Learning & Multiplayer Virtual Worlds
StumbleUponTechnical developments in massive multiplayer virtual worlds are advancing dramatically. Second Life, created and inhabited by users, prototypes the role MMVWs can play in education processes...
Second Life: The Educational Possibilities of a Massively
Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW)
Technical developments in MMVWs continue to advance dramatically. The following is an edited extract from a session (delivered at EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference, 16 February 2005, Austin, Texas and EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference, 26 April 2005, San Francisco) where Dave Antonacci and Nellie Modaress toured Second Life, a MMVW created by each user and simultaneously played by hundreds of people around the world...
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To view the full presentation (including video demos of the Second Life MMVW) go to: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=SWR0552
"The ability to create your own virtual world and interact with it and other people in it offers some exciting new possibilities for education. As we demonstrate educational possibilities, we will also introduce a vision mechanism for incorporating MMVWs into teaching and learning strategies.
We’ll look specifically at Second Life, a MMVW created by each user and simultaneously played by hundreds of people around the world.
Our goals are to increase your awareness of current developments in computer games and simulations and to help you begin considering the educational possibilities of these emerging technologies, But most importantly, we want to encourage you explore virtual worlds, like Second Life, so you will be prepared to teach with this technology as it continues to mature.
Emerging Technologies for Learning
"Virtually all college students have had experience with games. Games represent active, immersive learning environments where users integrate information to solve a problem. Learning in this manner incorporates discovery, analysis, interpretation, and performance as well as physical and mental activity. An increasing number of colleges and universities are exploring the use of games to enhance learning. The NLII's interest in games and simulations is to gain a fresh view of cognition and learning by looking at games as the intersection of play, pedagogy, and technology." (http://www.educause.edu/Games/1008)
Constructivist Learning
You cannot be passive in a game or simulation. Students engaged in educational games and simulations are interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving. This aproch to learning is much more consistent with constructivist learning where knowledge is constructed by the learners as they are actively problem-solving in an authentic context.
Highly Social Experiences
In constructivist learning, collaboration is important, as knowledge is socially constructed. One common misconception of gaming is a lone player, secluded in front of his or her computer. This is not the reality with modern computer games. Most games have a community of players who interact socially to discuss strategies, share experiences, and provide encouragement via websites, discussion boards, blogs, and wikis. Involvement in these gaming communities, sometimes called meta-gaming, can greatly improve a player’s game performance and enjoyment.
Several massively multiplayer games have evolved to provide even more user interaction and influence. In Second Life, users can create their own world.
Second Life goes beyond a game, where players make moves and receive outcomes. It is a virtual world, created by and inhabited by its users.
Person-Person Interaction Demonstration: Patient Exam Role-Play
For example, doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals often interact with patients, and students in these professions need practice applying patient-encounter strategies. Role-playing is a common learning activity for this.
To demonstrate how Second Life can be used for role playing, we’ve created our own Second Life medical clinic.... Also, note that the actors during this demonstration were located in England, Denmark, Seattle, and Kansas City, but they were all virtually present in the clinic exam room.)
In addition to medical education, many other fields require person-person interaction and would have similar educational applications for Second Life. In your field, do you teach students how to interact with other people? Would your students learn anything if they designed, built, and inhabited a medieval village?
Person-Object Demonstration: Making a Park
People also learn how to interact with objects, which includes designing and building objects. We teach people how to operate a piece of equipment or use an instrument. We teach people how to build homes, make jewelry, and create sculpture. Second Life can provide a virtual world where your students can apply concepts and principles, providing a realistic problem context.
Object-Object Demonstration: Orbiting Satellite
People learn how objects interact with other objects. For example, we teach students how mountains are formed when two tectonic plates collide, how hazardous chemicals get into our water supply, and how a car is built in an assembly line.
You can use Second Life to illustrate and explain physical and procedural processes. By creating objects and scripting them to interact with each other, you can simulate many processes. You also could have your students interact with your simulated process, changing variables and observing the results, to better understand the relationships among the objects.
While virtual worlds have many possibilities for teaching and learning, these possibilities can be organized into three activities often taught in our courses: person-person, person-object, and object-object interactions. Once you identify a course topic falling into one of these interaction combinations, you may have a topic which could be taught using a virtual world."
To view the full presentation (including video demos of the Second Life MMVW) go to: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=SWR0552
About The Authors:
Dave Antonacci is Educational Technology Liaison for Teaching & Learning Technology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in their School of Allied Health and School of Nursing. dantonacci@kumc.edu He is also a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, doing a doctorate in educational technology. Nellie Modaress nmodares@kumc.edu (specialist in virtual reality, design and software scripting) also works at the KU Medical Center as an educational technologist, working with faculty to integrate learning technologies into their classroom and online courses. Teaching & Learning Technology Department (KMU)
Related MMVW links:
Blurring the line between games and life - CNet News 28 Feb 2005
Mind Candy - UK cross media entertainment developers
Perplex City
The Reality Artificers - article from Adrian Hon's blog
'How They Got Game' MMVW project @ Stanford Humanties Lab, 2004
The Lag Snag - article from Buzzcut videogame blog (17 June 2004)
The Future Of Online Games by Greg Costikyan (1999)
Technical developments in MMVWs continue to advance dramatically. The following is an edited extract from a session (delivered at EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference, 16 February 2005, Austin, Texas and EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference, 26 April 2005, San Francisco) where Dave Antonacci and Nellie Modaress toured Second Life, a MMVW created by each user and simultaneously played by hundreds of people around the world...
