Disappointments

                  Tonight I also tried to investigate two other locations listed on the wiki (http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki#Teaching_Resources). The first was A Sexual Health SIM in Second Life (University of Plymouth) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/33/63/22 (info) and unfortunately it seems to have been bought by the University of Leeds. This would have been fine if there was something of note on the University of Leeds island but it was largely some exhibit rooms with various textures and a few buildings under construction. I then tried to teleport to teleport to Solar Eclipse Planetarium (Aimee Webber) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Midnight%20City/94/76/27/ and was told that I was not authorized to teleport to this location. So I called it an evening.

More Genome Island

Over the post days, I have continued my exploration of Genome Island. I have flown in a eukaryotic cell (complete with labeled organelles). I have tried my hand and some virtual PCR, gotten a free genome island T-shirt and even teleported to Amino World. I am quickly becoming taken with the educational possibilities made apparent on this island. In fact, today I did a guest lecture in an upper division biology practicum course during which I introduced the students to Genome Island. 

Svarga and Genome Island

Yesterday I decided to explore two of the educational islands suggested on the Second Life Wiki (http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki#Teaching_Resources)

The first was called Svarga (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Svarga/128.0/128.0) and provided a virtual ecosystem tour. In order to take the tour one jumps on the back of a huge wasp and it takes you throughout the environment while information streams on the local chat. It was more on the fantasy side but I saw immense potential as one could use this same approach to allow a student to tour varying geological areas or historical sites.

The second island I visited was beyond stunning (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genome/130/130/48). Called Genome Island, it offers learning opportunities for students studying all aspects of genetics from molecular to large organismal. There is an Abbey and Garden in honor of Mendel, a Tower with molecular, human, bacterial and drosophila genetics. There is a garden of prokaryotic genetics (including the Plasmid Patio)! For those with interests in larger animals, there is a cattery and a bunny hutch. If, however, you are in search of more molecular methods, you will not be disappointed as there is a DNA analysis room, complete with virtual lab procedures (PCR, DNA sequencing and electrophoresis). Or, for a slightly different “flavor” of molecular, there is a bioinformatics kitchen. I will be spending more time in this location and already have plans to show students in my current microbiology class.

Gender and BGSU

Critical of Gender Identity as Covered in Second Life: The Official Guide

This week I have done additional reading in Second Life: The Official Guide. Unfortunately I have come to be quite critical of the writers of this guide even though I recognize that because it is jointly written it may not be the shortcomings of all writers. In may cases, the writing is preachy. For example in Chapter 7, when speaking about managing ones inventory, it is stated, “Most newborn SL denizens don’t, and the SL forum features plenty of sob stories with this common denominator: my second life is screwed up because of inventory problems. You don’t want to go there, do you?” (p. 129). A more specific grievance that I that regarding an approximately 1-page discussion about Choosing Your Sex on page 86 and 87. With a benign start, the passage notes that most SL citizens choose their real-life gender. However, the discussion proceeds on to note that everyone is free to choose their sex. This seems self evident and is inoffensive, however when the author goes on to note that choosing a gender opposite of your RL gender is okay as long as you don’t want to form a virtual friendship with someone. In which case, it is stated that, “…it’s important that they [your virtual] friends] know who you really are.” (p. 87). To a member of the LGBT/Q community this could be extremely offensive, not to mention horribly naïve as it is perfectly possible that the gender with which you identify is not the gender displayed in your real life. In fact, it may even be that your “real life “ sex is not the gender with which you identify in real life. It seems to me that one of the beauties of Second Life should be the ability to be whomever and whatever you like. Virtual friends should understand this and be willing to accept that their new friend, although they identify in one way on SL may not look exactly like this in real life.

 

Additional opportunities on the BGSU Island

In addition to much reading, I have also spent time on BGSU Interaction Island. As Jamie had suggested the planetarium on this island, I began by visiting this. A truly phenomenal example of the teaching and learning opportunities of Second Life, this site allows one’s avatar to enter a planetarium of the solar system complete with educational statistics on each planet. However, unlike most planetariums, your avatar is literally surrounded by the sun and all of the planets nested within a blanket of stars. While walking by each planet one truly feels a part of the learning experience. Also while on the Bowling Green State University’s Interaction Island, I visited a beautiful butterfly garden as well as an Australian Herpetology Exhibit. After being introduced to everything from the thick tailed Gecko to the Green Tree Python, I was convinced that when I travel to Australia I will try to avoid the night hours as most of the snakes were nocturnal. After thoroughly enjoying this exhibit, I moved along to watch a video on computer technology as well as to visit a stunning virtual art show! And finally, upon thinking I had visited nearly everything, I began flying and realized that I had not yet scratched the surface. More art, presentations and even tutorials on managing one’s avatar in SL were abundant. What an amazing island truly showcasing educational possibilities in SL.  

