Virtual Worlds in Education Forum, 8th December 2010
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Birmingham City University, Seacole Building
Birmingham City University, Seacole Building
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Welcome
Nigel Wynne welcomed the group to Birmingham City University and the forum.
Click here for the Virtual World in Education Forum agenda pdf
Morning Session
Andrew Hutchinson (Midlands Leadership Centre), kicked off with a demonstration of a 3D world that students can create themselves using some simple software where dragging and dropping renders you a world in no time. This is particularly suitable for secondary school students. Made by Immersive Education (who produce Kar2ouche), you can get a single licence for £79.
http://www.immersiveeducation.eu/index.php/missionmakerm
Mark Holland (Birmingham City University), then demonstrated Virtual Environment Radiotherapy Training (VERT), which is specialist software designed to offer training for radiotherapy students and nurses, giving an interactive 3D visualisation system. Mark, who trained with the NHS and is now a radiographer and senior lecturer at Birmingham City University, explained that VERT started off as a research project at the University of Hull in 2004. Students use a genuine radiotherapy handset and can 'walk' around the 3D environment. This kind of system helps students understand difficult concepts; for example, medication can be seen working in different organs of the body. It can also do things like show the radiation on an organ. There is a fully rendered whole body which can be used to teach anatomy or physiology. It can also be used in forensics and with archaeological artefacts. A 3D laptop version is available although a projector is needed.
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/radiotherapy
More about VERT on the Vertalis website http://www.virtalis.com/market-sectors/academic/r&d/virtalis,-vertual-and-vert
Dr Mark Childs, who recently gained his PhD from the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick talked about his research which is encapsulated in his thesis 'Learners' Experience of Presence in Virtual Worlds'. You can read about his research here and download his thesis here. Some of the aspects of virtual environments Mark touched on were role play, avatar behaviour and embodied cognition. Some of his conclusions were that an individual has to find their presence, body image is important and all avatars need to go shopping!
Drew Crow (Worcestershire Local Education Authority), showed a video of work he has been doing on OpenSim with school children. He reconstructed a 19th century cholera hospital and gave the students archaeological artefacts that they had to put into the space. The objects could be moved around by anyone in the group and then they could work out how to prevent the spread of disease. Peer assessment notecards were used and the feedback from the students proved that it felt more like a real experience and process.
He also created a Martian landscape using NASA data. They built a space station and had advice from a NASA expert who joined the group through videoconference.
You can read more about both of these exciting projects on Drew's blog. You can find out about Drew here.
Chris Stephens (Oxford University) has a background in English Literature and is now Senior Developer with Oxford University Computing Services. He took us on a tour in Second Life around the Western Front 1914 - 1918 build. Chris and colleagues used World War I poetry, by such poets as Wilfred Owen, (from The First World War Poetry Digital Archive) in a variety of forms in Second Life, whether an audio clip of a poem being read, a notecard, an object showing original manuscripts, letters and diaries or audio clips of interviews with veterans and wives and film footage from the Imperial War Museum.
OUCS WW1 Poetry Archive News: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/publicity/oucs-news-hilary-2010.xml.ID=body.1_div.5
The First World War Poetry Digital Archive: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/
Virtual Simulation in Second Life: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/secondlife
Lunch Break
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Afternoon Session
Maxine Lintern, Associate Dean (Learning, Teaching Research and Scholarship) started the afternoon's activities by welcoming the delegates to the centre and giving an overview of the work they are engaged with, particularly Nigel Wynne's projects, making a difference to the learning experience by pushing back the boundaries.
Nigel Wynne, Senior Academic in Learning and Teaching within the Faculty of Health (Birmingham City University), was team leader of a research group investigating highly scalable forms of learning technology, looking at immersive experiences. The Communication Skills within Immersive Virtual Environments (COMSLIVE) project was funded through the JISC Learning and Teaching Innovation Grants and aimed to look at nursing students' communication skills and team working which are often lacking. They considered several virtual worlds and decided upon Open Wonderland by Sun Microsystems. Nigel explained that as an organisation, Sun found that team task successes were poor whether people worked from home or in the office, so they developed a Virtual Workplace to overcome this problem. Nigel described some of the activities the student nurses carried out. For example, a student in world could phone a member of staff in the real world for advice and guidance; handwashing practice can be an issue for nurses and the training involves encouraging students to question their peers' practice. The virtual environment facilitated assertiveness training needed as well as communication skills eg paraphrasing. It was found that the students engaged much better in the virtual environment. To read the full details about the project, please go to the COMSLIVE website: http://comslive.health.bcu.ac.uk
Open Floor
A discussion between John Kirriemuir, Colleen Mccants, Mark Childs, Cham Athwal, Tim Marquis and Nigel Wynne took place, particularly on the future of Second Life, how educators might share objects and resources, the next Virtual World Watch Snapshot, the delights of Unity and much more besides.
Acknowledgements
The RSC West Midlands would like to thank Nigel Wynne', Maxine Lintern and all at Birmingham City University, for kindly hosting this event.
