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Week 11: Gaming, virtual worlds, and play in learning
My experience with virtual worlds is limited to a couple of months ago, when I signed up for a Second Life account after hearing so many things about it for libraries and otherwise. I created my avatar (which was a lot of fun) and ventured off onto the introductory island. I was trying to figure out how to move around and get off the introductory island when I was faced with...a naked guy...yes, it's true...running around and chasing me. Although I wasn't really expecting this, I let it go, and started exploring some more. I had just learned to fly when my computer crashed, and pretty much every time after this my computer continued to crash while using Second Life. I gave up! I never got around to exploring how libraries are creating a presence on it, which was part of the reason I signed up in the first place.
After completing the readings for this week, I had a chance to reflect on this experience with the authors' opinions in mind, and I can see that my Second Life experience brings up some interesting concerns/issues with using virtual worlds in libraries and education. The first is the sheer unpredictability of encounters in a virtual world that anyone has access to. As a few of the authors pointed out, virtual worlds are unpredictable since they are different from playing a "game" where there are rules, scores, and certain expectations. The unpredictability can give rise to many positive benefits (like learning in context) and can also give rise to unwanted or unexpected experiences and interactions. For this reason I think it's important to consider the ages and expectations of individuals who agree to participate in a virtual world, even for educational purposes.
The second issue my experiences raises is related to the sheer technological capacity of the computers being used in the library and, with that, ensuring that staff and patrons are trained to be able to use the technology and cope with any issues. This concern was raised in the readings as well. Using virtual worlds in libraries and education requires a solid infrastructure including funding to equip the library computers with up-to-date video cards (I believe that this was where my problem was) and other hardware, and fully trained staff who have experience and can troubleshoot with confidence.
This being said, what really impacted me from the readings this week was the idea of "play" and how vital this is to really learning and understanding new content. I do tend to separate "work" from "play" and when I have encountered games in classes, they have seemed a little out of joint with the course content. However, my best learning usually happens when I'm immersed in the content and lose track of time. A few of the authors did point out the difference between using games and integrating games into course content. When a game or virtual world is integrated into course content, I think it falls in line with course objectives and goals and helps to achieve specific learning outcomes. Virtual worlds have the potential to take this to the next level, in that the worlds they create allow for a unique learning context - and since participating in a virtual world can evoke a sense of actually being in another world, a user or a student's imagination and sense of play can help propel them to discover new answers or information.
I think that librarians should definitely team up with programmers to develop games meant for the library. I know that games are painfully expensive to make, however, so I do think that in the meantime it is great for librarians to develop games for use in their libraries. FindIt! and The Information Literacy Game are two good examples of how simple games could be created in or for the library. Another option is, of course, to utilize available commercial options. One of the authors described using Second Life to help medical students learn how to deal with patients. I thought it might be an interesting idea for library schools to use Second Life to train librarians on reference (I'm sure someone out there is probably doing this already!).
And, I just wanted to point out that I loved the Gaming Collection at UIUC Library website. Quirky and unique collections like this always make me happy (!) and they did a great job of explaining who they are, what they do, and what they have. I thought it was great that they pointed out the classes that they support as well as highlighting campus gaming groups, a few of which were social in nature rather than related to programming or academics.
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I laughed when I read about your avatar meeting a naked man, Aysha! I never had anything half as interesting happen to me in Second Life! You mentioned your computer crashing after you visited Second Life. Mine didn't crash but went really wonky after I left. I had to restart it to make my mouse work. After that I was hesitant about trying to re-enter. All I would need now is for my computer to go on the blink in these last crunch weeks of term! I'm not sure my computer has all the requirements for the game.
Good point about libraries needing a solid infrastructure before venturing too far into the world of gaming.
Aysha, I thought the idea of using games to promote learning was one of the most important part of this weeks' readings - using games like civilization or simcity to educate about history and urban planning (or even the importance of recycling), and the potential to create links to the collection and using "traditional" library resources related to game play makes a lot of sense to me. I also had concerns about computer capacity - video cards, even sound cards and enough RAM to support intensive gaming. I will be quite a leap for many libraries, I think, to change the focus from computers for internet use and catalogue searching to those equipped to support games like these.
Hi aysha,
Thanks for bringing up the point about integrating games into learning curriculums instead of simply using them because I think it's an important distinction to note. I think that games can be effective learning tools, but they need to be intentially integrated into the learning environment (which can be a library setting) and not just made available to the students to play.
Hi Aysha,
I'm wondering what your impressions were of FindIt and The Information Literacy Game. It seemed that they were both easy enough to use and I wondered if you noticed any pitfalls amongst the two? (I commented about FindIt in my blog)
Hi Aysha,
Your comments about the difficulty of controlling what goes on in Second Life reminds me of a similar problem my group project group faced when deciding whether to let the public contribute to our book review site or not. We didn't want to open ourselves up to offensive entries or comments, or just plain poorly-done ones. This is a question that libraries face with all social software I guess - monitoring quality within your organization is hard enough, without having to start monitoring what a whole public is doing. But perhaps the answer is just to make sure that no one under a certain age is participating, have general guidelines and monitoring, and otherwise relinquish some of our ideas about quality and professional image when weighed against the benefits of participation.