You Tube to learn about Second Life

The following was a post in response to a fellow student also investigating Second Life:

Hi Jamie! Yay I got to your land today. The slurl worked great. I also now know what my user error was when trying to enter your location on the map. Instead of typing in Class Dismissed, one need only type in Mournful and the coordinates. In any case, great job creating the prims! You are fantastic. What resources did you use when learning to build?

I also watched your first You Tube video which was great. For a quick recap the main educational uses for second life that were presented in the video included:
1) Role playing (e.g. learning by actually being in a Shakespeare play)
2) "being in" history (actually being a part of a re-created historical event)
3) Interactive "gaming" activities within Second Life (e.g. Scavenger hunt to learn vocab)
4) Tour replicas of locations being studied but that are too geographically distant to actually be visited
5) Self-paced tutorials
6) Opportunity to actually be in someone else's shoes
7) Presentation
8) Collaboration with colleagues from around the World.

I will be honest, the more time I spend in Second Life, the more excited I become about its educational uses. Whenever I visit a new educational location, I am excited to learn and feel truly present and engaged. I might briefly comment on the last use of Second Life. When attending the VWBPE Conference I was astonished by the potential for collaboration with educators around the world. In one session that I attended, other attendees came from Tokyo, Delaware, Denmark, Texas etc... It was astounding to be meeting with all of these academics from around the world and I never left my house!

Dress me up

After attending the conference this weekend, I realized that I did not want to attend another conference wearing the same outfit in which my avatar was clad at the beginning. This gave me away as a “newbie” and made me stand out as someone who likely did not know much about Second Life much less its educational uses. So, I broke down and went to the Free Dove: Gallii (113, 53, 33). I would like to say that I enjoyed the experience but that would be a lie. It was hard to determine what I was getting and it seemed that nearly every available parcel was not really “my style”. However, I got a few things and was able to become clad in something slightly different.

This clothing adventure was followed by several disappointing teleports. I wanted to check out some of the GLBT/Q spaces and was disappointed when I failed to find all but one of those mentioned in the Second Life: Official Guide text. I should have more quickly realized that perhaps Internet sources would be more up to date and finally did find a GLBT/Q safe space with some information. 

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) Conference

Yesterday the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) Conference began. Just after 2:00 pm (MST), I teleported to the VWBPE Stonehenge Social Hub and with a notable but surmountable fear, I managed to interact with a conference organizer enough to glean some suggestions about sessions to attend. I thus made my way to VWBPE East 2 and was able to catch the end of a fascinating presentation about the use of Second Life for clinical simulations. The presenters touted the safe but realistic environment afforded within the virtual world. They mentioned the practice that students gain in reading a vital sign machine and fetal monitor with no actual risk to a physical patient. Also noted were some general advantages of teaching “in world” such as increased student engagement and a novelty effect. The presenters made some suggestions to educators beginning their use of SL for education including starting with a small project and focusing on the strengths of Second Life. That is, use SL for educational tasks that could not be accomplished other ways.

I remained in VWBPE East for an additional session on the use of Second Life to learn language. The presenter certainly touted the capabilities of Second Life to allow emersion language learning and introduced an island that is staffed 16 hours a day where ESL students can go and speak with teachers. However, the teachers are not “teachers” on the island but are waiters/waitresses, bartenders, vendors etc. This enables students to learn by interaction!

After this presentation, I attended “Educating Through Machinima: Connecting the Learning Pixels through Virtual Film Making.” Don’t worry; I had no idea what machinima was either. And although I was tired at the end of a Friday, I did glean that the team of three presenters had created a film on Second Life, which they fully animated.

This morning my adventure began anew and I attended the latter portion of  “Abstract Thoughts to Concrete Examples: Transferring Student Essays to the Virtual Realm in Second Life”. What an adventure! This literature instructor had an entire virtual realm where her students had given form to their essays. One of these included an intricate maze.

Immediately after the maze mingling, I headed to what might prove to be the most informative session of the conference. Tom Boellstorff was the presenter of Virtual Worlds, Culture and Change. An anthropologist, Tom Boellstorff studies Second Life culture. He has written a book entitled “Coming of Age in Second Life”. Clearly a leading authority on Second Life and particularly research in Second Life, Boellstorff had a “down to earth” presence. He spoke about how like all cultures, Second Life is always changing. He reminded his audience that in research we can learn the most from things that are the most everyday. Speaking of some of the uniqueness’s of Second Life, Boellstorff noted that it is possible to be immersed but not present. That is, right now as I write this, I am immersed in Second Life (sitting waiting for the next session to start) but I am not present because I am focusing on this writing. I could even get up and go get some coffee and lunch (which I am about to do) while still being immersed in SL. Several questions were asked as to whether SL is a single culture or many microcultures. Boellstorff’s treatment of this question was engaging as he described Second Life as having basic social norms but many subcultures. Boellstorff preferred the term physical world rather than real world because the term real world might denigrate SL to being something other than real. Which, he stated, is not the case.

