Week 7: Academic journal

At present, virtual world environments have a huge potential on changing the manner in which people can interact, navigate on Internet, and make business. Due to the fact that the virtual world environments become more pervasive, it is important for the researchers to be deeply involved in the understanding of those spaces. The paper describes the main aspects met by tutors and students on working in the Second Life environment. Second Life was chosen due to the fact that provides a strong collaborative environment equipped with modern features: voice interactions, chat and instant messenger, expanding the ways of communication and the possibilities for collaboration. For many Romanian students who participated to the course, it was a unique experience - they were involved in the collaborative work, together with their colleagues from Finland, Estonia and Norway, but also engaged in learning processes that enhanced creative collaboration.

All the attempts to develop educational activities in virtual worlds - mainly in Second life - suggested that virtual 3D environments are attractive for educators and students; however, they present particular design challenges. However, some of the design suggestions are untested or have ben used in a very limited range of virtual learning environments. In this respect, a constructively approach is needed to improve virtual 3D environments for leaning and teaching. In any case, although Second Life and other virtual 3D environments have registered an increased popularity, it seems that the educational activities will not be quickly transferred in those virtual worlds. To this could happen, it is required to manage in better way virtual identities, to embrace more easily the new technologies in education and to develop proper skills to work in virtual environment. 

Working in the Second Life Environment - A Way for Enhancing Students’ Collaboration

Week 6: Academic journal

Little is known about how individuals come to relate to settings in virtual worlds (VWs), which are defined as digital environments in which individuals, groups, and even organizations interact in virtual (that is to say, nonphysical) spaces.

The article explores the role of apparent three-dimen- sional space in allowing users to interact with work tools that are virtual objects. The theory incorporates spatial concepts that can be applied to create a “place” for users in a VW. In simple terms, space is for us the sum of all places (Norberg- Schulz 1971, p. 10), whereas virtual place is defined as the perception of bounded space imbued with meaning. Researchers expand on the notion of place as the sum of associated mental representations that are created not only through social inter- actions in a virtual space, but also by manipulating virtual objects. The theory of virtual space and place (VSP) distinguishes among the concepts of space, place, and presence, and seeks to explain their interrelationships.  

The research was motivated by a desire to better understand how to employ spatial considerations to make virtual worlds more appealing. Moore et al. (2007) note the ever-increasing focus of designers on using space in VW to increase visual realism. In their search for realism, a number of designers have used three-dimensional space to build places that are visually impressive. Some technologies even offer perfectly simulated three-dimensionality. Unfortunately, the three- dimensional spaces do not offer any specific features for supporting extended interactions. The researchers created a meaningful virtual place where avatars interacted with tools as well as other avatars. Doing so made it easier and more enjoyable for participants to use the tools. They encourage VW designers notonly to work more toward an excellent, thoroughly engrossing simulation of reality that allows VW participants to experience social presence, but also toward giving them access to a warm, familiar environment that they can personalize as a function of their own cognitive preferences, as well as past interactions with objects and other participants.
  

VIRTUAL SPACE AND PLACE: THEORY AND TEST

Week 7: Second life journal

Let's witness the majestic, mesmerizing and magically memorable experience at That Place Amusement Park. This place contains a collection of coasters and curiosities.

Those are bee cars and we can ride on them and turn around.

Then, I try another kind of amusement facility which close to coasters. It is really funny. I love Second Life since it let me experience the things I do not dare to do in practical life.

There are numerous place which are interesting there. After enjoying all the items, we can also walk to the highest point and view the panorama of the park.

Week 6: Second Life Journal

Today I esscape to the vast estate and nature park of Calas Galadhon, a peaceful, romantic place to enjoy the beauty of the natural world brought into Second Life. Explore by horse, boat, fire ballon and etc.

There, I can enjoy myself by sitting on the boat and seeing gorgeous views. Second Life could always  provide us with relaxed places and we can engage in it anytime anywhere. 

Then, I try the fire ballon and have a wonderful experience that I never have before.

At last, I go to a square which near a beach. I can hear the birds and see the beautiful views with quite a few flowers. What a lovely day! I love the great feeling when I wondering in Second Life.

Week 7: Academic Blog

This week, I read an article which mainly talking about engaging students in active learning of virtual commerce by teaching in Second Life. Furthermore, it is also point out an assessment framework which is to evaluate the learning objectives and learning process of the Second Life project.

