Dave White's presentation at joint Eduserv/CETIS event 16 January 2009

2. Overview A JISC funded project piloting the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments with Art & Design and Philosophy students A collaboration between: The University of Oxford; Leeds Metropolitan University; King’s College London Supported by: The JISC Emerge Community of Practice Core project team: Dave Cormier; Graham Hibbert; Margarita Perez-Garcia; Ian Truelove; Steven Warburton; David White Technology: Second Life (Linden Labs); OpenSim (Open Source); Wonderland (SUN micro-systems)

3. ‘ Reality Not Helpful’ “ You don’t wear a hat in real life…”

4. ‘ Reality Not Helpful’ “… and your not in a computer game in real life”

5. ‘ Another World?’ “ Each world while it is attended to is real in it’s own fashion.” William James , The Principles Of Psychology, 1890

6. ‘ An Extension of Real Life?’ “ I’m just having a virtual conversation” David White , On the Phone In His Office, 2008 massdistruction

7. Principle 1 “ Identify why and how the use of a MUVE should enhance student learning.”

9. MUVE = Large Breadth of Potential

10. Activity

11. Activity

12. Activity

13. Activity

14. Activity

15. Activity

16. Principle 2 “ Think carefully about the degree of collaboration that is required for completion of the in-world task.”

17. Collaboration? - Quests

18. Collaboration? - Quests

19. Collaboration? - Quests Gather your team members together. Sit on the ground in a circle and play word association. (e.g. Say a word in response to the word just spoken by the avatar on your right.) When you get bored, look back through the chat window and copy the best 8 word sequence. Build a sequence of objects to represent each word, and arrange in a circle. Use as chairs for team meetings.

21. Communication, Cooperation, Collaboration “ Building community in an online learning environment: communication, cooperation and collaboration” Melanie Misanchuk & Tiffany Anderson Complete interdependence Partial interdependence Complete independence Learning relationship Group accountability Individual accountability Individual accountability Accountability One goal/ one agenda One goal/ multiple agendas Multiple goals/ multiple agendas Goals/agendas Social negotiation to consensus Vote (majority rules) Agree to disagree Decision-making Common inquiry Delegation of tasks Individual inquiry Inquiry Knowledge generation Knowledge transmission Information transmission Learning Collaboration Cooperation Communication

22. Philosophical Problems The Gettier problem: John believes Jane owns a Lotus Elan. This is because John has seen Jane driving a Lotus Elan around town. But the car John has seen Jane driving is not her own car but her brother's. In fact though Jane does own a Lotus Elan, but she never brings it out of the garage. What does this show us about the classical account of knowledge as justified true belief?

23. Principle 3 “ Provide/develop ground rules for communication and use of channels. In-world communication functions very differently from real-world.”

24. Dialogue [8:11] Marianne Thespian: Cade: In dreams we have excellent reason to believe our beliefs are justified, but despite this many of the things we dream are not true (though some still are). [8:11] Elfed Helendale: Yes, if we dream of a red sport scar we must have seen one Well, we must have seen redness (until the demon brings that into question too). [8:12] Cade Halster: Marianne, I will need to think about that - the words are getting in the way again! [8:12] Elfed Helendale: whereas an evil genius could just plant the idea into our minds [8:12] Wichard Wisent: The dream issue seems to be why Descartes retests his propositions repeatedly. One test isn't every enough, [8:12] Marianne Thespian: Is that true Elfed, is it the case that if we dream of a P Ps must exist (if you see what I mean)? [8:12] Shak Maroon: If we were in fact dreaming all the time, wouldn't there still be some of our beliefs which would be true? [8:12] Elfed Helendale: not always Marianne, but some of the time [8:13] Marianne Thespian: "In the Meditations he's rather redundant"? What does that mean Wichard? [8:13] Marianne Thespian: Arrrg! Stop a second!

27. Contact - Information www.openhabitat.org [email_address]