Initially I was excited about his new frontier, so much so that I invited a good friend and colleague who teaches AP English and college prep literature courses at a nearby high school to sit beside me as I navigated my avatar during the online conference. Here's some more brutal honesty. After the second speaker (the one on how to use Second Life to market books you've written), my friend politely told me she didn't think she'd be staying for any more because she just couldn't see doing this type of activity with her students. Maybe it was the second guest speaker turning into a winged rabbit with a cigarette in her mouth that scared her off. Maybe it was the part about how the winged rabbit felt we all needed to make sure that we "included" little beings like herself when advertising or marketing in SL. I know that was the point that I mentally checked out, like my friend.
Apart from accidentally standing on the stage once, did I act so egregiously to get an email from Daisyblue Hefferman the day after the conference stating ...
[8:41] Daisyblue Hefferman: You have been ejected from 'Stepping into
Literature Conference' by Daisyblue Hefferman.
Um... if you're new to SL like I was, it is very hard to know if you're actually up there with your avatar, or if you're just sitting but "zoomed up" to see the speaker. For Pete's sake! It was my third time, for crying out loud, and there were no more seats to sit my avatar in in that section, so I stood. (Paying $65 to have my avatar stand at a conference might seem a little strange, as well). And don't ask me what good it does to eject someone after the conference is over. You see, it was Daisyblue Hefferman that instant messaged me about being on the
stage. As soon as I saw the message, I got off right away, and embarrassingly so. Read my other post, Daisyblue. One of my main concerns going into the conference was that I'd commit some noobie mistake to my detriment.
Wish me luck Monday; how embarrassing to go to a conference and fly into a wall
or have other avatars transporting onto my head because I forgot to make room
for them as they transported in!
Was it my question I asked about why SLifers would want to purchase items for their inventory (clothes, etc.)? It was an honest question. I wasn't rude about it. Was it my comment while in Dante's Inferno about what the student learning objectives were for the assignment - that it seemed very random and hard for me to learn from? I was being honest. Perhaps the rejection email was because of yesterday's post. I was being honest.
The Stepping into Literature virtual conference needs to step back and learn a few lessons from this recent attempt to evangelize professional educators to SL. When you have two seasoned teachers leave your conference mid-way - each with 15 plus years of classroom experience, one being a stellar English teacher and the other an ex-English teacher turn computer science teacher who readily embraces all things Web 2.0 - you've got a problem. Instead of thinking how you market inside of SL to strange creatures (I believe you referenced as "smalls"), perhaps you should think more about how you market this experience to real people, and in specific, real teachers.
P.S. - Daisyblue, you should know, it wasn't my avatar doing all that yawning during the second guestspeaker. I barely know where to stand, let alone make my avatar yawn.
While I've never posted a whole lot about it, I've never made secret may disdain for SL. I really think it's a complete waste of time, and I think the rabbit with a cigarette is a great "exhibit A." Why a rabbit? That's how you get respect? I guess I just don't get it, but I like my first life enough that I have and will continue to stay out of SL. There are plenty of other legitimate ways to teach that don't involve cartoons.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your post. I am of two minds about Second Life. I can see that it affords opportunities for students of business studies, design, etc to try out ideas in a virtual setting. There is no doubt, that in the good hands of an educator with two feet firmly on the ground Second Life can be an useful educational tool.
ReplyDeleteYet, I still cringe when I viusalise some of the educator avatars I have seen of late. One educator looks like a buxom, amazonian warrior princess with cleavage worthy of a bungie-jump. In real life she looks like my dear old mum. Then there is the IT administrator that looks like Clark Kent in real life yet in Second Life he is straight out of the wrestling ring and endowed with what must be one of the largest socks full of sand the world has ever seen. I cannot take them seriously. I cannot.
How can I introduce my colleagues to these second life educators? There have been times in Second Life when I have felt that I have been witnessing a poorly scripted cartoon, or observing a pretentious MSN chat where all the participants are dressed in drag.
Cheers, John.
I agree with you Jay and the other commenters overall.
ReplyDeleteWhere I disagree is that it does provide an excellent tool to take students somewhere they can't physically go themselves. Second Life isn't necessarily the tool that might be most successful, but the ability to take students into a virtual "Rome" is powerful.
Perhaps my comments are more directed at the use of 3D virtual reality which is why I see some interest in Second Life. I just think Second Life goes too far from appropriate for school!
I took a grad class that used Second Life and all it was used for was an arena to meet virtually. The same thing could have been done in Elluminate and the other online meeting tools. We too often see uses of technology that are contrived instead of being a good fit!
As conference director for the conference, I really appreciate hearing your honest assessment. If we hope to make future conferences as good as possible, it is vital that we listen to all feedback, and, I would say, especially that from those who did not get the experience that they hoped for.
ReplyDeleteI would like to clear up one thing - you were not ejected from the Conference Group for bad behavior! :) Although I admit, that standard message you received certainly sounds bad, doesn't it? Actually, we use the conference group feature in Second Life as a way to communicate with participants during the conference. You were removed from the group after the conference on Monday so that we could enter the avatar names for the Wednesday group. Otherwise, had you been in SL on Wednesday, you would have been getting conference announcements all day. I am going to see if we can reword the message that goes out when we do that though!
Some of your other comments about Second Life in general are very valid. My avatar wears a suit and tie because image does matter. Those of us who have been in SL for a while sometimes forget how jarring some of the more unusual cultural aspects of it can be for people new to the environment.
My own experience of Second Life has been that it offers amazing opportunities for collaboration and building relationships with people of common interests. It does have a very high learning curve, as you noted, and it has developed a culture of its own that many will not find to their liking.
I do not know if it will be Second Life or some other virtual world that will be the 3D incarnation of the Internet, but I do believe that is the direction we are heading. And for all its faults, SL is the most fully developed and flexible virtual world out there right now.
Please accept my thanks for taking part in our conference, and for your work as an educator,and if I can ever be of help in a virtual world or the real one please don't hesitate to contact me.
John Howard
Stepping into Virtual Worlds conference director
Oh and BTW, you weren't yawning. For some reason,the chairs in this virtual auditorium meant for presentations have a "yawn animation" built into them! Yet another of the absolutely unforeseeable challenges of trying to host events in Second Life.
ReplyDeleteJohn H