 

In this study, there were thirty-two students were divided into eight groups to study three segments of instructional development: context and learning objectives, components of the projects, and assessment.

Context and learning objectives. Learning objective is to acquire knowledge through learning process. Every students apply the acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities which represents learning units, each unit has its own goals and objectives.

Components of the projects. There are three steps in this part—prepare for the trip, enjoy the adventure and share experience.

Assessment. There are two parts in assessment—assessment of learning objectives and assessment of learning process. Then the author reflected the assessment  results on the Learner-Centered Teaching Philosophy

 

For the result, most students think this is an interesting program and could provide experience to learner. It’s also a platform which could develop the ability of innovation and interaction of students.

Furthermore, this paper presents an assessment framework which is the first one to use to evaluate the learning goals and the learning process in the education of second life projects. The author said“This assessment framework is modifiable and portable in order to be applied in similar learning context where Second Life is used as a technological portal to support teaching and learning.”

However, there are some limitations in this program. First is the limit of technology and time. Second is this program will attract students work in virtual group in future. Last is the limit of funds.

 

Schiller, S. Z. (2009). Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching: Pedagogical Design and Assessment of a Second Life Project. Journal Of Information Systems Education, 20(3), 369-381.

 

Week 7: Second Life Journal

This week, I went to a place where have lots of different themes.

I went to the Candy Land and Ballon Ride first, but there are not special. Then I went to Pirate Maze. It is an under water maze which looks very beautiful. Some places have notice card to show the road.

 

 

With walk around, you can see some note card about some halobios.

With these halobios, there are also some note cards to introduce them, including amounts, habitates and how to protect them. Because of these meaningful note crads, I like this place very much. By this, children could have interests on this. This is a good way to teach students how to protect the halobios.

Week 6: Academic Blog

This week, I read an article which mainly talking about the educational uses of Second Life in the teaching of child and youth work. Several years ago, Second Life has been used to teach students who studied in Loyalist College’s Child and Youth Worker Program.

The data collected from the students which he taught in 2007. There were 80 students who were divided into to different groups—Inter-personal course group and Group Dynamics course group. He taught both of these two groups for 3 hours per week in a 15 week semester. Each week there were 2 hours were taught in traditional ways and the other hour was in a computer lab.

In this article, the author found that by teaching in Second Life, there will no more limitation in the distance, where students are and where teachers are. Another one is there is a great number of clients in Second Life who the author’s graduates will work with which means it provide more ways to their students to contact with their clients.

However, there are some challenges which limited on-line teaching. It requires the newer computers and high speed Internet. Furthermore, students should spends some time to learn how to use Second Life. But anyway, teaching in Second Life is a necessary step to help students learning knowledge and do some practice.

 

Thompson, L. (2012). Educational Uses of Second Life in the Teaching of Child and Youth Work. Relational Child & Youth Care Practice, 25(1), 43-51.

Week 6: Second Life Journal

Hi, everyone

This week, I found a place called Gullwing Coast Racers. It is really interesting place and spends me lots of time there.

First, we can get an apperance which looks like snail in the entrance. There also have a guide to hepl you go through this game. Just follow it and you will know how to play. In all, there are 5 guides and several different parts in this game.

 

 

 

 

After go through the guide, you can go back to the entrance and there are some small snails which could help you teleport to another place which similar to this. You can also race there. There are some special roads in the second playground which will have some pieces music when you walk on it.

There also have a place like a small shop which you can get a hat like this.

 

When I walked around in the second place, I found a farm. At begining, I thought it just a small farm, but when I walked around, I found some tree houses and a big town behind this!!

 

 

It is really an amazing and interesting place and I'm looking forward to have a small race with all of you there!

 

 

 



Summary Week 5

Second Life is both a social psychological playground where participants enjoy individualistic fantasies and a virtual community where they collaborate on collective projects. When people define the virtual as real, it is real in its consequences. Accordingly, social virtual spaces such as Second Life offer sociologists unique opportunities for research, education, intervention, and hence the development of a virtual imagination.

Second Life fits the definition of a “social virtual world.” Such worlds have six characteristics.

1. Shared Space: the world allows many users to participate at once.

2. Graphical User Interface: the world depicts space visually, ranging in style

from 2D “cartoon” imagery to more immersive 3D environments.

