Week 6 - Yulia (photoblog)

Week 6 exploration of SL began with visiting Moscow Island again, but this time together with other classmates and the lecturer. For me, it was an interesting experience for a few reasons. The first one is that it was a great opportunity to show my country to others. Although I’m not an owner of that site, but it felt like I was the host and it was sort of my duty to ensure everyone was happy and comfortable as if I invited people to my house. Another reason is that I had a chance to see whether I would enjoy working as a tour guide. Having visited this site before definitely helped me direct people to various places of interest, as well as the experience of visiting Moscow on multiple occasions in the real life. Potentially, this could be one of the tasks that I would be giving my students, and expect that it might cause similar degree of pride and enthusiasm among them, which will naturally motivate students to communicate and practice a TL (be it English or Russian).

We talked about how SL gives its users opportunities are not always available in the real life, and this was a good example. No one visited Russia before and the chances of visiting it in the real life are very low – quite expensive, too far and maybe language barrier, because Russian is known to be very difficult to learn and not everybody speaks English over there.

Visiting St Basil Cathedral with other students and the lecturer

While I was showing the Red Square, I saw someone by the name of Kolya (diminutive of the Russian male name Nikolai). The guy turned out to be an American born Russian who lives in California and plans to visit his grandmother who still lives in Russia. His L1 is English, and based on the conversations we had, I would assess his level of Russian as late beginner–lower intermediate. He visits Moscow Island to find people with whom he can practice his Russian. I gave him the link to our site – Kowhai – hoping that he would come by and I could talk to him about why he chose to practice Russian in SL, whether his teacher recommended him, and if SL meets his expectations.

A few days later I decided to visit another site called Lesbian Paradise, which I had actually visited before, sometime in week 1. Since I was new to SL, I didn’t feel confident to explore that site then and left it. However, I thought it would be good to come back and give it another chance J

On the dance floor… Trying to see who is who and with whom.

Being familiar and knowing quite a few members of the LGBT (stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender) community in person, I know how most of them dress and how to identify who is who, especially in the Lesbian community. Although this identification is often contested, there is no other alternative to ‘butch’, ‘dyke’ and ‘femme’ denotations. The name of the island suggests that it was created mainly for the Lesbian community.  When I teleported there, I saw a bunch of people on the dance floor. The way people looked was the same as in that Romantic Garden Island – a bunch of women wearing what one would usually see on straight people. And also there were a bunch of guys there. In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that the way we appear on SL is usually dictated by what is available and acceptable. Perhaps, those people (if they were indeed lesbians) could not find other hairstyles, manicure, clothes and even bodies. It is easier for femmes, quite challenging to find stuff. In my 1^st week, I visited a bunch of shops and didn’t really see anything that would be suitable for that group of lesbians. Again, I don’t want to sound too categorizing, but I guess for the sake of making it a bit easier, it’s ok.

This time I decided to explore other parts of the island, and as you can see, it was empty.

Another dance floor – at the DJ station

I tried to do some spinning, but these objects didn’t have that option, which is a shame really.

 Dancing in my lonesome

Sitting at their bar 

Flying around 

Saw this slide and decided to give it go

Sliding on my belly

That was fun as!!!

Enjoying spa

Saw some butterflies 

I think those who built this site were quite creative and quite liked nature. As you see, there are plenty of trees, flowers and little garden patches.

By the grand piano

I love this instrument! I wish someone were there so we could play it together.

Playing the grand piano

There was something with the sound, so I couldn’t hear what my avatar was playing and I couldn’t see the notes either. Anyway, it was cool to see my avatar doing things I would be doing in my RL. My place isn’t big enough to have a grand piano, but one day I’ll buy a big house and make sure there is enough space for it.

Dance floor #3, still no one

I thought this was a cool dance floor. It was made as if you’re in the space surrounded by the skies and stars. The creators of this place could’ve made it all look like it was a space or galaxy instead of having only one such element. 

Lying on a hammock

If you can see my pose, it’s like I’m lying next to someone and trying to hug that person/avatar. It’s pretty cool how they thought of such movements. I’ve seen quite a few options around this island, for example, you could stand by a tree and kiss someone, etc. 

