Edward Francisco addressed the third session of the Conversation Cafe “Virtual Worlds Symposium” on Tuesday, April 3, 2007. The topic that he introduced for conversation was “Pedagogical Uses of Virtual Worlds.”
After noting his concerns about the use of virtual world simulation technology by military groups and others espousing violence, Ed put forward ideas on how VR could be used across the college. VR worlds could be used as a stage for previewing plays. Animated movies, or “machinima,” are easy to make in virtual worlds and provide an inexpensive way to bring a screenplay to life. It is also easy to snap pictures of virtual world sets and use the resulting images to make graphic novels, comics and storyboards. He challenged faculty to learn about this new form of communication media so that we can be in a position to shepherd our students in its use.
The resulting conversation revolved around how we in academia can best utilize this powerful technology and help direct its evolution. Some of the ideas that emerged are listed below:
- History—can build historical re-enactments and environments
- Biology and Nursing—virtual dissections, body system simulations and walk-throughs
- English—using virtual meeting for collaborative writing, building/exploring virtual worlds based on literature
Another topic discussed during the conversation concerned how teachers would be able to translate their enthusiasm for a subject within this new medium.
Dave Vinson suggested (somewhat tongue in cheek) that we immediately begin to create simulations using Second Life to create a fractalized virtual reality within a virtual reality, a “Third Life” environment, so to speak.
Two more sessions remain in the “Virtual Worlds Symposium:”
April 10—David Brown: “Spirituality and Virtual Worlds”
April 17—David Brown and Ed Francisco: “Second Life and PSTCC”
The presentation on April 17 centers on the use of Second Life in next year’s “Common Book” experience. Please join us in our remaining sessions and learn more about the variety of virtual world experience.
