Virtual Psychology

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Comment by Salwa Khan on July 13, 2009 at 1:16pm

Hi all, I am a PhD student in adult education who is interested in doing research on avatars created by learners in online simulated worlds used in educational settings. I want to find out whether the avatar frees the learner from established and expected patterns of behavior, from the existing real-world concept of self--which may result in improved learning--or not. So my question is how does the creation of an avatar within a simulated world in an educational context affect real-life identity and learning? I am currently putting together my proposal and wondered whether there is anyone out there that might have some insight on this topic. I should add that my focus is on adult learners.

Comment by Milton Broome on July 12, 2008 at 2:47pm

SL-Labs (Psychology in SL at University of Derby) recently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle in an article about Second Life healing called, 'Second Life offers healing, therapeutic options for users'. The article outlines various support groups in-world and mentions a variety of people that have contributed group over the years. Autism and Asperger’s are mentioned as well as the work of avatar 'The Sojourner' a multiple stroke survivor who created the "Shockproof Dreams" sim for stroke victims, people with autism and Asperger's syndrome and the people who care for them.

The article is well balanced and offers a glance in to the future of virtual worlds and the way in which they can have value to people real world lives.

The web article is here: http://tinyurl.com/6oybrd

Comment by Katherine Gordy Levine on May 21, 2008 at 8:36am

Thank you for this site, I look forward to sharing knowledge and hope I can offer Sharing Knowledge Groups to lonely, shy, anxious or angry students. Visit my Sharing Knowledge Site on Second Life and walk my labyrinth (not perfected yet) but pretty good for an old in body and brain lady. My youngest son suffered from severe learning disabilities, became so depressed his Senior Year, we let him get a GED instead of staying in school, after four years of "finding himself" and the right partner he returned to school through a certificate program offered at College of the Redwoods in California. That lead eventually to graduated magna cum laude from Cal-Poly. I love community colleges.

Comment by Barry Joseph on May 16, 2008 at 2:26pm

Awesome! So please create a forum discussion within the group, or attract a total of ten members, and then we'd be happy to feature so it will appear throughout the site.

Comment by Milton Broome on May 16, 2008 at 12:46pm

I see this group as a hub for the dissemination of new techniques and teachings on the use of virtual worlds for education and enquiry from a Psychological perspective. For example, at University of Derby we have developed techniques and adapted existing technology for running experiments in Second Life. I would like to find out about new initiatives in virtual education and research and share some of our own. The group can be used to build connections amongst those interested in the Psychological aspects of multi-user virtual worlds. The SLED lists and other portals are great of course but here we can share tools and multimedia resources as well and build a community that is much more readily accessible.

Comment by Barry Joseph on May 15, 2008 at 4:19pm

Milton, Thanks for starting this group. Just to be clear - can you please say more about the connections between the mission stated above and the overall focus of RezEd, for those using virtual worlds for learning. I look forward to hearing more!

Comment by Milton Broome on May 15, 2008 at 3:29pm

Welcome to the new group. I intend to use this group as a web spill-over from the Psychology and research Second Life groups. We can utilise a web site as discussion develops. Whilst we get established please feel free to raise discussion topic, question or engage in any way you feel suitable.

I'd like one of the first, and perhaps ongoing topics, to be ethics and good practice in education and Psychological research in virtual worlds. Please post your views.

Milton