Eduserv 3D Virtual Worlds symposium - Summary of the day

Andy Powell's introduction that described the avalanche of interest in the area of Second Life (yes, SL, not so much 3DVWs in general) provided a good framework with which to consider what happened during the day. Why is there so much interest? Is it that the time is just right? Is it that we sense an obvious fit pedagogically?
Strangely no one stressed the pedagogical fitness of Second Life - it's social and active dimension. This, in my view, is what is exciting. The fact that you can make and sell stuff has some potential but is not really where SL should meet HE.
On entering the conference room (lines of chairs facing a stage) we were flanked by several shiny huge plasma screens displaying the virtual congregation of attendees on Eduserv Island - also sitting facing a stage in SL. My heart sank. To see that here - how disappointing. Stale practice compounding stale practice. Sorry.
Stephen Downes played his cheap trick of taking the opposing view. And thank goodness he did. Though next time someone books him, put him on first. Give the others something to work against. He asked the real questions. He debunked all over the place. Someone needed to do it.
The overall UKHE picture for me was:

• there are a few excellent examples (I would guess) of people using SL in UKHE
• most people can't imagine life beyond their comfort zone (and so should stop discussing and thinking about 3DVWs at the moment)
  
• there were a lot of old people with old attitudes here - just leave it alone (and that's my inclination too for me personally). Where we the students in this event? At least one speaker should have been an avid user (Jim Purbrick from Linden Labs could have been this person but he kicked off the day by making sure everyone was up to speed with the basics. I would've liked to have heard from the real users. People like AngryBeth - not so young, but very young in SL).
• Diana Laurillard in the plenary session had to ask for some passionate input - and struggled to find it on the stage or in the audience.
• Why was Gilly Salmon asked to speak? Her SEAL project hopefully will have something useful to report in 6 months or a year, but doesn't appear to have anything to contribute yet. When invited I think she should have politely refused. She made one very valuable point actually: SL is an opportunity to do things that other environments don't permit.

I found the day valuable. However I don't think grey suited attitudes and SL fit. Can UK HE remove its grey suit?

Panel Session

Chaired by Diana Laurillard and presenters joined by sara de Frietas.
SdF is doing more on games. She joined Uni of Coventry in a Serious Games role. Also working with Uni of Sheff on a Games project.
Q: To the uniformed 3D VWs are bad. There's a lot of bad PR too. How do we persuade our institutions to proceed?
Jim: More events like this will reveal the best side of SL. What isn't possible in RL but is in SL will make the difference.
SL to go open source on the server? - Jim: yes it will become an open source. (The simulator engine).
Q: A lot of this is not new.
Hamish: Pedagogies? Extending the LE type answer. People can select the way they want to engage.
Gilly: We're not trying to invent new pedagogies at Leicester. But a wider range of approaches. (Extending the LE again). We're aiming for a better student experience, not new peds. Transferability of peds. Educators do need evidence.
Q: It's exciting because it's accessible to non-geeks. It offers low barreirs to entry and plenty of opportunity for creativity. But, can we rely on the service.
Jim: Release of the client to open source should help. If you own a sim (land) LL is working towards allows you to postpone the regualr upgrade (and downtime) so that you can depend upon your event happening.
RR: For getting a feeling of co-location it really works in situations where it's not actually possible. I'd like to see what people accessing this event through SL have to say about the feeling of presence.
SD: The economy of SL is incompatible with the openness of SL.
SdF: Extending the LE agin. It's just one more opportunity for us.
Q: SL as a tool? It's interesting that it's a closed environment - and that's where the value is.
JS: The discussion about economy may be a red herring. There are lots of aspects to the potential of SL. I do think it will loook very different in the future.
SD: Britain can change its leaders, SL can't.
RR: We've already decided this is an accepted and powerful. The question is what we are going to do with it.
GS: We can shape tomorrow's VLE by editing this one directly.
SdF: SL isn't the be-all-and-end-all. There are lots of related tex.
JS: We've not got much to use by exploring, and potentially a lot to gain.

