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Aaron Delwiche, an assistant professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, often gathers students in his Games for the Web class in an unlikely classroom: the metaverse known as Second Life.
It's not unusual for teachers and students to use an online environment like a chat room to meet. But Delwiche and a few other college professors are taking advantage of Second Life's fully three-dimensional virtual world and are the first to teach classes in a world where the students can fly, change body types at will and build fantastical structures that can float in the sky.
Second Life's "online environment tends to be a little less stuffy than the real-world classroom," said Delwiche. "Suddenly (the students) got to adopt these ridiculous avatars and interact with each other in a completely different context. They had a lot more fun."
Delwiche and professors like the University of Texas at Austin's Anne Beamish have for months been working on developing classes inside Second Life with Robin Harper, senior vice president at Linden Lab, the metaverse's publisher. Now the company, in an attempt to attract more professors wanting to experiment with this ultra-unorthodox teaching method, has formalized an outreach program to universities called Campus: Second Life.
Harper admits that Linden Lab has an interest in bringing more students into Second Life because they tend to be the types of people who will stick around and become paying customers.
Second Life is one of a number of so-called massively multiplayer online games. Linden Lab charges a monthly fee of $10 for access to an open-ended virtual world with a developed economy, neighborhoods and communities, all manner of vehicles and the ability to create nearly anything imaginable.
But Harper said Second Life is also an ideal environment for students, and that for the most part, they've integrated well into the larger community.
"Their focus is experience," she said. "It's whatever their individual perspective is. They come into Second Life trying to explore their ideas as they relate to a digital experience."
In order to help teachers bring their classes to Second Life, Linden Lab donates accounts for each student, as well as an acre of land in the metaverse for the teacher and students to work and build on. Afterward, anyone wishing to stay a member can do so at half price.
To date, in addition to Delwiche and Beamish, professors from San Francisco State University, the Rochester Institute of Technology and Vassar College have used Second Life in their courses.
Delwiche said it's an opportunity to show his students a different side of the digital media they hope to be creating in the future.
"It's really difficult to understand new media or cyberculture or the ways the internet is transforming our culture without actively participating in it," he said. "The thing that's appealing about Second Life is that it's a shared virtual experience, and so it has that common element that the classroom brings."
To Beamish, who teaches urban planning, Second Life provides an alternate palette with which to engage her students.
"I use Second Life for students to explore ideas about public space and what makes a good public space," she said. "Being in Second Life all of a sudden puts them in this different environment, which is similar but different, and it forces them to explore how they think about these things.... When you're in Second Life, because it's similar, but the physics are different, people react differently. And it makes them think more deeply about how one designs public spaces."
But Harper said Second Life is also an ideal environment for students, and that for the most part, they've integrated well into the larger community.
"Their focus is experience," she said. "It's whatever their individual perspective is. They come into Second Life trying to explore their ideas as they relate to a digital experience."
In order to help teachers bring their classes to Second Life, Linden Lab donates accounts for each student, as well as an acre of land in the metaverse for the teacher and students to work and build on. Afterward, anyone wishing to stay a member can do so at half price.
To date, in addition to Delwiche and Beamish, professors from San Francisco State University, the Rochester Institute of Technology and Vassar College have used Second Life in their courses.
Delwiche said it's an opportunity to show his students a different side of the digital media they hope to be creating in the future.
"It's really difficult to understand new media or cyberculture or the ways the internet is transforming our culture without actively participating in it," he said. "The thing that's appealing about Second Life is that it's a shared virtual experience, and so it has that common element that the classroom brings."
To Beamish, who teaches urban planning, Second Life provides an alternate palette with which to engage her students.
"I use Second Life for students to explore ideas about public space and what makes a good public space," she said. "Being in Second Life all of a sudden puts them in this different environment, which is similar but different, and it forces them to explore how they think about these things.... When you're in Second Life, because it's similar, but the physics are different, people react differently. And it makes them think more deeply about how one designs public spaces."
Posted in: Entertainment,Games,Showbiz
1 comments:
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