DE Oracle @ UMUC

Using Second Life in Educational Settings

Floyd Csir

Instructional Support Specialist

Center for Support of Instruction

Published: November-December 2009

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-tools

Second Life (SL) has morphed from an amusing online curiosity with limited appeal to a virtual space with almost unlimited educational opportunities. Beyond the hype of Second Life, actual learning takes place. The book "Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life" explores the pedagogical designs and learning projects of SL. International institutions of higher education are well represented in the twelve chapters written by various contributors from New Zealand, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. This article examines some of the lessons learned from these various virtual educators and briefly discusses UMUC's own work with SL.

Best Practices in Second Life

The book's contributors shared a lot of best practices and tips based on the lessons they learned from working in the SL environment. The list below is a brief summary of just a few of the tips in the book, both technical and pedagogical:

• Itemize what students will need to do before joining SL and attending a class.
• Show students where to find the free SL software, indicate whether headsets will be necessary for voice chat or if text chat be used, and how to locate the actual classroom in SL.
• Take a few hours creating an avatar, navigating through the virtual environment, and communicating with other avatars in SL.
• Because low-bandwidth users will not be able to access Second Life, it is important to understand the connectivity requirements.
• Clearly explain SL class session expectations to students prior to the course.
• Text chats can be archived in SL, but voice chats cannot be. If voice chats are used, assign one person to take notes and then save it as a notecard.
• Practice using white boards and video players in SL before conducting class sessions.
• Plan for technical difficulties during class sessions by explaining what students should do in case their audio does not work, for example. Alternatives include using Skype and cell phone numbers.
• Conduct de-briefing sessions at the end of class sessions to garner student feedback.
• Use surveys to gather data about students' SL experience.
• Ask an individual student a question because multiple students may respond to your undirected question all at once.
• Courses that require discussion, presentation, and team activities tend to work better in SL than those that do not employ such methods.
• Archiving both private and public written text, with permission, can assist students who may want to refer to the information later.

Cool Examples of Second Life as a Tool for Learning

The book identified several projects in which SL was used in various disciplines. The following two examples stood out (you need to have a Second Life account to view the examples):

• A project called Virtual Harlem at the University of Central Missouri enables students to explore and interact in a replica of Harlem, NY, as it existed in the 1920s Jazz era, which includes the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.
• In one learning environment dubbed the Digital Humanities Island, a joint venture by the University of Pisa (Italy) and King's College in London (UK), students made models of historical buildings, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Tower of London, and Galileo's Laboratory. Recreating historical buildings was identified as appealing projects for students' future employment. 

Second Life at UMUC

At UMUC, an SL committee has been charged with constructing an island in SL for educational purposes. Small and large classrooms have been installed. Trees, birds, and even flowers adorn casual walkways, which hopefully will encourage small group discussions and meetings. A Welcome Center greets new visitors. The Effective Writing Center (EWC), with Senior Advisor David Taylor, has a building with a prominent view. The EWC will be moving in shortly. You can catch a glimpse of what the island looks like in the screenshots below:

We're very excited about the possibilities of using SL at UMUC Island, and the tips and ideas mentioned earlier will prove helpful when faculty and staff begin using SL to further enhance teaching and learning. The UMUC Island is expected to be completed by early 2010. Currently, faculty and staff of the Center for Support of Instruction (CSI) are putting the final touches to the island. Additional faculty involvement in the project is welcome; please contact Garth Gerstein, Assistant Director for CSI, at ggerstein@umuc.edu if you are interested in participating.

References

Molka-Danielsen, J., & Deutschmann, M. (Eds.) (2009). Learning and teaching in the virtual world of Second Life. Trondheim, Norway: Tapir Academic Press.