Musing on the MUVE
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how to make the case for Second Life (SL) and education. I recently returned from the annual NECC conference. There were a few sessions on SL, and a special playground area and lounge set aside for SLers. I was not able to spend a lot of time there, but it seemed like there was a lot of enthusiasm and cheerleading and assistance in signing people up. Docents for ISTE in SL presented demonstrations to individuals and groups in real life. What I found, based on my limited observations, is that many of these demonstrations were “evangelical” in nature and more about the cool, fun features of SL rather than on educational substance. Which is a start – it is always good to get people excited about a new medium – but certainly not sufficient or, ultimately, satisfying. Questions arise: “Where’s the beef?” “Is there a ‘there’ there?”
I came away from NECC with the sense that what the educational community needs is a so-called elevator pitch that describes general concepts of SL succinctly and which focuses on what it could mean for education in concrete terms. This pitch, or explanation, should answer the question, “What can SL do for me, as an educator?” Which translates into “What can SL do for learners?”
I haven’t formulated that pitch quite yet – and I welcome any ideas. But looking at SL and at resources like the Educational Uses of Second Life Wiki and the Second Life Education Wiki, I have been able to identify the following types of SL activities for education:
- Broadcast media such as film, radio, television, and video
- Community socials to meet with others with similar interests
- Creative writing and literature
- Data visualizations and simulations
- Design projects
- Elearning courses and workshops
- Exhibits and galleries on art, history, photography, and specific content areas
- Historic recreations and reenactments
- Inter-cultural collaborations
- Language learning
- Performing arts including dance, music, and theater
- Philanthropy
- Presentations and conferences
- Professional development and skills development
- Role playing
- Scavenger hunts
- Simulation games and training
- Social action
- Tutorials
- Videoconferencing
Immersive worlds are platforms with which to build experiences. They are particularly conducive to supporting constructivist learning. I can see where virtual recreations of a specific time and place might help students better appreciate the culture of that era. Navigating a fairly accurate recreation of the ancient world on SL could better contextualize traditional texts, for example. Role playing historical or fictional characters could also provide another window into the subject matter. Similarly, learners could critique the accuracy of such an environment, or collaborate on building one based on historic research. Or students can practice their written or oral Hebrew language skills using text or Skype (audio will be integrated more fully into SL shortly) while touring a contemporary virtual Jerusalem or Tel Aviv or kibbutz with native speakers. Jewish learners from around the world can come together and share local customs related to holidays and observances, or just exchange favorite music files and hang out together online.
I recognize that different media may be more appropriate or efficient for different types of learning and I don’t make any special claims about virtual worlds, except that the potential for re-envisioning Jewish education inworld is intriguing and it is more than an intellectual exercise. Immersive worlds have an almost tangible socio-emotional character that should not be underestimated.
Take a look at Ryan Bretag’s (Existential Paine in SL) recent article, “MUVE about Everything and Nothing” on the Techlearning blog. Ryan compares SL to the Seinfeld television series – it’s about everything and nothing. Once you get past the buzz and the hype, Second Life is, ultimately, what you make of it.
Similarly, I believe SL is nothing if not social interaction and content (created and/or consumed and/ or interacted with). It is up to us as educators to identify resources and activities appropriate to learning objectives and to frame the content accordingly for successful, meaningful learning experiences.
Note: I refer specifically to SL because there is a growing and active educational community promoting its work there. It is not clear that SL will remain in the forefront as other MUVEs – multi-user virtual environments – emerge and develop. These questions apply equally to them.