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.