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PAPER SECOND LIFE: A VIRTUAL LEARNING CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SHARKS Second Life: A Virtual Learning Center for the Study of Sharks doi:10.3991/ijet.v6i2.1580 T. Papadamou, C. Gavrilakis, C. Tsolakidis and G. Liarakou University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece Abstract—In this work the educational capabilities of the virtual worlds allow participants to experience roles and to virtual world Second Life are researched and tested. A vir- do things which would be difficult or impossible to do in tual world is constructed to support education for sustain- the physical world [19], [25]. Moreover, VR is a multi- able development. The life and characteristics of the shark is sense experience where its illusive nature provides users studied as this fish has received a lot of negative publicity more than just a simple observation but the ability to par- and is in the danger of extinction. A virtual museum was ticipate in an environment and interact with objects and developed for this purpose. The research question is focused between themselves [9], even if they bring different un- on whether it can be used effectively in a modern classroom derstandings about how to behave [25]. and how difficult is for an educator to develop such an ap- According to Dreher et al. [8] virtual worlds are of par- plication. To achieve that, a number of learning activities ticular pedagogical relevance because in such environ- were developed, a number of on line questionnaires were ments students are prone to explore, participate, discover issued and a series of virtual meetings were held. Teachers new knowledge, and develop skills with greater intrinsic used the application and answered the questionnaires. The motivation and autonomy. A great variety of educational entire effort was attempted through Internet exclusively. subjects are tested to determine in which VR works effi- Index Terms—Education for sustainable development, Sec- ciently [2]. Specifically, VR is used widely in mathemat- ond Life, virtual museum. ics and physics science, architecture, medicine, aviation and generally in fields that involve the study of natural phenomena and abstract concepts. Another advantage of I. INTRODUCTION virtual reality is that of making what is abstract and intan- gible to become concrete and manipulable [22]. Further, Virtual reality (VR) is a three dimensional environment the application of VR in arts and humanities studies of simulation running on a computer displaying in real should not be ignored. For example the ability of VR to time the activities of the users. A virtual environment con- develop places of educational interest such as historical sists of an index (objects and actors), geometry and phys- sites and museums that are not easily accessible in the ics, that include the perception of objects in depth and every day life to students across the world, could be bene- through this all senses can be stimulated by an ego- ficial to social studies, culture and foreign languages [6]. centered context [14]. VR is based on Web 2.0 compo- nents getting its users deep into interactive environments. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) consti- According to Bell and Fogler [2] VR is characterized by tutes an interdisciplinary educational field where natural the development and use of man-made worlds that are sciences cross inevitably the social sciences and humani- organized and governed by a set of rules and regulations. ties, while its core subject - the environmental issues - are These worlds allow all users to navigate and interact with certainly among the most complex learning subjects. them. For a user to navigate, there are specific input and Moreover the goals of ESD extend beyond the cognitive output devices that give him/her the experience of a realis- domain to cover attitudes, values and skills, while in terms tic feeling [11]. VR technology progresses with time and of learning approach, it emphasizes critical and systems users have an increasing feeling that simulation of real life thinking, outdoor and student-centered learning strategies. is more realistic. In brief, VR is an intellectual situation In this context VR can be a beneficial tool for ESD [17], where the subject-user is immersed, partly or totally, in an [23]. artificial environment, which can be closely similar to, or What was attempted in this project was to bridge the vastly different from reality [11]. two fields, VR and ESD, to harness the potential of VR, VR finds uses in many areas among which entertain- so that a virtual museum for ESD was created. Sotirova ment and education are very important. The virtual reality [21] comments that the purpose of computers is often to has the potential to increase the impact and effectiveness entertain or to create a game or a competition and this is of educational simulation [2]. Learning in a VR environ- one of the characteristics that a museum has to fulfill; ment is a dynamic process determined by the user who though museums give also emphasis to educational issues, sets the aims, changes them