Feb 2009 – ISTE, Blog of the Month – Feb 2009
Dec 2009 – EduBlog, Best Educational Use of a Virtual World (2nd runner up)
Compiled/written by Johnnie Wendt/John Waugh
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
An image from one of Caspian Learning's military training simulations
For video click on this view of "Thinking World's" military checkpoint simulation
A military simulation in “Thinking Worlds,” a browser-based, 3D virtual world technology, had reduced – by more than 50 percent - the need to carry out remedial or “Brought Up To Speed” training in one cohort that trained on the UK Navy’s Maritime Warfare School simulation, according to Graeme Duncan (pictured right), the CEO of the award-winning Caspian Learning organisation.
This reduction was when the cohort of 100 was compared to a similar size control cohort which went through a more traditional normal “onboarding” training process.
Graeme Duncan
But, he told online blog Defence IQ, that it was “clear is that there is no one, and never should be, simulation or games engine that solves all of our learning ills.”
“There is a need for different simulation technology, both authoring platforms and delivery platforms to deliver different types of learning experience,” he said. “And that could be the difference between single player scenarios and multiplayer scenarios.”
Caspian Learning is the developer of the Thinking Worlds’ 3D authoring tool and software platform that enables users to engage in a 3D virtual simulation designed to train and teach, particularly in the military realm and in my view has demonstrated that it is up with the game if not ahead of most of those doing education simulations in virtual worlds such as Second Life, OpenSim and others.
It has probably deployed the widest range of simulations and 3D immersive learning environments of any serious gaming or learning developer in the UK as well as more than 50 individual simulations in sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals and the motor industry, working with organisations such as IBM, Accenture, Price Water House Coopers, the BBC, QinetiQ and Volvo; the education sphere with the UK Ministry of Education and regional bodies of education. In the defence sector they have mainly worked with the UK Defence College of Policing and Guarding, creating 3D immersive simulations to enable them to put their personnel into realistic scenarios where they have to go through entry search procedure processes, deciding how to enter the premises effectively, how to search for evidence effectively, and how to go through the process of seizing that evidence and making sure that it is usable if it is needed in a court of law.
In addition Caspian Learning developed a scenario for the UK Royal Navy’s Maritime Warfare School, which won the E-learning Age award in the UK. It was used to give new navy recruits “onboarding” training in preparation for them going onboard a Type 23 war frigate; enabling them to carry out health and safety and weapons rounds inspections.
“We created a fully accurate, Type 23 warship, and created a simulation, but also a serious game in that environment, where there is a saboteur onboard and they’ve got to go and test their knowledge,” Duncan said.
The organisation also has worked with the Defence Centre of Training Support in the UK, and with the Defence Academy in the UK. In the US, through licensed technology, it has worked with the DoD, is working in the defence security arena, and a number of police forces throughout Europe as well.
Duncan noted that his organisation attempted to make its simulations and the immersive learning environments as real as they can possibly be while at the same time allowing instructional designers to create fully immersive 3D simulations at costs previously restricted to 2D development.
That means three things, he said. ” We tend to focus on the graphical fidelity when we talk about realism–how does it look on screen, how are the shading and the rendering package making it as realistic to our eyes as possible …” but …”to create a simulation that is highly realistic you also need to create scenarios and simulations of events in that learning environment that are highly contextual, and highly representative of what happens in the real world.” (Demo Videos here)
Meanwhile Caspian Learning announced recently that “A Planet in Peril: Plagiarism”, developed by a small group of Communications Media and Instructional Technology doctoral students from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) ad won the Serious Games Challenge launched at the Game Based Learning conference in London.
The challenge, open to both novice and expert users alike, was to create the most innovative serious game using Thinking Worlds’ technology in 30 days.
Lee Rushworth, Marketing Executive for Caspian Learning, said, “All of the entries we received were of a very good standard, considering that no training had been given to the entrants, but there were one or two that stood out above the others. A Planet in Peril: Plagiarism was one that really stood out to us as a well-produced serious game built with a great sense of humour and some innovative uses of Thinking Worlds’ interactions that even we hadn’t thought of.”
The game, which is currently in a beta release, follows the story of a student who uncovers the secret of a group of aliens, disguised as academics, at his university campus. The aliens have prophesied the end of the world, which is set to occur due to a student’s excessive plagiarism, and it’s up to the hero to put the pieces of this puzzle together in order to prevent disaster. While working through the challenges players learn about what is, and what is not plagiarism, including ways to avoid it.
The game is targeted at the college and university level but has application for high school students.
The final version of the game will be released later this year. Ryan L. Sittler, Assistant Professor of Library Services at the California University of Pennsylvania (and one of the lead designers for “Random Precision Studios”) said: “I am working on my PhD at IUP and am an avid game player. My State-System colleague, Dr Kelly Heider, suggested that I create an information literacy game. I knew I could never do it on my own, so I asked some other doctoral students to help get it off the ground. Fortunately, they were interested! It was in our initial conversations that we settled on one information literacy concept – plagiarism – and developed the ridiculous end-of-the-world scenario.”
The team also included Chad Sherman and David P. Keppel as the other lead designers (handling the majority of game production) and Dana Covitz Hackley, Chrissy Schaeffer, and Laurie A. Grosik assisting with pre-production and documenting the process for a potential future publication.
The winning game was uploaded to the Internet and is available for anyone to play here.
