Research Studies

Please contribute links to research plans or studies about Second Life’s use in education, corporate, and training environments.

PC vs. Mac Usage

• What percentage of educational users use pc vs. macs?
• What percentage of corporate training user user pc vs. macs?
• What browsers are used the most?
• What virtual worlds would be viable for both environments?

Virual Worlds to Explore

1. SecondLife
   (Mac or PC)
2. Lively by Google
   (XP/Vista only with IE or Firefox)
3. Forterra
   (private network OLIVE)
   
4. Open Life Grid
   (XP/Vista only)
   
5. Vivaty
   (XP/Vista only)
6. DeepGrid using OpenSimulator
   (Mac or PC)
7. Qwaq Forums
8. IMVU

Research Questions

• What do we want to research?
• Possible choices?
• What companies are offering virtual worlds services?
• Which virtual worlds are used for education/training?
• Relative pros/cons of each virtual worlds.
• Who is closest to knocking SL off as the leader and why?
• Given the knowledge/skills learned, what do I think about SL as an instructional tool?
• What could be done better?
• How could the barriers to usage be overcome
• How can it be used in blended learning?
• What are it’s pedagogical affordances?
• What are some creative ways in which it can be used for adult learning?

Second Life 101

Learning how to have a Second Life

Second Life is a hot topic among corporate, government and educational entities who want to find an immersive environment where learners can collaborate, simulate, participate, experiment, and communicate. It allows a ‘safe’ environment which does not have barriers such as geography, time, safety considerations, or even physical limitations. How can I use this environment for teaching and learning? How do I get started? What do I need to know? How do I get involved in this community of practice? Is this a fad or an authentic educational tool? These are the questions to be explored here.

Please help me explore these issues with your reflections, knowledge and observations about Second Life.