Social media tools and apps in HE

Social Media Tools and apps in Higher Education: the case of Second Life IT College, Estonia | 06.04.2009

Luís Pedro, Carlos Santos, Pedro Almeida Dep. Communication and Art – Univ. Aveiro

MUVEs and Second Life brief overview 1 2

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Second.ua project – Univ. of Aveiro SL presence

Pedagogical activities Seco

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MUVEs and Second Life brief overview

What is Second Life? [1]

Metaverse (Snow crash – Neal Stephenson)

Social and economic interaction

Avatars

Technology (evolution integration)

Developments:   The Metaverse (MOO) – Steve Jackson Games   SnowMoo – SenseMedia   Active Worlds   WoW   Croquet Project   Second Life   Kaneva   There   PS3 Home

Emphasis in social networking development, in content creation and in interaction with collective/institutional purposes

What is Second Life? [2]

Business – money and transactions

Marketing –institutional presence, product launching...

Society– parties and events…

Technology Web 3D?

Education

What is Second Life? [3]

Pedagogical build-up

Flexible environment (time, space and technology)

Distance learning

Professional training (role-playing and serious games)

CSCW

Simulation

New Media

Content (?)

Numbers:

15.000.000 registered users

~ 735.000 logged in the last 30 days

US $1.300.000 worth transactions/day

70.000 avatars simultaneously logged-on

Europe 54% of users

Some numbers

Business [1]

Business [2]

Business [3]

Business [4]

Business [5]

Marketing

Product experiencing usability, tryouts, ...

Direct sale

Institutional presence

Finance

... and media splash

Business [6]

Para onde vamos?

(from left to right) Pedro Almeida Antero Eun Samuel Almeida Sanko Voom Luís Pedro Zes Garfield Simão Oliveira Marca Falta João Delicado Supermaxi Paine Pedro Correia Neozgul Rossini Carlos Santos Carlosss Lukas João Vasco Zen Wilder

What is it?

Conceptualisation, development and exploration of an University presence in SL

Curricular research project launched by the social media research team

Motivations?

Institutional presence in Second Life

Multi-purpose environment for teachers, students, reseachers and staff (communication, etc..)

Technology hacking (3D modelling and scripting)

How was it born?

Informal meeting with students from a Masters course;

Experience Results Challenge Project

Concept

Functional requirements

InfoZone meeting point, info point

Aularium regular classrooms

Showroom exhibitions, scientific dissemination

Second Caffé informal meetings and events

Auditorium shows, lectures

Scriptorium private meetings

and... soccer stadium :-)

The future?

Perpetual beta: LUA, AAUAv, ...

New spaces result from new pedagogical approaches (ex: serious games), new needs, new technologies, ...

Inter-institutional partnerships

Shall we visit?

pedagogical activities

Which tools?

LMS Blogs Wikis Social Bookmarking Aggregation/RSS

… Second Life

Lots of problems :-(

Processing problems Graphic cards Broadband

SL used in curricular activities?

Weekly informal meetings Debates about non-curricular themes Talks with specialists to enrich discussions Informal learning mechanisms !!

Slow start

Several themes Several sims External staff to enrich and motivate At night :-)

The meetings

Web 2.0 Interaction design SL 3D modelling and scripting Multimedia Communication MsC SL in educational contexts Usability tests Social relationships in SL Cef^SL Workshop cef^sl ...

Some themes

... the blog nadavinculativo.blogs.ca.ua.pt

nada vinculativo

Informality Participation Dilution of traditional roles and ranks Enthusiasm

Less time to sleep...

Results

Thank you

Luís Pedro | Zes Garfield | lpedro@ua.pt | nitratodocaos.blogs.ca.ua.pt Carlos Santos | Carlosss Lukas |carlossantos@ua.pt| napraia.blogs.ca.ua.pt Pedro Almeida | Antero Eun | almeida@ua.pt | intouch.blogs.ca.ua.pt

Dep. Communication and Art University of Aveiro