Digital Directions

ALT-C 2009 - A Virtual Perspective

As I was unable to go, I asked a couple of colleagues who went to the Association of Learning Technology Conference (ALT-C) to let me know of anything interesting, so here’s a guest blog post!

 

ALT-C isn’t subject specific, so many new and emerging classroom technologies can often be found… not all take off, but some do.  The following post is by Kathy Trinder and Linda Creanor, so my thanks to them!

 

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A very busy few days this year. Many old contacts reconnected, many fellow education tech twitter-ers met in person, and many interesting and in depth conversations took place in pubs, over pints & pies, at the end of the day.

 

This year I initially put on my researcher hat and attended one session on "The agenda of research culture". I won't comment on these here, but links are available for the abstracts:

 

Activity Theory: what does it offer e-learning research?

 

A Research Agenda for Emerging Technologies in Education:

 

Gathering evidence of the design, use, reuse and redesign of Open Educational Content:

 

SCoPE Online Community to Support Individuals Interested in Educational Research and Practice: A Snapshot of Evolution:

 

 

For the rest of the conference, other than the keynotes by Wesch and Bean (see links to the videos

and other blog posts here and here, and always lots to read about ALT-C at: http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/category/altc2009/), I have to admit I pretty much just followed the Virtual Worlds theme, of which I was part with my presentation on how Glasgow Caledonian University has been using SL in teaching Artifical Intelligence (AI) in computing.

 

2 years ago at ALT-C few people were using 3D virtual worlds in teaching, and the main conference themes revolved around Web 2.0 tools and how we could possibly use these. However that was the year that I detected a buzz and many whispers about this thing called Second Life. Like many I'd signed up for an SL account the previous year, when it first hit the headlines, but had not done a lot in there. It was highly intriguing to hear that year what had been happening, what all the really early adopters in H.E. had been doing.

 

This year there is a noticeable difference, with several sessions on Virtual Worlds, mirroring the general trend in UK HE of most universities now having some presence in SL or other 3D virtual worlds.

 

We are now beginning to see some real solid teaching scenarios appearing, beyond the pilot project stage, however pilots are still seen as important as we are still exploring what we can do with these worlds, and we cannot yet know their limits as they are still very much in development (though some are calling for an end to pilots and a start to some real teaching. But to me they are technology killers. This is an emerging technology and will be for many years to come. We are not there yet!). There is still much discussion about the technical issues, and institutional barriers this year at the conference. I think most places now are aware of issues and whilst we haven't solved them all we have discovered the more obvious ones are and sharing work rounds.

 

But it could be seen from the presentations given that many different disciplines are now exploring 3D Virtual Worlds. Some concentrated on the technology - 'bots, haptic feedback, tool kits, and integrating mobile & cross world devices; whilst others explored the cognitive - e.g. simulations, drill & practice, etc. About half the presentations though looked more at the affective or soft skills, (particularly in the arts & social sciences), and are more concerned with issues such as identity, gender, networking, and the very social aspects of such worlds.  There was discussion around whether or not the the SL expericne can feel like a 'real' experience ('Yes', but it depends on the student, the scenario, the design and the willingness of all participants to allow it to feel real.) Another question asked was does such a visual medium always benefit or can it kill imagination and creativity ("Which one is *your* Hurcule Poiroit or your Mr D'arcy?").

 

Another strong strand that emerged is that of staff and teachers and how we 'train' staff about these worlds. Do they need to become immersed in order to understand the environment and be able to use it effectively for teaching?

 

Games based learning emerged, I feel, as 'the next big thing'. With the introduction of 3D virtual worlds, who many see as being game-like, this is perhaps a natural progression. Again there is much historical work in this field, but it is being re-visitied because it seems that many of the processes of game play can potentially be used in virtual worlds to help structure learning and teaching.

 

These are all trends that can also be seen emerging across Europe as well as in the UK (I recently attended ICWL VW Workshop http://www.iicm.tugraz.at/ViWo/ViWo2009Workshop).

 

For the abstracts of the sessions I attended in SL, please see the links here:

 

Second life processes - 3 short paper(s)

300 Bioscience and forensic science students get a Second Life®

Rose Heaney, Stephanie Henderson-Begg, Olivia Corcoran

 

317 A fusion of mobile technology and Second Life in a learning environment to support the transition from school to university

Jane Magill, E Magill, B Canavan, A Devlin, M Pomerantz, J Trinder:

 

 

308 Dreams into [virtual] reality

Kate Boardman:

 

 

Visual redesign - 3 short paper(s)

155 Designing Engaging Visualisations to Support History Learning

Nic Earle, Shelley Hales

 

 

163 A Case of High Engagement: Applying immersive online gaming to History research skills.

Alex Moseley

 

313 Moving in 3D: The X, Y, Z of learning through doing in immersive, virtual environments

Helen Farley, Caroline Steel

 

 

Second life technologies - 3 short paper(s)

75 Designing game-based learning activities in Second Life

Maria Toro-Troconis, Martyn Partridge

 

 

206 If we dream it, will they come? The self-efficacy of students new to Second Life Learning

David Moffat, Kathryn Trinder

 

 

251 Virtual Reality: designing learning environments in Second Life

Fay Cross

 

 

Guest post by: Kathy Trinder and Linda Creanor, Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University

 

 

The 'Hype Cycle' for education, 2009

According to today's Times Higher, Second Life is out as techies embrace cloud email as reported by Zoë Corbyn.

