December 2009
SECOND LIFE
What are we doing? Teesside’s island ‘Teeslife’ has now been open just a year. It has – is – being used for a variety of things. Some things are developmental, trying to identify how Second Life (SL) works and if it is good for x, some are surer and are building activities which cannot easily be done in a classroom or via a VLE/LMS. Some look to provide a support space – a virtual lounge for people to come together (e.g. digital champions) in a more physically co-present way than is offered by other social networks. Some use by staff –
Want to join in?
Go to join.secondlife.com
and a few students – has been simply to move in residentially so that they have somewhere to feel at home while they explore or develop. We have some things that are Teesside-specific and some things that we’ve developed or are developing to share. There are formal and informal spaces and activities at module, programme and university level and on both a personal and on a national and international collaborative level.
What have we learnt? We’ve learnt a lot over the last year. We’ve learnt that cooperation and collaboration works better for us as a development model than contracting out and competition. We’ve learnt that there is neither time in the day (or night!) to achieve everything that is dreamt of or suggested, nor an end to the stream of ideas and possibilities. We’ve learnt one island isn’t enough! We’ve realised that some ideas are way more complex than they need to be to effect the desired learning outcomes. That, despite some cynical comments, treasure hunts/quests/game-style design can be very effective, especially in orientation. That sometimes it’s easier to buy than make, and sometimes it’s faster to grit your teeth and get your mouse dirty building than unsuccessfully trailing round shops! We’ve understood that kinaesthetic and visual learners can get a lot from activities in virtual worlds, so we shouldn’t be put off by those who say some people will ‘never get it’. That there are a
surprising number of fellow professionals who seemingly feel that ignoring (commercial or open-source) virtual worlds’ real potential for learning enhancement is ok. It’s not. We’re excited that there are opportunities to connect Blackboard with SL e.g. for kicking off a PBL scenario in SL and writing SL chat direct to the Blackboard discussion boards is hopefully the start a tool set for Blackboard which will lead to being able to think about assessment of the virtual world activity. Overall we’ve learnt that we can be proud of what we’ve achieved with no funding beyond the island purchase and no external help beyond those colleagues ready to offer advice and tips. Clearly this isn’t sustainable to provide the full support for all the opportunities that are brought to us, so how quickly developments continue will be interesting to see over the next few months.
Some of the projects on Teeslife The Virtual Maternity Unit
The Virtual Maternity Unit is an embedded part of midwifery training at Teesside. It has 36 ante- and post-natal rooms and two birthing suites. Each cohort of student midwives have complete ownership of the ‘Unit’, choosing its name, décor, layout of some rooms and working through - with roles which include community midwives with home birth duties - case scenarios of a variety of girls and women for whom to establish care plans and identify mother or baby health problems in monitoring their progress. Unfortunately the ‘virtual’ maternity unit isn’t. But SL now offers the opportunity to engage in a much more realistic manner with many of the exercises, and undertake research and make choices as to the environment as well as the medical issues. The greater learning however - and testament to the ‘reality’ of the virtual world - is that squeamish men have backed off from the actual birthing activity, so it was a great antenatal resource for the two new fathers on our team.
2
2pm - 4pm
Distance Learning
9
2pm - 3pm
Second Life
JANUARY
DECEMBER
Blackboard Workshops
All of these sessions are for M701b which means there will be 14 spaces available per session.
13
2pm - 4pm
Scholar & Social Bookmarking
20
2pm - 4pm
Surveys, Tests & Assignments
To book a place email clqe-workshops@tees.ac.uk
Fraud Investigation
Fraud Investigation students have to learn - obviously among other things - the key skills of reflection and analysis which direct their seizure procedures. There are as many office environments as there are individual offices, and though one can broadly expect to find the same equipment and items in each location, their seizeable state will vary. The lecturer wanted to be able to put students into more environments than he can create in real life for them to engage in the discussions around if, why and how they should seize specific items. Whilst a photograph, panoramic video picture or flash-based virtual scenario might be technically easier for the students to access, creating a variety of environments is still resource intensive. In SL the scenarios can be changed, cloned, endlessly modified. Because most of the interaction beyond an item providing information about itself occurs between the students, for example discussion whether a personal diary should be seized or how to secure a PC with active screensaver, then these are exceptionally easy to create. Additionally, because you can use the integration with Blackboard discussion boards, students can return to reflect on their decisions later without needing to log in to SL. Although some of the students were initially sceptical, they soon saw that not only did they gain an opportunity to practise, individually and collaboratively, inbetween teaching blocks (these are all serving criminal investigators) but the introduction of the SL element opened up their understanding of the potential of virtual worlds to launder money similarly to through other electronic means and thus offered an entirely additional unexpected learning outcome.
