EDUCATING MY AVATAR - VIRTUAL WORLDS IN CHINA

8/14/2019 EDUCATING MY AVATAR - VIRTUAL WORLDS IN CHINA

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EDUCATING MY AVATAR

LEARNING IN THE WORLD OFSECOND LIFE

The Role of NewTechnologies in Global

SocietiesJuly 30-31, 2008

Hong Kong

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Abstract Second Life is a virtual world that has grown exponentially since its inception in 2003.Currently over 13 million residents have accounts with Second Life, and more than 500universities are experimenting with, or offering classes in, this new medium. But is it all hypeand vapour, or are virtual worlds a serious tool for teaching and learning, and for other socialor economic activities? Second Life was inspired by Stevensons Snow Crash a futuristicnovel written in 1992 in which the Metaverse takes over from the Internet and imagines howa 3D virtual internet might evolve controlled by avatars that inhabit this virtual world.Second Life is one of over 250 virtual worlds that exist today for children, teens and adults,ranging from Neopets for under 10-year olds with over 45 million registered users, to Habbofor teens, with over 90 million accounts. Estimates (Mitham, 2008) put the total number ofaccounts in fully immersive virtual worlds at more than 238 million, and the phenomena isgrowing so rapidly, that China expects to have 150 million virtual world users by 2010.

How will this affect our use of the Internet, our social interactions, collaboration andcommunication in the future? Will our children grow us as avatars with a human personality,will there be a need for teachers or schools as we know them in the future, will our childrengo to work in a virtual world rather than travel to the office, or is this just another trend orphase that will pass in time? This paper explores the background to virtual worlds, examineshow they are being used in education and business today, and tries to evaluate the potentialand pitfalls for teachers considering entering a virtual world. It looks at examples of howSecond Life has been used in teaching and learning and the potential for educational use andfor developing business and commerce. It also reviews the potential impact of virtual worldsin the Chinese mainland, and looks ahead at the time when every Internet user may have asecond life in a virtual world.

K E Y W OR D S: on l i ne e d uc at i o n, v i r tua l w o r ld s , s e co n d l i fe , s im u l at i on s


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Virtual Worlds Data

362 multi-user online role-playing gameslisted (Wikipedia)

Over US$1.5 Billion spent in VWs in 2007 China expects to have 150 Million VW users

by 2010 (Guardian 2008)

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Virtual Worlds - DataPopulation of USA

= 304.83 Million(August 08)

Population ofvirtual worldsest. between2601 to 4652

Million withest. 46M active

users.1Mitham, 082Renaud, Oct 07


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Virtual Worlds - Data

Population ofAustralia = 20.4Million (2007)

Population ofCyworld = 21Million (2008)

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238 Million +

160 Million +


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Impact on Individuals/Society

How will VWs affect our use of the Internet,our social interactions, collaboration andcommunication in the future?

Will our children grow up as avatars?

Will there be a need for teachers or schoolsas we know them in the future?

Will our children go to work in a virtual worldrather than travel to the office?

Is this just another passing fad?

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Outline of this Exploratory Study Explore the background to virtual worlds.

Examine how they are being used today.

Review how Second Life has been used inteaching and learning.

Consider the potential for education & life.

Project the growth of virtual worlds in the

Chinese mainland. Look ahead to the time when every Internet

user may have a second life in a virtual world.


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What are Virtual Worlds?

From Wikipedia: A computer-based simulatedenvironment intended for its users to inhabit andinteract via avatars. This habitation usually isrepresented in the form of two or three-dimensionalgraphical representations of humanoids (or otheravatars).

Not Simulations Not games Open ended users choose the outcome

and the activity

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Common Features1. Shared Space: the world allows many users to

participate at once.2. Graphical User Interface: the world depicts

space visually.3. Immediacy: interaction takes place in real time.4. Interactivity: the world allows users to alter,

develop, build, content.5. Persistence: continues regardless of whether

individual users are logged in.6. Socialization/Community: the world allows and

encourages the formation of in-world socialgroups.


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What is Second Life?

Launched in 2003

Created by Linden Research (Labs).

An immersive environment for users toplay and interact in.

The size of a small city, withthousands of servers (simulators)

No of registered islands 21,657 (July)

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Who is using Second Life? SL has registered population (28 July)

of 14,537,201

Residents from over 100 countrieswith concentrations in North America,Germany and the UK.

Demographically, 60% are men, 40%are women aged from 18 - 85.


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The Basics

Your ownavatar

Create you ownspace or not

Walk, run, flyor teleport

Chat, voice, IMor Skypeothers

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Who is using SL? 100+ Corporations such as IBM,

Motorola, Armani, Domino Pizza,Mercedes, Reuters, Coca Cola, Nike etc

Embassies, the arts, music, religion


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Educational use of SL

Formal teaching lectures, tutorials, training, presentations,

demonstrations.

Informal education offers moreexploration and creativity student exhibitions, role play, games and

virtual quests (Bleacher & Stockman,

2008).

