A review of the Last.fm service

I had already set up an account with Last.fm but haven’t really used it much for some time. My profile at last.fm/user/vfowler seems almost a complete record of my music tastes thanks to using the scrobbler plugin for iTunes.

With Last.fm, discovering new music is now very easy. First, there is Music recommended by Last.fm based on my library and tastes scrobbled. Second, playing streaming “radio” stations of similar artists songs, such as Lady Gaga Radio, or genre stations like R&B, will stream complete songs without interruption… up to the limits of a free trial!

While listening you can read meta data about the current song (artist, current tour status and upcoming events, folksonomy tags, biography, album the song is from, etcetera), see a list of similar artists, and related stations. This intensive form of listening and reading is fantastic for advance notice of concerts, and facts for the next pub trivia night. Further listening and loving tracks builds on my profile, aiding my identity formation.

From Your Recent Tracks listed on the website, it is quite easy to Add to playlist any single song that I have heard recently. This method of building a playlist presents a cumbersome interface should I wish to add several tracks at once as I must repeat the process – there is no facility to add multiple tracks to a playlist. As for using a playlist, you can share it via email which sends a link to the Last.fm website to play the songs there.

Here I started to reach the limitations of a free account. Subscribers can listen to playlists once they contain at least 45 playable tracks by 15 different artists. Furthermore, freeloaders can only listen to previews, not complete songs from a given playlist. In fact, listening to the radio has already spent all of my free Last.fm trial and I would need to subscribe at USD$3 per month to continue streaming. There were several Free MP3s Recommended by Last.fm for me – I downloaded two from artists I recognise and these tracks fit very nicely into my music taste range. Plus Free Music Downloads seem a permanent option for all accounts.

vfowler’s Music Profile – at Last.fm

Alternatively, the new Ping service just launched and may become of interest. Strategically built into Apple’s iTunes program is a clear advantage, but what about the spam commentary and scammers? We’ll have to stay tuned.

References

I am pleased to announce that we now have a gallery on the Southern Cross Free Trappers website. It can be accessed directly via http://freetrappers.org.au/gallery/ or visitors can simply click the new 5th menu link, aptly titled ‘Gallery’.

In order for an event to appear in the gallery, I simply need to add a ‘gallery’ tag to it. There was no point in simply adding all the past events as some do not yet have photos.

There has also been a couple of small changes to the Events page. It now shows all upcoming events ordered from the nearest to the most futuristic. Also, the sidebar has been completely stripped off to simplify the content presentation even further.

Finally, printing the newsletter will now produce a great hard copy product. The presentation in print media should look great now with photos/illustrations and their captions appearing centred (as on the website). See a PDF of Around the Traps – vol 23 for instance. Although a paragraph may spill over 2 pages, everything else should avoid a page-break.

I hope you like these new features.

Updates: 3/10/2010 –
Navigation bar received a text size-up. The Gallery is now also full width, with pagination in the footer area. Newsletter Archives has been given a major overhaul and now features a thumbnail image and an extract from each newsletter. As always, it’s free to subscribe.

Updates: 17/10/2010 – A revised home page was developed. The old design included the complete latest newsletter. From studying the Google analytics reports, I realised that there was no way to determine whether visitors were just looking at the site in general or genuinely interested in articles from the latest newsletter. This revamp has not only reduced the load on the home page to an excerpt of the latest newsletter, but also added the next few upcoming events in the side column. Finally, following ideas from Jeremy Keith’s book HTML5 for web designers, the code has been cleaned up a little and a start made on HTML5 semantics.

According to a news article on ABC News (PDF Calif. to Dump Printed Text..), Governor Schwarzennegger is trying to trim the state’s budget gap with a cheaper alternative to the traditional high school textbooks. California has a US$24.3 billion budget shortfall to face. How much is a billion? If we wanted to pay down a billion dollars of the US debt, paying one dollar a second, it would take 31 years, 259 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds. Now multiply that by 24 and you get roughly 761 years! This is just a single state’s deficit, and The Age reported that Arnold refused to increase taxes in order to fill the void. The former actor’s plan to save money pivots around phasing out hardcopy school textbooks in favour of learning over the internet.

