Here are some (cursory) notes from our discussion on MMORPGs and education:

what?s the value?
? bring together people from all over the world and chat real time
o professor at Vassar put together a model of the Sistine Chapel, this helps focus, able to change perspective
o a different method of presentation
o you can control a person?s environment, their experience
o engaging
? games are fun
? flow state ? using your abilities at a high level at a constant, getting an experience of fulfillment from conquering challenges
? with second life not being goal-oriented obviously it is harder to get to that flow state
? second life has a learning curve that is pretty high
o user-control is a growing trend in life, tivo for example
? building things is really easy compared to real life
? particularly suited for teaching programming, photoshop, etc
? teambuilding method
o SL is supposed to be able to de-alienate
? avatar creates a presence and an obligation
o cultural contract is stronger in the SL world than the chat/discussion board realm
o your experience is more humanized
? you can have multiple levels of engagement (text, voice, images, video, etc) it?s a richer experience
? making connections between the virtual experience and a face-to-face session ? deconstructing the experience
? you can be more free in this environment, it?s empowering ? changing who you are, teleporting away, log off? increasing engagement maybe

why is it not bigger? what are the challenges to education?
? meetings and moving around is clumsy, not immediately enjoyable
? steep learning curve
? so vast, so customizable that it?s hard to figure out where to start
? it takes technology that student may or may not have
? the interface might change overtime and you?ll have to learn new stuff and keep up with it

what kinds of classes at NC State
? Claudia Kimbrough ? marketing in SL
? Betty Black ? biology in SL
? Genome island
? there is a tremendous amount of activity in general everywhere

lambda moo has been around for years? not sure what makes this different

libraries using?
? there is activity

is the book reading better than the movie?
? what does adding in images really do?
? images are powerful, iconography is powerful, the sense of presence (eg. Mao, Sadam, Golden Arches, etc) things are more multifaceted

limits as far as education infrastructure/setup
? accessibility issues, there are still issues with visibility, and screen reading is a big challenge
? SLED listserv (see http://www.simteach.com/forum/index.php?sid=744b05201cf6ba3a24d097cf9b30b6f1)
? FERPA ? students would have
o walled islands might prevent

burning questions
? is it worth it right now?
? at what point will it become really useful? when will that be?
? social aspect?
? voice revolution
o changes your ability for anonymity

addictive?
? can you really call playing a game an addiction? is there a physical addiction? its tough to use this term, it implies physiological addiction
? people can take it too far, but the term is far too strong and has a negative connotation
? maybe its not the game but the personality that
? calling it an addiction is too much of an excuse for person accountability

Second Life usernames of attendees:
Charlie: Morris Choche
Kim D.:
Lisa: Iona Dovgal
Kim R.:
Greg: Buffalo Bracken
Orion: Peace Furst
Scott: Keebler Beck
Leigh Jay: Joslyn Theas

Posted by Charlie on July 23, 2007 at 01:55 PM EDT #