Distributed cognition in a virtual world

Abstract

Over a 13-month period, the Schome Park Programme operated the first ‘closed’ (i.e. protected) Teen Second Life ¹ project in Europe. The project organised diverse educational events that centred on use of a virtual world and an associated asynchronous forum and wiki. Students and staff together exploited the affordances of the environment to develop skills and enhance community spirit. One popular activity, initiated by students, involved sailing boats around the project's virtual island, a technically challenging task for beginners. This paper studies the records of one of these sailing regattas. Organising and implementing this event involved considerable technical and interactional challenges. We analyse the following: How do people work together, including through the use of (virtual) artefacts, to solve problems? What particular qualities of the literacy practices surrounding the regatta appear to us to involve learning? Simultaneously, we contribute to the development of methodologies for studying learning in virtual worlds by employing a virtual literacy ethnography. Findings include a diversity of creative approaches that are used when solving problems, the significance of adult behaviour in authentically modelling learning and the value of humour in fostering a learning community. The notion of distributed cognition has implications for characterising learning and analytical approaches to analysis.

Keywords:

• virtual worlds
• distributed cognition
• literacy practices
• humour
• virtual literacy ethnography

Acknowledgements

This work depends in multiple ways upon the members of the Schome Community. We cannot name all the individuals who have contributed to our understandings emerging in this paper, let alone all the participants who were involved in the events. An earlier version of this paper was presented as part of a symposium ‘Learning with computer games, virtual 3D environments, and computer simulations: in and between form’, convened by H.C. Arnseth and I. Krange at Fostering Communities of Learners: 13th Biennial Conference of European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, in Amsterdam, 25–29 August 2009.

Notes

1. Teen Second Life and Second Life are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. Teen Second Life has ceased to operate since the time of the project reported on here.

2. Teen Second Life restricted general access to 13- to 17-year-olds, but allowed adults into dedicated project spaces (islands) on condition that evidence of identity and criminal record clearance (for UK residents a Criminal Record Bureau [CRB] check) was submitted to Linden Lab.

3. ‘Inworld’ meaning activity that took place within Second Life.

4. ‘Machinima’ is digital film created within the immersive environment.