Day 4: Lag and the Ancient Egyptian God of Frustration

After trying out a few different SL destinations, including some arty place where they told me to bugger off until I was more than 10 days old, I found myself fed up to the back proverbial with my avatar’s sluggish response to keyboard prompts.  This frustration over the lag combined with the creepy lack of what I perceived as genuine human interaction was already generating strong disengagement from this learner.

Although Aldrich (2009) promotes the value of frustration as a stepping-stone to intellectual clarity, where "the frustration-resolution pairing is the sensation of new mental muscle forming" (p. 41), I'm a glass-half-empty sort of person who has other things to occupy her time and prefers the shorter route to learning, thankyouverymuch. Sikwibele and Mungoo proposed  in their 2009 study of Botswanan learners is frustration, which, when combined with minimal education levels and an overwhelming workload as well as the significant cognitive overload inherent in learning new technologies (Tyler-Smith, 2006, cited by Sikwibele and Mungoo, 2009) can increase distance-learner attrition.

Expecting frustration to lead to positive learning may work for some LLN learners, but does not take into account the connection between affect and cognition for learners who have had negative experiences.  When a learner associates a subject with pain and frustration, he or she may develop a potentially debilitating affective phenomena such as maths anxiety (Curtain-Philips, 2008; Taylor, 2007).  As with maths anxiety, a LLN learner who has had a negative series of experiences at school, especially with technology, is less likely to have the self-confidence necessary to work through the frustration-resolution pairing (Simsek, 2011).

Taylor and Galligan (2006) recognised the need to address the debilitating problem of maths anxiety and found that use of multimedia such as images, text and story-boarding effectively complemented e-learning for this purpose.  To overcome the isolation of distance learners suffering from maths anxiety, the authors proposed using video on CD-ROMs documenting the experiences of learners working through their challenges.  Under this socio-constructive approach, distance learners could share their problems and triumphs, and in turn developed greater confidence.  Second Life wasn't addressed in the study, but as a medium that allows for learning via group development and modification of the environment, SL is an excellent example for distance socio-constructivist learning. 

So, in an effort to overcome my frustration by finding out how others in my position deal with technological matters, I got social by googling "slow avatars" and immediately found I wasn't the only one out there with issues.  The blogger Amy Gahran  seemed to have the same feelings as me – neither of us are gamers, both of us are more interested in back to basics than bells and whistles. In an illustration of the Web 2.0 community using an asynchronous medium to full effect, the comments left under her post were illuminating  The blogpost is several years old, but the comments felt extremely relevant to my experiences.  How, then, would it feel to a student with limited digital literacy?  At what level would a tutor be expecting a learner to get into an applications like this?  What percentage of learners overcome the initial uneasiness with the new medium, even without the frustration given by coming to grips with a new technology?  If someone is too busy focusing on getting the technology right, what happens if they lose track of their larger goals?  Will the digital world feel more or less relevant?

In their 2003 examination of patterns of engagement, Herrington, Oliver and Reeves also remarked on this issue of learners’ inability to suspend belief to the point where learners can engage meaningfully with the created scenario: 

“Many students initially perceive authentic environments to be non-academic, non-rigorous, time wasting and unnecessary to efficient learning.  It is often only when the suspension of disbelief occurs that these students see the complexity and the value of the learning environment.” (p. 2)

Hulk not get mad!!!!!

Check, check, check, and check again.  By the end of day 4 I certainly felt I’d wasted way too much time when I could have been doing more profitable activities. Like sleeping.  Or doing a meditation exercise to disperse the negative energies I've been mysteriously building up ever since I first logged on to SL.



Before I completely lose the plot, turn green, rip my clothes off and scare the neighbours,  I remind myself why I’m doing this.  I chose SL for a few reasons – first, I’ve heard of it.  It takes a lot for a bit of technology to come to my attention.  Secondly, it came up a lot in the reading I’ve been doing lately, particularly Aldrich (2009) and Salmon (2011), giving me the impression SL is the virtual world of choice. (Harking back to socio-constructivism, I'm one of those who consciously likes to construct understanding socially, so I read the words of others and compared them to my goals.) Thirdly, the idea of venturing into a new environment from the comfort of a couch had a strong appeal – the quintessential armchair traveller, moi.  But if I hadn’t enjoyed Aldrich and Salmon’s books so much I probably would have settled for something easier, like Facebook, which I already know my computer can handle. 

As a matter of fact, the frustration level got so high that I nearly invoked the Ancient Egyptian God of Frustration and quit, but happily (or not) for me, just the other day a co-worker told me that she had been using SL for a while now.  She’d also attended a digital conference the other year, enjoying it very much.  Thanks to this on the spot, unrehearsed encouragement and example of use, suddenly my motivation shot back up again: once past the initial “gotta do this task for my studies” I found myself in a mental realm where I could apply learning for wider benefit - because wouldn't it be fun to attend a digital conference? 

It’s ironic that F2F got me back in SL.

