Yunong W2-Article Review

Source: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. 2016, Vol. 9 Issue 2, p1-20.

‘I Create Therefore I Virtually Exist’: Digital Content Creation, Virtual Consumption, and Motivation in Second Life 
Nagy Peter, Koles Bernadette

Within the platforms in Web2.0, many different digital contents are created, like last class, we go to the shopping place to buy clothes in Second Life. This article talks about these digital content creations and some virtual consumption in Second Life.

Aim of the article:
It explores virtual content creation within the particular 3D virtual world of Second life, via comparing key demographic, usage and motivational attributes of creators versus non-creator residents.

Method:
Firstly, the article discussed relevant motivations that may be important to Web 2.0 based platforms.
Secondly, it specifically focused on the virtual world of Second Life. They reviewed necessary fundamental attributes characterizing the settings, with special attention to user motivation and the role of UGC within a virtual economy.
Last, after reviewing the results, it concluded relevant implications,  pointed out some limitations and  gave suggestions and possible directions for future research.

Findings:
Results showed differential patterns as a function of age, gender and usage. Digital content creators were also more likely to purchase goods reflecting stability, expand greater financial resources on the Second Life Marketplace, and while acknowledging greater difficulty  in ease of use, reported higher esteem and self-actualization.

Amanda W2- article review

Source: i-manager’s Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 7 No. 3

SECOND LIFE FOR DISTANCE LANGUAGE LEARNING: A FRAMEWORK FOR NATIVE/NON-NATIVE SPEAKER INTERACTIONS IN A VIRTUAL WORLD 

This article is not very long, just eight pages, more like an academic report, but as I read it I found it fit my interests and indicated the issue in real life and virtual life language study. This paper examines a number of theoretical principles governing second language teaching and learning and the ways in which these principles are being applied in 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life. 

It is concluded that while an appropriate environment for communicative foreign language practice, not all students may be ready to meet the technological demands required by the use of Second Life.

Aim of study:

The purpose of this study is to determine the ways in which the virtual world of Second Life can be used as a medium for synchronous interpersonal communication between native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers (NNS) as one component of a primarily asynchronous distance language course design.  

Methods:

This paper provided a basic review and definitions of selected, relevant general and language learning theories, a discussion of the potential benefits afforded by the medium of Second Life for the enhancement of language learning through text and voice chat, and specific suggestions for using Second Life with distance language learners.

  

Main Findings :

The author analysis four different elements of language reaching and learning which are Communicative Language Teaching, Task-Based Language Learning, Game-Based Language Learning and Tandem Language Learning. And then give the reason why chose second life and the advantages of learning and teaching through virtual world which are listed below:

1.Anywhere, Anytime Language Practice 

One final benefit of Second Life as a platform for language learning is the distance learner's ability to practice from anywhere in the world at anytime.distance language learners can engage in meaningful conversations with native speakers at their convenience. With 24-hour accessibility seven days per week. Second Life provides an ideal practice venue for distance language learners.
2.Practical Applications of Virtual Worlds for Language Learning
It is designed to work outside the confines of a synchronous class meeting and could therefore be implemented as supplements to an otherwise asynchronous online class.
3.eTandem Exchanges

4.WebQuests

5. Building Projects

5.Questing

6.Other Task-Based Activities

Somayeh, W2 Article review

Friday, July 28, 2017

Development and usability evaluation of the mHealth Tool for Lung Cancer (mHealth TLC): A virtual world health game for lung cancer patients

Source: Patient Education and Counselling 98 (2015) 506–511

Introduction: 

Mobile technology brings health care home. To test the feasibility and usability of mHealth TLC, an iPad health game scenario evaluated. An interactive, immersive 3-dimensional applied that coaches’ lung cancer patients toward assertive communication strategies during first-person virtual clinics visits. With the rise of technology in health care, the advantage of electronic games provides new possibilities for cost-effective health care interventions. Lung cancer patients report inadequate communication with physicians about important topics such as the end of life care. The Mobile Health Tool for Lung Cancer (mHealth TLC) is the first interactive, immersive 3-dimensional iPad health game that allows lung cancer patients to experience first person virtual visits with their clinicians. Health games are conceptualized as a motivational play for adults and can influence social skills, self-perception, empathy, psychosocial functioning e.g., self-confidence and achievement motivation, and cognitive skills e.g., attention, planning, and creativity.Lung cancer stigma is a factor in the psychological and physical health of lung cancer patients. 

The Aim of Study:

The aims of mHealth TLC are to decrease LCS, improve patient–clinician communication, promote optimal self-management and a cost-effective solution for treatment of lung cancer patients.

Method:

This research applied a wide range of instruments. Structured interviews for mHealth TLC usability testing incorporated ‘‘think-aloud’’ and verbal probing techniques. observed players and conducted semi-structured interviews.  Research questions focused on scenario believability, the impact of technical issues, transparency of game goals, and potential of mHealth TLC to decrease lung cancer stigma (LCS) and improve patient–clinician communication.

