Peer post comment on Second Life

This comment is in response to Diane's blog at http://sdriggsbee.wordpress.com/.

I liked reading Diane’s blog about the merits and the problems of Second Life. I also found her description of the residents and avatars interesting because they are the ones that create the environment of the Second Life. As someone who has not had an opportunity to use or participate in Second Life, I find my knowledge is limited to this week’s readings and the links posted in Digital Learning Environment website. The concept of Second Life, to me, is both exciting and overwhelming. It is exciting because of the synchronous interaction with others in the same environment, and it is overwhelming because of the amount of preparation that seems to be associated with using this program, both by the students and the instructor. At its very core, for the purpose of educational value, the idea is to foster an online community; the virtual counterpart of a real, traditional, classroom. In order to create this community, Palloff and Pratt (2007) point out that students and instructors are required to establish a presence and that the importance of creating a social connection online “almost supersedes the content-oriented goals for the course” (p.14). One of my main concerns with creating an avatar or an online persona is whether the creation is a true creation of the user’s personality, or is it a creation of how the user would wish he or she to be. Can the creation of an online persona become problematic especially if the role playing supersedes the academic exploration? What if an avatar does not “behave” like its “real-world counterparts” as Warbuton characterizes it would do (2009, p.418)? This could also be a hindrance in “building trust and authenticity” which Warburton points out, is “critical to interact successfully as a group (2009, p.422).

 Another concern is that not all students will automatically want to, or feel comfortable creating and using an avatar in a virtual world. Someone like myself who is naturally suspicious of putting myself “out there” in any form, I would not be able to make full use of all the features on Second Life. Like you, I too like to use power points with some animation in both face-to-face and in the online component. I think video-taping a lecture and putting it up as part of the instruction method could also be an important part of online instruction.

On the flip side of these concerns, I do like the use of Second Life in instructor training workshops as discussed on the website http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/teaching_learning/10_ways_use_avatars_education. While I think that Second Life does offer many possibilities to further online instruction, I find that this method requires an inordinate amount of preparation and practice prior to its actual implementation.

References

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online communities: Effective strategies for the

virtual classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Warburton, S. (2009). Second Life in higher education: Assessing the potential for and the

barriers  to deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40 (3), 414-426. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535,2009.00952.x

A Reflection on the tutorials:

            As someone who has virtually no online technical experience except for Solitaire and FreeCell, it is difficult for me to fully and credibly reflect on the various tutorials I’ve been introduced to so far.

            I liked and felt comfortable with using Fotobabble. I think it would prove to be a useful tool for students to post things about themselves, within instructor provided guidelines, that would help towards creating an online social community. The web bookmarking tool, Google Bookmarks, is also a tool that would be beneficial for all users and at all levels. The portability feature of this tool can be very useful for users as they move through the courses to finish their degree or certification. This tool is user-friendly and while more tech savvy students may already know how to use it, even non-traditional adult learners like me can navigate through the various possibilities this tool offers. I was also able to Google the online tutorials for the Bookmarks and found them to be detailed and helpful. Lastly, I also liked using the Wiki feature. As a teacher of history, I believe Wiki could be used by students to create detailed timelines or flesh out a certain era or a topic. This could be used as individual or as group projects with instructor assigned topics.

            The downside to using many of the web tools is the requirement to sign in and create profiles. I am always concerned about my privacy and the amount of personal data that others may be able to access. This is the same reason that I only participate on Facebook to keep up with family and friends who mostly live on different continents. I often do not agree with many of the postings or viewpoints posted there and so do not contribute to any discussions on those websites, nor do I know how many of those ‘Like’ features are being tracked by third or fourth party users or lurkers. It would probably be easier to stay connected to students and inform them of upcoming deadlines or events, or have them post concerns or thoughts on a Facebook website since most users seem to access it on a regular basis, but email would work just as well.

Reflections on Second Life:

            I agree with Petrakou (2010) that collaborative learning in an online environment is important for social interaction which is an important building block of a successful online class. After reading about Second Life in both Warburton’s (2009) and Petrakou’s (2010) articles, I would also agree that learning in a virtual world provides the student with a spatial dimension in which interaction and interactivity between all the participants, students and instructors, can take place synchronously. From what I understand of the basis of Second Life is that while the program has been put together by the producing company, the tools of the program puts the controls in the hands of the users. Users decide how they, or their avatars, will create and interact in their constructed space or community.

            However, from the readings and the DELTA workshop video, some concerns seem to come through. Firstly, it would seem that many students would need to familiarize themselves with navigating through Second Life. The video instructor mentioned that she has her students register and learn about Second Life well in advance of the course. Therefore, a long preparation time seems to be required, if one is a novice, before a student can even take the course. The technical capabilities of student computers could be an issue if they are not on par with the demands of the program, and accessibility could be problematic if the student is not on campus or near to newer public computers. Even the instructor seemed to have problems with slow connections and buffering on a university grid.

            While watching the DELTA video, I felt overwhelmed with all the possibilities that Second Life presented. The thought of going through a museum or walking on the Great Wall of China is exhilarating, but why is it necessary to become a virtual person to experience a 3-D rendering of a room, or to move from wall to wall, or from room to room? Is it just the ‘cool’ aspect and the next level in an online existence, or does it truly have academic value to be virtually present in a created space? Also, what about the behavior of the virtual users towards each other? The DELTA instructor mentioned the ‘dark areas’ to be avoided just like one would in real life. This would mean putting strong guidelines and rules in place and that can only be done if the instructor is proficient in navigating within Second Life. So, how much training is required to be able to navigate confidently through Second Life as an instructor, and be able to impart that training to the students?  While all this technology is exciting and daunting, I feel that I would have to experience it first hand, and for a length of time, to fully understand Second Life.