teaches users how to avoid such problems. For example, Mouselook is the first person shooter viewpoint familiar to many gamers, where the screen perspective is as if it were coming from the user’s eyes and not through an avatar. Through common keyboarding errors, Mouselook mode can be entered unintentionally, whereupon the onscreen keyboard vanishes and therefore the user cannot hit escape (ESC). The Virtual Ability Island training session teaches new users to avoid this danger.

Although entering Mouselook – or the avoidance thereof – is an advanced skill, the designers of the Island leverage Knowles’ precept that adults learn when they see a real benefit to their lives and introduce this concept early in the beginning training session. Figure 3 shows the Mouselook warning sign. Overall, the focus of Virtual Ability Island focuses not only on which skills need to be taught, but also how, and when, they are taught.

Figure 3. Some advanced skills such as Mouselook are introduced early in the training, assuming a motivation by the user to avoid major issues.

Copyright © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

Andragogical Theories in the Design Strategy “For adults, more than for kids, motivation lies in their real lives. They learn for their job or their hobby or for self-improvement according to their own perceptions. Adults don’t usually learn to please the teacher per se.”

–Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities 12

Knowles felt that self-directed learning is evidenced by adults being proactive learners, entering into learning situations purposefully and with greater motivation than a child trudging into a classroom. Knowles saw self-direction in learning as a step-wise process, involving diagnosis of learning needs; identification of learning resources; choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies; and evaluating learning outcomes. This process is evident in the design of Virtual Ability Island.

The Virtual Ability Island design team spent months determining learning needs by observing and participating in newcomer training and touring other orientation facilities. They identified experts to help with particular elements of the design, including an assistive technology practitioner, a Mac (Apple computer) trainer, SL wheelchair users, and people with various kinds of visual impairments.

Andragogical theories are evident throughout the design of the overall Virtual Ability Island learning experience. For example, the order of the skills to be learned, the instructional strategies, and the opportunities to practice independently are designed for the adult learner.

Observers and helpers along the orientation trail can quickly evaluate a newcomer’s progress.

Are they wearing a logo T-shirt? Sporting a tourist hat? These identify visually the skill sets acquired by the learner.

E-empowerment and Motivation “I think folks come to Second Life® for many different reasons … some to do fantasy play, some to learn a new skill, some to socialize and make friends, and I think that people with disabilities have all those motivations. But the additional motivation is that we can actually DO those things in Second Life®, whereas many of us can’t in real life. In real life I can’t stand unaided, but in Second Life® I go dancing as often as I am invited.”

–Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc. Unlike real life, appearing to have a disability is a choice in SL. As discussed earlier, one of the key motivators for people with disabilities who choose to learn how to use the SL technology is the ability to virtually experience physical activities such as dancing, running, walking, and even flying. Accordingly, some SL residents with real-life disabilities create avatars that do not display these same physical characteristics and thereby explore the fantasy of not being bound to their real-life bodies, which might require wheelchairs, canes or other mobility aids.

Other residents come simply for the community or other personal reasons and equate their avatar to their real-life body image incorporating their mobility or other aids into their virtual persona. For example, many chair users consider the apparatus to be a part of them. These residents can acquire a free wheelchair or modify their avatar body in other ways to match their real-life selves. Figure 2 shows an avatar seated in a wheelchair. According to one Virtual Island Ability developer, one theory explaining this choice is that more people who have been with their disability from birth identify with the apparatus of their disability more than do those who acquired the impairment later in life.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities 13

Figure 4. Some new members choose to use wheelchairs and some do not.

Copyright Š 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

Examples of Teaching Some Skills through the Composite Construct: Learning to Move, Communicate, and Navigate

Skill Number One: Learning to Move and Catching Butterflies and Dragonflies

As illustrated below by Figure 5, newly created avatars who enter SL through Virtual Ability Island arrive standing on a boardwalk. Clearly visible, directly under their feet, is a large graphic of four arrow keys, labeled to indicate that they are used to make the avatar walk.

Although using these keys is intuitive to experienced gamers, not all newcomers to SL have any virtual world experience at all, so the initial instruction is very basic.

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Figure 5. Newcomers land on an arrow keys graphic. Walking is one of the first skills taught on Virtual Ability Island. © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

The first few instructional posters are clearly visible from the initial landing position.

New avatars arrive with a preset point-of-view, or camera position, and these posters are readily visible in newcomer default visual mode. However, the posters are spaced farther apart than in many SL newcomer training courses to encourage the use of the first skill, learning to walk.

Learning to walk is immediately employed to move from poster-to-poster down the first straight walkway on the training course. In educational terms, this is embedded practice.

Several suggested elements from Goh and colleagues’ (2008) design construct are included in this first skill encounter. Emotionally, successful navigation of this starting point is very important for the new SL resident in that it will likely dictate whether or not the resident will continue their skill attainment. Certainly the senses are utilized in that there is a very clear visualization to the arrows, the direction of the pathways, and the posters. Further, this first skill session clearly incorporates fine motor control and coordination. Given that the user can go in any direction they wish at this point and linger as long as they choose over any instructional poster, there is clearly an opportunity for strategy development and the discovery of information.

Further, the entry point to Virtual Ability Island is reminiscent of a path or entryway, which would be a realistic starting point.

From an andragogical perspective, many of Knowles’ tenets are employed as well.

Colorful geographic maps are used all along the orientation path to show learners their progress and what they will encounter next. Following Knowles, these progress charts are one of the many built-in consistent elements that link the novel experience of SL to the learner’s already existing personal knowledge.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities 15

Self direction and readiness to learn is implied by the initial entry into Virtual Ability Island. Overall, the challenge is up to the new resident to either learn the basic SL functionality and achieve the larger goals of e-empowerment and community – or give up. The new resident may hear about the Island through word of mouth, but ultimately the individual needs to take the initiative to enter SL and arrive at the Island. The entire learning experience on the Island is selfdirected – the new SL resident navigates the various learning modules at will and only calls for a live mentor when they feel it is necessary. The initial entry into the training also well illustrates Knowles’ concept of learning in order to solve problems.

The Island’s designers employ the activity of catching flying insects over a pond to practice another movement skill, positioning the viewpoint camera. This module teaches users to learn camera controls and access menu-driven commands to interact with objects and other avatars. Catching butterflies hovering in one spot over a pond provides a simple level of practice.

When new SL residents master that functionality, they move on to dragonflies – a harder challenge because they are smaller and flit quickly. In attempting to view the insects, new residents must not only use the viewpoint camera correctly, but may need to change the position their avatar is facing or walk to another position to get a better perspective.

This strategy, of course, follows the Goh and colleagues’ (2008) criteria to design for multiple levels or sub-goals –allowing frequent opportunity to achieve a sub-goal. Further, by equating this learning experience to something someone might do in real life – attempting to capture butterflies or dragonflies – the designers employ the Knowles concept of using a life experience as a learning resource. The adult student could begin to realize that other functionality within SL might have similar parallels.

Figure 6. Catching butterflies teaches visitors camera and menu skills. © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

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Skill Number Two: Communication with Bob the Talking Monkey and Secondability Mentors The array of communication tools training taught on Virtual Ability Island also supports the constructs of Goh et al. (2008) and Knowles. Because the learning environment is asynchronous and self-driven, the designers could not assure that other avatars would be around if trainees wanted to chat. Therefore, following the tropical theme, Bob the talking monkey was added to instruct newcomers how to chat using typed text. People learn to chat as Bob asks and answers questions. Bob, a chatbot, records what he hears and learns. Bob answers anything asked of him, can do math, can tell how many bananas he has eaten, and can even tell what his favorite book is (answer = Curious George). Bob also greets people and makes jokes. Visitors often tell Bob he is funny and he seems to enjoy hearing that. A sample of Bob’s chat with a visitor is presented below and Figure 7 shows a new avatar having a conversation with Bob. [22:49] Human: hi bob [22:49] Bob the Monkey: Hi there!

[22:49] Human: how are you?

[22:49] Bob the Monkey: Good, thanks!

[22:50] Human: how do you work?

[22:50] Bob the Monkey: Some people call my technology “Case-Based Reasoning” or CBR. [22:52] Human: what is case base reasoning?

[22:52] Bob the Monkey: Searching ... Searching ... Please stand by.

[22:57] Human: who made you?

[22:57] Bob the Monkey: I was created by Virtual Ability.

[22:59] Human: What is CBR ?

[22:59] Bob the Monkey: Cased-Based Reasoning is another name for “nearest-neighbor” classification. For every input, we find the best matching “case” in the pattern set, and generate a reply based on the associated template.

[23:02] Human: Do you learn from questions?

[23:02] Bob the Monkey: Yes, that is basically how I work.

[23:04] Human: How do you like the island?

[23:04] Bob the Monkey: I’m not sure if I like it. I like my creator.

[23:05] Human: Who is your creator ?

[23:05] Bob the Monkey: I was created by Virtual Ability.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities 17

Figure 7. A new avatar chatting with Bob, the Monkey (a chatbot). Bob allows trainees the opportunity to practice the chat functionality at their own discretion.

Copyright © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

The use of a Chatbot on Virtual Ability Island is a strategic functionality addition, which facilitates a self-directed learning environment and certainly fits the Goh et al. (2008) criteria for allowing trainees to develop their own strategy development and discover information. Bob follows the Knowles construct by allowing the user to see the chat functionality immediately and put it into action. Bob is also a perfect example of providing animated conversational agents or avatars for human touch, real-time feedback, and acknowledgment of actions.

SecondAbility Mentors – The Human Factor Virtual Ability Island also offers users a choice of learning modes. For example, at the end of the course, there is a way for the newcomer to “call” a real person to come talk to them.

Those people are called SecondAbility Mentors, and they have special training in working with people with disabilities and access to a database of SL resources that might be particularly applicable.

Although the instruction on the orientation course is intended to be accomplished independently, there are two reasons for newcomers to meet other avatars. One is that, unlike some online games, every character in SL represents a real person. No computer-generated bots exist to outwit. Interacting with real people in a social environment, even if it is virtual, involves real feelings and emotions. This is important for new residents to realize from the beginning.

Equally important, new residents must understand that in a social setting, such as the communities of SL, most learning comes through interaction with other people. Therefore, there 17

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities 18

are places on Virtual Ability Island where a newcomer can call a real person to come and converse with them. Figure 8 shows the bell a learner can ring to summon a live assistant.

SecondAbility Mentors have specific training in working with newcomers who have disabilities, and can access a database of SL resources appropriate for this population, including numerous peer support groups. SecondAbility Mentors also reinforce SL communication skills with a human-driven avatar.

Figure 8. If they choose to do so, trainees on Virtual Ability Island can use a bell to summon a SecondAbility Mentor for help. SecondAbility Mentors also teach communication skills with a human-driven avatar. Copyright © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

Skill Number Three: Learning to Navigate throughout the Virtual World by Flying “Before we had this course, we taught people individually and out in the open on our property.

When we told them how to fly, they would fly away without adequate controls, and then be lost and not know how to get back. And we couldn’t find them to help them. We thought at first we should teach them to fly in a cage … but that just plain felt wrong…. Too many of us with disabilities have been in cages of some sort … casts … MRI machines … not experiences we appreciate.”

–Alice Krueger, Virtual Ability, Inc. An ongoing theme of the Knowles concept seems to echo the dignity of the adult. Adults learn when they recognize they have an educational need. This suggests the development of an environment where adults can feel free to experiment and try new things that are needed to succeed, but might be difficult or even daunting. This design characteristic might be even more important when one adds in consideration for people with disabilities to risk learning a new 18

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- A Composite Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities 19

technical skill that does not equate directly to their real lives. Clearly, learning to fly can be traumatic for new learners, who lack adequate controls over the process. They often fly away, get lost, and do not know how to get back – causing fear and frustration.

Flight training on Virtual Ability Island takes place inside a butterfly pavilion. This is a safe area enclosed by glass and hanging vines. The learner can practice flying up, down, forward, and backward without any danger of becoming lost. Figure 9 shows an avatar flying inside the butterfly pavilion. Although the environment is controlled, the design metaphor uses a butterfly pavilion theme to maintain a sense of safety and dignity for new trainees, while still maintaining control of their learning.

Figure 9. Flight training design allows the adult user with disabilities to practice in a safe environment and avoid flying away and getting lost. Although the environment is controlled, the design metaphor uses a butterfly pavilion theme that maintains a sense of safety and dignity for the new trainee, while still maintaining control. Copyright © 2009 Virtual Ability, Inc.

Teaching Accessibility to People without Disabilities Another aspect to the andragogical element of Second Ability Island is that it provides an example of accessible design criteria. For example, the Island features two types of training facilities – two cabanas that seat about 20 and a large auditorium that seats over 70 – both fully accessible to virtual wheelchair users. Also to accommodate wheelchair users, ramps of an appropriate angle and width are provided. The foot space in front of the seats in the virtual facilities is also wide enough so that a chair can pass in front of people who are already seated without crushing their toes. No need exists to segregate wheelchair users in the back of the

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meeting space as sometimes occurs in real-life facilities. Other builders in SL sometimes come by and ask how to retrofit their existing builds to make them more accessible.

Further, both facilities have large AV screens to help the visually impaired see training slides. All training presentations are transcribed and are simultaneously available in audio (for blind, dyslexic, or similarly challenged users) and text (for deaf and hearing impaired users).

Opportunities for Further Research Several additional interesting opportunities for research are suggested by this exploration of an adult learning model for virtual world residents with disabilities. These include:    



What is the retention rate of SL residents after completing Virtual Ability Island training?

How do the types of disabilities represented within SL compare with the incidence rates in the general population? If it is different, how might that be explained?

What technologies allow people with disabilities to access virtual worlds? How can access be made simpler, more reliable, and more effective?

What activities within SL do people with disabilities participate in? How does this compare with the participation of people without disabilities? If different, how might that be explained?

How does virtual world technology, per se, improve e-empowerment and self-efficacy through community beyond 2-D support websites?

Summary

Virtual Ability Island in SL offers a chance for adults with disabilities to learn the functionality necessary to enter a virtual world. Benefits to successful trainees include selfefficacy and the opportunity to experience the community and e-empowerment available through virtual world participation. By exploring motivation, andragogical precepts of Malcolm Knowles and the design construct suggestions of Goh and colleagues (2008), a composite adult learning model for virtual world residents with disabilities has been presented in this paper. The design of Virtual Ability Island also metaphorically teaches accessibility to designers of other virtual and real life places.

Finally, those of us without disabilities currently are sometimes referred to as the not yet disabled (NYD) under the assumption that many people will eventually develop some type of disability. As the population ages, more people will be faced with impairments, and virtual world functionality such as that found on Virtual Ability Island will likely have an even more profound impact in the future.

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Bibliography Amichai-Hamburger, Y., McKenna, K., & Tal, S. (2008). E-empowerment: Empowerment by the Internet. Computers in Human Behavior, 1776-1789, Elsevier, vol.24, issue 5.

Barak, A. (2007). Emotional support and suicide prevention through the Internet. A field project report. Computers in Human Behavior, 971-984, Elsevier, vol. 23, issue 3.

Barak, A., Boniel-Nissim, M., & Suler, J. (2008). Fostering empowerment in online support groups. Computers in Human Behavior, 1867-1883, Elsevier, vol.24, issue 5.

DeFanti, T., Dawe, G., Sandin, D., Schulze, J., Otto, P., Girado, J., et al. (2009). The StarCAVE, a third-generation CAVE and virtual reality OptIPortal. Future Generation in Computer Systems, 169-178,25.

Fetscherin, M., & Lattemann, C. (2007). User Acceptance of Virtual Worlds: An explorative study about Second Life. Retrieved March 26, 2009 from http://www.fetscherin.com/UserAcceptanceVirtualWorlds.htm.

Fornells-Ambrojo, M., Barker, C., Swapp, D., Slatrer, M., Antley, A., & Freeman, D. (2008).

Virtual Reality and persecutory delusions: Safety and feasibility. Schizophrenia Research, 228-236 ,104.

Goh, D., Ang, R., & Tan, H. (2008). Strategies for designing effective psychotherapeutic gaming interventions for children and adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 2217-2235, Elsevier, vol.24, issue 5..

Groenewegen, S., Heinz, S., Bernd, F., & Huckauf, A. (2008). Virtual world interfaces for special needs education based on props on a board. Computers & Graphics, 589-596, 32.

Reuters, E. (2007). Rosedale: Second Life economy probably more than just sex. Retrieved March 26, 2009 from http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/05/17/rosedale-second-lifeeconomy-probably-more-than-just-sex/.

Smith, M. K. (2002). Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy, The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Retrieved January 15, 2009, from www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm.

Virtual Ability Website. Retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www.virtualability.org.

Yalon-Chamovitz, S. & Weiss, P. (2008). Virtual reality as a leisure activity for young adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Research in Development Disabilities, 273-287, 29.

Wagner, M. (2008, Jan. 25). Linden Lab Working to Beef Up Second Life Stability, Usability.

Information Week, 2. Retrieved March 26, 2009 from http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20591 8468&pgno=2.

Weikle, B. (1995). Riding the perfect wave: Putting virtual reality to work with disabilities.

Retrieved February 2, 2009, from http://www.connsensebulletin.com/weikle.html Zielke, M. (2007). A Presumption of reality: Exploring virtual behaviour as a predictive mechanism for real-life outcomes. Proceedings of Learning with Games Conference, Sophia Antipolis, France.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worldsâ&#x20AC;?

April 2009

Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning in Computer Science Programming

By Micaela Esteves, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal; Benjamim Fonseca, Leonel Morgado, Paulo Martins ,University of TrĂĄs-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal.

Abstract A large number of students fail when beginning the study of computer programming, and withdraw from courses because of the many difficulties they face while trying to grasp the basic concepts. Programming education is typically based on putting problem-solving skills to use, by identifying a problem, developing an algorithm to tackle it, and coding that algorithm with some programming language, whose syntax and semantics must be learned. Extant research has highlighted the challenges associated with learning/teaching a programming language. However, researchers are still struggling to provide effective guidance to practitioners in this field. We believe that a better understanding of the teaching/learning process in the virtual world Second Life is a potential avenue for using this environment in classes.

In this experimental research, we observed and reflected upon the problems that came up and then presented and discussed the results. We conclude with implications for future research and for practicing teachers.

Keywords: action research; project-based learning; collaborative virtual environments; learning programming; context.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning 4

Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning in Computer Science Programming

By Micaela Esteves, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal; Benjamim Fonseca, Leonel Morgado, Paulo Martins ,University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal.

The emergence of new technologies, such as 3D virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life and Active World), brings new opportunities for teaching and learning. In addition, these virtual worlds reinforce the wider strategic drive in education towards more personalized learning tailored to the individual learner’s needs (de Freitas & Yapp, 2005; West-Burnham, 2005) and greater learner autonomy (Field, 2007).

This paper outlines a novel approach for teaching and learning a computer programming language. It uses the specific context of Second Life (SL), which is a 3-dimensional online virtual world, in computer science (CS) undergraduate courses. To teach the introductory computer programming course, our approach replaces the traditional language and development environments by the SL environment. We did it using SL’s internal scripting language, Linden Scripting Language (LSL), as a way to research if SL could be used as a platform for teaching/learning a programming language. We wanted to perceive and learn how this process of teaching and learning occurs within SL. Therefore, some questions came to mind: What are the problems for both teachers and students in using SL? Can these problems be solved and how?

With this acquired knowledge, it is possible to do a subsequent qualitative and quantitative investigation in order to determine the following: 

If SL really does improve students’ comprehension of basic programming concepts;



Understand if the effects of some SL elements, such as the visual behaviour of the objects, improves the students’ performance and comprehension;



Understand if there are advantages in this methodology in relation to others.

This approach emerges from our concern about the difficulties that novice students face when they begin to study a programming language, a fact that has been well documented in the literature (Gray, Goldberg, & Byrnes, 1993; Jenkins, 2002; Esteves & Mendes, 2004), and we as computer science teachers have observed it in our students’ everyday classes. As the SL environment is similar to the games that students play daily, we intend to improve the teaching/learning programming language and change the students’ thoughts about programming.

With these objectives in mind, we employed an action research methodology to analyse the teaching and learning process within Second Life. This research was developed around the last 2.5 years, and the results are presented and discussed in this paper.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning 5

This paper is organized as follows: The following section establishes the background on the phenomenon of interest â&#x20AC;&#x201C; using Second Life for teaching/learning computer programming language. We follow with the methodology and design of the study. Then, the results are presented and discussed. The paper concludes with suggestions for using SL and future research.

Related work and motivation Learning how to program a computer is a difficult task. To program a computer, students must have a good knowledge of problem-solving skills, know the programming language syntax and semantics, as well as be able to understand existing code (Linn & Clancy, 1992). At a higher level, in order to program it is also necessary to be able analyse a problem, conceive a solution, express it in a computer language code, and be able to test it for errors and correct them.

Sloane & Linn (1988) declared that programming is not just a single skill but a hierarchy of skills and that the programmer will need many of them throughout her/his career. For Dijkstra (1989), learning to program is a slow and gradual process that requires a study based on practice, and is quite different from most of its supporting disciplines (which are based more on theory), involving a great deal of reading and memorization.

Many students experience difficulties when they begin studying programming. This results in high levels of failure in introductory programming courses, typically taught in the beginning of computer science studies. In the literature, several studies can be found concerning the causes of these failures (Milne & Rowe, 2002; Gomes, Areias, Henriques, & Mendes, 2008).

One of the asserted causes is the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; difficulty in knowing how to design a solution to a problem, subdivide it into simpler codeable subcomponents, and conceive hypothetical error situations for testing and finding mistakes.

Another factor is lack of motivation: Students often claim they do not like programming because they experience difficulties in understanding even the most basic concepts (Lahtinen, Mutka, & Jarvinen, 2005; Miliszewska & Tan, 2007), such as variables, data types, or memory addresses, since these abstract concepts do not have direct analogies in real life (Lahtinen et al.; Miliszewska & Tan). However, the greatest difficulty students face is not only the understanding of basic concepts, but also realizing how to apply them correctly in more complex constructs.

Although some of them comprehend the syntax and semantics of a programming language, they do not know how to use it correctly to create a program (Winslow, 1996; Lahtinen et al.). It is important to integrate within the learning process the knowledge of concepts and strategies to use for solving a problem.

Students who attend programming lectures in computer science programmes have different experience levels: Some may have had previous contact with one or more programming languages, while others may be contacting it for the first time (Milne & Rowe, 2002). This discrepancy in studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; knowledge renders the teaching process more complex for traditional teaching approaches because classes are diverse in skill levels.

The most currently used teaching methods in programming classes are based on static materials to explain dynamic concepts with an over focus on language syntax (Sloane & Linn, 1988; Linn & Clancy, 1992; Lahtinen et al., 2005; Schulte & Bennedsen, 2006; Esteves, 2008 a).

Possibly due to this, students often learn programming as being a traditional theoretical subject,

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning 6

like history, based on reading rather than practicing. Therefore, they feel discouraged and do not get involved in learning, since they do not understand the concepts or achieve positive results in evaluations (Almeida et al., 2002). As Lethbridge (2007) noted, “In no other discipline is the gulf between best practice and typical practice so wide.”

In addition to these difficulties, programming classes typically employ the most professional programming languages: C, C++, C#, and Java, which have extensive and complex syntaxes, rendering learning difficult for beginners (Motil & Epstein, 2000; Jenkins, 2002).

Furthermore, certain issues require a higher degree of abstraction: Jenkins argues that the purpose of teaching programming is teaching students how to program and not teaching them a programming language. He also notes that the language used to teach should be one that was developed for the purpose of the LOGO language. The environment commonly used to teach programming is too complex, and better adapted to professionals and not for teaching (Gomes et al., 2007).

Since the 70s, the scientific community has studied and developed software with the purpose of helping students overcome these difficulties (Sloane & Linn, 1988). Despite this effort, the problems remain. Part of the problem is that computer programming has been introduced using programming languages that are difficult to use and with proposed activities that are not deeply connected to students’ interests and passions (Maloney, Peppler, Kafai, Resnick, & Rusk, 2008).

Recent technological developments have opened new opportunities for learning, especially the emergence of three-dimensional virtual worlds like Second Life, which is a world with a powerful visual impact that allows people to freely program behaviours into objects. As Papert (1980) noted, “A programming language is like a natural, human language in that it favours certain metaphors, images, and ways of thinking.”

Making an abstract representation (mental model) into a more concrete one (external model) that facilitates problems solving has been demonstrated (Beveridge & Parkins, 1987). For example, Noyes and Garland’s (2003) study of the Tower of Hanoi demonstrated that the use of an external, computer-based representation was beneficial to certain aspects of problem-solving performance in novices. Williams and Noyes (2007) concluded that computer-based representation has the potential to play a vital role in the development of problem-solving abilities, although it would be very appropriate at early stages of development.

Andries van Dam (2005) purports that visualization and visual tools in learning help students to better understand the concepts because physical, spatial, or visual representations are easier to retain and manipulate. Having an immediate display of the results of an action, students can find out at once if their idea is right or wrong. If it is wrong, they have to correct and rethink their solutions, and consequently this will stimulate their critical thinking (Kiili, 2006; Shneiderman, 1983). Using visualization techniques in the classroom can give students more options for exploring information – data, texts, or even virtual objects and spaces – and can help them gain a deeper understanding of concepts or better analyze conflicting or controversial information (Naps et al., 2003, Schweitzer & Brown, 2007; Amershi, Carenini, Conati, Mackworth, & Poole, 2008).

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning 7

Some research has shown that simple visualization is not enough to support successful learning (Naps et al., 2003; Hundhausen & Brown, 2008), since students may look at dynamic visualizations without understanding the context or deeper meaning. Visualizations have been shown to be more effective if they engage the learner, rather than let the viewer watch passively (Pierson & Rodger, 1998; Naps et al. 2003; Schweitzer & Brown, 2007). For example, in an algorithm visualization, students benefited from constructing and presenting their own visualizations not only because this exercise increased their motivation and level of interest in the algorithm, but also because it stimulated meaningful discussions about them (Hundhausen & Brown ).

Environments such as ALICE (Dann, 2000), JELIOT (Ben-Bassat Levy, 2003), BlueJ (KĂślling Quig, Patterson, & Rosenberg, 2003), and RAPTOR (Carlisle, Wilson, Humphries, & Hadfield, 2005) have been used to teach imperative programming in undergraduate introductory computer science courses. All these environments generate concrete visual representations of a program. However, ALICE is a 3D interactive graphics programming environment for Windows (Cooper, Dann, & Pausch, 2000). It is also an object oriented by writing simple scripts in which its users can control their objectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appearance and behaviour. The benefits of using it allows students to be involved and at the same time have the ability to develop an intuitive understanding of basic concepts in a visual feedback environment (Dann, Cooper, & Pausch, 2001).

In the literature review, collaborative programming has also been proposed as a way of improving studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; learning. Research supports that collaboration is an effective pedagogical feature for introductory programming, and that pair programming, in particular, is appropriate for learning how to program (Guzdial et al., 1996; Menchaca, Balladares, Quintero, & Carreto, 2005).

Collaborative environments can offer important support to students in their activities for learning programming. According to Newman et al. (1989), collaboration in problem solving provides not only an appropriate activity but also promotes reflection, a mechanism that enhances the learning process. Students that work in groups need to communicate, argue, and give opinions to the other group members, encouraging the kind of reflection that leads to learning.

Although 3D virtual worlds are relatively new, they have already been used as pedagogical media (Dickey, 2003). Constructivist and constructionist learning approaches, in particular, may recognise the potential in these environments because they provide for educators an accessible means of creating a rich and compelling 3D context for situating learning and communicative tools to support discourse and collaboration.

These results influenced some of the opinions we had when we considered the use of the 3D virtual world SL as an environment for teaching/learning a programming language. Before we proposed utilization of SL to our students and colleagues, we felt the need to do a study with the aim of exploring the viability of this environment. In the next section, we will present the research that we developed.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning 8

Research methodology The aim of this study is to determine whether SL can be used as a platform for teaching/learning imperative programming language and in what way. For that reason, we employed the action research methodology, since it is best for research interactive processes: It allows the study of a dynamic problem by introducing controlled changes, and is frequently used in the research of teaching processes (Lewun, 1946; Zuber-Skerritt, 2000).

The action research methodology is a cyclical process that incorporates four steps: planning, action, observation, and reflection upon the results. Planning defines how the process under research will take place, and the observation and context variables; action is the development of the process itself, and concurrently the researcher records the observation data; the observation results are reflected upon, and variables or context are changed according to that result. This completes one cycle of the action research process, and feeds a new phase of planning to initiate the next cycle. When there is not enough research literature on the field of study, as is the case with the use of multi-user virtual worlds to teach programming, it is necessary, before the first research cycle, to make a pre-exploratory experience in order to identify the basic problems and feed the first planning (Lessard-hébert, 1994). The research process is never completed, but a plateau is reached when the reflection at the end of a cycle deems that the amount of collected knowledge on the process is significant (Zuber-Skerritt, 2000).

Research questions The long-term research question is “Does SL present conditions to be used as a platform for teaching and learning an imperative computer programming language?” Beyond the basic technical analysis, this question can be formulated in a different way: “What are the problems for both teachers and students in using SL? Can these problems be solved and how?”

To answer these questions, we examined two dimensions of this project – the learning experiences of the students and the teaching experiences of online teachers.

The pre-exploratory research took place during the second semester of the academic year 2006/2007, the first and second cycles of the action research during the first semester of the year 2007/2008, and the third and fourth cycles in the second semester of the same year (2007/2008).

This report presents in detail the data collected from the third and fourth cycles, and focuses on the analysis and discussion of the final results obtained through this research. It then briefly describes the previous cycles, which are derived from a study of using SL during 2 years.

Data collection We used several data sources to facilitate triangulation and reduce bias in our analysis.

The data collected for the reflection step was based on daily session reports made by the teacher-researcher; classroom images that helped the teacher to remember the important key points; questionnaires with open-ended questions, at the beginning, middle, and end of the process, concerning the learning/teaching methods and the students’ opinions about the project

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they had developed and in learning in this environment. This entire source of information provided us further information on this learning process and the students’ motivation. The primary source of data was the communication between teacher-researcher and students, which was recorded and saved for each session as an essential tool to help the teacher to remember the context of students’ uncertainty and opinions.

Participants Our participants were computer science students from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), in Vila Real, Portugal, and from the Higher School of Technology and Management (ESTG – Portuguese-language acronym) of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal. These students took part in the research process, while developing elective alternative assignments on the following compulsory subjects: Laboratório de Informática I of the 1st curricular year (Lab I); Laboratório de Informática II (Lab II) and III (Lab III) of the 2 nd curricular year (at UTAD); and Projecto I (at ESTG). In all cases, these subjects had as the main goal to allow students to develop a semester-long project in order to improve their programming skills. Other students of the same subjects were developing assignments using other programming languages and environments. In both cases, there were no prescribed lectures.

