Posts tagged secondlife
Identity and Education in Second Life
Jan 12th
This post is not going to beat the familiar drum of the age old identity issue that’s “plagued” distance learning: the question of whether the RL person behind the avatar is who they say they are; is it really John and not John’s talented, free-lance writer friend that is taking my Composition 1 class? Second Life presents an entirely different identity issue with which education will have to cope.
Riddle me this Batman. When you enter Second Life, is it a virtual you that you see in your avatar? Or, is your avatar nothing more than a character in the “game” you’re playing and fantasy you’re engaging – much like the “avatar” of Marcus Fenix you “become” when playing Gears of War? Thus far in SL, the range of identity attitudes individuals have in regard to their avatar has made an impression upon me.
SL as an Extension of Reality. My purpose in SL is to explore the potential, very real applications of SL technology to learning environments; in RL, that’s my chosen profession, and it’s very much a part of my personal identity. So, I not only identify with my avatar; my avatar is an extension of my real-life, personal and professional identity. I attempted to make Topher Zwiers look as much like Chris Duke as my SL skills would allow (although he’s slightly thinner ;-), and I firmly believe the salient social presence Topher creates in SL is identical to my own. Others that have met “Topher” and try to describe him to someone else later could be describing Chris. Or, at least, that’s my intent. I’ve met other SL residents with the Extension of Reality perspective as well; if I describe their SL presence, I’m describing their RL personas as well: Adam is a reporter/bureau chief for Reuters News; Alaric is a distance learning educator teaching Math and Phyics; Louis is an concert pianist; Farimhoo is a foreign language instructor; Neville is a librarian from Millersville University, and Kiwini is a designer/builder for Clear Ink. Going a step further to extend their RL identity into SL, there are even SL residents that are attempting to attach an image of their RL face to their Avatar.
SL as an Alternative Reality. Others’ purpose in SL is to engage activities and a persona which is beyond the realm of possibilities for their RL persona, and SL may present game-like challenges for them to accomplish. From FurNation to the gun trade to the sex trade, there are wildly varying purposes and uses of SL that are unrelated to RL identities, and forgoing a discussion regarding the general merit of such activities being part of or treated as a game, each has a potentially justifiable place in Virtual Reality. I’ve encountered residents that role play across varying historical periods, and those that find it a challenge to build/script fantastical weapons and characters we’ve only seen before in video games and fantasy comics. I’ve chatted with a dragon, an elf like creature, and a very small white house cat – all residents and RL people just like me.
The issue for education will be when these two worlds collide. What happens when an alternative reality infringes upon or becomes juxtaposed with an extension of reality?
First, I personally experienced an instance where an alternative reality infringed upon my reality in SL. A resident engaged in an alternative reality (or at least I hope so) included me in his alternative reality without my consent. Building objects and learning at Campus Second Life sandbox, another resident (can’t remember his name, but it had the number 7 in it) entered and began “shooting” everyone with a weapon that launched the “victim” a significant distance from where s/he was standing. He shot me more than a few times, despite my attempts to ignore and move away from him initially; he even seemed to target me specifically after my first request that he stop. After asking him to stop again and threatening to report him, he finally responded, “Best Game EVER!” Not all alternative reality folks are as inconsiderate, and we did have a decent conversation about scripting and building after that, but educators must be prepared to deal with situations where an alternative reality infringes upon reality.
Second, Second Life juxtaposes reality and fantasy in a way I’ve never witnessed before; reality and fantasy sit side by side between and possibly within individuals. Unlike my RL identity, Chris, it’s possible and “safe” for Topher to be an educator by day and a gunrunning pimp by night, but it may not be safe for Chris if Topher engages that dual personality. Where does one stop and another begin? What separates the educator from the gunrunning pimp persona? That sounds ridiculous to me, and perhaps to you, because it seems obvious to me that the two are different: one’s real and one’s a game. However, are they really separate and distinct? And, even if I can separate the two, can everyone else? If I make a concerted effort to create a real life persona in SL via Topher, why would Topher’s becoming an infamous gunrunning pimp NOT impact another RL educator’s opinion of Topher as an educator? of Chris as a RL person and educator? Even if I can separate the two persona’s, can someone else do the same? It seems that there will be at least a concern, if not a very real danger, that a learner could perceive the real life education conducted via SL as too much like a game? In an educational “game” juxtaposed with an alternative, fantasy reality, I believe it’s very possible for any hint of educational ethics to disappear entirely.
