CSEDU International Workshop on Virtual Worlds for Open Learning, Noordwijkerhout, Niederlande

Virtual worlds continue to attract considerable interest as an innovative means of engaging students through the use of immersive, collaborative environments. They allow for the dynamic creation of content and for that content to be programmed. They empower students to explore learning environments that would be inaccessible to them in the real world. Learners achieve presence through the proxies of avatars, and consequently are aware of and may interact with fellow learners within the virtual environment. Interactivity ranges from simple exhibits as might be found in a museum to configurable, complex simulations visualised in a 3D space. At the same time there are now numerous open learning initiatives which seek to encourage the sharing of independently produced quality educational resources through the Internet, but these are mostly web–based, so the challenge of realizing open learning within virtual worlds remains. Until now, Second Life (SL) has been the dominant virtual world technology in use, and whilst attractive in that it is a ready–made – albeit commercial – service, it was not designed for open educational use and has significant social and technical drawbacks when used for that purpose. This workshop seeks to identify and address the challenges which need to be met to support the widespread use of virtual world technology in the emerging open learning context.