Simon Bignell gave a presentation on using Second Life and machinima to introduce sustainability into university curriculums. He discussed how higher education organizations in the UK emphasize the importance of teaching sustainability principles. He then described some projects at UK universities that have embedded sustainability education into their curriculum, campus operations, and community engagement. Bignell also presented on using virtual world scenarios and interactive avatars to teach students about sustainability issues like resource consumption, recycling, and energy efficiency.
prashanth updated resume 2024 for Teaching Profession
Using Second Life Avatars and Machinima to Introduce Sustainability
1. Simon Bignell, Ph.D.
(SL: Milton Broome)
(Lecturer in Psychology, University of Derby, UK)
VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life
Using Second Life
Avatars and Machinima
to Introduce
Sustainability into the
University Curriculum
2. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 2 / 31
Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE)
• In 2009 updated their strategic statement and
action plan – Sustainable Development in HE.
• “Sustainable development principles
must lie at the core of the education
system, such that schools, colleges and
universities become show cases for
sustainable development among the
communities that they serve.”
3. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 3 / 31
United Nations (UN)
• 2005-2014 the Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development.
• Goal – to integrate the
principles, values and
practices of sustainable
development into all
aspects of education and
learning.
4. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 4 / 31
Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE)
• All graduates should have knowledge of
sustainable development.
• Many will be leaders in the future.
• Jonathon Porritt (Chancellor of
Keele University, UK).
• “Universities are uniquely placed.”
• “About…Campus, community and
curriculum.”
• “Preparing students for the work of the
world not just the world of work”.
5. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 5 / 31
Who is doing what in the UK?
• Keele – embedded, 2011 opened a sustainability
hub with £3.4 million funding.
• Gloucester – embedded, all students experience
it, “Sustainability in their DNA”.
• Bradford - £3.1 million funding, achieving change
through – curricula, volunteering, learning from
corporate practice on campus.
• Plymouth – national and international impact via
the Centre for Sustainable Futures. 4C approach:
curriculum, campus change, community
engagement – culture.
14. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 14 / 31
Virtual Neonatal Ward: for a Developmental
Psychology Module at University of Derby
Video of Neonatal Unit (1m16s):
http://youtu.be/sEd9s0toHuk
15. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 15 / 31
Project webpage: http://previewpsych.org/
18. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 18 / 31
“We worked as a team...
this seemed much more
valuable than just
writing an essay or
having a discussion.”
“I was thinking
more about the real
life Psychology
because the avatars
represented real
people with real
psychological
problems.”
“...the content was
easy to access and
the tasks very
enjoyable.”
19. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 19 / 31
Best Practices Document
Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching: A guide
to using problem-based learning in Second Life
20. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 20 / 31
Education for Sustainable
Development
• Brundtland Commission: ES is
–“…development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.”
• Education is the means through which
sustainable development can be achieved.
UNESCO
21. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 21 / 31
• Two Sustainability / TEL Projects:
– With Rosemary Horry (Environmental Sciences) funded by the Higher
Education Academy.
– With Zaheer Hussain (Psychology) funded by the Higher Education Academy
Psychology Network.
• Evaluated different methods of embedding ESD in the curriculum.
• Used Second Life to rate people’s pro-environmental behaviour and
attitudes to ‘green’ issues such as recycling, energy use and
resources.
• Participants reported more pro-environmental behaviour a week
after seeing the videos.
22. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 22 / 31
• In the problem-based learning scenarios we used programmed
avatar interactions to lead the students to ask the question of ‘what
is Sustainability?’
• The scenarios had some concrete examples from a contemporary
lifestyle perspective.
• We constructed a series of learning scenarios for staff and students
that highlighted the motivational and behavioural factors that
impact on sustainability (e.g. resources, recycling and energy
efficiency).
23. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 23 / 31
• Scenario 1. Resources: Small
groups of students find out who has
been using the most water in the
virtual household and why, by
interacting with the avatars and each
other.
• Issues such as beliefs and behaviour
about showers vs. bathing, washing
the car and using the dishwasher were
explored along with wider issues of
sustainability of resources.
•
Example project video (3m20s):
http://youtu.be/N_0FNyUX1Uo
24. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 24 / 31
• Scenario 2. Recycling: Students are
tasked to establish what the issues are
with one particular member of the
family who is refusing to engage in pro-
environmental behaviour.
• Issues such as beliefs about recycling
paper, card and metal were explored in
an attempt to find out why they think
recycling is a good idea but
nevertheless fail to engage in these
activities.
Project video (2m26s):
http://youtu.be/i4FOB6Yf_HQ
25. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 25 / 31
• Scenario 3. Energy Efficiency:
Students worked in teams to answer
questions about home energy use (e.g.,
leaving things on standby), replacing light
bulbs with low wattage equivalents,
whether using a microwave is better than
the oven or the energy consumption of a
washing machine at 30°C rather than
40°C. Example project video (2m20s):
http://youtu.be/EusqbduUejg
27. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 27 / 31
Educational Visual Storylines –
‘Teaching Cartoons’
• Uses a virtual world to
create educational cartoons
for teaching and online
learning.
• Rapidly develop and deploy
to modules.
