Supporting Learners in Virtual Worlds

Mark Childs

Basic premise

We can understand the learner experience and support it more effectively if we firstly consider the learners’ need to develop a virtual body and a virtual identity.

Overview

• Factors affecting the experience• The cases• The role of presence• Issues with engagement• Ethical dilemmas• A framework for engagement

THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE EXPERIENCE

Some of the factors

Some more

Combining the models

Redrawing the model

Unwrapping presence

SOME EVIDENCE

The cases

• Five case studies over the 2008/09• Two that fell apart• One follow-up investigation this year • One observation of a single student in a single

session.

08 / 09 casesTheatre Studies 1st session University of

RedTheatre Studies 10th session Green College

Human Behaviour 3rd and 4th sessions

University of Blue

Introduction to Virtual Worlds

3rd session (1st in SL)

University of Magenta

Theatre Studies 1st session Yellow University

Introductory session

• a. Interacting with the world• b. Interacting with others• c. Interacting with the avatar• d. Finding and searching

Learning the interface

• Approximately half of students struggled with using the interface to move and navigate– Needed one session to just get used to interface– The process was speeded up when we avoided

(dis)orientation island – Essential to do sessions where you can instruct

students face-to-face– No correlation with whether they were gamers or not– No correlation with whether they valued the

experience or not

Getting used to distractionStudent D: Are you? Are you in Dundee? What’s this? Is it magical toadstools?Me: Who’s got the magical toadstools?Student D; We have! I think they are magical toadstools.Student E: Yes they are.Student A: What the hell’s a magical toadstool?Student D: I think we are actually getting high on ‘shrooms. Yes we are, we are.Student E laughs.Student D; Look we’ve just eaten toadstools and we’re going crazy. Oh amazing. Awesome. Student E: Do it again. Do it again.Student D: OK let’s have another one. See what happens. Weeeee. Getting high while flying. That’s dose. Weeeeeee.Me: Can we start move back to Theatron? If you’ve got a Theatron landmark can you join me back on the stage in Theatron?

THE ROLE OF PRESENCE I

Theatre Design and New Media

Real life theatres in Second Life• What do you think the challenges for actors and designers

would be in the real theatre this model represents?• What would be the challenges for actors and designers working

in the virtual theatre in Second Life?

Theatres that only exist in Second Life• From the stage design (and any other surrounding spaces) what

can you determine are the nature of the performances and the communities that built the stages?

• How do these theatres / auditoria differ from real life theatrical spaces?

Green College experience

• Because we've got the atmosphere, because you can play around with the characters and make the audience be back in that century, It encourages as an audience member to actually think “wow we’ve actually been transformed”.

• “It's not just the idea round the theatres; we actually have to perform in different spaces to get the atmosphere”.

THE ROLE OF PRESENCE II

Presence v. learning experienceData from all cases

High presence

(2-4)

Low presence (0-1)

High rating (3-4)

26 2

Low rating (0-2)

1 6

Differences in experience - Red

• “You don’t have the feeling of it.”• “it feels like it’s lacking in something”• “you just feel like you’re just watching a game.”• “At the end of the day you’re still sat in your

bedroom, you’re not actually in a theatre, it’s just like a second self”

• “Even though you’re not actually there you can walk around it virtually and go to different places”

Differences in experience - Green

• it's great to just sit there and just lose yourself in it, you can just play about with it and see what happens.

• you get to fly and you get to fly really, really high up in the sky and all the clouds and birds flying past you.

• just staring at the screen for ages and just doing that sort of stuff it just didn’t interest me

What’s going on?

• 29% to 31 % of respondents “felt as if ‘the being on the screen’ was their real self”, 26% to 29% felt that their physical body was their real self and 40% to 42% felt that both were real (Heeter, 1995; 200).

• “The percentages were surprisingly consistent across different audiences and different virtual experiences. … About one fourth of the population is so strongly situated in the real world and their real body that they have a difficult time becoming involved in a virtual world.” (Heeter, 1995; 200).

• Embodiment tendency

What can help?

• It’s not the technology• Interactivity as an emotional engagement• “i like dancing / because we’re on the stage / it feels right”• “we actually have to perform in different spaces to get the

atmosphere”• “When it was just in that little bit when you first start, that

was not really the thing because it was like a computer game. Then but when you start ... I think it was when we went to the German little town you know with the Jews and stuff like that? ... I actually think that is probably the closest you're going to get to go onto these things”

THE ROLE OF PRESENCE III – THE ROLE OF THE AVATAR

Loving your avatarvia @ Steve Warburton

Social interactions and presence

Student R: hey [Student X], couldn't figure out how to change your pants yet?

Student X: maybe I like hot pink plaid spandexStudent O: I like hot pink spandex!Student K: It suits youStudent X: I started to change them, and when I

got bored these were the ones I had onStudent R: good reasoning

Social interactions and presence

Student R: [Student D], why the change in clothes?Student D: you guys were teasing me about my top last week ...

or what you thought was NO topStudent R: you mean the one we thought you didn't have on?Student I: what top [Student D]? YOu were naked!Student K: I only recognize you from your bracelet [Student D

(using her RL name)]Student D: no, had a natural colored shirt on ... and the bling

braceletStudent R: I like the topStudent D: it's like real life, no time to shop

Social presence and identity

Student L: I didn't want to look UGLYStudent B: that is my priorityStudeny O: I used shopping as practice for navigationStudent V: I wantedto look more "personalized" rather then

thesample modelStudent B: i chose the gender and nationality that i amStudent A: originality seems important to some as well, beauty

in the eye ofthe beholderStudent L: I want to look like I smell nice.Student G: then at the same time, I didn't want to be too skinny

and generic

Social anxiety

Student E: This is sad...I am scared to leave! I am worried will end up bald, lost, and naked again. One life is enough...

