While the areas of the human brain were mapped by Brodmann over a hundred years ago, they are still useful for study today. Learning about the brain in the metaverse, where students embodied as avatars can enter virtual spaces together, provides a new and enlightening experience.
A recent tour for the VWER (Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable) provided a lively discussion about the potential for students to enter content in new ways. A 3D model built by Dr. David Hubbard (David Arguna in Second Life) illustrates a high quality learning experience that cannot be done in the physical world. One educator said, “This is much easier to see and imagine than simply looking at a picture in a book.”
The metaverse is quickly evolving and will provide new ways to learn. Educators at the VWER weekly meeting on Thursdays at NOON Pacific Time believe VR headsets are not really necessary! Virtual worlds provide a great way to be immersed in 3D learning in the metaverse without the trapped feeling and high cost of individual headsets. In Second Life, students cannot just learn in environments like Brodmann’s Brain, they can create rich learning spaces themselves.
Seattle Times article by Christy Karras called us “Veterans of the Metaverse” and I suppose that is true having worked there for 15 years! Definitions of the metaverse are not yet set in stone and can be confusing. My own definition of the metaverse is “a computer generated simulation of reality in which one interacts with others through embodiment using an avatar”. Without the use of the avatar, we can certainly interact online but are simply using Internet applications without a sense of presence together in a shared “place”. Webcam tools, like ZOOM, have their place and have helped us all during the isolation of Covid, but virtual worlds make distance irrelevant when used purposefully.
Valerie Hill (aka Valibrarian) at the Community Virtual Library
Exploring the metaverse is quite a task as there are hundreds of immersive environments and new ones quickly evolving. The original “metaverse” (suggested by Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash) is the virtual world of Second Life and the Community Virtual Library has a main branch there along with the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium.
Librarians are exploring these environments and after a long career as a librarian, I find a virtual world to be a perfect fit for providing resources to learning communities. In fact, digital citizenship and metaliteracy can be taught in the metaverse and are rapidly becoming essential life skills. What an exciting time to be a librarian!
Literacy in digital culture has been my passion for decades now. And the prefix META has played a big role in my research as I adopted the terms metaliteracy in our metamodern era. In addition, my colleagues have spent years learning best practices for teaching in the metaverse, yet Facebook is just now spotlighting that word and changing the company’s name to META!
Meta! Meta! Meta!
Suddenly the world is criticizing this prefix, probably because many people dislike Facebook but feel compelled to use it. Apparently, META means “dead” in Hebrew! Yet, Meta has Greek roots that often translate as “after, beyond, about or among”. For instance, metacognition concerns thinking about thinking. But let’s consider this idea of meta = death.
Metaliteracy and the Death of Print
I witnessed the close of the Gutenberg Parenthesis (the period when the book was king format of the information hierarchy for 500 years from about the 1500-2000 AD) during my career as a librarian. What a fascinating journey it was! It felt like the library floor was shifting beneath my feet and I jumped into digital culture to figure out how information could be navigated after the death of fixed media. Yes…the word death may fit with metaliteracy! Death of print as king (yet long live print) as well as “beyond print” or thinking “about literacy” after the impact of the Internet.
Of course, a book in print is still a viable format and many people still prefer print books to digital formats or ebooks. Perhaps print will survive long into our future (of course a librarian would hope). But most content today is born digital, creating the need to investigate archival of changing formats as they evolve and the hardware used to access them becomes obsolete.
Metamodernism and the Death of Dystopia
Postmodernism ushered in a period of irony and cynicism as grand narratives were broken down and truth became illusive. A new period is arising beyond postmodernism which may allow room for sincerity, hope, and a balance of tradition and innovation. Postmodern literature brought volumes of dystopian fiction which many found bleak and desolate (even though much of it was quite good and who doesn’t like a good zombie story?).
The name of our current philosophical moment is not yet set in stone, but many, like myself, are proponents of the term metamodernism. In my recent book, Metamodernism and Changing Literacy, I investigate the intersection of our era in time with the need to revisit literacy as it has been revolutionized.
The Metaverse and the Death of a Single Reality
The hype over Facebook’s name change may bring the term “the metaverse” into popular culture, but it has been around since Neal Stephenson coined it way back in 1992 when he wrote Snow Crash. Facebook proports to give everyone a voice and connect them across the globe, which suggests that the company’s vision of virtual reality will build upon those connections. Jaron Lanier (often touted as the Father of Virtual Reality) opposes social media in his book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now and the idea of Facebook creating a VR world seems the antithesis of his philosophical view of a metaverse.
The Metaverse (with a capital M as an interoperable space connecting all virtual worlds) has not evolved, but the many metaverse-esque virtual worlds that I have visited for education are a far cry from what I imagine FB is developing. Space for cartoonish avatars playing social games and dancing around has little educational value and there are many high quality virtual spaces in which one can share a sense of presence for high quality immersive learning. No doubt, multiple realities are on the horizon and my passion for digital citizenship expands alongside them.
