Developing the Media Zoo in Second Life

Second Life (SL), an immersive virtual environment, is increasingly being adopted in education for both formal and informal teaching and learning uses. This paper addresses the process of developing a demonstrator presence in SL, the potential of the system for formal teaching and some practical ideas on how to successfully integrate such emerging technologies into practice. Introduction The Media Zoo, based at the University of Leicester, is an attraction for members of staff from the university and beyond to experience, interact and understand the potential educational applications of learning technologies. There are three versions of the Media Zoo: the physical version (a laboratory on-campus), another version available on the Internet and the third, accessible in a virtual form in Second Life (SL). This paper explains and discusses the virtual version of the Zoo in SL, how it was developed and how it has been used to demonstrate the potential of SL for teaching and learning (Figure 1). Development of the virtual Media Zoo started in July 2007 with the purchase of some virtual real estate in the immersive virtual world (IVW) SL. The virtual real estate was purchased personally by Prof. Salmon on behalf of the Beyond Distance Research Alliance. A partnership with TwoFour Learning, a media company based in Plymouth, was soon established to help design and develop a first-class demonstrator to highlight the educational potential of IVWs, otherwise known as 3-D MUVEs. By coincidence the development process started at about the same time as Second Environment Advanced Learning, a project at the university that aimed to create and research interactive events with communities of learners, teachers, technologists and creative partners with the intention of eliciting viable and preferred futures for learning in formal education. The SL environment and building tools enable users to design and develop innovative virtual presences that would otherwise be expensive or impossible in real life. Many British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 40 No 3 2009 427–443 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00942.x © 2009 Becta. Journal compilation © 2009 Becta. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. virtual presences in SL are simple replications of existing buildings and infrastructures which do not take advantage of the opportunities on offer within an environment like SL. As with many early web-based presences that paid minimal attention to multimedia design principles, SL is awash with content better suited to other media. The Leicester team’s intention was to avoid having a Media Zoo filled with such content, but to look for opportunities to demonstrate the more advanced features the IVW technology offers. Before any development of the virtual Media Zoo could take place a design blueprint was required to encompass design ideas and to evaluate the strengths of each team member. The collaborative and interactive nature of SL provided the perfect setting to conduct a feasibility study with the geographically dispersed project team located in Leicester and Plymouth. The virtual Media Zoo design is based on ideas in ‘The E-Learning Island’ (a talk Professor Salmon has given on a number of occasions—see Figure 3), and the institutional e-learning strategy that underpins the Media Zoo concept at the University of Leicester. With an agreed design vision each team member took responsibility for his or her own area of the project, and development began. Developments Like in new building developments in real life, it is important in SL developments to secure the real estate against thieves and to protect the early infrastructure until the virtual presence is established. Therefore the starting point of any development has to be the ‘locking down’ of the SL Island. The landowner can restrict access through giving permission to enter to selected avatar usernames. The names selected can be changed an unlimited number of times during the development process. Once the Island is secure the initial task is to shape and texture the land by adding contours. In SL this is known as terraforming, although many islands in SL remain the Figure 1: Media Zoo boat house 428 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 40 No 3 2009 © 2009 Becta. Journal compilation © 2009 Becta. flat barren landscapes provided as the default by SL’s creators, Linden Labs. Throughout the development of our island, the terraforming exercise has had to be repeated to open up new areas of land as the role and usage of the virtual space has changed (see Figure 2). As the virtual landscape is formed textures can applied to bring the scenery to life. To follow the zoo metaphor, the texturing of the virtual Media Zoo resembles leaf litter and various varieties of trees have also been planted to bring a level of reality to the otherwise plain presence. The virtual Media Zoo consists of a warm water lagoon with a boat house and pontoons (similar in structure to Professor Salmon’s idea of a digital landing pontoon for digital immigrants). The two flat areas surrounded by trees that form the body of the island resemble the ‘Springs of Innovation’ and ‘Dot.com Marsh’, which are clearly divided by the ‘Early Adoption River’. To the north of the Island is the more mountainous region, symbolic of the ‘Peaks of Duty’ and ‘Research Heights’ as depicted in the E-Learning Island (Figure 3). Structures With the landscape formed, we could start to erect the first buildings; and where better to start than the entrance point for all visitors to the virtual Media Zoo—the digital landing area, otherwise known as the Boat House (see Figure 4). The Boat House introduces visitors to the Island’s context and the background to the collaboration between TwoFour Learning and the University of Leicester. It also introduces them to some of the basic skills required to make best use of their time while visiting the virtual Media Zoo. Inland, away from the Boat House, we made available two large flat areas either side of the river for construction. The process of adding usable structures to the Island could begin. It was important to utilise the capability of the technology to its full extent, but Figure 2: Island view during ‘terra-forming’ Developing the Media Zoo in Second Life 429 © 2009 Becta. Journal compilation © 2009 Becta. it was also important to refer visitors to the four-quadrant strategic framework (see Figure 5) that underpins the whole Media Zoo concept. Therefore visitors can explore the four quadrants of the virtual Media Zoo just as they would in real life or online. The first structure on the island is a large bio-dome (see Figure 6) housing the Pets’ Corner (the upper left quadrant in Figure 5). We encourage visitors to this area of the Figure 3: E-Learning Island map Figure 4: Boat House during developments 430 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 40 No 3 2009 © 2009 Becta. Journal compilation © 2009 Becta. Media Zoo to identify and target areas of their own work where there is potential for growth, rapid improvement in quality or efficiency gains through using existing technologies and pedagogies. The work we are doing inside Pets’ Corner is aimed at enhancing and promoting campus-based and distance learning through innovation, research, development and sharing of good practices. The focus is on embedding existing technologies and pedagogies into teaching and learning processes and on using them for more and more purposes. Adjacent to Pets’ Corner is the second major structure on the Island, another bio-dome, known as the Safari Park (the lower left quadrant in Figure 5). We ask visitors to this Figure 5: Quadrants of the Media Zoo, based on the e-learning and pedagogical innovation strategic framework (Salmon, 2005) Figure 6: Dome during development Developing the Media Zoo in Second Life 431 © 2009 Becta. Journal compilation © 2009 Becta. area of the Media Zoo (see Figure 7) to reflect on how to utilise existing learning technologies, in order to address new markets, missions, levels and disciplines of teaching and learning that have not been previously addressed by these ‘core’ technologies. If the Safari Park is accessible to more people there is an opportunity for more visitors to go on and use core web-based technologies such as Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) to join up e-resources across the whole Higher Education (HE) community, thus enabling students to make stronger and easier connections between subject areas they study and the services they have access to. Across the ‘Early Adoption River’ (Figure 8) are a further two bio-domes, each of which has a smaller teaching bio-dome attached; the first of which is the Breeding Area (the upper right quadrant in Figure 5). Here we introduce visitors to student-facing pedagogies with technologies not originally intended for learning; sometimes these are known as ‘edutainment’ devices (Egeneldt-Nielsen, 2005). Many of these technologies such as iPods, Global Positioning Systems and smart phones have not been developed for learning and academics require a good understanding of potential teaching applications if the technologies are to be successfully used in this new context. These technologies are currently considered peripheral; some, however, may become core, even essential, in the near future. New technologies are appropriate for off-campus use, as combinations and blends (Fill 2006), for dynamic delivery of content, for human intervention and for supporting learning. Many of these technologies can be channelled through the university’s VLE. Finally, the last large structure is the Exotics House (lower right quadrant in Figure 6), which encourages visitors to scan the external environments (academic or commercial) Figure 7: Avatar wandering in the Media Zoo 432 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 40 No 3 2009 © 2009 Becta. Journal