Conclusions:

mHealth TLC is an interactive, health game that allows individuals to experience first person virtual visits with their clinicians. mHealth TLC has the potential to improve patient–clinician communication, decrease LCS and promote optimal self-management. Users confirmed that mHealth TLC to be: (1) believable, (2) clinic-appropriate, and (3) helpful in support of informed health care consumers. Concerns were expressed about emotionally charged content and plan to use mHealth TLC in clinic settings as opposed to at home. Although the dialog and interactions addressed emotionally charged issues, players were able to engage, learn, and benefit from role-playing in a virtual world. Health games have the potential to improve patient–clinician communication, and mHealth TLC specifically may decrease Lung Cancer Stigma and promote optimal self-management. 

W2 - Pary Article Review

Communicating age in Second Life: The contributions of textual and visual factors
new media & society
2015, Vol. 17(1) 41–61
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1461444813504270
nms.sagepub.com

The Aim of Study: The research was designed to examine age identity among residents of Second Life. Age identity can be described as one of the key factors that people perceive themselves for social interactions.It can be categorised as a pre-interactional factor which influences one to sense the tendency to communicate or belong to a particular group, e.g., older people (McCann et. al).
The virtual world (Second Life to be accurate) has provided its users with lots of control for their choice of self-presentation.  There is a broad range of possibilities for any participant to recreate their desired identity through their experience in sims.

The Method of Study: This research has a mixed practice of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyse verbal and non-verbal preferences of communication among various age groups in Second Life. There were 201 participants chosen to play in a 2-hour long custom-built game (a point-and-click mystery quest) during which they would help a group trainee detectives to find a lost moonstone. This kind of game activates team work, verbal communication and problem solving among participants.
 All players were accompanied by one of the researchers in shape of an automaton. The mentioned researcher had the minimum possible interaction with the rest of the group. All verbal (i.e. chats) and non-verbal (e.g., avatar gesture / movement) were recorded in video format. The participants then were asked to answer 15 minutes questionnaire about their experience in Second Life.
The Result of Study: There was a clear difference between in-world chat formats of each age group.The older age group preferred to practice complete sentences even for saying greetings or asking a question from other team mates and fewer slang words.Younger adults, on the other hand, used one world emotion worlds such as wow! and cool!The latter had also shown interest in spending more time in the world after the game finished. They would go around and experience few other sims and meet new avatars.
In the case of appearance, older age group did not show much interest in using furry avatars (half animal-half human). The younger ones were quite more adventurous about forming their appearance in Second Life.
Although Second Life avatar preferences may be slightly limited in adding wrinkles to face, having grey hair was a signature addition which that was not used even for one avatar. It seems like participants liked to present an ideal form of their own identity.As the research shows, all the avatars were younger than actual residents.
This study was one of the first quantitative attempts to record different practised preferences in the virtual world related to age identity of users. So I think there is a lot of potential in this field. 

Somayeh, W1 Photo Blog

Second Life

Amanda Week2 - Photo Blog

This is week I decided to go to London City with my new clothes. The city in the sunset view, it's really beautiful.

This city looks really peaceful, I looked around, not so many people here, and I'm going to see what I could do here.

I walked into an alley, on the side walk there is a board, I click on that and I found people could rent property here for years and pay monthly.

I look close to the house, it's really good, four floors without furniture.

As I go further, there has a cafeteria, in front door these two post can be clicked and it is dancing course, it could directly teleport me to the class.

The outside of the cafeteria is really beautiful view, and this whole place is somewhere you could rent a property, I can see some of them still in the construction.

Somayeh, W1 Article review

Student Name: Somayeh Montaseri

Source: 

Computers & Education 54 (2010) 622–640

Title: 

The role of physical representations in solving number problems _ A comparison of young children’s use of physical and virtual materials

Abstract:

The authors try to explore the role of physical representations in children’s numerical learning.  They identified the benefits of using a graphical teaching to understand developing an interactive solution in education. In order to achieve the goal, they selected a range of children aged 4 to 8 years by focusing on numerical partitioning task. As evidence to demonstrate the outcomes, 3 studies are reported by using blocks as physical objects through manipulating properties of the physical materials. The study demonstrated an advantage for physical materials. whether blocks were moved individually or as a group. Furthermore, they compared strategies when children were asked to constrain movements to one block at a time. The result was differences using both hands. The final test was about using a graphical user interface. As a result, significant differences were found in physical versus virtual scenarios. 

The aim of Study:

The aim of the study was to find out the evaluate the benefit of physical materials such as Lego compare to virtual facilities. The effort identified potential benefits supported by some empirical pieces of evidence, however, didn’t investigate best teaching practices. The opportunity of computer generated solutions by using interfaces such as camera, sensors, mouse or keyboard introduced for making physically experiences via virtual operations. The research has attempted to identify any unique advantage offered through direct physical interaction by comparing children’s use of physical versus virtual representations. Furthermore, Understanding the properties of physical materials and how these relate to learning investigated to predict which material will be more beneficial.

