Giant Cell in Second Life
By Tom Werner | July 3, 2008
One of the great things about a virtual world like Second Life is the ability to change the scale of 3D objects.
Here’s a eukaryotic cell (cell with a nucleus) on Genome Island (SLurl) in Second Life.
You can enter it and see the cell structures close up.
If you click on a mitochondrion or a lysosome you get a notecard describing it.
Great stuff.
Topics: 3D Internet, Second Life® | No Comments »
George Carlin and the Power of Words
By Tom Werner | July 1, 2008
George Carlin said that when people want to add importance to something they add words and syllables to its name.
O ‘Rain’ becomes ’shower activity’ and eventually ‘areas of precipitation.’
O Leaving the plane becomes the ‘deboarding process.’
Experts, over time, add words and syllables to the things they study.
O ‘Shell shock’ becomes ‘combat fatigue,’ and then ‘post-traumatic stress syndrome.’
You can see this sometimes in our field.
O ‘Classroom training’ becomes ‘face-to-face training,’ and eventually ‘instructor-led training.’
O ‘Self-paced training’ becomes ‘asynchronous learning.’
O ‘Teaching’ becomes ‘instruction,’ and eventually ‘pedagogy.’
A big theme for Carlin was that words take on strange power.
People use words to make simple things seem complicated, and to make themselves seem knowledgeable.
Sometimes it’s just self puffery: I’m an expert, look at the big words I know.
But Carlin said it was a way to mess with you: I know big words, so I’m right and you’re wrong.
And a way to control you. They call it the deboarding process because it makes it easier for them to tell you to stay in your seat.
We should watch out for this in the workplace learning profession, I mean in training.
Topics: Trends | No Comments »
A Cultural-Immersion Course Combining Web-Based Content and Second Life
By Tom Werner | June 30, 2008
Franz Futterknecht, Ben Hamilton, and Julie Henderson of the University of Florida, in slides for the Federal Virtual Worlds Expo, describe a Chinese cultural-immersion course that combines web-based content and Second Life.
The learner enters through a web-based portal and chooses a web-based or 3D-experiential (Second Life) route according to preference.
The content is covered in either way.
The idea is that the learner can choose how the 2D information and the 3D virtual world augment each other.
The course encourages cross-over back and forth between 2D and 3D, ideally optimizing the affordances of both modes.
Links and prompts in each mode connect to the other mode.
The idea of the learner choosing his or her preferred mode is a pretty big idea.
Having the two modes be standard web-based and Second Life is an even bigger idea.
Topics: 3D Internet, Blended learning, Second Life® | No Comments »
My First-Hand Look at the Education Grid on Wonderland
By Tom Werner | June 27, 2008
I got a chance to to take my first look at the Immersive Education Initiative’s Education Grid on Wonderland.
It’s still in its early stages, as the developers are the first to admit.
But it’s very exciting. The potential is obvious.
O You get a simple avatar when you first enter, which you can modify.
O You move about using arrow keys, as in a world like Second Life.
O You can visit several sites, each hosted on a separate server.
O Various applications — a document, a spreadsheet, a calculator — hang on walls.
The intention to connect being in 3D space and collaborating on applications is very clear.
(I wasn’t able to operate the applications, but this is probably because I didn’t install OpenOffice when I installed Wonderland. I’ll reinstall and add OpenOffice the next time I go in.)
The Education Grid — and the Wonderland project in general — will be very exciting to follow.
Topics: 3D Internet | No Comments »
Video Games for Training at the Tipping Point
By Tom Werner | June 26, 2008
The numbers in the Entertainment Software Association’s recent survey on the use of video game-based training in the workplace are startling.
A number of observers have noted it, including my colleague Gary Woodill (who’s one of three sitting in for Stephen Downes).
O 70 percent of major employers use interactive software and games to train employees.
O 75 percent of those already offering video game-based training plan to expand use in the next three to five years.
O 78 percent of those not using games are likely to offer it in the next five years.
For the heck of it, let’s cut those numbers in half to balance any bias (the ESA is pro-games) and to cover the OK-but-not-huge sample size (150 large U.S. businesses and nonprofits).
That would mean, roughly:
O One third of large employers are using games for training.
O One third of those not using games plan to.
So, even cutting the numbers in half, more than half of large employers have video game-based training on their agendas.
Games2train gets a mention in the press release.
Topics: Games | No Comments »
The Academic Research on Virtual Worlds for Learning
By Tom Werner | June 25, 2008
The field of virtual worlds for learning feels odd at the moment.
On the one hand, there’s enormous interest and early adoption.
O At the high end, the military and healthcare in particular are doing a lot with virtual worlds. Forterra, BreakAway, and Virtual Heroes are some innovative developers here.
O There’s tremendous interest in Second Life in higher education. Join the SLED e-mail list for a week and see your inbox fill with e-mails as professors discuss everything under the sun about teaching in Second Life. See also Jennings and Collins (2008).
O Tony O’Driscoll, Karl Kapp, and others have written and presented about the possibilities of Second Life for workplace learning.
O ASTD opened ASTD Island in Second Life a couple of months ago.
O Open-source virtual-worlds platforms are bursting with possibilities. Sun’s Wonderland platform is one example.
And check out this video of the Croquet open-source virtual-worlds platform.
On the other hand, research literature showing the effectiveness of virtual worlds for learning is pretty scarce thus far. If you spend some time in Google or the academic databases such as ERIC, you’ll see:
O Quite a few articles commenting on the possibilities, theoretical implications, or history of virtual worlds for learning.
O But the main body of research on the effectiveness of virtual worlds for learning is by Professor Chris Dede’s team at Harvard using River City (on the Active Worlds platform, snapshot at left) for teaching scientific inquiry to middle schoolers. For example:
Dede, Clarke, Ketelhut, Nelson, and Bowman (2005) found that the experimental (River City) students improved biological knowledge more than control students, constructed final analyses showing greater inquiry, scored better on a ‘thoughtfulness of inquiry’ affective test, and had better attendance.
Ketelhut (2007) found that students increase data-gathering behavior on successive visits to River City. Also, self-efficacy (confidence) was correlated with data-gathering behaviors at the beginning of their time in River City but not at the end. This may possibly indicate that a virtual-world experience increases confidence.
I think that with disruptive technology like this, innovation and adoption greatly outpace the research literature.
REFERENCES
Dede, C., Clarke, J., Ketelhut, D. J., Nelson, B., & Bowman, C. (2005). Students’ motivation and learning of science in a multi-user virtual environment. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, Montreal, Canada.
Jennings, N., & Collins, C. (2008). Virtual or virtually U: Educational institutions in Second Life. International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(3), 180-186.
Ketelhut, D. J. (2007). The impact of student self-efficacy on scientific inquiry skills: An exploratory investigation in River City, a multi-user virtual environment. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1), 99-111.
Topics: 3D Internet, K-12, Research, Second Life® | 2 Comments »
The Education Grid on Sun Wonderland Opened
By Tom Werner | June 24, 2008
The Immersive Education Initiative launched the Education Grid last Friday with the Sun Wonderland virtual-world platform hosted on four organizations’ servers.
Stan Trevena blogged about it. (That’s his snapshot at left.)
(Others have blogged about it as well.)
This is a big deal because:
O The Sun Wonderland platform is open source.
O The grid is distributed, i.e., hosted on multiple organizations’ servers.
O The Sun Wonderland platform is specifically designed for business and education. The plan is that everyday desktop applications can be used in-world, assets can be imported in, and so forth.
The platform is still in very early stages of development.
But this is a big milestone in the virtual-worlds space.
Topics: 3D Internet | 2 Comments »
Augmented Reality
By Tom Werner | June 23, 2008
Stan Trevena shared these clips of augmented reality.
Augmented reality is the combination of real-world and computer-generated data.
The first video shows a character moving about in 3D on a tabletop.
The second video shows a Second Life avatar moving about an office in life-size 3D.
Wow.
Topics: 3D Internet, Second Life® | No Comments »
My Superhero Avatar
By Tom Werner | June 21, 2008
I picked up the free Iron Man avatar and animation override at Silver Screen (SLurl).
That’s my avatar as Iron Man (top left).
What’s interesting is the animation override.
You drag the animation override onto your avatar and your avatar then moves according to the animation scripting.
So my Iron Man avatar stands and moves superheroically.
What’s fun is that you can drag the animation override onto any avatar.
So there’s my normal Carston avatar (middle left), standing superheroically thanks to the Iron Man AO.
And if I put on an ASTD avatar and add the Iron Man AO (bottom left), I can be Super Workplace Learning Professional!
Silly, I know. But kind of fun.
And think of the possibilities for learning.
I could take on an old-person avatar with old-person AO and experience what it’s like to move around an apartment, store, or hospital. Same with a child. Same with a person with a disability. Any person/situation with unique movements.
I could virtually experience what someone else experiences.
Topics: 3D Internet, Second Life® | 2 Comments »
Our Avatars, Ourselves
By Tom Werner | June 20, 2008
A couple of my colleagues have buffed up their Second Life avatars recently.
Connie Allen (Radiator Magic, top left) and Janet Clarey (Alpha Biddle, middle left) have designer skin and hair and cool clothes, giving them a striking, notice-me appearance.
(You can do the same at Avatar Island (SLurl), or lots of other places in Second Life.)
This got me thinking about the different ways that we represent ourselves online and in games.
O There’s your 3D avatar and pseudonym in Second Life.
O There’s your photo and real name in your profile in Facebook.
O And your photo and real name in Skype.
O E-mail and IM usually just have your name.
O Some web sites and discussion boards just use a username, like twerner.
This issue of online representation — how we represent our presence — is an interesting one.
And in particular the effect of our avatar’s appearance on both our virtual and real-life behavior. This is the sort of thing they study at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab.
By the way, Linden Lab has added some new avatars to everyone’s Inventory in Second Life.
The boxbot (bottom left) is my avatar, Carston Courier . . . at least for the moment.
Topics: 3D Internet, Second Life® | No Comments »