ACRL-VWIG & ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries Program
July 26, 2015
July 26, 2015
"Virtual Worlds, an Educator’s View"
Presented byDr. Cynthia Calongne aka Lyr Lobo in Second Life
at the CVL Auditorium in Second Life
Dr. Cynthia Calongne, aka Lyr Lobo, has taught in SL, and been an observer of the VW education scene, since 2005. As a researcher, educator, pioneer, author and futurist she is passionate about games and simulations, education, authorship, virtual world education and socio-technical futuring. At this joint session with the ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries MIG, she discussed the creation of games and simulations in virtual worlds and their current and future use.
Lyr presented some interesting stats drawn form the latest Gartner study on information technology. Gartner predicts that by this year 50% of the organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify them but that 80% of current gamified applications will fail due to poor design.
She examined some current, practical uses of serious games and virtual world simulations designed as a vehicle for interaction, building experiences and creating positive change. One such virtual world simulation called SnowWorld that helped burn victims manage their pain and medication. In this virtual world, burn patients wear head mounted display devices and throw snowballs at targets. It was found that they used less medication while engaged in this activity.
Gamers engaging in the virtual world game FoldIt helped solve the HIV protease sequence in 2 weeks, a problem scientists had been trying to do unsuccessfully for 10 years! This demonstrated that gaming can help solve complex problems by breaking them into smaller, manageable activities.
Re-Mission by Hope Lab is considered one of the largest studies to examine how to empower young people to fight cancer by playing a game. In one study, 20% of participants fared better in their treatment.
Finally, Lyr talked about how the potential of virtual worlds and gaming for use in examining and helping to solve global problems ("wicked problems"). Pointing out that using a connectivist philosophy, it is possible to link content and systems on the Web within a virtual world and to integrate it into interactive experiences in the real world.
If you want to see more examples, projects and a history of Cynthia's work in Second Life and other virtual worlds visit: http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo/
Valerie Hill aka Valibrarian Gregg made a fantastic machinima synopsis of the meeting which can be viewed here:
