From Jim Ang at City University:
My interests on virtual worlds lie in the fantasy representation and 3D visualisation of such environments, which potentially make sociability different from conventional text-based online communities. Virtual worlds such as Second Life are made up of virtual locations that either resemble real life places or represents a fictional simulation of a fantasy world. Even for virtual worlds that attempt to simulate real life (e.g. real world physics, economics, etc), the user experiences in such worlds are often a mix of reality and fantasy. Therefore, it is of great interest to examine how people behave in such 3D fantasy reality through interacting with other people. Through detail analyses, we are able to examine sociability at two levels:
- The pattern and the social trend of the whole community network
- Individual interaction embedded in a whole social network
Apart from this, it will be interesting to compare virtual community on 3D and 2D settings.
In respect to learning and teaching, understanding patterns of interaction might help us design courses in virtual worlds that would cater for all types of learners with different interaction styles (thus learning styles)
February 6, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Identity and belonging are under-researched themes in the teaching and learning aspects of HE. I am interested in how social identities of gender, ethnicity etc. (and associated identities) are re-negotiated as individuals join formal and informal learning communities and what enables/restricts these processes. SL seems to offer some intersting possibilities but I am wary of all the revolutionary hype.
February 6, 2008 at 6:19 pm
The actual benefits of SL as a teaching and learning environment seem under researched and under reported. What people are doing in there for educational purposes (with varying degrees of success?) needs to be better understood. As best I can at this seminar I am happy to share our experiences from the work within virtual worlds (Active Worlds, Palace, There and now Second Life) which has been going on since late 2004 for the MSc in E-learning, School of Education, University of Edinburgh. To tell people what we are actually doing within SL with our students and why!
February 6, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Thanks Fiona,
Here is a link to details about some of the work going on at the University of Edinburgh.
People might also be interested in the Schome and Schome Park research at OU –
Some links for that:
http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?documentid=9851
http://conclave.open.ac.uk/glasshouses/
More generally, there’s also a run down of UK universities in SL in John Kerriemuir’s report (see the SL resources page of this blog). It’s a little bit out of date already, but gives a good idea of the amount of things going on.
Diane
February 7, 2008 at 9:59 am
An update on John’s report is due out March 2008, which should be a more recent snapshot of the work of UK educators in Second Life.