Herding cats virtually Managing a multidisciplinary university island

Herding cats virtually: Managing a multi-disciplinary university island in Second Life A University Island Modern Languages Project Fiona Grindey and Julie Watson 29 th January 2010

Overview • Development of the Uo. S island • Our collaboration model • Maintaining contact, sharing ideas and sustainability • Island tour • Modern Languages in SL • M 3 (MUVE, Moodle and Microblogging) Project and the Language Café • Future directions • Questions and discussion

Collaboration Model • Joint approach between Administration and Education • Creative space – education/research projects internally funded • Ground level – structured space for University • Range of Schools from across University 3

Information points for Archaeology and Education Sandbox area for Archaeology Sandbox area for Education 4

Chemistry information area Chemistry sandbox Medicine information area Medicine sandbox area

Modern Languages information area Modern Languages Sandbox

Maintaining contact, sharing ideas and sustainability • Coordinator of all activity on the island (Fiona Grindey) within Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit • Southampton Educators Group (in world) • Regular updates on activity within Second Life • Wiki – for all projects to update progress so far (real teams) • Training events • Individual meetings – formal and informal • Sharing skills across projects in world/real world • Seminar events – ‘show and tell’ (one big event) 7

Island Tour http: //www. blip. tv/file/2813967

M 3 (MUVE, Moodle and Micoblogging) Project aims: • To integrate Second Life and Twitter with an existing (prearrival) online Moodle course for international students • To see what value this might add to students’ experience of the online course • To explore one way of using Second Life and Twitter for educational purposes

Moodle • Arrive UK • 5 week online course for international students coming to study at Uo. S • Focus on living and studying in the UK • Blend of technologies (learning objects, podcasts, videos, discussion forum, chat room) • E-tutored

MUVE and Microblogging Create a purpose built environment in SL where the student community can - experience part of the online course more immersively - meet and take part in activities with tutor - use course learning materials adapted/enhanced for SL Create a Twitter plug-in for Moodle and a Twitter link from SL - use Twitter to link students for social networking and discussion about course resources (e. g video)

Second Life development • Disaggregate and adapt selected Learning Objects for use in SL: Example: ‘Finding out about Southampton’ – THINc book ( history of Southampton, tourist attractions, climate etc) – Google floor map of south of the UK – Set of interactive local maps ( differing scales) – In world quiz

Project successes • Model for integration of new technologies within an online course • Adaptation/ enhancement of course learning resources (Learning Objects and videos) for use in SL and with Twitter • Open source Twitter plug-in for Moodle

Project challenges • Web 2. 0 services unreliable and subject to change/frequent updating • New technologies lack of accommodation to needs of non native speakers (Eng) • Supporting participants at distance with new technologies • SL Learning curve and participants’ lack of time

Future directions • Steering Group • Student evaluations • Expansion - interest from Careers, International Office, Widening Participation, The Library • Collaborations with Winchester University and Coventry • Investigating other virtual worlds

Thank you F. Grindey@soton. ac. uk J. Watson@soton. ac. uk Second Life: University of Southampton region: http: //slurl. com/secondlife/University%20 of%20 Southampton/132/126/26 M 3 project: http: //www. elanguages. ac. uk/secondlife/index. html