Ultimately, teachers and learners need to be aware of the two perspectives so that they know which they are applying and which is appropriate in a given situation and how they may respond if one perspective intrudes upon the other. While it may not completely resolve the issue of extension of reality versus the alternative reality, I believe learners using two different SL identities for different personas may help reduce the blurring of the lines between a “this is me” identity and a “this is a game” identity.
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Loading ...Central Piedmont Community College
Jan 11th
In just a matter of a few weeks, I’ve encountered a good number of educators that, like myself, are “exploring Second Life to see how” it may be used by a college or university. Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC – incidentally, one of the hosts of the League of Innovation’s 2006 Conference on Information Technology – is exploring as well, but they’re engaging that process openly via the CPCC 3D Campus / SLC3 Blog. I’m hoping that the lack of updates since late November can simply be attributed to the Winter Break because there are several very helpful posts already on the blog, so I’m hoping it will continue once the Spring ’07 semester gets rolling.
A couple of posts and links to explore from that blog:
- a draft of CPCC’s Strategic Plan for the SL Project
- an (internal? & approved?) initiatives grant to fund exploration of CPCC in SL.
- if you had less than 10 minutes to pitch SL to an administrator, what would you say?
- thinking out loud about how a meeting with the College President will/should go
- a Canadian Broadcast Company reporter’s introduction to SL (direct link, RealPlayer)
- the initial blog post describing the early stages of exploration
Imagine the collaborative effort if all institutions exploring SL maintained a similar blog; the cross posting, commenting, and information gathered from blog feeds would be an incredible asset to the community.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Slurl.icious
Jan 10th
I spent an hour or so last night tinkering with LSL (Linden Scripting Language); I’ve done enough novice to low-intermediate level programming that I was able to work with LSL well enough to create a small object/script designed to be used as a Center 2 HUD. Slurlicious combines SLURL and del.icio.us to allow SL’ers to share their current in-world location via their del.icio.us bookmarks.
When attached to the Center 2 HUD, the image above appears above the SL resident’s avatar. When clicked, the Slurlicious HUD will open the SL’ers personal post to del.icio.us page to allow them to bookmark a SLURL representing their current in-world location. The URL and page title information are already populated with the slurl and the region’s name.
I’m hoping this will be a tool useful for educators. At the very least, I wanted an easy way to share my landmarks with colleagues beyond the in-world features I’ve identified thus far into my six weeks of SL experience. So, if you visit, http://del.icio.us/cmduke/slurleducation, you’ll find all of the educational locations I have in my landmark inventory (of course, I also have that feed rolling on this blog site as well). If you subscribe to the feed for that page, you’ll be notified through the feed every time I landmark a new educational, in-world location along with the notes I add to describe that location.
If you’d like a copy of Slurlicious, I’m trying to find a location in-world where Slurlicious can be placed for retrieval; currently, I’m handing out copies. It is freely available with a note that donations to Topher Zwiers are appreciated (since they will help support my SL habit;-).
If you’d like to share your landmarks via delicious by way of Slurlicious, consider tagging all of your slurls in delicious with slurlicious, slurl and slurl(insert category). I’ll be tagging all of my slurls that way to allow for users to find any slurl tagged via slurlicious and then find subcategories of locations in-world. I’m sincerely hoping other educators will use Slurlicious as a way of sharing locations, so if you would like to join us, post the URL of your del.icio.us account as a comment to this post. Happy Slurling!
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Ultimate Distance Learning?
Jan 9th
This past Sunday (Jan 7/07), the New York Times offered an article focused on the value of Second Life to enhance or improve distance learning: Ultimate Distance Learning. As an educational technologist with an emphasis in distance learning and new technologies, I would tend to agree, and many of the activities to which the article refers – collaborative projects, social opportunities for learners, interactive discussions – are in fact valuable enhancements to distance learning, particularly given the manner in which those activities are facilitated in Second Life.
However, the leading image caught my attention before I was even able to read the article, and it made an impression.
If distance learning facilitated via Second Life begins to look too much like this on a regular, consistent basis, we should stop! Unfortunately, there’s more than a few examples of learning space in SL looking exactly like this one.
The attractive benefits of internet-based distance learning are completely lost in such an environment. Quality internet learning is fundamentally different from most face-to-face environments; internet-based distance learning has typically been asynchronous, multimedia enhanced, and learner centered/directed. Recreating the classroom environment in SL removes ALL of those features, and we end up back in a synchronous classroom with limited multimedia presented in an instructor-led format. We shouldn’t use SL to simply replicate the classroom environment; we need to find innovative ways to do things differently. Otherwise, SL actually could become the unfortunate embodiment of “learning online being no different than learning face to face.” That’s not what we should be trying to do with this medium.
