Teaching & Learning Network

Recently, Teachers College purchased land in Second Life (SL) to develop a Teachers College virtual world. I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Charles Kinzer about the course he teaches on Second Life and the potential of Second Life as an educational opportunity.

Linda: Why develop SL land for TC?

Dr. Kinzer: Since early 2006, I've been teaching a class about the possibilities of virtual worlds, using Second Life as a platform. I've wanted to create an island that would be relevant for Educators and educational opportunities even before my class began, but in the past two years higher education as well as businesses and individuals are moving into these environments in huge numbers for teaching, research and social purposes. With increased student and faculty interest at TC, it's an appropriate and exciting time for us to establish a presence for research and teaching activities, and TC's Academic Computing and Information Services has been really helpful and supportive in purchasing the land and making it an open space for the TC community. It's an ongoing effort that will result in TC's having another resource for outreach as well as teaching and research.

Linda: What are the goals and expectations for the TC land?

Dr. Kinzer: I expect it'll be used for the general categories of teaching, research and as a social meeting space. There are opportunities for users to create a "world" and establish social relationships, and places for experiments and learners to work on development projects so that individual user goals and expectations can be achieved. We will also consider the various ways in which content is designed, developed, and administered as it relates to learning, and different departments and programs across TC will set and meet their own goals.

As an example, art education could use the space for creation of three-dimensional art forms, and develop space for exhibitions of department and student work. Mathematics education could create three-dimensional objects and manipluatives for teaching geometry, contextually-rich environments including video can be created to establish virtual schools or school buildings within which Principal or educational leadership training can take place, and so on. Second language learning, where contexts can be created where learners need to use the language they are learning within hotels, taxi cabs or mini-communities, so that they are learning language embedded within the respective language's context is a clear possibility. So the goal is to provide a platform for users to implement their visions, from a diverse perspective across TC.

Linda: Where do you anticipate seeing virtual worlds in the next decade?

Dr. Kinzer: My last response probably deals with this a bit, but as the technology becomes better in terms of graphics, processing speed, bandwidth and so on, virtual worlds will become more realistic, providing even more contextually relevant spaces that are more easily used by a wider segment of the population. As virtual worlds become more transportable and interconnected, it will become easier to adapt and understand the potential, with travel across virtual worlds, perhaps moving from Second Life to Active Worlds or other environments without losing ones avatar identity and resources. So interconnectivity and its benefits will be noticeable.

Linda: How can we find more information or research on this topic, what articles do you recommend?

Dr. Kinzer: The research is just beginning in this area. To see what SLer's are discussing and what projects are in the development, consider the SL research and educators listservs:

Potential of Second Life Webinar: March 23

This Friday, March 23 the TLT Group is hosting a FREE webinar called, Exploring Educational Potential of Second Life - Online Virtual Worlds at 2:00pm. There is a 5 minute preparatory and introductory presentation about the workshop. Register to attend.  

MIT Second Life Student Design Competition:

MIT is running a design competition to develop a student created space in Second Life. Read more about the competition at the Design Competition website. The site also includes building tips for designing and development.

I think this article provides a nice overview of how online worlds such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Second Life are impacting people in their daily lives.

Check out this story in National Geographic about various ecosystems that are being created within Second Life. I can imagine a lot of other interesting research projects and simulations.

By now, you probably have read about, logged into, or created an avatar (virtual 'you') for one of the available virtual or social worlds. You probably have concluded that virtual worlds are somewhere between the next "it" to have no use. No matter what your first, second, and current viewpoint is it is clear that corporations, organizations, and institutions are taking notice.

In this series, we are looking at the virtual world and considering:

• The current research
• The many uses of Second Life
• Social and virtual communities
• What’s next?

Beginning with some basic information, I will share with you my experiences of participating in an online Second Life course, interviews with leaders in the field, and some of the early research in this area.

What is a virtual world and is it easy to navigate?

One thing that most virtual world definitions have in common is that virtual worlds are simulated environments that may or may not have real-environment characteristics, and allow the user to have the perception of interactivity. The overall focus is on a sense of community.

If you are interested in how digital learning is shifting the learning process in third world countries, then you may want to consider attending or monitoring the annual conference for eLearning Africa (eLA) that is being held on May 28-30, 2007.

This is an international conference that focuses on the Pan-African eLearning and distance education sector. Committed to bringing practitioners and professionals together to discuss and share the accomplishments of digital and wireless educational training needs across the Pan-African regions. Some of the projects include:

• E-Literacy for All - The NEPAD Kenya Initiative
• Sustainable Human Resource Development in Africa
• The African Component of the Global Development Learning Network

To become familiar with the regional and global projects, you can download the eLA 2006 conference report, or you can subscribe to the eLA newsletter.

Many know that The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of institutions and organizations committed to the quality of online education. Its basic overall purpose is to assist learning institutions and organizations into integrating education into any where, any time, and any thing for information usage and retrieval.

Sloan - C has added a new section to the consortium website called Blended Learning. This section is for educators to collect and share information and resources that relate to blended learning. Sloan-C has also published a book on the topic: Blended Learning: Research Perspectives that outlines the educational process for developing and delivering blended/hybrid courses; effective for faculty and student interaction for an on campus and online productive experience.

Over fifteen colleges and universities and over twenty practitioners discuss and outline the practices that have made their programs relevant to the pedagogical aspects for learning through maintenance of strategic planning and cost with in blended learning.

Check out these awards from Time Warner Cable for teachers and school principals.

An elementary school teacher in Milan, Italy was recently suspended for cutting a 7-year old boy's tongue with a scissor. The cut was severe enough that he had to be taken to the hospital for stiches.

In a separate incident in Bari, Italy a family beat up a principal because they were unhappy with the grades a young relative had received and a ban on cell phones at the school.

What kind of example are we setting for students when our teachers and parents engage in this kind of behavior? How can we expect our youth to act any differently?

The 'World Wide Web Inventor', Sir Timothy Berners-Lee appeared before Congress on March 1, 2007 to discuss with the federal legislators the digital future of the World Wide Web for the United States.

During a session of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Sir Berners-Lee reviewed the first decade of the Internet, its use, and commented on how "...we have only scratched the surface of what can be realized with deeper scientific investigation into its design, operation and impact on society."; concluding with the continental relationships that are working with public, private, and academic areas to protect the systems that are in place and consider future systems.

The founder of the World Wide Web Consortuim - W3.org, Sir Berners-Lee hoped that his comments, ideas, etc. of the big World Wide Web system that he presented to Congress would be used to build the next "thing" about the web.

He discussed that the original vision included the universality of the web so that the consideration of culture, language, disability, etc. of the 'user' would not matter - a universality system where everything would be linked to everything else and for everyone.