Education & Living History in Virtual Worlds Pt. 2

The ACRL-VWIG Summer Program Series Part 2

The ACRL-VWIG program for August continued its' exploration of Second Life as a means for exploring and engaging students via an examination of cultural productions and sites within Second Life.  For August, ACRL-VWIG members were given the opportunity to explore the Rocca Sorrentina build at Westphalia/85/160/2801.  Rocca Sorrentina is a representation of a fictitious but historically-plausible 18th century island community located in the Bay of Naples, off the coast of Italy.  This Second Life sim is maintained as part of an education experiment by Brown University and their Laboratory for Virtual Arts & Humanities.  

Rocca Sorrentina at the Westphalia sim

Rocca Sorrentina is an educational space designed to help participants gain a better understanding of the Enlightenment and the era of the "Grand Tour of Europe" by giving them the opportunity to actually be immersed in a historical recreation of the time period.

Rocca Sorrentina & the Villa Vesuviana

The buildings on the island  reflect the complex society and the diverse architecture of southern Italy in the 1780's. There are the small shops of 18th century tradesmen, a dock area displaying merchant ships of the period, ancient ruins, fortifications, a grand villa, an underground cavern and lake, and a number of private residences.

In costume, at the orientation, waiting for the ship to Rocca Sorrentina

The group of about 15 librarians from the ACRL-VWIG,  met first at the Orientation Center.  Period costume was suggested and everyone pulled their finest frock coats and paniers out of their inventories.  Here, our hosts Aldo Stern and Sere Timeless provided a brief history of the space and its' use as an educational space for engaging in collaborative, self-directed learning.  In this environment, the residents and students can explore topics, and in the process learn not just about history and art but also about how people acquire, share and assimilate information in a virtual space.





Lady Sere Timeless, Professore Aldo Stern and JJ Drinkwater in their Baroque best

 
Our hosts explained that the main purpose of Rocca Sorrentina was to explore how educators can use the unique features of a virtual world to create an immersive learning environment.  The main purpose of Rocca Sorrentina is to demonstrate how a built space in Second Life can be used to do "collaborative self-directed learning". The thought is that instructors can construct a virtual space in Second Life around activities that allow students to actually experience an historical event or setting.   Rocca Sorrentina is a historical recreation and to that end everything about it has been designed to be as historically accurate to the time period and location as possible.  Activities are designed to help residents and visitors understand and learn about the culture, world and  ideas of the late 18th century.

Our guide provided a setup scenario we visitors were to use in our approach to the experience which was that it was 1784, and, we were travelers on the Grand Tour to Italy about to disembark at the small island of Rocca Sorrentina.  We were instructed to look at the world we were about to enter from an 18th century perspective.

After a brief and mercifully calm voyage across the Bay of Naples aboard a sailing ship, we arrived at Rocca Sorrentina's bustling port and disembarked.  The Harbor area features many shops and businesses.  There are also a number of private residences.  We set out first to visit the impressive Villa Vesuviana.

Disembarking at the Rocca Sorrentina dock

The Villa Vesuviana  - a grand residence inspired by Andrea Palladio's famous Villa Capra La Rotunda outside Vicenza in Northern Itlay.  This structure and its surrounding gardens, functions as the administrative center and is the main public building for events which take place on Rocca Sorrentina.  



The Villa Vesuvianna



Highlights of the house tour included the Music room with its murals by Giorgio Vasari.

Inside the Music Room

The  main hall of the palazzo was richly decorated with paintings and other art works and featured a soaring domed cupola.



The Rotunda

Waiting in the wings

The tour continued with a perambulation out onto the great lawn with its' sheep and Egyptian obelisk.

The Egyptian obelisk on the great lawn

The final stop was at  the Accademia di Sorrrentina, home of the island's learned society with its' beautiful lecture hall and a working, stocked library.

Hesitation at the door to the Accademia

Upstairs in the Accademia is the famous Cabinet of Curiosities.  This gallery hosts a variety of historical materials representing the broad range of interests being studied by enlightenment-era scholars.  It reflects the rich history of the island.  Items exhibited highlight all the historical periods and occupants of Rocca Sorrentina,  from the very earliest settlers, the Greeks and Romans,  to the Spanish Bourbons of the mid 1700's.

The Cabinet of Curiosities

At this point,  I had to depart the tour as my ship was sailing on to Naples so that I could explore the ruins of Pompeii.  I understand the rest of the party finished up at a coffee house near the harbor discussing the wonders they'd been exploring.

