Second Life: A new, interactive way of learning

Pat Huston sent me this article today regarding how Second Life was being used academically. Kelly Herzog, the public information coordinator at Miami Valley CTC, shared with us at Capital Conference how they are using this new technology as a recruiting tool to give tours of their campus to students who do not get a chance to visit. I encourage you to visit the Second Life website to at least check it out!

www.secondlife.com

Here is the news article Pat Huston sent today:

Area nursing students work in cyberspace ER
MELISSA SANTOS; The News Tribune Last updated: November 26th, 2007 01:18 AM (PST)

Nursing students might not encounter a patient with heart dysrhythmia in real life before they graduate, but they can in Second Life.
A nursing professor at Tacoma Community College is using the online 3-D world to simulate emergency room environments for his students.
John Miller said his second-year surgery students benefit more from practicing the procedures in Second Life, an online virtual reality network, than they do from hearing about them in lectures. In Second Life, users create their own 3-D environments and navigate them using computer-generated avatars.
For the first time this quarter, Miller is having his students create online avatars that can diagnose and treat virtual patients in Second Life, which has attracted more than 10 million users worldwide since 2003.
“It’s hands-on, and you’re doing it, and you can do it from home,” Miller said. “If you want someone to remember this stuff, you have to get them involved. A paragraph isn’t going to do it.”
Using their 3-D avatars, Second Life users can wander the virtual world much like they do the real one: going shopping, dating other users and even getting jobs.
In the simulation Miller operates, students are presented with a patient lying on an operating table, suffering from a certain condition. They can instruct their avatars to treat the patient using a variety of real-life tools, including oxygen hookups, medication, defibrillation or IVs. Miller has the patient respond realistically to whatever option the students choose. The patient’s vitals are projected on the back wall of the simulated operating room.
Either Miller or another student can control the avatar of the patient and control its symptoms and reactions. The avatars’ actions are compiled into a printable log that Miller can review with the class afterward.
“We’re not going for precise things; we’re going for decision-making,” Miller said. “It’s, ‘Here’s an IV, what do I need to do with it?’”
The online scenarios provide a cheaper alternative to using high-tech practice mannequins, which cost about $70,000 each, Miller said. TCC has about four or five mannequins, which students work with under faculty supervision and share with students in other departments.
Conversely, students can access the hospital simulation from anywhere with Internet access whenever they want. That helps students become more confident about what they’re learning, said second-year nursing student Becky Bean.
“In class, you go over the theory, but you don’t really apply it,” Bean said. “Here, you can choose what medication to give and what to do, and you learn more options for dealing with a situation.”
Nursing students are required to spend some time in hospital settings as part of their coursework, but often they won’t encounter the kinds of situations Miller can simulate on Second Life, Bean said.
“It’s kind of hit-or-miss in the hospital with what you get on the day you’re there,” Bean said. “There are scenarios he can set up here you may not see, like people in life-threatening situations.”
Miller’s work with Second Life is funded through a $10,000 grant from the Distance Learning Council of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The grant is shared with Centralia Community College, which is exploring similar uses for Second Life.
The money goes mostly toward research and software development, Miller said, but also toward purchasing real estate on Second Life. Miller estimated the costs will be about $2,500 a quarter.
Geoff Cain, an instructional designer in TCC’s distance learning department, said he’s working with Miller to explore more ways to use Second Life in educational settings.
Some groups on Second Life have already begun setting up interactive re-creations of scenes in novels or poems for English classes.
“I think we’re going to take a lot of what John is doing and be able to apply it to other disciplines,” Cain said. “We feel like we still have a lot more to develop.”

Post submitted by:
Shane Haggerty (shaggerty@ohp.k12.oh.us)
Communications Coordinator
Ohio Hi-Point Career Center

Article submitted by:
Pat Huston (pat.huston-holm@ode.state.oh.us)
Manager, Products & Customer Services
Office of Career-Technical and Adult Education
Ohio Department of Education