Virtual Learning Worlds

This is something a lot of us in education face, who are trying to do new and interesting things with technology to enhance the student experience. Cole posted an interesting piece about the PSU blog initiative that will be rolling out soon, and whether or not students will even care. For some reason, this has stuck in my head for a few days.

I’ve read a lot about marketing yourself via the Internet. Students, sometimes all the way down to the Middle School level, already have things like blogs, their own websites, flickr accounts, sometimes even their own technology companies. Trying to get someone like this to migrate to a university-hosted blog upon entering college would be a tough sell. Especially when you’re up against university policies that can sometimes be prohibitive (what if I bad-mouthed my prof? Spoke out about religion? How about freedom to add my own plugins to a university-hosted solution?).

So how would you go about driving adoption? I’ve had a vision in my mind for a while now, and I think it somewhat ties to Coles post and adoption. What if, for example, when a student accepts an invitation to attend PSU, they immediately receive the following:
- A Blog
- A Second Life account
- A Gmail account (let’s just assume webmail evaporates and gmail takes its place for a moment)

For those students who already blog, they might not care. But what about those who don’t have their own blog yet? Get them in early, and get them familiar with the PSU system as their first blog experience. They have nothing to compare it to yet, so if the platform is well designed, they should have a good experience, and hopefully continue to use it. Before they even set foot on campus, their blog is in place and directions/account info is in their inbox.

In that same email is a Second Life account, with a link to a PSU SL portal to get them started (D/L client, install, etc). Once they are done on Orientation Island, they ‘graduate’ to the main PSU space, where they can synchronously interact with other incoming freshman, PSU students, staff, faculty, Lion Ambasadors, etc. Maybe interact with a 3D map of campus, some sort of model within SL.

A Gmail account is a no-brainer. The interface is slick and easy-to-use, current students seem to use it more than any other web client, and I’d bet incoming students are similar. Maybe a PSU instance of Gmail would also open the doors for a PSU instance of Googledocs, and other useful tools, all tied to your PSU access account.

Back to the point: By providing all these services, the MOMENT a student accepts and invitation to attend PSU, you’re PROVIDING all the essential tools for students to shape their digital identify, and begin marketing themselves in preperation for their careers. By doing so, I’m hoping we’d have a better chance of adoption. If that first experience and first impression are GOOD, and PSU provides it…chances are in our favor that adoption would grow.

It looks as if a Canadian organization is sponsoring some sort of independant Wii game competition. One game that jumped out at me is Hobby Shop, which appears to be my 7th grade shop class…in a video game. Now this is an interesting concept: use the Wiimote and numchuk as your tools, and build things like a bird house, a chair, a gocart, and probably much more. Depending on how accurate they are with the tools, I could see this being a powerful learning vehicle for basic shop classes.

I could just see it now…accidentally crossing the wiimote and numchuk in the air will result in a GAME OVER, and an image of your Mii in an ambulance!

Two items really caught my eye this morning as I perused through my bloglines accounts.

1. Jay Cross’s post on Natural Learning. Jay compares learning design to landscaping, and goes on to draw an interesting metaphor between natural learning design and landcaping/nature. It’s an interesting read…but I find this whole concept somewhat contradictory. If it’s ‘natural’ learning, which he points to as informal learning…well, a lot of this type of learning has no design behind it all. I guess that’s why it’s called ‘natural’ or ‘informal’ learning. He mentions experience design, which is more along the lines of what I think of when reading this article.

Putting natural learning to work is more like landscape design and gardening than traditional instructional system design.

2. Some of Tony’s posts over on the Learning Matters blog. He’s posted a lot of tidbits from his Second Life experiences (FYI: I believe he’s an IBM employee, so some of the posts are IBM-flavored with their SL initiatives), most notably finding an interesting post about a baby shower in SL (pointing out the power of the platform for learning), and an interesting YouTube find of an Apple-flavored vid.

