EDUCEDGE,

some great links for educators. Check the transcripts that you want. The June 1, 09 is a great one.

http://virtualworldsedu.info/educause/

“Demographics of Virtual Worlds”, by Jeremiah Spence (2008, in Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, pdf)

Abstract

Virtual worlds, as both a concept and an industry, has changed radically over the past 10 years, from a toy for the technological elite, to an over-hyped marketing phenomenon, to a needed reexamination of the uses and utility of virtual world technologies and experiences, as provided in this paper. Within academia there are a number of issues that require further examination. The academic community appears to be divided into four camps: 1. those who embrace virtual worlds; 2. those who ignore the shifting use of technology; 3. those who are aware but have not yet explored the technology; and 4. those who are entirely unaware that virtual worlds exist. There is an overwhelming focus of research, publications and funding on a single virtual world: Second Life, which does not serve more than a fraction of the entire population utilizing virtual worlds or similar technologies. An overview of the size, shape and forms of virtual worlds may have a positive impact on both of these issues. This paper presents an in-depth survey and analysis of virtual worlds and related technologies. (abstract: http://www.jvwresearch.org/v1n2_spence.html

The Virtual Worlds Research Consortium (http://vwrc.org) is planning to launch a large census project covering social virtual worlds, opensims, and mmorpgs over the next couples months.  VWRC is actively seeking partners for this project.

Intellagirl at http://ubernoggin.com/archives/383
“As some of you may know, as part of my dissertation research I’ve been noting the presence of ten facets present in virtual worlds. It’s taken me about 18 months to do it but I’ve noted the facets in over 70 worlds. If you’re interested in the chart I’ve published it here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pgKqGR6eOiPOKjMG9f856Sw

Read about it here: http://www.muvedesign.com/the-virtual-worlds-hype-cycle-for-2009/

A range of charts created by Gary Hayes across games, social networks, cross-media, broadband services, virtual worlds. Used in various presentations already and all marked as creative commons – attribution, non-derivative, non-commercial. See them all at http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhayes/sets/72157613331811096/

1-Distributed Story Online – (legend and better visual at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhayes/3251571561/sizes/o/in/set-72157613331811096/)

See the rest of the diagrams on Gary Hayes’s Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhayes/sets/72157613331811096/

http://www.elearningyellowpages.com/blog/2008/10/ditch-the-backpack-100-essential-web-tools-for-virtual-students

Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media. 333 pages. 2001 MIT press.

I just started it, so I’ll post my comments on it later.All I can say right now is that this book is a must for anyone interested in new media functions and effective applications, such as 3D VW whic borrow extensively from old media and innovate on the old conventions.

In the meantime, here is the editorial summary:

“In this book, Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media. He palces new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media’s reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame adn mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address hte viewer, and repressent space. He shows how categories adn forms unique to new media, such as interface and database, work wiht the more familiar conventions to make possible a new kind of aesthetic. [...]“

Come and join my group in RezEd titled “Social Presence in Virtual Worlds.” Go to http://www.rezed.org/group/socialpresenceinvirtualworlds

As I explained to Barry Joseph, I first thought about posting in the Language Learning/Teaching group or in the Psychology group, but my topic would have been diluted amongst other topics since Psychology in virtual worlds does not deal only with Social Presence.  I hope that this will help me unearth some issues or solutions from comments, questions and discussions with colleagues dealing with immediacy behaviors and other variables related to social presence.

The group features a resource section and a forum. I will add a RSS of a wiki, blog or podcast particularly of interest…when i find it. In the meantime, Keho will do.

I wonder if posting my new group to the SLED would be considered spamming?

Virtual World total registered accounts (the Universe-graph: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/all-world-numbers.jpg)

Blog http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?page_id=2092

2008 Forecast:

http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/virtual-world-growth.jpg

Interesting sources and blogs to watch:

http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/

http://artfossett.blogspot.com/2007/12/virtual-world-growth-predictions.html?showComment=1198169460000

Philip Rosedale: “Second Life:” What Do We Learn If We Digitize Everything? (Aug 16, 2007)

I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life (New Riders) by Mark Stephen Meadows (Jan 6, 2008)

Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
by Edward Castronova (Oct 15, 2006)

Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality
by Edward Castronova (Nov 27, 2007)

My find of the day! I had to share with the SLED and SLRL listserv as soon as I saw how extensive this thing was.

http://vr.coe.ecu.edu/vpbib.html

74 pages (word doc format) of goodies organized as:
General
Collaborative Virtual Environments
Disabilities -Education and Training
Medical Education and Training
Museum Education
Training With Virtual Reality
Military Training
Text-Based Virtual Reality

I am interested only in the citations relevant to the teaching side of the instructional event equation and those that do not limit the report to K-12 education explicitly…which shortens a bit the bib. Nevertheless, I am reading about a lot of work done WAY before the “gaming-and-MUVE-in-Education explosion.” A few pedagogical pieces are there. I particularly like Dr. Pantedilis’ model of decision for VR usage in classroom (http://vr.coe.ecu.edu/vredmod.html).

• Wardrip-Fruin, N., & Harrigan, P. (Eds.). (2006). First Person : New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Boston, MA: The MIT Press.

• Winn, W., & Bricken, W. (1992). Designing virtual worlds for use in mathematics education. Washington, D.C. http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/education/psc/psc.html
• Xin, L. (2007). The Puppet UI: Tools for nonverbal communication in computer mediated environments. 3D user interface, Media Lab. http://www.thoughtbird.com/projects/puppetui/puppetui_paper.pdf

• Yee, N., Bailenson, J.N., Urbanek, M., Chang, F., Merget, D. (in press). The Unbearable Likeness of Being Digital: The Persistence of Nonverbal Social Norms in Online Virtual Environments. The Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior. http://www.nickyee.com/pubs/Yee,%20Bailenson,%20Urbanek,%20Chang%20&%20Merget%20-%20SL%20NonVerbal.pdf

• Young, J. (2000, October 24). Distance Education: Instructors Try Out Updated MOOs as Online-Course Classrooms. Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/free/2000/10/2000102401u.htm

• Young, J., Jones, G., & Kalinowski, K. (2005). Virtual learning environments Technology for interactive class discussion. Paper presented at the 4th International conference on Technology in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Beijing, China.

• Young, J., Jones, G., & Kalinowski, K. (2005). Virtual learning environments Technology for interactive class discussion. Paper presented at the 4th International conference on Technology in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Beijing, China.

• Young, J. R. (2000, October 6). Virtual reality on a desktop hailed as new tool in distance education. The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A43. http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i06/06a04301.htm

• Thomson, J. A., Tolmie, A. K., Foot, H. C., Whelan, K. M., Sarvary, P., & Morrison, S. (2005). Influence of Virtual Reality Training on the Roadside Crossing Judgments of Child Pedestrians. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 11(3), 175-186.

• Tolhuizen, J. H. (1996). MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes and more: Using text-based virtual worlds to teach communication. Indiana: ERIC.

• Volet, S., & Wosnitza, M. (2004). Social Affordances and Students’ Engagement in Cross-National Online Learning: An Exploratory Study. Journal Of Research in International Education, 3(1), 5-29.

• Vreman-de Olde, C., & de Jong, T. (2006). Scaffolding learners in designing investigation assignments for a computer simulation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22(1), 63-73.