Web 3D for Public, Environmental and Occupational Health: Early Examples from Second Life®

Over the past three years (2006–2008), the medical/health and public health communities have shown a growing interest in using online 3D virtual worlds like Second Life® (http://secondlife.com/) for health education, community outreach, training and simulations purposes. 3D virtual worlds are seen as the precursors of ‘Web 3D’, the next major iteration of the Internet that will follow in the coming years. This paper provides a tour of several flagship Web 3D experiences in Second Life®, including Play2Train Islands (emergency preparedness training), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—CDC Island (public health), Karuna Island (AIDS support and information), Tox Town at Virtual NLM Island (US National Library of Medicine - environmental health), and Jefferson’s Occupational Therapy Center. We also discuss the potential and future of Web 3D. These are still early days of 3D virtual worlds, and there are still many more untapped potentials and affordances of 3D virtual worlds that are yet to be explored, as the technology matures further and improves over the coming months and years

3D virtual worlds as environments for literacy learning

Background: Although much has been written about the ways in which new technology might transform educational practice, particularly in the area of literacy learning, there is relatively little empirical work that explores the possibilities and problems - or even what such a transformation might look like in the classroom. 3D virtual worlds offer a range of opportunities for children to use digital literacies in school, and suggest one way in which we might explore changing literacy practices in a playful, yet meaningful context. Purpose: This paper identifies some of the key issues that emerged in designing and implementing virtual world work in a small number of primary schools in the UK. It examines the tensions between different discourses about literacy and literacy learning and shows how these were played out by teachers and pupils in classroom settings.Sources of evidence: Case study data are used as a basis for exploring and illustrating key aspects of design and implementation. The case study material includes views from a number of perspectives including classroom observations, chatlogs, in-world avatar interviews with teachers and also pupils, as well as the author’s field notes of the planning process with accompanying minutes and meeting documents.Main argument: From a Foucauldian perspective, the article suggests that social control of pedagogical practice through the regulation of curriculum time, the normalisation of teaching routines and the regimes of individual assessment restricts teachers’ and pupils’ conceptions of what constitutes literacy. The counternarrative, found in recent work in new litearcies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) provides an attractive alternative, but a movement in this direction requires a fundamental shift of emphasis and a re-conceptualisation of what counts as learning.Conclusions: This work on 3D virtual worlds questions the notion of how transformative practice can be achieved with the use of new technologies. It suggests that changes in teacher preparation, continuing professional development as well as wider educational reform may be needed

An assembled issue for the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research

Three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds have been employed in various domains and have been a topic for investigation for a long time. Nevertheless, the papers chosen for this assembled issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research all argue the need for further research into human engagement with virtual worlds and beyond a discussion of the affordances of virtual worlds and their limitations

3D Virtual Worlds: Business and Learning Opportunities

Virtual worlds (VWs) are rampant and easily accessible to common internet users nowadays. Millions of users are already living their virtual lives in these worlds. Moreover, the number of users is increasing continuously. The purpose of this paper is to review all the business opportunities on these virtual worlds along with the learning opportunities for the real world companies and business students. This paper clearly and precisely defines the virtual worlds in the context of social networking sites and also aims at discussing the past, present and future of VWs. All the possible business opportunities for the real world companies including advertisement & communication, retailing opportunities, application for human resource management, marketing research and organizations' internal process management through virtual worlds are critically reviewed here. In addition to the discussion current learning and training opportunities for the real world companies and business students are also reviewed. The paper aims at proving that the VWs are full of business and marketing applications and they could be widely used by the real world companies for effective and efficient business operations

Facilitating Collaborative Learning in 3D Virtual Worlds. A Qualitative Meta Study.