While the Terminator star plays with the politics, let’s look at some aspects of information access and learning over the internet. I went back to the books (and blogs) and since then, most of my learning is via each university’s implementation of the Blackboard application, and readings which are scanned into the institution’s online library. Limited (so far) study resources can also be found within Google Books, such as this title on focus groups.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

http://www.google.com/corporate/

Upon reading the CNET News article Google’s digital book future hangs in the balance, one quickly finds that Google stands to make huge sums of money from advertising, book search, institutional subscriptions for access, and selling PDF copies of books. Did anyone check if Arnold has any investment in Google? If you’re also concerned over the legal issues, check out the groundbreaking agreement between authors, publishers and Google Books.

Distribution of a multimedia project should have been one of the very first matters considered during the initial concept stages. The matters of distribution can have some very simple as well as complicated reasons for choosing one method over another. There are many contributing factors to determine the right delivery method:

• Target user group
• Client’s wishes and expectations
• Product’s limits and limitations
• Interactivity
• Expertise

So far, common forms of distribution are:

Optical discs

CD-ROMs, DVDs, etcetera…

Intranet

a high speed internal network

Internet

a mass distribution medium

Hardware or embedded application

embedded devices that are not normally associated with computer interfaces, i.e. organisers, kiosks, mobile phones, and etcetera.

Intranet versus Internet delivery

Content management

Content management is a system of organizing the delivery, storage and access rights of all the media components of an internet or intranet delivery system.

By the system administrator or broadcast administrator, content management is used to set-up and manage scheduled content or on-demand programs, channels, recordings, and file transfers among various media servers. This can include the setting up of group profiles or individual profiles, in other words allowing only certain groups or individuals to view certain media.

Embedded devices

Typically these devices have no keyboard or limited input capabilities, and somewhat limited display capabilities and data storage. They are usually dedicated to performing certain functions or tasks only, and include mobile devices (personal organisers and mobile phones), home devices (appliances, home automation systems, home theatre systems, home security), automotive (GPS, in-car entertainment systems), and industry systems (information kiosks, ATMs, and cash registers).

Due to advancements in computer memory and CPU miniaturization, devices now have the capabilities to provide levels of interactivity and intelligence previously unheard of. We are also seeing not only the breakdown of input and output limitations, but also a merge of delivery methods, in devices such as the iPhone.

Embedded devices traditionally perform dedicated functions, and are designed with a specific embedded software application. The end user cannot modify such closed systems. We see embedded systems everywhere – at the cash registers, in industrial controllers, at home in our digital set top box. They are usually simple to use, sturdy, fast and reliable. Unfortunately updates or upgrades contribute to the problems of a throw-away society and are costly in both time and money. Hence the reason developers attempt to future-proof systems as much as possible.

The choices of delivery methods to best deliver products are constantly increasing. Choosing the right method is not always your choice. The best safe guard is to know right from the conceptual stage, what delivery method(s) you and your team will be designing for.

Most nations follow the Berne copyright convention, i.e. the author / designer doesn’t have to state that the material is protected. Thus, absolutely nothing is public domain unless the owner explicitly states it.

Copyright and how to breach it!

It is simple: ask the author / owner and get their permission before you publish their material. Failure to do so is a breach of copyright, unless allowed under the fair use doctrine.

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test.

To determine whether your intended use meets the criteria of the four-factor balancing test, purpose of use (1), nature of work (2), relative amount (3), and market effect (4), refer to my post from August last year, © copyright versus fair use.

Educational fair use

• motion media – up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less.
• text – up to 10% or 1,000 words, whichever is less.
• music – up to 10% or 30 seconds.
• illustrations, cartoons and photographs – no more than 5 images from a single artist.

Commercial fair use

Copyright permission must be obtained from the owner for all commercial purposes.

Terms in copyright

Intellectual Property (IP)

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Trademark

A trade mark can be a word, phrase, letter, number, sound, smell, shape, logo, picture, aspect of packaging or a combination of these. It is used to distinguish the goods and services of one trader from those of another.

Royalties

The owner of the rights will usually get payments (in the form of royalties) in return for use of the property.

Public Domain

The public domain is a range of abstract materials—commonly referred to as intellectual property—which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore “public property”, and available for anyone to use for any purpose.

Fair Use

Certain allowances of limited use of copyright material, without permission from the rights holder.

Derivative work

A derivative work pertaining to copyright law, is an expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work.

Right to Publicity

The Right of Publicity can be defined simply as the right of an individual to control the commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness or other unequivocal aspects of one’s identity.

IP law for multimedia

There are four major intellectual property laws that are important for multimedia developers.