We had three different types of students: a group of beginners (Group A); a group with some knowledge of programming (Groups B1 and B2); and one other with experience in programming (Group C).

The students from Group A, at UTAD, were enrolled in the 2nd semester of the 1st curriculum year. Although they were at the initial stage of learning how to program, they had been exposed in the previous semester to its introductory aspects in about 30% of two subjects (see Table I). The project made in SL was the students’ first contact with a programming project (not just a class exercise).

In Groups B1 and B2, the students were more advanced in learning how to program: Some were at the UTAD, where they were enrolled in the 2nd year, 1st semester; they had already studied introductory aspects of the C programming language in the previous semester and developed a command-line project in C, and while participating in this research, they were also taking a course on object-oriented programming in C++. Others were at the ESTG, where they were enrolled in a post-secondary technical course (CET) and had previously studied C programming (see Table I). In both cases, the project developed in SL was their first programming project (i.e., not just a class exercise).

In Group C, the students were from UTAD, enrolled in the 2 nd year, 2nd semester, and thus at a more advanced stage of learning how to program: they had completed courses in C and C++ programming, and developed a command-line project in C++ (see Table I). Although these students still required the teacher’s support, they had some autonomy in using and studying programming.

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Table I No. of students experienced in programming languages.

Group

Curriculum year

Number of students

A

1st

5

B1

nd

B2 C D

2

Post-secondary 2

Prog. Languages already studied

Prog. Languages being studied

School

C

UTAD

10

C

C++

UTAD

6

C

None

ESTG

nd

4

C, C++

C#

UTAD

st

9

C

UTAD

1

In this study, 5 students from Group A and 4 from Group C, both from UTAD, participated in the exploratory research. In the first and second action-research cycles, the students were only of Group B (10 students from UTAD and 6 from ESTG). In the third and fourth cycles, there were 9 students from Group D. Materials and tasks All the participants worked with Pentium IV computers running the Windows XP operating system, with 1 GB of RAM and somewhat limited bandwidth. We proposed a project for students to develop, i.e., we specified what kind of objects should be devised, including features and behaviour, and students had to construct their objects following the specifications.

The teacher had the challenge of presenting the students with a project that would trigger their learning process, by defining a problem that was adapted to their knowledge level. The project presented to students in the pre-exploratory experience (and also in the third and fourth cycles) had tremendous visual impact. The students had to build an object, like a dog or a robot (in the later cycles: a car and a motor-racing track), and develop a program with the aim of simulating the behaviour that each object had to execute. Thus, the students got immediate feedback regarding the correctness of their program by simply looking at the behaviour of the object. For example, the robot should follow its owner’s orders.

So, for the first research cycle, we decided that one of the variables to be analysed would be the students’ reaction when the project did not take advantage of visual feedback. Therefore, this cycle had two parallel tracks: one similar to the pre-exploratory phase, with visual behaviours (Group B2), and another without visual behaviours (Group B1). The non-visual project consisted only of data manipulation: The students had to implement a pharmacy sale store in which they controlled the entrance/exit of medical drugs. The visual project involved the development of a dog. For the second cycle, we introduced a visual feedback component in the pharmacy project and a data manipulation task on the other, with the aim to observe the students’ behaviour in these different sequences: from abstract to visual and from visual to abstract.

Table II presents a summary of the projects developed in each cycle.

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Table II Groups of students that took part in the experience with projects developed.

Groups

Project

Pre-phase

1st cycle

2nd cycle

3rd cycle

4th cycle

A, C

B1, B2

B1, B2

D

D

Dog

Dog

Car

Car

Robot

Pharmacy store

Dog with data manipulation Pharmacy store with visual feedback

Programming environment The programming environment was SL itself, not any offline editor. SL is a persistent online 3D virtual world conceived by Philip Rosedale in 1991, and it has been publicly available since 2003 (Linden Research, 2007). It allows large numbers of users to connect, interact, and collaborate simultaneously in time and (virtual) space.

People are represented inside SL by an avatar and through it they can interact within the environment, including talking, walking, flying, and building.

Figure 1 shows a typical programming session during this research: We see 6 avatars on black rugs (students programming) and 2 teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; avatars.

Figure 1: Typical programming session.

SL programming is done with the scripting language LSL, which has C-style syntax and keywords. Three-dimensional objects created in SL can receive several scripts that are executed concurrently. Each script has its own state machine: Program flow is sequential but structured by triggering events and responding to them (through either environment interactions or programmatic components), in addition to common methods from imperative/procedural programming, such as procedures and flow-control primitives. The programmer defines the states of each state-machine and how/when to switch state. The languageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s programming

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libraries include functions for communication with external servers: sending and receiving email, XML-RPC, and HTTP requests and responses.

SL enables synchronous collaboration among students because the system permits two or more avatars to edit the same object and share the same code while programming it. Figure 2 presents two avatars editing the same object (a car): The left window shows the carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s content, which is a script that is opened by double-clicking. The script code (see Fig. 3) collects the name of all cars nearby and shows them to the ownerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s car (function listProdut).

Figure 2: Two avatars sharing an object.

Figure 3: The code they share.

Asynchronous collaboration is also supported because the SL world is a persistent one.

Students and teachers may access and leave in-world objects and messages to the other members (group and private messages are supported). When a user logs in all his/her messages are shown,

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and he/she can see all the objects left in this world by others (and edit them, if adequate permissions have been set).

SL enables two types of writing communication: a public and private channel. All the communication that occurs through the public channel can be seen by everyone who is around, whereas in the private channel the communication is just done between two people.

Procedure The project was presented to all the students in the first session; afterwards some students volunteered to participate in this research. From this point on, they formed groups of two elements and developed their projects inside SL, collaborating with each other. The teachers and students met in-world once a week, for about 2 hours, to keep track of students’ progress, exchange ideas, and make suggestions. Face-to-face meeting did not take place, because the teachers-researchers were in Leiria and the students in Vila Real, 270 km apart. Once a month, we met to talk about the project in Vila Real.

On all the occasions the students had some difficulty with the code they had implemented and shared that difficulty with the teacher, so that they could observe it together and at the same time find out what was wrong and then follow the teachers’ indications/instructions. In this way, the students could correct the code and continue working.

At the beginning of a lab session, the teacher explained the concepts that students had had doubts about and prompted them to find out the solution to their own problems.

Outcomes Along this journey, we had always two concerns in mind, the teacher (teaching process) and the students’ points of view (learning process).

Pre-exploratory and 1st cycle According to the teacher’s perspective, in the pre-exploratory cycle, it was necessary to improve several issues, namely, 

Communication amongst the participants – In this cycle, the public channel was used.

This made communication between the teacher and students complicated since all the messages appeared on the screen at the same time and consequently it was difficult to understand who was saying what;



The arrangement of the students’ avatars in the classroom – As the students were dispersed in the classroom, the teacher might lose the notion of the global class; and



Identify the students’ difficulties during the self-study outside the weekly guidance session – Outside the weekly guidance session, the students continued developing their work. For better guidance, it would be useful to have a mechanism that could inform the teacher, by email or another outside system, about what the students had done throughout the week, the difficulties they had experienced, and attempts to overcome them.

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In the following cycle, the first two issues, mentioned above, were partially resolved. 

From the students’ perspective, some difficulties were felt in using the SL interface. The ones who were in the beginning level of the study (Group A) encountered some obstacles in understanding the LSL semantics and dealing with the compilation errors. The other ones, Group C, considered the functions to use for implementing a kind of behaviour a hard task.



Students from both groups (A, C) liked to learn how to program inside SL. Some of them began to develop objects and programs for other SL residents.

During the first cycle, our concerns were to understand the reasons for the students’ difficulties and at the same time improve the teaching process itself. We decided to introduce a different type of project with the goal to observe if the students’ reaction to SL was the same as their previous colleagues. One project was programming motions and behaviours and the other a more traditional text data processing.

During this cycle of reflections, we concluded that those students who were only doing the project with data manipulation did not like it and were frustrated and stressed; they confirmed this when an inquiry was made. The other group of students showed opposite behaviour as they were engaged, motivated, and enjoyed themselves in developing the project (Esteves, 2008 a; Esteves et al., 2008 b).

2nd cycle plan Teacher – The teacher should write, inside the students’ code, a comment addressing the student’s uncertainty, especially concerning compilation and execution errors. For the communication and spatial arrangements of the students’ avatars, we maintained the same methodology used in the previous cycle.

Project – Some visual components were introduced in the pharmacy store project, with the aim to change the students’ behaviour and data manipulation in the other project.

The results of the 2nd cycle showed: The students’ perspective: Project – The alteration made in the project did not change the students’ behaviour from Group B1 (pharmacy store project). Group B2’s experience remained unchanged; they were motivated and engaged despite mentioning that this modification made the project more difficult. In spite of creating an algorithm in the beginning, the students showed some difficulties as far as understanding what they were supposed to do throughout the project.

Selecting adequate library functions for object control – The students showed some awkwardness in understanding what the predefined functions did. They constantly said, “I do not understand what this function does, and how can I use it?”

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SL interface – The uncertainty experienced in using the SL interface persisted. Some students mentioned that they had trouble understanding the teacher’s explanation, especially about the use of SL interface.

Compilation and execution errors – There was a decline in the repetition of the same mistakes.

The teacher’s perspective: Communication – The use of a private channel to address the students’ uncertainties worked well. The students said they appreciated this mode of communication because they felt they had a private teacher and could discuss their doubts without feeling embarrassed about lagging in relation to others.

Discovering the students’ difficulties during self-study – The students’ use of a note card to express their uncertainties when they were outside the weekly guidance session was ineffective. They preferred to send an email or a private message inside SL. The teacher spent many hours helping the students inside SL and outside the class. The students said they had all the support they needed from the teacher and that it would be hard for that to happen in a normal class. Though it was extra effort for the teacher, she recognized that it was helpful for the students: “Sometimes, students struggled with little things and a push might help them to overcome the difficulty.”

Reflection Although the students have already had contact with a C programming language, part of the B1 Group presented many problems understanding the basic concepts, namely, repetition of instructions – when to use them and how; function utilization – they did not know how to use the function definition, i.e., how to call a function; difficulty in structuring their thoughts because they did not understand what they were being asked to do. Thus, they did not correctly do the algorithm. One point to extol on was that these students did not recognise their own weaknesses.

They said, “I know the C language; I do not have difficulties in C.” However, they did not demonstrate that knowledge when they were developing the project. In relation to these difficulties, Winslow (1996) mentioned that novice programmers neglect strategies, are limited to the general knowledge of the subject and that knowledge is fragile. Fragile knowledge is described as something that the student knows but fails to use when necessary.

The project did not help the students, since it was only based on data manipulation, despite all the alterations made. The teacher could not overcome these difficulties associated with the deficiency the students had on the C language, and neither changed their opinion about programming.

The B2 Group’s project had visual impact; although they showed the same difficulties in language and in understanding the project, throughout the project development, they overcame part of their difficulties, had a pleasant time, and mainly changed their own opinions about learning a programming language.

One of our concerns as CS teachers is the superficial level of learning that novice students show and their difficulty in understanding the project (in developing the algorithm). In

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order to address this, we implemented a project based learning (PBL) methodology approach in the next cycle. Once within PBL, the problem acts as the catalyst that initiates the learning process (Duch, 2001). Furthermore, effective problems should engage the students’ interest and motivate them to probe for deeper understanding of the concepts being introduced (Duch).

After several interactions, we realized that the students’ main difficulty in relation to predefined functions was the English language. For this reason, we decided to translate the principal function, with an example of the application, to the Portuguese language for the next cycle.

Despite the fact that the class was online, few students experienced difficulty understanding the teacher’s explanation of the use of the SL interface. Hearing the instructions is easier than reading it, as the interface has many options.

In relation to compilation and execution errors, due to the fact the teacher wrote a comment in the students’ code every time they experienced difficulties helped them remember the solution to the problem and avoid repetition of the mistake.

According to the teacher’s perspective, the use of a private channel to address the students’ uncertainties is an important act, although it also increases the teacher’s work.

Moreover, a deep connection was created between the teacher and the pupil, and that is not easy to achieve in traditional classes. It was complicated for the teacher to manage all the students’ requests and comment on their codes at the same time (see Fig. 4). It is essential to find a way that the teacher can give an immediate response to the students during the lectures, so that the students do not have to wait so long for the teacher’s response to their questions.

Figure 4: The teacher’s work during the lessons.

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3rd cycle plan For teacher: The teacher should be present in the first class to explain the SL interface to avoid misunderstanding and recurrence of uncertainty about the SL itself.

To communicate, we used the same methodology; however, the teacher should have written a few sentences such as “wait a moment, I’m talking to your colleague …” or “there is not a semicolon at the end of the instruction …” to copy and paste every time it was necessary. In this way, we would have been able to see if the teacher’s work decreased.

Class: In the classroom, we maintained examples of objects using simple programs so that the students might consult the project developed by other students.

During this cycle, we decided to use the methodology project-based learning. The project was the starting point of the students’ learning process.

The students discussed the project among themselves and presented a report to their teacher 2 weeks after the project had begun. In this report, they explained what the problem was, the events presented, and how they thought it could be resolved, i.e., the algorithm. In the next session within SL, the students and teacher examined several solutions presented according to the problem, exposing the strengths and weaknesses of each solution during the phase of brainstorming.

The goal here was to make sure that they had gained a better, deeper, and more detailed understanding of the mechanisms or processes underlying the problem. Thus, the teacher challenged the students to clarify their own ideas, encouraging them to elaborate on the subject matter, questioning ideas, looking for inconsistencies, and considering alternatives. By doing so, the teacher helped the students organize their own knowledge, resolve their misconceptions, and discover that which is not so well understood. From this point, the students began to develop their project studying the language LSL, with the aim to solve the problem.

It was necessary to use the moodle as a repository of contents, such as the LSL functions and examples in the Portuguese language.

Another teacher followed the teacher research instructions and used them to teach in another class, and we considered this as the fourth cycle. Its goal was to compare the results.

Project: The project presented to the students must have visual feedback and data manipulation. In this way, the project consisted of developing a car with x litres of petrol. The car should always follow the motor-racing track, although its configuration could be changed any time. As the car moves, it consumes petrol. So, the car owner needs send it to the petrol station to refill, if not, when it stops, the owner is fined.

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The results of the 3rd and 4th cycles showed: The students’ perspective: Project – The students mentioned that they liked the project, although it was difficult because it had many components to interact with. During this cycle, we observed that the students were motivated and engaged in developing their projects, and the students confirmed this in the questionnaire.

Methodology – They liked the methodology used. It was the first time they had discussed the solution presented for the project within group. They said “I like it and it helps me to see the mistakes of my solution before I implement it,” and “It helps me to understand the project better and think about the problems that I could not see before.”

Selecting adequate library functions for object control – There was an improvement in understanding LSL function from the students and how to use it.

SL interface – As the project developed, students’ uncertainties disappeared.

Compilation and execution errors – The same result as that in the previous cycle was obtained.

The teacher’s perspective: Communication – The use of pre-defined phrases helped avoid stress during the class.

During the brainstorm phase, the teacher missed having a blackboard, where the various solutions and their advantages/disadvantages could have been written. This difficulty was overcome with the teacher’s ability to copy and paste text of the solutions discussed when necessary.