What does this jump into metamodernism mean for us? Much of our way of life is different now, perhaps dead to us! Some people say privacy is dead. A “shared culture” of music and media with our own generation may be dead as we each create and curate our own personal dashboard. A new way of living has emerged and we are personally responsible to make it healthy, happy and ethical.
Death is a part of the circle of life and plays a role in the cycle of information and libraries. If META means dead in Hebrew, we are given yet another connotation for our philosophical time, our evolving communication tools, and the way we will live in the future. As winter brings the death to our natural world, spring burst forth anew and we oscillate among the opposites we encounter on this planet. That’s about as metamodern as it gets.
For 14 years now, I’ve been working with machinima in Second Life and other virtual worlds. I have always been disappointed in my video quality because getting those screen settings set up correctly has been troublesome! First, the viewer has to record with a good graphics card. Then, you have to capture the video in the highest possible quality. And, finally, you have to have the correct settings in the video editor.
Here is my very first machinima recorded at ISTE Island back in 2007. My daughter met me inworld and I took a shot of her crossing a bridge before heading over to the library (what became the Community Virtual Library). Okay- I know it is unwatchable quality! But the memory of that first capture is so vivid and real to me, I just want to keep it in the archives!
Learning to work and help learners in virtual environments requires juggling multiple programs. It is difficult to keep up with the format changes, especially as video has improved with HD and formats (mp4, etc). Having a PLC (professional learning community) is essential and a colleague just took the time to share screens with me and go through all my settings! Thanks so much, Sitearm.
Juggling Multiple Applications and Screens
Sitearm working in Virbela and sharing tools
Searching for Help Online
During our screensharing session, Sitearm and I looked up free open source editing software (Shotcut) on Selby Evan’s blog because we found the problem with my poor quality machinima. I was using an old outdated version of Adobe Premiere that is incompatible with the higher quality video available now. Free open source software tools may not have all the “bells and whistles” of professional software, but hey- the price is right!
Machimima Quality Comparison
Take a look at these two versions (raw footage) of our recent CVL tour to 3rdRock at the immersive storybook Alice in Wonderland. First, the video exported using Adobe Premiere (720×480) at 30 fps. Scroll to minute 2:14 or so to get a good comparison.
Wonderland Version 1
Now- compare with this higher quality version of Wonderland from Shotcut (1920×1080) at 60 fps. Scroll to minute 1:19 to see the same scene as the one above.
Wonderland Version 2
Shooting, editing, and sharing machinima can be time-consuming and I do not consider myself a professional. However, archiving educational experiences in virtual environments is important in order to document the potential they hold for learning in the future. Digital archival has become essential for us all- both professionally and personally- as much of life is spent online.
We can share tips and tricks on youtube as tutorials are plentiful. There is no way we can individually keep up with all the changing technology tools available but developing a PLC (or a PLN if you prefer to call it a professional/personal learning network) is sure a big help. Visit the Community Virtual Library if finding colleagues in virtual learning environments would benefit your teaching, learning or life.
A group of us (librarians and educators at the Community Virtual Library) visited the virtual world of 3rdRock to experience Alice in Wonderland in a 3D immersive environment. Wow! This was not only reading but entering the book!
A librarian at the University of Hawaii created this immersive storybook complete with various scenes from the story with passages of text. Thinking about how children (as well as readers/learners of all ages) will experience literature in the future was a fascinating topic during our tour. Talk about metaliteracy! We enjoyed conversing at the Mad Hatter’s tea party!
While we were fully immersed in the 3D storytelling, we were not wearing virtual reality headsets. Virtual worlds are viewed on a desktop and we believe they are part of virtual reality. Desktop VR allows for many productive tools built into the interface and is less uncomfortable than the “trapped feeling” I get with my VR headset. Of course, as VR evolves, it may become more comfortable. Who knows what the future holds for VR but it may not be ready for young people since research has not been done on how it impacts developing minds. In a virtual world, students could create their own storybook content or develop 3D objects on various subjects. Building in VR currently requires additional programs like Unity or Unreal Engine.
Watching a machinima of our Wonderland virtual field trip does not do is justice! You really need to “be there” inside the story, but this video is meant to archive the event. The group started out in Kitely at the CVL Hypergrid Resource Library and then jumped over to 3rdRock to visit Wonderland as part of the ACRL Virtual World Interest Group which is part of the American Library Association.
This year’s #iLRN 2020 Conference is about to begin! On Sunday June 21, I will lead tours at the Community Virtual Library Digital Citizenship Museum in Kitely. The museum houses room after room of content on elements of digital citizenship in global participatory culture. Included are topics such as artificial intelligence, digital archival, cybersecurity, and even a room about metamodernism and metaliteracy (featuring my new book)!
A project showcase will include an immersive learning project showcase featuring virtual reality spaces. I created a FrameVR room for the Community Virtual Library which can be accessed on the web-page or on a VR headset. These virtual learning spaces are rapidly expanding and the #iLRN Conference 2020 will be a great opportunity to network with educators who are exploring and using them with high quality content.
Not all online learning spaces are equal! In fact, many are applications built by designers without any educational background at all. So how can educators explore and build the best sustainable interactive online learning environments for students? Well- one way is to explore innovative virtual learning spaces together to evaluate them.
