Mc502 presentation

The Educational Use of

Gaming and Social

Virtual Worlds -

Contemporary Effects

and Possible Futures Analysis and Effects + Education

By Katie Cox

Current trends: Call of Duty• ‘Call of Duty: Black ops 2’ was the top selling

videogame of 2012, selling 10.5 million copiesaccording to Wikipedia

• Culturally, there is a lot of stigmatization in videogamesand their effects; people don’t take videogame classification as seriously as film classification as they are ‘just games’. Byron (2010)

• Dr Linda Popadopulous recommended that videogame consoles should be sold with parental

controls switched on, however the average age of gamers is 28 (McDougall, 2007).

• The immersion of a virtual world of real life histories could get players interested in the history of the cold war. McDougall (2007) describes this learning as connectivism

“I want you guys to be stuck on a video game that’s teaching you something other than just blowing something up”

President Obama

President Obama

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Current trends: Foldit

Monkey HIV Protein

• Monkey protein eluded scientists for 15 years, team of highly skilled Foldit players figured out the structure in 10 days, “basically shown it is possible to create experts…purely through gameplay” Toppo quoting Popovich (2012).

• Whitehouse office has started studying the benefits of video games

• Foldit is a “serious game – using videogame mechanics to immerse players in history, science and health” (Toppo, 2012)

• Wiggling the protein and adding/removing bands allows the player to find the proteins stable structure, “Developing problem solving skills” (Jenkins, no date)Streptococcal Protein

Current trends: Virtual Worlds• Derby University have creates a problem based learning (PBL)

Psychology area in Second Life

• this kind of education is good for digital natives, someone who “craves interactivity…values graphics before words”(Buckingham, 2007), so virtual worlds can have a positive effect on those who learn in this way.

• if education makes the shift in virtual worlds this could negatively impact traditional learners.

• Second Life can simulate situations which are rare/dangerous in real life, another useful aspect of education in virtual worlds.

• A disadvantage is that they don’t support high level graphics or advanced interaction (Liarokapis and De Freitas, 2009)

Second Life :Image one

Second Life :Image two

Current trends: Oculus Rift• The Oculus rift is an upcoming virtual reality head

mounted display device, developed by Oculus VR and available for purchase for $300,

• The device make games more immersive as images are displayed to look like they are directly in front of you, and the real world view is blocked out

• The device makes game more interactiveas the players head movements moves the camera angle as if they were turningtheir head in the virtualworld

• The first games to use the Oculus Rift were Team Fortress 2 and Minecraft.

Minecraft Oculus Rift:

Inthelittlewoods Youtube Channel

TF2: OR

Oculus Rift device

90 year old grandmother tries the Oculus Rift: Paul Rivot Youtube Channel

Future possibilities: Oculus rift and education

• This would have obvious advantages to the psychology students from Derby University as it is more immersive.

• However the disadvantages would be the level of graphics and how well second life can work in the oculus rift as it wasn’t designed with this in mind.

• Perhaps a new virtual worlds, designed with the oculus rift and improved graphics could make this a viable possibility, but this would take time and a lot of money

Future possibilities: fully immersedvirtual world and education• Zhai (no date)

Believes we could develop full VR suits which could imitate our movements so that we actually feel part of the virtual world.

• This has already been tried by some people by combining the Oculus rift and the omnidirectional treadmill to play Team Fortress 2.

• If we use it to train, educate and produce highly skilled individuals it would develop VR into more than a game.

• Zhai develops his ideas further believing humans will eventually be fully immersed in VR and robots can be utilised to carryout real world tasks, however I feel this view is technologically deterministic.

Oculus rift, a light gun and an Omnidirectional treadmill to play TF2

Future possibilities: augmented reality and education• In the future, it may be possible that a combination of serious games like

Foldit and augmented reality will be used to improve its educational benefits.

• A study (liarokapis and De Fritas, 2009) concluded that games in AR are

educationally beneficial with puzzle games being the most efficient.

• Liarokapis and De Freitas (2009) provided a future model for learning based on process, principles and tools & techniques.

• I can see how this model could be applied to virtual worlds to improve the benefits of using them.

Liarokapis and De Freitas (2009) exploratory game-based learning model

Conclusion on future possibilities:• I believe using technology like the oculus rift in

virtual worlds will be highly beneficial; it will improve immersion and interactivity within virtual worlds and make them more of a fulfilling experience.

▪ I think a virtual world such as Zhai’s were we actually use it as our reality is highly unlikely. I believe

ideas like these are best left to fantasy and films like the Matrix, Avatar and Inception.

▪ A combination of interactive and stimulating AR puzzles (using Liarokapis and De Freitas 2009 learning model) within virtual world educational areas would be highly beneficial, and I can see this being a future reality in virtual worlds.

Image of futuristic virtual world

Buckingham (2007) ‘Beyond Technology: Children's Learning in the Age of Digital Culture.’ Cambridge: Polity Press.

Byron, T. (2010) ‘Do we have safer children in the digital world: a Review of progress since the 2008 Byron review ’. UKCCIS. Available at:http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/d/do%20we%20have%20safer%20children%20in%20a%20digital%20world%202010%20byron%20review.pdf (Accessed 11 May 2013)

De Freitas (2009) ‘Serious Virtual Worlds: A scoping study.’ Bristol: Joint Information Systems Committee [online]. Available at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/seriousvirtualworldsv1.pdf (Accessed: 04 May 2013)

Jenkins, H. (no date)’ Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked.’ Available at: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html(Accessed: 11 May 2013).

Liarokapis, F and De Freitas, S. (2009) 'A case study of augmented reality serious games.’ In ‘Looking toward the future of technology enhanced education: ubiquitous learning and the digital native.' ed. by Ebner, M. and Schiefner, M., Hershey, PA, Information Science Reference, 178-191

McDougall, J and O’Brien, W (2007) ‘Studying Videogames.’ Abingdon: Auteur

Shanklish (2013) ‘Omnidirectional Treadmill and the Oculus Rift: One step closer to full immersion. Welcome to the future’. At7addak.com, available at: http://www.at7addak.com/en/Articles/226996/News/General/Omnidirectional-Treadmill-and-the-Oculus-Rift (Accessed 11 May 2013)

Toppo, G. (2012) ‘White House office studies educational benefits of video games.’ USAToday. Available online at: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-26/edcuational-video-games-white-house/52908052/1 (Accessed 11 May 2013)

Zhai, P. (no date) ‘Can we live in a virtual world’. Get real: A Philosophical adventure in virtual reality’. Rowman and Litterfield. CE502 and MC502 META [online] available at: http://moodle2.newman.ac.uk/12-13/course/view.php?id=2027 (Accessed 11 May 2013)

References:

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