Ancient Egyptian God of Frustration (according to Zack Allan)

 

 References

Aldrich, C. (2009). Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds: Strategies for Online Instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Curtain-Phillips, M. (2008). The cause and prevention of maths anxiety.  Retrieved October 19, 2011, from http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/math_anxiety.html 

Herrington, J., Oliver, R., & Reeves, T. C. (2003). Patterns of engagement in authentic online learning environments. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 19(1), 59 – 71. Retrieved from http://murdoch.academia.edu/JanHerrington/Papers/93066/Patterns_of_engagement_in_authentic_online_learning_environments

Salmon, G. (2011). E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online. New York, NY: Routledge.

Sikwibele, A. L. & Mungoo, J. K. (2009). Distance learning and teacher education in Botswana: Opportunities and challenges. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(4). Retrieved October 18, 2011, from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/706/1325.

Simsek, A. (2011). The relationship between computer anxiety and computer self-efficacy.  Contemporary Educational Technology, 2(3), 177-187. Retrieved from http://www.cedtech.net/articles/231.pdf

Taylor, J. (2007). Adult numeracy themes: Competence and self confidence. Retrieved October 19, 2011, from http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Resc/Educ/comcon.html#comcon

Taylor, J., & Galligan, L. (2006). Mathematics for maths anxious tertiary students: Integrating the cognitive and affective domains using interactive multimedia. Literacy & Numeracy Studies, 15(1), 23-43.

Back to (Second) Life

On day 2 I went back to SL, this time in advanced mode in hopes that it would let me find more places and maybe some clothing.  Immediately discovered the limitations of my computer – my movements slooowwwwed dooowwwnnnnnn.  Rather frustrating.

On the plus side, I got to try out some of the different destinations I found when I Googled for potential places to visit.  Went to the Dungeon, which has free clothes (well, some) and other stuff.  Everyone else was zipping around – I zombie-walked my way into walls on the occasions when my keyboard decided to suddenly kick into life and take all my keystrokes into account.  In basic mode I could click on a place and my avatar would walk there.  Now, I’m reliant on my arrow keys.

In the Dungeon, looking for hair.  No, really.

On day 3 I decided to try a more specific search.  I found a Top 20 list of educational establishments on SL and decided to give it a burl.

One link took me to a PowerPoint presentation, that brought to mind a quote in my Book of the Moment: “Death by PowerPoint” (Aldrich, 2009, p. 48).

Rather than burying my enthusiasm in an unmarked grave, the presentation convinced me to give SL another try.  Once back in SL (and still subject to the revolting lag) I changed my avatar from furrie fox to woman in leather jacket in hopes of blending in all the better.  It’s not quite my battered old brown suede jacket, but now avatar isn’t quite so divorced from reality (although I haven’t found out how to make it put on mumble-mumble kilos). 

2 hours later and I realised I’d wasted a lot of time with a lot of nothing.  My computer is so obviously not up to the task of SL and I was strangely reluctant to interact with any of the people I encounter there, to the point where I turned my avatar’s head to avoid eye contact.  Aldrich (2009, p. 49) claims that “students in a virtual world feel as if they are physically near other people, not just viewing the same artifacts.”  However, in all the hours I have spent on SL so far, the people I encountered there were eclipsed by a 2 second “Good morning” exchanged with a complete stranger at the bus stop on my way to work.  While I found a couple of interesting links, I realised that there is a whole new language (and culture) to learn, and ended up feeling too tired and grumpy to bother any more that night.  Or the next night.  Or whenever. 

There was a large number of people in various places in Second Life, true, but I ended up looking for places where I could be the only one in the area as this was considerably less creepy.  Yes, I tried to say hello to a couple of people; yes, I went to the sites newbies were meant to go to, but the interactions were ambiguous and made me feel like an unwelcome foreigner who’s looked on as dumb ’cos she don’t speak the language.  On the plus side it was an insight into the challenges of LLN learners making their way through the everyday "meat" world, and a Turkish ESOL learner informed me the other week that she had the same experience when she went to Paris.

This experience provided an illustration of how a learner can lose motivation when clear goals aren’t established, the environment is unwelcoming, and there is no tutor- or peer-support handy, especially when said learner is tired and grumpy.  As discussed in an earlier blog, learning can be greatly enhanced by social activities with specific, real goals (Beder, Tomkins, Medina, Riccioni, & Deng, 2006; Herrington, Oliver and Reeves, 2003; Ivanic, Appleby, Hodge, Tusting and Barton, 2006; Garrison, 1997).

With this in mind, for a new class I’d suggest having an orientation in a specific quiet location within Second Life.  Here the tutor can help learners come to grips with the new medium and learners can use chat, private IM or even speak directly to share the ups, the downs, and any tricks they’ve learned to help smooth the digital pathways.  Teach the interface, Aldrich recommends: use Second Life in the lesson as valuable content, use the activity to “draw analogies to people’s own lives” (2009, p. 93.)  Meet up for coffee in a specified place.  “Buy” some clothes and try them on.  Have classmates comment through chat or voice on the selection, eg “That colour really brings out the purple in your avatar’s eyes.”  The tutor can arrange materials such as free things to “buy”, cups and a cappucino maker for the set of activities.  The main goal here is to establish the learners’ community of practice, with emphasis on the community.