Second Life offers rather unique opportunities for learners: to engage virtual, authentic activities, to collaboratively develop meaningful products and spaces, and to engage one another in socially and intellectually meaningful discussion beyond the constraints of a traditional classroom or even a traditional internet based course discussion board. There’s no reason SL learners should be sitting and listening/reading an instructor; I did attend one meaningful class on basic prims that was set, basically, in a pasture. Each SL’er found plenty of space and began rezzing prims; of course, the instructor was talking/chatting/typing as we went, but each individual could determine their own pace, and each remained active throughout the session. That’s the kind of active learning we need to be engaging.
If distance educators are to use SL to enhance instruction, we should be using SL to do things we can’t do in the classroom: attend or produce live music concerts, engage in political discussions with political leaders, participate in open SL poetry writing classes with other SL’ers, take (or create) a SL generated tour of the solar system, attend an open seminar/discussion focused on contemporary issues (Myspace as a resource?), become an art critic after visiting a SL art exhibit, peruse a library or museum exhibit, or participate in online conferences just to name a few. If we’re busy recreating classrooms and uploading powerpoints or videos into them, we’re just doing what we’ve always done, and SL is anything BUT an ordinary tool with which to teach.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...SL Moves to Open Source
Jan 8th
This is by no means a scoop on my part, and it’s not specifically real life education in second life. However, the news that the Second Life client application is now open source and that there are plans for the server application to be open source in the future is extremely relevant to educators at all levels.
A quick, time-sensitive side note: Linden Labs has a Technical Town Hall scheduled for tomorrow, January 9th at 5-6pm CST to answer additional questions about SL Open Source; the Q&A will, of course, be in-world at Pooley Stage. Now, back to the importance of Open Source SL for educators . . .
First, Linden Labs is embracing the Open Source & Open Content movement. The Open Source/Content movement has been building for some time in the education market; it has not yet reached critical mass, and the full reach of the OS/C influence has yet to be seen or estimated. But, with an increasing number of institutions participating in the movement – MIT, Rice University, Berkeley and others – open educational content is becoming a reality. For Linden Labs, a large and somewhat influential player in the current proprietary market, to open source their client sets a precedent for others to follow, and it makes a proprietary interface open to modification by those striving to incorporate the technology into learning environments. If/when the server application is open sourced, educators and the general community at large will benefit further. Very simply, when large, profitable companies make their products more accessible and financially available to the general public, educators benefit.
Second, open sourcing creates opportunities for educational developers. A group on my mind currently that should definitely benefit and thrive from the Open Sourcing of SL is the Sloodlers (SL group). Sloodle is a modified version of the open source learning management system Moodel; Sloodle seeks to merge the existing learning management system into the Second Life environment, basically creating an in-world content management system for educators delivering instruction via SL which may also be mirrored via a traditional website. Given the Open Sourcing of SL, it should now be possible for Sloodlers to create, if necessary, a customized, open source version of the SL interface that can support learning more effectively than the original SL viewer. At the very least, the open source allows a better understanding of the viewer which will enable the creation of tools that further enhance the SL experience for learners.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Networking has never been this easy . . .
Jan 6th
Following Louis Volare’s concert that I attended on 1/1/07, I stayed around the Nantucket Theater to learn as much as I could from others that had been in SL a bit longer than I had. I was fortunate to talk to Carmelita who knew Alaric, an educator in Second Life; she gave me Alaric’s contact information and sent him mine as well. Later that evening, Alaric and I were finally in world at the same time. I thought networking was networking, but SL created a few new opportunities.
Without SL, I think there’s very little chance Alaric and I would have bumped into one another; he lives in northern British Columbia, Canada, and I live in southeast Texas, USA. I think Alaric and I meeting virtually by chance is much less likely via other web technologies: IM, blogs, public wikis, or online chat. Why? Community chat is the most common means of communication in SL; other web tools, at least from my experience, require setting up specific conference/chat rooms and inviting specific users into them. SL, at its core, is a metaverse of community chat rooms which users can move easily between. It’s that characteristic of SL that made it very easy for Alaric and I to meet.
Also, SL offers increasing capabilities for voice chat, and until VoIP is more pervasive in SL, many users are opting to use Skype (www.skype.com) as an alternative. After visiting for a few minutes via traditional text chat, Alaric and I connected via a Skype call. I don’t think there’s any other venue or combination of technologies that enables the type of networking Alaric and I did that evening. The end result of the conversation is that Alaric, a distance educator teaching Math and Physics, and I, an educational technologist exploring the application of new technologies to learning environments were able to exchange ideas, in real time, and to some extent, in person. It’s a different type of networking.
