30/01/2009 by lizit.

We are now at the end of week 3 of term - time is racing by and I find it even more incredible what was achieved last year now I am on campus and more aware of timescales and student pressures.

The project teams have been allocated and 4 of the 5 teams have met their clients; hopefully the fifth has also.  The next stage for students is to develop their specifications for comment by us and their clients.  In the meantime, I have divided up the island to set the building plots as specific zones and allocated them to the groups, learning quite a bit about how land permissions and prim counts work in the process.

After 3 weeks focusing on practical aspects and developing my own building skills, I think I can now begin to start thinking again about how the project relates to my research objectives - both short term (what I can get from ILE 09) and longer term (how ILE projects might be used with other student cohorts).

My current interest with the ILE students is how they respond to stuckness and problematic learning.   There are various places where students could get stuck.  They are working in a medium which is new to them and need to learn basic skills about being, moving and relating in the environment (perhaps not dissimilar to moving into a new real life environment).  In addition, they need to learn the specific building and scripting skills necessary to create artifacts in Second Life and make those artifacts do whatever it is they are intended to do. Although there may be some transfer of skills from other environments, the SL building and scripting interfaces are not intuitive and some students may experience a degree of stuckness in these activities.

The project requires students to develop solutions to problems presented by real life clients.  As the clients are drawn from a number of different disciplines, students need to be able to understand and interpret client needs and demonstrate this in the production of a project specification.  They then need to develop a project in Second Life, using their building and scripting skills and their knowledge of the greater world of Second Life, to meet the client requirements.

The third aspect of the project which also involves new learning is the creation of a machinima for a presentation in the 9th week of term.  Machinima making involves creating film clips in Second Life and then using appropriate software to edit the clips and create a sound track. Although some students may be familiar with these skills, it is likely others will find this also presents challenges and may lead to a degree of stuckness.

I am interested in how students respond when they get stuck.  What strategies are used to get unstuck? Does the immersive nature of Second Life have any effect on the motivation of students to find solutions?  Are there episodes of flow - and does flow experience affect response to stuckness.  I need to get back to my pencil and paper and what I want to know, what tools I need to use and how I will collect and use data.  This project is going to be iterative if nothing else.

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27/01/2009 by lizit.

I have posted a fair bit of what is below as a comment, but I thought it probably merited a posting too as it was really useful getting that feedback and pointers in various directions.

Firstly, thanks for the comments. I think it did me good to get my thoughts off my chest - and also led to positive action in opening up this blog (OK I still have to approve the first posting for anybody and that seems to be a system thing that I can’t knock off). More importantly, it led me to looking at wikis again - thanks Carol for the pointer to yours - and I have now set one up and that is proving extremely useful for the kind of things I felt a blog wasn’t doing.

Yes, this blog really is a personal journal more than a public account. It probably is helping to keep me on track and helping to make me accountable.

I endorse what has been said about Plurk. Haven’t looked at Netvibes, but have been using Google Reader for quite a long time and if it ain’t broke why fix it!

I guess, like earlier discussions in other places about bibliographic tools, one of the important things on this DPhil journey is getting the different props in place for myself - and making sure they are tools which I personally feel comfortable with.With so many support resources available it is important to recognise that what one person finds useful, or how another expresses themself, is not necessarily what works best for me.  There are tools I would now find it very difficult to survive without - yet not that long ago I did and didn’t realise I needed them - and other tools which I can happily take or leave (and more often than not choose to leave).

Currently my list of must have tools:

• Google reader - enables me to scan large amounts of stuff and decide what if anything to read in more depth
• Plurk - keeps me in touch with my friends and provides an awareness of the world out there, not only in my bit of the universe
• EndNote - now I am working out how to use it, it is keeping all the assorted reading I am doing accessible to me
•  PBwiki - although still at an early stage is providing me with a place to organise myself and to pull lots of different stuff together
• This blog - jury still out, but it does have its uses if I am not using it for what I don’t want it to be

And tools I can survive without

• Twitter - just too much going on and too confusing for me
• Facebook - is it my age or is it that I just don’t get it

Guess that will do for now.  Now to work out what I want/need to do today!

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25/01/2009 by lizit.

I seem to be living in Second Life at the moment with setting up the island for ILE, getting my OU tutor group inworld and attending building classes.  On a personal level, I am noticing how long it takes to do stuff (though hopefully some stuff will be re-usable).  Creating a notice board involves making textures (Word then image capture and resize canvas to meet SL requirements then upload to SL), building a notice board (re-usable once one has been created) and applying appropriate texture, then putting in appropriate place and making sure positioned OK.

The major achievement today has been doing some land parceling - should make life easier with managing extraneous objects, builds and debris.

