Hostility between academics who advocate teaching through virtual worlds and those who scorn the idea is being blamed for holding back the evolution of higher education.

The warning comes despite evidence that universities are slowly embracing virtual environments such as Second Life for teaching, according to a report from the Virtual World Watch consultancy.

The report, Zen and the Art of Avatar Maintenance, says that like the two characters in Robert M. Pirsig’s 1974 book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, academics hold polarised views of learning online.

“Some people take to it with great enthusiasm; others recoil in dismay, horror or anger,” writes the study’s author, John Kirriemuir.

Enthusiasts do more than welcome the chance to work in a virtual world, they embrace their avatar, or online alter ego, and dress it up in new costumes and designs.

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This is quite an old video, but very funny, and immediately recognisable for anyone who’s bumped their way around Second Life!

Following some of the feedback I received yesterday, I have re-edited some of this – it’s never going to be perfect, and I have marking to do, but I hope to develop this into something usable for the University of Winchester!

Current trends in digital media focus upon crowd-sourcing, collaboration and bottom-up approaches to material. A commonly used phrase is that sellers should ‘fish where the fish are’, with the trend having moved from ‘push’ marketing to ‘pull’ marketing (where users opt in). Since 2004, the ‘fish’ have largely been on social networking sites. Friends Reunited , launched in 2000, was the first social networking site to achieve prominence in the UK, but since 2004, such sites have exploded exponentially, although the emphasis is moving from quantity to quality.

Blogging consists of regular online entries, generally displayed in reverse-chronological order. No website which is interested in improving its search rankings (on Google) can afford to be without a blog. Each entry should be targeted around a keyword, consist of around 500-800 words, include an image, and offer a call to action.  Popular software includes WordPress and Blogger.

Much social media is used to provide traffic streams back to blogs and websites. The ROI (return on investment: which tends to consist of time rather than money) can be hard to quantify, but indicators such as traffic spikes and external comments can be used as measurements.

The dangers of social media are often quoted, and there are legal issues, including the dangers of harassment, cyberbullying, defamation, information leaks, misinformation and loss of intellectual property. There are concerns about security, privacy, stolen IDs, the permanency of information on the web (if you don’t want to see it on the front page of a newspaper, don’t post it). Companies are concerned about the spread of malware, time-wasting and the dilution of brand reputation. For companies using social media as push-marketing, the story is not good.

The benefits, however, are recognised by many. Regular users of social media, especially those who concentrate on one or two networks at a time, find it a great place to find others working in the field, to share and build on information, rather than multiple users reinventing the wheel. With an increased focus on authenticity, trust and relationships are built through regular interaction (one Tweet a day won’t cut it), whether that is with new external contacts, or for internal communications, and users become adept at adapting to each new system.

Twitter, created in 2006, is a form of microblogging. Initially based upon SMS messages, ‘tweets’ are limited to 140 characters, displayed and delivered to the author’s ‘followers’. A ‘retweet’ (RT) is when another user reposts your message, thus circulating it to their followers – a true compliment. Twitter is great for making and maintaining contacts with others with similar interests, with hashtags, e.g. #history, helping find these. Hashtags are especially useful for conferences, and for pulling news on a particular story. Average user age 25-54, although the celebrity culture means an increasing number of younger users.  Third party applications, especially via iPhones, expand the usability of Twitter.

Facebook, created in 2004, has changed recently changed its core user base of 18-34 year olds to 35-65 year olds. Facebook has 350 million active users worldwide, with a successful targeted paid-for advertising model, and third party applications are key. Interest groups can create Group Pages, whilst fan-pages offer more marketing potential. Facebook is typically used to maintain friendships with people already known in the ‘offline world’, making viral campaigns successful (see Ikea example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TYy_3786bo).

MySpace in 2006 was the biggest social media site, but was overtaken by Facebook in April 2008. It collects great amounts of data about its users, so advertising is very targeted. MySpace offers customisable backgrounds, ability to upload videos and MP3s. The site is largely used by musicians, and it is claimed that artists such as Lily Allen, the Arctic Monkeys & millions of other artists been ‘discovered’ through the site.