Pole dancing

I’ve never done pole dancing in my RL and probably won’t do it. But it’s I guess it’s fine to be doing things like that in SL and at least imagine how it would look to someone else.

Not an empty dance floor J 

My exploration of Lesbian Island has come to an end. So now that I’ve seen all the corners of it, I decided to mingle on this dance floor. It took me a while to figure out how to dance here and what to press on. In Romantic Garden there were hearts hanging all over and in other dance floors on this island, the objects were obvious. I tried to ask a female avatar for help, but she didn’t appear to be online and active. A few minutes later, I decided to ask for help someone else and got it from some friendly chap. So as you can see, my avatar was doing well on this dance floor. The music was a bit weird, for the first 30-40 mins it was all rock stuff and no ‘traditional’ P!NK, Lady Gaga (she's known to be gay friendly), Kylie Minogue (I was told that she's one of gays all favourite) or happy gay stuff like Village People, etc. But then it changed to just normal dance pop.

Week 6 - Yulia (article review)

The article highlights the potential of 3D MUVEs, particularly SL, from the perspective of future developments in higher education. The author, Gilly Salmon, notes 3 perspectives, such as trends and emerging issues, the power of pedagogical imagination and the potential impact of humans as learning avatars.

The trends identified are the following:

·       Awareness from teachers of the potential of virtual worlds, especially in the teaching of history and science

·       Transfer of pedagogical concepts from other e-environments to frame group development and group working

·       Creation of artefacts for educational purposes, sometimes by the learners themselves

·       ‘Immersion’ in cultures otherwise inaccessible

·       Creation of realistic environments for practice

·       Awareness of virtual worlds and interest from internet users

·       Integration with other learning technologies with a view to creating 3D virtual classrooms

·       Predictions of interest from commerce and industry for skills development

(Salmon, 2009, p. 530).

In terms of pedagogical imagination, Salmon (2009) argues that creativity can be one of the ways to see things outside the square and explore both learning and teaching approaches we haven’t had the chance to do before. Furthermore, as she notes, if “we look back too much, we risk inventing the future based on outdated models of teaching and learning” (Salmon, 2009, p. 531). Perhaps, Salmon is being a bit critical of the research based solely on literature reviews and inferences from the past studies, or secondary analyses. Or she is trying to signal that some teachers and academics are not progressing in terms of their contribution to the knowledge and practice. Indeed, it is the new elements – be it experiments, alternative research methods or new technology trials and implementations - that make pedagogy and academic research progressive and innovative. She suggests that SL provides an opportunity to experiment and discover possibilities that could have positive contribution to the practice. For example, virtual artefacts can be manipulated in ways that are impossible in the real life or they can be used as a spark to start a dialogue. For the language teachers it could be seen as a trigger to motivate learners to communicate with each other and practice what they have learned.

Speaking of avatars, it should be noted that avatars aren’t independent creatures; they are visual representations of their ‘operators’ (Hew & Cheung, 2008 as cited in Salmon, 2009). For Salmon (2009), they are a personification of the individual who drives the avatar. However, the functionality of an avatar in SL allows users to change appearance, physical features, clothes, etc. whenever a user feels like, which is not possible in the real life. Given such opportunities to create various identities and position oneself accordingly, Salmon suggests we need to focus on how avatar-learner and avatar-teacher can work together in this environment and examine how relationships and interactions are embodied. Examples include: greeting, playing signaling group affiliation, conveying opinions or feelings, creating a strong sense of presence or ‘being there’ with others, etc. I guess these examples fall under the group of factors that affect both teaching and learning processes and examining them will help us have a better understanding of interactions and relationships that are built in SL.

Salmon’s (2009) article is written in the genre of an academic essay and provides a strong advocacy for being creative as a way to contribute to the knowledge and practice. Although the focus of the article is quite generic, as suggested by its name - the future for (second) life and learning - it can be quite helpful for those who plan on committing themselves to the research on SL and its potential.

Reference:

Salmon, G. (2009). The future for (second) life and learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), 526-526. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00967.x