SL and Other Virtual Learning Options

An article came out Monday (3/23) on virtual training and options beyond Second Life (SL). One of the first things the author, Jon Wilcox, mentions is that SL is not the virtual world darling it used to be. Wilcox is not the first to suggest that SL has entered a "gloom stage" (see Greenberg, 2008), but he doesn't dwell on this apparent turn of events. Nor does Wilcox imply that this signals a decreased interest in virtual learning. On the contrary. He instead turns to examine virtual worlds that are being investigated such as OLIVE, IBM's INNOV8 v.2, and TruSim. Mary Matthews, the strategy and business development director at TruSim outlines several requirements for successful virtual worlds. She argues that one of the most important features can also be the most difficult to determine - the right level of fidelity. Stated another way, not every training or learning task may require a highly detailed representation or a depiction of realistic characters.

While the current economic downturn may make some institutions more cautious in their experimentations with virtual worlds, this is not the case for everyone. Wilcox mentions, for example, that 50% of classes on one subject at a Boston university are using virtual worlds. Unfortunately, the name of the institution and the specific subject are not provided. On the surface, this sounds impressive, but it may not be. The subject could one in which two classes are offered; this would mean only one class was using virtual worlds. Also, why wasn't the name of the institution given? Does this Boston university even exist, or was this example used because it gives the illusion that virtual educational initiatives are alive and well in the physical world?

I do believe that virtual worlds have the potential to improve distance education and training. But because institutions are looking for ways to cut their budgets, they are likely to be more cautious in their adoption of emerging technologies. Many educators have been consuming new technologies like a child eating cotton candy at the county fair. After awhile, though, the excessive amounts of unnutritious fluff don't taste so good. At present, it appears that some virtual worlds may not be quite as appealing as they once were. Thus, it is necessary to examine these digital spaces more critically than has been done in the past and determine whether more nutritious options are available.