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I found this experience both enjoyable and educational.  The idea of being able to immerse students into a time period or historical scenario and so evoke a "lived experience" provides educators with a very compelling tool for teaching.    The power of immersion to provide students with a "lived experience" combined with teachable moments reinforced through role play are just 2 examples of the many remarkable benefits that virtual worlds can offer educators.  These elements are hallmarks  hallmark of virtual worlds.  They offers educators a unique and powerful tool for providing students with a unique and powerful learning experience.    As Valibrarian Gregg put it, "This, I believe, is like bringing students "inside the book".   

  

Education & Living History in Virtual Worlds

ACRL-VWIG Summer Program Series Part 1

The ACRL-VWIG July program focused on using Second Life as a means for exploring and engaging students in living history.  This month we began a 3 part series of investigates into cultural productions in Virtual worlds   For July ACRL-VWIG members set off on a series of self-paced explorations at various exhibits in Second Life.  Our goal was to go out and actually be immersed in experiences rather than to just meet afterwards and talk about something we've seen or done.  In this way participants were able to experience and participate in Second Life as an immersive learning space.

The first exhibit, "Embracing the Savage"  took place on a fictional 18th century Italian Island in the Rocca Sorrentina Museum Gallery on Westphalia/129/162/2801.  This exhibit is part of a working immersive education experiment maintained in Second Life by Brown University's Laboratory for Virtual Arts & Humanities.  The exhibit was sponsored by the Missouri Humanities Council.   The exhibition focused on how Shakespeare's work was viewed during the 18th Century Baroque & Rococo eras.   

The exhibit examined how Shakespeare and his plays were thought about by Europeans in the 18th century during the Enlightenment, an era of profound social, intellectual and economic change.

 

Joe interrupts an Enlightenment moment

 

Using artworks and quotes from the period, participants are able to explore the ways that people of the Rococo and Baroque periods engaged with and thought about Shakespeare's works.

 

This exhibit offered a real "museum/educational" experience.  Visitors traveled through the various galleries at their own pace.  The visual displays and extensive textual information, and the powerful sense of space and presence that comes from actually being immersed in Second Life, combined to provide a venue rich with possibility for teaching and learning.

 

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A fine cast of characters

The second exhibition, "Introducing La Commedia Dell'Arte", also part of Brown University's Immersive Education Laboratory for Virtual Arts & Humanities,  took place in the Galleries at the Bay of Naples sim at Bay of Naples /128/128/2802.

This exhibition provided an in-depth history of the Commedia dell'Arte form.  The exhibit featured extensive visual arts materials, paintings and informational signs.  It also provided extensive notecards with more textual information than one got from simply reading the display signs.  An especially interesting feature was an area where the stock characters were rendered as 3D avatars.  You could walk amongst them and nearby information kiosks provided detailed information about each character and the role they place in a Commedia dell"Arte production.

Joe amongst the stock characters

This exhibition was richly informative and multi-dimensional, covering everything from costumes to characters and provided an indepth history of Commedia dell'Arte.  It was however just the prelude to the evenings main event which was...an actual Commedia dell'Arte performance.

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I attended the matinee performance of  "A Bird in the Hand", performed in Second Life by the Commedia Dell'Arte Company, I Sorrentini at the Royal Opera of Second Life Ballroom.

 

The Royal Opera House

It's good to have friends in high places

I have to admit I was a little skeptical about what was to come.  I've been to music performances where the sound didn't work, dance performances where lag threw everyone out of synch, and cabaret shows where just nothing went right. 

The cheap seats

I was very pleasantly surprised.  The performance went off without a hitch, with sound, music, and action all cooperating.  It was engaging and funny and both performers and the audience seemed to have a good time.   

Act 1

 

Act 2

 

 

 All in all, it was a very educational and enjoyable excursion and finally gave me a chance to use those 18th Century costumes I've been collection. I'm looking forward to Program 2 of this series.

ACRL-VWIG Program June 28, 2014

Hearing on the ACRL Draft Information Literacy Standards Framework for Higher Education

ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV

June 28, 2014 10:30-11:30 SLT

Esther Grassian, co-chair ACRL-VWIG

At its' monthly program for June, the ACRL-Virtual Worlds Interest Group arranged for a live, simulcast broadcast of the public hearing on the new draft Information Literacy Standards Framework which occurred at ALA in Las Vegas. Esther Grassian, co-chair of the ACRL-VWIG, attended the meeting in Las Vegas at the 2014 at the ALA Conference.  With the assistance of Craig Gibson and Trudi Jacobson, Co-Chairs of the revision task force, she arranged for the VWIG to broadcast this meeting live, into Second Life.   In this way, those of us who weren't able to attend ALA, were able to attend the proceedings virtually.

