Second Life in Education especially in Minnesota
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The document discusses applications of immersive technologies like virtual worlds and 3D environments. It summarizes a breakout session that introduced Second Life and demonstrated how it can be used for education. Specific examples discussed include using virtual worlds to recreate a college campus, hold international meetings, and create a virtual tutoring center.
Second Life in Education especially in Minnesota
- 1. Connected Communities: Making the Net Work for Minnesota Breakout Session 3 Applications: Education Warren Schaeffer - St. Paul College Joe Shultheis - Century College John Grozik - online tour guide
- 2. Breakout Agenda: Intro to Immersive Technologies - Warren Scheaffer Intro to Second Life - Joe Shultheis Second Life tour - Joe Shultheis and John Grozik Specific uses of Immersive Technologies - Warren Scheaffer Questions and Answers
- 3. Project VirtualNorthstar Warren Sheaffer Computer Science Department Saint Paul College
- 4. Why Virtual Environments? They are already a clearly defined area of application with explosive growth potential “ By the end of 2011, 80 percent of active internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a ‘second life’, but not necessarily in Second Life” --Gartner
- 5. Confirming growth statistics $428 Million Invested in VE funding in Q4 2007 for Virtual Worlds The subscription market for massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) in the West is now worth more than $1bn moving to 1.5bn by 2011
- 6. Huge Target Market A 2007 report from eMarketer found that 34 percent of the 35.2 million U.S. child and teen internet users will visit virtual worlds at least once a month in 2008—a figure expected to rise to 53 percent by 2011 There are now over 100 virtual worlds operating or in development.
- 7. Virtual Worlds – the Pipeline
- 8. What’s Happening! Barriers to games and computers approaching zero Multi-mode communication Users are finding their own voice through games and social networking sites At ease with technology
- 9. Why Virtual Worlds? Flexible, adaptive environment Forces lateral thinking Engaging mechanics Quickly iterate Easily reinforce base concepts Human need to play with others Learning is fun!
- 10. Joe’s Slides on SL
- 11. Immersive Education drives broadband demands Immersive Education combines interactive 3D graphics, commercial game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat (Voice over IP/VoIP), Web cameras (webcams) and rich digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Broadband connection plays an important role in the experience attained in most all immersive education. However it is only one of several factors. Even with high end graphic cards, users scale back potential interactions and visual acuity when broadband speeds not able to keep up to demands.
- 12. What is Second Life The largest immersive online community of people 20+ years old in the world. Multiple venues: • education • business • non-profit • entertainment Basic membership is free
- 13. Tour of Second Life Demonstrate Second Life and how demands on broadband may affect the learning experience. • MnSCU Island - Century’s President’s Video • Meet Sigg - an avatar in Second Life • Meet Docent - teleport to his showroom • Docent shows examples of technologies used in SL • Brief in-world Q&A
- 14. Other Immersive Sites http://www. vlcglobal . com/content/scenes_to_watch .html One more example of how innovators use immersive experiences as a teaching tool:
- 15. Why Sun? Depth of knowledge in distributed computing and network communication which these environments depend Strong history and deep technical background in transaction processing in a networked environment Long history of advanced workstations and engineering graphics
- 16. MPK20: Virtual Campus Workplace A virtual campus building Sharing live applications A way to find, communicate and collaborate with colleagues using high-fidelity audio A way to be more physically, socially, and emotionally connected
- 17. Project Wonderland Next generation collaboration environment with 3D graphics and immersive audio Share existing desktop applications Create 3D virtual worlds Open platform based on Java TM Technology and Project Darkstar
- 18. Present status Very new (project started in January 2007) Developer Release only at this time “ Small Workgroup” model less than 30 users Focus is on scalability
- 19. St Paul College Center-of-Excellence
- 21. Mediagrid Immersive Education Initiative Grid-based Education Grid Open Standards, Technology and Initiatives Darkstar and Wonderland Approved for Development & Funding Sun joins Mediagrid Board of Advisors H http://www.immersiveeducation.org/
- 22. Open 3-D Content & Curriculum
- 23. Saint Paul College Computer Science Sun Microsystems Center of Excellence
- 24. Why Saint Paul College? “ Saint Paul College does Sun technology better than Sun” Jonathan Schwartz, CEO Sun Microsystems
- 25. We take it seriously Two new degree areas in this field: Metaverse Application Designer , AAS Graphic design and art for the 3D world Metaverse Application Developer , AAS Programming for the 3D Web Degree with integrity - Core competencies remain
- 26. Problems in Second Life User generated content has its pluses (many) but its problems (few but problematic for education) Limited functionality and development path Tough managing “who owns the effort” Identity management issues, who is there and what are they allowed to do.
- 27. Project Virtual NorthStar MnSCU's own Immersive Platform Hosted and under development at SPC Utilizing Sun Wonderland/DarkStar/Voicebridge technology
- 28. Case Study 1 : SL to Wonderland Objective : Move an island created in Second Life to Wonderland Challenges : Artwork recreation and functionality difficult to replicate. Determine relative “costs”. Result : Recreation and transfer of basic design and created the world in 8 working days. Some functionality to be added.
- 30. Objective : Develop a meeting room for the UN TVET mission headquartered in Bonn, Germany. Modeled after their actual board room and designed for the periodic exchange of best practices Result: Well defined meeting space with utilities for white-boarding, pdf slide shows and limited voice distribution via in-world microphone. Case 2 : UN TVET Mission Meetings
- 31. United Nations TVET Mission
- 33. Case 3 : Create a Virtual COE at SPC Objective : Model the actual structure of the classroom areas associated with Saint Paul College’s Sun Center of Excellence Challenges : Use the model to help the architect prepare initial drawings Result : Well defined model currently being utilized by students as a virtual meeting place.
- 34. Sun COE at Saint Paul College
- 35. Case 4 : Virtual Tutoring Center Objective : Create a virtual tutoring center where qualified Saint Paul College students can tutor challenged students in the local school district. Pilot to be done at Harding High School in St. Paul. Challenge : Interactive Media Result : Powerpoint based slides currently, improved whiteboard to come online.
- 36. Virtual Tutoring
- 37. SPPS Virtual Tutoring Center