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Virtual Worlds and Education

It occurred to me last night when I was writing a posting about virtual worlds on my “book review” blog, that I should re-visit the concept of virtual worlds and the role they could play in education.

I read crime fiction and in the book that I have recently finished, WICKER by Kevin Guilfoile, the author raises some interesting ideas of the relationship between “playing” in a virtual world, and crime in the real world. In my blog I explore some of the links that I found about that.

I wrote a couple of posts last year related to Second Life and other virtual environments.

This morning in Stephen Downes’ OLDaily, there is an item Experience the Flight Deck of the NASA Space Shuttle in Second Life.
Stephen comments “This is the sort of thing a 3D environment like Second Life does best“.
The EDUCAUSE CONNECT article by Chris Clark describes how the island of Sophia in Second Life now depicts a visual representation of the space shuttle’s flight deck. I visited and felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland: my avatar was a dwarf in a huge depiction but probably it would all have meant much more to me if had understood more about what I was looking at.
I also had a lot of trouble getting out - left accidentally once, and then, when I really wanted to leave, couldn’t spot the exit sign and so had to resort to transporting myself to home.

While you are at Chris Clark’s site listen to his podcast: DO I NEED A SECOND LIFE? (ELI 08 POSTER) on work that is being done at University of Notre Dame to develop a white paper on the use of virtual world technology in education courses. He comments that currently the virtual world technology is not ready for educational use, but I think there are those who would dispute this.

Here are some links to check

  • In Episode 9 of edna’s e-learning insights: Second Life as an educational tool, Kerry Johnson interviewed educators Lindy McKeown and Jo Kay (known “in world” as Decka Mah and Jokay Wollongong respectively). Jo’s island is JoKaydia and Lindy’s is Terra Incognita. Check out on this site also a variety of links and a list of resources catalogued on edna about Second Life.
  • Second Life in Education wiki: Within this space, Jo Kay (aka jokay Wollongong) and Sean FitzGerald (aka Sean McDunnough) document a detailed list of Educational Uses of Second Life, provide a range of useful resources for educators, and link to a range of handy Second Life online resources.
  • Second Life and Education Blog: Some good links to things like tutorials, case studies and events.
  • ISTE in Second Life ISTE’s Second Life space provides a venue for educators to network and learn from each other about real-life education opportunities and best practices in Second Life.
  • Stephen Downes also has a number of Second Life references worth investigating.

Some places to visit when you are next in Second Life

If you are using Second Life for educational purposes, perhaps you would like to leave a comment with a link to your site or your SL island.

This entry was written by Kerrie Smith and posted on February 27, 2008 at 2:45 pm and filed under Educationau, Australian education, Second Life, virtual environments. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

4 Comments

  1. Jen
    Posted February 28, 2008 at 12:02 pm | Permalink

    I go into second life but frequently am the only person there. Terra Incognita is deserted unless there’s a planned event.

  2. terryg
    Posted March 23, 2008 at 11:07 pm | Permalink

    Virtual worlds and education is a great post. I use this as a learning tool. Even simple things like flight simulator on a large screen television provides an experience some will never be able to participate in, especially the cockpit of a jumbo jet or for the boy’s, a fighter jet.

  3. Maeve
    Posted September 19, 2008 at 11:05 am | Permalink

    Hi Kerry, do you know which TAFE colleges are conducting courses in Second Life (other than Queensland)? We are trying very hard to bend the Central management to thinking about new technolgies, so far with little result.

  4. Kerrie
    Posted September 19, 2008 at 4:36 pm | Permalink

    Hello Maeve

    Have you seen this link (doesn’t answer your question though)

    The WA police force has a recruitment pavilion in Second Life.

    “Acting Professional Development assistant commissioner Gary Dreibergs said technology was changing and WA Police wanted to position themselves in emerging recruiting markets that were not possible through television, newspaper and radio.”

    Check out the article online:

    http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=98662

    Check out information about the project at:

    http://www.binaryculture.com.au/stepforward

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