It would seem that Virtual worlds - such as Second Life - have passed their "peak of inflated expectations" and are now set to slide into the "trough of disillusionment" unless they happen to become obsolete before even decending into that valley of possible death.

Some interesting readers' comments already made on THES, but further analysis on Microblogging, Twitter and Hype Circles can be found on Jeffrey Mann's blog - within the Gartner IT advisory firm's website - the origin of the report.

The full forcast for current technologies is displayed below, and has aparently generated a bit of a twitter backlash, which is the next technology (as an example of microblogging) set to tip over the 'Peak of Inflated Expectations', but as Mann observes, everything must dip into this trough - the main issue is how long a technology must remain in the trough and whether it will weather the storm.

Maximising the effectiveness of virtual worlds in teaching and learning

In the run up to LILAC 2009 (and also because it was taking place just around the corner at Strathclyde), I thought the CETIS-Eduserv-VW2009 would be of interest in relation to previous posts on Second Life and legal education, especially as Martin Jones and myself will be giving an overview of our own experiences at LILAC later this month.

Specifically, the event aimed to explore the following issues:

• What are the teaching situations for which Virtual Worlds are best suited?
• What are the policy issues which arise from using Virtual Worlds for Learning and Teaching?
• What are the technical characteristics/constraints of Virtual Worlds which have an impact on their use in Learning and Teaching?

The first speaker, Sheila Webber owns the Infolit iSchool in Second Life, and is at the University of Sheffield in real life!  Much of the presentation related to Inquiry-based learning illustrating that educators will go into SL with their own approaches to teaching, and not all teaching situations can be brought about in a virtual world.

Second up was David White from the Open Habitat project at Oxford University, who presented a really interesting diagram on the relationship between shared endeavours and the sense of being part of a group.  I'll try and get a copy from slideshare after the event closes (here it is!):

What I took from the diagram is that some tools encourage 'eventedness' (the sense of being part of a shared endeavour) and others may be good at giving participants a sense of being with others (co-presence).  So, for example, discussion forums can only go so far in terms of participants feeling that they really belong to a group, but can go reasonably high up the collaborative and productive scale.  MUVEs, however, can range from really good experiences to really bad experiences!  This means that the educator has to take the role of making sure that students are heading towards the top right of the graph so that they experience as much as possible, the sense of belonging and communal collaboration.

I was also inspired by the concept of 'latent presence'.  Often, when the user leaves the virtual environment there is no trace of their presence or activity unless resources are built or developed.  This suggested to me that we should aim to be constructive in terms of ensuring that something should be retainable from a virtual world session.  If it is purely seminar discussion, the the transcript could be kept for further reflection and analysis on an individual level, or as the next group activity.  Perhaps a blog or other commenting mechanism could be used to record the activity in real time.

Before the lunchbreak, Fiona Littleton from VUE at Edinburgh University looked at learning spaces - Holyrood Park on their SL island can be booked out for other university groups to use by booking slots.  This is something that would be far less common with real rooms and real resources, but can be commended for virtual spaces which perhaps have other resources built-in to enhance the use of virtual spaces.

After lunch, an overview on policy was given by Ren Reynolds from the Virtual Policy Network.  Looking at the concept of fear, the following were addressed:

• Parental fear
• Student fear
• Fear of students
• Fear of law
• Establishment

Newspaper reports and negative editorials were discussed with the audience and seemed to be common concerns across universities.  Codes of conduct and the transference of common or sharable 'blogging standards' into virtual worlds may need to be facilitated.

Some of the twitters from the event can be seen here, and the tag #cevw09 was used so many other blogs and reviews can be identified as they appear.  The session was also run concurrently in Second Life and here's a snapshot of the attendees:

SL Bar Association Seminar 2

"Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in Virtual Environments"

Juris Amat – Tamiko Franklin, in the real world - is the Director of International Legal Services for Matijevich Law Offices, who spoke to the SL Bar Association on Tues evening this week.

Unfortunately for me, it didn't run as smoothly as last week, but I suspect that was a good experience for me as I am sure that if students are expected to use SL in education, or anyone else for that matter, that hiccups and problems will occur.

Firstly, my voice-chat didn't appear to be working and I couldn't hear the speaker - I could hear the familiar wind of Second Life, but nothing more.  Then I got voice, but my screen froze, so I heard the start, but was unable to participate visually, or to ask questions etc. and then the whole thing stopped, leaving me in the dark.

So, I have the slides, and I have the transcript, and I have a spare morning to catch-up; I even have a CPD certificate of attendance as I managed to register before things came crashing to a halt!

