May 8, 2008
Co-Founder of Second Life Says Academics Are Biggest Trailblazers in Virtual Worlds
Cory Ondrejka, the co-founder of the virtual world Second Life who is now a visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, said in a speech today that virtual worlds are here to stay, and that professors are among the most active pioneers.
“In my view the academy has been blazing the trail of adoption of virtual worlds far more than gamers or industry,” said Mr. Ondrejka, who spoke at a conference at Case Western Reserve University called Collaboration Technology and Engaging the Campus 2008.
Naturally, the event was broadcast within Second Life, in Case Western’s campus in the virtual world. I attended the conference virtually, and was able to ask Mr. Ondrejka what the biggest challenge for Second Life was in being able to be more than just a passing fad in higher education.
“The challenges with Second Life is it has significant technical challenges for use,” he said, noting that it takes powerful computers and fast network connections for Second Life to function properly. “You can’t assume that your students are going to be able to run Second Life within the school’s network infrastructure.”
He argued that some form of 3-D virtual environment will catch on, though he admitted that it might not be Second Life that wins the race. The reason that the idea is powerful, he said, is that studies show that humans respond to a visual Internet, and that they express greater trust for the people they communicate with when they see a virtual representation of the person. “Learning in a place in 3-D affects us differently than text,” he said.
Mr. Ondrejka said that when professors first build a virtual campus, they usually try to exactly replicate a classroom in Second Life, with desks, chairs, and walls. But then they realize that the world allows different kinds of movement and communication than the real world. “You realize that in a world where you can fly, classrooms aren’t really that useful,” he said. So professors have built new kinds of classrooms online with no roofs. “Suddenly you see this explosion of classroom forms that matches what they’re trying to teach,” he added.
Organizers of the conference set up a booth for The Chronicle in Case Western’s Second Life campus during the event (shown below), and I manned our table between panel sessions and chatted with a couple of conference participants.
At one point my virtual avatar got stuck between a virtual chair and the wall of the booth, however, and I had to reboot my computer to get that sorted out. Luckily that’s never happened to me in real life. —Jeffrey R. Young
Comments
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n00b ;D
— Jeff McNeill May 8, 05:41 PM #
You got stuck? Did you try to sit in the chair? That usually works for me.
Sounds like a great event.
Should happen more often.
MLani Montgomery in Second Life
— MLani May 8, 06:05 PM #
Yep, tried to sit, tried to sit in different nearby chair, tried to fly. The avatar just wouldn’t move. I’m pretty sure the environment crashed, except that I could still turn my head and see different views around me… just… couldn’t… move. -J.R.Y.
— wired campus May 8, 06:26 PM #
nice to read real life commentary about Second Life, as an educational tool, the Virtual World has just begun to flex its wings.
— Terran Timeless May 8, 06:44 PM #
Not only are there technical challenges with Second Life, there are other concerns as well. It’s a for-profit, rather wild-west kind of place that wasn’t built with learning at its core. The concept’s great, and the environment is stimulating, but we could do (and I think we should do) better.
Wouldn’t it be great if Sloan-C, Educause, the New Media Consortium, and other like-minded groups got together and developed a virtual environment just for education? I imagine huge libraries of digital materials (like those being scanned right now by the University of Michigan and Google) residing next to the vast collection of open course ware from MIT and other institutions. Academics, students, and staff members strolling along safe, stimulating virtual avenues engaging in conversation and learning from each other.
— Bill Drummond May 9, 07:06 AM #
When we developed the Ohio University campus, it was focused on learning and remains that way. We look for additional opportunities both credit and non credit, and believe that an educational virtual world is not really that far away, especially as we see more opportunities to create new and exciting learning experiences within the space.
— Muriel Ballou May 9, 09:20 AM #
I’ve loaded up Second Life – and couldn’t go anywhere or do anything. It’s completely NON-intuitive to me, and I’m pretty computer-centric. I guess I’m not going to be blazing any trails. Educationally, Second Life appears to me to be the answer to a question that very few people have asked.
— Al May 9, 10:52 AM #
I believe immersive Virtual Reality is the next tidal wave approaching – Second life has problems in terms of its closed for-profit nature, performance etc. Another open-source virtual worls should operate more like the web with each organization providing the horsepower it needs, and standards would allow your inventory to travel with you from site to site – then this technology will live up to its promise and potential
— Bill May 9, 05:32 PM #
The American Chemical Society has an island and is offering free land to educators (ACS membership is required – see http://acsisland.wordpress.com/) through its resident scientist program. For a review of chemistry activity in SL, see http://slusage.com/chemistry.asp
— Hiro Sheridan May 9, 08:27 PM #
Bill – do you think a purely education based VE would have the draw of something like SL? Could the external aims of such a place not discourage adhoc learners?
Maybe we should create a ‘safe’ version of the internet for academics… ;)
— CG May 10, 06:33 PM #
Good questions, CG. It seems to me that one reason educators are interested in places like SL is their “draw.” Fair enough. Draw is important, but it’s not, or should not be, the exclusive aim of any educational activity.
I’m not sure what you mean by “external aims” of a purely education based VE, and while I would surely not want to discourage ad hoc learners, again, they are not the reason such a purely education based VE would exist.
The lack of safety in SL is one of my objections to it, but it is not the most important one. SL was created to make money (and I certainly don’t object to making money), but it wasn’t created for learning. As for a version of the internet for academics, doesn’t Internet 2 qualify?
I am not advocating for a closed system, just one designed and managed by and for educators and their students.
— Bill Drummond May 11, 06:30 AM #
Bill,
I have similar concerns regarding safety on our campuses. Actually, I have greater concerns…
I certainly hope we don’t reconstruct our current “walled garden” approaches in these new worlds.
— Kevin Gamble May 11, 07:33 PM #
I think my air traffic control professor in my virtual university is a real woman posing as a virtual man who has a petrodactyl avatar. It’s so distracting I can’t concentrate on my studies. Planes will crash.
— original marci May 12, 02:06 PM #
I agree with Bill Drummond’s comment # 5. He only scratches the surface of the unsuitability of SL and offers up a rather obvious answer. We don’t have to be slotted as nay-sayers when we’re critical; there’s a lot to be critical of and there’s a lot to learn.
For one, we need completely new instructional design models. I’d say we abandon the term “instruction” all together.
We need for faculty to be able to reconceptualize their roles. What an opportunity an avatar-based system creates for them to do just that.
I spend quite a a lot of time in my SL avatar playing and observing. It’s a great place to be creative and self-expressive using 3D modeling. I’ve found some of the most impressive work through the Not Possible in Real Life group. The artists and designers they showcase “get” the environment.
— Suzanne Aurilio May 13, 03:03 PM #