Immersion and Usability in SL
Posted on March 15, 2008
Filed under Conversations, Reflections and tagged design, Teach/Learn
In an interesting discussion around immersion and usability in Second Life verses World of Warcraft, Rick van der Wal made some great points regarding interface/interaction design. I’d like to think through them as they apply to formal learning (i.e. institutional, sequential, hierarchal and evaluated learning) in SL.
So far, Second Life has been applied like an educational technology in formal learning contexts. It seems to be used to deliver and enhance a course or a part there of. In terms of design, I see at least two design levels instructors should consider: The software (environmental) and learning space (situational).
Environmental issues impact any formal learning context. The design of a classroom, its equipment, the location of a campus, its services, etc., all impact the process. To compare SL with another technology, a course management system (also a virtual environment) is arguably the most sophisticated educational technology a typical college instructor works with in terms of its environmental and situational design affordances. It is designed so that s/he can create an elaborate virtual learning space. Most instructors however must learn how to design that space and often rely on support from instructional designers and technicians. The situation represents a fundamental shift in their role and work habits. The same conditions apply to Second Life, with the added challenge that it is designed not for learning but for entertainment. What this translates into is something akin to considering creating a learning space in the back lot at Paramount Pictures. It can be done, but why would you, unless students were learning how to make movies.
This is my essential argument regarding formal learning in Second Life. Except in courses for which the environment (not the situation/learning space) is part and parcel of their goals, it has questionable learning value when set against educational technologies on the whole. I’m arguing for situated learning that honors situated cognition, two theories of learning seldom utilized in formal teaching practices.
Circling back around to Ricks point, SL has considerable environmental usability issues that overlay all other situational design issues which in turn impact the degree to which learners can be immersed (unaware of) the software.
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