Sunday, February 7, 2010

Second Life literature review

I am starting to delve deeper in to the research on Second Life as a venue for the delivery of education and training. When I first started looking at Second Life for education, well over a year ago it seemed that there was little out there to really guide educators based upon research and data. However, today all of that has changed. While I cannot hope to present all of the research in Virtual Worlds and Second Life specifically I hope to provide some sort of bibliography that will help you identify those resources that would be most pertinent to your needs.


Works Cited

Alarifi, Sultan A. "An Exploratory Study of Higher Education Virtual Campuses in Second Life." Diss. University of Nottingham, 2008. Print.

Appelman, Rober. "Designing Experiential Modes; A Key focus for Immersive Learning Environments." Tech Trends 49.3 (2005): 64-74. Print.

The Blue Book: A Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds Is Now Available Free from the Association of Virtual Worlds. 2008. Web. 04 Jan. 2010. .

Boellstorff, Tom. Coming of Age in Second Life An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. New York: Princeton UP, 2008. Print.

Bradley, Jean-Claude, and Andrew Lang. "Chemistry in Second Life." Chemistry Central Journal 3.14 (2009). Print.

Butler, Des, and Janice White. "A slice of Second Life: Academics, support staff and students navigating a changing landscape." A slice of Second Life: Academics, support staff and students navigating a changing landscape. Proc. of Ascilite 2008, Australia, Melbourne. Print.

Cagnina, Maria, and Michele Poian. "Beyond eBusiness Models: the Road to Virtual Worlds." Electronic Commerce Research 9.1-2 (2009): 195-204. Print.

Calongne, Cynthia. "Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World." Educause Review 43.5 (2008). Print.

Carr, David F. "Second Life demonstrates mingling of real and virtual worlds Rapid prototyping among the benefits for military and civilian organization." Defense System Knowledge Tecnologies and Net Centric Warfare. 9 Dec. 2009. Web. .
Castranova, Edward. Exodus to the virtual World How online fun is changing reality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Print.

Collins, Chris. "Looking to the Future: Higher Education in the Metaverse." Educause Review 43.5 (2008). Print.

Danielsen, Judith M., and Mats Deutschmann. Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life. Tapir Academic, 2009. Print.

Davis, Alanah, John Murphy, Dawn Owens, Deepak Khanzanchki, and Ilze Zgurs. "Avatars, People, and Virtual Worlds: Foundations for Research in Metaverses." Journal of the Association of Information Systems 10.2 (2009): 91-117. Print.

Dreher, Carl. "Virtual Worlds as a Context Suited for Information Systems Education: Discussion of Pedagogical Experience and Curriculum Design with Reference to Second Life." Journal of Information Systems Education 20.2 (2009): 211-25. Print.

Educause Learning Initiative. "7 things you should know about Second Life." Educause. 2008. Web. 02 Feb. 2010. .

Gatto, James, Bradford Blaise, and Benjaminm Esplin. "Worlds.com Saber-Rattling Portends a Trend in Virtual World and Video Game Patents." Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal 21.5 (2009). Print.

Graham, Steven. "14619571070100010503 European Journal of Archaeology 2007; 10; 77 Shawn Graham teaching and research: Linden Labs, Second Life, www.secondlife.com Special Reviews Section: Second lives: online worlds for archaeological teaching and research." European Journal of Archeology 10 (2007): 77-79. Print.

Harrison, Rodney. "Excavating Second Life Cyber-Archaeologies, Heritage and Virtual Communities." Journal of Material Culture 14 (2009): 75-106. Print.
Lamb, Annette, and Larry Johnson. "The potential, the pitfalls, and the promise of multi-user virtual environmen..." Teacher Librarian 36.4 (2009): 68-79. Print.
Malaby, Thomas M. Making Virtual Worlds: Linden Lab and Second Life. London: Cornell UP, 2009. Print.

Mattar, Jao. Technological Minimalism and Second Life: Time for Educational Technology and Content Minimalism. Technological Minimalism and Second Life: Time for Educational Technology and Content Minimalism. Dec. 2009. Web. 6 Feb. 2010. .