Virtual Worlds in Context, Stephen Downes

Mostly an economic thing he offers.
He says there's a lot of hype. As usual he is doing a very good job at debunking some of this. He describes a desolate experience of wandering around a built environment where people are mostly absent unless you head for a casino.
SL is conceptually simple. The content is verything. The media is largely push driven.
Where are the crowds? Why was CopyBot killed?
Historically there were two sides to the web: the gamer side, and the text side.
He thinks SL is a game - making things and showing them off. You can cheat in SL.
We've seen this before in MUDs and MOOs (don't look as good though). SD and others set up the Multi-Academic User Domain (MAUD). set up in 95.
80% of online users will have second lives by 2011 (Gartner). He disagrees.
Who ons SL? The commercialisation of education (ref David Noble).
Is it scaleable? Not if there's only one provider (Linden Labs).
Interoperability? - there are issues of transportbility.
What's really happening? It taps into a latent conservatism. He shows a photo of us, next to a photo of the SL attendees and shows us that they look the same! YES! This is the same thing as recording your lectures said Andrew! Where's the imagination? Where's the next opportunity being exploited?
There are usually better ways of doing the things you can do in SL. Chatting to people in SL (especially a lot of people).
How much is the hype about following the crowd?
He is talking so much sense. OK, he knows it's easy to argue against anything, but I agree with everything he's saying. I'm waiting for him to tell us how 3D VWs is good.
He's just dismissed it as economically driven. He's right. There should be a diverse, democrartic, open source alternative. It should be like the web - a learning commons.
So what he hasn't acknowledged is some of the real potential for activity based learning in a 3DVW or the soc net potential.
Next the panel session.

SEAL: Second Environment Advanced Learning, Gilly Salmon

SEAL -omg another animal from the Media Zoo. She's showing Pets Corner and Safari Park!
IMPALA (Podcasting) is on the move from the breeding area to scaling up BTW.
What is worthwhile about SL.
What can we do in SL that's different from RL. We don't really think it's that new.
'Up until now we've been messing about in SL' www.le.ac.uk/seal.
Defining tomorrow's pedagogy is a speculative operation (quoted Stephen Heppel).
"We're researchers trying to develop evidence, trying to construct models of learning for the future. We can only spend public money if we're likely to develop usable models for the future."
Using a cognitive mapping methodology, as RL methodologies aren't that useful to SL.
Looking to involve 'everyone' in the research they are conducting.
Question about ethics and informed consent in SL: We don't have to invent a new approach as we are inviting people in.
Cognitive Mapping (Kelly 1955). CM is a way of representing a person's thinking: perception, though and action. Software: Decisioon explorer. Outputs network diagrams.
Cultural resistance question: "Work where the energy is." Get people over the basic skills.

Second Nature, Joanna Scott

Joanna Scott is from Nature journal.
She had team meetings with remote colleagues to begin with which were 'unmitigated disasters'.

• Enhanced 3D visualisation - good for natural history
• Rapid development potential - not a major risk. they were prepared to give it a go and if necessary, cut their lossses.
• International communication potential
• They have created a molecule creation tool (M4) (visualisation potential) Staic representations of molecules, but some people have come together to make the molecules interactive.
  
• They have a tool to convert VRML to SL 3D. they used it to try to repliacted 3D models of cells, but the resolution available in SL prims was not adequate to produce meaning representations.
• They take content from other scientists and let them develop it in SL.
• Blue Obelisk Cemetry - a quiz tool (this could be done on the web, but the academic has found a lot of people turning up. They're turning out to be interesting).
• Multimedia: RSS, Powerpoint, translation pavillion
• Virtual Desk - a library
• Research science hasn't taken off to the same extent as educational initiatives have for them. There is one group who are trying to study evolution in action.
• "We don't really know what we're doing in SL at all. We think there's a lot of potential." They're interested in hosting other scientists.
• They're thinking about hosting events for invited spekers and have invited authors of popular science books to get them started.
• "Why would we put our PDFs in SL when we can put them on the Web?" she asked. SL is different to the Web.
• Communication is the big thing that SL offers.
• SL will impact on RL conferences - especially Environmental Science conferences (for obvious reasons).
• A question: how do you justify the expense of spending so much time in SL and buying land? That's her job (an AI-er!) to horizon scan and take risks. It's better to be ahead of the curve, taking risks, and lerning before the mainstream wave that will come in 3 years makes Nature redundant.
  

Holyrood Park: a virtual campus for Edinburgh - Hamish McCleod, University of Edingburgh

This talk is from the inside - a constructivist perspective.
SL offers: social activity > reflection > surprise (disequilibrium) > new learning.
It's like and unlike RL - that's useful. It's not a game but playful.
They have an island and a project around it: Vue (Virtual University of Edinburgh).
Posting photos from RL using mobile phones sent into SL where they are mounted on surfaces.
So you could have students collecting images to discuss in SL (his example unknown plants to be discussed by plant students!).