With that goal in mind, the Community Virtual Library is sponsoring CVL Educator Workshops in numerous virtual environments, such as Second Life, Kitely, and web-based worlds like Cybalounge and 3Dwebworldz. For those interested in virtual reality headsets, CVL has a VR Explorers team and a Discord Channel. Check out the CVL Educators Workshop schedule here! Workshops are just starting, so check the spreadsheet as dates will be added.
Community Virtual Library in Cybalounge
Community Virtual Library Main Branch
The main branch of the Community Virtual Library is in Second Life and librarians, educators and volunteers hold office hours to help teachers, learners, and anyone interested in virtual environments to better understand and use them. Explore the website and see the Virtual Reference tab to find a mentor.
Is education ready for #virtualreality headsets?
Librarians and colleagues are exploring VR headsets while understanding that virtual immersive environments like Second Life are a form of virtual reality that has been proven to be advantageous for years. A recent workshop in the virtual world of Virbela presented a session on where VR is headed in education.
Last week, I led a tour of Fiona Fei’s Shui Mo Ink Brush Art for the Nonprofit Commons Group in Second Life. Shui Mo means “ink” in Chinese. The group walked across paintings on scrolls where the ink was brushed under our feet. Zooming in on the pictures along the wall, we observed that they were not flat- but were 3D sculptures with little moving birds and butterflies. We walked through lovely koi fish ponds and floated amidst petals and umbrellas, wandering through a black and white ink world, then entered a black door to see One Million Rising for social justice. The tour culminated in a beautiful scene with a bridge where the group found a photo opp!
This lovely art, built by young artist Fiona Fei, exemplifies the use of virtual worlds for artist creativity in 3D spaces. Fiona says,
As a Chinese American, the Shui Mo series is my way of not only connecting with my ancestry, but it’s also a way for me to celebrate centuries of art and old masters who painted in this beautiful art style. I wanted to take full advantage of Second Life’s virtual environment to provide a new perspective on this traditional art style by adding depth, making what has traditionally always been portrayed as 2D pieces into 3D art. When the viewer looks into the art, they are looking into a 3D space, and depending on the angle they are viewing it from, the art changes.
Nonprofit Commons Tour at Shui Mo Ink Brush Gallery
Due to the Corona Virus, I find myself getting numerous questions about how to learn in virtual spaces! As Director of the Community Virtual Library, I have years of experience in immersive learning in virtual worlds. However, it is important to say that it is not a quick and easy tool to learn! In fact, my dissertation topic was factors contributing to the adoption of virtual worlds and findings showed the biggest obstacle was complexity. People have used the term “steep learning curve” to describe virtual worlds for years. The advantages and benefits, I firmly believe, are well-worth the effort. A few weeks of exploration and navigation of the interface provides most of us with a comfort zone and a “sense of presence” that is much more suitable to learning than a web-based platform, quick apps, or webinars.
Librarians discussing virtual world learning environments
Help! Where do we start?
Learning how to utilize virtual worlds for education requires locating a virtual space (a simulated classroom or “sim”) and importing the curriculum used for specific learning outcomes, just as an educator does in the physical world. Building a professional learning network with other educators is the best starting point. Those educators are ready to help you! The International Society for Education (ISTE Virtual Environments Network) has several communities and individuals who meet regularly. Just FYI, I won the ISTE VEN Pioneer of the Year Award last year in 2019. Scroll down to the bottom!
Anyone can visit the Community Virtual Library in Second Life or in other virtual worlds and tours can be scheduled. Joining educational groups helps educators find others who have paved the way for bringing deep learning and critical thinking into virtual spaces. Currently, VR headsets are NOT ready for mainstream. There is little research on how these headsets impact the human brain. Virtual worlds have been around for years and research documents high quality simulations for all subject areas.
Library tour at CVL
What age level should use virtual worlds?
Currently, virtual worlds are ready for higher education and some educators bring younger students into specific virtual spaces. Educators should explore first and find the best spot for learning. With all the questions coming my way, plans are underway for workshops to help newcomers explore virtual worlds!
Medieval Quest is coming to the Community Virtual Library in Second Life. A beautiful Medieval village, complete with King Arthur’s Court, was built by Brant Knutzen at the University of Hong Kong.
Through collaboration with the Community Virtual Library, plans are underway to provide live tours with a role-play quest. All participants can choose parts to role-play and participate at any level desired. Sound like fun?
Here are the initial planning session times (Second Life Time- SLT- Pacific Time zone). More information about the role-play dates will be forthcoming.
Monday Jan 25th 6pm SLT Medieval Quest Planning Meeting (Share roles and overview)
Saturday Jan 30th 7am SLT (Continue sharing roles and training) Prepare Press Release to send for publicity Meet at the Community Virtual Library Exhibit area
I am tentatively choosing the role of “The Lady of Shalott”. There are numerous places to find free historical clothes for your avatar. The Medieval Quest is based on the concept of bringing literature to life through role-play and simulation. This project is a demonstration of how learning has changed and is changing. Don’t just read about it….come give it a try!