Filed under: Education, Education in virtual worlds, Life Game Project, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: slenz, VLENZ, Caspian Learning, military simulation, navy simulation, Graeme Duncan, Defence IQ, Thinking Worlds, Royal Navy, R-learning Age, Defence Centre of Training Support, Defence Academy, DoD, Indiana University of Pennsylvannia, Serious games challenge, Lee Rushworth, A Planet in Peril: Plagiarism, Ryan L. Sittler, Kelly Heider, Chad sherman, David P. Keppel, Dana Covitz Hackley, Chrissy Schaeffer, Laurie A Grosik | Leave a Comment »
Second Lifers or World of Warcrafters, who have become fully immersed in those environments, would be unlikely to doubt that one’s sense of self can be highly malleable and that they can easily believe – for moments at the very least if not hours – that their avatar, no matter how different in gender, species or age, is “really” them.
But people, who have not experienced MUVE immersibility either in a virtual world like Second Life, or a MMORPG such as World of Warcraft, might be very sceptical about the possibility.
However, researchers at the University of Barcelona, according to the New Scientist, have now shown that, facilitated by a “young girl body image” view with virtual-reality headset and some brief arm-stroking, men in their mid-20s can react as if the “avatar” body is their own. They feel that way even when they subsequently move outside the girl’s perspective and watch her being attacked.
Professor Mel Slater, who led the team that carried out the experiment, told Wendy Zukerman, of the New Scientist, “This is the first experiment to show that body ownership can be transferred to an entirely virtual body.”
Mel Slater
The finding, Zukerman said, highlighted how far one’s sense of self and body image could be manipulated, and could lead to therapies for conditions of body-image distortion such as anorexia and might be applied to entertainment – to make video games more immersive, for example –and also to psychology.
On average, the men in the experiment reported medium-strength feelings about the girl’s body being their own, and strong feelings that the woman was touching their body: the researchers recorded physical responses such as increased heart rate when the avatar, they were later viewing as a third person, was slapped.
The experiment demonstrated the strong connection the volunteers felt to their new, virtual bodies, Slater told Zukerman, suggesting that the familiarity of looking down and seeing one’s own body “is so overwhelming” that even dramatic changes in body won’t override the influence of vision.
Slater’s principal areas of research are in helping to find out what makes virtual reality work for people – in the sense that they can engage with one another in virtual environments, and also interact with virtual characters. His research, the study of ‘presence’ in virtual environments, is also explored in the context of psychotherapy for social phobia and other related applications.
Nightmares - can you control them?
Video “gaming serves some of the same society functions in today’s world as explicit mythological systems have in indigenous cultures” through meditation-like absorption, according to Professor Jayne Gackenbach, of Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada, and Professor Harry T. Hunt, of Brock University, St Catherines, Canada, in a paper on “Video Game Play and Lucid Dreaming as Socially Constructed Meditative Absorption”, presented at the Science of Consciousness Conference.
Gackenbach, a psychologist with the Department of Psychology at Grant MacEwan, who has focused her research on the effects of technology, especially video game play, on consciousness, believes video gamers learn through gaming to have more lucid dreams than non-gamers, to control their dreams and nightmares and dull the stresses of real life.
Her research, which suggests gamers suffer fewer nightmares and are more likely to turn their nightmares into fun, video-game-like challenges, could aid those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, of which nightmares are a common symptom.
Jayne Gackenbach
Noting in their paper that research has shown that video game players report more lucid dreams than those who rarely game, Gackenbach and Hunt said, “… gaming serves some of the same societal function in today’s youth as explicit mythological systems have in indigenous cultures … these states experienced in gaming are a spontaneous re-engagement with that level of collectivity from a place of our individual conscious isolation in highly differentiated and pluralistic modern culture.
“… It appears that gaming adds a dimension to the lucid dreams of gamers such that their full potential for focused problem solving is expressed very much like the strategies of video gaming. The enhanced bizarreness of lucid-gamer associated dreams may also serve as a trigger for the emergence of their increased lucidity. The exotic-mythic element of the lucid bizarre dreams of gamers (Gackenbach et al, in press) is similar to previous research on the archetypal content in dreams (Hunt, 1989).”
By comparing the lucid versus non-lucid dreams of gamers, Gackenbach and Hunt concluded that lucidity in gamer’s dreams emphasised the already generally positive dream experience of being lucid in sleep, including the enhanced aggression which facilitated the sense of empowerment also typical in video-game playing. Not only is there more lucidity in gamer’s dreams, but that lucidity seems to be further enhanced by the gaming experience.
“To be absorbed in consciousness, be it in lucid dreams, intense fantasy or meditation is also to be absorbed in the social field more deeply than is available in ordinary consciousness,” they argued. “Since consciousness itself is collective already, and the high absorber is entering the level provided in traditional times by externalised ritual and myth, gaming offers those in contemporary western individualistic society much the same function.
“Specifically it is an externalised absorptive consciousness with provided patterns that are accordingly socially structured, simultaneously shared, and so offering some of the support of tribal societies, which individual high absorbers in the west have lost in their only ostensibly “private” lucid dreams and meditations,” they said.
Gackenbach’s research and views on dreaming, which she presented recently at two gaming conferences, Games for Health and Canadian Game Studies, have gone viral on the net with good reason. They are an important adjunct to explaining the ways MUVES – whether in video-gaming or virtual on-line environments – can work in changing both perceptions and people’s lives and how they can be used.
Dreams and video games both represent alternate realities,she told LiveScience Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu, noting, however, that dreams arise biologically from the human mind, while video games are technologically driven by computers and gaming consoles.
“If you’re spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it’s practice,” she said. “Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams.”
