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My first machinima – Virtual World Learning v. H1N1

The above “news report” on H1N1 and virtual worlds is part of an assignment I just completed for an additional qualification course in Media at York University. The idea was to create two news reports in two different media. I chose to do a print story (forthcoming) and an emergent media form: machinima. As n00b as this piece is, it took me the better part of last week and most of this weekend to complete.

In addition to hooking up my guest with the right speech and arm animations (to make his avatar move and talk) I had innumerable challenges with Wegame, the only free gaming capture tool that plays well with SL (if you can think of another, better one, please comment below!). Given my limited movie editing capabilities I put the project together in Windows Movie Maker.

Just imagine what students could create!

What excites me the most is the prospect of doing stuff like this with students.

Unfortunately, teaching in the public system at the secondary level means I am not allowed to take my students into spaces like Second Life (or, at least, not that I am yet aware). So perhaps we can start by creating “remix” machinima using sampled, public domain content from the Internet Archive. I’ll post a lesson plan when I get there.

The topic

As a teacher, I’m more interested in trying to promote the use of virtual worlds than specifically voice an opinion on the subject of H1N1 (though it gave my piece a newsy focus). Still, my choice to focus on H1N1 draws attention to the fact that face to face learning isn’t always ideal – especially when it means some people are risking their lives to do so. While it goes without saying that many cases of the flu have been mild, I’ve felt that people need reminding that their self diagnosis to come to work/school, however mild the symptoms, could put another colleague or student on a ventilator – or worse.

Had I spent more time on this, I might have expanded on the many other reasons why virtual learning can augment face to face learning. Especially in contexts where our students have a long ways to travel, face considerable scheduling conflicts (with part time jobs or family responsibilities) and situations where the lesson at hand might better served online.

I plan to elaborate on this theme further in the months to come. I’m not thinking about this as an either/or but as an extension of existing models of learning.

Q: So what do you think? What are some of the benefits of learning in virtual worlds (v. the default face to face classroom)?