Second Life getting closer to real life
It’s been an encouraging week or so for Second Life news. Software announcements which will make it compatible with real life web and a release of level-headed brochureware to highlight the potential of learning in virtual worlds.
Second Life gets closer to real life.
There was a presentation of the likely development path for LindenLab’s new software or ‘viewer’ at the Second Life community convention. I didn’t see it but caught some of the comment. Most interesting was Dusan Writer who dodged the geek-speak to point out the real news that Second Life is planning to be able to handle html, Flash, embedded browsers and may even be able to talk to real world applications like Excel. Two years ago I saw a very brief demo of how a much virtual world called Qwaq could handle meetings: in this demo a user with a mono coloured avatar which was literally composed of cubes and boxes dragged a PowerPoint from his desktop straight into the virtual meeting room with the other boxy avatars. Seconds later it appeared in the virtual room and the meeting just got on with its business. Now I’m not suggesting for a minute that is a fair summary of what Qwaq is capable of – their product over page looks pretty good. My learning point since then was that for all its sculpted oceans and increasing photorealism, Second Life was always going to be beaten into a cocked hat by a less than perfect meeting room as long as participants could easily grab what they are really working on – usually a Ppt or Excel – and talk about it.
Making the case
Speaking of demonstrations, an interesting video was posted to the SLED list last week. Kerry Johnson said her intentions in making it were to
introduce educational administrators and policy makers to the uses of virtual worlds in education and training. It includes case studies from Second Life, Quest Atlantis and World of Warcraft and includes interviews with students and educators.
For all the very talented creative people who do stuff in virtual worlds, there appears to be a shortage of those who can make the case for their educational potential to the virtually unsympathetic. Maybe the motivation is lacking: that prevalent feeling of frustration because they just don’t get it! isn’t a great emotional starting point for convincing publicity.
In fairness this short video doesn’t contain any great insights or technical wows but that is probably the point. It concentrates instead on getting the message across effectively
- comparing several virtual worlds which people have probably heard of but not seen
- doing that ‘fade to virtual’ thing which although very obvious as a way of making a point, doesn’t happen nearly enough
- building on existing case studies specifically this one
- has nice camera work
- showing (briefly) real people using virtual worlds
- managing even to make World of Warcraft look like it has potential as a learning platform
I’ll have to take her word on the last point – anyone who can write a decent blog on Top ten signs you may be spending too much time in WoW clearly knows their stuff.
The response to the video from the SL educational fraternity was encouraging though pointed out ruefully that the real obstacles to uptake are more likely to be conservative minded colleagues rather than hard headed administrators.