Discovering the students’ difficulties during self study – The students did not use the doubts object, as their other colleagues preferred to send an email or wait for the class to discuss the project with their teacher and partners.

Reflection With the teacher’s presence in the first class to explain the SL interface, the students’ uncertainties disappeared as the project developed.

Utilization of the private channel to individually address the students’ uncertainties worked well. They had the same reaction as their colleagues.

The LSL function and examples in Portuguese helped students to better understand the LSL. As these students were at the beginning of their programming language studies, it was important to see their reactions to compilation and execution errors.



Compilation errors: The methodology used by the teacher, which involved writing a comment in the code explaining how and why the errors occurred, helped the students avoid and understand the mistakes.

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

Execution errors: Execution errors occurred when the object presented a behaviour different from the one the students had expected; for example, the car turned left when it should have turned right, they questioned why this happened and tried to resolve the problem themselves. They asked for the teacher’s help when they could not fix it. This comports with Williams’ (2007) belief regarding the role visualization plays in teaching, which is that computer-based representation has the potential to play a vital role in the development of problem solving abilities.

From the teacher’s point of view, the use of pre-defined phrases ready to be copied and pasted when needed helped avoid stress during the class. In this way, the teacher was able to give an immediate reply to the students.

The use of PBL methodology worked well, since the students understood the project objectives at the beginning and correctly structured their ideas. This avoided misconceptions along the project development, as it noted by O’Kelly (2005). During the brainstorm phase, the teacher missed having a blackboard where problems, students’ ideas or hypotheses, and questions about the project could be written, ensuring discussion. This problem was overcome by the teacher and students copying and saving the discussion. This written record helps the students keep track of their problem solving and provides a focus for reflection.

Discovering the students’ difficulties during self-study, this group, like their colleagues, preferred to send an email or wait for class to discuss the project with their teacher and partners.

Discussion In this study, we aimed to collect baseline data on teaching and learning to program in SL. Our main concern in this research was to formulate a framework for future SL usage as a platform for teaching/learning a programming language in a qualitative and quantitative way, in order to determine if students learn better here than in traditional environments.

According to the students, particular factors motivated them in choosing this way of learning. The majority mentioned that they wanted to try a new form of learning, although they had a bad experience in learning a programming language. Others wanted to try the program, once other colleagues had tried it and liked it. A few did not have a specific reason for choosing this way of learning.

Concerning the students’ process of learning, we can conclude that some important points should be taken into account. First, the type of project is very important, since in this environment everything moves and interacts with people, and it is not understandable to develop a project which does not use these environment characteristics. As Duch (2001) mentioned, effective problems should engage the students’ interest and motivate them to probe for deeper understanding of the concepts being introduced.

In this research, we verified that the use of a non-visual project is a mistake and results in a loss of time for both the students and teacher. The students who focused primarily on nonvisible techniques, such as data structures and string processing, benefit from the environment just for enhanced context and not as a source of feedback for programming behaviour, did not seem to exhibit any motivational advantage over students who employed a traditional console19

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life for Problem Based Learning 20

oriented (text-only) approach. The students did not learn and struggle themselves and did not understand why they had to do that kind of project inside an environment where everything moves, has colours, etc. The teacher spent her time trying to motivate the students, without results. At the end of the project, some of these students’ feelings about programming remained unchanged, i.e., they still did not like programming.

Those students (B2 group) who had a project with a visual behaviour, although they showed the same difficulties on language, they overcame part of them. They believed they had spent a pleasant time and changed their opinions about learning a programming language.

As Barret (2005) argues, learning demands both the fun of playing with ideas and the hardness of refining and reworking ideas, and both complementary parts are needed for learning.

The fun transpired to be what Papert (1996) termed “hard fun”; in that it is both challenging and interesting, and this implies “hard.”

The teacher often thought students understood her explanations, and a few minutes later she realized they had not. Utilization of the PBL avoids these problems, allocating more responsibility to the students. This could be observed in the last cycle.

Ten percent of the students were so enthusiastic about building that they avoided/forgot about the programming of the objects. Sometimes, the teacher saw that students were so enthusiastic in building but at the same time quiet as they did not put any doubts about the project. In these instances, the teacher must be vigilant in preventing this from occurring.

At the end of the project, the students commented that the principal drawback was the use of the programming language (LSL) used in SL rather than C. As in the other lectures they need C or C#, the study of LSL forces them to study another language that is not necessary during their course. This argumentation is not relevant as the objective of an introductory language, as this one, is to understand the concepts (variables, functions, lists, etc.), as noted by Jenkins (2002).

The teacher’s work was more intense and stressful than in a traditional class because she had to prepare her lessons in advance, writing out everything she wanted to teach. To do that, the teacher has to predict the students’ potential difficulties and the eventual questions that could arise. Thus, the teacher should be prepared the address these difficulties and questions in order to give rapid feedback the students.

The teacher also had to prepare the classes’ supplies and some visual materials (programming objects behaviour). During the class, the teacher helped the students with ongoing work and answered their questions.

Communication between the teacher and students, both in public or private channel, was informal. That is a “rule” inside SL. The teacher was seen by the students as a colleague, a member of the community with more knowledge, with whom they could talk to and discuss their uncertainties. An interesting fact occurred during the first cycle: The teacher inadvertently wrote her explanation to a student in Caps Lock, and after a few minutes the student complained “Are you angry with me? It is not my fault that I do not know how to do this!” This fact is clearly an example that in writing communication it is important to be careful to avoid misunderstanding.

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In sum, to use SL for teaching/learning a program language, the problem presented must have a strong visual impact, be interesting to the students, and be complex enough. The communication system should use the public channel to give general explanations to the students and the private channel to address their uncertainties. The use of PBL methodology is recommended.

Conclusions The aim of this study was to analyse whether SL presented conditions that could be used as a platform for teaching and learning a programming language. In this paper, we have presented the study performed and discussed the results.

We have concluded that using Second Life as a platform for teaching and learning a programming language could benefit novice students. However, it is necessary to be mindful of the type of project presented, i.e., it must meet the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interests.

We think SL is a very good way to introduce a programming language because the LSL is not as complex as C. Students develop projects they like and work inside an environment they appreciate. They are exposed to an international active programmer community, where their work can be recognized, and this is difficult to achieve in traditional classes.

As future work and research to be developed, we point out that it would be helpful and extremely relevant if the teacher could follow the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progress/efforts and help him/her in a more effective and direct way. To achieve this, it would be necessary to develop an automatic mechanism that follows the students within the SL world, answering their questions when the teacher is not present, while simultaneously recording this record and sending it back to the teacher.

Furthermore, this study adopts an optimistic view of the impact of the experience with virtual settings and related activities. We acknowledge that there may be negative effects if the experience is unpleasant, unrewarded, or under-developed. For instance, a negative experience may reduce an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s virtual self-efficacy, inhibit his/her performance, and limit his/her ability to transfer knowledge effectively in virtual work. Further exploration in this direction may be productive.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

3D virtual learning in counselor education: Using Second Life in counselor skill development

By Victoria L. Walker, Regent University

Abstract This article will present the process and the curricular and pedagogical lessons learned from adding a 3D virtual learning environment to an online course in a distance and hybrid education master’s degree program. Based on student surveys, course evaluations, and faculty interviews, the author will summarize attitudes and expectations from the varied stakeholders and offer practical recommendations on the design and delivery of an effective virtual world learning environment in an online course.

The author is involved in developing 3D virtual learning environments and integrating their use in graduate level counseling courses in traditional, blended, and online master’s programs. In the fall of 2007, the author began the process of incorporating the virtual world Second Life into an online counseling skills and techniques course in the Human Services Counseling Program at Regent University. The course objectives consisted of teaching graduate level students expertise such as clinical counseling skills and techniques.

One of the critical competencies, the student’s ability to demonstrate the basic counseling skills needed to be an effective counselor including attending, listening, empathy, warmth, and respect, was very difficult to teach and evaluate from a distance. In the past, program instructors have taught online and blended courses with the asynchronous learning environment Blackboard and the synchronous technologies, Skype and Instant Messenger.

With the use of new learning environments, such as 3D virtual learning environments, the author hoped to provide the instructors and students with an environment more conducive to developing effective counseling skills. The author implemented the virtual learning environment – a simulated counseling facility and tested the virtual counseling facility’s use as an innovative learning environment for simulation of student counseling sessions. This article will discuss the author’s personal experiences as well as the empirical research collected during this case study. Given the potential for significant growth in the use of virtual learning objects, this article should provide useful information for instructors and administrators considering virtual environments as a means of teaching practical skills at a distance in online programs.

Keywords: 3D virtual learning; online distance education; counselor education; research study.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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3D virtual learning in counselor education: Using Second Life in counselor skill development

By Victoria L. Walker, Regent University

During the past eleven years, the Human Services Counseling (HSC) Master’s program in the School of Psychology and Counseling at Regent University grew from a small traditional program to a stimulating and competitive, program offering students either a hybrid format or an online distance education format. Masters candidates in the program come from Virginia, other states across the nation and countries around the world. The online format is particularly popular with business and church leaders because the convenient “anytime, anywhere” course design has removed many of the constraints of traditional face-to-face courses.

Despite student satisfaction with program, HSC faculty and the School’s instructional designer were not satisfied with the opportunities provided to students for developing counseling skills, specifically noting a lack of realistic application of theory to practice. To alleviate this situation, the school developed a simulated counselor training facility in the 3D virtual environment Second Life.

This article will discuss the history and background of this pedagogical development. It was also present the process and curricular and pedagogical lessons learned from adding a 3D virtual learning environment to an online counseling skills course in the context of a Human Services Counseling Master’s degree program. Based on student surveys and faculty interviews, the author will summarize attitudes and expectations from the varied stakeholders, and offer practical recommendations on both the design and delivery of an effective virtual world learning environment in an online course.

Distance Education Distance education is not a new phenomenon; it has been around for well over 100 years.

However, with the invention of the Internet in the 1950s and the World Wide Web (WWW) in the early 1990s, a new form of distance education took shape: e-learning or online education.

Online learning through online courses or hybrid courses has enabled people around the world to have part or all of their educational experiences online. Today millions of students are taking courses using the capabilities of the Internet to complete assignments and communicate with their peers and instructors (Allen & Seaman, 2008, National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). For online human service and counseling programs, finding mediums that provide the best environments for completing counseling activities can be difficult, but choosing the right one can make a tremendous difference in student satisfaction and learning (Baggerly, 2002; McKeachie, 2006; Peters, 2003; Sherry, 1996).

Growth in Online Education Distance education dates back to the 1800s (Peters, 2003; Saba, 2003). With the introduction of the WWW in 1992, the doors opened to academic institutions to reach billions of people. The result has been remarkable growth in distance education during the past decade as 4

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higher education institutions have benefited by using this new medium to reach and educate the public. In 2003, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) published a survey on distance education, where it was estimated in the academic year 2000-2001 that there were approximately 3,077,000 enrollments in distance education courses offered by all 2-year and 4year postsecondary education institutions. This nearly doubled the number of students in distance education courses only three years earlier, in 1997-1998 (NCES, 2003; NCES, 1999).

Allen and Seaman (2008) wrote, “Online enrollments have continued to grow at rates far in excess of the total higher education student population, with the most recent data showing no signs of slowing” (p. 1). Allen and Seaman reported a 12.9% increase in students completing online courses in 2007 over the previous year, with 3.9 million students claiming in fall of 2007 that they were taking at least one online course—a significant increase when compared to the 1.2% increase in total student population growth for higher education in 2007.

Distance education is not at all like traditional learning (Wedemeyer, 1981). The instructors and learners are physically apart, and this requires teacher-student communications through alternative means, whether that is print or electronic. Different resources are needed to assist in educating the student. Further, faculty must assist in facilitating the learning process and students must become self-directed autonomous learners (Garrison, 2003; Moore, 1993). Moore (1983) wrote that distance is not geographical distance; it is also the psychological or "transactional distance" relationship between the instructor and the learner. Moore wrote that "there is now a distance between learner and teacher which is not merely geographic, but educational and psychological as well" (p. 155). Online distance education introduces the opportunity to use multiple new technologies and environments to educate students, and to assist in alleviating some of the psychological and educational barriers that exist in distance education.

With the development of new mediums for educating, it is important that universities develop new attitudes towards innovative technologies and media as these new digital medium may offer many pedagogical benefits (Peters, 2003). Media act as “carriers” as learning is not occurring in a specific geographical location (p. 87). Choosing the right media is imperative.

Peter said that "because each medium influences and changes the pedagogical structure, the question as to which carrier media to use for distance education is not only a practical or technical issue, but also a pedagogical issue" (p. 87). Technologies that enable the creation of virtual learning environments may offer a suitable and pedagogically useful medium for education.

Counselor Education Human service professionals (HSP) working as counselors, social workers, or in similar occupations all need effective communication and counseling skills referred to as “helping skills”. A primary goal for training persons in human service careers is developing effective helping skills (Duggan & Adcock, 2007). “Communication skills are so important for the HSP that the Council for Standards in Human Service Education (CSHSE) identifies effective communication strategies and skills as one of the 12 skill sets that entry- and mid-level human service workers use daily in their jobs”(Duggan & Adcock, p. 56). Human service educators are challenged to develop training that will provide students with opportunities to learn these skills and techniques in realistic environments. As students need to develop their skills, educators teaching online counselor education courses have the added dilemma of locating mediums and environments that will be conducive to learning and practicing these skills from a distance.

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However, the counselor education profession has been very cautious about adopting distance education and newer technologies in the instruction of counselors due to ethical considerations and other concerns (Duggan & Adcock, 2007; Granello, 2000; Matthews, 1999). Technology limitations caused some questions to be raised, while some experts feared using technologies may lead to privacy issues for the students and clients (Granello, 2000). Others felt the quality of counselor education was superior in a traditional classroom (Duggan & Adcock, 2007).

The use of computers in counseling and psychology professions has existed for decades (Granello, 2000). In the 1960s, computers began to be explored as a useful technology in the profession; however it was not until the 1980s that they were considered for counselor training.

Computers have been used for various professional and training activities including dilemma counseling, treating depression, and vocational guidance.

Counselor education programs have increased their use of technology recently (Berry, Srebalus, Cromer, & Tackas, 2003; Granello, 2000; McFadden & Jencius, 2000) with many educating students via online programs. In addition, various administrative counseling organizations and accrediting associations have developed guidelines to assist in using online technologies for counseling activities and educational purposes. The National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC), the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) have each developed ethical guidelines for using the web for counselor education and online counseling. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Despite this growth, programs that educate counselors, human service professionals, and social workers lag behind other professions in utilizing new technologies in online education programsâ&#x20AC;? (Karper & Casado-Kehoe, 2005).

Online Counselor Education With the increase in online counseling programs, there is an increasing in the need for technologies that can assist in training student counselors from a distance. Learning in online counselor courses typically includes instructor assigned readings and presentations, role-playing activities, peer and instructor feedback and student reflection (Baggerly, 2002; Kagan, 1973).

Several technologies have been adopted over the past few decades for training and supervising student counselors. Watson (2003) noted that email, chat rooms, and online video conferencing have each improved the counselor education process. However, what is also needed is access to an environment that enables students to meet, discuss, role-play, practice, complete activities, and which enables instructors to present didactic examples and to supervise students without interference.

Active learning strategies through role playing and group work practice are important, as they help to improve skills. Therefore, finding methods that enable such opportunities is important. Baggerly (2002) emphasized the need for the practice such of role-playing as it enhances active learning, arguing that "pedagogical principles in counselor education call for active learning strategies to engage students in the developmental and collaborative processes"(p.