3. Immediacy: interaction takes place in real time.

4. Interactivity: the world allows users to alter, develop, build, or submit customized content.

5. Persistence:the world’s existence continues regardless of whether individual users are logged in.

7. Socialization/Community: the world allows and encourages the formation

of in-world social groups like guilds, clubs, cliques, housemates, neighborhoods, and so forth.

When residents construct their Second Life self, they can spend agonizing days and many Lindens sculpting an avatar/self they are satisfied with, regardless of whether it “looks like” their actual physical self. In Second Life, therefore, our digital-physical appearance is no longer determined by genetic baggage or shaped by habit, age, and other natural biological processes.

Social virtual worlds provide a free “potential space” where real individuals avatars can and do attempt to create an alternative reality. The disembodied self of e-mails, blogs, Web sites and chat rooms is reembodied as an avatar, who visually interacts with others, is influenced by them, and self-reflects from their perspectives. With their visual and acoustic capacities, promotion of creativity, and emphasis on spontaneous interactivity, social virtual worlds such as Second Life heighten the realism of our participation and the intensity of the emotions we experience there. As a result, the constantly evolving avatar influences the “real” self, who now also orients toward virtual, yet all-too-real others.

Gottschalk, S. (2010). The Presentation of Avatars in Second Life: Self and Interaction in Social Virtual Spaces. Symbolic Interaction, 33(4), 501-525. doi: 10.1525/si.2010.33.4.501

Second life journal Week 5

I travel to Garden of Dreams this time, it is a garden with beautiful scenery. You can choose where you want to go when you teleport to it.

This is one of the views called old tree where can enjoy yourself.

The shop sells various kinds of furniture and you can choose the one suits your home.

The video in this hall demonstrates the process of designing a house, you can sit-down and have a cup of coffee.

Week 5: Academic Blog

This study mainly talking about the usage of teaching experiences of educators in virtual world of Second Life. A mixture approach were used in this study which by using the Physical classrooms, combine the BlackboardTM, web-based resources, and the virtual world of Second Life to teach the 1st year undergraduate students in UK. A case study was employed and collected the data by observations, semi structured interviews, chat logs, snapshots, and field notes from the instructors. The conclusion can be summarized as the following seven aspects: cybergogy(it is online teaching method), creativity, trial and error(repeated trials, from failure to find solutions), wow moment, uncertainty, experiential learning, and dynamic relationship.

1. The potential of Second Life could promote constructivism and experiential learning.

2. Learning experience is the focus of instructional design which could promote teachers and students' socialization, participation, cooperation, interaction and communication.

3. Can establish a positive relationship between teachers and students, to promote the communication, interaction and dialogue of students and teachers

4. Teaching in SL improves the expectation of classroom teaching, and makes the teaching idea more creative and reflection.

5. The value learning of participants provides them possible to go through trial and error method and the willingness to seek help from experienced people when they need supports.

6. Professional development in the education sector can encourage educators and increase the desire of learning, interests, and provide enough power to study.

7. These data also address the educator's strategy in order to overcome the learner's underlying anxiety and experience the immersive.

 

Ata, R. (2016). An Exploration of Higher Education Teaching in Second Life in the Context of Blended Learning. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology, 15(3), 9.

Week 5: Second Life Journal

Hello, everyone

This week, I foud a place named China Town where gather a lot of Chinese player.
In the hall, we can dance and play the Zheng, a 21-or 25- stringed plucked instrument in some ways similar to zither.

 

 

The senery there is beautiful. In the mid night, the starry sky is so geogrous. At the dawn, I went to worship Budda.

 

There are also have some floating platform in the sky. On one of them, you can sit in meditation. Another one, you can play Tai Chi.

 



 

 

In this place, there are also some stories which not showed to people. I don't know what they've been through, but I'm pretty sure that it must be an interesting stroy.

 

 

You can fishing here, and have some barbecue. It's really an good place to visti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

Summary Week 4

Interaction in virtual worlds takes place in a spatial context. The interactants respond in various ways to this context but they also discursively create various spaces in their interaction. They negotiate spatial orientation through the use of linguistic deictic elements, create co-presence and joint attention through the gestures and positioning of their avatars and they need to handle screen space as well as the physical space of their surrounding. This article discusses how the participants try to organize themselves in the virtual reality of Second Life, while situated in different locations in the physical world, and it demonstrates how the interactants rely on space for their orientation and interaction within the virtual world and how the physical world is brought into the online interaction.

