Project Evaluation

I embarked on this project build with some trepidation, as my thoughts/hypothesis felt fairly radical in the sense that my ideas about learning spaces were changing and one was left with the decision either to "play it safe" or try something innovative; I'm fairly certain that I chose the latter.
Playing it safe meant to build something traditional, which embraced the traditional metaphors of houses and buildings, things that users would immediately recognise. It quickly occured to me that there was no need for an avatar in Second Life to require a "house". I also thought that new users of Second Life would have little/ no expectation of a Second Life environment- why instill bad habits from the start?

I tried to think about successful ways in which people congregate in spaces in the real world- this made me think of stadiums, theatre, but I was led to a more definitive idea which I thought worked really well- a tradeshow. The tradeshow is composed of stands and stalls whereby users can interact with stall holders and browse easily (and chat) with other individuals. Spaces are segmented in a logical sequence by using booths and attractive signage to guide the user around the space.

I contextually analysed the spaces used in tradeshows and the ways in which stalls were designed to allow people access to monitors and leaflets (and stall-holders) as well as the ability to move through the spaces with the greatest of ease.
The only drawback that I could think of, was that I was intentionally by-passing traditional modelling and metaphor which could be perceived as my lack of capability to model (which is not true) or my lack of inclination to "get in line" with the Second Life environment. This is not the case - my arguement in developing this kind of environment is that there is room to conceive and research different ways to develop learning spaces for interactive users which is user-friendly (end-user focused) and ultimately, future thinking.

The pedagogical aspects of this build relate to the ideals of Wengar's Communities of Practice - I believe that this kind of build is collaboration-friendly and geared towards communicating more freely (as opposed to locking ourselves away in small classrooms).
I see this build as an exemplar for prospective students oversees who might want to study at London Metropolitan University who want to see how we use technology and explore the International Ofiice in a virtual world. The university could put a link to this build from the International Office's web page.

I still believe that there is room for more development with this idea, and it would be good to see other parts of the university use this type of space in line with the 'Proud to be at Londonmnet'campaign.