Virtual Learning Environments

I found this week’s readings to be particularly relevant for me, as I have been engaging in an open collaboration process online to develop an (…wait for it) open collaboration platform. (Junto) We’ve been looking a lot into creating 3D environments with livestreaming video in order for people to be able to engage in dialogue on a global scale, and have patiently been awaiting Cisco to release their multi-billion dollar telepresence system open-source later this month.

As I’ve been embedding myself into a networked environment more and more, the points brought up in the presence article rang very true for me. In fact, I’ve actually had a paradigm shift in how I understand human networks and our connectedness as humanity from a meta-systems perspective, based on my usage and research into the power of the Web. One of the big shifts was a shattering of the illusion of ego.. ok, sounds kind of esoteric, but in becoming hyperconnected and really LIVING in this space, in constant communication with a group of globally distributed humans, I really have lost the sense of self. I am a part of a greater whole, and that has changed my perceptions about personal identitiy, and increased my levels of empathy and compassion. Speaking of empathy, I recommend watching this video based on Jeremy Rifkin’s new book, The Empathic Civilization – it rocks!

In terms of the other readings on collaboration and play, I found that I’ve come to many of those conclusions through our experimentation online and through intuition. Keeping excitement and passion and energy sustained online is a challenge, and there is so much that gets diffused through various individual networks, that it is impossible to track, but keeping it FUN is definitely key. I found the 5 ‘control parameters’ in the Highsmith chapter about keeping teams on the edge of chaos very insightful. Without having identified them in words, we have definitely been practicing those behaviors. The suggestions about role-playing and creating personas/archetypes also very much resonated.

Though what we’re doing isn’t “school,” it is VERY much an online public learning environment – I suppose you could call it a community of practice. I engage with people from all disciplines, from design to knowledge management to business and so on, but the common thread is that we are all trying to learn from each other and grow.

When it comes to transferring these insights to answering the question of how to engage students online… I really think a big part of it has to do with everyone being willing to put themselves out there without fear, and also to remove the silos between the individuals and the rest of the world. I don’t think it is enough for students to only engage with each other (though in many cases this is ideal). I see the Web as being a huge opportunity to express oneself out into the ether, and then see what comes back. There are so many people out there with similar interests and a willingness to share their perspectives and experiences, that choosing not to engage is a wasted potential. I know that there is still a lot of fear with the web as a communication medium, but that can be overcome when an individual takes personal responsibility and accountability for their actions and behaviors online. It is public. If you wouldn’t say/do/show whatever you are doing online in the middle of the town square, just think twice before doing it online, because it will be seen, and unlike “in real life,” the archive lasts forever.

After  reading Presence, Interaction And Data Space by Mike Leggett, I began to think about what presence meant. I am quite ambivalent when it comes to the definition of presence.

However, I came across a paper on the internet written by Rita and Ijsselsteijn called Being there: The experience of presence in mediated environments. The writers mention Lombard and Ditton for their categorization of presence into three distinct elements:

-          Physical Presence: idea of being physically present in a mediated space.

-          Social Presence: idea that refers to the sensation of being together with a virtual or remotely located communication partner(page 5).

-          Co-presence: In the middle of physical presence and social presence. Sense of people gathering in a communal space with physical and social characteristics.

You will find in this paper, ( http://www.neurovr.org/emerging/book4/4_01RIVA.PDF) on page 6 , a figure illustrating the liaison between these three concepts as well as the corresponding media that fall into the different categories.

I could not agree more with the SVE’s incorporation into the co-presence category. Video – Gamers, playing  on common virtual platforms as well as First Person Shooter (FPS) games, are involved in a combative platform in which each avatar plays a significant role. These games are played online with multiple video gamers who prefer to use the voice channel to communicate. They are socially present through their voice chat but they are also physically present through their avatars on their virtual platform.

            What is presence?  More than just what you get on your birthday (insert drum roll here) it is your being.  It is where you are, and who you are when you get there.  The problem with presence comes with the Internet.  Is it possible, with the help of a server, to be somewhere, and not be there at the same time?  *Fox News* showed us during it’s election coverage this year that it is possible through holograms, but what about for the common folk?  Our solution is the avatar.    Online chat rooms and private ims have evolved into second life (and other like applications), which makes our presence known not only through our sign in names, but through actual people that we can create and give personality to.  The building of an actual, physical telepresence like that of second life turned cyberspace into just space,this turns actions into meanings, and builds the cultural framework that Legget talks about.  And it is this that creates a network.  A network is not just a server.  It is a place where you can share in creation, and transfer information.  It is a place where everyone involved has a vested interest in what is happening within it.  It consists of those who are committed, voluntarily to a common goal.  Virtual teams over a network must be more committed and more organized that those working together in something like an office environment.  And, as a leadin to my next point, these things can sometimes be practiced and demonstrated through play.

            In the “Play Ethic” we learn that “play is fun that fulfills an evolutionary task.” Play gives us “optimism that helps us triumph over life’s inevitable challenges.”  It allows us to try things and experiment in a way that doesn’t really put us in danger.  Play helps us practice the things that real life doesn’t give us the opportunity to practice.  Real life games give us a glimpse into human nature.  A lot of corporate offices have used games to build trust amongst its employees (although maybe not in the current economy where it doesn’t really matter)  Even as children (I’m sorry the development psychology is coming through here) imaginary play is crucial to our development, and with the internet, we have just found the modern day alternative to the imaginary friend.