1. Copyright law, which protects original “works of authorship.”
2. Patent law, which protects new, useful, and “non-obvious” inventions and processes.
3. Trademark law, which protects words, names, and symbols used by manufacturers and businesses to identify their goods and services.
4. Trade secret law, which protects valuable information not generally known, that has been kept secret by its owner.

Copyright protects written material, artistic works, musical works, dramatic works, computer programs, and compilations. Due to the fact that most commercial websites are created by multiple authors, copyright on websites is unclear. Materials and media used on a website may belong to other authors.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an international organization dedicated to helping to ensure that the rights of creators and owners of intellectual property are protected worldwide and that inventors and authors are, thus, recognized and rewarded for their ingenuity.

For guiding information on copyright issues relating to multimedia, check White SW Computer Law’s article http://www.computerlaw.com.au/doku.php?id=mm&s[]=multimedia#multimedia_issues and visit http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au for IP in Australia.

References

Derivative work – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.).

Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative_work&oldid=291297720

Fair use. (2009, June 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Retrieved 01:33, June 7, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fair_use&oldid=294890938

c=AU; co=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Department of Innovation, I. (n.d.). IP Australia : Trade Marks > What is a trade mark?

Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/what_index.shtml

Personality rights – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.).

Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Personality_rights&oldid=294882627

Public domain – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.).

Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Public_domain&oldid=294991227

What is Intellectual Property? (n.d.).

Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/

Despite the development phase being complete, the project isn’t quite finished. Does the product really work? Does the intended user group like it? Carrying out a tryout of the product with a test user group should be done, before making changes based upon their feedback. Post-production includes conducting surveys, focus groups, and archiving.

Again, Studio 1151 has another great guide, this time on how to do an audience test run. The purpose of running a survey or a focus group is to facilitate testing on the product from people external to the studio. A survey is better if you are pushed for time to gather and analyze feedback, while a focus group will provide a much higher level of detail.

Archiving

Archiving of all materials used in the development of the product, is vitally important for several reasons:

• The product may require modification after release.
• Sequels may require some of the same assets as the previous.
• Many products need localized versions to be built.
• Business or legal disagreements may arise, demanding a review of letters, memos and other documentation.
• People’s memories are fallible to age, forgetfulness, alcohol, and team members may leave the company taking their part of the project with them.

So, a list of what needs to be archived includes:

• All concept documents, including drawings, sketches, node maps and meeting notes.
• All meeting agendas and follow-up memos.
• All correspondence to the client.
• The proposal and bid.
• Letter of intent and development agreement.
• Initial and final version of the functional specification.
• Copies of all expenditures, including receipts, invoices etc…
• Subcontracting agreements.
• Copyright, licenses and permissions.
• Copies of weekly status reports.
• Video tapes, photo’s, audio tapes, etc…
• All versions, Alpha, Beta etc…
• Source codes and other computer related media.

How important is the data? Possible risks to the data consist of hardware failure, software failure, file system corruption, accidental deletion, virus infection, theft, sabotage, and natural disaster. Disaster recovery refers to the process of restoring a system after a disaster, such as a hardware failure. A disaster recovery plan would entail not only securing completed products and assets, but also ensuring systems and business processes have contingencies in case of an emergency. See a list of sample plans, outlines and other plan writing resources on the website of the Disaster Recovery Journal.

Instructional design projects differ from other multimedia projects in that the social and intellectual development of the user becomes the main focus, and the subject matter may be complex and perhaps not entertaining. (Certifications in instructional design, Wikipedia) As such, learning projects demand the input and guidance of an expert in the field, an instructional designer.

The goal of the instructional designer is to develop better, faster and more efficient learning tools.

K.Johnson, L.Foa 1989


An instructional designer determines the learning objectives and the most appropriate mode of delivery, and :

• ideally, has experience in choosing the right tools and the right mix of media;
• has a clear understanding of which learning style suits particular users;
• brings a sense of clarity to the subject matter, and is able to break it down to its basic elements, then fill them with a mix of information and multimedia enhancements.

There are several intermixable types of instructional design that involve use of computers.

CACL – Computer Assisted Cooperative Learning

Emphasizes applications that promote collaboration and cooperation, rather than individualism and competition between students. See the benefits of using Second Life as an educational tool, particularly in the collaborative and cooperative learning modes.

CAI – Computer Assisted Instruction

Applications that favour the instructive teaching method, where students are introduced to the content, they learn it, master it, then move on to more complex content.

CAL – Computer Assisted Learning

These applications are more student centric in that they encourage students to find their own learning journey, and to experience and explore at their own rate.

