06.+Case+Study+3+-+Genome

=Case Study 3 - Genome & Second Life=

**Summary**
Second Life is a 3D virtual world created by Linden Lab in 2003. It is an internet-based platform, accessible via the Second Life software. As part of this project, I observed it as an example of a virtual learning environment, particularly given the hype which has surrounded it since its launch. Upon arrival in Second Life the most noticeable aspect (to me) was the complete lack of people. This was unexpected given that the application had been toted as a highly populated social networking environment. An hour’s wandering between different islands finally revealed one person, who wasn’t interested in talking.

The environment itself seems outdated when compared to some of the high end role playing games (RPG) on the market today, though one assumes this is to cope with piping the maps and graphics through a broadband connection and to make the environment more accessible to those with lower-end graphic and video cards in their machines. Manoeuvring through the environment was also difficult, with the character often getting stuck behind or under objects.

Having heard about Genome, an island created for the study of genetics, I was interested in observing this environment. Upon arrival here, I was greeted with the same emptiness and desolation as the other areas of the island. There were no people. Observations by Mohney (2007), agree with this. However it was clear that the island was intended for interaction and education. I came across a great deal of content, such as three dimensional models, billboard style cards with images and what appeared to be a lecture podium with slides on a screen. The problem here, however, was that there was no context to give any of this content any relevance. As a user who had wandered into the area, I was unsure how to interact with the content, what it referred to, or if it was part of another set of content elsewhere on the island. On first entering Genome, the user is presented with a note card telling you what is available to do on the island, however I noted that this had not been updated since 2004 – therefore there is a possibility that the island is not kept up to date.

Given the difficulty navigating the island, the lack of people present with whom to interact and the difficulty applying a context to the content present on it, it seems more logical to present the educational materials in the form of a standard website. The benefits here not only include a more structured approach to the information, but also a navigation system that the majority of users would be familiar with. The social opportunities of Second Life could also be incorporated into a website via such technologies as blogs, forums and live chats. In this regard, a particular disadvantage of using Second Life as an educational platform would be the learning curve that the majority of users would experience in simply logging in and moving around, let alone more advanced functions such as interacting with educational material inherent to the environment. From a pedagogical point of view, having experienced Second Life purely as a resource centre, the problem arises that one has no way of knowing how the creator of the educational materials intended them to be used, or how he intended a learner or group of learners to interact with them. Additionally, unlike other social technologies such as Twitter or Facebook, there is no way of knowing when the last activity in the environment occurred. From a learning perspective this is a disadvantage as it means you cannot review learning conversations and discussions that may have occurred between other participants.

With this in mind it seems Second Life as a learning environment is best utilised synchronously. From my own observations I can see the potential that it would have if a group of students were to be taken into the environment with a guide or facilitator to give them instruction to which areas of the island to look at. This will allow them to put the information into context more relevant to them and help them to structure their own learning while in the environment.

Given that my own observations did not shed any light on how Second Life is actually used as a learning environment, I did some research into others’ experiences. Mesko (2007) discusses his interactions with a science environment known as The Gene Pool. He describes it as having plenty of educational items, such as a virtual three dimensional eukaryotic cell, and interactive environments where you can recreate famous scientific experiments. His blog post has numerous screenshots, a few of which I have included in this wiki.



A giant eukaryotic cell. Image from Mesko 2007, available:[]

Example punnet squares. Image from Mesko 2007, available: []

However while it seems that The Gene Pool may have been a better structured individual learning environment than Genome, as he was clearly able to interact with it on his own without confusion, it is noteworthy that he did not describe any interactions with other users in this environment. Furthermore, if one reads the comments on his blog post, one user reports frequenting The Gene Pool but always finding it empty.

A recreation of the famous Hershey-Chase experiment. Image from Mesko 2007, available: [] Mesko, again in 2008, made further observations with regard to science education in Second Life by attending a slideshow presented in the virtual environment by the personalised genetics company 23andMe. Two presenters showed their slides to an audience which rapidly grew, and at the end of the presentation, the audience were able to ask the presenters questions, which they then answered. Here we see the benefit of Second Life in terms of being a synchronous medium for education. The presentation was scheduled, as such users knew when and where to be at which time. However the issue of usability is still important here.



A small crowd growing as the presentation occurs. Image from Mesko 2008, available: []

In this screenshot we can see the size of the audience at the peak of the presentation. However, given that many people who may be interested in the subject matter at hand may not be technically skilled enough to use Second Life, perhaps the presentation would have been more effective in a more traditional online medium such as a webcast or through a live chat.

Larger institutions are also utilising Second Life as a learning environment. Harvard Law School, for example, experimented with using Second Life as a classroom, the benefit of this being that it is possible to have a realistic classroom experience with the students (Zhang 2007). However, again we are seeing an example a synchronous, organised meeting here. Ohio University has successfully implemented an asynchronous learning environment, however, developing self-paced learning materials and games (Zhang 2007). These exist in the form of "learning kiosks," in which students can access presentations, podcasts and blogs (Zhang 2007). Therefore, it seems that it may not necessarily be the medium which makes asynchronous learning possible, but the structure of the learning materials created in the medium.