I found the reading this week to be quite challenging, but extremely interesting. I’ve read a bit of theory about one’s virtual presence in the past, but the works assigned for this discussion really cover the topic from all angles. Legget’s piece is very conceptual and I like how it examines the idea of presence in relation to the arts as well as science and technology. I especially liked the discussion and definition of “telepresence”, described as “a psychological state of subjective perception in which even though part of all of an individual’s current experience is generated by and/or filtered through human made technology, part or all of the individual’s perception fails to accurately acknowledge the role of technology in the experience”. I recently created an avatar on metaplace.com and was completely shocked at how well developed the site was, and especially so because it’s a free service to users. Not only that, there were so many users engaged in complex social networks. My first time “in” Metaplace, I hooked up with a user that meets his friend from California each week who he rarely gets to see. They trade off going to each other’s worlds for visits. I was actually invited over with them for this weekly get together, and it was pretty cool how they hung out in the house and chatted. While it’s certainly not like a real-life conversation, I experienced a lot of what Leggett’s discusses in his piece about failing to acknowledge the role of technology in the mediated experience. The Metaplace world becomes the focus of your perception and what goes on in Metplace translates into the experience of a real event. While I am an avid gamer and have played many completely engrossing games like WoW, I was unaware that free programs like Metaplace are available and can offer so much in the way of social networking. Additionally, I think that platforms like this have enormous promise and application for education. They can give online classrooms a central forum for students to attend class, where one’s avatar can sit in a virtual classroom on behalf of the student, allowing the student to engage his or her peers and professors directly. This would allow a weekly “class” can be held in addition to the turn based postings that currently dominate online classes.

Presence, collaboration and play:

I found the readings this week, interesting, especially since I never really knew there was so much thought that went into what it actually meant by describing presence, especially in an online environment. From our readings we become aware that presence simply isn’t the physical appearance in the present time- it continues with the state of consciousness and also promotes “the pursuit of verification, dispute and debate” in an oral culture. The attributes continue and are an additive to “telepresence.”

Telepresence “is broadly understood…as that sense of knowing or feeling another human presence across a physical distance mediated by media…” This idea, in our culture encompasses our everyday use of myspace, twitter and facebook, along with other social networking sites. These sites each have a space and/or profile that represent you- the user, which can then interact with other users. The profile alone gives you a presence that you are there. The interactions- posting, messaging, texting, tagging and poking – continue to strength and reiterate that presence online.

Telepresence through online classes and other virtual learning environments are a bit more complicated, especially since more interaction and participation needs to be present. Engagement within these environments has to continue with the idea presented by Michael Schrage on collaboration being “an act of shared creation or discovery.”

What I have noticed through the past year’s worth of online classes is that the New School respectfully treats the online learning outlets as “classrooms” however it is more of a team setting. Most if not all of the classes I have been a part of are structured like a sports team, where the instructor acts more like a coach in pointing you in the right direction and helping when needed and the classmates or students are part of the team, where we learn from our own performance but collectively build and collaborate together. The core values on page 129: Mutual – trust, respect, participation, and commitment are all values that a coach would sound to his or her players.

Hi all,

Please visit us in the Globalhood office space in the Nonprofit Commons. Click here to teleport, or copy/paste our slurl into your browser:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/229/190/26/?title=Globalhood

Thanks for a great semester.

Have a lovely weekend,
-Group 9: Ali, Juan and Theresa

Originally from http://vlegroup9.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/visit-us-in-second-life/

Your project may introduce a change to the way in which the nonprofit engages in outreach. In order for your project to be sustainable, what do you foresee will need to happen within the nonprofit?

The sustainability of our project lies in Globalhood’s commitment to the nonprofit community in Second Life, and commitment to maintaining their space. As part of the tenant agreement, Globalhood committed to maintaining an SL presence for a minimum of two hours per week, and at least two hours per month of volunteer service in the Nonprofit Commons. Having no previous SL experience, the Globalhood staff will need our help in introducing them to the platform. Our team, led by SL veteran Waxalka Zoom, will provide the Globalhood staff with training and continued assistance and instruction in that process.

Future goals:

Frank and the Globalhood kids will return from the Dominican Republic in mid-August. Upon their return, we plan to:

1. Coordinate with the ethnography team to obtain media that the Globalhood kids developed during their DR trip. We hope to display some of their video, photography, blog postings, etc in the Second Life office.

2. Throw a launch party in-world. We will use the Nonprofit Commons How To guide to promote our event, reaching out to TechSoup, Nonprofit Commons, and both Social Marketing and Virtual Learning Environments students.

We are aware that this project is a work in progress and will continue to develop and grow. Waxalka and Aiyana were SL members before the course, and will continue to be available for SL training in the future. Waxalka in particular has taken an active role in facilitating this project. She has made a commitment to the Nonprofit Commons, offering her skills in creating machinima for Globalhood and other nonprofits associated with the NPC. AliQuig’s SL experience was limited to the perimeters of this course, but she will see the project through the launch party.

Note to Jason and Josephine: our group is also willing to collaborate with fall semester (or any future semester) SM and VLE students, should they be interested in taking Globalhood’s SL presence to the next level.

Also, to our classmates with an interest in Second Life – we can always use volunteers! Bonus points if you have building experience or can create machinima.   Admin work and simply maintaining an avatar in the office is appreciated as well.  Contact rubioj05@newschool.edu or quigleya@newschool.edu if you’re interested.

P.S. Sarah/Billy/Emogene of the ethnography team – we’ll be in touch, once we’ve all had the chance to finish up our summer semester coursework.

Originally from http://vlegroup9.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/project-summary-cont/

Originally from http://vlegroup9.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/project-summary/