CBI – Computer Based Instruction

Courseware can be defined as the content and technique applied to instructional materials in electronic formats.

CMI – Computer Managed Instruction

This involves the use of a computer to manage instruction in testing, results generation, and record keeping.

WBT – Web Based Training

Offers a unique method of learning that matches the user’s level of experience with the tasks they must perform. The responsibility of training shifts from the trainer to the student, and the trainer’s role is to coach and motivate. It is a cost effective training method that can take place at the individual’s convenience and pace.

Learning theories are integrated (successfully) into teaching / learning environments when they include elements such as:

motivation

Relevant and meaningful experiences are needed to engage learners and build motivation.

individual pace

Different comprehension rates of learners must be anticipated and provided for in teaching strategies.

clear learning objectives

To help them focus and give greater chances of success, learners must be informed of what they can expect to learn.

organised content

When content and procedures or skills are organised into meaningful sequences and logical structures, learning is both easier and retained longer. Rate of information presented should be determined by the complexity and difficulty of the content. Signposts must be provided to help learners perceive the structure. Altogether, organised content helps learners synthesize and integrate their knowledge learnt.

pre-learning preparation

Learners must have prerequisite skills and knowledge to be successful in using the instructional media. Assumed knowledge must be identified and stated, or opportunities provided for them to acquire the prerequisites.

emotions

Learning that involves emotions and personal feelings, as well as intellect, is both influential and lasting. Learners also have positive and negative emotional attitudes that can interfere with learning or can increase motivation. Anxiety or challenge, in moderation activates most learners and increases their learning; in excess it interferes with learning.

participation

Merely seeing or hearing is not enough. Information must be internalised for learning to take place. Active participation, as opposed to passive listening and viewing, means engaging mentally and or physically and helps learners in understanding and retention.

reinforcement

Learning motivated by success is rewarding, builds confidence, and affects subsequent behaviour in positive ways. For learners to receive reinforcement is very important.

feedback

When periodically informed of progress, learning and motivation are increased.

association

Learning information related to prior knowledge or that has many associations to it, is better and easier retained than learning trivial or isolated fragments.

practice and repetition

For long term retention to be encouraged, provision should be made for frequent practice and repetition. Rarely is anything new learned effectively after just one exposure.

application

When the learner is able to apply or transfer the learning to new problems or situations, then complete understanding has taken place.

The successful integration of these learning theories into the application are vital to every final product.

Delivery mediums and venues

At home, we can deliver applications on CD-ROM or via the internet. Advantages of the CD-ROM delivery format are that it can be completely self contained, portable, fast and robust. Through the internet, we can provide up to date coursework, interactive experiences with a wider range of resources, and feedback and evaluation capabilities too. However, the limitations of internet delivery include catering for the lowest common denominator in terms of plugins for various audio and visual materials, learners must have a connection, and congestion can slow data transfer rates. Drawbacks of CD-ROMs are that they give limited evaluation of progress, revision of coursework is limited, and they lack personal interaction.

In the classroom, delivery often is via internet and or an intranet. While use is restricted by timetables and class scheduling factors, access to learning programs can be quicker and participants mostly have a uniform level of IT savviness.

At corporate training facilities, we have the flexibility to deliver via any of the fore-mentioned mediums. The difference here is that the corporate model is traditionally aimed at the adult market with emphasis on rapid dissemination of information and clear progress goals.

New hybrid systems being developed for both the educational and the private sector will include online intelligent learning scheduling (grouping students of similar time-zones), student control of learning events, live broadcasting of important learning events with automatic calendar and reminder services, better communication between virtual classmates and instructors, and online referencing from offline media. Hybrid systems, initially attempt to lever the benefits of the various delivery mediums, then add further enhancements too.

I would be impressed with a learning package that incorporates not only collaborative learning, but also has the capacity to synchronously communicate with peers (with voice and video like Skype, but also offer screen sharing and whiteboards), and be able to have some idea of each colleague’s progress status. Cooperative development of student projects such as those mentioned in Second Life, must give a marvelous sense of achievement. High quality (video and audio) course content is always better delivered on CD, DVD or Blu-ray, but we also need a network connection for support, communication and the facility to work together.

instructing

The user issues instructions when performing tasks. For example, typing commands, menu option selection, touch screen, speech recognition, a combination of function keys, and etcetera. For instance, tell the time, print a file, find a photo… The main benefits of instructing are that it is quick and efficient. This mode of interaction is well suited to repetitive actions performed on multiple objects.

