Point/Counterpoint: Virtual Worlds: Fad or Future?
AJ Kelton (moderator), Cyprien Lomas, Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins-Bell
Intelligirl and Cyprien
Will virtual worlds revolutionize how we teach?
- Sarah (S): that’s a false dycodomy. It’s not either or it’s somewhere in the middle.
- Cyprien (C): thinks it works well for a specific group of people, those who have embarrassed it and are very visual. it’s a good way to revisit our academic values.
Singular reliance on a one-company solution, how is different from the LMS market and how do we know we are getting a return on investment?
- C: 3D spaces aren’t going to go away. People want to interact with their data. Even if they go away we will still have gotten value.
- S: really not comfortable putting all the eggs in one basket, esp one that someone owns. There are new open-source worlds coming up all the time (croquet). The corporate-owned help you get acclimated to the environment to help get folks started, then you can move to a more difficult-to-use open source product. She feels they both have value.
What about return on investment (ex. purchase an island)?
- C: not good if you want short-term timeline.
- S: it gives an experimentation vibe to the faculty and so if your goal is to have more experimentation in your curriculum then you’ll have a fast turnaround. It’s important to define your goal up front.
What about IT Tech Suppt not wanting to open it up?
- S: IT works for the educators and the students so if it’s something that is good for the students or makes the educators more effective then they should do it, if not they should be let good. The model is flawed. These products don’t have to be university-wide. They don’t have to live on your campus and be run by you. You also don’t have to train on all of these. Build dev communities among the faculty/students. Let them support themselves. It’s a change in what IT does.
- C: It should be okay to question what they will get out of it and how willing are they to support themselves or being a part of the support.
How do we make sure the students can use it?
- S: We have to face it’s experiment. She wouldn’t require it unless she can give them a space to do it (lab).
- C: neither would require a student to take an online class so there will always be another version of the class on campus.
How is choosing to use SL any different than choosing your textbook and should it be assessed differently?
- C: These are very early days for these tools. We don’t even have the language at this point to assess it. We’re talking about new literacies and we don’t know yet how these skills will help in future techs.
- S: It should be okay to experiment with it to know if they are even worth assessing. However, assessing SL is like assessing pens and pencils. It’s more about what you do with it. Very much about how it’s applied. We need to assess these as communities and cultures. This should be included in the assessments.
Students in SL can take any form they like and they can backchannel IM one another. They also do things in there they would never do in life. Why as an instructor would I want to give up that control?
- S: Why wouldn’t you? Avatars are an expression of the student. This lets you learn more about the student. She does have certain rules on her syllabus, for example don’t come to online class naked but she feels that this opens up a place to discuss why we have these rules.
Audience Questions:
We’re trying to fit SL into classes when we should be pushing the companies to give us what we need to teach. S: anytime we get into bed with a product we need to assess their philosophies to see if they will help us and back us. It’s important to know your company so there isn’t a fundamental conflict with education goals. C: he thinks that it’s important to play and challenge yourself to figure out how to be creative and incorporate certain virtual elements (i.e. weightlessness) into your classes instead of making an online world that looks exactly like the regular world.
How do you address learning styles in your teaching in SL? S: the models that we use in the real world do not address all learning styles so why would you throw this out for the same offense. We need to be congnisent on how to use these worlds to meet more styles.
How do you know, in an online environment, that you are speaking with or assessing the real person? Can’t tell anymore than you can in an LMS. You’re just hoping the person operating the keyboard is the same person that it’s suppose to be.
How do you acclimate students to SL? S: have them all in a lab for one night and gives them a scavenger hunt so they learn the skills they need for class.
What’s the scoop on intellectual property in-world? C: it can be a concern. What happens if you take a lot of time building something then it’s erased due to a glitch. you can recreate it but it’s frustrating. S: agrees, wishes you could backup an island but there is a false assumption that stuff you build in one space is going to be good in another. Many of these products are totally different cultures so you probably wouldn’t want to port things between worlds. We may also need to change our thinking about how much we want to protect these resources.
Is SL engaging? S: depends on how you use it! C: engagement comes with exploration.
Interesting things to check out:
- Loyalist College – Border Crossing simulation
- AJ Kelton – Virtual Worlds? “Outlook Good”
