Peter Miller - Teaching in Second Life: more than pretty pictures? Slides from the University of Liverpool Learning and Teaching Conference 2009.

1. Peter Miller Biological Sciences Teaching in Second Life: more than just pretty pictures?

2. Outline What is Second Life? What did we try to do? Did it work? What happens next?

3. Second Life is built from user-generated content (prims) Architecture Single prim Princeton Urban planning (Unity) Berkurodam

4. Mont St Michel

5. In SL you can build worlds that are imaginary or that no longer exist HUDs for audience,actors and navigation Theatron Island

6. Can we use SL to model the architecture of the cell? Opening of Skylabs on Nature’s Elucian Omega Island, June 2009 Annu. Rev. Biochem. 2008. 77:583–613

7. Why? Active learning!

9. Texturing a prim

10. Protein rezzing

11. Database use

12. Making a presentationCore skills module; focus on communication and problem-solving 2 h introduction and 5 x 1 h sessions Introduce students to working in multi-user virtual environments Context: interaction between host and bacterial cell wall

14. Prim-based model

15. Scratch

17. What did we learn? Students do not know about SL Students will edit their appearance Need simple, consistent navigation Plan carefully (include groupwork) Meaningful milestones and de/briefing One hour barely long enough for a class Hard to be inworldand helping students Keep it simple

18. Student evaluations 26% named SL sessions as one of three most disliked elements 100% of students satisfied with project allocation (n = 19) External Examiner strongly supportive of continued use of SL

19. Tuberculosis build Cityscape Cellscape Datascape

20. Features found in alpineTB sanatoria Notecard Hyperlinkedimage Inworld label Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Cityscape level Quests across multiple levels,Notecards can be annotated Integration of images, either inworld or personal

21. Protein Gene marker (yellow)with interactome (cyan) and accessory map Metabolicpathwaybrowser Drug ORFs on giant genome Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Datascape level Quests across multiple levelsData/web integration Shared presenceComparison with other species

22. Conclusions More than pretty pictures: context! Does not Suit all students Handle text /web well Like low-end PCs Does Suit visual and kinesthetic learners Opportunity to tailor projects to students Development getting easier Procedural simulation authoring tools PIVOTE (paramedic training) Citrus Virtual (H&S)

24. Elsewhere: Washington U and i-GEM synthetic biology challenge

25. Student work: Gut microbiota with focus on possible rolesin obesity and diabetes

26. Issues in kitchen design/layout Poorly organisedfood storage Notecard Hyperlinkedimage Features found in alpineTB sanatoria Robot avatar programmedto respond to questions from inspector Student work: Training simulation for environmental health inspectors