Another brick?Another brick?Another brick?Another brick?

Marianne Riis, ELL

Aalborg UniversityMarianne Riis, ELL

Aalborg University

Second Life™ Second Life™

“Hallo, it’s 1’s and 0’s that disappear as soon as you unplug or loose your internet connection!”

(MIL08 student)

“However, the definition of social presence is itself challenged in these contexts, as defining what is ‘real’ remains an ontological challenge for many users.”

(McKerlich & Anderson. 2007)

Second Life - factsSecond Life - facts

Second Life (SL) is a 3D Virtual World developed by Linden Lab that launchedon June 23, 2003. A free client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, calledResidents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate inindividual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property andservices with one another, or travel throughout the world, which residentsrefer to as the grid. Second Life caters for users aged 18+, while its sister site Teen SecondLife is restricted to users aged between 13-17. Teen Second Life was launched in 2005.Second Life has an internal currency, the Linden dollar (L$), which can beused to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other residents.

Second Life residents?!Second Life residents?!

Second Life according to Pathfinder Linden Second Life according to Pathfinder Linden

Roskilde University, October2008:• + 28.000 islands• 1000 dedicated to education• 15.000 educators/researchers• 500 universities• Gender neutral• 65% of residents outside North

America

New Media Consortium (NMC) survey 2008New Media Consortium (NMC) survey 2008

• Annual survey of educators in SL, which provides a yearly snapshot of the demographics and activities of educators who are active in SL.

• Survey was sent to by email to individuals within the NMC’s SLcommunities and to the SL Educators Listserv (SLED). 358 individuals responded to the survey, a 170% increase from 2007:– Educators are moving from exploration to use of

Second Life for teaching and learning.– Educators are expanding their Second Life social

networks.– This year’s educators are much more experienced

in Second Life.

PhD project (2008-2010)PhD project (2008-2010)

Working title

Dynamic Didactic Design - developing a strategy for remediating

people, places and practices in distance education.

Research questions

How does 3D remediation influence teaching and learning in a problem

based blended learning practice within distance education?

– How does remediation from f2f and/or 2D to 3D influence teaching and learning?

– How can multiple research cycles of (re-)designing 2 specific multimodal courses and observations from other cases inform the development of a strategy for remediating people, places and practices in distance education?

Theoretical concepts – overall frameworksTheoretical concepts – overall frameworks

Theoretical concepts – Experiential LearningTheoretical concepts – Experiential Learning

Multiple case studyMultiple case study

Completed research cycle (MIL07)Completed research cycle (MIL07)

• Research purpose: explore phenomenon

• 22 students – 6 groups• Respectful remediation

“business as usual”• Self-paced learning –

little facilitation• Interventions proved

necessary!

• 5 scheduled activities

MIL07 student impressions MIL07 student impressions

Hvis det ikke var en obligatorisk del af kurset,

tror jeg ikke, jeg ville være i Second Life

overhovedet.

Effekten af, at have en stedfortræder til stede er, at jeg oplever, at jeg deltager i dette her, med mere følelse og krop end i FirstClass! Jeg er der næsten selv og opdager at jeg reagerer kropsligt på ting der overgår mig, som når jeg er ved at drukne under Storebæltsbroen ved Wonderful Denmark eller lander lidt hårdt efter en flyvetur!

Det var en dejlig, positiv oplevelse og en motiverende faktor at være synlig selv. Det faktum, at du hele tiden kigger på, passerer og følger andre avatarer bekræfter, at de andre også er til stede.

Hvis nogle mennesker føler behov for at lege med påklædningsdukker og klæde dem på eller et behov for at opbygge virtuelle sociale relationer, så det må være op til dem.

Jeg har også spurgt mig selv hvorfor og har grint af mig selv på grund af den tid jeg har brugt på at forsøge at få min avatar (x) til at være en værdig repræsentation af mig.

Tilsyneladende vil jeg have behov for en mere gammeldags pædagogisk tilgang med henblik på at blive en kvalificeret avatar så hurtigt som muligt ..