At this meeting the Task Force presented the revised, draft framework and answered questions from the audience.  Questions ranged from how librarians can incorporate the standards in a 1-shot face-to-face instruction session to how to get faculty to buy into them for their classes.  There was also some discussion of the future of the Framework.  Both participants and panelists expressed hope that the document would be looked at as a living, breathing document.  Participants offered good suggestions for improving the document and practical suggestions for incorporating it into the day-to-day work of librarians.  Thanks Esther!

Two more public hearings were scheduled for July 7th & July 11th.  Those interested in submitting feedback to the Task Force have until July 15, 2014 to submit their comments. 

You can do so here: Submit Feedback to the Task Force

Recordings of the public hearings are available here:   Public Hearings recordings

The revised draft framework is available here:   Revised Draft 


The recommendations of the task force are available here:  Task Force Recommendations

ACRL-VWIG Program May 18, 2014

"The Case of the Missing Librarian"

May 18, 2014

Speaker:  Esther Grassian (Alexandria Knight)

Information Literacy Consultant & Distinguished Librarian (UCLA)

At this month's ACRL-VWIG meeting Esther Grassian presented her keynote address which she gave at the Alabama Library Association Conference in April this year.  Her program examined how librarians are often left out of the process when new policies and programs in education are being developed. The focus of her presentation was on things librarians can do to get policy makers to think about librarians and our expertise and encourage them to include us when developing new programs.  In short, to make librarians more visible.

 She highlighted several reasons that librarians are often left out of the equation.  

The generally held perception that everything  is on Google.

  The perception of librarians as old fashioned and keepers of collections has long been a roadblock.

The vanishing librarian, librarians being replaced by non-librarians or positions being eliminated entirely. This disturbing trend will effect higher education for decades. 

She offered some suggestions for making librarians more visible:

 

Librarians should reach out to those who don't realize librarians are vital to the educational process.  Point out that librarians are involved in teaching digital & Information literacy and in teaching good digital citizenship.

 Librarians should be quick to take advantage of opportunities to show their value and skills.  They should also create those opportunities themselves.

 

Librarians should develop a systematic marketing plan to publicize their skills, tools and willingness to help.

ACRL-VWIG Program April 27, 2014

"Embedded Librarianship for 21st Century Learning"

April 27, 2014

Speakers: Valerie Hill (Valibrarian Gregg) and David Shumaker (Dmitri Starsmith)

 At this program, Valerie Hill (Valibrarian Greg in SL) and David Shumaker (Dmitri Starsmith in SL) explored what it means to be an "embedded librarian" in a virtual world.  Val presented first, reviewing how it came out of the goal to serve library patrons wherever they are and to incorporate services that help librarians meet information literacy goals.

She pointed out that real challenge facing embedded librarians is how to integrate information literacy goals within whatever context they find themselves working, be it a virtual world or in a classroom. This challenge is made difficult by the rapidly changing information landscape librarians find themselves working in.  Print resources are no longer the top of the information hierarchy.  Meeting information literacy goals means we must consider literacy for all information formats including print, digital, audio, video, social media and virtual worlds.

 The concept of information literacy has changed.  It now encompasses all types of "literacy"  including Digital, Media, and Print literacy.  Librarians and educators are engaged in fostering all types of literacy.  Info literacy no longer means just print or teaching people to read.

Librarians and educators today are all impacted by  "virtual worlds" whether or not they actively participate in Second Life because they are involved in social media, online meetings, online exhibits/displays and other immersive learning environments.  Embedded librarians share resources and information in numerous formats both synchronous and asynchronous, and,  in both physical and digital realms.

The next presenter, David Shumaker, author of the book, "The Embedded Librarian: Taking Knowledge Where It’s Needed" (Information Today, 2012).  David examined what being an "embedded librarian" means. He pointed out that being embedded isn't dependent on place, driven by technology and isn't only about teaching.

 

Embedded librarians develop strong working relationships of mutual understanding with teaching faculty.  They work together to develop shared goals and objectives.  Librarians should be seen as partners who share responsibility for educational outcomes and where they have full membership in the team. Embedded is about collaboration, not about technology.

Embedded librarians have a role in curriculum development and course design.  They can use their strong skills as collaborators to work with subject instructors and with students. David pointed out that the librarians role in Distance Ed and learning is not extraneous to the process but, should be considered integral to it.  This view dovetails with the ACRL Info Literacy Competency Standards.

