Second Life
Students and professors who “fly” to class, a 3-D model of a brain, and a virtual amphitheater. All those elements and more are part of a brave new world for research, remote learning and — perhaps — new paradigms in higher education.
By Jeremy Rosenberg
You teleport over to LMU’s “new” island. When you touch down, perhaps you sit on the benches by the fountain, chat with your classmates or read the William James quote etched into the waist-high curved wall. Maybe you head over to the exhibit that shows what it’s like to be inside a human brain. And while you’re doing any of the above, you appear as almost any kind of person you like, even an anime creature or just a younger, more muscular version of yourself — your virtual image, called an avatar.
You are inside what may be an essential component of the future of higher education: the immersive Internet, or Web 3.0. Specifically, you are “in world,” a member of the online community called Second Life, where estimates of regular users vary widely and range from 300,000 to more than six million.
Second Life is a virtual world (secondlife.com) in which users, who enter by using a password, socialize, play games, buy and sell virtual products, and generally interact as in the real world. But the possibilities in Second Life are not limited to gaming, socializing and business. Second Life also is home to a cadre of real-world colleges and universities, such as Harvard, Princeton and Stanford, that are exploring this virtual world for its potential to take online learning to a new level.
“We have an opportunity at LMU to do something great,” says Richard Gilbert, professor of psychology in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, “to become the world’s leading educational institution in the emerging three-dimensional Internet.”
Gilbert is a leading proponent of the LMU Virtual Worlds Initiative and its related Second Life efforts. As of this writing, eight professors and administrators from various departments are part of the project team.
“Literacy in the 21st century,” says Joseph Hellige, vice president for Research and dean of Graduate Studies, “includes communication using various forms of new media, like interactive Web technology, simulation and virtual reality.”
A NEW “WORLD”
In June 2008, Hellige convened a meeting that included Gilbert, John Dionisio and Stephanie August, assistant and associate professors, respectively, in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The gathering led to a collaboration between the Department of Psychology and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science on the “development of a virtual teaching, research and conferencing campus in Second Life.”
Bellarmine College and the Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering chipped in funds, as did benefactors Irene and Edward D. Holly (an amphitheater on LMU’s Second Life campus is named in honor of the latter). In summer 2008, each department purchased an island, and Psychology Island was developed to offer real courses in Second Life. Today, all or parts of five courses are taught there. Also, cutting-edge psychology research work is underway.
“Having a presence in Second Life opens the door to research that would be difficult or impossible to conduct in our ‘first life’ world,” Hellige says. “It also provides a cost-effective way to immerse students in simulations of almost any imaginable environment and to study the effects on student learning.”
Dionisio and Gilbert team-teach a course called “An Introduction to Virtual Worlds: Psychological, Computer Science and Aesthetic Perspectives.” Half the course time is spent in a real classroom at LMU, and the other half inside Psychology Island, via the 160-seat virtual reality lecture hall equipped with real-time audio, video and document-download capabilities.
Some educators say that Second Life classes can help students who withdraw in class, perhaps because of their appearance or a lack of confidence in their ability to engage in discussions. Because everybody in Second Life chooses or designs their own avatars, physical attractiveness means less. “I have already seen students,” Dionisio says, “who seem to be transformed by their use of a virtual immersive environment. They show an excitement and enthusiasm that previously seemed missing with traditional approaches.”
Talisa Meloche-McNally ’09 is one of four students working with Gilbert on research for his in-world P.R.O.S.E. Project, which stands for Psychological Research on Synthetic Environments.
When Meloche-McNally tells friends and colleagues about her Second Life work, she explains that for her, Second Life is not about being part of a game, and it isn’t a place “full of creepy weirdos.” Instead, she says: “I often argue about the real-life nature of Second Life (it is a micro-economy) and emphasize the normalcy (although I use that term very loosely) of the population of Second Life users. Most people on Second Life are there for business purposes or are just average people like you or me.”
BELLS AND WHISTLES?
Some observers are skeptical about Second Life’s educational horizons. First, Second Life, like the Internet, has its share of adult activities and regions. Second, how to guarantee that an avatar is being operated by the appropriate user, in a virtual test setting for example, is a concern. Finally, some educators say that the virtual classroom cannot match the face-to-face learning that takes place in a real classroom. They wonder: Is Second Life merely a bells-and-whistles diversion when it comes to education?
Hellige suggests that some questions can be answered by more research into the technology’s potential. “It would certainly be useful if we showed that students can learn as well in the virtual world as in the real world,” Hellige says. “But the really exciting thing would be to discover how to use the virtual experience to produce learning that goes beyond what we can do without the virtual experience.”
Gilbert foresees other LMU departments adding courses and even their own islands. He also envisions vanguard programming, such as creating dream archives that would allow visitors to experience 3-D, animated dreams of others and lead to improved ability to understand and empathize with others.
“The three-dimensional Internet is not some kind of fad,” Gilbert says. As for increasing the LMU presence? “We have very little to lose,” he says. “We have an enormous amount to gain.”
A Virtual Research Lab
Richard Gilbert, professor of psychology, has begun researching how people use the immersive, or 3-D, Internet. As part of his P.R.O.S.E. Project — Psychological Research on Synthetic Environments — Gilbert and his team of students survey Second Life users about:
• Addiction to the immersive Internet
• Personality characteristics of immersive Internet users and those of their in-world avatars
• Sexuality in the immersive Internet and its relationship to real-world sexuality, and
• Similarities and differences between intimate relationships in Second Life and those in real life.
According to Gilbert, his research on addictions is the first empirical study on addiction to the emerging 3-D Internet ever conducted.
Gilbert also has received permission to research some of the psychological effects on people with physical or medical disabilities who use Second Life. He and Nora Murphy, assistant professor of psychology, plan to study whether the experience of controlling a completely healthy avatar and interacting with other users outside of a “filter” of disability has beneficial effects for subjects.
Jeremy Rosenberg is a Los Angeles-based writer. His “Dealing With a Downturn” appeared in Vistas (Spring 2009).