Educational Gaming Commons

Virtual Worlds in Education

Education Technology Services at Penn State is investigating the use of virtual worlds in education, with a current focus on the Second Life virtual space. Five Faculty Engagement Initiatives in Virtual Worlds are underway, ranging from language learning to network visualization.

Faculty Engagement Initiative in Virtual Worlds

In Spring 2007, ETS sought proposals that would use Second Life to investigate the potential uses of virtual worlds in higher education. Five proposals were accepted:

• Dr. Gerry Santoro, Assistant Professor, Information Sciences and Technology (IST), University park – To use Second Life as a futures technology in IST 110 – the IST introductory course, and Security and Risk Analysis 111.
• Dr. Steve Thorne, Assistant Professor, Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, University Park – Dr. Thorne used Second Life in Applied Language 589, a graduate class investigating the use of education technologies for foreign language acquisition.
• Dr. Gloria Clark, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Spanish, Penn State Harrisburg – To develop a virtual Hacienda for Spanish 1-3 students so they can experience the culture and physicality of the Spanish language.
• Alexia Hudson, Assistant Librarian, Penn State Great Valley – To develop an information center for IST Database Design & Concept and Web-based design (INSC521 & IST SWENG560), and Operations Management and Supply Chain Management (OPMGT 510& OPMGT 597A). In addition, a virtual Penn State Great Valley Library will be created, with enough flexibility to ensure it represents the overall Penn State Library System.
• Dr. Keith Bailey, Director e-Learning Institute, College of Arts and Architecture, University Park – To develop a virtual representation of the Penn State Palmer Museum, for use in Art 10, Introduction to Visual Studies and Art History 111, Ancient to Medieval Art, as well as broader applications within the college. Space in Second Life was purchased for this initiative in Summer 2007, and the space is now being developed to support the initiatives. The individual projects will run Fall 2007.

College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST)

IST has one island, ISTania, at this time. See http://sidev.ist.psu.edu/secondlife for more information.

Penn State Berks

The Berks campus recently purchased an island in Second Life. Mike Bartolacci, IST professor, is engaging students in MIS and IST courses in several Second Life activities:

• Students find some real world companies in SL and review their customer relationship management systems within SL and compare those to what they are doing on their websites.
• Students build a computer networking lab. Mike was purposely vague on the requirements to see what they come up with, but did give them a bunch of "empty" computers and equipment they can add scripts to.

Penn State Abington

Bob Avanzato, associate professor of engineering and IST program coordinator at Abington, will be using Second Life in a freshman IST 110T (honors and FYS) section this fall to explore collaborative learning, team building, and the use of virtual communities to enhance education and campus life.  The course section covers MP3 technology, podcasting, and virtual communities using Second Life.  Bob will also be exploring the use of Second Life for 3D modeling, collaborative design, and robotics in the spring semester.

Penn State Undergraduate Admissions

Undergraduate Admissions at Penn State has purchased an island in the teen grid of Second Life specifically designed to allow for interaction with prospective students considering college. The island will provide information on Penn State including all of our campuses and the admissions process.

Here's some photos!