Virtual Quest

Tonight I re-visited Education UK Island to take another look at the Virtual Quests. This resource is housed in a smallish shop unit close by the Education UK reception at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/228/45/22

In which way does this location address educational issues?

This site is very small scale and very simply presented series of wall-mounted instruction cards on how to create Virtual Quests; an approach that offers “a focused method of using Second Life to support learning and teaching and provides the learner and tutor with a framework for exploring and developing subject topics.” There’s an outline of the pedagogical model, additional note cards, and example of a quest, and links through to additional web-based resources on www.sleducationuk.net. Unfortunately, the website itself was off line due to bereavements.

The presentation of the Virtual Quest resource is functional but nothing to write home about (or write a blog about…). However, the content might be! This was the first resource I’ve come across that gives clear practical advice to teachers on how to use SL as a teaching resource. It’s functional, practice-focused, written with learning outcomes in mind and follows a simple 4-stage experiential learning model that will already be familiar to most teacher. The Virtual Quest process itself has clear application in a wide range of learning contexts.

According to you, which is the target audience of the educational events/action taking place in the location?

The activity was presumably written by UK teachers. There’s nothing to confirm this directly, although an inspection of various prims reveals that Chris Eggplant, the avatar in front of the man behind Education UK Island is the owner and creator of the content. It’s in a language that will be immediately recognisable to UK schoolteachers, and teachers working in the Lifelong Learning sector.

Who are the owners of the location and how is it organized (is there a community, group, etc)?

To quote from a note card in the main island office, “Education UK island is a not for profit educational island being constructed in Second Life to provide a ‘safe’ location for U.K. virtual education. We are not a company or an organisation, nor are we consultants looking to cash in on Second Life (we have jobs thank you!), or are we affiliated to any other organisation with a similar name. We are purely a group of UK educationalists who have worked in UK education at practitioner, manager and policy levels for a substantial number of years, who have come together and bought an island and the accompanying resources out of our own money.”

As with Virtual Morocco, I found a number of worrying indications that the initial impetus for this work has wound down – there were random prims scattered around, empty shop units, ‘rogue’ sky platforms, non-functional video feeds… again, it struck me that the site is not getting the maintenance as it really needs. This emerging pattern again makes me wonder about the sustainability of project-based in-world activity.

What resources are present?

I concentrated during this visit on the Virtual Quest resources, which I’ve described earlier in this post. I’m going to have a look around and see what other resources might be available here.