We leveraged the DEATH OF DISTANCE to allow folks to convene in one place in cyberspace from many places in matterspace. We leveraged the POWER of PRESENCE within the Agora Ballroom and by porting in pics of the gifts that Tracy was opening which led to an ENRICHMENT of EXPERIENCE for all involved.

This notion of ‘experience design’ is becoming more and more intriguing. I think this accurately represents what I’ve been trying to do with my elearning projects for some time, but the technology/policy/security triumvirate sometimes gets in the way.

For some reason, the blog hasn’t been posting updates (well, at least not the latest learning theory post I’ve been trying to publish) so my hosting company is looking into it. Until they sort things out, here’s a bland, personal post without any links (I have a feeling the long URL strings are throwing the errors…)

My World of Warcraft shennanigans continue in the expansion, and I’m at the point in the game n ow that I need to purchase a very expensive mount. I’m about 1/2 way to the required amount of gold (2500g), but I’m already very bored of going out and collecting/making gold on my own, and trying to make gold on the auction house. It will probably take about 3-4 more weeks until I get the other 2500g necassary.

Why buy this expensive mount? It’s fast. Dam fast. It would allow me to collect items around the world approximately 3x faster than I can currently. It would also allow me to get places quicker. Overall, it will increase my ‘WoW efficiency’ x3.

So why am I posting this? As most people know, you can buy gold at places like eBay, IGE, and other online auction houses with real money. Currently, 2,000g would cost me $329.00 via IGE. They are a bit pricy, but they are secure and trustworthy. I could probably get 2500g from another vendor for about $275.

But I can’t bring myself to pay REAL money for GAME money. Particularly because this is a GAME meant for FUN, not something like Second Life where people are using the platform for legitimate business.

So I came across an interesting eBay auction, and read more into it. It’s a ‘get rich quick in Warcraft’ guide. So I poked around, figuring it would be some sort of PDF or something with tips and tricks. But the more I looked, the more I realized it wasn’t just a PDF. Finally, I realized it’s a subscription to a website someone has created, and apparantly very successful based on his reviews. So for $6.00 I could purchase a UN/PW, and get inside tips on how to (I’m assuming) manipulate the auction house for big profits (something I’ve tried to do in the past on my own, with minimal success). I’m tempted to spend a measily 6 bucs on something like this, but there’s still something inside me that doesn’t feel comfortable with this…

Sony announced yesterday they will be launching an educational initiative focused around their PSP platform. The first major announcement came from Square Enix close to a year ago. They are the first major studio to get involved in the serious games space. Sony isn’t really a game studio, more of a hardware provider, but it’s good to see them on board as well. Now I’m really curious if Square Enix will change their strategy a bit…based on the keynote at SGS, Square is developing most of their EDU games for the Nintendo DS.

I spent a couple hours roaming around the Expo floor this afternoon after doing the ‘tourist thing’ down on Fisherman’s Wharf. I was somewhat taken back at the hype machine I witnessed, but judging from the people I spoke with, this is all an after-effect of cacnelling E3 indefinitely. I guess the game media is trying to figure out what their BIG event is now, and GDC Expo is apparently in the cross hairs. TONS of news cameras, interviews, flashy demos…all that fun stuff that used to go on at E3 is taking place here. To some extent I guess it always has, but people were telling me it’s a bit excessive this year. Anyway, some thoughts:

- Like usual, very high-end tech demos. I got a chance to watch a guy in a motion-capture suit do some basketball moves, another couple guys capturing it, texturing it, and creating a 3D basketball player and dropped him in a 2v2 hoops game in under 10 minutes. Lots of 3D software demos.

