Notes from the 9th Virtual Worlds in Education Forum

This series of articles was first published on the IS Learning Technology blog in December 2010.

The one-day conference was held in the amazing new Secole Building at Birmingham City University on the 8th of December, 2010.

This being my first such virtual worlds meeting, I was surprised to recognise names amongst the participants and encounter builders of well-know marvels, in person, no less. The event was organised by Jane Edwards of RSC West Midlands, and hosted by Nigel Wynne, a Senior Academic in Learning and Teaching at the BCU and Head of the Online Simulation and Immersive Education (OSIME) Research Group, ‘which develops and evaluates 2D and 3D technologies in support of health care education. (I had a look at the Seacole website prior to heading over and was very impressed.)

Ongoing Costs and Restrictions

In general discussion, delegates agreed that many of the HE institutions with a Second Life presence are concerned about Linden Lab’s upcoming withdrawal of the 50% educational discount. The frustrations of delivering learning content in a commercial virtual world are propelling many to consider an exit strategy and the potential to grid-link with others’ educational sims in a non-commercial environment.

As of Dec. 15^th, 2010, Linden Labs has closed the Teen SL and is allowing under-18 residents onto the main SL grid. The new terms of service appear when logging in the first time thereafter. The Viewer 2 maturity ratings guidelines are less reminiscent of those used to describe movies, and are now letters ‘G’ for General, ‘M’ for Moderate and ‘A’ for Adult. Children younger than 13 years-old are not allowed, and the other ages have guidelines for which rated areas they may enter. Many are disappointed at the loss of this more sheltered environment.

Shared Resources and Strategies

Along the collaborative route, Nigel Wynne proposed pooling resources from HE institutions such that easily transferrable items such as scripting solutions and 3D assets could be made available to the educational community. I could certainly contribute some textures.

Later, when searching for articles and events around HE strategies concerned with sustainable involvement in Virtual Worlds (as a cross-UK initiative), I came across the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable. The VWERGrid’s Educators Land Initiative has 40 parcels available ‘for free to those with direct ties to education’. Parcels are being assigned a rapid rate and a community is expected to grow and flourish in this new OpenSim-based grid.

The University of Rockcliffe is also holding a virtual conference, Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education 2011, in Second Life, March 17-19.

Back up for a minute

Although on last perusal, Second Inventory appeared to be the ideal solution for backing up builds and scripts created and owned by a single avatar, many conference attendees at the Virtual Worlds in Education Forum recommended the Imprudence viewer, which I assume can back up inventory, much like the now banned Emerald Viewer. A bonus when launching the Imprudence viewer is the assumption that Second Life is not the first choice of one’s default grid. The logo for Imprudence is the American Sign Language gesture, often seen held aloft at rock concerts to show appreciation, signifying, ‘I love you’, which seems rather fitting for a third-party viewer. On another note, the development team behind the Emerald viewer has recently launched a brand new viewer for accessing the Virtual World Web. From them I would expect more of a sign language gesture for tenacity.

Group discussions also centered on potential use of Xbox 360’s Kinect sensors and code to enable natural avatar movement. On further investigation online, some interesting and unforeseen things are being done with it already. Some uses might even raise your eyebrows, if not your heart rate.