One of my OU students has been asking more about safety in SL.  I think it might be useful for all the projects I’m involved in to put together a quick hints and tips sheet.  Simple things like adding real life name and context to the notes section on an avatar profile so I know who I am talking to.  It seems something more may be needed than the keeping safe advice in the ‘Getting into Seconf Life’ guide Anna and I have been using.

Although the Constuction Junction course is very tiring, I am thoroughly enjoying it and gaining a lot from it.  Hopefully, I will be able to experiment with some of the stuff I have been learning before I forget how to do it! Having access to a course wiki is useful for reference too.

This next week I really must spend some time in real life catching up on some reading and other stuff I am falling behind on.  Still Rome wasn’t built in a day and I can’t work 24/7 if I want to stay sane!

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23/01/2009 by lizit.

Another week of mainly practical activities.  Meetings with students, doing stuff on the island, writing a document on building essentials (to be added to as things ‘go wrong’ this term) and getting a baseline survey online. The biggest problem this week was LL disabling log ins on Wednesday at just the time we were going to do the building tutorial.  I had deliberately left putting the tutorial materials out in advance, so even those students who had logged in before we were locked out weren’t able to do stuff. Such is life!  However, I have spotted a number of students inworld during the past few days working with the materials which is good. There is generally a very positive buzz about the student group this year.

Most of the projects are now allocated to students and they should be arranging client meetings during the next week or so. Then it will be commenting on the specifications and offering general support and pointing at different resources, etc, for the rest of the term.

I now need to start focussing away from the practical and doing some of the things I need to do like making some proper notes on the things I have been reading and doing some necessary admin tasks. Too many late nights in Second Life are not good for me!

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19/01/2009 by lizit.

Spent from 6pm - 11pm on Saturday and Sunday in Second Life at a building workshop specifically for people involved in education.  Most of the participants and the course leader are from various parts of the States, but the assistant leader is another Brit.  As we are using voice to communicate quite a bit, it’s interesting hearing the different accents - and though I’m no good at working out which US accent belongs where, there are some I find quite grating!

Leaving aside the use of voice in SL - may come back to that later - the course itself is excellent.  Unlike many of the building classes I attended in my early days in SL, this is moving at a fast pace with lots of different builds - all useful for anybody setting up a learning space in the virtual world.  Not only are we building, but we have been sent on field trips to look at different types of build in SL - some extremely impressive - and to consider the textures, atmospherics and activities that have been built in.  We have also spent time in  a garden set up by a project at Southampton where sound is an essential element.  It is interesting to consider how far sound contributes to a sense of immersion in the environment.

The course leader has introduced us to several useful building tools - and given us copies of most of them.  We have also looked at other tools which are not available free but which can be useful, especially in a class setting.  A general observation was maintaining a SL inventory, especially if using some of the sorting tools, is almost a full time occupation.

I have been able to use the skills learned this weekend to create a number of objects for the Sussex Learning Zone, including goody bags, a greeter (with spoken greeting) and a dispenser for the building supplies for Wednesday.  Lots more to do, but at least a few things are now ready for use.

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17/01/2009 by lizit.

Well the island is there and has some stuff on it, the first class has met and we’ve a load of interesting projects.

This week there hasn’t been that much time to think, it’s been much more a case of getting on with stuff, in particular preparing the island ready for building classes next week. The first ILE class went well - just a pity there weren’t more students.  Those who attended were very positive about what they were seeing and hearing, especially after they had seen the SL interface and looked at last years machinimas.  They seemed impressed and surprised that they would be working for real life clients - and surprised and impressed by what last years students had produced in the relatively short period of time the course runs.

During the week, I’ve met with 3 potential clients, all of whom are offering interesting projects and all of whom were excited by the little bit of SL I was able to show them.  They were immediately thinking beyond their immediate project ideas to how the end product might be used in different situations with different groups of students and potential students.  On my way to my car on Friday evening, I chanced upon one of the potential clients in the car park and was told she had passed my contact details to a colleague who might also be interested in doing something with SL. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of that.

The first few students have logged into SL and received their stipends and notecards.  Two problems so far.  Students can’t set the island as home and I can’t see how we can make this happen - I need to investigate this a bit further.  One student had a difficulty registering.  A colleague on the SLED list suggested an alternative registration portal and this worked - relief all around!

I met one of the students on the island on Friday - the kind of chance encounter I expect to have several of during the next few weeks.  In an email he commented:   “It was excellent chatting with you in-world; thank you so much for making me feel welcome, and for your advice. It’s actually a really weird feeling talking to lecturing staff inside Second Life; the social dynamics are completely different!” I guess when a teacher turns up looking like a raccoon, gives you dance animations and discusses SL nightlife, it is a bit different from sitting in a classroom.

