ReLive08

We all know crows. They are black, feathered, love to make a lot of noise, and tend to behave as if they own the whole world. The one I met one last week was different. I am not sure what triggered my attention. He was dark coloured. He was feathered. And spoke with a British accent. Or maybe it even was the high hat? Or the smoking cigarette hanging out of his greyish beak? – It was at some colourful fantasy island somewhere deep in Second Life at one of the many workshops at the ReLive08 conference where I flew into him. Researchers from all over the world gathered (F2F…) to share their findings on Learning in virtual worlds. Apparently this crazy looking crow was a researcher in disguise.

Seekers

One of the first things that I noticed is the correlation between people’s avatar and their time spent wandering around the endless virtual worlds. And it certainly are not just the women who feel an irresistible urge to dress-up and pimp their entire appearance. Anyway. The power of anonymity seems to be key in this. What makes someone wanting to be that different from real life? To escape reality or is SL rather a refuge, where they really can be themselves? All kind of existential questions arise. (And before you know it you find yourself somewhere in a corner of a deserted hotel bar discussing this subject with a complete stranger, along with a couple of pints, till deep at night). But I think not of great importance for our Shell context, since at our islands we log-in by our own names. If you like to explore this so called ‘seeker’ behaviour, I suggest to check out the video Elka posted the other day about a guy giving up his own life to start living in SL… great stuff!
By the way, anonymity in SL also showed a clear advantage: in class discussions we often see someone dominating the discussion, and about 20% who is actively participating. In SL activities this percentage rose till 80%, without one main dominator… How is this on our islands?

Starbucks
One researcher investigated the concept of ‘third place’: a place besides home and work – taking in first and second place – where someone really can relax and feel comfortable. Starbucks positions itself to be such a place. This researcher built a place in SL for the students participating in her course programme. The community sense took off in a blink: Parties! Trips to other islands, exploring the temptations of SL. But also tutoring sessions, discussions and peer coaching were initiated; by students themselves. All students said to be studying more focused and felt engaged more than ever to this course. One conclusion of this SL-project, however, was that in order to sustain a social network, also in a SL-environment some kind of facilitation is needed. I liked their motto: Formalise what’s formal & Stimulate the informal.

The main criteria for this ‘third place’ are Freedom to:
· Interact & network
· Be creative & have an expressive voice
· Customise design & build
· Participate in activities (that need to be visible & have easy access)

Personal trauma
Of course there were many interesting projects and many more SL fanatics, preaching the gospel of SL. One of them was on a mission that frightened me a little to be honest. At the same time I must confess the enthusiasm in his voice almost got me on board as well. He aims to bring the ancient language of Latin back to live. Students in SL gathering from all over the globe speaking to each other in a language I thought to be dead and buried by now. I remember struggling each day for hours under the wings of Mister Prakken, my Latin teacher. Picture an average disciplined soldier of the powerful Roman empire and you come close. Walking through the paired tables lined up in perfectly straight lines in the classroom, I still hear him asking for the “3rd declination, masculinum, perfectum from ‘laborare’. Tu! - you there, little man!” He suddenly had turned around and stood there right in front of me. Pointing his arm and finger at my face. Not my neighbour, but clearly at me… a trauma for life. His dream always was to speak Latin with others, with us. We never managed. This guy just does it, in SL, with participants from all over the world.

Robots in SL?
Another project that might have some potential in a Shell context is the ‘Virtual Patient’ project. Maybe not as much from content point of view, but I see all kinds of opportunities with the underlying concept. Medical students interact with robot avatars, in a hospital setting. Doctors are on pressure to deliver services nowadays and have less and less time to teach students. A game based setting enables students to practice on their diagnosis and treatment skills, alone or in groups, without continuous supervision. In a virtual hospital they can treat 5 different virtual – pre-programmed – patients.
Interesting parts: ability to track what the students did in SL. After logging in, students need to wear a badge, which is linked to a database. All information gathered (medical history), patient interaction, analysis and diagnosis, treatments, etc. etc. are recorded. Now the expert (doctor) only needs to spend time on debriefing, reflecting on the activities. This so called PIVOTE concept will come available as open source by March 2009.

Gaming design
The key message of the conference was to sneak in the F-word… bring back the FUN in learning! Turn reality into a game. In our designs we should think incentives, and not aim to replicate real life. Give freedom to the learner. Let him go through open-ended spaces, don’t think series of permissions to proceed. Tick-in-the-box, completing assignments (focus on compliance and rule based) does not motivate. Groups do motivate. Provide no structure, and have an assessment focus instead. Debriefing is essential to close the learning loop.

The ultimate objective is to realise arousal in the games. Some elements to consider including in game designs:
· Competition
· Challenges
· Social interaction
· Diversion

Final remark: of course gaming is no panacea for learning needs. Let’s continue doing what we’re good at: blend our learning!


Links
ReLive08 homepage
ReLive08 blog