- This isn’t just an Expo, it’s a party. It felt like the annual Penn State Microbrew fest to some extent. I was talking to a few guys from Fullsail, and one of the gentleman stopped me and said “did they just roll an open mini-bar across from our booth?”. Sure enough, they did. They had mini-bars all over the expo floor, as well as finger foods. Kind of ironic…all this super-expensive technology EVERYWHERE, and we’re all walking around with beers and cocktail weenies.
- I went upstairs to the “Career Pavilion”, where studios had recruiting stations setup. Many of these booths had actual kegs inside of them. Comical. I spoke to a few companies (was trying to talk to the Blizzard guys, but they were swamped), and told them my background is in instructional design. Most conversations went downhill from there, along the lines of “Does that have something to do with level design? No? Can you right code or create assets? Moving right along then…” O well, this is what I was expecting
- Some Serious Game organizations had booths on the Career Pavilion floor, notably Breakaway Games Ltd and LeapFrog. We’re at least getting some penetration now.

That about wraps up my San Fran trip. There’s a Dr. Dobb’s sponsored Second Life party tonight from 8:30-11:30, but my plane is taking off at 7:20am tomorrow so I’m relaxing in the hotel the rest of the night. The Dr. Dobb’s party has a parrallel component going on in Second Life if anyone wants to take part virtually. No SLURLs provided

Overall, I felt day 1 was much more balanced in terms of sessions I attended. Day 2 was all over the map for me. SJ Klein was good, but didn’t really resonate with my goals for the conference. Ian Bogost is just a fun speaker, and gave great examples, but his procedural rhetoric theme must have been a bit above me. I either didn’t quite understand it, or I understood it just didn’t really impact how I look at serious games. The advisory session and Shaffer’s session on the cognitive side of things really didn’t do much for me at all.

On the flip side, McGonigal and Bower’s sessions were my favorite of the conference. Both were exceptional. From a purely public speaking perspective, Jane’s session was interesting because she was almost reading the entire thing by the looks of it, but she was able to pull it off in a very conversational, appropriate feel. What Bower is doing with Whyville is simply jaw-dropping. I had no idea this product even existed, then to find out all this educational material he was wrapping into it, and the reach it had in terms of unique visitors per month…amazing.

My favorite quotes of Day 2:
SJ, referencing Thomas Edison, “Hell, there are no rules here, we’re trying to accomplish something.

McGonigal, referencing Pierre Levy, “It’s no longer ‘I think, therefore I am’, it’s ‘We think, therefore we are”

Bower was the big winner, with two hysterical quotes and one solid closer (both taking jabs at Second Life, although he never made that explicit):
Bower, after showing his splash page for whyville which contains his population (2.1 million users):“This is our fake number, to compare with all the other fake virtual world numbers.”
Discussing the idea of community, and nearly everyone in his world using “we” as opposed to “I”: “In a real community, you don’t have flying things going through peoples’ heads during a tutorial”.
His closing quote: “Didactic learning and games are a match made in heaven”

Little Games – math blaster, etc. Master basic facts, basic skills, that might help passing standardized tests.
Lots of examples why breaking down complex tasks, training in the sub-tasks, then trying to re-build the complex task and thinking the person is now an expert is bad…unless you are working in a factory. Complex skills can’t be taught this way, it’s not effective.
Uh-oh…this guy’s a hardcore cognitive scientist. We’re off in chess territory, examining the minds of master chess players.
Sodaconstructor – Free wireframe tool, used in Digital Zoo game.
Need to embed reflection into games to make them BIG games, to teach more complex things. We’ve covered this territory before…
Building an engineering game using Sodaconstructor, and building in three levels of reflection based on audience analysis of following real engineers around and identifying when they spend time reflecting on their project work.
Summary – every little game can somehow be wrapped into a big game. Without necassairly building a much bigger game. Can wrap small questions and hints into the little game to prompt deeper questions and meaning making.
Can easily assess little games via standardized tests.
To assess big games, need to use epistemic frameworks and assess on a much more complex level.