Method:

The method applied in this research used a within the subject design with No Materials/Paper/Physical Representation due to the independent variable. All children involved in solving partitioning problems. In this method children invited through an advertisement programme around several local schools, describing how children could act as ‘scientists’ by taking part in different projects. In order to conduct the research, materials and procedure well designed. testing took place in a large place but each study area was partitioned and noise levels were generally low. Children were all accompanied by their parents who were asked to sit slightly behind their children to avoid unintended prompts. The interviewer spent up with students and changed the supporting materials such as image and the name of the character with the bags. The interviewer used the materials to model all of the answers by moving the blocks into different groups, or by drawing circles around squares in the paper condition to make groups.  As part of the defined method, children’s solutions were scored according to the number of unique correct partitioning solutions they gave. Finally, group data were tested for homogeneity of variance and revealed significant departures from normality, therefore non-parametric analyses were carried out. For the qualitative analysis, using physical blocks and impact on case studies selected. The blocks, being physical materials, have a number of properties that are different to pictures of blocks on paper as potential sources of support in problem-solving. 

Observations taken from the videotapes in this study showed tangible results.

Main Findings:

This research has compared the role of physical representations in a numerical task and compared young children’s strategies with virtual materials. The research focused on scenarios which involve moving individual or multiple objects. The research, interactive technologies can be designed to foster or constrain these actions and the challenge is to identify which actions are most appropriate for learning in different tasks. If interpreting incremental changes is a key feature of the task it may be beneficial to constrain manipulation to one object at a time. If the task involves exploring changes of groups of objects – possibly such as fractions, tens and units, multiples or even unstructured play – it may be beneficial to use tools which facilitate manipulation of multiple objects.

The advocates for virtual materials describe many of the benefits of digital materials, such as providing multiple representations, feedback and records. 

With the development of new technologies, such as table top computers and tangible technologies, it should be possible to benefit from these digital features with different forms of interface. This research has not demonstrated that one type of interface will be preferable. Instead, it has shown that different interfaces can influence the actions children make in a numerical task. If different actions lead to different ideas, it is important to consider how a particular interface can foster the desired ideas we want children to grasp.

Farid W2. Photo Blog

 I teleported to Lana Mare Village and drove my car to a freebies warehouse to get some clothes on.

 As a man it wasn't hard to find something suitable. So, I purchased what I need.

Here we go, its my new outfit

Farid, W1 Photo Blog

I teleported to Kyoto, Japan. then i found this gorgeous island and decided to take a tour around the place.  

While I'm touring, I met Cshirttesgdgs6 and we had a short chat. she was doing a broadcast from the USA to turn attention to jo.org which is about learning what the Bible has to say to people.

I climbed an uphill to find this Japanese traditional house which was surrounding by water falls.

It was a nice view from this location, so I decided to have a rest and chill  

I came cross this beautiful little lake with few geese swimming in it.

Now its the time to try the most famous Japanese dish ( Sushi ) before I leave the island

Article review, Farid W1

Benefits and challenges of using Second Life in English teaching: Experts’ opinions

source:  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences   158  ( 2014 )  326 – 330


Second Life is one of the most popular virtual worlds. The interest has been increasing in virtual and blended learning environments; in such environment the second language is assembled and experienced via mutual communication. It became as a phenomenon in the area of education. As result, learners explore the language while learning (Sounders ,2008). So learners will not suffer from stress and anxiety.
The most important subject according to the result of a meta-analysis of publications were teacher education and language education. In addition, Second Life has become an area to improve various educational aspects. Many studies in this field talk about the importance of Second Life to foreign and second language teaching purposes ( Wang and Burton, 2013) and (Hilsop, 2008). Thus, Second Life allows learners to create an environment of familiarity and conversation beside sharing cultural experiences.
because of the importance of Second Life, many universities have started to create virtual or blended learning environments by using Second Life Campuses.

Aim of the study:

the purpose of this research study is to describe the evaluation of using Second Life in English language teaching at the tertiary level through data collected from professionals who have applied this virtual environment as instructors and experienced it in a comprehensive way.

Methods of the study:

  The researcher picked up five different experts from different universities located in Turkey as participants for the study. In the research,  the qualitative data from the experts have been collected and analysed with code and theme identification (Procedia, 2014).


Main finding:

The participants declared that speaking and listening skills improved through Second Life related applications. Two experts indicated that Second Life contributes to the teaching of writing as it is optional to speak or write in Second Life in order to communicate with other users. One expert highlighted that Second Life contributes to problem solving skills as well (Procedia,2014).

Habib W1 photo blog

1- While I’m looking for place to visit it, I found this nice place and there are many beautiful 

views.  It is called Lorena Chung.

2- Just when I started to walk next to the main gate, there is a lovely river and colourful trees.

3- There are fish in the lake and the people can hunt, as the notice board shows. I hope that I have a hook to enjoy this journey, but because this is my first trip through the second life, I have no idea where can I get it from?  

         4- This picture shows the fish movement inside the river.

     5- Also, when I was walking around the area I found this statue by the river.

     6- There are some mountains when the visitors climb up, they can see great view.

     7- At the end of this exploration journey, I saw these waterfalls around the area which create a peaceful environment for relaxation and charming view.