By Ed MacKeen mackeene@hotmail.com Graduate student in Instructional Technology at csula

1. Virtual Classroom Learning & Training in Second Life By Ed MacKeen mackeene@hotmail.comGraduate student in Instructional Technology at csula

2. Not Associated with Any Companies Mentioned Here • I’m not endorsing any companies mentioned in this presentation.

3. We Will Discuss the Following: • Introduction • Definitions • Uses of Second Life (SL) • Virtual classroom learning • Experiential learning • Advantages of SL • Disadvantages of SL • Solutions & Recommendations • Summary

4. Definitions • Avatars: a computer user's representation of himself/herself. • Experiential learning: students practicing relevant skills that mimic real-life tasks in their field. • Griefers: avatars who bug other avatars (users). • Slide Viewer: can show slides

5. Users are represented by avatars. http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2007/08/02/second-life-topper.jpg

6. Educational Values of Second Life • Exploring such as Sistine Chapel, Rome, go back in time. (6:59) • Tutorials • Whiteboards such as PowerPoint presentation • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA&feature=related

7. Background • Second Life is the most popular multi-user virtual world platform used in education (Warburton, 2009). It is a world almost entirely user-built (Waters, 2009).Second Life is a Web-based 3D virtual world, a multimedia, multi person simulation environment where users can interact with others in real time. This allows users to create their own experiences and their own knowledge (Wagner, 2008).

8. Background • Learners learn by doing (Wagner, 2008). Second Life is learning through role-playing, i.e. experiential learning. Experiential learning in Second Life can give users the training they need for real-life situations.

9. How does education (virtual classroom learning) in Second Life compare with real-life learning? • Cliburn and Gross (2008) used control groups to compare classroom lectures to those given on Second Life. The real-life lecture group scored higher than the group that learned the same material on Second Life. The real-life group scored a mean of 12.7 out of 20, whereas the Second Life group scored a mean of 8.9 points out of 20.

10. Continued That’s 19% higher for the real-life lecture group. A survey of the study’s participants showed only 20% indicated that they learned the material sufficiently through Second Life. (Cliburn, & Gross, 2008). • Peter Ludlow, a professor at the University of Toronto, said, "I've tried to conduct classes in Second Life, and it is clearly inferior to a classroom situation” (Graves, 2008).

11. My Avatar in Second Life (SL) & My Projects • This is me! Link to my SL movie Me! My slide Viewer

12. Me & My Class & My Chair My chair

13. Students in My Class Created a Classroom!

14. Me at My CSULA Class

15. Me Inside my CSULA Class

16. My Class & Their Chairs

17. Classroom Learning http://www.darcynorman.net/files/images/secondlife_classroom_002.preview.jpg

18. Classroom Outdoors http://edc.carleton.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/second-life-digital-class-outdoors.jpg

19. Corporate (Microsoft) Classroom http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattybmillhouse/2603009740/

20. ESL Classroom http://www.flickr.com/photos/secondlifeenglish/2152260061/

21. Training • A journal article in Computers and Education by Jarmon, Traphagan, Mayrath, &Trivedi (2008) stated: “While one may question the effectiveness of virtual world experiences for learning in comparison with real-life experiences, the current learning can occur in the 3-D virtual world environment.

22. Training Continued • Therefore, we would suggest that those educators who are interested in facilitating enduring knowledge/skills acquisition through experiential learning might consider using the virtual world environment as a playground for student learning” (Jarmon, Traphagan, Mayrath, &Trivedi, 2009, p. 187).

23. Experiential Learning • Second Life allows users to role-play and try different tasks in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life. Experiential learning in real-life can be hindered by real-life constraints, such as high cost, insurance, time, and distance of participants (Jarmon, Traphagan, Mayrath& Trivedi, 2009).

24. Training or Experiential Learning:1-800-Flowers http://www.flickr.com/photos/9993012@N02/788400368/

25. Training for nurses http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/2037587411/

26. Training in the operating room. Source: http://medc2org.wordpress.com/tag/education/

27. Inside the Body Training/Learning http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/2265140759/

28. Safety Training in Second Life http://www.flickr.com/photos/84423865@N00/2953590218/

29. Training • Hospitals, government, hotels, and companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Northrop Grumman, Accenture, Samsung, Microsoft, & CIGNA-vielife & many more are using Second Life to train their employees ( Second Life Work, n.d). Second Life provides opportunities to develop learning activities which simulates real-life learning experiences (Marcus, Childress, & Braswell, 2006).

30. Training Barriers • Taylor and Chyung (2008) conducted a survey of professionals working in training and development. They asked participants about the usefulness of Second Life. Many responded that it has potential, but also cautioned that it had functional barriers: a steep learning curve for new users and the high investment of time and money required for programming content relative to its benefits (Taylor, Chyung, &Seung, 2008).