That’s not all Second Life offers however. There are websites for groups of varying professional and personal interests, but SL makes it much easier to find and communicate with other, similarly interested people. In a matter of a week, I have been able to find several groups that I would either not have connected to, or would not be able to connect with as easily. Some of them are SL only groups while others are RL groups that have created a SL presence:
- Educational Podcasting, 245 members
- International Society for Technology in Education, 145 members
- Real Life Education in Second Life, 845 members
- Sloodlers, 174 members
- Webheads, 73 members
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, literally. Every SL resident can create their own group. If you meet someone in SL, you can easily see the groups to which they belong in their profile; and it’s only a short leap from there to become a member of that group yourself. Unbelievable networking opportunity.
Finally, there have been virtual conferences via the web for some time, but SL enables that type of activity in a way no other web technology can. SL makes a virtual conference seem much more like a RL conference than one conducted via email or discussion boards or chat rooms. Plus, given the general, freely available SL environment, it’s much more possible for an educator to create a conference or mini-conference than it was previously, and given the opportunity to communicate with entire groups of people at a time (the groups noted above for example), it’s much easier to advertise and solicit involvement of others. I’ve come across two past conferences in the past week: The Future of Digital Education and the Second Life Education Workshop.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Music: Louis Landon and his piano in SL
Jan 5th
The first event I attended in Second Life that really got the educational blood pumping was a “Live” music concert. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular at the time; I just happened across the event listing, was already online, and figured I’d see what “Live” music was like in SL.
Arriving in the Nantucket Sim (which includes a sailing simulation) at the Nantucket Theater, I was impressed by the layout and familiarity of the facility; basically, if you’re going to a very small concert, it might be something you’d expect. It’s a small outdoor, grassy amphi-theater with wooden benches built into the small hillside. Of course, Louis Volare (in real life: Louis Landon) the performer is sitting on stage at the piano. Clicking on the Play Music button that appeared at the bottom of my screen started the music; sure, exactly what I expected… sort of.
I expected to listen to and hear music, but I figured it would be some sort of a simulation of a live concert. In retrospect, I guess I expected something along the lines of an MP3 or series of MP3′s playing as the performer appeared to perform on stage, and it would be really cool if the performer was actually the real-life composer and original artist of the music. I could not have been more wrong! And, once I realized what was actually going on, I was stunned, amazed, and completely mind-boggled; from the comfort of my living room couch, I was actually listening to LIVE MUSIC performed by the original artist. Probably the reaction folks had to television when it first hit the market, but there’s a bit more to this situation.
The RL (real-life) Louis Landon was sitting in his house in New York with his keyboard connected to a streaming media server via his PC; the stream he was creating was connected to the Nantucket Theater in SL (I still haven’t learned how exactly). So, when I clicked on my Play Music button while sitting in my house, I heard Louis playing his piano in real time, barring whatever X second delay may have occurred in the digital transmission of the music. This concert was created and enjoyed by individuals in their homes without the involvement of a broadcast station or trained professionals with skills unbelievably beyond what Louis or any audience member must have for this social transaction to be meaningful. That’s not your (or your Dad’s) first television! And, to me, this much of the story already presents a pretty amazing use of technology. But there’s more still.
This concert peaked at 51 concurrent audience members; collectively, the audience represented Holland, England, Canada and at least six U.S. States. While Louis played, audience members enjoyed the music and were able to quietly chat via text messages; the discussion included a wide array of topics that included: comparing the current song to others they had heard previously by other artists, considering the characteristics of the piece being played, asking Louis questions about his life and work and even current news topics. In between pieces, Louis talked to the crowd, often verbally answering questions or comments that had appeared in the text messaging. This truly was an amazing experience.
How often does the general public have an opportunity to attend a concert *that* small – only 50 people? How often at a concert do you have a voice that can be heard and answered by the performer? How often do you have the opportunity to listen to a live concert by a New York based performer, if you live more than two states away? For me, not often, if ever is the answer to every question. And, for education, that’s the significance of this event.
Music faculty across all levels of education have an opportunity to expose their students to live concerts without the hassle of the expense, release/travel forms, or safety issues. Not only can the entire class attend, but the entire class can ask questions and interact with the performer. Learners can interact within the classroom and in Second Life to discuss and appreciate the music. The performer may potentially be able to schedule the concert around the class’ schedule! Isn’t it feasible and reasonable to expect College students to attend 10 concerts in a single semester of music appreciation if attending the concert only requires they log on at home? SL Live Music dramatically increases faculty and learner access to live music. And, to this point, I haven’t even mentioned rural public schools that are an hour or more from any live, instrumental music; now, granted a reliable, broadband internet connection may still be an issue in rural areas, but once that’s resolved, SL brings them closer to cultural outlets than they’ve ever been through a unique, innovative, new and most importantly, authentic experience.