Next week the students get introduced to building and scripting.  I have 3 mini-building projects ready but I need to put them in a vendor and prepare the basic building guidelines document.  I have checked out building perms with Kickaha and asked a few follow up questions just to make sure I do the land parcels correctly.  I also need to get my baseline survey on line and to write the document about the project for students so they can give informed consent.

Next week will probably be mainly practical tasks too, but some time I should be able to get back to the pile of books sitting on my desk!

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16/01/2009 by lizit.

Been pointed to an interesting article on procrastination this morning. It is a summary of a report of work by some German psychologists who were looking at procrastination in relation to concrete and abstract tasks.  In short, the concrete tasks got done and some of the abstract ones never got done - even though all the volunteer participants were receiving payment on completion of the allocated task.

The suggestion is that thinking about abstract tasks more concretely - breaking down into smaller parts, etc, can assist in getting things done.

Looking at my ‘to do’ list, over the last week, it is true that the concrete tasks have been done, but the ones where I need to get brain in gear seem to be languishing and looking at me! Now I’m sure if I was feeling clever, I could relate this to motivation and flow…

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13/01/2009 by lizit.

The comments on the last blog were very useful.  Through Plurk, I have been put in touch with Carol Daunt Skyring and have been looking at her wiki which seems to make it possible to do the things I was complaining about not being able to do in a blog!  I have now set up a wiki - very embryonic at the moment - and am already finding it useful as a repository for stuff.  I suspect it may take over from OneNote in some ways, except OneNote does enable me to grab emails and webpages and scribble on them.

Will keep under review my use of the various tools and their pros and cons.

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09/01/2009 by lizit.

Yesterday evening was thinking about blogs and how helpful or otherwise they are as a means of journaling.  I must admit to having reservations, which may be down to my use of the tool or something else, but which might be useful to identify to find work rounds or alternative approaches.

Firstly, each blog entry stands on it’s own.  I don’t get a sense of continuity or building on previous ideas or linking with earlier ideas.  It sometimes is possible to make the link to a recent post, but stuff I wrote 3 months ago might just as well have disappeared.  OK I can find stuff by going through the archives or searching on a tag - assuming the tags actually make some kind of sense - but it is though there are a number of building bricks scattered around with nothing to cement them together.

Secondly, there is a need to record some kind of semi-complete thoughts.  Because the blog format is at least semi-public - one or two people may see it other than me -  it means I need to write complete sentences and do so in some way that connects ideas.  It isn’t a place for scribbling the occasional word or idea or developing a mind map.  It is not really even a place for exploring ideas.  I guess, the positive bit of that is that it is a place to practice writing, but I’m not sure it is even good for that.

Thirdly, although the comment tool should permit some kind of conversation and development of ideas on specific topics, that doesn’t necessarily work.  I posted a blog a few days ago and asked some friends for their thoughts. I am not sure how many might have taken a look at what I had written, but none used the comment tool.  One used a micro-blog tool (responding to my original message) to say he had blogged back.  When I went to his blog there was a lengthy and though-provoking piece responding to my ideas - but unless I make a link, there is no link between my original post and his response.

Finally, for the moment, there is a problem in keeping up with what other people have written.  Although I am developing a blog roll, that means visiting other blogs fairly regularly to see if they have said anything interesting to me - and then sorting out how to bookmark the appropriate posts in a way I might be able to find them again. A few blogs have RSS feeds - how I love those.  The benefit there is I can add them to Google Reader and very quickly find out if there is anything I am interested in and then bookmark with del.icio.us.  But those without the feed, (and there is no feed on my blog as I don’t know how to add one) are simply a pain and potential cause of RSI as I click here, there and everywhere.

So what might be useful as a way of recording stuff.

Firstly, I use OneNote.  This is a way of recording a whole lot of information, both what I write myself and also ‘grabbing’ relevant emails and webpages on the fly.  What is more, I can then add my own comments to anything I put in OneNote, either using a stylus or typing stuff in.  The biggest disadvantage to OneNote is that it is not internet based so I need to keep my different computers synched with each other (and occasionally this leads to problems) but in general my stuff is accessible to me in an easily managed and accessible way.

Secondly, mapping tools.  My favourite is Inspiration, but there are loads of others around.  I can create an ideas map with lots of ideas relating to each other.  I can build linked layers.  I can link documents and web pages to the bubbles.  I end up with a resource that I can build, review and develop.

Thirdly, wikis offer an opportunity to write something and edit it and develop linked pages and ideas.  What is more, they can be edited by others.  I can’t help but think this would be a more joined up approach than a chain of ideas which may or may not be connected, such as is what my blog feels like.

