First of all Nancy talked a little about her (and other members of the MMOOC7 team) connection with Second Life (SL) and then went to tell us a little of the history of SL. She also told us how easy it is to immerse yourself in SL and forget about the real world. It also appears that there is some language that has come out of the virtual world (griefers!) but can also lead to connections in the real world. She told us that there are now 1 million regular users every month even though numbers have declined.
She then went on to talk about the a recent advancement in virtual worlds, the development of oculus rift which is a type of surround glasses that connects with the virtual world so that it feels more realistic - not just pictures on a screen. This obviously makes the experience even more immersive than before.
It also means that you can connect with people from all over the world in real time and collaborate with them as well. Another advantage of SL is that you can build your own environment and add to it, you are not just dependent on the people who create the site. This is opposite to what people can experience in World of Warcraft where the environment is static or pre-created and it is not possible to change the environment from what has been created. It is also relatively low cost compared to the real world.
Next Nancy talked about notecards which she told us was one of the main benefits for teachers in that you can message students with comments and assignments, she also told us about 'intellibooks' which sounds almost like an online learning system where you can know about the course you are taking as well as posting assignments.
You can also buy intellibooks for various purposes!
After this Nancy talked about some of the disadvantages of Second Life. The main problems which people can have is that of timezones and languages. (Which is the same as any live system.) Computers need to be quite powerful to run SL and you also need a good internet connections as I discovered when I first tried to enter SL years ago with a weaker computer. There are a lot of distractions in SL too, people wanting to chat and play.
The next disadvantage works both ways - some people think there are too many rules and some too few. Proof that you can't please all of the people all of the time. Some people just don't feel comfortable in SL and start to avoid it, they need help and support to engage with the virtual world. The opposite is also true in that some people get addicted so you do need to set yourself strict boundaries! Nancy said that she just switched her life into SL both learning and teaching here.
One major advantage of virtual worlds is that you can create realistic simulations which can help in real life situations. I had come across this before on another webinar and it seems that this really is a major benefit which could be utilised more. Linked to this but not exactly the same is teamwork - working and collaborating to complete tasks which may be both practical or impractical in the real world. The skills learned may be transferred to the real world and as mentioned earlier, if a student is really engaged in the task they may not realise they are learning.
Several universities actually have a presence on SL, Nancy found nearly a hundred before she got tired of looking! And there are many many subjects which you can find out about on SL. At some stage it is hoped that people will be able to teleport between different worlds.
After that Nancy showed us some of the real uses of SL including links to youtube videos on the projects. She finished off by giving us a list of links to some resources about education in SL.
I did find this interesting and I can definitely see some benefits of SL and virtual worlds but to be honest the need for a good internet connection and powerful computers would exclude many students, especially in poorer areas of the world. I am also not sure about the efficacy of learning languages in the virtual world compared to the real world. The only possible benefit I can think of at the moment is that students would be able to hide behind their avatar, which may reduce affective barriers to learning.
Thank you Nancy for an enlightening talk on virtual worlds, I personally am still not convinced. Sorry!
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