Posts from the ‘second life’ Category

Apr 7

Real fake Thieves selling fake fake stuff

Okay . . . I do have a Second Life account and I have been in Second Life enough to understand the appeal and potential of virtual worlds. Especially in terms of how I could use virtual worlds to demonstrate and explore economic concepts. I’ve used other sorts of virtual worlds such as MinyanLand developed specifically for teaching economics for middle school kids. So I get it.

But I’m still wrapping my head around the concept of virtual economies and how much money is being spent inside virtual environments.

A recent Newsweek article shares some of the current data on virtual purchases – that is, real money spent on fake things.

The total U.S. market for virtual goods was worth just over $1 billion in 2009, according to Inside Network, a market-research firm. That’s up from $500 million in 2008. The market will grow to $1.6 billion by next year, Inside Network says. Worldwide, the market may be worth as much as $6 billion, according to the Virtual Economy Research Network in Helsinki.

Not a bad gig if you can get it.

The problem? If someone is making money somewhere, someone else will find a way to steal it.

Early on in Second Life, software was developed that could clone and copy any in-world virtual object. This allowed real thieves in a fake world to really steal fake things and virtually sell them for fake money that could be exchanged for real money. Real Second Life folks found a way to defeat the real software that was stealing fake things.

Problem solved.

But a recent lawsuit against the owners of Second Life alleges that they are allowing the manufacture and sale of “knock off” virtual items inside Second Life. Basically businesses inside a virtual world are suing because the virtual items they have created are being duplicated and sold for less than the original.

So . . . we’ve got fake fake goods finding their way into a fake world, driving fake businesses back to reality. Fake fake Rolex, anyone?

The cool thing about all of this is that we’ve got some great economic teaching moments here. Supply and demand, opportunity cost, limited resources, costs and benefits, free trade, competition, centralized economic policy . . . it’s in there.

So don’t let the fake stuff fool ya, it’s all pretty real. Get in there and play around a bit.

Some handy SL teaching resources:

Sep 16

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“Video games are the future in education”

National Public Radio recently posted an interview between Will Wright and Dr. E. O. Wilson.

Wilson is professor emeritus at Harvard University and biologist, is a two-time Pulitzer-winning ant expert who helped develop theories of island biogeography, chemical ecology, and sociobiology. A leader in the modern environmental movement, Wilson has devoted his life to understanding how all forms of life are connected.

Wright is famous for creating The Sims, the best selling video game in history and Spore, a recent game incorporating many science themes. One of Wright’s first games, SimAnt, is based partially on the work of Wilson.

During the conversation, the first question Wright asked was if Wilson saw a role for games in the educational process.

I’ll go to an even more radical position,” Wilson said. I think games are the future in education. We’re going through a rapid transition now. We’re about to leave print and textbooks behind.

Wilson elaborated further:

. . . for the most part, we are teaching children the wrong way. When children went out in Paleolithic times, they went with adults and they learned everything they needed to learn by participating in the process. That’s the way the human mind is programmed to learn.

Wilson also suggested that virtual reality “can be a steppingstone to the real world.”

This is nothing new. More experts are saying the same thing about the power of games and simulations as learning engines.

But what I enjoyed was the ability of both men to have a conversation that integrated science into a variety of other fields. I don’t think we do this enough in our classrooms. Too often, our conversations and work is focused on a narrow range – names, dates, places, people – without giving kids a chance to explore the relationships between our content and literature, for example.

Listening to the conversation was a good reminder about how important it is for kids to see history as a story connected to a much bigger world.

Image sources – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson, http://www.flickr.com/photos/sketch22/420745216

May 9

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Future trends, present Congressmen and Minyanland

The beauty of the Web is that . . . well . . . everything is connected. You read an article that leads you to a site that connects to your RSS feed which is mentioned on Twitter that becomes a Skype conversation that sends you to an old listserv . . . and within a couple of minutes, you’ve learned something really cool!

I’m having a morning like that. Bear with me.

Nancy Willard posted a message this morning on the EDTECH listserv concerning another attempt by Congress to push through legislation that would severely limit the use of Web 2.0 tools in schools. The DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act) would

require schools and libraries that receive federal subsidies through a program called E-rate to certify that they’ve put in place a “technology protection measure” on all of their computers that “protects against access to a commercial social-networking Web site or chat room, unless used for an educational purpose with adult supervision.”

The focus this time is on Second Life and other similar virtual worlds.

OK . . . so. That triggered me back to an article in EdTech magazine from last fall that highlighted future educational tech trends. Among other things, the article suggests that the use of virtual worlds (and specifically Second Life) will continue to expand in K-12 education:

Virtual world platforms are gaining acceptance on many university and college campuses, and K–12 districts are now looking at these new technologies to engage students in the learning process. Any subject that benefits from collaboration, socialization, simulation and participatory activities can be enhanced with virtual lessons in an online world.

Of course, we now have a problem. Educators see the benefits of virtual worlds while Congress is working to limit the use of a teaching tool with tons of potential.

So what to do? Even if this second attempt at DOPA doesn’t pass, teachers will likely face pressure from system admins and principals to limit the use of virtual worlds.

One solution is to use less threatening virtual worlds than Second Life.

Which finally brings me back to the whole Web connectedness thing going on in my head this morning. Two days ago, a small group of middle and high school teachers sat down to talk about possible gaming and simulation tools. From that conversation, several virtual worlds floated up that seem to offer educational benefits without a lot of the political baggage.

The first is MinyanLand. Created by MinyanVille, Kaboose and the National Council on Economic Education, MinyanLand is a virtual world that teaches grade 4-8 kids responsibility and financial awareness. One of the cool pieces of the world is that teachers and parents can assign chores and homework in both the virtual and face-to-face world. Completion of these tasks by the student results in Minyan Bucks. Some very sweet stuff going on here!

The second is called Active Worlds. Around since 1997, Active Worlds provides the chance for a school or district to create their own protected world through the use of their Educational Universe. A little more work to get things set up but still a tool that deserves a look.