14/11/2009 by lizit.

Some of my previous blogs have been journeys down memory lane drawing together different aspects of my life experience and identifying threads which are coming together in the work I am currently engaged in. A more recent blog was a snapshot of some of my ‘informal’ learning experiences. In this blog, I will reflect on my experience of learning in Second Life. As with any retrospective view, lots will be missing and time frames will almost certainly be out of synch, but  it may help in clarifying what kind of learning is happening for me in that environment.

It is now almost 3 years since lizit Cleanslate was born (17/11/2006). I hadn’t heard much about SL in advance of creating an account. In fact, the main reason for taking a look at all was the possibility of an elearning consultancy with the Sussex Learning Network and mention being made of Second Life and various Web 2.0 technologies. I vaguely knew the OU had an interest in SL and a bit of searching unearthed the note with the name of the OU island and the person heading up work in SL.

If I am honest,  I don’t remember very much about what it was like when I first logged into SL - and I don’t really know what I was expecting. I do remember exercising choice in my original avatar - it had to be a furry, not only because this was fun, but also because there was no way I could identify with any of the other avatars on offer. Later on I rationalised this by saying I did not want an avatar that looked like me, or which was some kind of idealised female, but at the time, it probably had more to do with not being sure how seriously I could take this 3D virtual world I was entering. It looked far more like the games my son played than any kind of recognisable educational environment.

Like all newborn avatars, when I entered the virtual world, I landed on orientation island. The first task was learning to move - and there was no help message telling me what to do. I did work out that the arrow keys enabled movement and found my avatar rushing through orientation, surrounded by what seemed a large crowd of other avatars, all equally uncontrollable as my own. I’m not sure when I first referred to my avatar as me, but I suspect it didn’t take long. I tried some of the exercises on orientation island, but they didn’t seem to work - or I didn’t understand them - so I just hurried on with the aim of finding the OU island. I do remember eventually coming to a sign whichgave me a choice of entering the SL mainland or going to some kind of second stage orientation and choosing to go onto the mainland.  I did not know I could have picked up lots of freebies before entering the mainland, and I’m not sure I would have known how to, even if I had known.

By the time I got into SL proper, I was still feeling pretty clueless, unable to control my avatar, and unsure what I was meant to do next. If I remember correctly, I logged out and emailed Jacqui Bennett asking  how to access Cetlment and asking to be put on the list of OU SL users.

The second time I went into SL, I landed in a crowd of avatars in what seemed to be a Greek temple of some description. I got to know that landing place over the next few weeks, as it was my home location until I eventually learned I could make choices about where to enter SL and that I could set my own home location. This time, I had instructions on how to reach Cetlment and took myself there. It seemed somewhat barren, but there were a couple of avatars on the island. One of them looked very much like my avatar - same basic shape but slightly changed and wearing trousers instead of the somewhat strange skirt I had started life with. The other avatar had a name which was familiar from that person’s online identity in other settings. The two avatars were conversing with each other and did not seem aware of my presence - at least they didn’t acknowledge me. I moved out of earshot so I could not see their typed messages and explored the island a bit. I made sure I didn’t move too far away in case I got lost. At that stage, I did not know how to fly - I needed to ask my son how that might be done. Eventually, the conversation stopped and I was able to approach the avatar whose name I had recognised. We checked out that we both were who we thought we were and I got a guided tour of the locality, which basically meant I was shown his house and Anna’s house. Although I made the assumption the other avatar was a SL expert, I realised fairly quickly that he was about a page ahead of me, if that, in familiarising himself with the SL environment.

Not long after this, I visited Walton Hall with other members of the SLN elearning team. It was only my second visit to Milton Keynes and I was very aware of following the others around without a clue where I was or where I was going. As it was, we spent some time with John Woodthorpe looking at Second Life - the room we were in had a telephone conferencing facility, so we were talking to Jacqui over the telephone line while she took us through some SL basics and shared some of her thinking. We also took the opportunity to speak to some other people on campus that day including Peter Twining who was developing the schome project.

