Horizon2007:Shortlist 2c
From Horizon Project
Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years
Virtual Worlds, Real Opportunity
Virtual worlds are richly immersive and highly scalable 3D environments, often supported by a grid-based network. People enter these worlds as an avatar, their representation in that space, moving their avatar through the space as if they were physically walking — or in some cases, flying. The most popular virtual worlds are multi-user spaces, meaning that many people can be in the same virtual space and interact with one another in real time. While many popular games take place in virtual worlds, virtual worlds are not themselves games. Pure virtual worlds like Second Life can be applied to any context, as opposed to game worlds, which generally have a fixed, goal-oriented purpose.
Virtual worlds offer an opportunity for people to interact in a way that conveys a sense of presence lacking in other media. These spaces can be huge, in terms of the number of people that use them, and they are growing in popularity because they combine many of the elements that make Web 2.0 really exciting: social networking; the ability to share rich media seamlessly; the ability to connect with friends; a feeling of presence; and a connection to community.
The use of virtual worlds in education has grown considerably over the past year. Courses now meet in Second Life and other locations. These spaces are used for training emergency response personnel, developing civic participation and leadership skills, visualizing real time weather data, modeling complex mathematical functions, and experimenting with architectural models. A consortium of librarians has built an extensive and growing set of information resources in Second Life. Courses from English to chemistry hold meetings in virtual worlds, making use of their flexibility and powerful building tools to stage dramas and create realistic 3D molecular models. Also on the horizon are open-source versions of virtual worlds like Croquet, Uni-Verse, Multiverse, and others.
Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression
- The generalizability of virtual worlds makes them applicable to almost all disciplines.
- 3D construction tools allow easy visualization of physical objects and materials, even those normally occurring at cosmic or nano scales.
- The social aspects of virtual worlds lend themselves to role playing and scenario building
- New art forms are emerging in these spaces that take advantage of the unique possibilities for expression available in them.
Examples
- A communications class uses Neverwinter Nights to create simulations: http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/22Neverwinter_Nights22_in_the_classroom.html
- At Bradley University, a professor uses Second Life for field research: http://www.nmc.org/sl/2006/07/19/preparing/
For Further Reading
Real Learning in a Virtual World (Gregory M. Lamb, The Christian Science Monitor, October 5, 2006) This article describes ways Second Life is used in college courses. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p13s02-legn.html
Right-click to Learn (Kate Cohen, The Phoenix, August 17, 2006) Educators plan activities in Second Life. http://thephoenix.com/Article.aspx?id=20561&page=1
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Discussion
Add your thoughts, suggestions, examples to add here, and indicate who wrote it-- e.g. [Alan]
Education takes effort. Tooling around virtual worlds and slaying dragons may be fun but where's the education? [Tom Z]
