Time, Space and Bascule

There was a meeting of Blue group at MUVEnation island yesterday to work on Section 3 Activity 1 - creating a virtual travel guide. Boudica (Sally), Tere (Teresa), wico (William) and me were there. Sunshine (Mireille) sent apologies. Bex (Bex) from Orange group joined us to see how we are getting along. Tree posted the whole chatlog for anyone interested in the blow-by-blow details. We started by talking about what we’d learnt, and a couple of very interesting points came up. Well, interesting to me!

• There's lots of information is SL, and lots of opportunity for learning - so much so that there's a danger of lack of focus, distraction, or simply missing the point. So, like good teaching in RL, good teaching in SL requires careful planning and preparation. Teachers in SL need to actively guide learners through SL spaces, maybe more so than in RL where most learners usually will already have an instinctual grasp of the physical, cultural and social topography. Where learners are inexperienced in SL, tutoring is probably a critical element of support.
  

I’d not thought about this notion on topography before. IRL learners have all the usual reference points; even in a new situation they have an instinctual understanding of most of the rules. In SL, even the laws of physics are different! Learners who are new to SL will need a great deal of support even with simple things like having a conversation. Blue group is working out protocols as it goes along, with some definite patterns emerging; regular affirmative re-statements, frequent summarising, more direct and targeted questions, more invitations to others to speak, active re-incorporation of others ideas, and generally shorter statements. In this meeting, a potentially chaotic five-way conversation went quite well (probably ‘cos we’re all so clever an’ all…)

• SL is a very 'synchronous' space and generates a real sense of 'presence', experienced 1st hand by the group in this sort of collaborative activity. The group also referred to this at various times as 'solidity', 'realism', 'connection', 'virtual attraction', 'community'. While some of the group have experienced a similar sense of presence in other on-line communities everyone agreed this was a particular feature of SL. This makes SL a particularly 'social' environment, and the impact of social interaction is one of the things SL teachers need to plan for.

I’ve never much taken to IM, unlike Boudica who has a very active IM friendship group (Boudica is increasingly referred to as Bo… a sign of growing informality within the group and maybe the push towards shorter statements! I should explain that Bo and I are married IRL… It’s interesting sitting back to back in the study using IM and trying really hard not to cheat!). My problem with IM is rooted in my terrible spelling. I have good coping strategies as an adult, but most involve drafting and re-drafting, something less easy with IM. Blue Group had a bit of a discussion about how SL might allow anxious students more space, and Bex talked about the possibility of re-drafting IM messages. I realised I’m already doing this a little, and will try to do more. IM is synchronous, but maybe doesn’t have to be instant. Slowing down even a little allows for micro-reflection… and even a bit of re-drafting!

• While some SL Education spaces seem vibrant and inhabited, others seem a bit 'run down' and even abandoned. We speculate that some spaces find it hard to sustain the levels of enthusiasm that led to their initial creation. This is another way in which communities are important - in sustaining and inhabiting the spaces created to support them. A number of questions follow on from this; what is the typical lifecycle of an SL community? Is a space that grows out of a community more sustainable than a community that grows out of a space?

I mentioned this is my earlier posts on this activity. The Three Marks of Existence permeate all 10,000 worlds, including the virtual ones. That impermanence should be a feature of SL is no surprise; though the life cycle of some SL space seems remarkably short – communities that seemed to be thriving 18 months ago seem dead on their feet now… As someone about to jump feet first into the land owning business it would be productive to give this careful thought…

Bo has just read this over my shoulder and told me that she's heard the Internet called 'the revenge of the introverts'... which led me through Google to an intersting 1995 article in Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine:

Traditionally, humans form relationships with other people because of their geographic proximity. But on the Internet people meet other users because they have similar interests regardless of where they physically live. Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community and a user of San Francisco's WELL system writes, "It's like having the corner bar, complete with old buddies and delightful newcomers and new tools waiting to take home and fresh graffiti and letters, except instead of putting on my coat, shutting down the computer, and walking down to the corner, I just invoke my telecom program and there they are. It's a place." (Livingood, 1995)

After the meeting, Bex and I played Frisbee. Not something traditionally associated with IM... just unpacking the necessary kit turned out to be quite complicated, though we got there in the end. Bex turned out to be very good at it, while I was continually picking the frisbee out of the river. Bo just watched while sending IMs, reading e-mail and updating Facebook...