Student Z: I worry about looking silly in this because I don't feel comfortable with this type of enviroment

Student D: don't want to look "stupid" ... I'm worrying about sitting down and can't do it

Social disconnection

“it is difficult for me due to not beingable to witness other peoples non-verbal behaviors or reactions to comments”

Student L: not so much because we don't know who one another is yetStudent R: no, not right now, people don't know who we are yetStudent T: No I think it IS safe because you are hiddenStudent B: i agree it is more safe here to be "yourself"

So what’s going on?

• Becker and Mark --- social conventions adapted to the functionality of the environments in order to maximise the degree of social presence experienced by the users

SO WHAT’S IT ALL MEAN?

Virtual body image

• Used as a basis for social interaction.• Needs to be designed, personalised,

recognisable, aligned to identity.• Situative learning activities need to be

preceded by:– Time designing the look.– Shopping.

Virtual body schema

• Given enough time spent inworld, virtual body becomes mapped to body schema, technology “disappears into the architecture of the body”.– Proprioception (Rowe). – Appropriation (Littleton et al).– Approprioception (me).

• Around the same time students report “feeling the atmosphere of the space”.

A link?

• Embodied cognition.• “Cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the

body’s interactions with the world” – Wilson.• For cognition in virtual worlds to be effective :.

need to establish virtual body schema.

Bodies defined by acting

• Interaction is not what the objects do, it’s what the avatars do

• Experiential activities need to be preceded by a long time:– Acting inworld / interacting with spaces– Locations that have an emotional resonance

A FRAMEWORK FOR ENGAGEMENT

A FRAMEWORK FOR DISENGAGEMENT

Maybe these ...

• Disclosurism• Disapproval of the environment• Particularly effective at RL• Failure to develop a body image

Cycle of disengagement

• The need to transmit large quantities of socio-emotional information to strangers over an impersonal mode of communication can make people feel vulnerable and open to personal attacks. So they limit the amount of this type of information … which in turn creates a barrier to communication. (Barrett, 2002, 35)

So what can help?

• Caspi and Blau (2008; 339): “Those who are sensitive to others’ manifestation of themselves, and perceive the “others”, are more highly motivated to project their own self onto the group”

• Support in developing avatar• Support in identifying social conventions• Explore attitudes to virtual worlds

ISSUES WITH ENGAGEMENT

Failure and resistance

• Two unsuccessful case studies• Yellow and Cyan Universities• Students’ refusal to take part• Also disapproval from non-self-selected case

study (Red)• A general observation – IVWs polarise opinion

more than other technologies

Red resistors

• “it’s the new era of virtual relationships and stuff is quite scary”

• “I can’t think that people would actually want to be inworld.”• “I don’t think you should have a second life on your laptop.”• “It seems kind of pointless because in one aspect people can

represent themselves however they want to”• “I rather think all the opportunities which are available to

participants sound rather unhealthy. Personal interaction and real experiences are much more positive.”

3: The strong mundane

Four categories of disapproval• relationships in virtual worlds• activities in virtual worlds• living in virtual world• virtual identities• not only anxious about these activities, but see them as

dehumanising• Ancient scepticism: a “distrust of uneasiness about

technical activities (that) can be detected in the earliest strata of Western philosophy (Mitcham, 1994; 277).

4: The weak mundane

• OK with Second Life but the more fantastic elements undermine any sense of realism

• “I think it's frightening when it's so new to even consider representing yourself as non-human”

• unease with non-realistic elements, particularly the use of non-human avatars Bayne (2008; 201)

Yellow and Cyan resistors

• "I pay my university fees to learn and acquire relevant skills, not to play a game“

• How does flying around a computer game help us learn about real world issues?

5: The anti-gamer

If virtual worlds are mistaken for games, then may be prone to same opposition

• frivolous and time-wasting, • only for young children, • not a respectable thing to do• too easy• the learning acquired is inauthentic (Whitton

and Hollis, 2008; 223)

Yellow and Blue responses

• “when spawning in a public area it is not at all unusual to 'hear' unpleasant invitations and conversations”†

• “the community seems to tend towards the seedy or the disturbing (I once followed round a spawn point by a 'man' with a virtual penis, which is frankly just creepy no matter how liberal or worldly you are)” †

• “I’m standing in just the original site I went into ... and a guy comes in with an erection that big next to me and I find those sites that ... It's offensive to some people.”

• “the people i have met own my own have been perverted”

6: The shocked and disgusted

• IVWs based in cyberpunk, transgression against normative forms of social control (Balsamo, 1995: 359)

• Lack of regulation, • Discomfort at experiences where one has less

control (Trinder, 2008; 356 – 358)• Predisposed by moral panics of old media• Rise in belief in a “right not to be offended”

ETHICAL DILEMMAS

Principles informing use of technology

• Avoid uncritical acceptance of any technology • Discourage automatic gainsaying of any

technology• Make all “reasonable adjustments” to

facilitate inclusion• Provide new, engaging and diverse learning

experiences

An ethical dilemma

• You want to run a session in Second Life – looking at the options you’ve decided it’s the best way to do it

• However some students are refusing to take part, others have taken part but do not want to go back because they have been griefed

• What do you do?

Possible responses

• A “walled garden”• Making all learning using IVWs optional• Beginning first session with an opportunity to

voice objections and analyse these• Contest students’ belief that they have a right

not to be offended• Ditch the use of IVWs altogether

A FRAMEWORK FOR ENGAGEMENT