Filed under: education, second life, students, virtual worlds | Tags: building, creativity, programming
Today was the 1st year lab, and I noticed a difference between the 2nd Years and the 1st Years, it might just be the particular cohort, of course, but there was a greater sense of ease amongst the students today. Like fish to water, almost. Interesting, but as I said, it might not have any real reason – not tyhat I believe that, because I believe that anything is important, any difference, change, nuance, but the reasons why, now that’s where the crux lies.
Anyway, we learned a lesson last year and that was take screenshots as the module progresses! and here are today’s, showing the progress of old and new.
I just love this screenshot, it’s simply perfect: bubbles, light reflection, a weird structure, and an army of snowmen. That was my day in a nutshell. 
Doesn’t this look as if an army of evil snowmen was marching down towards the house? No? is it just me, then? the task today in the lab was to create a snowman. Perhaps the students went a little overboard?
I sneakily am pretending here to be MACS lecturer pal’s avatar. Well, they might be big floating globes at the moment, but we don’t know what they might become. The task is to create an interactive pet, and everyone starts with something easy.
Surreal, much? Remember the brilliant floating guitar and cocktail jugs from last year? They are still here, but now with an early attempt at a giant toilet. At least I assume that’s what the structure on the ground looks like.
Filed under: games, identity, second life, students | Tags: participant observation, questionnaire
And here we go again. Today I did the first lab observation, two hours in four labs on two levels. Over 60 students, all 2nd year. They are, however, part of the 1st year cohort. How this, you may ask? It is a product of RAY (semesterisation) and just one of these things. I shall try to observe semi-regularly the year 1 students, to have a larger data set (another appr 60) and to have comparable data.
To tickle out of the students how they might regard their avatars in the light of possible narrative, I am preparing the base questionnaire, which – as expected – proves rather difficult. How to “tickle” without leading. Thus the questionnaires were largely about their gaming experience, and what they initially thought about Second Life. I feel I need to know about how steeped those students are in the particular mind-set of gaming, and which genre of gaming, to understand more about their relation to their avatars. Incidentally, the avatar creation was a very different kettle of fish compared to the 4th year and postgraduate students last year. No elaborate attempts at making them look like their analogue selves, on the contrary, but more on that later.
Sadly, I had a very poor return rate and shall try up it through an online questionnaire. Perhaps the old bribe of an Amazon voucher might help?
For now, have a couple of screenshots from today (yes, Khaythora Kirax is still enjoying her green balloon) of our island. You can see it has been cleaned up. Some exhibits of last year’s student work have been left for inspiration, otherwise we are back to the barren land.
I am clearly not into “inspirational” lectures or literature, but having hit a plethora of brickwalls lately, watching Prof Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture yesterday, did resonate with me, after all.
And for anyone in Higher Education, whose idealism, enthusiasm and belief in education might have been squashed by excessive stress and exploitation lately, well .. watch Randy Pausch. What he had to say made me, personally, think. Well worth an hour of your life.
Michael Wesch’s (of ‘The Machine is Us/ingUs’ fame) presentation to the Library of Congress. If you have an hour to spare – and even if you don’t have an hour to spare, watch it. It is fascinating and truly thought provoking. It is also very well done, because he doesn’t use PPT, instead made a 40 minute video with the help of his students. Also, the man is a brilliant presenter and a pleasure to listen to/watch.
As Will Richardson says on his blog: “The one concept that really struck me was the idea of “the collapse of context.” I think one of the most difficult things for those who are not familiar with these technologies (and even for some that are) is how different the contexts can be for the content we create. We really don’t know when a video or a blog post or whatever else we create is going to be “read” or how it’s going to be shared or what the response cues might be. And it got me thinking even more about George Siemens’ idea of context and how important it is to be able to identify the immediate circumstances for learning before implementing a tool or a particular pedagogy. “
Watch it, it’s informative, entertaining and thought provoking. It certainly got me to think.
Filed under: conferences, education, second life, virtual worlds | Tags: presentations
I am very happy to have been invited by the JISC RSC Scotland to present at their conference in October: Virtual Worlds 08 …brave new world? It is a one day conference and takes place at Stirling University. Early booking is now open.
My presentation will draw on the presentation I did with MACS lecturer pal this year and it looks at some of the findings of last year’s project in the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences. Fourth year and MSc students on a Multimedia Design course learned a range of technical and creative skills through designing and building the Heriot-Watt island within Second Life. Instead of coming into a pre-designed virtual world, students used the environment while building the environment while developing a portfolio of skills. Research throughout the project focused on social presence within the Second Life learning environment, and how the idea of self impacted on student learning. Investigating individuals’ collaboration within groups and with other groups, through looking at categories of group work, and following case studies of diverse success regarding coherence, negotiation, individual learning, consultation, communication and adaptation, to reach a coherent whole through a constantly evolving process.
The conference should be well worth attending, I’ll post more info when I have more.
