Choosing the best virtual world for your teaching needs
e-Learning online conference 09 programme
Presentation and associated materials
Abstract
There are many virtual worlds, of which an indeterminate subset have potential use in education. Wikipedia lists [1] 66 pages for "Virtual reality community", most (but not all) of which are arguably stand-alone virtual worlds. Yesha Sivan [2] quotes "more than 100 other worlds". And these virtual worlds are being developed, and eliminated, at a rapid rate ...
An increasing number of these, such as Second Life, OpenSim and OLIVE, have been used in a wide range of teaching and learning situations, in universities and colleges across several countries. A sample of UK university academics who responded to an October 2009 Virtual World Watch [3] report on choosing virtual worlds had considered, or used, 15 different such environments between them.
Even when an academic has a stable list of virtual world options, the criteria for comparisons is a complex area in itself. Websites are littered with comparative charts of different complexity and criteria. Sarah Robbins, as part of her PhD research, undertook a facet study [4] of around 60 virtual worlds. From this, she has made a useful Google spreadsheet of her data available online. But many teachers and lecturers in academia do not have the time, or knowledge base, to develop and use their own complex framework.
So how did they, or should they, choose which virtual world is the most appropriate for their particular teaching needs? Are their selection criteria driven by pedagogic needs, or by resource, time or political pressures? And when should an academic consider using a virtual world at all?
And what of your experiences with virtual worlds? Having used one in a formal teaching initiative, would you choose a different one if repeating the exercise? What were the most important advantages, or disadvantages, of using the virtual world that you did?
We do not necessarily have the answers either, but we hope that you may...
Refs:
1 Wikipedia index page for Virtual reality communities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Virtual_reality_communities
2 Sivan, Y. (2009). Overview: State of Virtual Worlds Standards in 2009, 2(3). https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/671/539
3 Virtual World Watch: http://www.virtualworldwatch.net
4 Virtual Worlds Facet Study, by Sarah Robbins: http://is.gd/3PtmL
Presenter
John Kirriemuir
John Kirriemuir is an independent researcher in the fields of virtual world use in teaching and learning, print-on-demand e-commerce, and the socio-economic attributes of rural public libraries. Previously, John undertook research for several funding bodies on the use of gaming-based technologies in teaching and learning, and has been a researcher, manager and coordinator in several UK digital library projects and services.
John is the sole researcher on Virtual World Watch (VWW), a service funded by Eduserv. VWW has researched and produced reports since 2007 documenting the take-up of virtual world use in UK universities and colleges, identifying trends, issues, obstacles to use and subject areas where virtual worlds are being heavily used. Underpinning this work is a continuous process of identifying, mapping and tracking virtual world use in teaching and learning within the UK academic sector.
Facilitator
David White
David has worked in the crossover area between education and online development for over 12 years consulting on and developing new forms of online educational media and interaction for the BBC, Channel 4 and Oxford University. He was a Senior Lecturer in the communication and media field at the University of the West of England specialising in interactive narrative.
David has been the co-manager of Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL) for three years and in that time he has helped to develop and run TALL's suite of online distance courses and has been the principal investigator on a number of JISC-funded elearning projects which have studied issues such as formal and informal sharing online and the culture of online course development. His current research interests include studying the potential of massively multiplayer 3D online environments to support communities of practice and the general culture of participation and social networking on the web.