Despite the title, the presentation focused more on copyright rather than the whole range of IPRs that exist, and covers both real-world and in-world remedies; and also concentrated more on US law, but that is where SL is based.  An interesting comment on trandmarks:

I’m no California attorney but if theres one present I’d love to hear whether they think that a client located in Brazil, offering products for sale via the internet but only in the virtual world of the Service by doing so has acquired common law trademarks rights in California?

Something to ask my students when teaching starts!

Second Life Bar Association Seminars

I 'attended' my first virtual seminar at the SL Bar Association's sim in Second Life yesterday!  It was very interesting, and worked surprisingly well.  Starting only 5-10 mins late, but with good audio feed and very little disruption, I was also pleased that it worked with my laptop on battery power and using a wireless LAN - sat on the sofa at home!

Not being familar with the SL Bar Association, I had some assumptions that the majority may be American (probably Californian), but was surprised to hear the first speaker with an English accent - Paul Marsh, the VP of the Law Society, aka 'LawSocietyPaul Finesmith'.  The Principal Speaker was David Naylor, a partner in the Technology Law Group at Field Fisher Waterhouse in London, aka Solomon Cortes in SL.

David (or Solomon, if you prefer) spoke about the main legal issues faced by both the users and creators of virtual worlds.  The emergence of disputes and issues generally arises when commercial transactions are present - i.e. both parties have something that they stand to lose, if things go wrong.  Therefore, we find lawyers there too!  Anonymity was a main aspect to several points made throughout the one hour (CPD accredited!) session - particularly interesting when the main speakers and most of the attendees are under the guise of an avatar name, with no easy way to trace their identity back in the 'real' world.

Anonymity gives rise to issues in jurisdiction - perhaps more relevant where e-commerce or distance-selling is present as the law offers consumers some protection (in the EU,in particular).  David also spoke about virtual 'creations' in SL - things that residents have build in the virtual world.  It is fairly easy to find the owner or creator of such objects, but again, this information relates to their virtual pseudonym and not to their legal name.  Therefore, if a replica of the Apple store on Fifth Avenue appears in Second Life, the creator may be infringing the IP rights of Apple, unless the avatar name happens to be an employee and creating this 'asset' on behalf of the organisation.

For me, the most interesting part of the seminar was a discussion on goods and services.  Laws are generally drafted with either goods or services in mind, with different warranties for either, and 'virtual assets' are neither one nor the other.  Some creations may look like goods that can be bought and sold, but in reality, they are only virtual, and are composed merely of binary data on a server somewhere at Linden Labs.  Therefore, the question arose of whether we need a new class of asset - the Digital Asset.

Read the rest of the post for snapshots of the event, and further links!

Second Life revisited!

Following my Second Life blog post, I entered the competition to win a few Linden Dollars in order to pilot a SL project at my university with a colleague - Martin Jones.  Sadly, we didn’t win the top prize… but our runner-up status does get some free advice and guidance for developing, deploying and assessing the project!

Here’s a brief summary of what Martin and I submitted:

“The project will be based upon a successful project on property law by Elizabeth Townsend-Gard at Seattle Law School (http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/04/using_second_li.html) and adapted to suit UK students and a Scots Law syllabus.

Initially, this project will be piloted in level 2 (core LLB module in Legal IT) to assess the student perspective and the future viability of an extended activity in a level 3 elective (e-law).

Student will one ‘pet’ avatar per group (approx 6 students per group) and use their experience of registering, navigating, interacting etc to define and describe the legal issues associated with their first-hand use of Second Life.  An indicative list of such tasks may include:

·         Task One: The Rules of the Game (what laws control and how); Design the Avatar

·         Task Two: First in Time (Exploration and Orientation)

·         Task Three: Provision of Legal Services & Dispute Resolution in SL

·         Task Four: Property ownership

·         Task Five: IP 1 Trademark

·         Task Six: IP 2 Copyright

·         Task Seven: Contractual Disputes

·         Task Eight: Controlling Defamatory/Offensive Material

·         Task Nine: Controlling ‘virtual’  offences against the person

·         Task Ten: Age issues and child protection in SL

·         Task Eleven: Financial Services / Money Laundering / Gambling in SL

·         Task Twelve:  Representatives from Each Group – final evaluation, discussion of the experience

Tasks 1-3 and 12 will be core for each group; subsequent tasks may be allocated to different groups or encountered in a different order to assess whether SL experience impacts upon their findings.  Further tasks may be developed as the project matures.  Tasks 1-3 will also be the small-scale pilot.

My current concerns are more about IT labs and the graphics requirements for running Second Life on campus; but, with internal ‘project support’ I’m hoping that can be cleared up.

I’ve also found a very cool blogHUD so I can blog directly from SL when this is up and running!  And I thought it might be worthwhile putting some of the law-oriented SL resources that I’ve come across on a separate page – see here for photos, university departments, law firms courtrooms and more (although I don’t want to pre-empt task 3!).  Read on for links etc.