Bebo, an acronym for “Blog early, blog often, has existed since 2005. Offering quizzes, videos, photo uploads, music, pop polls and third party applications, the site is typically used by younger users, built around school networks.

LinkedIn has the strongest reputation in the business world. Users can import their CV, link to Twitter, blogs, and Slideshare. Users can host readings lists and join groups with similar interests. LinkedIn recommends connecting only with those you really know as users can post recommendations on their connections. Companies can also create an online portfolio. Particularly good for head-hunters, job-hunters and entrepreneurs.

Ning , Chinese for peace, launched in October 2005, offers an online platform for people to create their own social networks around specific interests, whether local or global. Network pages are customisable with features, visual design and member data. Educational groups have found them great places to connect and start discussions.

Second Life is an internet-based virtual world launched June 2003. Its users create avatars for themselves, are called Residents, and interact with each other and the virtual environment, participating in individual and group activities, travel the world, undertaking tasks, and creating and trading virtual property and services with one another. Users must be over 18, although Teen Second Life is available to those aged 13+.

YouTube, created in 2005, is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos, and create themed playlists of favourite saved videos. In March 2008 it was estimated that it would take 412.3 years to view all YouTube content. A more professional version is Vimeo, and a Christian specific version is Tangle, which also offers other features.

Flickr, created in 2004, is an image and video hosting website, widely used by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media. Hosting over 4 billion images in October 2009, the site offers photo storage, tagging, photo-favouriting, group photo pools, and rating by level of ‘interestingness’.  Picasa is a similar site.

Google Wave, created 2009, expected to go global in 2010, is an online collaboration tool that enables groups of people to edit and discuss documents simultaneously on the web. Unlike email where messages are passed back and forth, Wave hosts a single real-time copy of a conversation that all participants can edit and add to. A confusing interface has slowed its uptake. Helpful:  http://completewaveguide.com/

Wikis tend to be used to create collaborative websites, the most famous of which is Wikipedia, created in 2001, offering 13 million articles in more than 200 languages by September 2009. Wikis do not offer static content, but actively seek to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration. Changes can usually be made without review, although entries can be post-moderated, with a record kept of page changes.

Squidoo is a community-based publishing platform  on which users create “lenses”. Lenses are pages, tending to be overview articles, gathering everything a user knows about a topic of interest. Launched in 2005, Squidoo is in the top 500 most visited sites in the world.  Hubpages is similar.

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet (VOIP), whilst also allowing instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing. Calls to other users of the service are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Chats can be copied and stored elsewhere, although there’s no ability to save conversations.

SlideShare is a slide hosting service which allows users to upload, view, comment, and share slideshows and other documents. Such sites are particularly helpful in the fields of and web-conferencing, with videos, audios, animations easily contained within presentation slides. Slideshows can be embedded in blogs, and users can join interest groups. A great information source, but be aware of Intellectual Property issues.

Digg is a social news website, where users submit links and stories to share with others. Users can vote and comment on submitted links and stories. A story that is voted up is ‘digged’, a story voted down is ‘buried’. The site has come under criticism for allowing sensationalism and misinformation to thrive.

Delicious is a social bookmarking site, allowing users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized page. Tagging is the key, with each bookmark tagged with freely chosen index terms. Users can network with others interested in similar tags, and see other webpages which have been tagged under the same term, e.g. http://delicious.com/tag/socialmedia. The ‘hotlist’ on the homepage gives a taste of internet trends and memes (catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet). Reddit and Stumbleupon are similar sites.

Diigo allows users to highlight text and attach sticky notes to specific parts of web pages, and remain available when users return to webpages. Highlights are collected in a library, and entire sites and associated documentation can be saved for future use or downloaded for online browsing.  Items can be tagged, and can also be published as blogs, reports and slide-shows. Content is fully searchable, and users can join groups for those with similar interests.

Friendfeed is a real-time feed aggregator consolidating updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and micro-blogging updates, or any other RSS/ Atom feed. Friendfeed provides the facility to track activities across social media networks. A concern is that readers will comment on blog-posts within FriendFeed instead of on blogs, resulting in fewer page views for the blogger.