1). Accomplishing such a task in a distance education course can be difficult as educators are limited to the currently-available technologies and mediums to produce environments in which such active learning can take place. 3D virtual environments can provide a suitable location for completing educational activities such as counseling skills practice, counselor supervision, and group activities that have proved difficult to produce in other environments.

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3D Virtual Learning Environments In the past two decades, a flourish of new innovative technologies and the World Wide Web provided the foundation for many of these tools. With so many new technologies, there has been a change in how we communicate, socialize, and educate. Course Management Systems, Learning Management Systems, instant messaging services, blogs, wikis, Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), video websites such as YouTube and Google Video, Twitter, Virtual 3-D Worlds such as Second Life, and many others in the dizzying array of social networking and communication technologies have entered the scene. Virtual environments, which are often referred to as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs) or Multiple-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs), are one technology that may offer many opportunities for educators and students to complete educational activities in simulated environments.

Course Management Systems (CMS) used by many colleges and universities offer suitable locations for posting course materials, interaction in asynchronous discussion boards, email, and chat rooms; however, these applications do not offer the benefits of a virtual environment (Kemp & Livingstone, 2006). Despite research that shows that richer multimedia presentations support learning of more in-depth topics, there is little use of multi-media in courses located in CMS (Kemp and Livingstone). Lecturers most commonly use CMS as document depositories, although instructors may use some of the other capabilities such as discussion boards or white boards. In addition, most CMS do not easily support using multimedia content.

Second Life, a virtual environment produced by Linden Labs, has captured the largest number of colleges and universities including notable institutions of higher education such as Cornell University, Harvard, Duke, Ohio State, University of California, Davis, and Berkley, Virginia Tech, and MIT. Harvard, for example, began offering a law course on Second Life in fall of 2006 (Foster, 2006). At this time, hundreds of institutions of higher education and individual educators are active in virtual learning environments including commercial environments such as Second Life and There.com, with some scholars studying things such as group behavior, economics, and video game development (Foster, 2005; Foster, 2007).

3D virtual environments such as Second Life offer counseling educators the opportunity to provide immersive simulated environments for their students to develop and practice their skills. More specifically, they offer an environment that will allow students to develop their skills by practicing and interacting with other students and their instructors in customized cybercounseling labs, as well as classrooms that simulate those environments in traditional education and commercial facilities. By using Second Life, instructors are able to create learning activities which emulate learning experiences that students may have otherwise only had by means of faceto-face interaction.

Virtual environments represent a new form of learning environment that can involve synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities in an environment that can provide a simulated learning situation, rather than simply replicating a traditional classroom. According to Peters (2003), when interacting with a virtual learning space, "what is 'real' is only the digital learning environment, with the monitor's screen as the interface" (p. 89). If that virtual space is created into a "stage" for pedagogical actions, it becomes â&#x20AC;&#x153;realâ&#x20AC;? for the learner (p. 89). Herz (2002) argues that these environments facilitate learning that goes beyond the technology.

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Counselor Education in 3D Virtual Environments There has been an underutilization of simulation and gaming technologies in counselor education and practice (Greenidge & Daire, 2005). While technologies such as email, discussion boards, chat rooms, VOIP, and video conferencing serve adequately for some learning applications, there are limitations in their capabilities to simulate “face to face” counseling scenarios in realistic environments, as well as settings in which the instructor can supervise without distracting them. In a virtual environment, students can practice counseling skills in simulated counseling labs as instructors observe from a different room or from behind a one-way mirror. Groups of students can meet, discuss, practice, and provide each other feedback—all while interacting in a simulated immersive environment. Despite the growth in the development of 3D virtual environments, simulation, and other gaming technologies, as well as growth in their adoption in other academic programs, they have been underutilized in counselor education (Greenidge & Daire, 2005).

Gaming technologies such as 3D virtual environments like Second Life create digital representations of the real world. For counselor educators and instructional designers, such technology enables them to create realistic counseling facilities, avatars or virtual beings that they can interact with. It also enables them to produce realistic distressed and mentally ill avatar clients, as well as environments that assist them in understanding their client's illnesses.

Ultimately, according to Greenidge & Daire (2005), "simulation and gaming technologies provide unlimited opportunities for the presentation of scenarios, clinical environments, multicultural populations, client demographics, and client disorders”(p. 1).

Counseling Skills and Techniques Course The Counseling Skills and Techniques course is one of two required counseling skills courses in the HSC program. Fulltime students enroll in this course during their first semester in their program. All courses in the HSC program are 7 weeks in length. The course is taught online using the Blackboard Course Management System. In the past, the instructor used the Blackboard chat feature for instant chatting and the asynchronous discussion board with small groups of students to practice counselor to client interviews. However, both the instructor and students found it frustrating when it was found that not everyone’s typing skills were up to standard. In 2006 the course instructor started using Skype for both its chat and speech capabilities. Skype provided audio and one-way video, a huge improvement over Blackboard chat capabilities; however, the activity still lacked a more “authentic” experience for students.

For example, the practice activities still lacked the visual element of a counselor training facility.

At Regent’s School of Psychology and Counseling, on-campus students have five counseling labs and a psychology clinic for practicing and skill development. The HSC counseling skills course lacked environments such as these for distance education students. The students read about counseling techniques in their textbooks, reviewed assigned articles and case scenarios, and watched videos representing best practice methods. Despite these tools, the instructor did not have a way to model to students the skills she taught outside of packaged video vignettes that came with student textbooks, and which did not always demonstrate what she wanted. The instructor felt that students needed to have her model the skills needed, and to provide immediate feedback to students when they practiced their skills in role-playing exercises. The current method of requiring students to review videos of counseling sessions and 8

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read textbook examples in order to promote their understanding of complex counseling procedures was not as successful for online students as it was for on-campus students. In addition, the instructor noted that student-submitted taped counseling sessions of their roleplaying practice exercises were not up to par with those of campus students who had the advantage of seeing role plays demonstrated with a professor’s instant feedback and critique.

Pilot Study This pilot study was designed as an attempt to provide human service educators with a viable method for assisting students in developing their counseling skills from a distance. The purpose of this research was to develop and test a 3D virtual counselor training facility designed to provide distance education counseling students with a simulated environment for practicing their counseling skills. A 3D virtual environment offers students an opportunity to practice their skill development activities and obtain feedback from their peers and instructor from a distance.

For counseling courses, said Delwiche (2006), “MMOs have instructional promise because they immerse students in complex communities of practice, because their immersive nature invites extended engagement with course material, and because they encourage roleplaying” (p. 162).

The Virtual Environment Second Life was chosen for several reasons. The most important benefit was the ability to develop a learning environment that would meet the specific needs of the instructors and students. Kemp and Livingstone (2006) concluded that "any all-purpose learning technology must meet the basic requirement of letting educators insert their own teaching materials" (p. 2).

When evaluating virtual environments, most are ruled out by this requirement. Only Second Life and Active Worlds offer ways to develop and present materials and create environments based on the needs of the creators rather than the company owning the system. The relatively low cost for the school to build and maintain the environment was a huge benefit. The free account for instructors and students was also big plus.

A simulated counseling facility was developed in the virtual environment Second Life. In addition, training materials were developed for the instructor and students. The instructor and students also received training and support with accessing and using the Second Life training facility. The counseling facility had three floors. The second floor housed five counseling labs.

Each counseling lab had two couches, tables, a lamp, an animated tissue box, other appropriate décor, and a one-way mirror.

Methodology The research question for this study was “Do students perceive the use of a 3D virtual environment for role-playing is an effective tool to use to develop their counseling skills?”

Prospective student participants were informed of the objectives of the study, and were asked to participate in the use of the virtual environment for their role playing activities. They were also asked to complete a survey regarding their experiences. Students who chose not to participate had the option to use Skype and other tools for completing practice activities.

Students were sent an introduction letter requesting participation and instructions for creating a Second Life account and logging into Second Life. In addition, a tutorial explaining 9

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basic movements and activities in Second Life was provided. Students were instructed to complete the Second life Orientation Island tutorial. Students were introduced to the counseling training facility in Second Life during the second week of the course. Students met with the instructor and instructional designer using Skype on one evening during the first week of the class, and they discussed the purpose of the research and posed questions about the Second life environment. During the second week of the course, the instructor asked students to sign up for a date and time to practice their role playing activities with a classmate for each of the course units.

Students who agreed to participate in the study completed an attitudinal survey and a nine question student perceived learning instrument. Survey items included demographic data, student perceived learning questions, and questions about student perceptions and experiences.

Results Students were willing to share their experiences and opinions about the use of the 3D virtual environment in their course. Males made up 66% of the class and ages ranged from early 20s to over 50. Almost half of the students considered themselves to be computer literate. Time for acquisition of a degree of comfort with the virtual environment was two to three weeks and this was consistent across computer literacy levels. On average students logged in three times per week. The majority of negative responses came from those who self-reported as very computer illiterate.

When reviewing learning outcomes, students who reported the most learning overall were also those who reported the highest degrees of affective learning. This lends additional support to the psychosocial aspects of virtual environments such as Second Life. The implication is that the Second Life experience impacted the relational aspects of the learning experience to a greater extent than the cognitive ones.

User perceptions of the Second Life experience were mixed. The perceived learning results indicated that students reported slightly more learning in this course than they would have had it been offered entirely face-to-face; however, this may have been the result of a few students having rated their learning as significantly higher, while the majority of students reported the same level of learning when compared to other technologies for practice, including Skype. This implies that the Second Life experiment did not detract from the overall learning.

Student responses confirm students want the increased opportunities for live, media-rich interaction afforded by Second Life in order to enhance their understanding and application of the course content, but that they do not want the technological or learning curve challenges to overwhelm the course content. Students reported a need for a visual component to model skills and a virtual world may assist in serving this need .

When asked “What was the most beneficial part of Second Life?”, one student stated that “actually seeing a counseling room and people when you were practicing your counseling techniques” was the most beneficial part, and another reported it as being “the virtual reality of a clinical setting”. When asked, “What value, if any, does Second Life add to this course instead of using Skype, Wimba, or another online conferencing tool?”, several students reported that they felt Second Life was beneficial while others felt that Skype or Wimba were good alternatives.

One student stated she found Second Life beneficial because she had the “visual aid of an avatar 10

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- 3D virtual learning in counselor education 11

in a clinical setting and could use the avatar for role-playing”. Another student stated the avatar added an additional dimension. When students were asked if they felt they learned more because Second Life was used in this course, most students responded that they did not. However, a few students felt it did not hurt their learning, and one student stated that “the ability to gesture, communicate, and to take on a character and also the stimulating clinical setting were very helpful and have great potential.”

Students were asked “What was the most difficult part of your Second Life experience?”.

Several reported that the most difficult part was technology issues, while several other students reported incompatible graphic cards, slow Internet connections, and sound card issues. One student stated that his “computer and the SL technology were not compatible,” and another student expressed difficulty with “running [Second Life] without it slowing my computer to a halt”. Despite computer issues for some students, they wanted to use the technology and sought ways to access the environment. One student needed to update her graphics card and a few others used another compatible computer, such as that of a friend or family member, to participate.

The instructor, an innovative and early adopter of new technologies, was eager to use the environment in her course. The instructor reported she found the virtual environment pedagogically useful and stated it offered much potential. Despite several technical issues students encountered while using the environment in the course, and other bumps in the road such as several Second Life system issues, the instructor was excited to use the environment in her next counseling skills course.

Implications There are many benefits for both educators and students using virtual environments for education. For educators, virtual environments offer an opportunity to create customized experiences for Online Distance Education students not available in any other online environment. Instructors can assist students, enable students to work with their peers, model correct procedures, provide immediate feedback for students, and encourage student ownership in the learning process. Once graduated, students will have the experience of using many new technologies. For counseling students, having such experiences will allow them to work in digital counseling facilities offering services to clients who may find it difficult to locate a counselor, or may be uncomfortable going to a traditional counseling facility. In addition, students will be keenly aware of the technologies that their clients are using.

For those interested in using a virtual environment for educational purposes there is much to be considered. Some advice is often helpful. Build your environment to meet the needs of the program or course that will use it. It is best to specify the specific assignments or activities for which the environment will be used. Make sure instructors and students are committed to using the environment and encourage flexibility when technical problems occur. The assistance of an instructional designer is very helpful, as this will enable the instructor to focus on teaching.

Having an in-house builder to create needed items, maintain environments, and provide assistance is most helpful. Academic institutions should consider purchasing an island and securing areas where learning activities are taking place to avoid problems with persons wandering into a class. Set up guidelines for students discussing expectations while in the school environment, and warn students about possible inappropriate content they may encounter in areas of Second Life meant for mature audiences. Syllabus and other course materials will need 11

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- 3D virtual learning in counselor education 12

to display university and course policies and expectations. Instructors should provide a link from their web-based course system or send student a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that will take them directly to the school's location in Second Life. Finally, there might be students who have problems accessing Second Life. This may occur if they have older or incompatible hardware or software. We recorded problems with students who used Vista, had a computer located too far from their wireless router, had an older computer, or needed to update their computer's graphic card or their graphic card driver. We encouraged students who had these problems to investigate the issue or used a relative's, friend's, or campus computer. Several students became much more computer literate during this course then they had been prior to starting the course.

Conclusion Virtual environments may offer counselor educators a solution to assisting students in developing effective counseling skills in online distance education courses. The ability to create a virtual environment that simulates a counseling lab, classroom, or other area of a traditional training facility provides educators and students with a tool they can use when developing and practicing their communication and counseling skills and techniques. There are still many questions about the use of virtual environments in education. Little research has been completed on the benefits of using the virtual environments in educational endeavors, and no substantial research has been completed proving academic benefits of using such technologies in education.

Further research is needed regarding using virtual environments in education. Due to the relative success of this experiment, the researcher will continue to explore using Second Life in the education of counseling students at other universities, as well as other counseling skill development, in order to validate and strengthen the argument that using 3D virtual environments in counselor education is a beneficial endeavor for both students and educators.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- 3D virtual learning in counselor education 13

Bibliography Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2008). Staying the course: Online education in the United States, 2008. The Sloan Consortium. Retrieved February 13, 2009, from http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/staying_course Association of Counselor Educators and Supervisors, Technology Interest Network. (1999).

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Dede, C. (1996, January). Emerging technologies and distributed learning. The American Journal of Distance Education, 10(2), 4-36. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/pdf/AJDE.PDF Delwiche, A. (2006). Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) in the new media classroom.

Educational Technology & Society, 9(3), 160-172. Retrieved July 16, 2007, from http://www.ifets.info/journals/9_3/14.pdf Duggan, M. H., & Adcock, A. B. (2007, Spring). Animated agents teaching helping skills in an online environment: A pilot study. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 6(1), 56-71.

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Karper, K, Robinson, E. H., & Casado-Kehoe, M. (2005, November). Computer assisted instruction and academic achievement in counselor education, Journal of Technology in Counseling, 4(1), Retrieved August 30, 2008 from http://jtc.colstate.edu/Vol4_1/Karper/Karper.htm Kemp, J., & Livingstone, D. (2006). Putting a Second Life "metaverse" skin on learning management systems. Retrieved August 7, 2007, from http://www.sloodle.com/whitepaper.pdf Kozma, R. B. (1994, June). Will media influence learning? Reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 7-19.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management

By Peggy Daniels Lee, Pennsylvania State University

Abstract This paper describes the use of Second Life to enhance the author’s delivery of the core MBA Operations Management course at a major northeastern university.

