You are Never Alone

Following on from yesterday’s posting I was interested to see that the latest issue of Innovate is a

” special issue on academics in virtual environments [that] focuses on the possibilities and pitfalls of teaching in virtual worlds. Our contributors offer insights into how educators exploring multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) can use the lessons learned in earlier versions of the technology, describe worlds built to meet specific educational needs, and offer advice for using Second Life and other environments to help students with special needs.“

For me this was very timely. To access the articles you need to register and login but the registration is free.

From the first article about the similarities between MOOs and newer technologies such as Second Life which is a MUVE, comes this example:

The structure of Second Life allows us to forget that communication is itself part of the constructed space. Rather than merely building a classroom space in Second Life, consider building an environment that reacts directly to student activity in a fun or surprising way. For example, a recent build called “Cancerland: A Thyroid Cancer Narrative by Hilde Hullabaloo” (Mazar 2008) uses transparent objects that visitors walk through to initiate the various phases that move the narrative forward. Walking through these veil-like objects triggers audio clips that become layered voices, situating the visitor more intimately within the personal, medical experience described than merely walking through an exhibit or clicking on objects would allow. Cancerland is alive, as it were, with these voices, each located within its own object, in a way that offers a more rich experience, one that is different for every visitor who moves through the narrative as each moves on her own path.

Their conclusion is interesting too

What is perhaps most surprising about working first in the text-based virtual world of MOOs and then in the highly visual, three-dimensional Second Life is how remarkably similar they are; Second Life represents an important step in the development of virtual spaces used for learning, but it is not the first of its kind nor are its problems and constraints unique. While the technologies driving MOOs and Second Life are different, the challenges for educators remain the same.

It seems obvious to say that we must learn from the past, but as technology accelerates there is a tendency to regard all advances as “new” and not to think about how old processes, pedagogies, and methodologies might also provide pointers to the future.