Technology has fundamentally changed education

Is Second Life the Future of Online Learning?

Alysia Starkey

Abstract

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) bring multiple advantages to distance education. Harnessing the power of software such as Second Life not only offers nontraditional pedagogical opportunities; it also affords educators an approach for bridging the gap between traditional educational values and values held by Generation Y and the Internet Generation. MMORPGs move online interaction away from discussion boards and chat rooms toward more realistic scenarios. This article provides several examples of how colleges and universities have implemented Second Life into existing curricula and discusses its future possibilities for the entire educational realm.

Technology has fundamentally changed education. Some educators resent such a strong emergence of technology in the educational arena and are holding steadfast to traditional pedagogical beliefs. However, they are a dying breed in a world where digital media is rapidly becoming a mainstream pedagogical tool. Digital media is assisting educators in their quest to produce highly skilled, technologically savvy, and information conscious members of society.

There are several implications of this technologically rich environment educators need to consider. The first is a recognition that society’s culture has shifted from one where the majority takes part through mere observation to one where the majority actively participates in society. This shift can be attributed, in part, to the arrival of the Internet. Another important implication educators should be sensitive to is the difference between the virtual environments students utilize and the authentic world. Henry Jenkins, the director of the comparative-media-studies program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, states, “Kids don’t have a critical vocabulary on the effect of media in their own lives. If students play a video game about history, that’s how history was” (Borja, 2006). Jenkins argues this is why media skills should be integrated “into core academic subjects” as well as “across the curriculum” (Borja, 2006).

Connie Yowell, the director of education grant making for the MacArthur Foundation suggests, “Just as the printing press…changed how knowledge works, we have hypothesized that these new digital media will have the same effect” (Borja, 2006). Yowell believes that while it is important to recognize the benefits digital media brings to education, it is equally important to

recognize the consequences. Unintended consequences “could include less physical play and less time to think and explore offline,” as well as daydreaming and creativity (Borja, 2006).

One multi-media tool with tremendous educational possibilities is electronic games. Many families face an epic battle on the issue of video games and the extent to which they should occupy a child’s free time. Educators recognize a child’s passion toward video games as an unusual opportunity. Many even believe that incorporating games into the curriculum would lead to “reduced absenteeism, increased concentration, enhanced learning, faster development of the skills that are needed in today’s high-tech society—and students eager for more” (Blaisdell, 2006). To educators, “games represent active, immersive learning environments where users integrate information to solve a problem” (Antonacci & Modaress, 2005). Passive learning becomes a thing of the past when games are incorporated into course curricula. Keeping the optimism in check is the question of whether students have the ability to connect activities within a game to concepts in the material they are studying in the classroom or if they have the ability to transfer skills they are learning to the real world.

The emergence of online courses at college and universities around the world create a distinct opportunity for the utilization of advanced multiplayer role-playing games. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) promote higher-level thinking skills and assist in creating a sense of community amongst persons who might never meet face to face. Instructors of online courses often use chat rooms, email, electronic mailing lists, and audio conferencing in an attempt to create interaction among students. These technologies lack the immediacy which true cooperative interaction should include. Many students enjoy online courses because of this lack of immediacy and appreciate being able to “formulate their

thoughts” before jumping into a class discussion (Childress & Braswell, 2006). However, without any visual clues to assist others in the interpretation of the communication, context and meaning is often misunderstood. MMORPGs help address this issue by adding the visual component back into virtual conversations.

One particular MMORPG that is emerging as a “must have” for many of the colleges and universities who offer online courses is Second Life (http://secondlife.com). Second Life, a morphed up version of the traditional video game, was founded by former CEO of RealNetworks, Philip Rosedale, and is produced by the company Linden Lab. Described by some as “the matrix meets myspace” (Nicholson, 2006), this online social networking site mirrors the real world via its “highly interactive, virtual-reality based graphical user interface” (Blaisdell, 2006). Second Life users, or “residents”, are given complete control and are free to create their dream world. Residents start their journey by creating an avatar (a digital representation of oneself) and then move on to constructing their “world”.

Figure 1. Examples of avatars found in Second Life.

Image from http://secondlife.com/showcase/screenshots.php

Residents can develop land, start up businesses, attend church, town hall meetings, concerts, and psychotherapy sessions, get married, or just explore what others have created. Residents have even developed their own economy within Second Life which operates with currency known as “Linden dollars”. Second Life gives residents a chance to become whomever they desire and to do whatever they want; something real life doesn’t often afford.

In addition to the social and entertainment facets of Second Life, the advantages it brings for distance courses are enormous. As of November 2006, more than 100 campuses have joined Second Life and are exploring its possibility (Singh, 2006). Harvard Law Professor Rebecca Nesson, who leads a class held within Second Life states, “The three-dimensional virtual world

makes it possible for students taking a distance course to develop a real sense of community…Students interact with each other and there’s a regular sense of classroom interaction, it feels like a college campus” (Wong, 2006). Second Life is abolishing the notion that online classes don’t require active participation with its ability to offer real-time interaction (Wong, 2006). John Lester, community and education manager at Linden Lab, agrees by claiming, “There is a real human being behind every avatar—the people are very real. It’s just the medium that is different” (Wong, 2006). Class discussions in Second Life closely resemble a chat discussion, but students report feeling more connected to one another because of the visual cues and representations an individual’s avatar provides. Viewing the avatars sitting around conversing can increase overall interest in and commitment to the lesson or activity.

Figure 2. Entrance to Campus Second Life.

Image from http://secondlife.com/showcase/screenshots.php

Second Life provides a medium for educators to develop real-world learning experiences. Through the site’s free Campus: Second Life program (courses are granted free “land” to develop for their own needs and a certain amount of Linden dollars as start up capital),

UC Davis has property within Second Life that “offers visual and aural hallucinations based on interviews with real schizophrenics. Second Life visitors can hear voices, see bizarre objects and have the floor drop out from under them” (Singh, 2006). The hope is this training will help psychology students better understand the life of a schizophrenic. Business professors have an innate interest in giving students the opportunity to start up and build a real business within this virtual world. Many residents of Second Life are living on income generated through their Second Life enterprises and are making more money than when they worked in the real world. Sociology students can examine the dynamic aspects of the virtual community including such issues as “marriage, gender identity, social status, religion, and monetary topics” (Foster, 2005).

The University of Kansas Medical School has even created a virtual medical clinic which allows their students to practice different patient/practitioner encounter strategies (Childress & Braswell, 2006).

From real-time online class discussions to real world simulations, Second Life and similar MMORPGs provide just another example of how technology is changing the landscape of education. While Second Life currently requires participants to be over the age of 18, Teen Second Life (http://teen.secondlife.com/) was developed in 2005 and allows users between the ages of 13 and 17 to participate in the phenomenon. Teen Second Life has yet to realize a faithful following as an educational tool, but it won’t be long until educators unleash pedagogical uses for the K-12 agenda. There is too much potential for the “teaching and learning issues such as higher-level thinking skills, problem-solving, identity, and social affiliations” for the market to remain untapped for long. The pedagogical and didactic possibilities are endless. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll attend class in a virtual coffee house while sipping a tall caramel macchiato in my pajamas.

Figure 3. Socializing at a coffee house in Second Life.

Image from http://secondlife.com/showcase/screenshots.php

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