Laura J’s Blog

I’ve recently been asked what the library plans to accomplish in Virtual World Environments (VWE’s)–

are we just creating avatars and playing games, or is there some sort of educational purpose?

This question pinpoints an immediate concern voiced by many librarians (in blogs, articles, in person, etc.). It raises an important issue in understanding higher education’s role in VWE’s. That is, are we just participating for the sake of video games and playing around? The answer is no but also yes.

Virtual worlds provide educators and students with a 3D environment which allows them to participate in real world scenarios while in a virtual land. The virtual aspect of this experience provides another outlet for distance education–allows distance students to attend a lectures, classes, meetings, exhibits, without even leaving the comfort of their homes. For other students (such as art and architecture), this virtual land allows them to participate in a real world scenario (such as creating a building/art) and share it with the world. I attended an Educause webinar yesterday on Michael Connors’ discussion of Critique It™, a program which allows visitors in Second Life to critique art students’ work. It was a very engaging discussion–if you have a minute, I would recommend visiting the link, “Critique It” in my blogroll.

In addition to allowing educators/students to participate in scenarios that they will face in real life, VWE’s allow this population to experience that which they normally wouldn’t. For example, UC Davis created a building in Second Life called “Virtual Hallucinations” (see blogroll for news clip) which allows users to experience (briefly) the life of a schizophrenic.

So, no, we would not just be participating in SL and other VWE’s just to have avatars and play games. However, we would be creating avatars and games to enhance students’ learning in this environment. This environment speaks to the younger generation–if we can create games which are fun but also help students learn, then we will be more likely to capture their attention.

There’s a whole world out there left to be explored.

The purpose of this blog is to find out what the libraries think of our involvement in a UF Virtual World Environment (VWE).

I am on a university-wide committee, the VWE Working Group, which is charged with exploring the development of a VWE at UF. However, before we develop a working infrastructure, we want to know what you think! What are your thoughts, concerns, and apprehensions about our involvement in virtual worlds? What place do you think we have in this world? How can virtual worlds enhance our role in the university? How might they inhibit our role?

The VWE Working Group meets at the end of each month (next meeting 4/16), so, please, post your thoughts/comments/useful links here so that committee will know your opinion

Thanks!

Laura