Jess’ E-Learning Blog

I made a bit of an idiot out of myself at class a few weeks ago when we had the presentation in Second Life and our lecturer told us that DoCS is interested in using virtual worlds in training. I just went ahead and blurted out “why?” in front of everyone. To me it was simply black and white - virtual worlds don’t check the ‘must be able to function with limited resources’ box so let’s move on - so i thought what I said was completely logical and warranted.

Until I remembered that what I saw in black and white, DoCS and Anne want us to see in shades of grey. So, just because the technology isn’t up to scratch, doesn’t mean that I should void the whole option. Second Life is great because it provides a social learning environment through interaction with others, which is something the NGO learners relate well to and enjoy. In addition, while a lot of e-learning technologies can feel quite isolating, having your own avatar and being able to see other people’s avatars may facilitate a sense of community and personalism in this type of learning.

I still think that there are problems with using virtual worlds. While download pressures may decline in time, issues such as NGO learner’s trust in and knowledge of computers may not improve. If this is the case, it means that the learners will find it difficult to adapt to the idea of a virtual world - students in my class last year had a hard time wrapping their heads around it, and we’re supposed to be technology savvy - and the quality of learning derived would be low. 

I think that if DoCS is determined to implement virtual worlds, now or in the future, then they will need to set up some initiatives so that learners can gradually become accustomed to computers and the Internet in general before they’re thrown into virtual worlds.

Yesterday, our E-Learning Design class was compromised of a ‘presentation’ in Second Life. I found it really interesting to go through Second Life again after not touching it since last year’s E-Learning Experiences assignment. Some of the class were provided with avatars to move around in Second Life with our presenter, who goes by the screen name of Jokay Wollongong. I thought that this was a really good idea, as the class didn’t have to sign up and go through all the islands in order to participate.

Through the presentation, I discovered something about myself; the main factor stopping me from using Second Life on a regular basis is that my internet connection can’t really support it. Otherwirse, I think that I could really enjoy being in and around Second Life, whether I was learning or not.  

Actually, I just found my password (yet again) and logged on to fix my avatar appearence. I’m hoping that if I only log on every now and then, that I won’t go over my download limit

I looked at this as I was wondering around Help Island and I think that is is a very good learning activity. It is designed to teach you how can manipulate a prim (object you are creating… I think) via the options in the window shown. Each time you click on the window, the yellow highlights the section you clicked while the ‘narrator’ tells you how that section affects the shape of the prim. In addition, there is a sample prim (the wooden box) in front of the window which demonstrates (with green, blue and red arrows) what the narrator tells you. The position button is seen in the above photo. The rotate button below. I like this for several reasons:

• It is interactive

• There is a visual of the window, instead of describing, it shows you

• The information is given to the learner in three ways, through the narrator speaking, through the prim itself and through the window and the yellow highlights

One of the problems with Help Island is that there is not enough direction. I arrived on the island and my HUD display said something to the effect of: you don’t need me anymore, you can bar me down, explore the island. The only reasons I didn’t just head to the exit sign was because I knew that there were some freebees for hair that I could pick up and I thought that I should at least explore the learning environment if I am going to post about it.

I think that one problem with having such a lack of structure is that people become bored easily and can easily miss important things. There is a certain element of ‘if you stumble across it, then you can learn from it’ but there is nothing to point you towards the right area to stumble, so your chances of learning from it are greatly reduced. For instance, I had heard from a classmate that you could find links to education islands on Help Island, which I had forgotten about until recently. It was only through my aimless wanderings over the island that I unexpectedly found it. 

Another problem with Help Island is that there is much less interaction. I found that the HUD on orientation display was good in that it felt as if someone was there helping you, there was a presence. With Help Island, you are stuck on your own, with no presence to guide you and the only people who interact with you are other newbies, who are just as lost as you. It’s really quite isolating, as odd as that sounds for a technology which is inherently social.

Okay, Second Life just crashed on me, Does that happen often? I don’t think I’d like to rely on a piece of technology which crashes unexpectedly…

And then when I logged in again, it took me back to orientation island… but I was on Help island when the computer crashed. Do I have to download all my templates and other free stuff again? What happens if the stuff I got for free actually cost money, and then after I’d bought it, SL crashed and I lost the stuff that I had payed money for???

Oh, but now I’m back on the island I crashed at… odd…

Okay, that was odd. I just went to go to the last part of Orientation Island, Communicate. As I stepped in the purple area, the HUD said that to complete this tutorial, I needed to talk to people, then telling me to type some text into the chat bar. After I did this, it decided that I had completed the whole entire tutorial and gave me the key to the next island! I didn’t even go onto the communicate section of the island! Last time, I went right up to the top of the volcano, doing the activities. I am confused as to why I wasn’t prompted to do that this time. This is the second time one of the tutorials has played up, which does’t seem very reliable.

