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Andy Powell, EduservSL: Art Fossett

andy.powell@eduserv.org.ukwww.eduserv.org.uk

Virtual worlds in education

The A story so far…

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My first positive experience

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My inspiration…

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• arts place

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• the grants call

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• bb shoes

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The snapshots so far

• funded by the Eduserv Foundation

• four so far:– June 2007

– September 2007

– May 2008

– October 2008

• strictly covering UK university and college activities only

• started off being solely about Second Life use

• lately moving into Second Life and other worlds

• getting unwieldy; format may need to change

thanks to John Kirriemuir for the content of the next few slides

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Some things are changing

• steady growth in usage (both in terms of individuals and institutions) – activity at well over 75% of institutions

• more sources of funding

• more teaching and learning

• increasing acceptance by staff and students

• growing interest in MUVEs other than Second Life

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And some things aren’t

• people still build virtual representations of campuses and lecture theatres

• sceptics

• little up-take in FE

• few attempts to measure impact (or agreement about how to measure it)

• people still want more time and more money to undertake their SL activities

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Mentions in October 2008

• three or less mentions each:– Olive

– The Palace

– Croquet

– Metaplace

– There

– Neverwinter

– Small Worlds

– Active Worlds

– Twinity

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Mentions in October 2008

• eight or more mentions each:– OpenSim

– Wonderland

– Metaplace

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Virtual World Watch

• Web: www.virtualworldwatch.net

• Twitter: V_World_Watch

• are you a UK academic doing “stuff” in virtual worlds?

– submit your blog to the blogroll

– fill in the next snapshot survey questionnaire

– contribute a few screendumps to the Flickr picture pool

• thanks – that also helps you publicise your work

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I think there is a real danger that as we ‘sanitise’ virtual

worlds for use in education, we destroy the magic that makes

them what they are

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thank you