EDUCATING GWYN

Recently metaverse visionary Gwyneth Llewelyn ignited a storm of controversy by declaring the imminent demise of text-based interaction in SL, on the theory that Residents who preferred that mode would be shunted aside by a deluge of new VOIP-empowered Residents.  More recently, however, she attended a Portugal conference on educational uses of Second Life, and it's a sign of her intellectual integrity that she reports the findings in full:

Text-based environments level the ground for all students. This, of course, will get the voice team fuming and complaining... [because] “everybody knows” that voice will be used primarily in the classroom, and that it’s obvious it will improve communications, since voice is much faster than text, and all the usual arguments.

But based on trials by Portuguese educators, Gwyn reports, text proves superior in several regards:

Scientific research proves exactly the opposite. On a text-based classroom, shy students will speak up, be participative, and will behave absolutely normally... [Teachers] will be better prepared, hand out notecards and presentations, and the students will have access to all notes — instantly. A chat transcript can be posted and archived... Voice is for the RL classroom; the SL one, to be effective and worthwhile, has to be text-based.

Extrapolating further, it's easy to see the same advantages of text in real world training and virtual tele-presence meetings-- two applications where Second Life VOIP was assumed to be superior. 

Since this is Gwyn, she has much more to report on the conference-- SL-based education versus RL-based education, her incisive advice for real world organizations who want to create an SL presence, and more.  Read it all here.

Comments

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

The good news, one of the researchers IMed me yesterday telling me that her own paper has been published. It's one of the most interesting ones, related to the quality of SL classes (the ones done by residents for residents). I hope to get the link to it shortly!

[PalUP Ling]

About "Educating Gwin" and educational experience in Portugal:

Gwin's interesting post about education in SL, and about portuguese experiences, makes me list (as a portuguese educator and researcher) a few important ideas about this subject:

- classes in SL seems to be much more effective and collaborative
- chat communication in classrooms seems to fulfill the all expectations concerning horizontal knowledge building processes
- Turkle's "cycling through" process between our many plural and ubiquituos "selves" is quite clear in SL "assisted" classrooms
- to achieve a complete understanding of this process, it seems to be very important to combine CMC and FTF communication in classes
- voice introduction in classes seems to be a negative add-on in SL
- I actually use both synchronous and asynchronous chat communication tools to engage learning experience (chat, IM, group, proposals, notices, chat recording, blog,...)
- blog experience is a perfect way to empower in-world practices, as a complementary platform for students (see also http://hipermedia2007.blogspot.com)
- mimetic space appropriation / representation seems to be a natural approach to SL, due to the psychological engagement with the objects refered by Freud, Adorno, Walter Benjamin,...
- mimetic approach tends to be less important in SL experience in classrooms, because engagment boundaries tend to blur and students try to find new ways to use spaces in-world

Just some thoughts about my experiences, definetely not scientific ones, at least in the modern way of thinking about the concept.

PalUP Ling

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

More on this subject, from Cleo Bekkers :)

http://cleobekkers.wordpress.com/2007/06/16/mundos-virtuais-de-aprendizagem-e-de-ensino-uma-caracterizacao-inicial/

[Sitearm Madonna]

Hi Gwen! I loved this article and shared it. I received back this additional experience data from a project holding international meetings in SL:

"Two additional points from the international perspective - it has struck us that it is easier for people to translate than to interpret (particularly since accents are not involved!) - this an observation from our online chats. The second, the use of real-time translators in SL provides some flexibility that is not there when using audio (unless you are going to pay for multiple interpreters and audio streams) - this being important when holding an event with a presenter or panel, and an international crowd. Our third pilot session will change things up yet again, so we'll learn more!"

Thanks! :)
Site