On the question of mastering nightmares, Gackenbach conducted a 2008 study with 35 males and 63 females, which found that gamers experienced less or even reversed threat simulation (in which the dreamer became the threatening presence), with fewer aggression dreams overall.
“What happens with gamers is that something inexplicable happens,” Gackenbach explained. “They don’t run away, they turn and fight back. They’re more aggressive than the norms.”
Filed under: Education, Online identity, SL Medicine, Second Life, Sl Conferences, Video Gaming, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: slenz, avatar identity, Social Presence in Virtual Worlds, World of Warcraft, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, New Scientist, VLENZ, MMORPGs, video games, University of Barcelona, Mel Slater, Wendy Zukerman, Jayne Gackenbach, Harry T. Hunt, Brock University, Grant MacEwan University, Science of Consciousness Conference, tribal mythology, games for Health, Canadian Game Studies, LiveScience, Jeremy Hsu, dreams, nightmares, mightmares | Leave a Comment »
A ‘noobie’ appearance is no longer necessary in the NZVWGrid …New Zealand academics, researchers and virtual world builders, using and testing the alpha phase of the New Zealand Virtual Grid (NZVWG), no longer have to look like ‘noobs’ even though given some of the vagaries of the OpenSim environment they might sometimes feel like that.
Open source avatar skins, eyes, hair and clothing have now been made freely available on the Auckland portal of NZVWG at Kapua 6 (NZVWG Kapua 6/88/116/34), and are likely to be made available near the Auckland entry point to the MUVE on Kapua 3 as well as at other Portal entry points.
The full permissions skins have been created by the likes of Eloh Eliot, Ziah Li, Greybeard Thinker and others, with the clothing obtained from a variety of sources outside the Second Life environment, such as free, full permission listings of clothing textures.
All are being made available under “Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported” Creative Commons licenses.
The NZVWG Project which grew out of Otago University’s ONGENS programme is a joint venture of the University of Auckland, the University of Otago the University of Canterbury and the Wellington Institute of Technology, Weltech. A number of other institutions both in New Zealand and oversea have expressed interest in the project which is supported by New Zealand Telecom.
It is an open access national virtual world grid based on open source software. It operates on NZ-based servers hosted at Otago, Auckland and Canterbury Universities, and leverages other national investments in IT infrastructure through deployment on the high-speed KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network).
The grid has been set up with an academic focus and will be used for research and education, as well as for proof-of-concept application deployments and testing.
The project, based on opensource OpenSim technology, is being led by one of New Zealand’s foremost virtual world education champions, Dr Scott Diener, an academic and Associate Director, AC Tech, Information Technology Services, at the University of Auckland. Diener is well-known, both as himself and as his Second Life personna, Professor Noarlunga, in MUVE education circles around the world for his development of medical simulations and teaching programmes within Second Life.
Although little educational research is currently being done in the alpha test phase of the NZVWGrid there are opportunities once testing is completed. Besides Diener’s Second Life University of Auckland virtual medical centre project in Second Life, which may migrate to the NZVWG, Otago University has set up the Otago Virtual Hospital in NZVWG (OtagoMedicalSchool/162/99/2800) and is also hosting scenarios for medical students to gain experience practicing as doctors. Some members of the now completed SLENZ Project are also active in the NZVWG although there are no plans at this stage for a sequel to that successful research project.
… as well as both men’s and women’s avatar clothingFiled under: Education, Education in Second Life, Education in virtual worlds, NZVWG, ONGENS, SL Medicine, SLENZ Project, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: slenz, Telecom, OpenSim, KAREN, Scott Diener, WelTech, The University of Auckland, NZVWG, VLENZ, the University of Canterbury, the University of Otago, Professor Noarlunga, Eloh Eliot, Ziah Li, Greybeard Thinker | Leave a Comment »
Heralding a new era for online education and research in New Zealand, Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd (REANNZ) has announced that it has entered into a long-term partnership with the country’s foremost, independent optical fibre network provider, Wellington-based FX Networks, to provide the national connectivity for the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN).
The arrangement secures the continuation of KAREN’s existing 10Gb/s backbone connectivity and footprint around the country for an initial term of three years through to December 2013, with two two-year renewal options.
The move should mean lower cost, and faster and more reliable national bandwidth options for New Zealand tertiary and secondary education institutions, and could lead to a proliferation of virtual world and other third generation uses of the internet by both faculty and students in education across the country. When coupled with other moves, it should also provide benefits to distance learners.
Donald Clark, REANNZ
The Universities of Auckland, Otago and Canterbury, along with Weltech, in Wellington, are already operating a bandwidth-hungry, OpenSim-based virtual world system (New Zealand Virtual World Grid) in test phase in conjunction with the KAREN network which can only benefit from the latest development, which should ease both access and costs, especially as NZVWG only uses local bandwidth, rather than international connections.
The decision to go with FX Networks follows what spokespeople for the two partners described as “a thorough and comprehensive evaluation process.” The KAREN network has previously worked directly with Telecom.
The contract also includes options to move KAREN to a dark fibre-based network infrastructure, which will be essential to ensure KAREN can continue to offer leading-edge network services within a constrained cost base.
The CEO of REANNZ, Donald Clark, said, “This is the most exciting development for KAREN since the network was launched in 2006. We are confident that we have selected a progressive, long-term partner in FX Networks and have secured the best national connectivity options for our community and provided certainty to our members on cost and presence.”
“Over the last four years, the demands of our members has driven innovation in network supply and services across the telecommunications industry,” he said. “In earlier times our investments have helped other network suppliers extend their networks, now we’re helping FX Networks.”
