Session 1: Virtual Worlds – Present and Future

2nd Global Conference

Monday 12th March – Wednesday 14th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic

Different Virtual Environments – Something for Everyone
Teemu Surakka
Aalto University, Finlan

Currently the biggest benefits of 3D virtual environments seem to be in teaching and training applications. There are distinct possibilities to enhance learning experience with these environments, but also barriers in their use. The aim of this paper is to help educators narrow down their choice, by matching different user needs with features and restrictions of these environments. We have looked into 27 technological platforms and solution providers that could be used in our mind in teaching and training applications. From these 27, we have raised examples that represent a good solution to current or future user needs.

Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)

The Undiscovered Country: Brave New Worlds Beyond Second Life
Greg Withnail, Anna Peachey and Mark Childs
The Open University/Eygus Ltd and Coventry University, UK

From February 2009 to July 2011 Eygus Ltd was responsible for the virtual worlds presence of The Open University UK (OU). During this period, the company compared the 80 best-known virtual worlds, and produced a reporti ranking the top 18 according to a weighted set of 67 technical and educational criteria. The results were used to ratify the continuing key presence for the OU in Second Life (SL) and later to inform a risk assessment and contingency plan. That report has been rendered obsolete by the rapidly changing landscape of virtual worlds, with many new platforms emerging, established ones disappearing, and survivors changing significantly.

This paper will describe an attempt to build upon that original report, whose authors – in the roles of academic researcher and technical project manager – were joined by another academic researcher so that a richer picture could be drawn. The authors focused on three of the worlds considered potential alternatives to SL. Each world was assessed not only for its suitability for education and its technical merits, but also for the less tangible affordances that construct and support presence, flow and social interaction, enabling socialisation to and within the environment. The authors spent 30 hours in the selected worlds – half that collaboratively. Whilst acknowledging the baggage of many years’ experience in SL, the authors hoped to experience these worlds as novices, so that ease of use to newcomers could be ascertained. Therefore, no prior orientation was undertaken.

The data collected and experiences recorded were drawn together in a matrix of expectations and needs, under three general headings: “Technical”, “Educational” and “Socialisation” to facilitate decision-making regarding alternatives to SL. It is therefore expected that this paper will be useful to anyone considering academic futures in virtual worlds.

Virtual Worlds, Virtual Futures
Jim Gritton
University of Greenwich, UK

We live in an age of increasingly rapid and exponential technological change (Vinge, 1993; Kurzweil, 2001). Many of the things we took for granted just 20 years ago have been swept aside, and we live “in a time when the fundamental rules, the basic ways we do things have been altered dramatically” (Barker, 1993). The Internet is an apposite example of how technological innovation has changed the way we live, work, and perhaps even learn. Whilst e-learning has established itself as a serious alternative to traditional forms of education, the potential offered by virtual worlds to enhance learning has only recently been recognised. As higher education institutions and other organisations embrace virtual worlds as a suitable medium for learning, it is important to envision where virtual worlds are headed. There can be little doubt that we are entering a unique and exciting time in virtual world learning – the question is which way will it go? Is it a passing fad or will virtual worlds establish themselves as a force in learning and development?

Although it is not possible to predict the future with absolute certainty, there are techniques which can be used to anticipate the future more effectively. One of the most helpful, borrowed from business and futures studies, is scenario planning, which is a process for imagining possible futures. However, scenarios are not predictions – they are a tool for helping us form a longer term view in a world of uncertainty and change. In a sense, they are “what if ” stories which offer plausible glimpses of a range of possible futures, which can be taken into account when planning for the future. In this paper, scenario planning techniques will be employed to develop three short scenarios for the future of virtual world learning in 20 years’ time, drawing on a virtual Delphi exercise conducted with a group of experts in immersive learning.