We don’t have to stop there though. If you have the broadband connection, you’re not that far from being able to stream into SL yourself! Imagine your learners – trumpet players, pianists, celloists, violinists, or for that matter, the whole choir or orchestra – performing for a potentially worldwide audience from your own rehearsal hall, theater or band hall? And, naturally, there’s a large number of students with a great deal of interest in music that are devoid of any musical talent whatsoever (myself included); they may eventually find their way into production, marketing, promotion, or management. With SL, there’s no eventually to it. Your learners can likely engage nearly all aspects of the music industry via Second Life.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Welcome to Capitol Hill . . .
Jan 4th
This afternoon, I attended a pre-opening event at the virtual Capitol Hill in Second Life. The event, as noted by a Rocketboom website, was designed to usher in the 110th Congressional Session; a NY Times political blog has a few more details. The event included a video stream from CSPAN of the morning’s proceedings which focused on the election and swearing in of the new Speaker of the House: Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker in U.S. history. After his morning speech, Representative George Miller joined the Second Life audience. Having been offered an invitation to the event by Rocketboom, I was taking as many “photos” as possible and also “shooting video” of select segments. It certainly feels like a historic event – Reuters, CNN, Rocketboom, ZNet and other media outlets were in attendance – but it is easy to imagine a far-reaching impact Second Life may have in the future on Real Life politics as our society begins to explore what it means to be a truly participative democracy. In fact, one question from “the floor” (which demographics and participant background should be available in the near future) focused on the future of politics in Second Life. Representative Miller indicated that there is interest on the Hill, and that there are already future events planned to allow general public participation in discussions focused on legislation before it reaches the floor the House and Senate.
The educational implications of a virtual Capitol Hill are far-reaching, as well. The Second Life Capitol already has venues for discussing major initiatives on the agenda for the first 100 hours of the new Congress: congressional ethics, minimum wage, and the cost of higher education as a few. Political Science, Government and History faculty, 9-12 and higher education, have an opportunity to bring their students into an environment, that while virtual, allows them the chance to participate in an authentic, real-world discussion directly with U.S. political leaders. More photos of the event are available, at least temporarily.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...About Topher Zwiers
Jan 1st
I can be contacted at topher(at)muveforward . com
In real life, I – Chris/Topher – am
- an educational technologist and instructional designer primarily interested in emerging technologies, institutional technology integration, and distance learning; I earned my M.S. degree with a specialization in Instructional Design.
- a Director of Training & Technology Development for a two-year, community college in the Houston, Texas USA area. I work with faculty, staff and students to integrate new technologies into our learning spaces, and I assume responsibility for directing our administrative technology-related training efforts including office productivity applications, our enterprise management system (Banner), and IT-related projects.
- a graduate student pursuing a PhD in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Learning and Technology; my studies have included a focus on learning theory, instructional design methods, and distance learning.
- an adjunct instructor for a two-year, community college in the Houston, Texas USA area. I teach Introduction to Computers to traditional and non-traditional students pursuing vocational certificates or four-year baccalaureate degrees.
- a husband (10 years) and a father to two incredible daughters.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...About MUVE Forward
Jan 1st
In general, MUVE Forward focuses on the application of a Multi-User Virtual Environment to facilitate real life education in formal learning environments (K-20); I believe MUVE’s will have a tremendous impact on the education industry as both progress and “MUVE Forward.” More specifically, MUVE Forward will include discussion of:
→ ideas for applying Second Life technology to learning environments
→ issues and experiences with implementation of Second Life at the institutional level
→ general Second Life news relevant to educators
→ resources for facilitating Real Life education via Second Life.
Since I’ll be writing this blog as I engage SL for the first time, personally, some of the early posts may be retreads of topics and issues others have already discussed or resources with which many experienced SL educators are already familiar. For experienced Second Life educators, I will be addressing current issues and events that may be useful, and hopefully, some of the ideas I have for applying SL to educational environments will be new, innovative and useful. For educators new to Second Life, the blog will be a chronological journal of my SL learning curve and experience; hopefully, documenting my experience may expedite your SL learning and exploration process.
If you’re not familiar with Second Life, visit their web presence at http://www.secondlife.com. It’s easy to get started, and above all else for educators, it’s free for as long as you want it to be – allowing startup time and learning curve!
And, of course, when you do get started, look me up! Topher Zwiers in SL.
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