Through moving to the new network, REANNZ will put into effect a new Network Access Policy which will provide greater flexibility to REANNZ and KAREN members around access, and use of the network. The network is currently recruiting a number of secondary schools to add to its current tertiary institution base.
A virtual region on the Weltech portal of the 'alpha' test NZVWG Grid .... online and MUVE education can only benefit from the latest KAREN move.
Work has already begun on comprehensive transition plan to ensure a smooth cross-over from current national connectivity arrangements to the new arrangements in December.
REANNZ is currently in the late stage contract discussions with the preferred supplier for KAREN’s international network. An announcement on the selected provider will be made later this month.
FX Networks already has completed most of an optical spine the length of the country and is completing a network right around the country to join with the spine – a number of local bodies like those controlling Hawkes Bay, Pahiatua, Dannevirke and Eketahuna among others have already signed up with FX Networks - which should make access to KAREN and true high-speed broadband internet an affordable reality for most institutions as well as distance education students.
Jamie Baddeley, FX Networks
Previously, despite claims to the contrary, the major Telcos in New Zealand have supplied provincial New Zealanders with Broadband, which they pay Broadband prices for, but which generally have not delivered consistent Broadband speeds. In fact, in areas like the Manawatu, consumers, although paying Broadband prices, have often been left with a service, during times of high contention, which has run at dial-up speeds.
FX Networks’ fibre optic ‘backbone’ network covering both islands of New Zealand, however, is the fastest independent intercity pipeline in the country, capable of transferring data and voice at speeds up to 10Gbps.
The organisation describes its network as a ” a ‘green fields’ operation, our 21st Century technology and lean business practices mean we can deliver a Ferrari-type network for Corolla-type pricing.”
The company is privately owned and funded, with 30 percent equity held by New Zealanders. It is independent from the Telcos operating in New Zealand.
FX Network’s partnership with REANNZ follows the announcement in April that FX Networks had signed an agreement with Telecom Wholesale for the exchange of local internet traffic (local peering) at 19 of Telecom’s points of interconnection – 39 currently available) around the country, laying the groundwork for the “most efficient routing” of New Zealand’s growing volumes of Internet traffic through New Zealand’s two main internet backbones.
One of the regions on the University of Auckland portal of NZVWG grid which should benefit from both the KAREN decision and local "peering."
Peering allows traffic to be exchanged on a local or regional basis rather than transported back and forth throughout the country to be exchanged in Auckland.
Announcing this agreement the two companies said, “With the Government’s $1.5bn ‘Ultra Fast Broadband’ and $300m ‘Rural Broadband initiatives both on the horizon, the agreement paves the way for a whole new range of competitive broadband packages to be developed by ISPs and other service providers.”
FX Networks Jamie Baddeley said at the time of the agreement that it meant that the Governments investment of $1.8bn in urban and rural broadband “will now be able to run local content in a fast and efficient manner.
“This is a big step in New Zealand’s digital transformation that will revolutionise many aspects of society including health, education, commerce and entertainment,” he said. “… I think many ISPs are going to have to rethink how they charge for traffic and there will now be competitive pressure to separate international traffic from local usage and charge accordingly.”
Ernie Newman, TUANZ
Senior industry consultant Dr Murray Milner said: “This is a very positive outcome with the industry tackling a major issue that is fundamental to the success of the current fibre roll-outs. Local peering means that internet backbones will not be clogged up with local traffic and we will see smart uses of the capability in areas like healthcare where digital X-rays can be shared simultaneously in full definition.”
Ernie Newman, CEO of TUANZ said: “Peering has been on the table for a number of years as one of those too hard issues, after some carriers depeered from the earlier system a few years ago. It was the users who bore the brunt of that with traffic romboning to Auckland when it didn’t need to, or worse to the USA. I’m delighted to see industry players resolving this issue without the need for regulation or government intervention and users will benefit from better performance and lower charges. What’s emerging is the national digital architecture that TUANZ has been calling for.”
Filed under: Distance education, Education, Education in Second Life, Education in virtual worlds, NZVWG, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: Telecom, University of Otago, University of Canterbury, KAREN, Otago University, WelTech, The University of Auckland, Broadband, VLENZ, REANNZ, Kiwi Advanced Research and education Network, FX Networks, Teritary education, Telcom Wholesale, TUANZ, Ernie Newman, Donald Clark, University of Aucland, Jamie Baddeley, the University of Canterbury | 2 Comments »
The Second Life Education New Zealand Project may have been concluded but things are still happening on the Second Life island of Kowhai where the Foundation (Bridging) Learning and Birth Centre builds are sited.
SLENZ lead educator Merle Lemon, (SL: Briarmelle Quintessa), of the Manukau Institute of Technology, and other lecturers are continuing to use the Foundation Learning build for normal real life classes in interview preparation, practise and assessment as part of that school’s Foundation Learning programme.
And the lead educator for the Midwifery Studies pilot programme run by Otago Polytechnic, Sarah Stewart (SL: Petal Stransky) has fielded a number of enquiries from British and US academic institutions interested in making use of the Birth Unit build as well as the knowledge gained from teaching in it.
At the same time more than 50 free-to-the-public, full permission Foundation Learning builds and more than 15 Midwifery Studies’ Birth Unit builds, created by SLENZ Project Lead Developer Aaron Griffiths (SL: Isa Goodman), have been picked up from the Kowhai Island welcome area. Goodman has also begun a series of tutorials and advice on the builds here and the first of series of articles looking at scripting of the builds here.