The purpose of the Second Life Project was to help students to attain the learning objectives for the course and to expose them to a Web 2.0 technology. The students wrote brief papers summarizing their research findings and presented their work inside of Second Life. Resident course delivery and in-world student work were augmented with in-world office hours, guest speakers and technical assistance provided by the instructor and the university’s instructional design staff. At the completion of each term, students were asked to complete a questionnaire that asked them whether the Second Life experience helped them to meet each course objective.

They were also asked their opinions regarding whether Second Life has a place in the MBA curriculum. My findings indicate that some of the learning goals were met and that although some students were not sure within which course Second Life should be included, the consensus was that virtual worlds are the wave of the future and should be included in the curriculum.

Keywords: Second Life; operations management; management education; virtual worlds.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 4

Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management

By Peggy Daniels Lee, Pennsylvania State University

Virtual worlds such as Second Life, Active Worlds, World of Warcraft, Entropia, HiPiHi, and THERE.com are the next frontier in communication, social networking, electronic commerce and education. Developed by their creators as multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) and Multiuser Virtual Environmens (MUVEs), these 3D virtual worlds have grown exponentially, creating many opportunities and challenges for educators, businesses, social scientists, policy makers, and the legal profession. Businesses use Second Life for collaborative activities such as virtual team meetings, employee training, product prototyping, customer support and sales activities. Educational institutions from Harvard and MIT to corporate universities have a presence in some virtual world, many of them in the Linden Labs-developed Second Life. There are approximately 300 educational institutions with some form of presence in Second Life (Jones, 2008). Educational institutions’ level of involvement varies greatly, from a group to a full island that includes a replica of all or a portion of the institution’s campus. Some institutions are only to be found in Second Life. For example, Rockville University is a Second Life-only university which has aspirations to provide research opportunities for educators as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees. The convergence of almost every media into one platform has been primarily responsible for this phenomenon. Educational institutions use Second Life to extend their resident course offerings into distance education, student course registration activities, and online library resources. The Gartner Group (Gartner, 2007) estimates that by 2011, 80% of internet users will be engaged in some form of virtual world technology.

Given this prediction, it behooves educators to spearhead this innovative learning experience and to prepare students for this “brave new world”.

What is Second Life?

Second Life, launched in 2003 by Linden Labs of San Francisco, California, is an online, virtual 3D multi-user environment that functions as a virtual world. It is an immersive social interaction environment. It is not a game in that the actions of its residents are not predetermined by a set of rules. All of the content of Second Life is created by its residents. According to Linden Labs (2009), there are approximately 16.9 million residents of Second Life who build community, create content, and own and operate businesses. Social interaction is one of the primary reasons why people create avatars (a real person’s virtual persona). Research suggests that avatars are extensions of their real counterparts and that people tend to treat their avatars as if they are in real social space (deNood & Attema, 2006). However, content creation is the fabric of Second Life. Everything that exists is there because a resident or a group of residents created it. Because residents own everything they create, they can market and sell those creations to other residents, creating a thriving economy and a rich environment within which instructors can teach business concepts and skills experientially.

Second Life has a vibrant economy with millions of Linden dollars exchanged between buyers and sellers of goods and services. Second Life has its own currency exchange (Lindex) which allows Second Life entrepreneurs to “cash out” their Linden dollars for U.S. dollars 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 5

(USD). Some Second Life entrepreneurs have become USD millionaires with their virtual businesses. In 2006, Anshe Chung became the first USD millionaire. This achievement was marked with her avatar’s picture on the cover of Business Week (Hof, 2006). As of the end of December, 2008, according to statistics at Secondlife.com (2009), there were 62,929 virtual business owners in Second Life. Of those, 373 of them processed transactions greater than $1,900 US and 205 of them had positive monthly cash flow of greater than $5,000 US (Linden Labs, 2009). Individual residents are also spending large sums of money in Second Life. In the month of December, 2008, 693 residents spent more than 1,000,000 Linden dollars, which is equivalent to $3,782 US. Second Life residents sell anything from land to pizza to fellow residents (derived from Linden Labs, 2009). The most prevalent businesses are real estate and event planning.

Real life businesses and corporations see Second Life as a way to improve productivity through training, education and simulation, enhance collaboration through the use of virtual teams, and improve customer service through R&D and prototyping, sales meetings, and customer support centers. Toyota, General Motors, IBM, Sony, Wells Fargo, Kelly Services, Ben & Jerry’s and other major corporations have used Second Life to explore business opportunities or to introduce the virtual world to their product offerings. Firms have developed and launched new products (L’Oreal), sold virtual products (Nike, Adidas, Toyota), held sports simulcasts (Major League Baseball), news (Reuters), and virtual water coolers (Cisco). IBM, in particular, has been instrumental in assisting Linden Labs in its Open Source grid.

Linden Labs lists education as one of its primary markets (Blog.Secondlife.com, 20091) and provides support for educators and researchers through two forums: the Second Life Educators and Second Life Researchers. These allow educators and researchers to collaborate on projects, seek advice on educational pedagogy, and work together to improve educational opportunities for students in Second Life. Some educators teach their entire courses in Second Life, as another delivery vehicle for distance education. Others augment their resident courses with Second Life projects, class lectures, and office hours. The project described in this paper uses the latter approach.

Experiential Learning and Operations Management Experiential Learning (Kolb, 1984) is a generally accepted teaching strategy. Teaching strategies based on experiential learning are particularly useful when the instructor wishes students to progress quickly along Bloom’s 1956 taxonomy of the cognitive domain from the acquisition of knowledge to application and synthesis of knowledge. Experiential exercises, cases, role playing, and online games have all been used to varying degrees in teaching Operations Management. In particular, the use of online games to teach Operations Management (OM) is not new. The beer distribution game, first used at Harvard to illustrate systems dynamics, has been converted to an online version. One such version was developed by Bob Jacobs of Indiana University and can be found at http://www.pom.edu. Littlefield Technologies, which can be found at http://www.responsive.net, is an online factory simulation through which students manage a simple 4-step factory. Innov8, developed by IBM, is a 3D simulator used to

1

See tables under Economic Statistics section.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 6

teach Business Process Management, and can be found at http://www01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8.html. Individual instructors have developed their own online games to teach OM. We continue to seek ways to make OM “come alive” for students, especially those with non-business undergraduate degrees. Often students cannot visualize a shop floor or a bank check processing center. The author, who teaches the core and only operations management course in the MBA curriculum, faced this challenge as well as the problem of ensuring that students learned the basic principles of OM in an accelerated MBA program. Well over 90% of the student body is composed of working professionals, the average age being between 28 and 34. Classes are held two nights each week for three hours each night for seven weeks. In this way, students can take two courses in a 14-week semester without taking them simultaneously.

This highly condensed delivery format means that instructors make heavy use of experiential learning techniques such as simulations, games, and case studies. . In the past, the author has used case studies, experiential exercises, lectures, and guest speakers to ensure that students are learning OM. The use of Second Life presented an immersive technology to allow students to not only learn the material, but also to use, apply, and synthesize it. The learning objectives for the core MBA Operations Management course were: 1. Define Operations Management and its relationship to other disciplines.

2. Ascertain the appropriate product and process design strategies in manufacturing and service companies.

3. Make production and operations management decisions based on quantitative and financial analysis, including facility location and queuing theory.

4. Define and use scheduling algorithms and dispatching rules 5. Determine the appropriate inventory control policy to sue in specific circumstances, and 6. Analyze and improve a business process.

Thus, the research question is whether Second Life can enhance the attainment of the learning objectives for the course.

Research Methodology At the end of each seven-week semester, students were asked to complete a questionnaire, which had three parts: 1) a learning objectives section; 2) an experiences section with open-ended questions; and 3) a demographic section. In the learning objectives section, the students rated each item using a seven-point Likert scale, indicating whether they strongly agree (7) or strongly disagree (1) with whether the Second Life project helped them to attain each of the learning objectives for the course. All 75 of the students who took the class between September 2007 and April 2008 completed the “learning goals” section of the questionnaire.

However, only 67 completed the demographic portion of the questionnaire. The demographic portion asked for gender, age, number of years since completing their baccalaureate degrees, and previous virtual worlds or gaming experience. A third section of the survey asked for feedback on their experiences with the project. The instructor used the feedback from the open-ended questions to change the project as the year progressed.. Information was also gathered by the instructor as a participant observer, in the sense that the author kept notes that summarized conversations with students and transcripts of guest speakers’ and students’ presentations. The

6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 7

content of these documents was analyzed to establish patterns and the evolution of student thought and perceptions throughout the course. Table 1 provides results of the demographic section of the survey.

Table 1. Student Demographics

Number Percent Average Age Post-Bacc Yrs

Male

49

73.1

31.7

8.5

Female

18

26.9

27.4

5.0

67

100.0

29.1

7.4

The Second Life Project Activities The Second Life Project is an individual assignment in which students researched a Second Life business type (retail, real estate, event planning, resort, music venues, sports facilities, etc.) and reported on their findings. The goals of the project were: 1) to experience a virtual business environment; 2) to learn about virtual businesses and compare their operations to real world business operations of the same type; and 3) to gain exposure to a Web 2.0 technology. Assignment deliverables were: 1) a paper that compares the virtual business type with a real world business of the same type and describes how one or more operations management decision areas (design of goods and services, managing quality, process strategy, location strategy, layout strategy, capacity management, human resources, supply chain management, inventory management, scheduling, and maintenance) manifests in the virtual business operation; and 2) a short presentation of their findings.

The presentations were made inside of Second Life. Student work was supported with inworld office hours, guest speakers and technical assistance provided by the instructor and the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technical staff.

In response to published accounts of unsavory activities in Second Life and to set the stage for future class work, in her introductory lecture on Second Life, the author reiterated that they were students of the university and that all codes of conduct established by the university were still in effect in virtual space. She also told them that if they wished to engage in personal

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 8

activities outside of the university’s island, they were not to represent the university. This was done to reinforce the fact that the virtual world was an extension of the bricks and mortar classroom. The introduction to Second Life also included information on business use of virtual worlds, other virtual worlds in existence, other higher education institutions with a Second Life presence, and statistics about Second Life’s economy.

The specific activities students had to complete in order to complete the assignment were: 1. Learn about Second Life from the web site and from discussions with the instructor 2. Create an avatar and a basic (i.e., free) account with Linden Labs 3. Complete the Second Life Orientation, moving through to Help Island, which is a place within the 3D world for residents to get help from Second Life Mentors who are trained for that purpose.

4. Send the instructor an Instant Message from within Second Life with the avatar’s name and the students’ real names 5. Attend office hours at least once within the 3D virtual world 6. Find and join the class group within Second Life 7. Explore enough of the virtual world to be able to select a business type to study 8. Find and interview one or more virtual business owners about how their businesses operate 9. Compare and contrast the Second Life business type with its real life equivalent, focusing on operations management issues (e.g., inventory, capacity management, facility location, queuing, etc.).

10. Write a two-page paper with findings 11. Give an individual presentation at the school’s space in the Second Life virtual world.

Every activity in the assignment was designed to enhance student learning. For example, rather than give students names of people to interview about their virtual business operations, they were instructed to explore the Second Life community, meeting people on their own. In this way, students learned: 1. How to use the Search function of Second Life to find businesses to visit; 2. How to teleport between Second Life locations; 3. How to use the Edit function of Second Life to get the properties of an object such as its creator and owner; 4. How to find and join a group; 5. How to edit their avatar’s appearance; 6. How to communicate with other avatars using instant messaging and voice; 7. How to earn Linden dollars; and 8. How to purchase items in retail stores.

In short, every activity was used to help students to maneuver around in the 3D virtual world and to translate that knowledge into OM principles and techniques. In-world office hours were used for students to ask questions and they were also given written and verbal instructions on how to use Second Life’s voice chat capability. Students were given the option to use voice or text to present the results of their research. As a consequence of this fairly unscripted approach, students were given the freedom and the flexibility to decide how involved they would be in the Second Life community. The minimum level of involvement in the Second Life

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 9

community expected was to learn enough about it to be able to select a business type to study and find and interview a Second Life business owner about how the business operated.

The learning curve for becoming “fluent” in Second Life can be steep. We flattened the learning curve by having class in a computer lab on the second night of the course. The instructor guided students through the process of creating an avatar and a basic (i.e., free) Second Life account. We also went through the Second Life orientation and answered any questions.

As each student sent the instructor an instant message with his or her Second Life and real names, the instructor responded by sending “getting started” information in-world in the form of note cards. Students used this information to further explore and learn more about Second Life.

This information also gave them a head start on their projects. If there is enough time remaining after each student has sent the instant message and received the “getting started” information, students were allowed to remain in the lab to explore Second Life, with the instructor available to answer questions and provide any assistance. Other teaching strategies used included inworld office hours on one night when face-to-face class was not held. Office hours were optional. However, guest speakers were scheduled during this time period. The guest speakers were Second Life entrepreneurs. Students were allowed to use the guest speakers’ presentations as a basis for their reports and were encouraged by the guest speakers to contact them for a more in-depth interview. Finally, Second Life was also used for group presentations and debriefings of the Littlefield Technologies factory simulation, which the author also uses to teach operations management. The picture below (figure 1) shows students in a debriefing session for the Littlefield Technologies factory simulation. The debriefing was held in a “treehouse”.

Figure 1. Littlefield Technologies Debriefing in Second Life

The following picture (figure 2) shows students presenting and waiting to present the results of their research. They are allowed to be creative in their choice of avatar as well as costumes and clothing since changing one’s appearance is one method to learn how to maneuver within the virtual world. Some students interviewed retail clothing store owners, who gave them free clothes or taught the students how to purchase them using the ubiquitous vendors, which operate like soda dispensers. Each student is given a school tee shirt after his or her presentation.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 10

Figure 2. Student Presentation of Research Findings

Student Research Findings Each student prepared a two-page paper and made a two-minute presentation of their findings during a class session held in Second Life. The two-minute restriction was to allow all students the chance to present their work in a three-hour class period. The types of businesses researched by the students are only limited by their imaginations since so many types of businesses are present in Second Life. Each student was allowed to select the type of business he or she wished to research in consultation with the instructor. The most prevalent types of firms researched by the 75 students who participated in this assignment were: 1. Land development and real estate 2. Retail clothing, furniture, etc.

3. Tours (i.e., guided tours of points of interest in Second Life such as the Second Life Louvre) 4. Amusement parks 5. Sports facilities (triathlon training facility, golf club, health spa) 6. Business center 7. Restaurants, including a pizza delivery place 8. Music venues and dance clubs In addition to a general experience of surprise at the vibrancy of the Second Life economy, most students were also surprised and delighted to find that they were able to apply the OM concepts that they learned in class in a virtual environment. In addition, each of them was able to apply a specific OM decision area to the virtual enterprise with varying degrees of success and, of course, accuracy. They also expressed concern that the virtual entrepreneurs they interviewed did not understand concepts such as inventory control, process analysis, and total quality management. The students found that they had to translate the OM terminology they learned in class into language that the virtual entrepreneurs understood. This is exactly the outcome the author was hoping to attain. Bloom (1956) calls this the â&#x20AC;&#x153;application stageâ&#x20AC;? in the cognitive domain of learning, where students are able to apply what they learned in a new and

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 11

different context, environment or situation. Although we would want to move students to the “synthesis stage”, it is not realistic to expect such a high level of attainment in only seven weeks.

