Elearning - April/May 2008 - (Page 26)

Making Learning Fun and Social SECOND LIFE AND OTHER VIRTUAL WORLDS HOLD PROMISE FOR A NEW GENERATION OF LEARNERS. BY ANDERS GRONSTEDT It’s exhilarating and addictive. It’s immersive and social. It’s Web 2.0 in 3-D. Think “Matrix” meets Smurf Village, topped off with a dash of Facebook thrown in for good measure. It’s virtual worlds, and it’s all the rage. Last year was a banner year for virtual worlds learning, with no fewer than 1,200 Second Life educational islands created. Universities and corporate learning organizations by the hundreds are already betting that the future of online interaction won’t be built on flat, static Web pages but rather in traversable 3-D spaces. IBM is investing millions of dollars in learning projects at 25 Second Life islands and already has some 8,000 employees conducting meeting and learning activities in Second Life. They are collaborating, role playing, simulating, scavenger hunting, job interviewing, mentoring and hanging out in 26 April / May 2008 Elearning! the booming virtual world of Second Life. Communicating, learning and collaborating remotely have never been so much fun. Finally, a break from the drudgery of staring at your phone while talking to disembodied voices on a conference call or watching a PowerPoint during a Webinar. WHAT IT IS In the virtual world, you are “seeing” the meeting in an immersive 3-D environ- Virtual worlds represent a 'perfect-storm' convergence of social media, simulations and gaming. ment. You’re moving your avatar around in a 3-dimensional world, interacting with other people through their avatars, by talking straight to your computer via a headset. As you move around, the sound changes direction, all at an extremely high sound quality. The sound from an avatar located to the right of your avatar will come from your right speaker. It’s sound in 3-D. Green waves radiate from the avatar that is talking, as it starts gesturing. You can also chat or IM, gesture and change appearance. It is an immersive environment that keeps participants completely focused on the task at hand. Besides, if they drift to other desktop activities, their avatar would quickly slump over and fall asleep, an embarrassing reminder to everyone that his mind and fingers have wandered off. Virtual worlds represent a “perfectstorm” convergence of social media, simulations and gaming, and if we can believe the latest Gartner Group research, 80 percent of active Internet users will be in nongaming virtual worlds by the end of 2011. What makes this environment different

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning - April/May 2008

Elearning - April/May 2008 Editor's Note Contents News Targeting Africa Locating Courseware People in the News Upcoming Events Deals Trendlines Web Services Building a Learning Culture Measuring the Learning Experience Making Learning Fun and Social LMS's 2008: What You Need To Know Learning Leader: CA Case Study: AVI Case Study: IBM Case Study: QualComm WBS Case Study: National Center for State Courts Case Study: Grundfos Pumps Case Study: Virginia Tech Pop Quiz Last Word

Elearning - April/May 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.