Special Annual Awards
2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Virtual World Learning
WITHIN THE AESTHETIC CAMERA project in Second Life, Ball State students can check
out cameras, dollies, light systems, and more to create their own original movies.
TECHNOLOGY AREA: VIRTUAL WORLD LEARNING
Innovator: Ball State University
Digital arts students hone their filmmaking skills in
Second Life, where they learn to function just as they
will one day in a complex, competitive, and demanding
cinematography world.
Increasingly, educators are exploring the internet-based virtual
world Second Life as a viable learning
environment. The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and
Animation (IDIAA) at Ball State University (IN) has already
received national honors in the real world for its work in
emerging media through developing virtual applications. The
institute's professors and students gained acclaim for years of
accomplishments in emerging media art forms, so it made
sense to extend these efforts into a virtual environment. The
IDIAA is now capitalizing on its success with 3D animation
and virtual applications, and exporting these into Second Life.
Ball State has launched a digital cinematography program
in Second Life, created through support from Ball State's College
of Fine Arts, the Office of Information Technology, and
the Office of the Provost. The initial project work, The Aesthetic
Camera, now in pilot, is being developed as a formal
course offering. The digital arts program focuses on virtual
filmmaking, or "machinima," as it is known in Second Life. Students
can check out cameras, dollies, light systems, and more
to create their own original movies. They also can film in a Star
Trek-inspired holodeck, which allows them to select among a
wide variety of virtual set locations. "All of the equipment has
been virtualized and scripted," says John Fillwalk, IDIAA director
and associate professor of electronic art. "This means that
the equipment has features similar to its real-world counterparts;
all of the virtual equipment is controlled by a single
HUD [head-up display] for consistency and ease of use. Students
will be able to learn concepts such as three-point lighting,
and then immediately apply those concepts-- in a virtual
hands-on mode-- to what they've learned on their sets."
Ball State's efforts to export
emerging media applications to
Second Life are backed up with
a sophisticated, collaborative
planning/support process.
Several technologies were employed by the program creators
as they ventured into Second Life. Beyond Second Life itself, Apple and Adobe graphics
and digital media tools figured prominently in back-end
development. Numerous other tools-- notably, Fraps, the video-capture and benchmarking software--
played important roles. Blackboard is
used as the course portal as well as the main assessment tool
for student experience. (The project was the recipient of the
inaugural Blackboard Greenhouse Grant for Virtual Worlds.)
Most striking may be the IDIAA's approach to development.
Fillwalk explains: "The IDIAA at Ball State has generous support
and funding through the Lilly Endowment, and for the past several years we've been working on a
variety of different projects with a blend of faculty; experts both
internal and external to campus; students, of course, both undergraduate
and graduate; and staff. We have backed
up our efforts to export emerging media applications
to Second Life with a sophisticated, collaborative
planning/support process."
Bottom line? The IDIAA is committed to developing
hands-on, experiential, project-based learning
environments for the students in all of its digital
media projects. The university's entry into Second
Life is another manifestation and extension of this
philosophy. Students are the main beneficiaries of
the digital cinematography program in Second Life
(and related and future development work), but the
hope is to share Ball State's achievements with the
broader higher education community.