|
“We all need to refrain from flying. For this class, we should all stay on the ground,” Scott Shamp says to his students from a bridge on the NMI island. He isn’t being figurative.
Shamp, director of the New Media Institute, was teaching a new media topics class through Second Life, a virtual world that allows users to interact with each other and their environment through the Internet. Think of it like MySpace in 3-D.
“OK, now everyone look at me,” Shamp instructs and the students turn their avatars, or online alter egos, toward him.
“Good now, who did I give assignments to last time?” and he’s switched gears to professor mode, speaking about the day’s topics. The students respond with their keyboards or microphones and the class proceeds regularly, even though the students are scattered throughout campus and the community —not all physically located in one classroom.
The class in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is an example of a movement at UGA, and in academia in general, to harness virtual communities like Second Life for education. The stated goal of Shamp’s class is to find ways to use the application for the university. Students have shared ideas about hosting UGA-related events such as concerts and lectures or creating interactive learning spaces online. Part of the students’ grades, Shamp said, will be determined by how well people respond to their event or object.
But even with the new technology, doing something fresh and different can seem impossible. Second Life already boasts parks, political candidate presences and a real-life Reuters reporter embedded to cover daily news. Live bands regularly perform in virtual venues and higher education institutions like Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University are opening virtual campuses as a way to reach more potential students.
UGA’s presence in Second Life is limited thus far. The New Media Institute owns an island, or pocket of digital “land” that they can control, as does the Center for Teaching and Learning, although both are in start-up phases. It's called NMI at UGA. This semester NMI students are developing projects in Second Life such as a virtual tailgate party, a music performance with the students in the Music Business Certificate, and a virtual version of the Hospitality Highway (GA 400) for the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
“We’re gearing up for faculty who may want to use or already use Second Life for their courses or as part of a course,” said Michele Estes, the instructional resources coordinator for the Center for Teaching and Learning. “The island is going to have a place where professors can deliver lectures to classes and where teaching assistants can build objects and spaces appropriate to teach in or about.”
But learning in Second Life is not simply learning through telecommuting, she said.
“The benefits of using programs like Second Life have to do with finding new and creative ways of accessing learning and engaging students,” she said. “It also seems to have a transformational effect, even for the people in my department who are using it. It’s started to transform the way we think about teaching and learning. We think about things differently when we see them in Second Life.”
Building the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
Scott Shamp’s class at UGA’s New Media Institute is an example of a movement at UGA, and in academia in general, to harness virtual communities like Second Life for education.
