Sunday, January 27, 2008

Group 2's project ideas

To define our project, we asked ourselves how we would use SL in education and what needed to be added to the interface or experience to make it more suitable for learning activities. We discussed several ideas and broke them down to three final possibilities.

In developing our first idea, we talked about the tasks of course management (especially using WebCT and the like) and what good course management would look like in a virtual world environment. After doing some exploring we found Sloodle, which integrates the Moodle course management package with Second Life. Our project would work in two phases: a first part in which we add something to the experience of course management (working with Sloodle) and the second phase would be to research attitudes of students about Second Life course experiences vs. existing methods like WebCT.

Our second idea came from discussions about how one learns about others through their avatars, and about the "profile" option included for each avatar. We discussed current social networks and what people get from them. Could any of the things people like about social networks be incorporated into Second Life? Our idea was to explore if the idea of "status" found in many social networks could be incorporated in Second Life, along with a related view of all the status notes from all the people you have accepted as a friend. It is already possible to set avatar status as "busy" or "away" - we wonder how that could be expanded, and then how that might be used in the virtual classroom.

Our last idea came from a discussion about news sources, magazines and similar materials in SL - in particular how poor the reading experience is for notecards and other SL reading materials. In creating notes, the writer has no control over fonts, color, or even simple design. We wondered what a good reading experience for news or periodicals in SL would be like - perhaps a better HUD of some kind? Or, is it just more efficient to send the viewer out to a blog or designed material out on the Web? Perhaps some combination of the two? We're still fleshing out the details of this last idea.

We think the first idea holds the most promise as a research project, but the other two are interesting alternatives.

1 comment:

arturo said...

Of the ideas you present I think the second choice has some potential and is quite timely, specially if you actually come up with ideas and solutions to make the "social network" experience more robust and professional in SL. There are many things that cross my mind that could be done in that respect. We can discuss it later if you happen to choose this idea.

It is not that the first idea has no potential, it does. It is simply that it is not well defined and also another group (5) is doing something along those lines but they have a clearer perspective already. Maybe if you take a completely different take on it it might even complement the other project.

On the third issue of reading experience, there are some good examples of solutions that go well beyond cards. The best for me is at Esperance Island, part of The Australian Film TC and Radio School. 90, 181, 29
Go inside the covered theater space and look for the Slatenight Magazine, it is on your right as you enter, middle of the auditorium on the stairs. I find that solution very clever and functional in VR (you have to wait a little to rez up)
I also find that for some reason, Australian schools, Universities and art community have some of the best and most creative sites on SL. Maybe because they themselves live in a kind of virtual environment:-)