Because Edublogs was very slow yesterday, I only posted once. But I did write about my experience while in SL and saved it as a word file on my computer. So here it is.

Each of the island sections are structured differently for learning. The ‘search’ island asks the learner to open certain pages and do things, then asks multiple choice questions which the learner has to answer. This ensures that the learner is actually doing what is asked of them and also encourages them to interact and explore the functions of SL, which is great because it supports the exploratory, experiential experience that SL is. 

‘Move’ island was more difficult for me to operate. This is partly because I just can’t control a car with directional arrows, I need a joystick or wheel but also because I couldn’t find the flight simulator building. The instructions in the popup window were very helpful, but they could have mentioned something about following the little yellow signs. I was busy looking at the ground of the island to avoid running into walls and pillars, so I didn’t notice the road signs. 

The first time I went into SL, I had trouble getting into ‘Search’ island. It was the last one I tried. When I stood on the blue pad, I didn’t get the HUD on the top left hand side. So I clicked on the little sign which lets you redo an island. Unfortunately, I right clicked, and then clicked again, and again, and I think that I somehow wound up muting the sign, meaning that I couldn’t access the island, so I skipped forward… But now that I have done it, I think that it is a very valuable island for orienting yourself in the SL world. 

While SL introduction island does give the learner a lot of information, there is also a lot that it misses. I think that this is understandable, because there are so many functions and the game functions are so detailed, that I can believe that it is impossible to directly teach all of it. But I do think that they could write a user manual which they can put in each avatar’s inventory so that the individual can look up something if they are lost. Information such as why the flash movies won’t work even after I’ve downloaded the latest version of quicktime, and changed my visual/aural preferences in the edit dropdown box. I think that I might need to exit and then enter SL again, but that’s just a guess, I haven’t found any information on doing that. I’m going to feel so silly if the answer is sitting in front of my face and I couldn’t see it

(BTW, I did manage to get in again. I just created a new avatar, and I will definently remember my password now ^_^)

I have just spent 34 minutes (and counting) trying to log in to Second Life to complete my e-learning subject. I’m getting frustrated…

I’m taking blame for not remembering what my password actually is, but I’m attributing part of that to Second Life’s rules for passwords - rules like not being able to repeat characters in the password, or having to have both letters and numbers - which made it necessary for me to make up a completely new password … which I have now forgotten. And, like a good, security minded person, I didn’t write my password down anywher either…

So I spent some time on the Second Life login page, looking for the ‘have you forgotten your password?’ button. After an extensive search (just to make sure I wasn’t blind) I resigned myself to the fact that there is no such button here and that I’d have to create a new account (*sigh* all that paperwork all over again). And when I clicked on the ‘create new account’ button, it directed me to their homepage… where I discovered the ‘have you forgotten your password?’ button! Great!!

So, I sent myself an email and followed the email link back to SL and answered the secret question, whereupon I was told I would have the opportunity to activate a new password account. Only, when I entered my secret question answer, it sent me back to the SL homepage. I’m still in the dark about what my old password was, I haven’t been able to create a new one, and I’m not logged in anywhere!

Now I’ve spent 45 min trying to log into Second Life. I think I’ll just make a new account…

For the group assignment, one group made a wiki on the uses of virtual worlds in education. They mentioned that a benefit of virtual worlds is the anonymity, which can encourage shy individuals to express themselves, which I hadn’t thought of before. I definitely agree with this. When I have taught people, given a presentation or participated in groupwork, one of the persistent problems I have is group participation. So a virtual world which can increase participation would be very beneficial in that more ideas and knowledge could be passed along by people who have overcome their shyness.

I was reading a reflection made by a friend, Jason on the possible advantages and disadvantages of Second Life. In particular, his comment on bringing together entertainment and education interested me. So in response to the following text from Jason’s entry…

“However, not all of it are advantages, because I believe that educators will have just as much a challenge to create a virtual classroom that might need to aesthetically or graphically appeal to their group of learners, otherwise students may become distracted by the entertainment elements of the virtual worlds instead and end up skipping classes either ways. At the same time, not all students may enjoy the virtual element and might in fact prefer learning through more traditional methods.”

… I wrote the following reply …

“Yes, I agree with you about virtual worlds possibly being too entertaining. I spent probably a whole hour (maybe more) in Second Life designing my avatar for assessment three. And while it was a great experiential learning experience, it wasn’t really all that necessary. I think that it actually distracted me from going through the rest of the set learning stages as I would get stuck doing one part of the tutorial for ages, adjusting the avatar.”