Completed research cycle (MIL08)Completed research cycle (MIL08)

• Research purpose: explore pedagogical activities

• 12 students – 1 community

• Radical remediation• Facilitated learning• 25 scheduled activities

• Possible Rosenthal effect

The MIL08 courseThe MIL08 course

Period: 5 weeks (November/December)Subject: Analysis of ICT and Didactic Design (course 1 out of 2)Analytical object: Locations and processes in Second LifeGoals: identify, analyze, assess and reflect based on theory andpractice Think out-of-the-boxMode: Blended (methods, tools and locations)Students:12 students participated full time, 1 student analyzed SLand GC and 2 students participated ad hocActivities: There were 25 scheduled activities lasting between 1-3hrs. The students were expected to participate in 1 – all of themparticipated in several.The meta conference in FC contained 232 postings (5 weeks) …

TLE – basic elements (MIL08)TLE – basic elements (MIL08)

Teaching andLearningEnvironment

FirstClass™ setting (MIL08)FirstClass™ setting (MIL08)

Quantitative outcome – MIL08Quantitative outcome – MIL08

FC discussion postings:• Didactics and target groups – 32 postings by 12 students and

me (8). Approx. 40 A4 pages.• Orientation and navigation – 8 postings by 5 students and

me (1). Approx. 8 A4 pages.• Interaction – 0 posts!• Learning processes – 68 posting by 11 students and me (21).

Approx. 83 A4 pages.• Audio-visuals – 9 postings by 2 students and me (4). Approx.

15 A4 pages. almost 10 (3) postings pr. student (146 pages (36))

Second Life setting (MIL08)Second Life setting (MIL08)

Respectful office Radical classroom

MIL08 student findings (1)MIL08 student findings (1)

• SL learning curve is very steep• Takes a lot of time, practice and patience• SL is still an emerging technology• Huge potential but too time consuming at this point • Considerations about target groups are important –

teacher/facilitator crucial• Any pedagogical strategy can be used – all work with

different purposes

Get-off-to-a-good-start (MIL08)Get-off-to-a-good-start (MIL08)

MI build Connectivism course

MIL08 Student findings (2)MIL08 Student findings (2)

• A very social and personal environment• International/inter-cultural• Immersive and augmented depending on goals and

processes• Avatar-mediation can be very fruitful, but also has

some disadvantages• Communication and dissemination possibilities not

good enough … yet“Don’t dismiss anything before trying – don’t judge a book by it’s cover!”

Building Class (MIL08)Building Class (MIL08)

TLE – Kolb 1984 (MIL08)TLE – Kolb 1984 (MIL08)

Didactic Design Discussions (MIL08)Didactic Design Discussions (MIL08)

Teaching-Learning relation (MIL08)Teaching-Learning relation (MIL08)

Further theoretical work …Further theoretical work …

Kolb Garrison, Anderson & Archer

Danish Educational visits (MIL08)Danish Educational visits (MIL08)

Percipitopia (SDU) Holodeck (WD)

International Educational visits (MIL08)International Educational visits (MIL08)

Rockcliffe University- Canada

Metaverse Labs- Israel

International debate visits (MIL08)International debate visits (MIL08)

Metanomics Science Friday

SL entrepreneurs (MIL08)SL entrepreneurs (MIL08)

Pop Art Lab – non profit Electric Pixels - profit

Your Tour (MIL08)Your Tour (MIL08)

Genome Island FLS

Future changes - MILFuture changes - MIL

• Earlier (more focused) course start, includes rethinking f2f-seminar

• Change assessment criteria• Limit activities (2-3/week)? + audio/video recordings• Annotate relevant places (SL pics) and references• Qualify entrance (SL tutors and Danish OI)• Qualify visits (planned dialogue)• Qualify Didactic Design Discussions (one for each element

+ ad hoc topics based on students’ interests)• Amplify use of student-knowledge (tours, teach each other)• Rethink building class concept• Rethink FC structure and use (SLoodle in COMBLE)

Student creations (MIL08)Student creations (MIL08)

A photostory(Halis Luminos)

A conceptual model(Cement Canning)

COMBLE case – 1. cycle April/May 2009COMBLE case – 1. cycle April/May 2009

•International EU funded course•Exclusively online•PBL as overall strategy•Experiential Learning•Main facilitator•3 ELL colleagues•In-world colleagues•Approx. 20 participants•Moodle, SL, Web 2.0•(SLoodle?)

•Apply AR/AL together with Camacho•Apply COI-model together with Anderson, McKerlich & Eastman

Final thoughts …Final thoughts …

I would continue to encourage a relationship with virtual environments. We don’t have to make all the conclusions now. We don’t have to judge it based on its current level of capabilities. It’s going to get better in the future. It’s not the be-all, end-all for everything, but it’s also not to be disregarded as a contributing technology …

(Tab Scott – in-world colleague 2009)