october 2012 - TOJET the Turkish online journal of educational ...

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TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – October 2012, volume 11 Issue 4 SECOND LIFE USERS’ PROFILES AND VIEWS ABOUT EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL OF SECOND LIFE: A CASE OF TURKEY Bahar Baran * Assistant Prof. Dr. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Buca Faculty of Education, Dokuz Eylul University, 35160 Izmir, Turkey. Baris Cukurbasi Research Assistant Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Bartın University, Bartın, Turkey Canan Colak Research Assistant Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, Giresun University, Giresun, Turkey Berrin Dogusoy Research Assistant Dr. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey ABSTRACT This study aims to reveal Second Life (SL) residents’ profiles, first hand experiences, opinions about SL and its potential as an educational environment. The members of 14 Turkish Island in SL answered a questionnaire including Likert-type, open ended and multiple-choice items and participated in interview sessions. Researchers collected 118 questionnaires and interviewed with 10 users. The results showed a general picture about the Turkish SL user profile. They agree on SL potential about providing better communication with people. Also, they keep their SL character in line with the one they have in real life, while changing their physical appearances. Many active SL users in this study do not have an apparent thought about the applicability of SL in education and most of them are not willing to participate in its educational applications in SL. This study concludes by offering suggestions to practitioners about how to use SL in e-learning. Keywords: Second Life, social learning theory, e-learning, multi user virtual environments. INTRODUCTION Second Life (SL) has been one of the most popular social focused -general purpose- virtual worlds since its launch in 2003. However, it is not a game focused -purposeful- virtual world such as World of War Craft (Wagner & IP, 2009). SL presents its members a 3D virtual environment that users live in an avatar, which is a graphical image of the residents in this virtual world. The members can visit islands, purchase clothes, and construct furniture. Midura and Dede (2010) reported that SL and similar virtual environments have potential to enable people to achieve various important tasks such as doing experiments virtually, experiencing collaboration in virtual environments and adjusting their responses to the actions of other users. SL differs from other Multi- User Virtual Environments (MUVE) due to its open architecture which promotes Web 2.0 features of interaction and collaboration among users. Second Life and Education Although SL was not expressly developed as a learning environment, its potential for supporting learning has been recognized in many research studies (Inman, Wright & Hartman, 2010; Baker, Wentz & Woods, 2009; Bowers, Ragas & Neely, 2009; Atkins & Caukill, 2009; Deutschmann & Panichi, 2009; Helmer & Learning Light, 2007). Atkins and Caukill (2009) portray SL as offering “a unique environment for situated and experiential learning by providing for the creation of authentic tasks in an immersive environment” (p.81). A wide variety of subjects such as architecture, language, business, engineering, computer science, physics, law and science have been taught by using SL. Similarly, a review on research on using SL in K-12 and higher education showed that SL may be used as a constructivist tool (Inman, Wright & Hartman, 2010). Similarly, Franklin (2011) stated that learning in SL has meaningful since it let designers create problem based learning environments. Childress and Braswell’s (2006) view about the potential of virtual environments such as SL and * Corresponding author: e-mail: bahar.baran(at)deu.edu.tr Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 253
TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – October 2012, volume 11 Issue 4 other MMORPGs was that they offer learning activities imitating the real-world learning experiences which are able to available owing to face-to-face interaction. Moreover, Wagner and IP (2009) stated that SL positively contributes students’ perceived value of learning in a course designed as an action learning environment. Teaching strategies that incorporate e-learning techniques are thought to be most valuable when they are situated in a theoretical perspective informed by practical results. The results of qualitative or quantitative research on learning in SL can therefore benefit from the application of theoretical foundations from the field of educational science. Januszewski and Molenda (2008) recommend that the field of instructional technology use reflective practice and authentic environments grounded in appropriate learning theory. The importance of SL for instructional technology was expressed by Cheal (2007) as “where it stands in the continuum of learning methodologies from lecture to active/experimental/problem-based/constructivist learning” (p.207). The practical results of this study were therefore showed in the frame of Bandura’s social learning theory which can be seen as appropriate for SL with its convenient nature that is neither constructivist nor behaviorist. As Bandura (1997) stated observational learning in the social learning theory, which is encouraged in SL along with behavioral aspects such as imitation and behavior modeling of social learning theory (Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976 cited in Smith & Berge, 2009).Furthermore, human potential is a factor in learning. As noted by Bandura (1999), “people have the power to influence their own actions to produce certain results” (p.154) and human control of the environment can be imposed, selected or constructed (Bandura, 1997). Smith and Berge (2009) identified three common aspects of social learning theory: observation of other learners for accomplishing learning; imitating the behaviors of encouraging others; and integration of the former two points with the aid of experiences (Foster, 2006 cited in Smith & Berge, 2009). Smith and Berge (2009) also supported the potential of SL as an example of social learning theory in action, but with some elements that have no applicability in real life. Moreover, interactions among individuals in SL compensates for the weaknesses encountered in the process of observing, as noted in social learning theory (Smith & Berge, 2009). Second Life and E-learning In recent years, higher education institutions have given high value to e-learning since its potential of reaching students at different locations. Specifically in Turkey, there is a big competition of offering online degrees among higher education institutions (Latchem, Simsek, Cakir Balta, Torkul, Cedimoglu & Altunkopru, 2009). According to Inman, Wright and Hartman (2010) 23 out of 27 SL studies were conducted by higher education faculties, or in higher classrooms or with higher education students (p.55). The preferences of 6504 students from four different universities according to their choice of the type of learning environment while attending any graduate program were explored. They preferred respectively blended programs (56%), traditional programs (32%) and online programs (12%) (Baran, Kilic, Bakar & Cagiltay, 2010). The most important reason not to prefer online education is that the students’ willing to be involved in a learner community. That is, they think that e-learning has limitations on learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction (Gulbahar, 2010). However, SL can be thought of as an e-learning medium that can be used to support learner-learner and learner-instructor interactions as evidenced by tacit knowledge acquisition and dissemination among SL members. SL has also been considered as an e-learning tool which encourages communication, virtual teamwork and creativity in three-dimensional context that cannot be easily simulated in formal educational environments (Zhu, Wang & Jia, 2007; Wagner & IP, 2009). Mansour, Bennett and Rute-Parkins (2009) explored the perceptions of the e-learners on SL and indicated that SL affects learners in a positive way especially for the social interaction in their online experiences. They also remarked that learner-learner interaction was encouraged with the aid of SL in e-learning activities; the learners motivate each other to finalize the given task. The purpose of the study Second Life’s significant user capacity and features have inspired several researchers to investigate its educational value (De Lucia, Francese, Passero & Tortora, 2009). Unlike other studies where SL is used as an elearning environment, this study does not attempt to prove any ideas. Instead, it seeks only to describe the situation available to SL users in Turkey. In brief, this study aims to reveal Turkish SL residents’ ideas about SL and their first hand experiences to SL. Specifically, this study presents; 1) The characteristics of active Turkish SL residents; 2) Their activities, and future plans in SL, and 3) Their thoughts about the value of SL as an educational medium. METHODOLOGY Participants A total of 149 Turkish SL users responded to the online questionnaire. However the data of 31 participants were excluded as they had not responded most of the questions. Among 118 participants 43.2% (n = 51) were female while 56.8% (n = 67) were male. 44.9% (n = 53) were employed, 27.9% (n = 33) were students, 10.2% (n = 12) Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 254
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