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Merit Network Blog Thinking About Virtual Worlds     By Donald J. Welch - August 25, 2008 9:40 am Probably the technology that has the largest potential impact on information technology in education is virtual worlds. It is certainly getting a lot of buzz at conferences and in the literature. I think we can see that it is climbing the adoption curve - slowly for now - but that could change quickly. So right now, some faculty in your institution are probably experimenting in SecondLife or a similar public access virtual world. The bandwidth requirements are not that great, poor latency degrades the experience, but other than that you probably have not paid a lot of attention to virtual worlds. You might want to start to think about virtual worlds and help shape the direction your institution moves. Remember how quickly wireless networks moved from the “what’s the ROI” to the “why don’t we have it” stage. I made a presentation at the Educause Midwest Regional conference last March on a framework for thinking about virtual worlds. Educause Midwest Program Link (halfway down Wed at 8:30) Essentially, I divide virtual worlds into four quadrants. Along one axis are “general purpose” and “specific function.” Along the other axis are “private use” and “public use.” Second Life and Active Worlds, for example, are public-access, general-purpose. The designers don't know what you're going to do in there, and they don't really care. They want you to be creative. In the opposite quadrant are virtual worlds such as military simulations. They're closed, and they have a specific purpose—for example, flying an aircraft or going into an urban area. The only people involved are the people the designers want to be involved. In one of the remaining quadrants are examples such as Battlefield and World of Warcraft. These are public-access but used for a specific function: to play the game. They’re not designed for users to do anything outside the parameters of that game. And then there are virtual worlds, such as those provided by Forterra Systems, that are general-purpose but private. So an institution would have that world to itself, with only student and faculty access, and it could control the behaviors and things that go on in that world. I think institutions need to start thinking about virtual worlds now, because the decisions to be made could have far reaching effects. First, as administrators, we all want to avoid disasters. In using a public space, there is a chance for inappropriate behavior, for certain things to happen. In an educational environment, we're used to having some kind of control, but we're probably not used to thinking about how we translate a safe and effective physical campus into a safe and effective virtual campus or virtual learning environment. Second, the real key is going to be the content. This content includes the virtual objects, their behaviors, the pedagogy around it—the whole thing. These compelling virtual learning environments are going to be developed. But they are not easy to develop, and it’s going to take a lot of time. The process may be an open source model, in which the educational community contributes, or it may be a commercial model, in which the institution buys or subscribes to a service. I don't know. But if an institution invests a lot of resources one way or and makes the wrong choice, it will be left with inferior content and will have wasted its resources. As one of the great chess masters said at the beginning of a chess game: "The mistakes are all there waiting to be made." As professors are getting involved and starting to formulate policies and maybe look at strategic investments, institutions need to try to figure out what the second- and third order effects will be of the moves they make now. They need to think and move beyond today. What are your thoughts on virtual worlds and the impact on your institution? 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