man is god

so much is happening; those of us that are students of social media and transcendent web technologies cannot scan the transformation without each other. We are each others' filters, as increasingly the web becomes the source of knowing. We must count on each other; collaboration must be cherished, the new sacrament. see the film to the right. pass it on, hehehe.

Michael and Terrans' learning, continued

Twitter is a recent social media tool that is catching on quickly while spawning different and better widgets throughout the last few months. It is an IM based mini-blog that is audible (with chirps and dings and tweets) and viewable as an ongoing conversation between “friends” in a variety of browsers and forums, including within the SL viewer. Many educators using new media, especially those who are fans and residents of virtual worlds are avid users of Twitter, and share web links to academic articles and other Web 2.0 media such as Slideshare, Flickr, personal blogs, and interesting happenings in second life.
A few weeks prior to this writing I saw and heard a tweet pop up that told of yet another Relay for Life event in SL that was taking place on an island designed as an amusement park, a message that told the “tweeterverse” that several of the most revered and popular female avs were positioned in kissing booths in order to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I had been to a previous event in-world a few months prior at which some of my educator acquaintances were auctioning themselves off as virtual dates. Hoping to participate in this noble philanthropy once again and looking forward to buying a kiss with one or more of the metaverse’s most stunning avs, I teleported directly from Twitterific (the desktop Tweet tool I now prefer) into SL to enjoy a few moments of diversion from this writing. As I arrived, I found myself at a teleport station on one side of the island that happened to be surrounded by a dance party. Activating my streaming audio, I walked the perimeter of the island to classic Motown tunes in search of the kissing booths.
As I walked through the 3D environment I barely missed getting squashed by a fifty foot T-Rex who was taking a similar tour, and spent sometime watching five of SL’s most attractive avs raking in two-hundred Linden dollars for three chances to throw a ball at the paddle that would activate their dunk tank. I paid my money, but never quite figured out how to throw the balls. Other fair-goers were doing quite well, and I spent a few moments enjoying the ladies and gents getting wet, some of them wearing bikini’s and Bermudas while other’s wore their Elizabethan finest. I found the kissing booths, and paid another two hundred Linden to enjoy a sustained kiss in the hands of a lovely av, who chatted amiably with me throughout that moment. Terran Timeless, my av who is gaining familiarity in academic circles in-world, toured these fairgrounds in three dimensions, walking through crowds of people and admiring the amazing textures and colors on the leaves of trees dappling gently in the breeze. My four hundred Linden (about $1.35 on the exchange rate for the day) added to a US dollar amount of four million dollars that SL efforts for Relay for Life have raised since the New Year. I logged off of SL to return to my work having been somewhere, in the company of others, having experienced a few unreal things that were as real as my fingers tapping keys and the good work that was being done.

if anyone really wants to read this, the "episodes" go from bottom up

I was interested to discover what my participants thought of the requirements for a working virtual community. This sort of list, as little as three years ago, was composed of a wish list of features that the flat web could have in a more perfect world. With the advent of the 3D Web, these needs are no longer considerations for the educators already using SL. These educators tell me that a primary ingredient of a virtual learining environment is a common purpose, some glue that holds the tapestry together. Another interesting common requirement for these educators is the ability to socially construct the community: to build and to collaborate. Effective communication was a missing ingredient a few years past. SL provides near synchronous and synchronous communication. From a cultural perspective, a community will develop shared memories, traditions and artifacts, one that can persist with use. For some of my respondents, a sense of support and acceptance is important. Lastly, most agree that, through the lens of the teacher, a true facilitator presence is essential. Someone must guide the experience; someone must lead.
In the early stages of my research I believed that the sense of embodiment provided by being the driver of a highly animated and mobile avatar was one of the crucial features that inject a synthetic world with reality, and thereby influenced student engagement in learning. I still believe so, but fear that in my ignorance I asked the wrong question, so this relationship remains to be seen. The question begs two more; engaged in what, and how do we know and measure this? With regard to embodiment and its direct relationship to student engagement, there are mixed opinions. If I were to ask an educator who drives an avatar how that representation influences their engagement in the virtual environment, they would answer that it is a significant influence. As to engagement in learning, a sense of being there seems to be more important than the sense of being-with-others until one-to-one communication becomes the focus, when embodiment may enhance the feeling of emotional presence and thereby enhances the sense of place. It appears to be true that the experience of embodiment may be less important to traditional age students to other adults as well. My colleagues, most of them at least approaching middle age and many of them proud grandparents, admit that they enjoy driving their avatar while seeking new experiences more than their students. Many educators find that for the traditional student avatar embodiment may be as much of a distraction as it is an enhancement as it applies to student engagement in learning.
It is possible, speaking from recent personal experience, that as a participant in an intentional immersive learning experience, my embodiment may improve my focus and attention to task and the collaborative work that it entails. As my sense of play is teased out, I begin to find the virtual environment more believable, for the moment, and that, in Buddhist terms; “mindfulness” is cultivated.