• Import straight into our
virtual learning platform.
• Summaries: Not dumbed
down.
28. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 28 / 31
‘JISC - Moving into Virtual Worlds -
Emerging Practice in a Digital Age’
• With Aston University
• JISC resources feature
commentary and
reflection on
pedagogical
applications of virtual
worlds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aTvE2OBQHc
Emerging Practice in a Digital Age JISC VIDEO
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/emergeresource
29. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 29 / 31
How to visit the University of Derby Second Life Islands:
1) Create and avatar: http://tinyurl.com/GETAN-AVATAR
2) Install Second Life: http://tinyurl.com/Download-SL
3) Teleport to us: http://tinyurl.com/DERBYSECONDLIFE
Virtual Campus Flythrough (1m6s):
http://youtu.be/GQnyb87Zj0o
30. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 30 / 31
Using problem-based learning
within 3D virtual worlds
– Published book chapter in with
Dr Vanessa Parson (Sunderland
University, Previously at Aston).
• Parson, V. & Bignell, S. (2011). in
Hinrichs, R and Wankel, C (Eds),
Transforming Virtual World
Learning: Cutting-edge
technologies in higher education,
Vol. 4, pp. 245–265. Emerald
Group Publishing Limited:
Teynampet, India. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transforming-Learning-Cutting-edge-
Technologies-Education/dp/1780520522
31. VWBPE Conference, Friday July 26th 2013, 8.05am PDT, Second Life 31 / 31
Contact Dr Simon Bignell
Centre for Psychological Research
University of Derby, UK
s.bignell@derby.ac.uk
+44 (0)1332 593043 (ext: 3043)
www.MiltonBroome.com
www.PREVIEWPsych.org
Editor's Notes
Slide 1: Hello welcome and thanks for being here. I am Milton Broome in Second Life and in the‘real world’ Dr Simon Bignell from Derby University, UK. Slide 1:My talk is titled Using Second Life Avatars and Machinima to Introduce Sustainability into the University Curriculum. Slide 1:I will talk for no longer than 45 minutes and hopefully finish sooner with time for questions. However, if you have questions throughout please ask using TEXT IN CHAT as we go. Slide 1:A Video Playlist of related videos is available on You tube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX4ftfKp-z4EAKaTUO9ALkvbbjCTYJj0G.
Slide 2: HEFCE updated their strategy which provided a kick for getting SD ‘Sustainable Development’ into the curriculum..
Slide 3: There’s a good justification for doing research at University on SD because it’s the ’Decade of ESD’..
Slide 4: There’s been many high level calls for action on promoting ESD in the University curriculum. .
Slide 5: Many Universities are ‘upping’ their game on Sustainability..
Slide 6: I’ve been in SL since 2006 and am deeply interested in finding ways to intergrate SL with ESD and Psychology..
Slide 7: SL is ideal for customising avatars and rapidly prototyping spaces for ‘proof of concept’.
Slide 8: We started with beautiful learning spaces.Slide 8: But they were not functional..
Slide 9:Then we integrated functionality into the space. Providing a purpose for our students to visit on their own time..
Slide 10: A variety of methods were used..
Slide 11: We ran live simulated lectures. (with students as 2ft bunnies sometimes!).
Slide 12: We asked “What would the ideal learning space look like?”Slide 12: We stripped it all back to the basics ‘SLABS’ 100 virtual metres up in the air..
Slide 13: We had to put up a barrier as students fell to their virtual death.Slide 13: We used schematic representations of Psychology Lab reports. Which worked well and was different.Slide 13: We got a positive student response..
Slide 14: We also built simulations. Here’s a video of Neonatal Unit (1m16s): http://youtu.be/sEd9s0toHuk to look at later..
Slide 15: We were funded by JISC. A project webpage is here: http://previewpsych.org/ ..
Slide 16: We built a problem-based learning environment within SL..
Slide 17: Static (prim) avatars were scripted to interact with each other and the students followed the evolving storyline in groups with different roles and tasks..
Slide 18: A good student response..
Slide 19: A ‘Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching’ guide was produced. Slide 19:It’s a guide to using problem-based learning in Second Life.Slide 19:It can be download here:http://previewpsych.org/BPD2.0.pdf ..
Slide 20: Definitions of sustainable development exist. Education is critical..
Slide 21: Two funded projects looked at Education for Sustainable Development.Slide 21: One using problem-based learning, the other using Machinima of the same scenarios..
Slide 22: We asked “What is Suastainability?” and focused on three areas..
Slide 23: Resources. AnExample project video is here (3m20s)http://youtu.be/N_0FNyUX1Uo ..
Slide 24: Recycling:. AProject video (2m26s): http://youtu.be/i4FOB6Yf_HQ is here..
Slide 25: Energy Efficiency. AnExample project video (2m20s): http://youtu.be/EusqbduUejg ..
Slide 26: Different methods were used..
Slide 28: A recourse is here. Emerging Practice in a Digital Age JISC VIDEOhttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/emergeresource ..
Slide 29: Please come and visit our virtual campus..
Slide 30: A book chapter is also available where we flesh out the theory alongside the practical techniques..