SPRING 2009 / Volume 8 - Issue 3
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Dr. Pamela R. Mitchell, associate professor of speech pathology and audiology is using Second Life to educate her students and to collaborate with other professionals in her field. Photo by Bob Christy
Digital and Game-Based Learning Experiences Enrich Education
BY RACHEL WENGER PELOSI, '00
PHOTOS BY BOB CHRISTY, '95
rofessor Melvie Pawpaw is not unlike many faculty members at Kent State University. She is passionate about inspiring and educating students, enjoys boasting school pride by wearing her Golden Flashes t-shirt and loves a piping hot cup of Starbucks coffee.
What might set Pawpaw apart from the bunch is her ability to soar (literally), or the pet sock monkey named Minky planted on her shoulder, which may or may not throw peanuts, depending on its mood.
No, Pawpaw is not all that eccentric, really. In fact, in her home of Second Life, an Internet-based virtual reality environment, she is right at home. Second Life users socialize and interact with other people through avatars similar to Melvie Pawpaw.
Professor Melvie Pawpaw is a digitally rendered representation of — and created by — Dr. Pamela R. Mitchell, associate professor of speech pathology and audiology in the College of Education, Health and Human Services. She explains fondly that Minky, the monkey on her avatar’s shoulder, is a virtual representation of a real-life sock monkey that she cherished as a child.
Mitchell is a self-proclaimed “techie,” who says she has always been interested in online learning and its implications for education. While attending a podcasting seminar many years ago, she was introduced to Second Life by a child sitting on the sidelines of the class.
“Here was this little 12-year-old boy enjoying Second Life, and I asked him to explain to me what he was doing. He showed me some really cool stuff,” Mitchell says. “He could have been doing anything at that time, but he was more interested in moving around in this virtual environment, talking to other people,” she says.
Embracing the brave new world
It wasn’t long before Mitchell delved into the virtual world herself, creating Melvie Pawpaw and pondering what Second Life might mean for educating students and also for her field of speech pathology and audiology.
Today, she holds her Communication Modalities and Assistive Technology and Research Methods classes in Second Life, but, initially, she was faced with the task of finding a place in the virtual world to hold the classes.
Mitchell received grant money with which she rented and then purchased a virtual island, with virtual dollars — also known as “Lindens” “in world,” — to use as a classroom building or a gathering place for students.
“There is some discussion about creating buildings or structures ‘in world’ that help make students feel comfortable. One of the ways in which you can create a student-friendly environment is by modeling it after a traditional classroom,” she explains.
Mitchell’s virtual classroom is lined with simple boards or areas where she posts class notes, presentations, YouTube videos and other technology relating to the subject matter. Students, represented by their avatars, can sit in the classroom or on occasion even take virtual field trips with their avatars, touring one of the many hospitals in Second Life or attending conferences to learn from experts in the field of speech pathology and audiology.
Online class software like Web CT or Vista can sometimes feel pretty cut and dried, with students not having a lot of interaction with one another, Mitchell says.
“With Second Life the strength is that students can be ‘in world’ at the same time, freely socializing and asking me questions that I can directly answer,” she says.
Second Life also opened research doors for collaboration and has provided joint learning opportunities for Mitchell and students to work with faculty, students and professionals from around the United States, who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to interact otherwise, she says. She conducts research with occupational therapy faculty at Thomas Jefferson Univeristy in Philadelphia and co-teaches with a faculty member in Cincinnati. She recently met another collaborator for the first time at a “real life” conference.
“And I recognized her because she looked so much like her avatar,” Mitchell laughs.
Second Life spurs imagination, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, which can sometimes be difficult to do in a traditional format, she adds.
“It’s always a challenge to engage 30 or 40 graduate students in a traditional classroom, but the Second Life set-up allows for all of these things to happen. It opens up potential,” she says.
As far as Melvie Pawpaw is concerned, Mitchell says that students are more likely to talk with her avatar in the virtual world because it is a more relaxed interaction, which can help break down some of the teacher/student barriers.
“I really like that students are able to feel more comfortable with Melvie and me.”
Steve Zapytowski, professor of design and technology in the School of Theatre and Dance. Photo by Bob Christy
The show must go on, in Second Life
Steve Zapytowski, professor of design and technology in the School of Theatre and Dance, says that until people experience Second Life or virtual worlds for themselves, the concept can be one that is complicated to grasp.
“Second Life is like being in a room with a bunch of other people. But you aren’t there, and they aren’t there either. Everyone is at home, at their own computer, but yet all [are] in the same room talking to each other,” he explains.
In the case of the Kent Second Life Ensemble, composed of Zapytowski, Mark Monday, assistant professor of theatre, and 12 Kent State students, the group performed a groundbreaking virtual play in Second Life while sitting side-by-side at computers located in the same room.
Currently, there are Second Life theatre companies that conduct productions together with actors performing their lines into microphones from their own personal computers, but Zapytowski says that there is no other group in Second Life that has performed in the virtual world from the same location.
“No other project has the support of a major university, the support of a computer science department, and is producing at the technical or artistic level at which we are working,” Zapytowski says.
The Kent Second Life Ensemble is composed of undergraduate and graduate students, from theatre and computer science, who were enrolled in a Virtual Live Performance class during the Fall Semester 2008. The ensemble gathered twice a week to prepare for their finale, which included performing two plays in the Wakefield Mystery Series live for a Second Life audience.
Practices and performances were conducted in the Obrádlan Síorai, or Theatre Eternal, that Zapytowski constructed in Second Life. Thanks to the kindness of Rab and Loretto Spitteler, a couple from Australia who took interest in the production, the theatre location in the virtual world was donated free of charge to the university. Zapytowski says that the couple is known as “rulers” of Eternia, the name of the island in Second Life. The Spittelers also performed community relations, publicizing the event “in world” for the Kent Second Life Ensemble.
