As a ‘new’ and, perhaps, confusing medium, online virtual worlds still lack the standardization we have come to appreciate from games fortunate enough to fit into something resembling a defining category. As an example, first person shooters share a common keyboard layout yet the complications involved with different iterations of the same title appearing on different systems, with their respective interface devices, brings to light the same old problem; that we have not yet found an ideal means through which to interact with the 3D environment.

The key might seem to lie in mimicking our own first person experience through the use of everything from motion to tilt sensors, whether they be strapped to our heads or held, insofar as we might be able to, in our hands. In any case, this makes at least one thing clear when considering how to approach the subject of education in this new form; that there will always be a learning curve associated with the different ‘worlds’ created.

An audience inside Second Life.

Academics love to write about this stuff and some interesting things came to light during the ReLIVE08 conference held at the Open University in Milton Kenes. The key theme surrounding the papers presented was the use of Second Life as a teaching aid, in various subjects, along with the difficulties presented with introducing anything new and controversial to an already established system. As the chief developer of the University of Hertfordshire's Second Life presence, I work in the 'real time 3D' department and am exposed to different technologies on a regular basis, that's part of my job description, to research and keep up to date with developments in this industry. It's not surprising then that I was interested to see why so many people had chosen to work with SL over other engines and how they balanced the time between creating a learning environment specific to one subject and the time spent teaching inside it.

It was good to see that opinions differed (that's always a positive sign of interesting debates coming this way sooner rather than later). Some believed that recreating a traditional teaching environment was almost blasphemous whilst others insisted that the idea had merit. A few even suggested that an advantage of using a virtual world was that you could 'strap people to their seats' and keep them focussed (through camera control) on what was being taught (this is something I have experimented with before in SL and will elaborate on in a future entry).

When I first started building the UH presence inside Second Life, it was in a part-time capacity. A year later, I find myself working in a full time post dedicated to developing in various 3D engines along with teaching and exploring what the medium has to offer with regards to how it can be used to facilitate communication and learning. There are now two other people on the team, both incredibly talented in their respective areas. It's been an interesting ride thus far and I've had some time to reflect on how attitudes have changed.

Visit the UH presence inside Second Life

There has always been a camp who insist that creating something surrealistic is a guaranteed way to keep people interested, that recreating a familiar environment attempts to emulate the limitations of the real, physical world, and that it bores people. It's an interesting point but, given my position, I have had to cater to staff who are not familiar with this medium and are, understandably, confused by it. It goes without saying then, that seating business school members on top of a giant sunflower might not get the desired reaction (admittedly, I haven't tried this approach [it scares me]). I offered to do something more creative than replicate the campus in 3D, I suggested that the presence include a few elements which would be immediately recognisable to staff and students alike, acting as a sort of 'welcome' to the new world whilst other areas would house content more pertinent to using the 3D space for learning.

Reactions were mixed, some complained that despite some areas looking familiar, the other (new areas dedicated to making use of SL), didn't. One crowd stated that they didn't want buildings with roofs and that people should be free to create their own areas. It's been difficult, to say the least. The wonderful thing about it though is that people are talking about the subject and giving their opinion, I couldn't really ask for more. Had we allowed people to create their own learning spaces, they would have most likely kept to themselves, making feedback difficult to obtain. People use the presence as they see fit, taking their students to the outdoor presentation space in order to hold talks while others using 3D for the first time familiarize themselves with the environment, meeting people who can help them understand it in the process.

Another criticism we faced was that there were too few people using the space. This is interesting because it only becomes evident how many people are using the same resource when they can see and talk to each other while they do it. Like visiting a popular web page, there might not be more than a few people using it at any one moment yet over the course of a longer period of time, numbers add up. The exception is when we hold an event; traffic spikes during these times and it draws in people from surrounding regions who are curious to see what's happening.

I promise to write more about this in the future, there's a lot that needs to be said and we, the team, have various results to present. One thing taking up a lot of my time is a new project we're working on in Unity 3D. Fortunately, one of my obsessions is optimizing the work flow in any engine I expose people to, I'll write more as the opportunity arises.