• redefining learning spaces - physical and virtual
• highlighting active learning (stud gen)
• highlighting issues of identity
• learning as becomong - safety adopting professional identities

Issues for us:
legal - inst/provider relationship

• data processor or data controller
• risk assessment and guidance; liability

system requirements

• processor
• bandwidth
• etc
  

IBM's use of virtual worlds, Roo Reynolds

Talking about 3D Virt Worlds within the context of the Web2.0 social and interactive space.
Web 2.0 is an attitude - not a technology. (Ian Davis)
It's about: participation, soc net, user generating.
"Flickr's not about my photos, but my friend's photos."
Some 3D Virtual Worlds: Gogofrog; 3B (bring your web site into the world. It's really important you can see your avatars and those of others. You see people looking at your site and talk to them about your shared interest); Cyworld (like MySpace with avatars); Habo Hotel; There.com; Active Worlds; Kaneva; Sony PS Home(a meeting place rather than a creating place); Croquet; Ogoglio City; EVE Online (it's a game but a soc space where you play with your friends, conversing, like playing golf with afriend socially).
IBM Innovation Jam (brainstorm) - funding for a 3D Internet.
A lot of IBMers have been meeting informally in SL. (3,000, about 1% of IBM).
A world wide opportunity - you can see the network due to the proximity of the avatars and the patterns of groupings in meetings and post meetings.
"Land is cheap!" The IBM have a 'continent's' worth of islands/sims.
They buy a lot of stuff to support the community rather than build.
They have very big auditoriums for lectures, but it's the social things that are much more interesting.
IBM runs Alumni events - we could.
The back channel potential is good.
Showed the redopsim molecule. A fantastic model of a real molecule that you can climb about on.
RR: "I like the idea of rehearsal - SL supports that gradual process of learning on the job in a safe way."
see rooreynolds.com blogging on 3DVWs

Learning in Second Life - Dr Jim Purbrick, Linden Labs

A good overview of SL - Persistent, Massively Mlti-user, resident built.
Services: Land=server space, classified advertising
"SL is not a game" but a "creation engine" a place to make and sell/share stuff
3D skills in SL, but make textures in Photoshop, sounds in Sound Forge, create 3D animations with something like Poser, and put it all together with scripting.
Transferable skills - these production skills are real life skills in the digital economy.
So potential for business skills to sell the stuff you make.
Talks about building and selling a car and developing a brand and marketing it.
Throw a launch party. Real world event planning.
Artificial Life Research - script virtual fish, virtual food and predators.
Performance.
Movie making (design and build sets, costumes, etc, etc)
Charity (eg Red Nose, Relay for Life).
All ages and genders from around the world. More Euro-centric than US centric now surprisingly. In all respects a different profile than games. Especially gender (40% female).

Why has education got interested in SL?
"SL started as a rolling hillside in 2003" - everything in it has been built by the residents.
Instant gratification - "It's very easy to get something started. If you get an idea you can just go and do it. Very satisfying."
"Creation is always on." There's no creation mode. You don't have to stop socialising while you fiddling with your creations.
Collaborative creation - there's always someone you can ask for help.
Situated learning - (Ivory Tower of Primatives is full of instructions of how you would make something complex in SL).
On-demand learning - all sorts of CoPs exist and 101 courses.
You don't go on a course and then start to learn, you just start and seek help as and when you need it.
LSL Wiki for help on scripting.
Examples and Building Blocks - not always starting from scratch . there are places where you can get things (Gubiestore) that you can further develop.
Physics - simulation, show people the maths, building rockets
History - eg the rocket museum
Skydiving - get a plane and jump out without doing any harm.
Real Life Educators - loads of courses being taught.

Andy Powell introduction

This is a 'blended symposium' (there is an audience who we can see in SL too at 192, 38, 32 Eduserv Island - Virtual Congress Centre).
Someone here is Google jockeying the SL view - I love back channels. we should really promote back channeling.
Event organisers had a planning headache because of knowing if they were talking about SL or RL.
Great interest in SL in education:
● 96 proposals for the recent bid. 90 of which were on SL strand! We did well!
● This event sold out in 2 days

Eduserve Foundation Symposium "Virtual Worlds worlds, real learning"

The next few posts come from the Eduserv events