Right, got that off my chest!

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03/01/2009 by lizit.

This is going to be a bit simplistic, but I need to get some of what I’m thinking on paper (or on screen) rather than just in my head.

“Troublesome learning spaces are places where ‘stuckness’ or ‘disjunction’ occurs.” (Savin-Baden, 2007). She goes on to identify a number of catalysts that may be involved in moving into such a space.  The idea of troublesome learning appears to originate with Perkins (1999) - at least he articulated it - and he identifies some types of learning which can be seen as troublesome.  This is developed by Meyer and Land (2005) in their consideration of Threshold concepts.  Others have applied this thinking to specific disciplines (eg Davies, 2007).

Savin-Baden offers a model of transitional learning spaces which relates to how stuckness is dealt with. She suggests that a learner arrives at a place where disjunction is experienced: “Disjunction is not only a form of troublesome knowledge but also a ‘space’ or ‘position’ reached through the realisation that the knowledge is troublesome. Disjunction might therefore be seen as a ‘troublesome learning space’ that emerges when forms of active learning (such as problem-based learning) are used that prompt students to engage with procedural and personal knowledge. Alternatively, disjunction can be seen as the kind of place that students might reach after they have encountered a threshold concept that they have not managed to breach.” Other authors have spoken about ’stuck places’ (Lather 1998). Savin-Baden goes on to suggest that learners deal with disjunction in one of five ways: “students may opt to retreat from disjunction, to postpone dealing with it, to temporize and thus choose not to make a decision about how to manage it, to find some means to avoid it and thus create greater disjunction in the long term, or to engage with it and move to a greater or lesser sense of integration”. She suggests that: “Engaging with disjunction requires that students acknowledge its existence and attempt to deconstruct the causes of disjunction by examining the relationship with both their internal and external worlds. Through this reflexive examination process, students can engage with what has given rise to the disjunction and they are then enabled to shift towards a greater sense of integration.”

How students deal with stuckness is also examined by McCartney et al (2007) and a lengthy list of potential strategies is identified and linked to types of learners.

These studies suggest that having reached a place of disjunction of stuckness, there is a choice over how this might be approached which essentially is a choice between retreating from the uncomfortable place or rising to the challenge.  The second of these approaches would appear to link with thinking about ‘flow’, a term first suggested by Csikszentmihalyi in 1973 and since developed and applied in many different fields by Csikszentmihalyi (1990) and numerous other authors. Chen (1999) has considered flow in relation to use of the web and identifies 9 factors involved in a flow experience: “(1) clear goals; (2) immediate feedback; (3) personal kills well suited to given challenges; (4) merger of action and awareness; (5) concentration on the task at hand; (6) a sense of potential control; (7) a loss of self-consciousness; (8) an altered sense of time; and (9) experience which becomes autotelic.” An important aspect of flow appears to be a level of challenge such as is achievable, that is the challenge should not be too daunting but needs to such as can be perceived as a challenge. The question that arise for me is whether being able to deal with disjunction or stuckness is in part related to the personal challenge involved in the process.  In other words, does disjunction which leads to understanding involve a flow process?

Linking this to Second Life.  It can be anticipated that the introduction to Second Life will induce a range of different feelings within learners.  Some will be positive and some negative.  Being presented with the stress of being asked to create within Second Life presents learners with a challenge requiring a number of different learning experiences, some of which may lead to feelings of stuckness and disjunction.  How do learners deal with the difficulties they encounter in Second Life.  On reflection, how is the experience viewed? What are the factors which lead to a positive or a negative experience?  To what extent do students experience flow in meeting the challenges presented by creating projects in Second Life? Does the learner’s approach to Second Life - augmentalist or immersionist - make a difference to the way in which challenges are dealt with, or flow experienced?

Chen, H., Wigand, R. T., & Nilan, M. S. (1999). Optimal experience of Web activities. Computers in Human Behavior, 15(5), 585-608.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York,NY: Harper and Row.

Davies, P., & Mangan, J. (2007). Threshold concepts and the integration of understanding in economics. Studies in Higher Education, 32(6), 711-726.

Lather, P. (1998). Critical pedagogy and its complicities: A praxis of stuck places. Education Theory, 48(4), 487-498.

McCartney, R., Eckerdal, A., Mostrom, J. E., Sanders, K., & Zander, C. (2007). Successful students’ strategies for getting unstuck. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 12th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education.

Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49(3), 373-388.

Perkins, D. (1999). The Many Faces of Constructivism. Educational Leadership, 57(3), 6.

Savin-Baden, M. (2007). Second Life PBL: liminality, liquidity and lurking. Paper presented at the Reinventing Problem-based learning, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore.

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