The methodology that they employed for this study was to approach the data set in an explorative manner by combining participant observation with active participation (Eysenbach and Till, 2001). The first step was to identify that the ‘negotiation of space’ is a topic that is not only of academic interest but also crucially important for the newbies in the sense that they had to learn how to navigate space in Second Life or they could not have participated in class. The authors thus wondered how the newbie student residents navigated the spatial challenges that the virtual world Second Life posed them. Second, discussing their experiences and observations in light of ‘space’ in the team, allowed the author to identify five nexuses of interest in which they observe the newbies negotiating and navigating the virtual space:

(1) establishing co-presence and joint attention;

(2) negotiating a common perspective;

(3) navigating and coordinating within virtual space;

(4) coordinating the different layers of space (the quasi three-dimensional world, the screen interface, and the space of the human in the physical world); and

(5) the spatial/physical experience of the avatar.

As a last step, they identified extracts in the data where they have evidence of the negotiation of space that might serve as examples of gaining spatial literacy.

Its sample is too limited in size and scope to argue that they have witnessed the complete appropriation of spatial literacy for the interactants in the new environment, but they feel confident that they have been able to explore instances of negotiation and navigation of space that might lead to such a learning process.

Second Life is only one example of a virtual world with all its spatial and communicative affordances and complexities. We communicate both in physical life and in virtual worlds, and in many situations the boundaries are blurred and fuzzy. The newbie users of our small-scale case study had to learn to navigate in a new and complex environment, and linguists have to learn to describe more complex interactive realities.

Locker, M. A. (2015). Negotiation of space in Second Life newbie interaction. Communicating time and place on digital media, 9(1), 34-45. doi: 10.1016/j.dcm.2015.06.002

Second Life Journal Week 4

Today I am going to tempura island. It is a place which has fantastic views.

Fortunately, I meet a French friend on my way. We both feel so good when we dance together.

Then, we are looking for somewhere else and enjoy ourselves. The sightseeing here is amazing!

Although it is a wonderful trip, we both find that the only trouble is language. She only can speak French which I can not understand. It seems that  language is of great importance in daily communication.

Week 4: Academic Blog

This article is mainly talking about the when Second Life became the way which knowledge shared and accessed, the feature and ability of them were studied, the role of tutor in virtual world were analyzed, and further areas of research and development are predicted.

The author analyzed the study from 6 parts.

 

First, Types of Participation. The point of this part is analyzed to earning the knowledge which specified in advance and understands them. Second is Instructor’s Role. In this part, the author described the transformation of teachers from the knowledge holder to the promotion of knowledge and makes some evidences. Third is Participants which is analyzing the changes of students’ learning frame. Next is Interactions. It is talked about the interaction between people in Second Life. Furthermore, the Orientation is to analyzed that people need some time to know how to use Second Life to do the things what they want. Last one is Virtual Tutors. The task of this part is to analyze how to offer an instructional support for learning in virtual words is a challenge.

At the end, author has 5 conclusions. Firstly, the any time, any place nature of the virtual environments lends itself to the “on demand” requirements of just-in-time training. Secondly, the way of participation is flexible. Thirdly, it allows teachers to focus on the individual developments. Fourthly, it reduced the student's cost and improves the efficiency of study. Finally, virtual tutors can provide the required scaffolding while off-loading instructor time and effort.

 

Kopp, G., & Burkle, M. (2010). Using Second Life for Just-in-Time Training: Building Teaching Frameworks in Virtual Worlds. International Journal Of Advanced Corporate Learning, 3(3), 19-25.

Week 4: Second Life Journal

Hello, everyone

This week, I spend a long time to try to find an interesting place, but I failed. However, I went a very beautiful place which recommend on the home page. It is dawn of island. And the scenery there is beautiful.

I found a  castle which looks like built in last century. When I was standing on the top of the castle, everything around me became hazy.

There also some dwelling disperse around this castle. These dwelling could be used but I did not find any resident. Besides, there are some animals such as dogs and horses there.