Meadows, Mark Stephen. I, Avatar The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life (TestPrep (New Riders')). New York: New Riders, 2008. Print.

Mennecke, Brian, Edward M. Roche, David A. Bray, Benn Konsynski, John Lester, Michael Rowe, and Anthony Townsend. "Second Life and Other Virtual Worlds: A Roadmap for Research." 28th International Conference on Information Systems. Proc. of 28th International Conference on Information Syhstems. 7 Oct. 2007. Web. 02 Feb. 2010. .
Nakazaki, Takashi. "Is Japan Ready to Welcome the Virtual World Age? Second Life’s Bubble Bursts as a Business Tool in Japan." Computer and Internet Lawyer 26.11 (2009): 13-28. Print.
Pearce, Celia. Communities of play emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2009. Print.

Reeves, Byron, and J. Leighton Read. Total Engagement: using games and virtual worlds to change the way people work and businesses compete. Boston: Harvarad Business, 2009. Print.
Rico, Mercedes, Gemma Puerto, and Paula De Silva. "Second Lives and Newer Islands: Language, Culture and Identity through Migration literature." Tejuelo. Didáctica de la lengua y la literatura. Educación 1988.4830200 (2008): 140-67. Print.

Robbins, Russell, and Brian S. Butler. "Selecting a Virtual World Platform for Learning." Journal of Information Systems Education 20.2 (2009): 1199-211. Print.

Robbins, Russell, and Brian S. Butler. "Selecting a Virtual World Platform for Learning." Journal of Information Systems Education 20.2 (2009). Print.

Rufer-Bach, Kimberly. The Second Life Grid the Official Guide to Communicaiton, Collaboration, and community Engagement. Indianaplicy: Wiley,, 2009. Print.

Savin-Baden, Maggie, and Cathy Tombs. "Commentary: Virtual Planning: Second Life and the Online Studio." Journal of Planning Education and Research 29.108 (2009). Print.

Shen, Jia, and Lauren Edfer. "EXPLORING INTENTIONS TO USE VIRTUAL WORLDS FOR BUSINESS." Journal of Information Systems Education 20.2 (2009): 225-35. Print.

Skiba, Diane. "Nursing Education 2.0: A Second Look at Second Life." Nursing Education Perspectives; 30.2 (2009): 211-21. Print.

Terdiman, Daniel. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life Making Money in the Metaverse. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishin, 2008. Print.

Turner, Phil, and Susan Turner. "Triangulation in practice." Virtual Reality 13 (2009): 171-81. Print.

"Virtual Worlds Researchers Wiki." Virtual Worlds Research Wiki. Web. 02 Jan. 2010. .

Wagner, Christian, and RAchel Ip. "Action Learning with Second Life – A Pilot Study." Journal of Information Systems Education 20.2 (2009): 211-25. Print.

Wagner, Christian, and Rachel IP. "Action Learning with Second Life – A Pilot Study." Journal of Information Systems Education, 20.2 (2009): 249-58. Print.

WAng, Yuanqiong, and James Bramam. "Extending the Classroom through Second Life." Journal of Information Systems Education 20.22 (2009): 235-49. Print.

Weicha, John, Robin Heyden, Ellen Sternthal, and Mario Merialdi. "Learning in a Virtual World: Experience With Using Second Life for Medical Education." Jounral of Medical Internet Research. JMIR, 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2010. .
Zagal, Jose P. Ludoliteracy: Defining, understanding and supprorting games education. Lulu. Print.

Zhang, Xiaolong (Luke). "Multiscale traveling: crossing the boundary between space and scale." Virtual Reality (2009). Print.


As this literature review provided a foundation for research it also provided a foundation for conducting the research. The methodology included a survey of educators in Second Life, research observations and immersion in the Second Life. The focus of the research was on education, how university sites in Second Life would be constructed to engage learners, and to determine who was driving the use of virtual worlds in education.

The survey was administered via Survey Monkey and was conducted for a more than six weeks. An initial review of the results has been started. At this point it seems that most initiatives for education in Second Life are those of individual faculty and staff who see the potential of virtual worlds for education.