Gehan Kamachi

Times are changing. Virtual Worlds have enjoyed nearly a decade of use by educators who have developed many creative ways to provide immersive, experiential learning experiences for students of all ages. This volume represents the most up-to-date research and thinking on the use of virtual worlds in education from experts across the globe. Included are discussions of hardware advances, software advances and data analytics.

Times are changing. Virtual Worlds have enjoyed nearly a decade of use by educators who have developed many creative ways to provide immersive, experiential learning experiences for students of all ages. While one might argue that virtual worlds have had their 15 minutes of fame, using well-known models of technology adoption, it appears that those who remain focused on this medium continue to explore, innovate and push the limits of the educational potential. There have been substantial advances in hardware including 3D imaging headsets and multi-directional treadmills. In terms of software, researchers are moving into post-Second Life platforms that can manage very large numbers of participants and wide band media including streaming video and music. ‘Big data’ also appears in the form of mapping avatar movement to the tune of many millions of data points per user. The result appears to be much greater immersion in the virtual with much more powerful analytics for documenting. This volume represents the most up-to-date research and thinking on the use of virtual worlds in education from experts across the globe. 

Introduction : Virtual Worlds (Reality) at the Edge of the Rift
Sue Gregory, Paul Jerry and Nancy Tavares-Jones

Mobile Accessibility of Virtual Worlds: The SecondLife Experience
Paul Jerry and Nancy Tavares-Jones

Virtual Villages: Networking the Global Archipelago
Karen Le Rossignol

Conversational Agents in Virtual Worlds: Immersion and the Conversational Record
Bob Heller and Mike Procter

STEDUS, a New Educational Platform for Augmented Reality Applications
Héctor Martínez and Seppo Laukkanen

Next-Generation Teaching and Learning Using the Virtual Theatre
Max Hoffmann, Katharina Schuster, Daniel Schilberg and Sabina Jeschke

How to Explore the ‘Spatialities’ of Avatars in a Virtual World? Example of the Project Magic Ring in Second Life
Lucas Jean-François

Student Perceptions of Learning from a Distance through a Virtual World
Sue Gregory

The Virtual World Web^®: An Extension and Compliment to Traditional Modes of Learning: Building an Integrated, Connected and Interactive Learning Community
Brian Shuster