 

 

It's really a beautiful place to relax yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Summary Week 3

Second Life (SL) is a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world, and educational institutions are adopting SL to support their teaching and learning. In this article, the authors report an empirical study in which they have elicited educators’, designers’ and students’ perceptions of learning spaces within SL. Based on this empirical research, they have presented some design considerations for SL educators and designers who are involved in designing learning activities and spaces in SL.

The key research question (RQ) is: ‘How should 3D learning spaces be designed for student engagement?’ The research methodology consisted of an online survey which was conducted at the start of the project involving colleagues from the further education (FE) and higher education (HE) communities and semi-structured interviews, guided by the RQs, with designers, educators and students.

In the data, the authors have noted that educators and designers are clearly taking advantage of the 3D features of SL and its interactivity and flexibility for designing (and re-designing). SL designers and educators are adopting a user-centred design approach: trying out designs, evaluating them with students and then re-designing and improving the designs based on the feedback. Therefore, the designs of learning spaces are changing and evolving through this iterative user-centred design and evaluation process. 

The research has shown that designs of learning spaces in SL were perceived by those interviewed to influence student learning and engagement. However, there are several contextual factors that may impact on student experience such as students’ SL skills, their motivation and educators’ SL skills and preparations for the activities, whether SL is a compulsory component of the programme, whether SL activities will be assessed, and nature of delivery on the course or programme (distance education, face-to-face, or blended delivery). 

Therefore, creating a learning space in SL is only a part of the process of creating a sense of ‘learning and teaching place’ in SL. Also, ‘Space is the opportunity; place is the understood reality’ (Harrison and Dourish 1996, 67). In other words, educators can create the learning spaces, but it is the students that create the places through their usage of that space. This is another reason why many educators in SL are allowing their students to have a major stake in creating the space as well. They reasoned that if students can contribute to creating the type of space they want, it will become the type of place they want to learn in (Wahlstedt, Pekkola, and Niemela 2008; Whitworth 2008). 

Second Life Journal Week 3

TIS - Mocap Dances, Animations and ClubEquipment

Today I travel to TIS which has offered the best club equipment and animations in SL since 2007. Their hybrid and couples dance balls are in use in the top nightclubs, and Motion Capture dances are reknown for being smooth and seamless!

I touch the screen, then I can start dancing.

 

There are a number of equipment that we can choose to use and enjoy various kinds of dances.

This stage is designed for couple and two person can dance together. It is really interesting!

Week 3：Academic Blog

This article was tried to assess the usage of teaching English language in Second Life at tertiary level. The data collected in a comprehensive way from the instructors who had experienced it. The aims of it are the opinions of participants for teaching language in Second Life, the benefits and challenges of using Second Life in language teaching.

The qualitative analysis was used by this article. The participants are five instructors from different Turkish university. Through structured interviews, data were collected and analyzed by with code and theme identification. For these data, it was divided into three parts to analyze.

The first part, it was aimed on the language skills. They found that all of participants mentioned that Second Life could help people to improve the speaking and listening skills. The students’ improvements of writing skills are also mentioned by two instructors.

The second part is the benefits of using Second Life in language teaching. The main benefit is every teacher could design their class through their requirements, perspectives and cases—it makes the class flexible and changeable. Next, provided both synchronous and asynchronous education which means it will not limit the time and place anymore. Then, it provides an effective environment in order to share the course materials online. Moreover, there will not have any limit for how many people could in one room. Last, Second Life provides an English language environment which could help people learning English.

The third part is the challenges of using Second Life in language teaching. They are technical, financial and user-related challenges. It needs a good graphic, voice cards and the Internet connection was highlighted. They have to pay for many materials and essential equipments to begin a class. And to design a virtual environment always take users too much time.

 

Sarac, H. S. (2014). Benefits and Challenges of Using Second Life in English Teaching: Experts’ Opinions. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 158(14th Language, Literature and Stylistics Symposium), 326-330.

 

 

 

Week 3: Second Life Journal

Hello everyone,

This week I went to a very beautiful place named Water Colour World.

There are several theme.  Each theme is a beautiful picture and people made it became a beautiful garden.When I walked around, I felt I was in the picture!

 

I also found that this place have a gorgeous starry sky! There are also some strange thing float in sky.

 

 

After I get bored, I looked back that I could not find the picture! I walked around in this park, every theme have a picture showed in the end of this theme. But when I looked back, I found those pictures were disappeared! It's so amazing!

 

 

 

These are all I found during this week.