The production caught the attention of Second Life members from around the globe including a costume designer from Germany; a photographer from the United Kingdom, who was the wardrobe designer; a “shape artist” (a term Zapytowski coined himself) from Milwaukee; a prop master from Nevada and a marketing director from the Philippines.
Zapytowski says that the class learned as they were performing.
“When actors rehearse in real life, they discover what they can do that the director may or may not like,” he says. “And around mid-semester, I noticed that the students discovered this virtual medium and how to use it in a better way.”
For example, Zapytowski says that because the avatars don’t exhibit many facial expressions, the actors had to create alternative actions so that they could effectively portray to the audience that they were speaking.
The learning curve for students understanding the technical dynamics of Second Life was not as steep as Zapytowski and Monday thought prior to the experience, he says.
“We had three undergraduate students who caught on faster than the graduate students,” he says. “It’s not because they are that much younger, but because they have spent more time playing video games than the graduate students.”
Dean Zeller, a graduate student in computer science, wrote scripts so that the productions would have controllable lighting, similar to that of a real-life production, which can be difficult to achieve in a virtual environment. The lighting technology features, too, are a first for productions in Second Life.
Many modifications were made in the construction and set-up of the virtual theatre so that the avatars would become more visible to the audience. A light-colored stage floor was used in the virtual theatre instead of a dark floor. Audio for the production was passed to a mixer and traveled through a streaming server, which was then streamed directly into the Second Life environment.
In fall 2008, Eternity Castle, a community in Second Life composed of members from around the world, recognized Zapytowski’s work with the Kent Second Life Ensemble and the Wakefield Cycle Production Team.
“I was honored to win a Second Life award. There was a ceremony with speeches, refreshments and dancing (in world),” he says. “It was nice to be recognized.”
AVATAR: The digital representation of your virtual self in Second Life, your "character"
NEWBIE/NOOB: newcomer to Second Life
IN-WORLD: Anything that takes place within the virtual environment of Second Life
GRID: The world of Second Life is sometime referred to as a "grid" or "the grid". One grid is what other virtual worlds may call one world or one "shard". All visible islands and regions on a map are included in the term "grid".
REGION: An area in Second Life, usually an island land mass measuring 256m by 256m
PRIMITIVE/PRIM: The basic building block of Second Life, also called a 'prim'. All in-world objects are constructed from primitives, which are basic shapes (such as a box, sphere, cylinder, etc.) that can be made into various forms and combined.
REZ: To bring an object into 3d-space within Second Life by dragging
the object from inventory into the world, or by creating a new prim with the Second Life building tools.
LAG: Delays in-world caused by slow connections or too many objects in the same place.
LANDMARKS: Records a location for later return (similar to bookmarks).
GESTURES: Scripts for making your avatar wave, dance, shrug, clap, etc.
SLURL: A link you can click on in a web browser that takes you to a
particular place in Second Life.
TELEPORT: To instantly travel to a location (as opposed to manually walking or flying there) in Second Life
LINDEN DOLLAR (L$): Virtual currency used in Second Life
CALLING CARD: An inventory item you can trade with other residents. Calling cards serve as a contact list of sorts.
NOTECARD: A small text file within Second Life. You can embed pictures, landmarks, and even objects inside notecards.
Keeping it real
A Kent State learning community was formed two years ago to support faculty like Mitchell and Zapytowksi, who are engaging in digital game-based learning through virtual reality in Second Life or other virtual worlds, or for those in the university community involved in the area of game development itself.
The group draws several faculty members and graduate students from a variety of departments and campuses to examine ways of bringing the power of games and virtual worlds to Kent State educational practices.
The Digital Game-Based Learning Community recently received financial support from Dr. Patricia Book, co-leader of the group and vice president for regional development, who saw the effort as leading-edge and one that engages faculty in transdisciplinary projects.
“To see the knowledge and experience shared among the faculty in this group is very energizing. We see the breadth of faculty expertise … relevant to work in this new, exciting area — teaching and learning in virtual space,” she says.
“These projects bring together expertise from several disciplines and are highly innovative,” Book says. “The digital-based game industry is a global burgeoning business, yet we are just beginning to see the potential for serious games and simulation as a platform for learning and education. The kind of work in which you see our faculty engaged directly addresses some of the research and development needs that have been identified by the National Science Foundation and others calling for further exploration to ensure America’s competitiveness in what is an exciting and emerging field. This is great preparation for our students.”
Dr. Dale Cook, professor of teaching, leadership and curriculum studies and Summit Professor for Education Technology, co-leads the learning community, which is composed of about 25 faculty and graduate students. He believes that Kent State has the potential to become the regional center for a games and learning institute, which would work in conjunction with other Northeast Ohio higher education institutions.
The university resource center would connect with community agencies, corporations and K-12 schools, he says.
“Faculty members who have an interest in this technological area, from many different disciplines, including art, communications, computer science, education, theatre and technology, would be involved. The center would have connections with corporations and businesses needing games and/or simulations in their organizations,” he says.
Depending on a business’s level of need, the center would have students work on the development of games. If the business had more resources, the center would be the conduit between the agency and game developers. The center would then conduct its own research on the impact of the tools developed.
While the idea for the resource center is in the planning stages, Cook says that the funding for the infrastructure isn’t where it needs to be. The project already received a small grant from the Ohio Learning Network for this purpose, but additional funds would need to be raised to fully launch the initiative.
Kent State’s theatre, animation, art, computer science and education programs are also in early discussions about joining together to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum for students interested in this field.
“Right now, we’re starting to see our efforts pay off,” Cook says. “We are continually moving forward, and this is an exciting time for all involved.”
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