One student said “I was shocked that none of them seemed to understand anything about business.” This is a key finding of the students’ research. In general, Second Life entrepreneurs are not trained business people. They tend to be people who were attracted to Second Life because they wanted to become part of a community, and who then learned to create content (e.g., clothing, houses, furniture, etc.), in Second Life. They subsequently discovered that their creations were good enough to sell to other resident avatars, and as a result, a business was born.

Many of these virtual entrepreneurs are able to use the revenues from their business ventures to cover the tier (or monthly payment) on land they own in Second Life or to pay the annual premier account fee to Linden Labs.

Another concept that emerged from the students’ research is the fact that the supply chain is flat. In Second Life, the business owner is the creator, builder/manufacturer, and retailer.

They may purchase software (Photoshop, for example) or devices to dispense their products to their customers (called vendors) from another avatar. The use of a vendor means that the store owner does not need to be present to make a sale. They may also need to rent space in a shopping area from a land owner. However, that is the extent of the supply chain. The virtual nature of these business ventures means that supply chain structures are not as complex as they are in real life. This came as a surprise to the students and we were able to discuss how this finding might be useful in managing real life supply chain networks.

The third key finding of the students’ research was the fact that inventories in Second Life are managed in a very different way than they are in real life. Once an item is designed and created, which can take many hours of work in-world and off-line, the item is put into a dispenser, which releases a copy of the item to the purchaser. This means that the store owner only needs to make the item once. If the item remains unsold, therefore, no excess inventory exists.

Students generally found that operating a virtual business in Second Life held fewer financial risks than in real life, could be disbanded with very little difficulty, and could be financially lucrative.

Research Findings and Attainment of Learning Objectives In general, students found the project worthwhile, although many were not sure whether it belonged in an operations management class. Most of them stated that virtual worlds are part of the future, so they need to be exposed to them. Some indicated that it was time consuming, and that they were at a loss as to how to proceed once they finished the orientation. This feedback was received verbally early in the fall of 2007, which is why the instructor began to give class time for setting up basic accounts and selecting avatars. As to the attainment of course learning objectives, the table below shows results for the 75 students who took the course between September 2007 and April 2008.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 12

Table 2. Attainment of Learning Objectives

Learning Objective

Mean

Define Operations Management and its relationship to other disciplines

4.12

Ascertain the appropriate product and process design strategies in manufacturing and service companies

4.02

Define and use Total Quality Management and Statistical Process Control principles, tools and techniques

3.48

Make operations management decisions based on quantitative and financial analyses, including facility location and queuing theory

4.00

Determine the appropriate inventory control policy to use in specific circumstances

4.08

Analyze and improve a business process

4.65

These results were as expected since the focus of the assignment was how virtual businesses operate and the linkage between real and virtual business enterprises. It would make sense that TQM and SPC knowledge scored low, and that business process analysis scored the highest, because students asked process types of questions. They were asked, for example, how the products made, procured, sold, inventoried, etc. The quality of the student research varied widely. It was very clear which students spent time learning about Second Life and which did not. In addition, some met with their business contacts multiple times and visited their establishments to learn about the business type they were studying. To address this issue, the instructor changed the project in subsequent semesters. Each student was given a set of ten questions to ask, all of which addressed the ten operations management decision areas discussed in the textbook (Heizer and Render, 2008). Initial indications are that this has improved the quality of student learning as well as the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deliverables.

As a participant observer, the instructor was able to develop a clear picture of whether students learned operations management beyond their self-report on the survey regarding the course learning objectives. Students who did well on the Second Life project were those who were able to explain OM concepts in laymanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s language in their interviews with Second Life entrepreneurs who generally had no previous business or OM knowledge. This ability demonstrated that the students had reached the synthesis stage in Bloomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taxonomy (Bloom, 1956). Further, these students spent more time in Second Life, learning enough about the virtual environment to enable them to better understand the SL culture and vocabulary used by their interviewees. The experiential nature of Second Life caused some students to perceive other

12

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 13

projects that could be tried in Second Life, such as prototyping of new products, creating businesses on their own, collaborating with colleagues in other locations, and holding virtual team meetings. In fact, some teams decided to use Second Life as their primary venue for team meetings for other work in the course.

Advice to Instructors - Caveats Although these results indicate that virtual worlds are useful tools for teaching Operations Management, there are nevertheless some caveats to be kept in mind when using a virtual world technology for any purpose. First, make sure to have a purpose for the technology prior to using it. Decide what learning outcomes are expected and design the project so that students clearly understand them and how the project achieves those objectives. The instructions should be explicitly stated and in writing. Class time should also be used for the initial introduction to the virtual world. This gives the instructor time to answer any questions and reduces the time students take to become fluent. Instructors are advised to spend time exploring and learning about the virtual world on their own prior to using it for instruction since students will see the instructor as the expert. The use of virtual worlds technology is not for every student, nor every instructor, nor every course (at least at this early stage). The educational tools available have improved since 2007, as Second Life becomes a potential venue for distance education and experiential learning. Slide viewers for power point slides, note card givers, online indicators, recording devices for voice conversations, and homework collectors are just a few of the educational tools that now exist. Since Linden Labs views educators as valued customers, these tools can only improve. An excellent open source course management system is Moodle, which has an add-in for Second Life educators called Sloodle. Training classes for educators are held in Second Life regularly. Finally, care should be taken to ensure that there is a good fit with the course learning objectives.

Conclusion and Implications The New Media Consortium’s 2008 Horizon Report lists three challenges to higher education in the next five years. These include “a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy”; the “expectation to deliver services, content and media to mobile and personal devices”; and “a need to provide formal instruction in information, visual, and technological literacy as well as in how to create meaningful content with today’s tools.” (New Media Consortium, 2008, p 3). Virtual worlds have the potential to address at least the first and last of these challenges. The use of virtual worlds in higher education indicates willingness on the part of the academy to step out of the traditional bricks and mortar campus environment and to innovatively and creatively address the educational needs of today’s and tomorrow’s students.

The fact that the number of educational institutions with a Second Life presence has increased from about 150 in early 2007 to over 300 today is testamonial of this (Jones, 2008). Further, virtual world technologies can be used not only to teach disciplinary content, but also to improve technological literacy, a critical skill in tomorrow’s job market and economy.

Virtual worlds have the potential to revolutionize higher education by helping higher education institutions to meet these challenges. Educators can immerse students in environments to allow them to experience what they are teaching. For example, Second Life has an island called Renaissance Island, where the avatars who live there role play the renaissance period of history. A history professor could have an assignment where students lived on Renaissance

13

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 14

Island, learning how people lived during that period. In Management education, students can create products and services to sell, build stores, and sell their goods and services. With very little risk, students can simulate basic business concepts, supply and demand, strategy, the development of a business plan, the process of deciding on a business model, the delivery of goods and services, and interaction with suppliers and customers. Of course, safeguards, codes of conduct, and other organizational structures need to be put in place to ensure that the learning goals for the course are attained. Faculty members need to be trained and instructional technologies for in-world education is in significant need of improvement. However, the pedagogical uses of virtual worlds, in the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinion, are limited only by the faculty memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imagination, ability to create in Second Life, and experience in this virtual world.

Second Life allows professors to provide students with an immersive learning environment hitherto not available in distance education. Educators can develop learning activities that replicate real-world experiences that were previously only available via face-to-face interaction.

Students can experience simulations of real life activities from operating a business to building a replica of a universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campus. Students can, using the Second Life scripting and building tools, create their own virtual businesses and communities.

14

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management 15

Bibliography Beck, J..and Mitchell W. (2006). The kids are alright: How the gamer generation is changing the workplace. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook I: The cognitive doman.

New York, N.Y.: David McKay Co Inc. de Nood, D. & Attema, J. (2006). The Second Life of virtual reality, The Hague, EPN – Electronic Highway Platform.

Foster, A. L. (2008). Using Second Life as platform for education: Professor avatar. The Education Digest. January 2008, 73(5), 12-.

Gartner Group. (2007). Gartner says 80 percent of active internet users will have a “Second Life” in the virtual world by the end of 2011”. [Press Release]. Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=503861.

Heizer, J and Render, B. (2008). Operations Management, 9th edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Hemp, P. (2006). Avatar-based marketing. Harvard Business Review. June 2006, 48-57.

Hof, R. D. (2006, May 1). My Virtual Life. Business Week, pp 73-82.

Holger, W. (2007). Second life, second identity? Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis in Marketing 15(3), 195.

Jonas, K. (2008). Taking care of Xerox business-virtually. Research Technology Management 51(1), 15.

Jones, I. M.. Virtually present: interacting in a virtual world”, Proceedings of the Academy of Educational Leadership, 13(2), 34-40.

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Lagorio, Christine. (2007, January 7). The Ultimate Distance Learning. The New York Times.

Linden Labs (2009) http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php, retrieved January 13, 2009) Marcus, D. C. & B. Ray. (2006). Using massively multiplayer online role-playing games for online learning, Distance Education 27(2), 187.

Paul, H. (2006). Are you ready for E-tailing 2.0? Harvard Business Review 84(10),28.

The New Media Consortium (2008). The Horizon Report, Austin, Texas.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worldsâ&#x20AC;?

April 2009

Can we move beyond visual metaphors?

Virtual world provocations and Second Life

By Pamela G. Taylor, Virginia Commonwealth University

Abstract Is it possible for the human beings, who are the driving forces behind virtual worlds and the avatars that inhabit them, to move beyond real life metaphors? What does this sort of questioning mean for teaching and learning in virtual worlds?

Keywords: metaphor; Second Life; avatar; art; education.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Can we move beyond visual metaphors? 4

Can we move beyond visual metaphors?

Virtual world provocations and Second Life

By Pamela G. Taylor, Virginia Commonwealth University

Visual metaphors drive such virtual worlds as Second Life (SL). They define how virtual avatars look and move, where they go, and what they do. Visual metaphors makeup virtual spaces as well — be they naturalistic with scripted images of trees and water or built/textured/shaped environments portraying skyscrapers, doors, windows, or roads. Simply put, visual metaphors serve as virtual world guideposts. They make us comfortable and provide an identifiable foundation from which to build experiences, relationships, and places in the often foreign and frightening land inside the computer.

But, at what point in our lives, learning, and/or experiences do we cease needing these kinds of metaphors in order to exist in virtual worlds? What would happen if we moved beyond these virtual metaphors and no longer needed to rely on what we know and what is comforting to maneuver, live, play, and learn in a virtual world?

Let’s step back for a moment to 2002 when I first encountered the notion of creating virtual beings on the computer. It was Childs’s (2002) virtual gorilla project at the University of Georgia (US). When I viewed the project’s web site, I was disappointed because I thought that with the adjective “virtual” came a different sort of approach or mindset for what a “gorilla” would actually look like and do. The “virtual gorilla” that I saw was an almost exact replica of a real life (RL) silver-backed gorilla. Of course, when I became aware that the purpose of the project was to help students learn about RL silver-backed gorillas, I understood. However, I then questioned the title of the project—“virtual gorilla.” Because, it really was not a virtual gorilla, it was just a computer-generated animation of a silver-backed gorilla. So, what would a virtual gorilla look like? How does the adjective and/or state-of-being, described as “virtual” change/alter/affect what life looks (or should look) like?

Pete Border tied this line of thinking to education in his 2007 posting on a Second Life educators’ discussion board: I think education in Second Life needs to not just duplicate what’s available in RL, but go beyond it. Sure, you must be able to hold a virtual class like a RL one (and you can do that, it's not hard), but SL has capabilities beyond RL and we should be using them.

Making a building just like the one you have on campus is a good place to start, but SL can go much, much farther than that. Streaming video of someone lecturing into the SL lecture hall is certainly doable, and rather technically impressive, but how effective is it?

Will it hold people's interest after the gee-whiz has worn off? Lectures don't work very well in real-life, and they probably won't be any better in a virtual world. So what can Second Life do that's better then Real Life? (para. 1).

We may challenge our students that different-for-the-sake-of-different rarely achieves a better result in teaching, learning, or making art. Simply using “different” online teaching tools to teach in the same way (e.g., posting lectures, creating the same tests, asking the same questions) as we do in face-to-face classes only provides convenience when indeed we know that 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Second Life and classical music education 5

so much more should be possible with this exciting medium. To better deal with the question of what virtual worlds can help us do better than real life, perhaps we should attempt to answer another. What does the virtual help us do that we cannot do in RL? Throughout my career as an artist and educator, I feel plagued with the limitations of tactile media (i.e., clay, paper, paint, glue). Such issues as paint drying too fast or too slowly or the weight of clay causing a vessel to collapse do not exist in the virtual world. Although gravity appears to have an effect on our avatars, it does not apply to the objects that we build, making it possible to stand an elephant on a needle or hover an entire landmass in the air.

Virtual worlds make possible, practical, and without real life repercussions the visual personification of our multiple identities. In fact, avatars act as agents of identity. Teleporting allows our avatars to travel across great distances in space in a matter of seconds (depending on the speed of our internet connection and/or traffic on the virtual world site). Avatars have few human limitations. Besides flying, dancing for days, and recovering from any contortion, avatars typically show no physical signs of age, hunger, exhaustion, or injury (despite those purposefully programmed or as a result of connection issues).

On the virtual surface of Second Life, economic, social class, gender, and racial issues appear muted by the interface. Although the majority of the avatars I know possess human skin colors and forms, the software allows non-human forms, multiple skin colors and textures, the possibility of clones, and multiple accounts. I, for example have two avatarsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one female and one male, both with green skin. One of my students has a robot avatar and another has a dog. The ability to show roles such as land-owner and member above an avatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head does scream of class division as does the way we choose to dress our avatars. Although one may find many free clothing options, buying designer and cutting edge clothing for your avatar is very hip and compared to real life prices, such objects as Prada shoes are considered very affordable with Linden dollars.

5

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Second Life and classical music education 6

Figure 1. Although the majority of the avatars I know possess human skin colors and forms, the software allows non-human forms, multiple skin colors and textures, the possibility of clones, and multiple accounts. I, for example have two avatarsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one female and one male, both with green skin.

Figure 2. The ability to show roles such as land owner and member above an avatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head does scream of class division.

6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Second Life and classical music education 7

These few (of many) virtual world possibilities (that are not as yet achievable in real life) are all metaphor-based. From virtual gravity to avatars’ human attributes, Second Life like most virtual worlds, is so filled with recognizable digital, visual, and conceptual metaphors that little of it is in fact solely virtually-based. Like I said earlier, I understand that in order to function, most of us need some thing on which to base our experiences and growth. But, when will we begin using metaphors that are driven by and exclusively sparked by virtual worlds? I believe that until we do, our inventive approaches to working within virtual worlds are inhibited and destined to “duplicate what’s available in RL” rather than moving beyond (Border, 2007, para.

1).

So, what would some virtual world metaphors be? What would they look like? What would they sound like? Could this kind of emerging metaphorizing (learning/research) engage students to work in meaningful ways in Second Life? How do virtual worlds mediate who and what we are? What does it mean to be virtually present? What are digital signals/signs and what do they signify?

I find it excitingly frustrating and inspiring when I discover that technology provokes new language, new terminology, and new processes. One of my favorites is “remediation” which refers to our quest to “multiply our media and to erase all traces of mediation” (Bolter & Grusin, 2001, p. 5). Another “cyborg,” coined in 1960 with links to Superman, the Bionic Woman, people with pacemakers and cochlear implants has much more frightening connotations when attached directly to such mediated characters as Lawnmower Man, Neo (Keanu Reeves) in the Matrix, and the Terminator (Clynes & Kline). As I write this, I struggle with my own choice of words. For example, I would prefer to use “pulse” instead of “spark” or “build” when referring to the kinds of metaphors exclusive to virtual worlds or to the act of creation because when building/creating/(pulsing) in Second Life, pulses of light emanate from my avatar’s index finger. Is there a digital or virtual everyday lexicon (rather than techno programming speak)? If so, does it, like our real life language, invade our worlds outside the virtual? In other words, how can metaphorizing the virtual enhance the real? What would worlding or virtualizing mean in real life?