[Register and post your own comments on this article below...]
To view the full presentation (including video demos of the Second Life MMVW) go to: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=SWR0552
"The ability to create your own virtual world and interact with it and other people in it offers some exciting new possibilities for education. As we demonstrate educational possibilities, we will also introduce a vision mechanism for incorporating MMVWs into teaching and learning strategies.
We’ll look specifically at Second Life, a MMVW created by each user and simultaneously played by hundreds of people around the world.
Our goals are to increase your awareness of current developments in computer games and simulations and to help you begin considering the educational possibilities of these emerging technologies, But most importantly, we want to encourage you explore virtual worlds, like Second Life, so you will be prepared to teach with this technology as it continues to mature.
Emerging Technologies for Learning
"Virtually all college students have had experience with games. Games represent active, immersive learning environments where users integrate information to solve a problem. Learning in this manner incorporates discovery, analysis, interpretation, and performance as well as physical and mental activity. An increasing number of colleges and universities are exploring the use of games to enhance learning. The NLII's interest in games and simulations is to gain a fresh view of cognition and learning by looking at games as the intersection of play, pedagogy, and technology." (http://www.educause.edu/Games/1008)
Constructivist Learning
You cannot be passive in a game or simulation. Students engaged in educational games and simulations are interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving. This aproch to learning is much more consistent with constructivist learning where knowledge is constructed by the learners as they are actively problem-solving in an authentic context.
Highly Social Experiences
In constructivist learning, collaboration is important, as knowledge is socially constructed. One common misconception of gaming is a lone player, secluded in front of his or her computer. This is not the reality with modern computer games. Most games have a community of players who interact socially to discuss strategies, share experiences, and provide encouragement via websites, discussion boards, blogs, and wikis. Involvement in these gaming communities, sometimes called meta-gaming, can greatly improve a player’s game performance and enjoyment.
Several massively multiplayer games have evolved to provide even more user interaction and influence. In Second Life, users can create their own world.
Second Life goes beyond a game, where players make moves and receive outcomes. It is a virtual world, created by and inhabited by its users.
Person-Person Interaction Demonstration: Patient Exam Role-Play
For example, doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals often interact with patients, and students in these professions need practice applying patient-encounter strategies. Role-playing is a common learning activity for this.
To demonstrate how Second Life can be used for role playing, we’ve created our own Second Life medical clinic.... Also, note that the actors during this demonstration were located in England, Denmark, Seattle, and Kansas City, but they were all virtually present in the clinic exam room.)
In addition to medical education, many other fields require person-person interaction and would have similar educational applications for Second Life. In your field, do you teach students how to interact with other people? Would your students learn anything if they designed, built, and inhabited a medieval village?
Person-Object Demonstration: Making a Park
People also learn how to interact with objects, which includes designing and building objects. We teach people how to operate a piece of equipment or use an instrument. We teach people how to build homes, make jewelry, and create sculpture. Second Life can provide a virtual world where your students can apply concepts and principles, providing a realistic problem context.
Object-Object Demonstration: Orbiting Satellite
People learn how objects interact with other objects. For example, we teach students how mountains are formed when two tectonic plates collide, how hazardous chemicals get into our water supply, and how a car is built in an assembly line.
You can use Second Life to illustrate and explain physical and procedural processes. By creating objects and scripting them to interact with each other, you can simulate many processes. You also could have your students interact with your simulated process, changing variables and observing the results, to better understand the relationships among the objects.
While virtual worlds have many possibilities for teaching and learning, these possibilities can be organized into three activities often taught in our courses: person-person, person-object, and object-object interactions. Once you identify a course topic falling into one of these interaction combinations, you may have a topic which could be taught using a virtual world."
To view the full presentation (including video demos of the Second Life MMVW) go to: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=SWR0552
About The Authors:
Dave Antonacci is Educational Technology Liaison for Teaching & Learning Technology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in their School of Allied Health and School of Nursing. dantonacci@kumc.edu He is also a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, doing a doctorate in educational technology. Nellie Modaress nmodares@kumc.edu (specialist in virtual reality, design and software scripting) also works at the KU Medical Center as an educational technologist, working with faculty to integrate learning technologies into their classroom and online courses. Teaching & Learning Technology Department (KMU)
Related MMVW links:
Blurring the line between games and life - CNet News 28 Feb 2005
Mind Candy - UK cross media entertainment developers
Perplex City
The Reality Artificers - article from Adrian Hon's blog
'How They Got Game' MMVW project @ Stanford Humanties Lab, 2004
The Lag Snag - article from Buzzcut videogame blog (17 June 2004)
The Future Of Online Games by Greg Costikyan (1999)
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