Education in Second Life:
A Comparative Field Note of Two educational environments
Virtual worlds are a variety of computer-based environments which enable online users to interact with each other and give them a strong sense of being at the site. Most three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds provide three main components: the illusion of 3D space, avatars that serve as the visual representation of users, and an interactive chat environment for users to communicate with one another (Dickey, 2005).
Launched by Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life (SL) is an online, three-dimensional virtual environment where users take on the form of an avatar, an embodiment of the user, and interact with other users in the synthetic environment (Inman, Wright, & Hartman, 2010). It has been used as an educational setting by an increasing number of educators and learners.
The purpose of this article is to discuss the educational implications of using interactive virtual learning environments in teaching and learning by exploring and comparing two Second Life places: Stanford University Libraries (SUL) island and Rockcliffe University Second Life Campus (RUSLC). Specially, this paper provides a comparison of the features in both places and tries to draw implications for both virtual and real-life teaching and learning environments.
The Stanford University Libraries island, running by the library systems at Stanford University, contains various resources, exhibits, showcases and galleries. Rockcliffe University Second Life Campus was launched by Rockcliffe School of Business in 2008. It aims at offering free college level courses specifically tailored to the SL environment.
Common features
After exploring Stanford University Libraries and Rockcliffe University Second Life Campus through my avatar, I find that there are a lot of similarities between these two educational environments.
Ideal learning environment
Both places are located on picturesque islands with vast green land, exotic trees, mountains, animals, and streams meandering across the campus. Thanks to the tools in the virtual world, educators can build innovative and relaxing environments that are conducive to learning.
Wide ranges of resources
The resources that are provided in these two places cover a wide range of subjects and topics, ranging from art to new technologies. A click of the books, whiteboards, or objects, will lead to different forms of information, such as notecards, e-book, PowerPoint slides and external links. Compared with real-life learning approaches, the instant, flexible and untraditional ways of presenting information in SL increase the efficiency of acquiring knowledge.
Detail focused
The lightning robs on Goodfellow Tower, the rotating the wind turbines, the menu on the food truck, the donation installations and the guiding maps and 911 distress callers at each site all make the places more real-life to the users. Recreating a world that full of real-life details makes participants more immersed into the world.
Architecture values
If avatars obtain the objects and master the skills, they can free their imagination and build any stunning structures as they can conceive regardless of real-life constrains, such as the Goodfellow Tower in SUL which contains hemispherical glass rooms extending to the air, and the semi-open Redwood Pavilion with wooden lanterns floating in the air. The architectures in both places convey architecture value to some extent where real-world architects may get inspiration from.
Advertising purpose
Building a campus in a virtual world is also a novel resort to advertise the school and attract potential students. School mottos, logos, introduction boards can be easily found in both places. For instance, there is a huge Rockcliffe university logo on the mountain, just above the waterfall in RUSLC, and there is a 360 real Stanford photo exhibit in SUL.
Interactivity
Users can interact with the environments as well as activities, such as the dancing party in Rockcliffe performing art center, and the virtual archives exhibit at SUL. Assisted by technology, PowerPoint presentation, streaming audio, video conference, talking service robots are possible in Second Life. Virtual world users are not just interacting with machines; they are interacting with people through machines (Han, 2016).
Overall comparison
Generally, Stanford University Libraries is more like a library-themed amusement park where visitors can take a train tour around the places, while Rockcliffe University Second Life Campus functions as a formal university in Second Life community.
Openness of learning areas
Learning places can be indoor and outdoor and can go beyond the place limitation in Second Life. There are more open and semi-open learning places in SUL than RUSLC. For example, Virtual Archives Exhibit outside Redwood Pavilion in the open air gives visitors new experience to view the archives as archives are usually preserved in rooms with very strict air condition. There are also some casual learning environments in SUL, such as the pier and the beach. However, in RUSLC, meetings or parties are usually held in the Rockcliffe University Consortium dome, and three mountaintop classrooms with 20, 17 and 54 seats respectively, mainly serve for general SL based courses.
Virtual versus reality
Virtual worlds are places where imaginary meets the real (Bartle, 2004). In Second Life, SUL has several pathways to the real world while RUSLC engages community-oriented learning environments in Second Life. In SUL, the Virtual Archives Exhibit enables learners to virtually “browse” Stanford’s closed manuscripts stacks (Stanford Libraries, 2017) - a practice not offered in real life; student Galleria is a place where Stanford students can showcase their works of art; the library feedback board beside Virtual Archives Exhibit is the place where users can send requests to the real world. While in RUSLC, creations made by Second Life artists are exhibited in Art Warehouse Studio 33; a Career Center for helping SL residents find work in SL is set in the reception area; the courses offered are specifically tailored to the SL community.
A place to experiment and create - Sandbox
Many educational venues offer a virtual sandbox where learners can experiment with building objects and environments. RUSLC provides such a place for educators and learners. In the Rockcliffe sandbox warehouse, there is a builder monkey at the gate greeting and talking to visitors, and there are self-paced tutorials, instructions, equipment, objects, guidebook on the walls. Outside the warehouse is a vast land and a volcano for users to create their objects. Learners can work together to collaborate on a project and co-create virtual three-dimensional objects.
Implications for educators
The integration of a 3D virtual world offers innovative and unique educational opportunities for the support of interactive learning environments (Dickey, 2005). If teachers would like to create a virtual environment to engage and motivate students, learners’ interest and involvement, and interactivity of the environment will be essential to education. Educators can consider the following questions before constructing an educational environment in the virtual world: Who are the targeted audience? Are we going to reconstruct real-life learning space, or to create some spaces that are not even possible in real life, and why? What are the differences between rea-life teaching and virtual world teaching? How to design student-centered learning environment? What might it look like? How can we make it more engaging with students? Through what ways are we going to deliver the teaching content? How can virtual world students achieve their learning goals? How to increase learners’ participation? How to create an immersive learning environment? How to interactive with learners?
Virtual worlds enable participants to empathize and provide an opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes. Second life does open up many educational opportunities for educators and students, and provide them with the ability to connect, communicate, and collaborate with participants from around the world.
References
Bartle, R. A. (2004). Designing virtual worlds. Indianapolis, Ind: New Riders.
Burbules, N. C. (2004). Rethinking the virtual. E-Learning, 1(2), 162. doi:10.2304/elea.2004.1.2.2
Dickey, M. D. (2005). Brave new (interactive) worlds: A review of the design affordances and constraints of two 3D virtual worlds as interactive learning environments. Interactive Learning Environments, 13(1-2), 121-137. doi:10.1080/10494820500173714
Han, H. C. (2016). Review on comtemporary virtual art and design education. The International Journal of Arts Education, 2(14), 64-83.
Inman, C., Wright, V. H., & Hartman, J. A. (2010). Use of second life in K-12 and higher education: A review of research. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9(1), 44.
Stanford Libraries. (2017). Virtual archives in second life. Retrieved from http://library.stanford.edu/spc/more-about-us/projects-and-initiatives/virtual-archives-second-life
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© Wenyi Gong 2018
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