Perhaps the portion of this session that was most exciting to me was Boellstorff’s experience with doing research in SL. He talked about the critique that some researchers have of interacting with participants solely in SL and not in the physical world. However, he noted that in fact, access to a more diverse participant group may be possible in SL and, in fact, may enhance the quality of the research. After hearing this presentation I was so elated and inspired for the possibility of doing my own dissertation research within SL. In fact, immediately after leaving the session, I purchased Boellstorff’s text on Amazon and can’t wait to receive it!

 

Though less engaging than the prior session, the session I attended next, “The Reality of Transcending the Virtual” raised the poignant question of what underpinning philosophy best explains virtual world interaction. The presenter argued that to best understand virtual world interactions we should change our philosophical approach, moving away from the Aristotelian binary of mind and body and toward a more Asian philosophy where connections and co-creation are emphasized.

Further afternoon sessions looked at the use of instructional design models such as the ADDIE and ARAD to design SL courses. Perhaps the most fascinating to me was the use of SL to create a virtual crime scene for a forensics course (Dr. Donald Lehman – University of Delaware). Dona Connors and Larken Shepherd of Middlesex Community College presented a fascinating session called As the Worlds Turn: In Search of the Perfect Virtual World. They talked about what is needed before deciding to use a virtual world for education (e.g. support from admin, access needs addressed, overcoming cost etc…). They discussed their use of many virtual worlds: Activeworlds, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, City of Heroes and There.com. (I posted links to all of these on the web page thread). During this session a couple of great reflections on the advantages of virtual worlds were shared. For example, most instructors see increased motivation as well as student-to-student interaction and student to instructor interaction. Many attendees to the session mentioned that office hours on SL seem to be more effective. I left this session determined to add at least one SL office hour to my online biochemistry class. Guess I might have to start to think about buying land!

The final session that I attended this afternoon was called Learning in a Virtual World: Using SL for Medical Education. The presenters spoke about the creation of a 1-hour synchronous training session for practicing physicians. The session focused on diabetes treatment and utilized a virtual patient for whom the doctors were given a profile. While I liked the idea of this interactive learning for practicing doctors, I was a bit disquieted by the profiling of the patient. She was profiled as an overweight Latina. I just felt like the profiling perpetuated marginalization.

Though most of my time was spent in sessions, during the first break of the day I did pop into a Jazz club and my avatar learned how to dance! What a laugh. I thought I had successfully stopped the animation upon leaving the Jazz club only to see my avatar break into fluid dance movements again in front of the club! It was quite a good time and only further reminded me how much I had to learn just because I needed it in order to live my full day in SL at the VWBPE Conference!

Centers for Disease Control Island

Tonight I made my way to one of the sites for science educators, namely the Centers for Disease Control Island, from the Wiki for educational uses of Second Life. http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki#Teaching_Resources

I followed the link that was provided on the Wiki and oddly found myself on an island called Juwangson (218, 223, 128). It seemed to be largely private and home spaces but there was a billboard for the CDC island and thus I was able to teleport there. Once on the CDC island, my experiences were more rewarding as there was informational material regarding everything from H1N1 to family planning. As I meandered from educational billboard to poster I recognized how much more engaging this explorative learning would be for my microbiology students. 

From EdTech to Greenhouse

My discovery on EdTech island has continued and I have learned how to add free resources to my inventory. After picking up some assets for educators, I proceeded to join my first Second Life group - that for distance educators. With this group addition I hope to receive more informational material on uses of Second Life and this rekindled my inspiration to attend the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference in Second Life on March 12^th and 13^th. Proceeding to the informational website I was able to register for the big event and was charged $0L to attend (the joys of a virtual conference)! For others interested in attending: http://www.vwbpe.org/ Fueled by this success, I found some additional resources including a Wiki for educational uses of Second Life: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki#Teaching_Resources

Perhaps most exciting were the resources on this for science teachers. I hope to soon visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) island.

After I had fully explored the Educational Center on Ed Tech island I geared up for my first teleporting experience! Clicking on the map feature, I entered the name of what I hoped would be a safe and beautiful island called Greenhouse (63, 113, 22) - suggested by the Rymaszewski  text.  And, with only minor mishaps – stinging bees, it was as promised a beautiful island that did afford a “moment of beauty” (Rymaszewski , p.50).