Bibliography Bolter, J. D. & Grusin, R. (2001). Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT. Border, P. (2007). What can you do better in SL than RL? Second Life Educators Discussion.

Retrieved April 22, 2007 from http://www.simteach.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6.

Childs, M. (2002). UGA education researchers bring virtual gorilla program to zoo Atlanta day campers. Retrieved February 17, 2009 from http://www.uga.edu/news/newsbureau/releases/2002releases/0207/020722gorilla.html.

Clynes, M. E. & Kline, N. S. (1960). Cyborgs and Space. Astronautics (September), p.29-33.

Retrieved February 17, 2009 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2962194/Cyborgs-and-Space-Clynes-Kline?autodown=pdf.

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Vol. 2. No.1 ISSN: 1941-8477 “Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds” April 2009

Games, learning, and 21st century survival skills

By James Paul Gee, Arizona State University

Abstract

Digital games hold out great potential for human development. There is no reason to think about games simply as “fun.” At the same time, there is no reason to equate learning with being “serious.” Games and learning, at their best, engage humans at a deep level of pleasure (Gee 2005). Play and learning are primordial human urges. Unfortunately, we have come to take it for granted that adulthood will kill play and schools will kill learning as a human pleasure. These assumptions are particularly dangerous in the twenty-first century.

Keywords: digital games; research; learning.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research- Games, learning, and 21st century survival skills 4

Games, learning, and 21st century survival skills

By James Paul Gee, Arizona State University

We live in a high risk world of interacting complex systems. A world subject to dangerous global warming, a now melting high-risk global economy, and massive destruction due to unchecked poverty and population growth. Natural systems are no longer independent of human beings. Urban environments and human energy seeking now affect temperature and storms. Things that were once “acts of God” and are now also “acts of man.”

In my view, in the twenty-first century we need the following—and we need them fast and all at once together: embodied empathy for complex systems; “grit” (passion + persistence); playfulness that leads to innovation; design thinking; collaborations in which groups are smarter than the smartest person in the group; and real understanding that leads to problem solving and not just test passing. These are, to my mind, the true twenty-first century skills. We will not get them in schools alone and we will never get them in the schools we currently have.

To start my discussion of these twenty-first century skills, let us first think about what gaming and science have in common. Games and science share with each other that they are both games, although only games seem so at first view. They share, as well, the fact that they are both centered on “model-based thinking,” although only science seems so at first view. To see this let me juxtapose a quote from the physicist and physics educator David Hestenes and from the game designer Will Wright, designer of such games as Sim City, The Sims, and Spore:

The basic principles of Newtonian mechanics can be interpreted as a system of rules defining a medley of modeling games. The common objective of these games is to develop validated models of physical phenomena. This is the starting point for a promising new approach to physics instruction in which students are taught from the beginning that in science “modeling is the name of the game” (Hestenes, 1992).

If you look at any kid playing a game, what they do is they go up and they grab the controller and they start pushing buttons randomly. They observe the results. They start building a model in their head for how the buttons are mapped. Then they start trying to set high-level goals. They start building a more and more elaborate model in their head of the underlying simulation in our game. And they're doing it purely through the scientific method. They observe data. They craft and experiment and do interactions to test their experiment. They observe their results then they increase the resolution of their model.

And that's pretty much exactly what the scientific method is. So I think any kid, almost inherently, knows that and recognizes it as such (Wright, as cited in Mastrapa, 2008).

What Hestenes is saying is that Newtonian mechanics is a “tool kit” or an “engine” or a “design theory” that tells us how to build models of things like force and motion, models which are “toy versions” of reality (things like computer simulations, balls and ramps, or diagrams).

We can then play with the toy (manipulate it according to certain rules) and, thanks to its resemblance to the real world, we can make some educated guesses about how the world works 4

5 and why it does so. If we are wrong, we have still learned something and we can change the model accordingly and try again.

This is, by the way, just the way military video games (like for example, Full Spectrum Warrior) or police games (like SWAT4) work. A military game is a toy version (model) of warfare based on a theory of how war should work (e.g., Full Spectrum Warrior has the U.S. soldiers in the game operate by the U.S. military rules of engagement). A player can play the game and make guesses about how things might work in the real world. Of course, these guesses can only be checked by looking at actual wars and that is why such games are used for training.

But part of their entertainment value as video games is the way in which they make the player think about how and why things work in the world. SWAT4 is particularly good at letting players feel what it is like to be a (toy) SWAT team member and certainly gave me a much greater appreciation of what SWAT teams do, how they do it, and why they do it that way. The game also taught me just why I personally would not want to be a real SWAT team member (too much stress).

We build models—toy versions of reality—because the real world is often too complex to take on in full all at once. Models are simplified representations of reality, good for some purposes and not for others. Model airplanes are models, so is a diagram of an electromagnetic field, a blueprint of a house, a map of an environment, and a simulation of warfare.

In science, then, one way to look at theories is to see them as tool kits, engines, or design theories for building and playing with models. Aerodynamics can be seen not just as a bunch of theoretical statements, but as a set of tools or an “engine” for how to make models, for example, a model airplane, and how to use the models to play a game of making guesses (hypotheses) about reality—say, by using the model airplane in a wind tunnel to study airflow around planes designed in certain ways. Theories are recipes for making things, just as game engines and game design theories are recipes for making games (and video games are models, keeping in mind that simulations are types of models).

Now let us turn to Wright’s quote above. What Wright is saying is that players are actually building a model of a model. This is thinking at a “meta” level. Gamers are engaged in building a model of a model in order to play games.

Let me give one simple example. In the anime game Valkyria Chronicles, players engage in what looks like warfare with tanks and all. When I played the game I first assumed that the game was, like many other games (e.g., Call of Duty), a model of real world warfare. I carefully protected my soldiers behind cover and moved them up slowly and carefully, attempting to remove all opposing forces before moving to the final goal. None of this works well in the game (though it works well in Call of Duty). The fighting in Valkyria Chronicles is, in fact, a model of “capture the flag” in multiplayer games, not real world warfare. You need to move fast past the opposition to get one soldier up to the goal. Playing this game requires players to see that the game is a simulation (model) of capture the flag and then work out (model) how that the simulation works so they can be successful in the game.

The fact that playing games involves modeling models is the tip of the iceberg as far as modeling goes in gaming. “Modding” is part of the culture of gaming. In modding players modify games or make whole new ones (as in, for example, building skate parks in Tony Hawk 5

6 games or building new scenarios in Civilization). Modding requires one to think about what sort of modeling tool Tony Hawk is, for example, and how one can build models of real world skate parks in it.

Think about World of Warcraft (WOW) players building “mods” like damage meters.

What are they doing? They are asking how damage is modeled in WOW and then building a tool that models that model in a certain way to enforce certain ways of thinking about and acting in regard to damage in WOW. The damage meter is their theory of how damage works and what role it ought to play in WOW. There are different damage meters and thus, too, different and contesting theories.

When players slap damage meters up on the screen (for example to demonstrate who is and who is not doing his or her job in a dungeon) or other mods—and mods sometimes cover most of the screen, actually “eating” up the images of actual game play—they are placing their theories (really visual representations of their theories) on top of the actual game play. Theory is now on top of practice. They are creating tools (like the damage meter) to allow players to theorize their game play as they actually engage in that play. This is “theory” not just of practice, but in practice.

So gamers regularly engage in model-based thinking at a dizzying variety of different levels. The games they play are models (or simulations). They model those models in their heads as Wright said. They build “mods” that encapsulate their theories of things like damage in WOW and, in the act, place representations of theory right into their practice (on top of images of actual game play) to enable collaborations where players theorize and reflect even as they play. This would be “expert practice” for any profession and, indeed, for science, as well.

All this modeling and modeling of modeling and modding and building mods requires gamers to become designers and to engage in design-based thinking. What I mean by designbased thinking here is thinking about how various parts of a system (e.g., different sub-systems within a system) or different systems interact with each other. For example, how does the core mechanic of a game interact with the content of its virtual world and how do both of these interact with human interactions with the game? This type of thinking is crucial in today’s world of high risk interacting complex systems. For example, it is crucial that we learn how the structure of our built environments interacts both with “natural” systems like the weather and with human social and cultural interactions in those built environments.

So I have argued that model-based thinking (at various levels) and design-based thinking are key aspects of gaming and good cognitive modes for our twenty-first century global world.

But thinking in games and gaming is not purely cognitive—a matter of the mind alone. Games give players what I have called an “embodied empathy for complex systems” (Gee, 2004).

Gamers have a surrogate body in a game (as in first- and third-person games like Halo or Metal Gear Solid) or act in a god-like fashion building and manipulating things at a given time and place in a game, much like God molding clay into humans in the Garden of Eden (as in Civilization or Rise of Nations). Gamers are inside their games (their virtual worlds) and they move, act, and sometimes build things in the game world from a particular place or perspective.

Games are systems of interacting rules or variables and players are embodied at given place within the system and see it from that place.

6

7 Scientists when they are studying complex systems (like the solar system, weather, gasses, cells, turbulence, and the rise and fall of civilizations) often build and use simulations to study them. But, unlike gamers, they are not inside their simulations acting from moment to moment at a give place from the perspective of that place. However, research has shown that, though they are not in their diagrams and simulations, scientists often talk and act as if they were, for example, an electron in an the representation of an electromagnetic field or a wolf in the wolf pack.

At the same time as games offer gamers an embodied and perspectival empathy for a system, they also offer gamers a dual perspective. Gamers are used to switching between the “inside” embodied perspective where they see things and act from a given place and time in the game and an “outside” more global top-down perspective where they think about the big picture, the whole scene of which their inside perspective from one place and time is but a small part.

Many games let gamers easily switch between the two perspectives, either seeing and acting from one place or looking down on the whole world. This is typical, for example, in real-time strategy games like Rise of Nations and such games go even further and give players diagrams and graphs after a play session that map out their game play in a quite abstract and “big picture” way. Sometimes games use maps, diagrams, and other tools (as in SWAT4) to let gamers get the big picture perspective. Or think even of flying across the world of World of Warcraft as against being in an actual battle.

This dual perspective, the ability and encouragement to flip between an inside (situated) and an outside (global) perspective, is potentially an extremely fruitful way to think about complex systems. People can learn to see what things in a system look like from a given place in the system and, at the same time, how that place looks from the perspective of the system as a whole. Such a dual perspective seems to me ideal for cases where we want people not just to understand systems, but also to intervene in them and act within them, with do regard for unintended consequences as individual acts ramify out through the whole system.

Of course, such a dual perspective—the trade off, juxtaposition, and comparison/contrast between an embodied, situated, insider perspective and a more abstract, global, outside perspective—both facilitates the model-based and design-based thinking characteristic of gaming and, in turn, these two forms of think facilitate the ability to appreciate and use the dual perspective in fruitful ways. In fact all these forms of thinking—which in gaming are also always, too, forms of acting—are closely integrated.

My discussion thus far is misleading in one important respect. Because I have wanted to stress the sorts of thinking and acting that gaming recruits, I have left out the social side of gaming. However, when we discuss digital games, we really need to see the “game” as not just the software in the box, so to speak, but as that software plus all the social interactions built around the game. These social interactions take place at all levels, from people watching others play (and commenting) through multiplayer gaming and gamer gatherings to intense boards, forums, and gaming websites of all sorts. Some people call the game + social interactions the “meta-game” or the “Game”—“big” G game (Shaffer, 2006). In Gee (2003/2007) I referred to these two aspects of gaming as the internal and external grammars of gaming.

Among many other aspects, there are two important contributions this social side of gaming makes to thinking and acting in games. First, in games—as in science at its best— 7

8 knowledge is “distributed.” That is, the important knowledge in gaming (or science) is not stored inside just the player’s head. Good players have to learn to pool their knowledge with the knowledge built into the “smart tools” in the game. By “smart tools” I mean artificially intelligent characters (e.g., the other police you control in SWAT4) and the guidance (a form of knowledge) built into the objects and environments of good games. By “smart tools” I also mean all the “mods” and other tools that shape, enhance, and guide play, especially at expert levels (e.g., the damage meters in WOW). And, finally, by “smart tools” I mean, too, other real players whose knowledge we must use to supplement our own knowledge for good multiplayer gaming.

It may seem odd to call other real players “smart tools,” but in much modern knowledge work today, in high-tech workplaces, the “team” is made up of people and their technological tools and devices that must all work together to pool knowledge that goes beyond what is in any one person’s head. In such teams, one of the leading criteria for the humans in them is that the team function in such a way that it is smarter than the smartest person in it and not dumber than the dumbest (which is the hallmark of committees in universities, for example).

Such teams are sometimes called “cross functional teams” because in them each person must have a specific function—a deep specialty—but all members must understand each other’s function well enough to integrate successfully with them. Such teams have long become a sine qua non in modern high tech workplaces (Gee, Hull, & Lankshear, 1996). But, as anyone who has played World of Warcraft knows, they are the heart and soul of that game, recruited for pleasure and mastery.

Finally, consider that today we live in the age of “Pro-Ams”; that is, these are amateurs who have become experts at whatever they have developed a passion for (Anderson, 2006 and Leadbeater & Miller, 2004). Many of these are young people who use the internet, communication media, digital tools, and membership in often virtual, sometimes real, communities of practice to develop technical expertise in a plethora of different areas. These include video games, digital storytelling, machinima, fan fiction, history and civilization simulations, music, graphic art, political commentary, robotics, anime, fashion design (e.g., for Sims in The Sims), and nearly every other endeavor of which the human mind can think.

Pro-Am communities allow anyone to become an expert. They offer lots of guidance, but they hold anyone who wants to be a central participant to high standards. To achieve mastery and high respect on in these communities requires “grit” (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). “Grit” means a passion shared with others around which the Pro-Am community is, in fact, organized and perseverance or persistence to put in the many hours of practice (with failure and feedback) required for mastery in any worthwhile endeavor. In schools we have pretended for years that deep learning can occur without “grit”—either with no passion or without intense persistence over the long haul. But today’s popular culture—as well as research in the learning sciences—shows that is not true. So we need to switch to a new mode for schools: everyone must find a passion and learn to persist in it to mastery—and then they need to learn to teach and share their passion with others and work with people who have other passions to solve problems that cannot be solved by one passion alone.

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9 Bibliography Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more. New York: Hyperion.

Duckworth, A., L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, p.

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Gee, J. P. (2003/2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. London: Routledge.

Gee, J. P. (2005). Why Video Games are good for your soul: Pleasure and learning. Melbourne: Common Ground.

Gee, J. P., Hull, G., & Lankshear, C. (1996). The new work order: Behind the language of the new capitalism. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Hestenes, D. (1992). Modeling games in the Newtonian world. American Journal of Physics, 60, p. 732-748.

Leadbeater, C. & Miller, P. (2004). The Pro-Am revolution: How enthusiasts are changing our society and economy. London: Demos.

Mastrapa, G. (2008). Interview: Will Wright. Paste Magazine: Signs of Life in Music, Film, and Culture. Retrieved from http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/upupdndn/2008/09/in-depthqa-with-spore-creator-will-wright.html.

Shaffer, D. (2006). How computer games help children learn. New York: Plagrave/Macmillian.

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