Reflecting on Second Life
Before this week, I had very little experience with Second Life. I am mostly familiar with meeting people online via video conferencing and instant chat. I have 3D experience using an HTC Vive system. However, the HTC Vive comes with headgear and your whole body movement immerses into and controls navigation within the virtual environment. The first time was a little confusing, but extremely intuitive for me and I quickly caught on to how to operate how to maneuver in the new 3D world. With Second Life being a computer operated application, my mastery of the controls was slower.
I installed the Second Life viewer onto my computer and set up an account. I chose an avatar and was comfortable with the interface. Once I started the orientation tutorial, I was not as confident. The system responsiveness greatly decreased. I wasn’t the only user who was having difficulties as there were a stack of avatars hovering on top of each other at entry point. My first social interaction was a quick chat with another user who said, “This is very laggy.” I accessed an external website to get basic instructions and was able to maneuver away from the pile. I managed to slog my way through the orientation and fumble through the controls. At the end was an opportunity to visit other “islands” including one for beginners called Caledon Oxbridge University. This turned out to be a lucky choice.
Caledon Oxbridge University’s Second Life Orientation is what I expected an immersive 3D tutorial to be. It immolated a museum visit with clear signage and huge arrows letting me know which direction to go. Each stop was like an exhibit. It started with the most basic information and did not assume I knew anything about Second Life. I spent many hours absorbed in learning how to move, behave, interact, play media and even dress my avatar in Second Life. There were activities and challenges to perform as I progressed that let me try out newly acquired skills. After moving through several halls and feeling more at ease operating my avatar, I felt confident I would be able to join my class for a meeting in Second Life.
I was first to arrive at my meeting on the ISTE organization’s island. My instructor arrived next and I was unsure how to greet her. It felt awkward not having the physical cues a normal introduction would include. Only one other student arrived shortly after the instructor. There were some technical difficulties with mics and speakers. We did have the ability to use the nearby chat feature. My instructor was speaking and I could hear her, but my mic wasn’t activated. Once I found how to activate my mic and also helped my fellow classmate, we were able to hear and talk to each other verbally. However, it didn’t seem my instructor was ever able to hear us.
Our assignment instructions for the meeting had been given to us ahead of time. My instructor reminded us of our tasks and then immediately “teleported” to the next location. It took my classmate and me a few minutes to work out that we would team up as assigned. Then we followed our instructor to the EdTech Island, our first location. My classmate and I looked around to get our bearings. We weren’t exactly sure what we were supposed to do. There was some signage, but no clear goal or objective that indicated this was a tutorial or lesson. It was a space with several buildings and pathways. We saw our instructor but she didn’t speak or chat with us. She teleported away. We decided to look in the nearest building. It has some posters, a math experiment and some meeting tables, but it looked abandoned. My classmate and I decided this was not a lesson in itself, but perhaps would make sense if when filled with students and an instructor who was teaching them. We decided to “teleport” to the second location we had been assigned. It was actually associated with the Caledon Oxford University I had visited previously. However, this time I landed in the trees and once I figured out how to come down, my classmate and I visited an empty cabin. Again, we decided this space might be useful as a gathering place but by itself was not an instructionally designed lesson.
Not sure if our meeting was over, my classmate and I decided to go back to the ISTE Island to see if our instructor was waiting for us. Instead, we interrupted a group’s live meeting. It was a bit embarrassing but they were helpful and nice. It was hard to communicate with all the overlap in talking and I did not know how to mute out the conflicting sounds. My classmate and I did manage to walk far enough away from the noise. I convinced him to visit the Caledon Oxford University tutorial to show him a comparison and there we were able to gather our conclusions.
I decided that immersive 3D virtual environment have potential to be a beneficial place for online learning. However, if looking to create an asynchronous lesson, there needs to be clear goals, outcomes and instructions. If leading a synchronous lesson, the instructor needs to be prepared to offer technical assistance, either through clear instructions beforehand or at the beginning of the meeting. There can be a high learning curve for students who are unfamiliar with the technology. In order for a student’s cognitive load to be at a level where they can focus on the intended information, they need to be so comfortable operating their avatar it is instinctual. To avoid further interruptions, the equipment used to run such a graphic heavy environment must also run smoothly. I think advances in 3D immersive virtual environments will make it easier for students and the uses will increase especially for simulating learning that would typically involve danger or high material costs.
References
Moore, K., & Pflugfelder, E. H. (2010). On being bored and lost (in virtuality). Learning, Media and Technology, 35(2), 249-253. doi:10.1080/17439884.2010.494438
Webster, R. (2016). Declarative knowledge acquisition in immersive virtual learning environements. Interactive Learning Environments, 24(6), 1319-1333. doi:10.1080/10494820.2014.994533
Tags: LTEC 5210