[Edu-sig] How do virtual 3D Second Life classrooms compare to WebEx for distance learning?

[Andreas Raab]

On 4/14/2010 9:58 PM, chris at seberino.org wrote:
> I don't know if this educational topic is allowed on this but here goes...
>
> I do online math classes with video conferencing and a shared whiteboard.
>
> I'm trying to find out if doing virtual classes in Second Life with avatars
> offers any benefits.  I've read up on this topic and the reports vary.
>
> Anyone have any experience going to a "class" in Second Life?

Disclaimer: I work for Teleplace (www.teleplace.com).

In my experience the biggest difference between giving a class in an 
immersive environment vs. WebEx or similar is that "you're there". An 
immersive environment takes you full attention, between navigation, 
pointing, voice chat, webcam and interactions there's no way to "hide" 
or to distract yourself playing Freecell without the others noticing.

An immersive environment like Second Life or Teleplace also gives you 
multiple focus points. People can look at and work with different 
content in the same space; as the teacher/coordinator you get a good 
feel for where people are at, just by looking at the clusters of 
participants, and you can direct attention by asking people to 
look/interact with a particular part of the environment. And when 
they're there they're there, and if they're not coming you'll know, too.

If you haven't tried it, invite a few friends and just run an 
experiment. Use Second Life or if you want to get a notch up use the 30 
days free trial at Teleplace. It's worth trying it with people you have 
regular remote meetings with to see if it makes a difference for what 
you're intending to use it for.

ObPython plug: The Teleplace extension API uses Python and we've given 
Python classes to customers with an interest in extending Teleplace.

Cheers,
   - Andreas