conversing

Users speak or type in questions and a computer system responds with a text / speech reply as the output to the user. Examples of conversing activity models include search engines, advice giving and help systems. It is somewhat different from instructing models (which simply obey orders) in that it is more like 2-way communication. This more familiar way of interacting makes users feel comfortable and less scared. The con of the conversational model is that misunderstandings can arise when the system doesn’t know how to parse a more complex input question.

exploring and browsing

This model is based on a system that provides information structured in such a way to allow users to discover or learn things. Examples include CAVEs – similar to that from The Lawnmower Man – and Second Life (see whether Second Life failed or met expectations? and the benefits of using Second Life as an educational tool).

manipulating and navigating

Users interact and move within an environment of virtual objects and properties. For instance, the familiar scissors object found in word processing applications to perform a cutting of text. The manipulation model can exploit users’ common knowledge of how they move and manipulate objects in the real world. The term Direct Manipulation, coined in 1983 by Shneider, proposes that digital objects be designed so they can be interacted with in analogous to physical object manipulation. This assumes that interfaces enable users to feel they are directly controlling the digital object. The Wii Wheel used to control Mario Kart is a shining example of direct manipulation with immediate feedback. The drawbacks of direct manipulation include that not all tasks can be described by objects and not all actions can be done directly, some tasks such as spell checking are better achieved through delegation, and moving a mouse around the screen can be slower than pressing function keys to do the same actions.

These activity based conceptual models are potentially inclusive, i.e. they can be used together.

Then there are more specific object based conceptual models, that focus on the way a particular object or artefact is used in a particular context. In the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs’ burial chambers, treasures, pots, sarcophagus, and so on, are all artefacts of that time. A ballpoint pen is an example of a modern day artefact. When conceptualising objects for use in designs, we need to exercise extreme care in their use. Baeker et al (1995 p.583) propounds the act of artefact analysis as carefully studying the ways that artifacts are used and understanding what features are responsible for their success and why.

Case studies

The predominant conceptual models involved in a 3D video game such as Mario Kart on the Wii, are manipulating and navigating.

Described as one of the top 3 racing games for the platform, the game is controlled via Direct Manipulation of the packaged Wii Wheel providing tactile feedback, such as vibration, known as a rumble, when driving over terrain or crashing the various kart artefacts. Audio feedback comes from both, the hand-held remote for near sounds, and the system speakers. Visually, a 3D representation of the virtual race world is rendered on a regular 2D TV screen, with a third-person perspective – you can see your player in the vehicle. A semi-transparent map of the course is overlaid on the side of the screen, with additional rank and time information displayed in the corners, just like a televised car race.

The Windows virtual environment combines several conceptual models. It reuses the metaphor of the window frame and different panes to display various file types and programs that can be accessed from the computer. It also uses metaphors like the garbage bin for file disposal, and menus to make selections from. Several mental models such as the desktop as a workspace, the folders to organise files, and drag-and-drop to move files, are utilised. Navigational models including the back and forward buttons on a window toolbar, folder drill-down, search and history, are all present, particularly in more recent versions of the operating system. Instructing activities are often carried out by keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + P instructs Windows to print). Conversing with Windows is perhaps better known to users exploiting the accessibility features of the system. Since every object you see through an operating system is virtual, we certainly spend a large amount of time manipulating and navigating within the Windows User Interface.

A modern web browser adds to the models listed above for Windows, with tabs containing separate workspaces within the one program. Bookmarks are yet another metaphor / navigation mechanism that provide fast recall of specific places. It really goes without saying that we employ the exploring and browsing conceptual models.

Downloading a file from the internet is a task probably most suited to the manipulation model of the drag-and-drop technique. This seems easier than associating an image of a downward pointing arrow and avoids confusion with other navigation hyperlinks. There could also be an instructional keyboard shortcut for frequent use and users.

Programming would generally fall into the instructing model. This could take any combination of forms, typing, speech recognition, menu option selection, function keys, and etcetera. There are several mental models, most of the metaphors are non-visual, and navigation is primarily driven by keystrokes, along with the act of coding. More than anything else, the programming language will determine which models are useful.

