Harvey Making Second Life Work For Training And Education

Making Second Life Work for

Training & Education

Kevin Harvey (a.k.a. Qwerty Hansen)Assistant Director,

Center for the Advancement of Distance Education (CADE)

School of Public Health

University of Illinois at Chicago

kqharvey@uic.edu

Tel: 312-413-0102, M: 847-644-3593

Danny GoldbergCo-Founder, Learnstorm, Inc

dgoldberg1@wi.rr.com

Tel: 414-218-4873

With a special appearance by Sarah Granofsky, Program Director for

Wisconsin Charter Schools Association.

About CADE

CADE does:

• Games, simulations, and virtual worlds

• Public health preparedness and training

• Research data management

• Multimedia and webcasting

• Web development

• Online database development

About Learnstorm

• Offer the best collection of innovative digital learning applications – including learning games, for use by schools

• Provide a secure online community where teachers, students, mentors, and parents can teach and learn together

• Enable collaboration with digital learning experts and peers through the use of social media and collaboration tools

CADE Virtual Worlds Clients

• Chicago Department of Public Health

• Illinois Department of Public Health

• Indian Health Services (CA)

• Ohio Health and Human Services

• Alameda Department of Public Health

• Contra Costa Health Services

• Columbus Public Health

• Wisconsin Charter Schools Association

Educate the Client

(or potential client)

Explain Virtual Worlds

“A computer-based

simulated environment

intended for its users to

inhabit and interact via

avatars.”

One of the leaders in virtual “life” is Second Life, a 3-D

virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.

Legitimize Virtual Worlds

The CDC has joined the

virtual world environment

in an effort to inform the

public about health issues.

CADE has led the way in

using virtual environments

for training, planning, and

assessment.

Explain the Benefits

Preparedness Training Benefits

– Rapid Prototyping

– Shared Experience

– Distance Participation

– No risk of infection

– Cost Effective

– Facilitates inter- and

intra–agency collaboration

School Centered Benefits

– Distributed Expertise

– Schedule Flexibility

– Empowering your students

Know Your Audience

• Identify early adopters

• Find the champions

• Sell from within

Know Your Firewalls

• Make sure the application will work

• Make friends with the IT people

• Send your IT friend the technical

requirements

• Test, re-test, then test again

This is “just a game”

• Games are for fun; Fun is not serious

• Training/Education is serious

• Ergo:

– Serious Games

– Games for Education, Games for Health

– Simulation Games

• OR… even better:

– Virtual Tabletop (public health)

– Enhanced Tabletop (public health)

– Simulations

– Classroom of the Future (education)

Virtual Tabletop

Virtual Tabletop

Demonstrate Value

• Compare to expensive alternatives

• Don’t underestimate the “cool factor”

• Be truthful about the initial time investment

(and how it will be worth it)

• Use success stories

• Don’t overpromise

– e.g., this is not yet a diagnostic tool, but it is an

awesome planning tool

Replication vs.

Representation

• “I recognize that” (and I like to see

things I recognize)

• The problem with replication and what

to do about it

• The classroom of the future is not a

classroom at all (at least not yet)

Mass Dispensing

Warehousing

Secure Transport

Baby Steps

• Above all, avoid initial frustration

• Facilitated Exercises vs Train-the-Trainer

• Usability

– Provide a friendly environment

• HELP!!!

– Mentoring

– Support (and support materials)

– Websites, tutorials, blogs

Support Materials

• Provide support material

• Each scenario comes with a

curriculum plan including a

– player’s guide

– an inventory list

– how to use Second Life (tutorial)

– what to do when you get home

What to do about Naysayers

• There will always be naysayers

• One naysayer can ruin your whole day, so

you have to neutralize them

• Be understanding, but counter them in

order to sell those that are on the fence

• Don’t be upset if they are not convinced, or

if they leave.. actually be happy if they leave

Key Barriers to Adoption

• Time

• Performance pressure

• If I invest X amount of time in learning a new

technology, how do I know it will pay off?

• Priorities

• Support from within

Where is the Evidence?

Training Evaluation Results

• 71.4% rated the training excellent or good.

• 78.6% said that the content was clear,

understandable and well organized.

• 95.2% said that the trainer was knowledgeable

and comfortable with the material

• 69% said that they can apply the skills and

techniques that they learned

• 80.9% said that the content was relevant to their

jobs

CDC Preparedness and Emergency

Response Research Center (PERRC)

CADE is one of the four research projects that make up the University of Minnesota Research Center

Preparedness and Emergency Response Using Simulated Environments

• Team members

• Colleen Monahan, DC, MPH , PI

• Kevin Harvey, MA, Co-PI

• Steve Jones, PhD, Co-PI

• Andrew Cooper, MPH, Project Manager

• Brian Mustanski, PhD, Consultant

Research Question

Does the use of a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE), an electronic performance support tool, improve individual and system performance in public health preparedness and response planning?

• Structured social networks and learning

guilds.

• Importance of personalization

• Mapping to learning needs

• Sessioning

• Establishing expectations

Learnstorm

Kevin Q. Harvey

Assistant Director

Center for the Advancement of Distance Education

University of Illinois at Chicago

kqharvey@uic.edu

Tel: 312-413-0102, M: 847-644-3593

Danny Goldberg

Founder, Learnstorm, Inc

dgoldberg1@wi.rr.com

Tel: 414-218-4873

http://www.virtualpublichealth.com

http://www.publichealthgames.com

http://www.learnstorm.com/

Contact Information