Week 11: Gaming and Virtual Worlds

Van Eck says that studies still have to be conducted as to the effectiveness of gaming for learning. Educators, librarians, and game developers will be more willing to spend resources on DGBL if there is strong concrete evidence that gaming is a strong learning medium. Even so, there is increasing attention being paid to gaming and virtual worlds in educational institutions and libraries. The readings were supportive of game-based learning.

Different types of games develop different types of skills. Every type of game is not suitable for every learning objective. Some games are effective for basic learning such as for children in elementary school. Virtual world simulations are effective for training the medical and defense field. I think that virtual worlds have great potential to offer accessibility to those who would normally have a hard time doing some things in the physical world. Someone with a disability would be able to access a virtual world library with more ease and they would be able to visit at a time convenient for them and not have to worry about hours of operation. I saw a video of a woman with cerebral palsy explaining how she uses Second Life to socialize and to move as she would not be able to as she is in a wheelchair.

Second Life Experience

This week, I got a Second Life and explored the virtual world. I admit it was a bit frustrating for me at first. It took me a little while to learn the controls, adjust my avatar’s appearance, interact with other people, teleport, etc. It was a good experience for me because I had to learn by trial and error how to do many things, even though there was a tutorial at the beginning. I was even approached by another avatar and offered help because he could see in my information profile that I was new, and probably also because I was standing around bald (because I didn’t know yet how to add the hair I wanted). The avatar offered to show me some essential functions, ‘landmarks’ and explain the SL culture. This ‘helpful’ avatar, however, did not have such noble intentions, I discovered. This was interesting in light of the readings about sexual predators last week on social online networking sites.

I read an interesting article a few months ago in the Hamilton Spectator about a virtual world called Whyville (http://www.thespec.com/go/healthfitness/article/373676). The avatars of this virtual world called Whyville were getting sick and no one knew why their avatar was sneezing and coughing. The avatars were experiencing symptoms of the Whyflu which was a venture of public health officials with the help of Whyville operators. People who were members of this virtual world learned about the flu and how, why and where to get flu shots in the real physical world. I thought this was a great way for public health officials to inform people about an important issue. This made me think that there are many ways that libraries can come up with to inform people and advertise services in virtual worlds.