Toddles Lightworker (left), of WelTec, greets guests from New ZealandMeanwhile on the neighbouring island of Koru, also run by Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, SLENZ developer and Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) lecturer Todd Cochrane (SL: Toddles Lightworker) hosted a Second Life ‘viewing’ by India’s Hon. Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resources Development (India’s equivalent of the NZ Minister of Education) during a visit to the Wellington Institution.
The Minister’s viewing – he asked a question about accessing Second Life from India as there were India-based researchers present in Second Life - came as part of discussions on collaboration with New Zealand in the area of vocational training and technology. Cochrane has a special interest in the use of virtual worlds for vocational training and technology. The meeting was also attended by Arwenna Stardust (RL: SLENZ Project joint leader, Dr Clare Atkins).
During his visit to WelTec the minister spoke about India’s immense demand for education and training with a population of more than 546 million under the age of 25.
WelTec CEO Dr Linda Sissons said, “India and New Zealand share a special relationship in the fields of vocational education, applied research and innovation … both face unprecedented social and economic challenges and also have tremendous opportunities in co-operation, especially in the technical and vocational education and training sector.
The New Zealand government has also recently reaffirmed its commitment to an international relationship with India. and both nations confirmed their commitment to deepening education cooperation with the resigning of an Education Cooperation Arrangement, which was first signed in 2005.
Filed under: Education, Education in Second Life, Education in virtual worlds, SLENZ Project, Second Life | Tagged: slenz, Foundation learning, Otago Polytechnic, Weltec, University of Auckland, Merle Lemon, Sarah Stewart, Judy Cockeram, Manukau Institute of Technology, MIT, Todd Cochrane, VLENZ, India, Natraj Scool of Dance, Midwifery education, Shri Kapil Sibal, Linda Sissons, Education Cooperation Arrangement, Indusgeeks.com, Siddharth Banerjee | 3 Comments »
Jane McGonigal, who directs game R&D at the Institute for the Future, a US nonprofit forecasting firm where she developed Superstruct, a massively multiplayer on-line roleplaying game (MORPG) in which players organise society to solve the issues that will confront the world in 2019, asks why the real world doesn’t work more like an online game.
In a recent TED presentation, above, the games designer and futurist says her goal for the next decade is to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in on-line games.
Based on her research over a decade, she says she plans, over the next decade, to convince more people to play bigger and better on-line games.
Noting that currently people spend an estimated three billion hours a week on on-line games, she says, her research has shown, counter-intuitively, that this is not nearly enough to save the world from its real life problems.
In fact she believes if the human race wants to survive into the next century on this planet “we need to increase the total time spent on-line gaming to 21 billion hours game playing every week “by the within 10 years.
It’s worthwhile spending the 20 minutes it takes to watch to TED video to find out why she believes this, and why her argument is eminently reasonable and probably something we disregard at our peril.
In the best-designed games, she says, “our human experience is optimised” and, when “reality is broken, games designers can fix it.”
“We have important work to do, we’re surrounded by potential collaborators, and we learn quickly and in a low-risk environment,” McGonigal says, believing that the world’s gamers are an important resource for changing the world we live in for the better.
In her work as a game designer, she creates games that use mobile and digital technologies to turn everyday spaces into playing fields, and everyday people into teammates. She believes her game-world insights can explain — and improve — the way human beings learn, work, solve problems, and lead their real lives.
McGonigal masterminded World Without Oil, which simulated the beginning of a global oil crisis and inspired players to change their daily energy habits.
She says, “Instead of providing gamers with better and more immersive alternatives to reality, I want all of us to be become responsible for providing the world with a better and more immersive reality.”
The link to her presentation was provide to me by Owen McCall, of the New Zealand Life Games Project. Another supporter of that project, John Eyles, research and alliances leader at Telecom New Zealand, director at Eyles and Associates Ltd and chair at EON Foundation, provided another worthwhile link from a game-based learning conference he attended recently in the UK
The link, which should prove a valuable resource for all those involved in games-based learning, Engage Learning, is an EU-sponsored initiative which among other things, provides information about general rating of games and quality criteria for evaluation of games as learning resources.
Filed under: Education, Education in virtual worlds, Life Game Project, Sl Conferences, Video Gaming, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: Telecom, Owen McCall, VLENZ, Jane McGonigal, TED, Life Games Project, Institute for the Future, MMORPGs, virtual reality, viedo gaming, World Without Oil, Superstruct, McDonald's, John Eyles, EON Foundation, Engage Learning, EU | 1 Comment »
The SLENZ Project announced today that its Midwifery Studies Build Version 1.0, is now available for free pickup from the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) Second Life island of Kowhai.
The build is being made available by NMIT, which ran the the New Zealand Government-funded SLENZ Project, under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License 3.0.
The Midwifery Studies Build is the second to be made available to the public. The project has previously made its Foundation (Bridging) Learning Build available under the same criteria.
The full details of both packages are available on Lead Developer Aaron Griffiths’ The SLENZ Builds Technical Blog
The packaging of the builds marks the culmination of the 18-month, $NZ500,000 SLENZ Project, the team members of which have now launched Virtual Life Education New Zealand to continue their research as well as to provide advice to virtual world users.
“Making the midwifery build available to the public means that the final deliverable for the SLENZ Project is now done,” SLENZ Project joint leader Terry Neal said.
In another sense, however, she said, it is just the beginning.”
The team was thrilled that scores of people had picked up the Foundation Build and hoped that the interest in the Midwifery Build would be similar. “Our dream is that learners all around the world can benefit from what we have done,” she said. “We also hope that others will imitate us in making what they develop freely available.
“Development in virtual worlds is not cheap and the more we can share rather than duplicating our efforts, the more we will have available for all of us.”
Neal said she would love to see educators all over the world focusing on “how we can design, develop and use virtual environments to significantly improve how all people learn, rather than creating builds for ourselves and locking them away.
“The cost is in creating not sharing,” she said. “However, I know people have to make a living and organisations vary in their commitment to a more sharing approach.”
Neal paid tribute to the Tertiary Education Commission and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology for their commitment “to sharing so generously”.
The Midwifery Studies Build (791 prims) contains all the items required for the Normal Birth Scenario developed by the SLENZ team for the SLENZ Project midwifery pilot, including the birthing room, midwives’ office, treatment room and outdoor courtyard. Ceilings on the rooms have been removed to facilitate camera access. The SLENZ Midwifery Studies Resource Pack includes the SLENZ Mother Controller (HUDs created by SLENZ Developer Todd Cochrane (SL: Toddles Lightworker).
All package items are full permissions.
The Birthing Unit build, now available free.
The items are provided inside a 24 x 40 metre megaprim base (SLENZ Midwifery Studies Rez Base) and can be rezzed from this base once it is positioned.
Griffiths plans to hold technical discussions which will focus on a users’ first interaction with the Foundation Studies and Midwifery Builds. It will look at the scripts used to welcome users and offer them introductory information.
He is available for help with the builds and would appreciate feedback [debnaar@clear.net.nz]. Griffiths is currently investigating the production of OAR files for both builds so they can be used in alternative OpenSim environments.
The Midwifery pilot was conducted in conjunction with Otago Polytechnic and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT). Midwife Sarah Stewart (SL: Petal Stransky) was the Lead educator on the project.
Pickup your Birth Unit Build from the pyramid right foreground.
Filed under: Distance education, Education, Education in Second Life, Education in virtual worlds, SLENZ Project, Second Life, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: Second Life, Foundation learning, NMIT, SLENZ Project, CPIT, Aaron Griffiths, Terry Neal, Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, Todd Cochrane, Creative Commons, VLENZ, Midiwfery Studies Build, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology | 4 Comments »
The Foundation Learning build, now available FREE, under CC license.
The SLENZ Project’s much-praised Second Life Foundation (Bridging) Learning Build (Version 1.0) is now available FREE, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, from the Second Life island of Kowhai.
The key section of the SLENZ Project’s Second Life Midwifery Education Birth Unit build is also to be made available shortly.
The announcement of the availability of the Foundation Learning Build was made today by the SLENZ Project’s Lead Developer Aaron Griffiths (SL: Isa Goodman) on a newly setup blog, The SLENZ Project Technical Blog, where Griffiths plans to discuss the ongoing development of the two builds following completion of the SLENZ Project.
Commenting on the announcement, the creator and joint leader of the SLENZ Project, Dr Clare Atkins, of Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, said, “We in the SLENZ Project are delighted that we have been able to fulfill our original plan of making the builds available to the public. This is the culmination of our dream. We hope it will set a benchmark for others involved in education in Virtual Worlds, not only Second Life. We also hope that others will extend and enhance our builds and we look forward to seeing the exciting and innovative ways in which they will be put to use.”
Aaron Griffiths, SL builder.
The build, which has been made available for pickup, includes textures, animations and scripts for the Skill Mastery Hyperdome with all rezzable scenes (including the Stairway of Learning) and the private interview room teleporters. All build items are full permissions except for a few clothing items, some hair provided for the Hyperdome shop, and a few seating animations.
“The build items are provided inside a 60 x 80 metre megaprim base (SLENZ Foundation Studies Rez Base) and can be rezzed from this base once it is positioned.” Griffiths said.
The SLENZ Hyperdome, a holodeck, contains a number of rezzable scenes designed to help students learn and practise interview techniques as well as prepare for real life job or tertiary study interviews.
The Stairway of Learning is a dual staircase surrounding the Hyperdome and is designed to deliver learning information about interview preparation. The “private interview room” teleporters, placed near the front of the Hyperdome, allow individual, supervisor-configurable, interview rooms to be rezzed on demand for students to practice in.
The SLENZ Project which ran for 18 months was financed by the Tertiary Education Commission of New Zealand. It was designed to determine whether there were any benefits from using Virtual Worlds for education and to establish how those benefits could be harnessed.
Pickup the Foundation Learning Build free from under the pyramid in the left of the picture. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kowhai/146/115/32
Filed under: Architecture, Distance education, Education, Education in Second Life, Education in virtual worlds, Second Life, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: Foundation learning, Tertiary Education Commission, SLENZ Project, Clare Atkins, Creative Commons, VLENZ, Bridging Learning, SLENZ Project Technical Blog, Skill Mastery Hyperdome, Nelson Marborough Institute of Techology | 2 Comments »
Educause Roundtable meeting on New Zealand Virtual World Grid
The University of Auckland portal of the New Zealand Virtual World Grid (NZVWG) has successfully hosted its first international seminar, attracting a number of leading MUVE educators and researchers from around the world.
The meeting coincided with the announcement by Dr Scott Diener (SL: Professor Noarlunga), the virtual meeting host, that the University of Auckland portal of the grid, although still in a trial phase, was now open for virtual-world users to apply for ‘free’ registration from the Auckland portal.
It also coincided with a ‘demonstration’ of just how easy it is to teleport an avatar from the University of Auckland portal MUVE on the NZVWG ‘Hypergrid’ to the MUVE of the University of Otago and return with inventory intact and retention of all abilities.
The NZVW Grid based on OpenSim software has grown out of the original ONGENS grid, developed by the University of Otago in concert with the University of Canterbury, and the University of Auckland. Weltec has also developed a portal for the grid and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology has associate status.
