In the Second Life of Avatars and Photographic Education

Arthur Fields Catherine Dutton, Ph.D.Susan kae GrantPaul Berger

Educator’s Experiences usingA Virtual World

Motivations for Using a Virtual World

• Desire for greater student engagementin online classes in particular

• Sense of presence and immediacy

• Shift in the instructor/student dynamic

• International audience

• Cool new tool

“My best moments in Second Life have been where I see my students teaching each other.

We had an instance where a couple students from another university came in to view our class. They were showing what they were doing and they were comparing.

I stood out of the way and I could see that the concepts we had taught were being applied.”

Student Creative Arts & Research Symposium

Students Present Research to an International Audience

Meaning is contextual, and learning happens when individuals are participants in social communities of practice

(Delwiche, 2006)

Impromptu Diversity Activity

Master’s students drink cocoa after wheelchair races

“What I find most useful in teaching in Second Life is the immediacy, much like what we’re experiencing here. That we can have a conversation and we are able to bounce ideas of each other so much richer format than we ever could in a flat 1-D text format.”

MIT Sociable Media

interactive scale- charts responses real-time on the web

“At some point your students are going to want to know why they need to do this. You have to have an answer.

You have to actually have something you are doing here that could not be done easier in RL.”

No Lab in RMB City

stark, surreal vision of post-Katrina New Orleans 

Empyreal Dreams

visualize famous poems and literature using Second Life as a canvas

Primtings Museum

interactive exploration of famous works of art brought to virtual life via 3D 'prims' and other techniques

Helps for using Second Life

• Mentoring

• Tutorials

• Conferences

• Colleague and administrative support

Hindrances in using Second Life

• Technical requirements of the platform

• Learning curve required to use the platform

• Lack of administrative support

• Intellectual Property Concerns

Advice…

“Obtain tenure first.

Learning SL is time consuming and not taken into university workload.”