I’m on the delayed train home from the Serious Virtual Worlds conference at the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University. It’s times like this that I can’t help but contemplate how convenient teleportation would be. Oh to be an avatar…!

The fantastic two-day event was put on by the SGI, many recognisable faces attended (real not virtual) including; Aleks Krotoski (Guardian), Dr Jim Purbick (Linden Labs), Bernard Horan (Sun Microsystems), Norbert Richard Meinike (Metaversum CMO) and it also included many of the of the SGI residents, Daden Limited, Ambient Performances and Concepts Design & Virtualisation.

Twofour have actually just become part of the SGI family, taking up virtual tenancy at the institute. We are very excited to be part of this internationally renowned institute of applied research and the opportunity to work with such influential organisations within the UK Metaverse sphere.

It was a great event with some really passionate and intriguing keynotes by international speakers. However, the highlight of the conference was the dinner put on by David Wortley and Sara de Freitas at the Coombe Abbey. The entertainment to follow will forever be etched into my memory, David Wortley and Jim Purbrick (LL) jamming on Rock Band was truly inspirational.

In his blog my colleague Adam Montandon (HMC Interactive) draws attention to a truly life changing project currently being undergone at the Keio University in Japan. The project headed by Professor Junichi Ushiba, allows severe paralysis patients to take to the virtual world of Second Life, controlling their avatar via electrodes. They are able to… experience many new opportunities: business, shopping, making new friends, and ‘chance encounters’. The latter is particularly interesting. According to Prof. Ushiba:

“In ordinary life you go shopping and you might just happen to see a jacket you like and buy it, or the cover of a book might catch your eye. Sometimes you chat with people you just happen to run into, this kind of chance encounter could enrich people’s lives.”

So for patients that are immobilized by illness or injury, virtual life provides this random element. This impressive research into the benefits of virtual worlds to enhance the lives of these patients is very impressive.

With news that the Government is to put more money into tackling dyslexia, and early literacy intervention, it seems like a good moment to talk about the ‘Literacy Island’ in Teen Second Life. The project, designed to support struggling readers at KS3… is being piloted by Stoke Damerel Community College in Plymouth, and is a joint initiative between Twofour and the Plymouth Local Authority.

The build we created has a Treasure Island theme to it, spacious enough to accommodate several in-world events, and to allow the roll out of the weekly lesson structured tasks.

Teen Second Life is a secure environment for 13-17 year olds. The benefit of creating, as we have, a closed island in this grid is that access can be regulated and students can be brought in with access only to the island. This obviously helps manage content in a safe environment and allows teachers/authorised adults to guide students through the content contained within.

The benefits of using an immersive environment such as Second Life goes much deeper than mere novelty. With the rapid increase of ‘casual’ gaming opening up the computer games market to a greater range of ages, online gaming and Virtual Worlds is becoming increasingly targeted towards younger audiences. There are currently 158 online games or Virtual Worlds launched and in development specifically designed for children. Coupled with the fact that in families with school-aged children 76% have access to a PC and around 80% have access to a games console, this shows that children are becoming more adept in the use of virtual environments and web 2.0, and so more open to eLearning.

Obviously the worry is that merging the act of learning and ‘games’ might detract from the educational content, but this is a very limited view of the potential of this technology. Some would say that ‘serious games’ is a contradiction in terms, however with the narrative driven structure of computer games balanced with the increasing level of procedurally (and user) generated content, creativity, logical progression, literacy, and any number of specific specialisms can benefit greatly.

Welcome to the brave, new, virtual world of learning.

Last night I went to a fashion show in Second Life. The ‘What not to Rez’ night was the in-world social event on the Emerge Island, and an extension of some of the work going on related to digital identities by the JISC-Emerge community.

It was an opportunity for everyone to show off their lovely avatars - a fun event to explore and showcase virtual creation. StevenW Bohm (aka Steve Warburton of King’s College London) invited me, and I have to say…, left me feeling distinctly under-dressed! (see picture below left)

After a delayed start, the fashion show got underway with some very extravagant outfits, as one by one, the models took to the stage showing off their customized avatars. There was one awkward moment that went like this:

Josie Oh: Jiz! You are looking good - going on the catwalk tonight?
You: haha no not me
Josie Oh: aw, ok

The drink of the evening was MaiTai Tropical Drink, a rather fruity cocktail served with an umbrella! After working the room, so to speak, I recognised a few avatars I’ve met before – some doing some interesting work in SL, in particular, Kisa Naumova (Leeds Metropolitan University) and Wess Wexler (Loughborough University).

Overall a fantastic evening and a chance to let your digital hair down and network with others involved in immersive environments and Second Life.

I came back from Brighton BarCamp2 inspired to do something similar in Plymouth. Any takers? If you’re scratching your head wondering what a BarCamp is, check-out the Wiki description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp.

On arrival at this, my first ‘unconference’, I was confronted with a massive schedule board. Each attendee bags their own preferred time slot and presents for 30 minutes on any subject (that’s usually about 20 mins of talk and 10 mins of Q & A). In other words, the entire event is entirely ‘user-generated’. After the first day, everyone retires to the bar, armed with sleeping bags, to continue the discussions over a cold beer… After a good night’s kip (or not) on the floor or wherever else, the second day of mini conferences begins.

The event was attended by representatives from Linden Labs, NCSoft, Microsoft Silver Light and Amazon Web Services.

My subject was “Twofour Learning and Virtual Worlds: where next?” I mentioned some of our recent work (such as the Second Life work we’ve recently undertaken with the University of Leicester, Click Here); our Teen SL Project currently in development (a collaborative project with Stoke Damerel Community College and Plymouth City Council Children Services), and outlined our thoughts and plans for the forthcoming year. The session was attended by Jeff Barr (Amazon, web services) and Aleks Krotoski (Guardian), and generated a lot of interest. It’s a great way of networking and sharing ideas. So BarCampPlymouth1 here we come?! If you’re interested, drop me an email.