Philip Rosedale & Ebbe Linden Address the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference

Philip Rosedale Delivers Opening Address
"Closing the Gap: Virtual Reality & Education"

April 9, 2014

Over 160 people from around the world attended the opening address of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference given by Philip Rosedale.  Rosedale, one of the founders of Second Life and it's former CEO is now CEO High Fidelity Inc. He focused on the next steps to be taken in making virtual environments a success.
 

He said that the biggest obstacles to the adoption of Virtual Worlds by a wider audience are solvable technical issues.  The biggest technology issue, one which creates a huge limitation on the way people can interact in virtual worlds,  is the reliance on the mouse and keyboard to communicate.  "It is hard to communicate with each other here. The problem is the mouse.  You have to use a mouse which only gives you 2 degrees of freedom; up/down or side to side."  

 
While text is powerful, it limits people's ability to communicate.  He suggested that Oculus Rift and  advances such as motion controllers and 3D cameras, advances which allow "visual immersion" or presence, will powerfully impact the user's ability to communicate and participate in virtual worlds.

 

On the future of virtual reality platforms 

 

"I believe that for virtual worlds to become a tool we all use, they have to be a lot more like the internet than it is today.  We all need to run our own servers.  Linking has to be akin to linking to the web.....the Virtual world of the future, as it takes its next leap, is going to be an inter-network of virtual worlds."

Philip also spoke about scalability.  To increase the number of simultaneous users who can log-in, virtual worlds like Second Life currently rely on putting more and bigger servers to work.  He pointed out that this wasn't a workable solution as "there aren't enough servers on the planet" to get everyone into virtual worlds.  One possible solution, is to implement a peer-to-peer system, something like that used by Skpe or BitTorrent.  "The Next generation of virtual worlds can be build as a cloud of machines that are shared and borrowed from all of us....The new hardware, led by Oculus Rift, will open the doors to easier ways to interface with virtual environments."

For educators and education in general, he had this to say:

"The future for education [in virtual worlds] will be incredible.  You will be able to bring in more people at once, and relate directly to them."

The complete presentation can be accessed at Youtube courtesy of Mal Burns

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CEO of Linden Labs, Ebbe Altberg presents keynote address at VWBPE Conference

 April 11, 2014

Over 200 people attended the keynote address, "Reconnecting with the Education Market" by Ebbe Altberg, the new CEO of Linden Lab/Second Life at the 7th Annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference.

The focus was on the future of Second Life, but he spent a lot of time addressing questions. Here are some highlights from his presentation.

About Linden Lab's controversial Terms of Service issue:
"I am working with my Legal Counsel to try to try to figure out how we can make it more obvious – or very obvious – that the creators of the content own the content, and we obviously have no intent of ever stealing your content or profiting off of your content independently of the creators in some fashion.  The current terms might indicate that we might somehow have some plan to steal people’s content and somehow profit from it for ourselves, without benefiting the creator, and that’s obviously not our intent at all. We're working on some simple tweaks to the language to make that more explicit."

Ebbe stressed that the company is interested in rebuilding and strengthening the connection between Linden Lab and the community of educators.

About the Education Sector:
I feel very strongly that the education sector, the education market, is a very important partner of Second Life, and that it’s important to us to make it a great product for all of you.  I think the education sector helps us a lot of ways, in that if we can provide a great service to you, you can become great evangelists for the platform, and also in many times I think you are pushing in research and thinking about how to use environments and technologies like this.  I know that originally education was an important aspect to Second Life and Linden Lab and then a few years back we make a mistake of disconnecting with this community and increasing pricing and all kinds of things; and we’re actively now trying to reverse that."

He emphasized that he is encouraging openness and communication between users and Linden Lab.  Lindens are being told to be inworld, a policy that reverses the practice of the company in the past.  He spoke of encouraging dialogue between users and Linden Lab, particularly with educators.

“Of course. They make this all possible. We don’t do content. We empower content creators to draw in other users to share those that is incredibly important.”

The biggest obstacle to virtual world adoption by a wider audience:
“Ultimately, in order for Second Life to grow, it has to become easier to use. It takes too much time to engage and immerse people and make them functional.....Unless we do something technical, nothing will change...There was an under-investment in user experience....My dream is to make this something a huge number of people can enjoy and contribute to."

For those using Macs in Second Life, he promised to look into the current problem which prevents shared media from working. This is a long overdue and very welcomed promise.

The one message that educators can take back from the conference from him/Linden Lab:
 “We are here. We are willing to listen and dialogue. We want to talk about the future. The doors are open again. We want to know how to make you successful. That’s it. I’m here. I’m happy to talk with all of you. I want to learn and listen. I want to make you successful.”
  
View the full presentation via youtube courtesy of Mal Burns