Welcoming the 20 plus guests from Educause’s Virtual World Roundtable to the meeting in the Great Hall of “Kapua Castle” on the island of Kapua 3 in the New Zealand Virtual World Dr Diener said, “This is a really exciting development for us.
“We are stand-alone…we run our own asset server (database) with the University of Otago and Canterbury University having similar setups, which have been linked together.”
Members of the Virtual Worlds Roundtable, who have previously visited a number of other Virtual Worlds as a group for their meetings to assess and monitor MUVE development around the world praised the apparent stability of the University of Auckland portal MUVE, the ease of entry, the fact that it was open source and free, and the use of the Hypergrid, which opens up possibilities for easy, transparent connections to tertiary institution MUVEs around the real world.
“We have found the Hypergrid does work, albeit with problems, “Dr Diener said, explaining that the goal of NZVWG was first to experiment and eventually to link to other grids.
Detailing the setup of the MUVE, he said, the Auckland University portal is running on two virtual servers (VMware), and has a total capital investment of some $NZ10,000 ($US7000). This compared to an investment of say $US55,000 for signing up for SL Enterprise (previously Nebraska), the Linden Labs’ “behind the firewall” solution for standalone virtual worlds.
The Auckland MUVE is running on two dedicated, virtual machines with one server running a database and six sims. CPU usage has never got above five percent. Freeswitch voice is available on the MUVE but not yet completely activated.
“We can duplicate them (the virtual machines) in about 30 minutes – to scale if necessary,” he said in answer to a question, adding that OAR content was backed up automatically.
A University of Auckland staff member is assigned one day a week to the MUVE , he said, with most of the work involved with things like getting voice working, and getting the Hypergrid fully functional.
He said the portal had been created out of his own budget as associate director of IT Services at the University of Auckland.
Dr Diener's Kapua Castle where the Roundtable meeting was held in the Geat Hall.
The portal, Dr Diener said, “is focused mostly on proving the concept of Hypergrid.”
“This is how our Writing Center began,” Iggy Strangeland, of the University of Richmond, observed. “I bought a server out of budget, and then eventually got it supported by our data center. Now they maintain it and I just design content.
“We proved the concept. If it works for 2D Web, it can work for Virtual Worlds,” Strangeland said.
The major current problem with using the NZVWG MUVE for education purposes was the fact that there were as yet few resources “in world” … “all scripts have to be brought in,” Dr Diener said.
Given success for the NZVWG, however, Dr Diener said, he would be excited to work on connecting the that portal with any other university grid in the world.
Commenting on this, Lindy McKeown, of the University of Southern Queensland, said education.au in Australia was trying to set up a Hypergrid for all Australian universities to join.
Dr Diener, who is also a Lecturer at the University of Auckland, is well-known in Second Life and virtual world education circles around the globe for his and his associates’ creation of successful medicine/nursing/architecture simulations on the three University of Auckland Second Life islands in Second Life, the first of which was “Long White Cloud”.
Dr Diener mentioned that the “very active” New Zealand virtual world group VLENZ was represented at the meeting by Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology and Second Life Education New Zealand Project founder and joint leader, Dr Clare Atkins (SL and NZVWG: Arwenna Stardust). Dr Atkins, on behalf of SLENZ and NMIT, operates two islands in Second Life, Koru and Kowhai.
“I think it WILL be a viable alternative (to Second Life) soon,” Dr Atkins said.
Other speakers agreed with Dr Atkins’ view that NZVWG and OpenSim were a good replacement for Second Life: “for me (as an educator) one of the huge benefits to OpenSim is that we can use it with under 18s,” she said.
Visitor Margaret Czart, of the University of Illinois, said that all of the virtual worlds the Virtual Worlds Roundtable group had visited over time had provided good alternatives to Second Life but, “it is not so much the place but how you run it.”
A sitting room in Kapua Castle.
Dr Atkins’ and Czart’s comments about possible replacements for Second Life followed a remark that the Linden Labs’ position of Second Life education guru Pathfinder Linden had been disestablished and that the Lindens appeared to be showing less interest in education.
Lindy McKeown foresaw the development of a “Hypergridded federation universe of locally-hosted worlds with some access by others but some private spaces” as appearing to be “a great education alternative for many reasons.”
But, she added, that for these alternative worlds to be successful “we need an SLexchange type (virtual worlds sales) system for other grids since Linden Labs had bought out virtual world goods sales competitors.
Iggy Strangeland replied that http://imnotgoingsideways.blogspot.com/2009/11/alternatives-to-xstreetsl.html was a good source for other sales portals. Lindy McKeown added that one also could buy OAR files full of content one the net and there were lots of free ones too.
James Abraham (SL: Calisto Encinal and http://calistoencinal.spaces.live.com/) said he was writing a grant to “roll out a 10 college zero-cost OpenSim virtual world program for the Maricopa Community College District [James Abraham's Mi Casa Es Su Casa won a prize for full sim builds at the recent SLPro! Conference sponsored by Linden Labs for Second Life content creators.]
On this point AJ Kelton, director of Emerging Instructional Technology at Montclair State University, founder and current leader of the EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds Constituent Group and Roundtable moderator, agreed with Mirt Tenk who suggested that it would be good for tertiary education providers to share the “stuff WE have built in Second Life as open source for OpenSim users. Others agreed with this view, including Dr Atkins who noted that all SLENZ Project builds were free and open source.