31. Medical Training • Universities have a presence in Second Life. St. George’s Medical School in London enables its students to interact with patient avatars. Imperial College in London and National Physical Lab has detailed animations where patient avatars have simulated health problems. Students can practice diagnosing health problems (Hansen, 2008). • If time, video of this will be shown at the end.

32. Medical Training • In Second Life, a user can see how an electrocardiogram (ECG) works, and see the heart’s rhythms. This allows the students to practice reading the charts (Hansen, 2008). However, game-based education, like Second Life, is not meant to replace face-to-face training (Bradley, 2007).

33. Hospital Training • For hospital training, students still prefer to interact with real patients (Bradley, 2009). According to Alleyne (2008), games like Second Life can still really help students learn skills that can be transferred to real life. (Alleyne, 2008).

34. Hospital Training • According to adjunct professor Hilary Mason, in the school of technology, at Johnson and Wales University, Second Life is a “powerful environment in experiential learning” (Mason, 2007, p. 14).

35. University of Minnesota Public Health Disaster Training http://www.sph.umn.edu/cpheo/u-seee/home.html

36. University of Minnesota Public Health Disaster Training • According to the University of Minnesota Public Health Website, “Virtual environments like Second Life show great promise in addressing issues like planning and coordination structures for responding to catastrophic events” Using Collaborative Virtual Environments ( “University of Minnesota Public Health,” n.d., para. 2).

37. Disaster Training • Robert Furberg, a research analyst for the research institute RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., said there are clear benefits to training virtually for an emergency. "A full-scale exercise takes a lot of advanced preparation and requires daylong drills - it is expensive and time-consuming," he said. "With simulation, we can run through a mass casualty event and change the parameters. Each case is a little different, and it is available 24/7” (Raths, 2008, para. 7).

38. Disaster Training in Second Life http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/2961403073/

39. An Island of Preparedness • University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health CADE (Center for the Advancement of Distance Education) created a training archipelago called Public Health Preparedness Islands. Participants can practice working with everything from dirty bombs and pandemic influenza to bio-terrorism (Harvey, Monahan, Ullberg, 2007).

40. Disaster Training--CADE • SL is cost–effective. Especially when contrasted to other types of training conducted in real-life. For example, Topoff 2 (Top Officials Live Exercise) cost $16 million for four days of training (Harvey, Monahan, Ullberg , 2007, p. 2).

41. Disaster Training-CADE • For emergency preparedness, Second Life can be important. Harvey, Monahan and Ullberg (2007) even declares that it is “a key component in any emergency preparedness training system” (Harvey, Monahan, Ullberg , 2007, p. 4).

42. Disaster Training--CADE Several Reasons CADE likes SL: • COLLABORATION • DOCUMENTATION—Records training • ADAPTABILTY—Change SL for different situations. • LOCATION— Any place can be modeled. Difficult to shut down an airport, city, harbor for training.

43. Disaster Training--CADE • NEGATIVE ECONOMY OF SCALE—Many volunteers are needed for real-life training. In SL, none are needed. • CROSS-TRAINING—Can train participants for many different roles (Harvey, Monahan, Ullberg , 2007).

44. Disaster Training • Bingham Memorial Emergency Preparedness Exercise in Play2Train (2:04) • Pandemic Flu training. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVcSoKXpUfk&feature=PlayList&p=735AC1E9F6EFFB5E&index=0&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

45. Training in Second Life • At the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, a partnership with Kingston University St. George’s & University of London, paramedic science students practice and respond to virtual emergency calls (First Paramedic, 2008, Oct. 13).

46. First Paramedic Course • Students entering Second Life as virtual paramedics can practice assessing and treating patients by checking their pulse, administering drugs, and dressing wounds . They can also access a toolkit, and all the equipment in an ambulance, such as electrocardiogram and oxygen masks . (Hoeksma,2008, Oct. 20).

47. First Paramedic Course- (Continued) • According to Hoeksma (2008) “After assessing the patient and giving emergency first responder treatment, the students then put the patient into the ambulance and take them to the hospital. Once they have reached the hospital, they submit handover notes on the patients, which are emailed to their real-life tutor for feedback” (Hoeksma, J. ,Oct. 20 2008, para. 7).

48. First Paramedic Course- Continued • Fiona Cropp, a second-year paramedic student said, “It’s a really useful tool. It’s much better to be able to actually perform treatments rather than just talk about it. Everyone is online at the same time so you can bounce ideas off each other and make an informed decision” (Hoeksma, J., 2008).

49. First Paramedic Course- Continued • Here is a picture of paramedic students treating a collapsed clubber. http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/4250/paramedic_students_trained_using_second_life

50. Second Life used in U.S. Customs and Border Protection Training https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/learninginworld/blog/2009/07/10