This master thesis serves to investigate how collaborative learning can be facilitated in 3D virtual environments. The objective was to see how 3D virtual worlds could be applied when conducting collaborative learning, both formal and informal. I was also interested in reflection as a part of collaborative learning processes, and chose to integrate this into my research questions: 1. How can 3D virtual worlds, like SecondLife, facilitate collaborative learning? 2. How can one use virtual worlds for collaborative learning-purposes in both formal and informal learning situations? 3. In what way can reflection be beneficial to collaborative learning in virtual worlds? SecondLife is a widely used 3D virtual world, utilized in a variety of learning situations. Its design and layout seem conducive to creating spaces that facilitate collaboration, and supports both formal and informal learning. I have used a variety of theoretical frameworks and perspectives to structure the thesis, and form the basis for the discussions and conclusions. I have utilized constructivist learning theory to describe the collaborative learning facilitated through virtual environments. This is due to the generous focus on collaboration and team-work throughout this thesis. As collaborative-learning situations enable the creation of shared practices and understanding, I will discuss the perspectives surrounding communities of practice, first coined by Lave and Wenger (Wenger 2000). Computer-supported collaborative learning is a perspective that serves to integrate technology and learning, and I have relied on this to contextualize the examples used, the CAMO-project being one of them. Its objective was to create cultural awareness in military operations, through collaborative simulations in a virtual Afghan village. The other example involved nursing students, who practiced communication skills with fatally ill patients and their relatives. Both examples highlights the opportunities for collaborative learning in virtual environments. Taking advantage of new technology for learning purposes, could create new possibilities for learning, maybe particularly collaborative learning. This is an important topic, as it could facilitate better and more motivating learning methods. Research Method and Data Analysis As this thesis is a qualitative Meta study, I relied on interviewing as my main data collecting method. I interviewed three practitioners within the field of technology and learning. They had earlier collaborated as facilitators in the CAMO-project, and also possessed a variety of experiences with 3D virtual worlds and learning. The data collected was analyzed and categorized through an iterative process. I worked with the transcribed interviews and notes, in several stages to analyze and attain the best categorizations for the data gathered. These five categories included: 1. SecondLife as a Learning Environment, 2. Comparison Between Different 3D Virtual Worlds, 3. Collaborative Learning, 4. Formal and Informal Learning and 5.Dialogue and Reflection. These categories helped me present the most valuable data andformed the basis for the discussion. Findings and Main Conclusions The informants and the theoretical framework both supported 3D virtual worlds and the opportunities within these platforms to contain great potential for collaborative work. As collaborative learning requires participants to socially interact and communicate with each other, the suitability relies on the communication options and features within the learning platform. SecondLife and other 3D virtual worlds are often created to serve as arenas for socialization, they are therefore well equipped with the necessary communication tools. To facilitate both formal and informal learning there are aspects that need to be present. Within 3D virtual worlds there needs to be possibilities to plan and design formally structured exercises, as well as unstructured informal activities. The informants were generally favorable to utilizing virtual environments for informal learning purposes, but disagreed on the formal learning possibilities. However, there are numerous examples of 3D virtual worlds being utilized for formal learning practices, and all the informants have had positive experiences with lectures and seminars conducted virtually. Reflective practice, most notably known through the work of Donald. A. Schön, proposes the importance of dialogues and reflection sessions, for participants in collaborative learning activities (Schön, 1983). This was a major part of the CAMO-project, and enabled the participants to express, challenge and reflect on the learning experience. The informants were unanimous in their perceived importance of reflection, to attain the most valuable learning outcome. They saw this as an important aspect of collaborative learning

Enhancing Acquisition and Distribution of Knowledge in Professional Environments using 3D Virtual Worlds

Proceedings of: 2nd Sig-ProTEL Workshop on the Analysis of Requirements of Professional Learning from Multiple Stakeholder Perspective. Barcelona, 28 September 2010In this paper we explore how the use of 3D Virtual Worlds can help to teach specific competencies useful in a professional environment. Concretely, we present a pattern for practicing and learning the competency of acquisition and distribution of knowledge. A number of features available on 3D Virtual Worlds make this approach particularly interesting, as an alternative to face-to-face collaboration.This research has been partially supported by the following projects: the Spanish project “Learn3: Towards Learning of the Third Kind” (TIN2008-05163/TSI), the Madrid regional project “eMadrid: Investigación y Desarrollo de tecnologías para el e-learning en la Comunidad de Madrid” (S2009/TIC-1650), and the European eContentPlus project “iCoper: Interoperable Content for Performance in a Competency-driven Society” (PPI-2008-A-12).Publicad

Connecting Students by Integrating the 3D Virtual and Real Worlds: We Need 3D Open Source Spaces to Keep Socialization, Communication and Collaboration Alive

Picture a world where imagination is the only limit; a world that stimulates students to learn, communicate, play and grow. The emergence of 3D Virtual Worlds has made this a virtual reality. Until recently this virtual experience has been separated from the real world by the limitations of software (proprietary systems), and constraints of hardware and networks (stationary consoles and network connections). Such separation limits the pedagogical utility that 3D Spaces can offer students. This article peeks around the corner of innovation by exploring a number of emergent open source developments that integrate the 3D Virtual and Real Worlds into a seamless reality, one that enhances pedagogical opportunities by integrating the practical and vocational actuality of the real world with the technical and imaginable possibilities of the Virtual Worlds. These possibilities are explored with reference to recent developments, pedagogical theory, and case studies in various open source 3D Virtual Worlds

Assistive technologies and advantageous themes for collaboration, learning & teaching within 3D Virtual Learning Environments

E-learning assisted through 3D Virtual Worlds such as Second Life, extending the more traditional 2D Virtual Learning Environments, presents advantageous motifs for collaboration, learning and teaching online. These main motifs include enriching communication and teaching means through 3D environments and game-like interaction, and enhancing the learning experience through avatar and virtual persona engagement. This paper aims to provide evidence from practice for the afore mentioned motifs and furthermore demonstrate that 3D Virtual Learning Environments offer beneficial themes to deliver education in three axes: as complement to physical education, supplement over 2D online virtual learning environments, and supplement over traditional real-life teaching methods. This evidence is provided through the Middlesex University DaCT village experience by i) identifying factors of successful and effective elearning in 3D virtual worlds ii) setting the learning space for mode of learning iii) designing the space and iv) defining best teaching paradigms