Asked how close he thought tertiary educators were to replacing Second Life with other virtual worlds, Dr Diener said, “ I don’t think we ARE close … and in fact, I don’t think that is even the question…I think we need to ask how we can augment our Second Life resources with Virtual World like this.”
There was also a question, raised by Liz Dorland, of Washington University, in St Louis, and others, of the importance of virtual world students and educators being able to connect with the rest of the world community as they could in Second Life.
Dr Atkins said that she thought the “richness of Second Life and its diversity” would be hard to grow in an OpenSim environment although other speakers noted interoperability between all MUVEs, including Second Life, to get the best of all virtual worlds, was a possibility.
Another "resident's' Castle on the NZVWG portal grid.
Filed under: Distance education, Education, Education in Second Life, Education in virtual worlds, NZVWG, Second Life, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: AJ Kelton, Clare Atkins, Education in virtual worlds, Educause, hypergrid, Iggy Strangeland, James Abraham, Koru, Kowhai, Lindy McKeown, Liz Dorland, Margaret Czart, Maricopa Community College District, Mirt Tenk, Montclair State University, NMIT, NZVWG, OpenSim, Pathfinder Linden, Scott Diener, Second Life, slenz, SLPro!, Univeristy of Richmond, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, University of Otago, University of Southern Queensland, Universiyt if Illinois, Virtual Worlds Roundtable, VLENZ, Washington University, Weltec, www.education.au | 2 Comments »
Education conference delegates view a Birthing Room
The SLENZ team achieved “a remarkable success in creating and delivering” the core of the SLENZ Project, according to the official evaluation report of the $NZ500,000, Second Life research programme released today.
This was despite the fact that both the project and student/educator learning and engagement had, at times, been hampered by technical challenges and difficulties during the 18-month long project, said Michael Winter, the independent evaluator of the project. He is a veteran educator and senior researcher with CORE Education, of Christchurch, New Zealand.
At the core of the project were two builds – a Foundation Learning Centre and a Birthing Centre – which were used for virtual world teaching as part of the project to determine the benefits or otherwise of virtual world education, and how these benefits, if any, could best be harnessed.
“The creation and effective employment of the two builds is a great success of the team,” Winter said. “In the process, the project team established a valuable corpus of experience in developing and using virtual world resources for tertiary education.”
The pilot programmes, Winter said, had both increased the engagement of learners with a familiar game like environment where learning may intentionally be a product of serious play; had been successful in creating experiential learning situations not available in ‘real life’; had had only limited success with providing the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to operate socially, technically, and ethically in an online global virtual world; but had provided an opportunity to “experience and practice collaborative, cross-cultural problem solving in social networking environments.
Although the report appears a little short on hard facts, figures and comparative measurements it contains much interesting anecdotal evidence from both students and educators and the conclusions reached by Winter should be helpful to all contemplating or launching a new educational programme within a Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) such as Second Life.
Winter said that the “success of the project”, which incorporated Foundation (Bridging) Learning and Midwifery Education pilot programmes, had largely been due to the project management skills of the real life Project Manager (Terry Neal, of BlendedSolutions) who had been responsible for managing the budget, interpersonal communications, and ensuring that timelines were adhered to and deadlines met.
Winter also singled out the Project Developer (Aaron Griffths, of Fxual Education Services) for special mention. “As far as the design and development of the builds are concerned, the Project Developer almost single-handedly achieved a remarkable success with both builds,” Winter said. “He was able to incorporate the differing needs of both the Foundation and Midwifery educators, and in many cases produced aesthetically pleasing and functional designs. The ongoing process of development generally met the required deadlines, although sometimes at some cost in terms of stress.”
Winter made a number of recommendations for future projects exploring the use of virtual worlds in education, which should be useful to MUVE developers and researchers around the world. These included:
Aaron Griffiths
In his summary of his findings on the Manukau Institute of Technology Foundation Studies pilot programme, led by lead educator, Merle Lemon, Winter noted that the Foundation build had provided a rich environment for learners to develop their job-hunting skills, despite criticism of its external appearance.
“It provided the opportunity for students to review material they had learned in face-to-face sessions, and to practice dressing appropriately for, and taking part in, interviews,” he said, but “for many participants, the experience was marred by technical difficulties, which highlighted the need for careful planning and good collaboration with the IT department before introducing virtual world learning into on-site programmes.”
The MIT staff, Winter said, were generally keen to be involved in future work with virtual worlds, but stressed the need to resolve technical issues.
In his summary of the Otago Polytechnic Midwifery pilot programme, led by lead educator Sarah Stewart, Winter said the two completed stages of the Midwifery build had represented “a significant success of the project”.
He, however, again noted technical problems involving both hardware and connections to the internet - as well as navigation difficulties within Second Life by both students and tutors -as hampering the results in this distance education part of the SLENZ Project.
On the question of user navigation, he said, “It is likely that a longer and more careful period of orientation might help participants overcome these difficulties.”
But he said, “Those students that accessed the build, and who were confident with the environment, reported a high degree of engagement and enjoyment of the experience, especially in working through the scenario with a buddy. They found this experience removed some of the stress, compared with face-to-face role-play. “
Visitors look over the Foundation learning build
Filed under: Distance education, Education, Education in Second Life, Education in virtual worlds, SLENZ Project, Second Life, Virtual Worlds | Tagged: Otago Polytechnic, Tertiary Education Commission, SLENZ Project, Merle Lemon, Aaron Griffths, Sarah Stewart, Terry Neal, Manukau Institute of Technology, F/Xual education Services, CORE Education, VLENZ, Michael Winter, BlendedSolutions | 1 Comment »
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