Using SL and Theatron: - Initial observations from a small number of case studies and students show that learning in virtual worlds requires establishing a sense of presence and identity that takes time to develop - Student reactions to virtual worlds seem more emotive than other software, with strong positive or negative views that influence success more than other factors like interface or design - Three preliminary types of student attitudes have been identified - those focused on technical issues, those uncomfortable with lack of physical/social cues, and those who see virtual worlds as frivolous rather than serious learning

1. Using SL and Theatron:
Initial observations
Mark Childs
Doctoral Student,
University of Warwick

2. Initial findings
• Grounded approach
• Preliminary categories
• Small number of users at this stage
– 3 case studies
– 30 students
• Will test more widely
• Then revisit the following observations

3. Uses
• Bringing people together
– Discussion, performance, language learning
• Exploring, inhabiting
Michele Ryan at Lancaster
– Spaces, resources University has identified 16
uses of Second Life (at last
• Roleplay / identity tourism count). These can be read at
http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/
– Being others, exploring self resources/ict/secondlife.html
• Creation
– Art, fashion, machinima, a new you

4. “This ‘telephone’ has too many
shortcomings to be seriously considered
Barriers as a means of communication. The
device is inherently of no value to us.” —
A memo at Western Union, 1878
• “New technologies always meet resistance”
Tom Boellstorff at VWBPE 09
• Additionally Second Life presents particular
issues
– Technological infrastructure Steve Warburton at King’s
College London has identified 7
– Interface barriers to Second Life (at last
– Presence creation count). These can be read at
http://warburton.typepad.com
– Polarises students /liquidlearning/2008/07/six-
barriers-to.html

5. Technological barriers
Flaws in IT services support Flaws in Second Life
• Out of date hardware • Lag
• Restrictive firewalls • Lag
• Length of time to install • Too frequent (and badly
upgrades timed) upgrades
• Insufficient bandwidth • Cap on registrations
• Restriction on use of IT • Lag
rooms • Lag
• Poorly designed IT rooms • Lag

6. Learning the interface
• Approximately half of students struggled with
using the interface to move and navigate
– Needed one session to just get used to interface
– The process was speeded up when we avoided
(dis)orientation island
No correlation that
– No correlation with whether they we’ve detected or
were gamers so
not far. We’ve only
– No correlation with whether they looked at small
valued the
numbers at the
experience or not moment.

7. Presence creation
• Unlike other software, virtual worlds depend on
establishing the experience of virtual presence
and embodiment in order to be effective
• In the trials so far, all the students that reported
experiencing presence found the educational
activity valuable
• All the students that reported not experiencing
presence found the activity pointless
• I.e. an exact one-to-one correlation between
presence creation and educational impact

8. Polarising student base
• Student reactions to Second Life appear more
emotive than to other software.
• Strongly negative (usually between ¼ to ⅓ )
“This is pointless.”
• Strongly positive (the remainder) “I’m a flying
cardboard box. It’s mint.”
• Seems to play the biggest part in success
(more than interface, learning design, etc.)

9. Studying student reactions
• Because the emergent finding in the research
is the key part played by student attitudes,
this is now being built in to the study
• This is a process of identifying statements,
grouping these by type, testing these groups
with further studies
• Preliminary (we stress) findings identify three
categories (at the moment)

10. Type 1
• Technically experienced
• May be a gamer (see following slide on gamer
hierarchies)
• Focuses on the lower resolution graphics of
VWs in comparison with games
• Becomes especially frustrated with glitches,
crashes and lag
• May have a point

11. Well, I’m a Mac User and
you’re all peasants.
I’m a console
gamer. PC games
I’m a PC
scare me but I
Gamer. I
ridicule virtual
look down
worlds.
on consoles
I’m a resident of
Second Life. I know
my place.

12. Type 2
• Feels particularly alienated by inability to read
facial expressions
• Values tactile and physical experiences
particularly
• Extrovert
• “So strongly situated in the real world and
their real body that they have a difficult time
becoming involved in a virtual world”
(Heeter, 1995; 200)

13. Type 3
• Views education as an activity to be engaged with
seriously at all times
• The superficial resemblance of VWs to games
deters them
• The fantasy elements (flying, teleportation) are
seen as frivolous and any experience inworld is
therefore seen as inauthentic
• Regards the activities of others in the space
(dancing, morphing) as having an undermining
effect on learning activities

14. The solution
• Even for those who can feel embodiment and
virtual presence these take time to develop
• They are strengthened by Steve Warburton has a graphic
showing the changing
– Building an identity identification with your avatar
– Building links with community over time at
http://warburton.typepad.com
– Having a home /liquidlearning/2008/01/loving
• The learning activities need to be appropriate to
-your-ava.html
the level of embodiment developed
• More than becoming adept at using the interface,
it’s about becoming one with the world and the
avatar, and this takes time

15. Learning inworld
Presence
Social
constructivist
learning Experiential
learning
Or something
Messing
like this, we’re
around Assimilative still working
learning on it
Time

16. So where does that leave us?
• The greater the degree of presence required
the more difficult it is to
– justify the time required
– Keep focused on the end point of the activity
– Keep all of the students on-board
• It may be that performance requires the
highest degree of presence (and hence time),
therefore may be the highest risk activity to
undertake