References

Baecker R.M., Grudin J., Buxton W.A.S., and Greenberg S. 1995

Readings in Human – Computer Interaction : toward the year 2000, Morgan Kaufman, USA

Expectations are personal. When we get our hopes up, the film turns out lousy. The question of whether Second Life met or failed one’s expectations is conditional upon prior knowledge and experience. Personally speaking, I feel a lot like Neo about to take the red pill in The Matrix. With very little idea to begin with, and a smidgen of prior experience with 3D interfaces, my expectations weren’t demanding. After spending a few hours in my Second Life, I find:

• The level of immersion is immense!
• The simple flow of basic movement and interaction is smooth.
• The graphics are generally stunning for such a diverse range of worlds.
• The avatar modification process is cumbersome. Computer-literate reporter Kristina Dell of Time magazine, agreed it is not intuitive, spending her first hour wearing both sneakers and high heels (simultaneously).

Money is the sore point for me. Bar monthly access fees, so far the internet has been free for most of us. A serious limitation in Second Life is that it seems I cannot experiment with building a house without buying virtual land with real money (converted into virtual $).

There are several purposes that interest me and I can see huge potential for. As a social networking tool, it truly excels over facebook and the likes. People are not only meeting over the internet, some are virtually married in Second Life. See for yourself the birth of a son! Truly this is collaborative construction gone crazy.

In this 3D version of the web, you can also experience simulations and interaction like no other. Architects could utilise the platform to provide great experiences to clients in virtual models before the foundations are laid in the real world.

From the arts, sciences, health, languages, to history, music, and so on, the benefits for educational uses are truly mind-blowing. Additionally, entertainment industry applications are endless – for example virtually visiting a U2 concert is a dream that you can experience.

Nonetheless, these are not the top crust applications. Matt Cowan, a Rueters reporter, describes the second wave, in enterprise and education, as the new driving force behind Second Life.

Dell also reports on some of the real world problems for Second Life.

Every business has its growing pains. But as companies explore why their expensive virtual outposts remain largely empty, Second Life has other, potentially more serious, issues. Governments are scrutinizing the four-year-old site as a possible haven for tax-free commerce, child-porn distribution and other unsavory activity.

Further on, Dell tells of disgruntled users uniting against commercialisation of Second Life, and attacking shoppers. One participant grumbled on the site’s blog, “the only things left to do on Second Life will be getting griefed in sandboxes and going to church.”

References

2007. Virtual Social Worlds and the Future of Learning

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2jY4UkPbAc [Accessed May 8, 2009].

2009. The birth of my Son Jacob Cleo Khandr

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y5u2Vk8m5E [Accessed May 9, 2009].

Cowan, M., 2008. The ‘second wave’ of Second Life. [[News]]

Available at: http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=92549&videoChannel=6 [Accessed May 8, 2009].

Dell, K., 2007. Second Life’s Real-World Problems. Time

Available at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1651500,00.html [Accessed May 9, 2009].

Second Life – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life#Fee_schedule [Accessed May 8, 2009].

Although initially sceptic and frustrated with the learning curve, I am starting to realise how Second Life can be beyond awesome for learners. Let’s face it, we all learn and many of us loathe the necessity due to the form that the learning takes and the lack of control. Mention a lecture and most of us cringe. You can’t pause a lecturer and you’ve got to be there in those cold, hard seats, listening… Too bad if you’re deaf or have a preference for visual or experiential learning styles.

So what makes learning in Second Life different? Virtual classrooms can be attended by a global audience, and students can learn from their safe environments, but these are features in every form of distance education. Let’s examine the benefits of the learning opportunities in this virtual world compared with those of traditional education environments and distance learning.

• The sense of immersion makes it an ideal tool for role play and re-enactment.
• Scavenger hunts create an interactive method for learning vocabulary, for instance. Surely a faster, more effective, and more interesting way than learning by rote.
• Guided tours of replica real world places that students would find difficult or impossible to visit in reality. The Sistine Chapel, or a scaled model of the interior of a Dell computer are just 2 examples of such destinations.
• Albeit via an avatar, learning by doing is highly productive.
• Collaborative development is fostered in Second Life. Educators can join groups and network with others for professional development. Collaboration and exchange is stronger and more immediate than other communication methods such as blogs, forums, or email.
• Simulation possibilities can provide understanding of what it is like for others in the real world, and aid in our preparation.
• Immersive self paced tutorials and quizzes can be carried out in virtual space, and results fed into a database.

Play these pertinent YouTube clips below.

References

2007. Educational Uses of Second Life

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA [Accessed May 8, 2009].

2007. Education in Second Life: Explore the Possibilities

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMGR9q43dag [Accessed May 8, 2009].

Second Life – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life#Education [Accessed May 8, 2009].