at will, and the outcomes of preservation and/or scientific work. Several museums and the training process differ from individual to individual other cultural institutions have developed applications [10]. Such an environment provides users with the ability integrating 3D visualization, decades ago [24]. In recent to construct new knowledge through a socio-cultural years, an increasing number of museums use multimedia model which perceives knowledge as being distributed in applications to present their exhibits. Some of them allow the virtual world and users learn collaboratively. In rela- users to navigate through exhibits (often by using 360o tion to conventional forms of education in ‘real world’, panoramas), though there is no true interaction and no exploration of the area that represents the museum [13], iJET – Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2011 19 PAPER SECOND LIFE: A VIRTUAL LEARNING CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SHARKS [27]. However only in the last years the progress of tech- tual worlds, that is to say designed to enable socialization nology allowed the development of museums’ applica- [26]. tions that converge to what today is meant by the term Till today, several applications linking the VR with ‘virtual reality’ (as it was outlined earlier). ESD have been developed, both internationally and in The virtual museum was developed in this project by Greece, though no SL application dedicated to ESD has using the software “Second Life” (SL). SL is a web-based been reported in the international literature. Thus, the de- virtual world, developed in 2003 by Linden Research Inc., velopment of this virtual museum constitutes an innova- which falls into the category of three-dimensional multi- tive undertaking. In particular, this museum is dedicated to user virtual environment (3D MUVE), supporting explora- an important issue of sustainability: the loss of biodiver- tion, simulation, role-play, interaction and experimenta- sity. 1 tion via avatars or 3D self-representations [1], [5], [7]. The subject of this work was the shark, as an endan- The users, “residents” of this virtual environment can gered fish. Shark is a fish that has evolved over 400 mil- build objects within their world aiming at e.g. entertain- lion years, and although it was historically considered of ment, retail, academia, advertising and marketing; thus low economic value, today is highly vulnerable to overex- they create their environment [3]. Moreover, the emer- ploitation. This is mainly due to: directed commercial and gence of a market economy, due to the ‘linden dollar’ recreational activities, the increasing bycatch of fisheries currency [1], [3] should not be underestimated, given that targeting other species, the expanded fisheries in number it contributes to the development of a new “virtual cul- and size in response to the rapidly increasing demand for ture”. shark fins, meat and cartilage, the lack of monitoring and Nowadays, Second Life is a very popular and of rapid management of the most shark fisheries. Of course it progress software. Moreover, it has 15 millions registered should be mentioned that other biological factors, such as accounts and an average of 38,000 residents online at any slow growth, late sexual maturity, low fecundity and long particular moment [26]. Many educational institutions life, resulting in low rates of population, also contribute to keep their own spaces in this virtual world and offer the depletion of shark populations [4]. Furthermore, one knowledge in an original way. It is estimated that at least should keep in mind that since the late ’80s the shark had 300 universities around the world teach courses or con- a notorious fame as a serial killer. Nowadays, evidence duct research in SL [16], though other institutions proves that there is yet little knowledge about the life of emerged exclusively within this virtual world. For exam- sharks. So the task of preserving its populations on our ple Harvard University, Princeton, Kingston, Edinburgh planet seems to be tougher than ever before. Some species and Drexel, have their Second Life campuses [7], [20]. of sharks are thought to be more endangered than others. However, there are powerful pedagogical utilities of Vir- For example the great white shark is the species that tual Worlds that are not yet fully evolved or utilized and gained the negative image, and since then it faces the dan- are thus worthy of consideration [8]. ger of extinction. In 2007, when the project started, SL was the most fa- Consequently, it is expected that the educational com- mous and widely spread virtual world in Internet; that was munity already has a controversial attitude about sharks. It a reason why this particular software was selected. The was believed that providing educators with new, diverse main reasons for the above selection are closely connected information and pedagogical activities about sharks, with its pedagogical and technological advantages against teachers and students could develop a new interest about other types of virtual reality software.

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