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Subject Areas

The most common uses of SecondLife seem to be in: computer studies, science subjects and

humanities (Livingstone & Kemp, 2007),

architectural studies, urban planning,graphic design, anatomy, natural

sciences, law, languages, programming,literature, art and tourism. Dickey(2005)


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18152 HK students using SL in 4 classes


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152 HK students usingSL in 4 classes

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Benefits for Teaching & Learning

Students enjoyed using it

It was an interactive learning experience

It was a positive student learningexperience

It provided a new dimension for my

subject It gave some variety to the subject


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Teaching challenges

Setting up Second Life & Technical issues

Need time to get students familiar with SL

Lack of experience in using Second Life

Not enough time for the session or tutorial

Lack of computing facilities for students.

Often need to rely on technicians.

Some technical problems with voice chat

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How to improve the use of SL?

Promote to our students Make it default install on all University PCs Include university IT Dept in planning. Video a few online sessions and present the

video to senior management, other staff andstudents to get buy-in.

Continue to let faculty know how it can beused as a teaching tool.


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Other Problems

Technical hurdles graphic cards, speed

Learning curve

User expectations

Crime, sex, money &politics

Most problems in real

world exist in SL!

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Virtual worlds in China China's Internet population surpassed the US

to become the world's biggest, with 253million people online 56% increase from a

year ago (China Internet NetworkInformation Center, 2008)

The share of the Chinese public using theInternet is still just 19.1 percent, leaving

more room for rapid growth.


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Virtual worlds in China

10 Chinese virtual worldsunder development

HiPiHi largest with48,000 registered users

Others include: UWorld

NovoKing

Jaolan

Shanda

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Virtual worlds in China UWorld has fewer than

1,000 users.

NovoKing has 10,000registered users

Shanda plans to launchits own version of SecondLife

Yaolan.com, a communitytargeting parents withchildren under 6 orparents-to-be


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Worlds largest Virtual World

China Recreational District - a partnershipbetween private industry & Chinese government

CRDs goal - to create a virtual economyproviding infrastructure and platforms so anybusiness (in China & overseas) - can come in-world & sell their real-world products/services.

200 game and multimedia content producersare currently on site in an 80-square-kilometercomplex still being developed in West Beijing

Between now and the end of 2010, CRD, intendsto bring 150 million middle-class Chinese peopleand companies into their virtual world platform.

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Future trends Merging of some virtual worlds Take your avatar and teleport between

various virtual worlds Strong case for virtual meetings and

conferences Growing use for in-company

communication & collaboration Increasing use for conducting business Merging of VLE/LMS into VWs


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Convergence of VW & Social

Networking sites Virtual worlds ARE already socialnetworking sites, to some degree;

On social networking sites you playyourself, while in virtual worlds, youplay someone else.

Google launched Lively VW on 8 June08 to lure Facebook/My Space users

Will virtual worlds and social networkingsites combine? (Moore, 2008)

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Virtual Worlds continue to grow There is an ever

increasing amount ofpeople using virtualworlds at a rate of15% every month anddoes not appear to bestopping or slowing

down anytime soon.(Hof, 2006d; Gartner, 2007

cited by Bray and Konsynski

2007).


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ReferencesBleacher, L, and Stockman, S. (2008). Second Life: A Venue for Informal Education and ParticipatoryExploration. Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX

Bray, D. A., Konsynski, B. (2008) Virtual Worlds, Virtual Economies, Virtual Institutions. Virtual Worlds andNew Realities Conference at Emory University, February 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2008 f romhttp://ssrn.com/abstract=962501

China Internet Network Information Centre (2008). Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development inChina. Retrieved July 21, 2008 from http://www.cnnic.cn/uploadfiles/pdf/2008/2/29/104126.pdf

Dickey, M. D. (2005). Three-dimensional virtual worlds and distance learning: two case studies of ActiveWorlds as a medium for distance education. British Journal of Educational Technology 36(3): 439-451.

Keegan. V. (2008). Virtual worlds take over the online world. The Guardian, Thursday July 10 2008,Retrieved July 15, 2008 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/10/internet.games

Livingstone, D,, Kemp, J. (2008). Massively Multi-Learner: Recent Advances in 3D Social Environments.Retrieved March 28, 2008 from http://cis.paisley.ac.uk/research/journal/v10n2/LinvingstoneKemp.doc

Mitham, N. (2008). Virtual Worlds by The Numbers: Today and The Future: Virtual Worlds Expo 2008 (NYC)Retrieved April 9, 2008 from http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=2021#more-2021

Moore. R. (2008). On the Convergence of Virtual Worlds and Social Networking Sites. Retrieved on July 3,2008 from http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2008/02/on-the-converge.html

Renaud in Virtual Worlds News (2007) Blogging Virtual Worlds Fall: Keynote-Chris Sherman, ReubenSteiger, Christian Renaud. Retrieved July 22, 2008 fromhttp://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/10/blogging-virt-5.html#more

Wikipedia (2008) Virtual world. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved July 21, 2008 fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world

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Contact detailsPaul Penfold,

Educational Development ManagerSchool of Hotel & Tourism ManagementThe Hong Kong Polytechnic University(852) 2766-4092 [email protected]

Skype: paulpenfoldBlog: http://penkyamp.blogspot.com

Wiki: http://shtmteacherswiki.pbwiki.com

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. - Marcel Proust

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. B.F. Skinner

What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand. - Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)

I never teach my students; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. - Albert Einstein

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Gandhi

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. - Socrates

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EDUCATING MY AVATAR - VIRTUAL WORLDS IN CHINA