Unable to just have fun, we got to talking about educational applications of frisbee throwing - this would certainly be a good way to practice motor control of avatars!

Livingood, J. (1995, April 1). Revenge of the Introverts. Retrieved December 20, 2008, from Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine: http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1995/apr/livingood.html

Virtual Quest

Tonight I re-visited Education UK Island to take another look at the Virtual Quests. This resource is housed in a smallish shop unit close by the Education UK reception at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/228/45/22

In which way does this location address educational issues?

This site is very small scale and very simply presented series of wall-mounted instruction cards on how to create Virtual Quests; an approach that offers “a focused method of using Second Life to support learning and teaching and provides the learner and tutor with a framework for exploring and developing subject topics.” There’s an outline of the pedagogical model, additional note cards, and example of a quest, and links through to additional web-based resources on www.sleducationuk.net. Unfortunately, the website itself was off line due to bereavements.

The presentation of the Virtual Quest resource is functional but nothing to write home about (or write a blog about…). However, the content might be! This was the first resource I’ve come across that gives clear practical advice to teachers on how to use SL as a teaching resource. It’s functional, practice-focused, written with learning outcomes in mind and follows a simple 4-stage experiential learning model that will already be familiar to most teacher. The Virtual Quest process itself has clear application in a wide range of learning contexts.

According to you, which is the target audience of the educational events/action taking place in the location?

The activity was presumably written by UK teachers. There’s nothing to confirm this directly, although an inspection of various prims reveals that Chris Eggplant, the avatar in front of the man behind Education UK Island is the owner and creator of the content. It’s in a language that will be immediately recognisable to UK schoolteachers, and teachers working in the Lifelong Learning sector.

Who are the owners of the location and how is it organized (is there a community, group, etc)?

To quote from a note card in the main island office, “Education UK island is a not for profit educational island being constructed in Second Life to provide a ‘safe’ location for U.K. virtual education. We are not a company or an organisation, nor are we consultants looking to cash in on Second Life (we have jobs thank you!), or are we affiliated to any other organisation with a similar name. We are purely a group of UK educationalists who have worked in UK education at practitioner, manager and policy levels for a substantial number of years, who have come together and bought an island and the accompanying resources out of our own money.”

As with Virtual Morocco, I found a number of worrying indications that the initial impetus for this work has wound down – there were random prims scattered around, empty shop units, ‘rogue’ sky platforms, non-functional video feeds… again, it struck me that the site is not getting the maintenance as it really needs. This emerging pattern again makes me wonder about the sustainability of project-based in-world activity.

What resources are present?

I concentrated during this visit on the Virtual Quest resources, which I’ve described earlier in this post. I’m going to have a look around and see what other resources might be available here.

Road to Morocco revisited

I re-visited Virtual Morocco today to complete part of my work on Section 3 Activity 1. We're asked to reflect on a number of question that I don't think my initial post addressed in sufficient detail. Here's a few more thoughts...

In which way does this location address educational issues?

The site gives visitors a range of formal and informal learning opportunities. It's possible to simply wander round and soak up atmosphere, to take a more systematic approach by wearing an info Fez and picking up note cards at key points around the sim, or, as part of a 'lead' learning activity to participate in a guided exploration of Morocco and it's culture, ideally involving the SL presence of someone who knows the real Morocco. I met someone with experience of the real Morocco on one of my return visits who really helped to fill in the fine detail. "In real life, there would be someone offering me mint tea right now. and hordes of children wanting money..."