Many sites use a form of ‘tagging’, a form of metadata which helps describe an item and allows items to be grouped, creating a ‘folksonomy’ or collaboratively created list. Convergence is a key term, and sites such as DandyID (http://www.dandyid.org/id/drbexl) allow users to collate their digital fingerprint in one place. Increasingly social media sites are being accessed via smartphones, for which many specific applications have been developed (over 100,000 for iPhones in November 2009). There is an increased emphasis on single-sign in, leading to the development of options such as OpenID and Facebook Connect. Most of the programmes we now take for granted didn’t exist 10 years ago, so as new platforms continue to develop, there is a concern for the portability of data between different applications.

“Ask a learner who has been in a virtual world what they think and you may hear that they love that they get to explore new places and meet new people. Ask another and you might hear that they hate feeling disoriented or even nauseated. These individual anecdotes can be lively, funny and curious—but they are not a basis on which to make decisions about whether your organization will undertake a virtual world learning project. As part of a recent project, I had the opportunity to survey nearly 300 students who had just participated in a constructivist learning experience in Second Life (SL)  –to learn what they loved, hated and would like to see changed. In this article, we’ll explore what a large number of real learners have to say about their experience learning in a virtual world.”

Read full article.

Professor Joosten‘s work in Second Life in education, with accompanying blog. Well produced video, with a good idea of the rationale for the project, and what students are likely to get out of  Second Life which they are not able to get in “the real world”.

“Virtual worlds are about to plunge into a “trough of disillusionment”, lecture podcasts are fast becoming obsolete, but cloud computing will soon be on the “slope of enlightenment”.

These are the findings of an analysis of the “hype cycle” of technology in education, published by Gartner, an IT advisory firm.

The annual study looks at the popularity of emerging technologies, from internet TV and e-books to microblogging sites such as Twitter, across a range of sectors. It tracks their progression as a function of expectations.

The cycle ranges from over-enthusiasm as technology is hyped, through a period of disillusionment when it fails to deliver, via a slope of enlightenment to a “plateau of productivity”, as users learn how best to employ it.”

Read full article.

My attention was drawn back to the above article through the article “What not to wear in virtual circles” in the Times Higher Education this week.

Don’t worry, I am not going to do this every day, but thought today was interesting! I was invited on a tour of RSC South East Staff/Community Islands in Second Life, so last night was rather trying to get up to speed with the basics, so I could join in as much as possible!

First part of the tour, checking out the virtual building which is intended to be a repository for materials – and as it’s built in a virtual environment, it’s not restrained by the need for doors, etc. It’s not intended to replace face-to-face contact, or to be suitable for all learner groups, but to provide another layer, where experimentation and learning are possible. In some respects the environment needs to provide a familiar teaching and learning environment, or even a familiar real-world environment. For example, the arches into the sandbox (experimentation) area are based upon London docklands, and the architecture is planned to reflect the mix of styles that you would get in any UK city.

We moved on from the sandbox, to a street, with a lot of empty space… which is intended for those who desire to build/show off, for example, artwork and furniture. The row of houses alongside are designed as a space where narrative can be created, and the old school, which can be seen in the background, is based upon a 19^th Century building, when mass education was new – as Second Life is!

We moved on to The MayFlower, based upon a real pub in London, which is a gallery space where, for example, streaming video, graphics created by students, links to text/websites, etc. could be displayed. Such a space could also be used for an analysis of 17^th Century life (how the building is built, how people would have interacted with it, etc). I asked how much of a learning curve would be required for students to learn it (as I’ve already had quite a steep learning curve!). “Halo” (our tour leader), indicated that Second Life was very much an 18+ environment, and only appropriate for certain types of curricula. For each specific group we’d have to evaluate the value we were adding (good old cost-benefit analysis), and very much see Second Life as very much an ELEMENT within a course, rather than the whole course (certainly now), and we’d need to keep it simple!

We then went into the Swanky Pad, where I worked out how to sit down on an object I knew I wanted to sit on – and flicked the room around so that I could see what I looked like from the front!