Second Life is also being utilised for more general, public science education, which is an interesting shift away from the university focused education areas previously described. Crea (2008) describes HealthInfo Island, a medical and consumer health library, which is staffed by real life health science librarians. Here, users can provide health resources and virtual displays to those who visit (Crea 2008).

media type="youtube" key="EfsSGBraUhc" height="344" width="425" align="center"

Video from Pastuer 2007, available: http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/27/science-education-in-sl/

The video above (Pasteur 2007) shows a range of science learning environments available in second life. The range of scientific content available is endless, and being that a great deal of it is created by scientists and scientific organisations such as Nature means the accuracy is high. The video describes "experiential learning environments," such as the giant eukaryotic cell in Genome Island that an avatar can enter and interact with. Clearly the potential for science education and interaction with content is great, however I still believe that there needs to be a series of improvements to the learning environment before the overall benefits are able to be seen. For example, there needs to be greater support for asynchronous learning. In addition, despite the wealth of resources such as those shown in the video, there needs to be some structure or instruction as to how to access these resources and where to find them, in particular for newer users of Second Life who are unfamiliar with the virtual learning environment.

Critique
I believe it is important to address the theories that have been discussed throughout this project in regards to Second Life as a science learning environment.

Situated learning theory is particularly interesting in this context. As discussed, this theory places importance on learning being relational to the context in which it occurs. In some cases it has been noted in Second Life that the use of a virtual environment can actually situate learning more effectively than in a classroom or laboratory. Take for example, the giant eukaryotic cell. The learner can interact directly with the cell, actually entering it and interacting with its intracellular components. One could argue that learning cannot be any more situated than this! Second Life also gives you the opportunity to conduct virtual experiments – this is also situating the learner in a virtual laboratory and allowing them to perform similar tasks as they would in a real laboratory. Lave and Wenger (1991) place importance on communities of practice in situated learning, however. In my experiences I was unable to find any such communities in Second Life, though as described in the literature above, these do exist – adding a social element to the situated learning which can occur in Second Life.

Constructivism is slightly more difficult to apply with regard to Second Life. Here, a learner must use their past experiences and context to construct and understand new ideas, however in Second Life it is difficult to say if the educational materials were designed for a particular learning style or with a particular context in mind. Furthermore, a user with no technical background who explores a science learning environment in Second Life may find it difficult to construct new knowledge and apply it to previously held ideas due to their lack of technical background, which makes it inherently difficult to explore the environment, let alone interact with the content. That said, a learner who is technically proficient, familiar with the Second Life platform and has a background in science may find the science learning environments particularly fulfilling – highlighting the important of context to the effectiveness of a learning environment.

Scaffolded Knowledge Integration can be applied in parts to Second Life. Similarly to constructivism, the learner must reflect on the new information, relate this to their previous context and form a conclusive idea of the subject at hand, however again this will be dependent on the learner and their context. Therefore this scaffolding technique may only be successful for some of the learners. On the other hand, Scaffolded Knowledge Integration also focuses on the visibility of thinking, and in a virtual classroom scenario or social group, this may be more likely to occur. It has been found that in virtual environments, learners are more likely to discuss and question content within their peer group than in a face to face environment (Hoadley 2000, Schoenfeld-Tacher //et al//. 2001), therefore they may be more likely to learn from each other and make their thinking visible to each other in Second Life than they would in a physical classroom.

A common theme throughout this discussion is the importance of a social aspect of Second Life. Clearly the system has huge potential for social learning, however the main emphasis on this is synchronous social learning. Many distance courses, such as the Histology course described by Schoenfeld-Tacher //et al//. (2001) involve a heavy degree of social learning, however this mainly occurs asynchronously through the use of a discussion board. Planned social events in Second Life such as conferences and lectures involve a heavy social aspect, with users discussing, observing and modeling the behaviour and interactions of others. However if a learner wanted to utilise a science learning environment such as Genome as an asynchronous social learning environment, they would find little success, as there is no feature available that allows a user to review previous discussions or activities that other users have undergone, or even when there were last active users in the environment.

Finally, it is difficult to apply Bloom’s Taxonomy as we are unsure what the creators of the educational resources intended, particularly given that this taxonomy is usually applied to curriculum design. However we can speculate that depending on the environment and activities, Second Life has the potential to encourage thinking throughout the spectrum of the cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Simple exploration of Second Life may encourage thinking in the lower end of the taxonomy, but users performing interactive science experiments or participating in an organised event such as a virtual classroom or conference may exercise aspects of higher level thinking, for example in evaluating the effectiveness of an experimental technique or analysing results.

Therefore, ultimately, I think it is important to recognise that Second Life as a learning environment has great potential. The ability to create accurate, 3D resources with which an avatar can interact presents an interesting opportunity for learning, in some cases one which is unparalleled in the real world. However the lack of support and structure for learners and the inability in most cases to learn asynchronously, particularly socially is a serious drawback of the environment. Furthermore, the learning curve necessary to use the software on even a rudimentary level may be a particular barrier to learning for many learners.