A teacher could also organise more in-world or IRL follow-up through visits to related SL sites (for example, the Virtual Hajj at http://slurl.com/secondlife/IslamOnline%20dot%20Net/7/62/22) or through a variety of net-based and RL activity. In this way Virtual Morocco could become one element of a more multi-element exploration of a particular topic. I can see this being particularly valuable as part of (for example) a scheme of work addressing issues of cultural diversity, where RL opportunities to access other cultures is limited.

According to you, which is the target audience of the educational events/action taking place in the location?

According to the people who created the sim, Virtual Morocco has two goals, to educate people about Morocco, and to entice people to visit the country. I think it works well on both levels. There's certainly a real sense of atmosphere, and enough information for the curious to follow up. The biggest problem I have is with the sim being unavailable to younger students. I'd dearly love to see some work done with 14-16 year old students in this space.

Who are the owners of the location and how is it organized (is there a community, group, etc)?

This sim was created as part of a project of the Johnson & Wales University, in collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism. A student group went to Morocco to study the country and the culture by interacting with it. They came back and built the sim with the support of the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism. There's more information here http://casablanca.life3solutions.com/index.html (which also includes links to some blog posts).

Sadly, I found one or two elements of Virtual Morocco that seem not to be functioning. I wonder if the initial impetus for this work has waned, and if it's getting as much maintenance as it really needs. I've seen the same creeping neglect at a few sites and wonder if this is typical of the lifecycle of many sims. Sustainability is an issue for many RL projects and is maybe an issue for SL projects too?

What resources are present?

The info Fez (a Fez that you wear and which whispers comments to you as you walk through the sim) struck me as a good model of how to guide people through a virtual space. The info Fez is backed up by more conventional note cards, signposted by the same Fez symbol. The environment itself is a great resource, recreating iconic aspects of Moroccan culture. There's some really beautiful tilework... The creators have created playful interactive elements likely to engage both casual and more purposeful visitors - an opportunity to use a windsurfer, to play football (while wearing the Moroccan national football strip), to drink tea, to smoke a shisha, and to shop in the souk...

The Road to Morocco

Boudica (Sally), Tere (Teresa) and Bascule (me) started our work on Module 1 Activity 3 today. We'd individually stuck our hands up in the Group 2 Forum 'Blue' realising we were the only people likely to be active over the week-end. We have two other potential collaborators who couldn't be around, so decided to push on in the hope others would run with it.

Actually, I've done an awful lot of metaphorical running today; the activity grew like Topsy...

Boudic, Tere and Bascule got together on MUVEnation Island; sitting around the campfire for an in-world chat about Activity 1. This was my first real experience of a Local Chat conversation in SL, or at least, my first real attempt at getting something in particular done. It turned out to go rather well. Local Chat lacks the nuance of speech; things have to be said clearly and succinctly, which actually seems to help the planning process. Although we only sat and talked there was a real sense of ‘presence’ that helped the conversation along and, to my mind, made the ‘directness’ of purposeful Local Chat somehow easier.

We quickly agreed to concentrate on practical examples of good teaching in SL, across any subject area. Tere and Boudica suggested some search terms: best practices, interactive learning, problem solving, and creative thinking. We decided to look both in and off world, and to meet back in a few hours to see what we’d got. Reviewing the chat log the meeting took about 45 mins. You can see the whole log, together with Tere’s reflections on the meeting, in Tere’s blog at http://mvn08.edublogs.org/2008/12/14/sl-sally-steve-and-teresa-meet-at-muvenation/

In the end, I got not much further than typing ‘Second Life’ and ‘Best Practice’ into Google. One link led to another… and I was spoilt for choice. At least, spoilt in the sense that there seemed to be a lot of discussion ‘about’ best practice. I had to poke around a bit for Ding an sich examples... sticking to the brief, here are my two best:

At the UK Education Island site I found this nice example of learning and teaching with Virtual Quests. There’s an introduction, a walk-through, and an example of the finished article. There’s also a link to a few more examples on http://www.sleducationuk.net/

One great thing about Virtual Morocco is that you get to wear a Fez! Your Info Fez, available free from the InfoFez kiosk, gives you information about Morocco as you explore Virtual Morocco, finding out about both the history and contemporary culture. There’s lots to find out, lots to do (including bellydancing), and lots of information to collect as you go - so lots of follow-up if you want to. I thought that this was a really good example of the possibilities of learning through exploring in SL. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Casablanca/135/87/27 . You can find out more about the project behind Virtual Morocco at http://casablanca.life3solutions.com/

Asides from these two in-world examples, I found a nice off-world example of key pointers to working in SL from Global Kids, who'd produced 12 note cards highlighting ways to approach learning and teaching in SL. Short, wise, and a bit wacky (so a bit like Tere…). You’ll find the cards in the blog sidebar or can see the original at http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/sets/72157601198270790/

At the end of the day Boudica, Tere and Bascule met up again at the campfire to discuss what they’d found and what to do next... talking while the sun went down over MUVEnation bay... We’d done about 4 hours work each, and only got through half the the first activity... still, we're learning as we go...and things are getting interesting...

Nice legs...

Group 3 (the folk who have some previous experience of Second Life) organised a fashion show as the culmination to their work on digital identity. The show was held in SL at the JISC Emerge Centre in SL (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Emerge/76/81/36). It was a great deal of fun. Bascule got to walk the catwalk as Bhodidharma, who brought Buddhism from India to China, start the Zen tradition along the way (and teaching the Shaolin monks some seriously kick-ass moves). This was my attempt to turn Bascule from a virtual nonentity into the representation of someone famous; the avatar of an avatar (OK, more accurately the avatar of a bodhisattva, but where the wisecrack in that?) Other people I knew were at the show, but I finished up spending most of my time with Boudica and Bex, both people I know IRL. I found it a difficult to strike up conversations; a lot of ‘traffic’ on the local chat, and IMs are easily missed when there’s so much going on. Maybe there’s a skill here that comes with time, or maybe large group social interaction in SL is difficult.

Dancing, on the other hand, is easy. I’d got hold of a rather nice Abranimations Club Dance HUD; better than the dance balls I’ve come across in allowing you a degree of improvisation, throwing in crowd pleasing moves. It also allows folk to dance in sync with you. I certainly enjoyed this part of the evening.

After the show Bascule, Bex and Boudica (spooky… the Three Bears) went to see La Performance in You Are So Beautiful, a Second Life Dance piece by Jie Loon (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shakespeare/186/28/581). The piece was great. Watching from the audience was less stirring than getting amongst the dancers; something that the SL camera controls allows. This was another of those ‘a-ha’ moments when you experience how SL and RL are different – presenting different possibilities and encouraging different ways of thinking.

I’m still waiting for the big ‘a-ha’ though… the one where I suddenly see how a MUVE fits into facilitating learning in a systematic way. I clearly see how a MUVE can fun, exciting and motivating… all things that make for an excellent start. I still have some practical concerns about access and safety, both well-rehearsed digital age anxieties when working with younger students. Actually I don’t have big concerns here, though we need well evidenced, well argued cases to put to those who do have the big concerns – and there are plenty of them out there.

One of the best cases for understanding the virtual world was put to my by Boudica. Can you imagine how much more money Tesco would take if you could do your on-line shopping by walking around a virtual shop? To my mind, the answer is lots… lots and lots… which is why it will happen. Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden) say’s much the same in an interview on TEDTalks (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html)

On July 8th, 2008 Linden Labs and IBM announced that they’d successfully teleported an avatar from Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server. (http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/07/08/ibm-linden-lab-interoperability-announcement/)

Someday, I suspect this will be seen as being as significant as Neil Armstrong’s trip to the moon. For now, having fun is enough; but get ready, ‘cos there’s work to be done…