The Digital Bayeux Tapestry
The digital Bayeux Tapestry offers an example of a learning experience not usually available to students. Presented to scale with audio guides, it pushed the boundaries of audio capability in SL, in order that per-person guidance can be offered to an individual avatar without distracting those around them. Links to additional web-based resources and literary/research works are available in the entrance. This exhibition is unique in allowing the visitor to see the whole of the Bayeux Tapestry at the same time, which is not possible even in real life due to the nature of its display case.
E@T Lunches 9 DECEMBER 2009 SecondLife
Lunch provided (booking required)
The Comedy Club
New for 2009-10 is a building for the School of Arts and Media, specifically for Performing Arts, where there are a number of staff interested in the potential for performance of varying kinds in SL, not least in providing the stand up comedians with a ‘safe’ rehearsal venue prior to their summative assessment of a live recorded session. This building has been created as a flexible space including galleries and a bar, and replaces the gallery and bar previously in separate buildings on the island. It is hoped that the bands, DJs and radio production students will also move in to this building from the Tower over the course of the next few months.
All sessions are followed by a stay and play workshop where the E-learning Team can help you try these out for yourselves. Book workshop separately
13 JANUARY 2009
CMALT - Association of Learning Technology’s registered practitioner scheme
To book a place email clqe-workshops@tees.ac.uk
Perse’s Pies
The virtual food factory on Teeslife has been designed for the Trading Standards and Consumer Protection degree in SSE. The development represents an area of regulatory work difficult to reconstruct in a classroom environment. It is believed that the immersive nature of a virtual world encourages student participation in role play. It is anticipated that it will help develop the cognitive skills required to improve professional performance and provide graduates with an as near real world experience as possible, in alignment with the University objective of providing graduates who are work ready and engaging with the needs of employers. The factory itself provides the opportunity for students to work both individually and in collaboration with others providing a diverse platform in which to learn about the role of the regulator from differing viewpoints. The design is interactive, giving links to information on the web, instant information to enhance the student knowledge or challenging the student to research further through questions and links for further study. Objects students interact with report back to the tutor via email. This enables monitoring of student progress and gives an opportunity for feedback for the student. The factory provides the illusion of more space and activity through well-placed pictures of additional rooms and machinery and is accompanied by sounds of office and factory work.
Greig Gallery
The quality and success of games and animation programmes within SCM is dependent on the provision of training and resources for both staff and students and the quality and standard of teaching is dependent on keeping up with current technologies and using their potential in learning and teaching.The virtual ‘Greig Gallery’ was built specifically to show undergraduate and post-graduate art work produced by students. Images in this virtual gallery enable easy access and international exposure to Teesside University’s courses which publicise the standard of artwork produced by undergraduates. The potential for artists to use SL for not simply exhibiting, but for understanding principles of designing, curating and marketing exhibitions is a valuable practical skill for those hoping to work professionally in this field. Students in Fine Art also have the opportunity to explore how they wish to display and be displayed, and to practise their interpersonal skills in presenting and guiding visitors around their virtual exhibitions via SL. Because there is a strong art community in SL, there is a wide spectrum of amateurs and professionals who can offer feedback and suggestions to students taking advantage of this, and may lead to valuable connections and networking which will be of help in the future.
The French Market & Café
One of the SCM MSc students explored whether the immersiveness virtual worlds provided a better space to learn a foreign language than by using the BBC website or teach yourself materials. A market and a café were created, and language classes took place in them. These were recorded and both students and tutor subsequently took part in an evaluation of the exercises compared with doing similar exercises via BBC videos. Results suggested that although some students encountered some difficulty with using their microphones, they all approved of the method and said they would be likely to try it again.
If you have any queries, suggestions or comments please do not hesitate to contact the E-learning Team
elearning@tees.ac.uk
created by Jennifer Gutridge - E-learning Team