Epistemicgames.org
Website companion to his book, “How computer games help children learn”

I stepped in during the middle of this. I can’t see I took a lot out of it because it was a procession of people walking up to a microphone to voice their opinions on what our industry needs. I guess I took some valuable pieces away, but there seemed to be a lot of repeated ideas, simply phrased differently. While I wait for this session to start, here’s a short list of things I’d like to see:
- Some sort of serious game developer program, or some sort of pipeline to get developers working with serious game designers. Everyone here has an idea for a serious game…and from the impression I get, <10% of the people here could build even a fraction of the idea.
- Better promotion within and outside the game industry. Yesterday I witnessed over 100 unique instances of games being used in the classroom or for some sort of educational purpose. I bet some of the publishers of said games don’t even know about this. Ben Sawyer alone can’t evangelize the entire movement…it takes all of us here to be knowledgeable and willing to promote all these various examples and use cases.
- Cooperation, on a variety of levels. Engine vendors to help us build assessment or other modular things we can plug into engines. Developers to open up asset libraries so serious game folks don’t need to re-create all these art assets over and over. Better pricing models and EULAs for EDU/non-profit use of game IP.
- Collaboration, particularly within the serious game community. We’re asking for all this help and sharing from our big brothers in the entertainment industry, but we should start by sharing amongst ourselves, including building tools that allow us to share content and expertise quickly and easily.

Hopefully the next two sessions will be more engaging than the last hour…the program hit a dry spell for me, especially after the fantastic Whyville talk that was very eyep-opening.

James m. bower – www.whyville.net
Spoiler – whyville, in my estimation, is the first real virtual learning world I’ve come across. Amazing design and implementation formula Dr. Bower has put together.
2.1 million population – “This is our fake number, to compare with all the other virtual world fake numbers.”
68% users are female
Extremely interesting virtual world applications – whyville is a very active social space for young kids (numbers on slides), and Bower’s team is constantly working in educational content in fun, interesting ways. Specifically towards health education.
2002 – Introduced Y-Pox. They released acne on valentine’s day (lol) Kids had it for 5-days if they caught it. People spread it by sneezing in the game (randomly), and every avatar within 5 yards got it.
Some kids ran around TRYING to get it Y-pox, out of sympathy for their friends.
Forced kids to learn about health, skin care, acne, and how to combat this.
Currency in Whyville = clams. They get clams for doing educational activities.
Some kids made a scam “Give me 5 clams for a y-pox vaccination, guarantee it’ll be gone in 5-days”. It would be gone in 5 days anyway.
Eventually got a partnership with CDC, and set up a moc CDC vaccination. 20,000 whyville users visited the CDC, learned about vaccinations, and got a vaccination.
These guys have some crazy data collection tools going on within the world, can tag and track certain world usage over time, affected players, who has vaccinations, etc.
Very open to working with researchers (and this is coming from the CEO’s mouth), and will help, to a realistic point, with research conducted within whyville.
“In a real community, you don’t have flying things going through peoples’ heads during a tutorial” – Bower, comparing everyone in whyville using “we” vs. Second Life’s phallic attack
So much interest in the pox, they are now opening the bioinformatics lab within whyville (for 12 year olds!). Building lots of little games within whyville to have them learn about viruses. Learn about virus game, virus design game, virus combatant game, virus data collection game. Kids can actually go and do experiments with drugs, and they actually have a mock-IRB in whyville kids need to apply to to get permission to do their experiments. Going through all these mini-games and completing them leads to a certification.
NOAA partnership – implemented a red tide and dead fish washing up on the shore. Kids are encouraged to take water samples and take them to the oceanographic institute within whyville. Starts an exploratory quest where they can use various instruments and tools to learn about, then combat red tide. Kids get clams for this sort of stuff.
Whyville is actually environmentally sensitive – the more kids doing certain things actually impacts the environment in whyville.
“Didactic learning and games are a match made in heaven”

These things that are planned in whyville WILL work, b/c these are the things they’ve been implementing for years now, and the kids are all loving it.