In an interesting post, Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith in the Digital Urban Blog writes:
"To be honest its hard enough to get academics to write blogs – even by those in the realms of Internet based research – Second Life it seems is still a step too far for many."
I agree with this statement. As intellectually compelling as the concept of MMOW* teaching is, in my own minimal ventures into Second Life, I found that it took far too much effort for me, let along my far more technologically-challenged students, than it is currently worth. Reports from those using Second Life at my university (Northern Arizona University) are the same -- a lot of effort on the teacher's part, and a major challenge for their students. These barriers could change in the future, of course, but for most teachers in the trenches that future is quite a ways off.
*Massively Multiplayer Online Worlds
[Digital Urban is written by Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith, aimed at examining the latest techniques to visualise the city scape via digital media it covers a lot of the work going on at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London.]
Monday, June 25, 2007
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2 comments:
It is probably true of most new technologies that there are always the early innovators but over time things move into the mainstream. Gartner say that 80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have A "Second Life" in the Virtual World by the End of 2011, though this may not include too many academics!! However, because SL is not a simulation or game, and requires minimal programming, once the basic actions are mastered it has a lot of potential for certain academic activities. I would guess that the major use of SL will be in more passive ways such as 3D exhibitions or events and communication. We are considering using it for students to experiment with hotel interior design, and for new student orientation. There are just a few pioneers who are using it for teaching at the moment, so there is little solid research on its effectiveness or otherwise. However, who would have guessed at the growth of blogs, wikis or other social networking tools such as Facebook?
Paul Penfold, School of Hotel & Tourism Management, Hong Kong PolyU
Apparently (according to the tech podcasts that I listen to), activity in SL has slowed significantly. Many of the companies that went into SL to create stores, hotels and the like have shut them down because so few people are there. I think that either SL or someone else really needs to come up with a more user-friendly virtual world before this environment will take off.
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