The Swanky Pad is designed as a space for online meetings, with the ability to use different types of media, and reflects the place we probably all wish we have, but can’t afford in real life (so this offers real possibilities for teaching, as costs are cut, activities could be carried out in the virtual environment – taking into consideration whether the learning objectives could be met in that way).  “Halo” indicated that he believes that Second Life is but the start, and there are so many possibilities available within virtual worlds. The expectation is that within the next 5 years they’ll be over 300 virtual environments available, which offer an extension to offline practices, where sharing and collaboration can be undertaken. We then went onto a Museum, which would offer potential for the module ‘Creating and Consuming’ that I teach, where students come up with a plan for a museum, but don’t build it – here’s a chance to build it!

Towards the end of the tour we were taken into this large warehouse, which provides a large space which could host e.g. an end of year show. This show can be opened to the public (as I understand it, the public can visit it, but to take full part in the interactive experience, need to join and take up the challenge of the Second Life learning curve!). “Halo” indicated that Second Life can’t be a free for all, and spaces need organisation and management (and as DDucks said, trees!)… and that technical issues are to be expected as a part of Second Life. The final area that we were shown is Community Island, where 8 spaces will be rented (free of charge) to Universities/organisations as spaces to experiment and build… the only payment expected is that the research developed will be shared!

Having completed that very educational tour, I’d been very distracted by the fact that I still had the default shoes on (although I love the skirt provided by Sufia). Last night I tried to sign up to [Sascha’s] dress store – look how amazing some of those are – most of the things we have no excuse to wear offline! So I decided to hop back there (worked out the landmark feature, I think), and fortunately was helped my Reni, who offered me group membership and then showed me where the free dresses were – so I put this lovely turquoise number on – can’t work out how to take the jacket off right now though! Have too many clothes in my inventory! Still no shoes here though!

So I headed back to ‘Free Dove’, which Sufia had also taken me to last night, and I found a good selection of free shoes, and the chance to sit on the floor, and have a proper look at the dress!

The owner of the shoes that I plumped for was Laval, and offered a teleport to her island, so I did – sat in this lovely chair, and thought I’d leave it at that, write this report, then write my lectures on the Suffragettes (hmm, now thinking, wonder if SL would be good for re-enacting history that doesn’t make it into video/onto YouTube!)!

A basic introduction to creating a Second Life account, which I had abandoned. I downloaded (yes, it requires client software) and tried out Second Life a couple of years ago, but, never having been a huge fan of computer games, and thinking that the learning curve to participate was just too big (and I seemed to be flying around Orientation Island naked), I abandoned it! However, taking up the post of Blended Learning Fellow, I’ve been invited to go to a view of one of the islands this morning, so last weekend, I rebooted my account! I’m not really a fan of places which simply recreate the offline environment online (thinking online has enough to offer on its own terms, and I certainly have no intention of spending real money on a ‘virtual’ world), but I’m interested to see what it does these days!

Progress:
I managed to:

• Change my top, hair and body shape (apparently to a very large butt at one point)
• Teleport to a number of different islands
• Find the Anglican Cathedral
• Been checking out Sloodle
• Invite a friend, chat to her, and worked out how to use a number of gestures and chat
• I used Facebook to ask my friend who owns Scripted Scriptures for an invite to her island
• I appear to have just sat down, but am not quite sure what I did to do so!
• Second Life also offer Video Tutorials, so between them and YouTube, I’m sure I can learn lots… if I can find the time!

What about their video explaining educational possibilities!

I managed to take a screenshot (that’s me sat in the chair)!

Then met up with some other friends, and went off and tried a few new things – not everything was working properly – go back and try more later!

Here’s me trying out a surfboard – and keep wiping out!

Off to try and find new clothes, hair, etc… There’s my friend Sufia behind me, and new friend Vidz behind, with well known RL friend DDucks off to the side!

And here’s how I left myself to sleep overnight, on Scripted Scriptures (Sufia’s) island!

“Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its Residents. From the moment you enter Second Life, you’ll discover a fast-growing digital world filled with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity.”

My Experience: Didn’t really get into it, and it seems the enthusiasm for it is now dying off!

After the Digisymp Conference, July 2009: I may try again, when Ihave time!