Michael's Summary: virtues and challenges of teaching with SL

The educators that I spoke with have a variety of mixed feelings about the virtues of SL as a teaching and learning tool, but have no problems listing those that they appreciate, acknowledging that they may be powerful characteristics albeit with questionable instructional value. A student and teacher may find useful applications for distance learning, a sense of shared space, a social and emotional presence and co-presence, a feeling of connectedness, the ability to engage with others from different cultures in different languages in an un-sanitized environment, immediacy, designing experiences that would be impossible in a RL classroom, the immersion, role play, the ability to collaborate and build in a dedicated environment, shaping content to educational purposes, a lack of diversity issues, easy communication, a creative and safe space, interactive teaching, and flexible learning. These responses confirm my own conclusions regarding the value of virtual environments for teaching and learning. I’ve sat in classes, taken field trips, built new things, and felt that I was there, in a place with others, sharing the same experience at the same time.
The challenges inherent in using SL as an educational tool are not so numerous and provide problems to solve. The learning curve is a mountain that many students and some faculty would prefer not to climb. The time one must invest to be comfortable living and learning in a virtual world can be substantially more than finding a room number and an empty seat. The digital divide, varied levels of computer literacy and the technological requirements that an institution must meet are problematic. The infrastructure is often not up to the task. Gaining institutional support is a frequent challenge, where budgets and faculty resistance to change can be barriers to successful implementation. These challenges will, for the most part, be moot within a few years, as an institution upgrades to technology that supports the 3D web and students and faculty find more comfort in using the environments as tools

in reply to a thoughtful post by GoSpeed

I wonder about, and sometimes obsess, from the academic perspective of post-modernism; Eco,Derrida,the deconstructionists, and the Buddha inside me, about what these identities mean and how they are as ephemeral as our RL selves…moments..

but the boundaries fascinate me, between the you and i and the individual and the community, the avatar and the driver, the avatar and other avs..

I’ve reached back to a concept that my psychedelically influenced mind caught a glimpse of as a pre-med wannabe who was enchanted with connective tissue and chemical and electrical communication across membranes. These are usually selective (voluntarily) permeable membranes that are a staple in Terran physiologies..sometimes not of course!

and these are the thin veils that I believe we adress/acknowledge/construct/build in everyday life as we decide what is the “me” and what is the “other”, and contemplate the locuses of control and influence. Shinran Shonin, a 13th century bodhitsadva, said all this was completely incomprehensible to humans. We are most likely completely ignorant to the the reality that drives us…as we drive our avatars. We are “bonbo”; stupid deluded creatures with little understanding of our place in the narrative.

And so the permeable membrane becomes the object of my desire, the invisible but profound boundary that i must accept and understand as the limiting film of tissue that my face keeps whacking into whenever I try to see something new.

and so the relationships we have with our avs, and between our avs, and the complex tapestry of relationships between the uses and the thems and the now that is only for the moment is what interests me.

let’s talk more… all of us.