A couple of weeks later, I got the task of introducing SL at the SLN elearning advisory group. At that stage the jury was still very much still out. I suspect if I was not being paid to familiarise myself with SL and various other technologies, I would have left SL never to return by this point. I was still unsure how to move. I had visited a few sites but got hopelessly lost and the graphics were so poor I couldn’t see the point. At the same time, I knew people were getting excited about the possibilities of SL and were describing it as the next phase of the web. I had read a few journal articles and joined the SLED list and was ready to explore further, but unsure how…

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25/07/2009 by lizit.

This is the first of 2 blog posts I have it in mind to write - the other will be looking at structuring and planning my study with ethical considerations and methodology in mind.

I’ve just read a number of articles (see below) that are connected with online research ethics and I want to capture some of the main points that seem of most relevance to me and to the research I am planning.  This is very much a first take, but I hope the process will help me focus on the ethics permissions I will need, the arguments that need to be constructed, and the nature of the contexts I will be working in.

One of the main things that comes across in all the articles is that it isn’t possible to easily transfer physical world practices into the virtual world. Some things which are important in the physical world may have less relevance in the virtual world and vice versa. Similarly, it isn’t possible to lay down hard and fast guidelines for all virtual world and online communities research both because virtual worlds and online  communities differ from each other and ethical considerations have to be thought about alongside the planning of the study and its methodology.

A second, and equally important consideration is that informed consent may mean something different to participants in an online setting from what it means in a physical world setting. The very honest account (Reid, 1996) of how research can impact an online community is worth consideration, and although I do not anticipate handling the kind of sensitive data Reid did, nevertheless possible unintended consequences for participants do need to be considered.

A third point made in several places is the need for familiarity with the online environment being studied - the dangers of simply using a virtual environment for data gathering without understanding the dynamics of the community are described. It is essential to take time to become an accepted participant. In general, the online communities I am focussing on are ones in which I have had a lengthy engagement - I have been a member of some of the 2-D email lists for around 10 years and I have been active in the Second Life community for nearly 3 years. On the other hand, I have not participated directly in Club Penguin and my knowledge of the environment is restricted to a single demonstration and 2 presentations; this may have implications for whether or not to include CP in my studies and needs to be thought about and discussed.

I found the diagrams (McKee & Porter, 2009) very useful in focusing my mind, especially when combined with the application of ethical considerations to all parts of the research process (Knobel, 2003).  Both articles recognise that the principle concern focus or IRB is on potential risk to human subjects by way of loss of privacy, harm of exposure, ridicule and embarrassment. In the online world, effects on the community are equally important and possible reactions of the community leading suspicion of researchers and unwillingness to participate in other projects or to continue involvement in current one.

An early consideration is the nature of the place/space in which the research is being undertaken. Perceptions of virtual environments vary, but I would argue that Second Life (and virtual worlds in general) are places rather than just spaces and that the nature of the community in the email list groups I am interested in moves these also from more than just places. The next question is whether the places are public or private.  Some of the email lists are private in that a moderator has to approve membership of the list and a username and password is needed to access the archives, while others are public in that anybody may join and access the archives. Second Life is more complex in that some areas are very definitely open access while others may have some restrictions, either by requiring a group membership in order to enter them, or because they are only used by particular groups while remaining open access. It is also possible that the development of the new adult regions and opening up more of the grid to u-18s (I’m not quite sure how or when this will happen) will affect access.

Linked with the public/private dimension of places is the sensitivity of data and whether it is obtained publicly or privately. Much of what I want to do in Second Life will involve observation in public spaces but the edges become blurred with casual conversation relevant to my research in those spaces.  Clearly any interviews, wherever they are undertaken, cross the boundary to private as do any focus group discussions.

A further element of privacy is avatar identities.  Although these are aliases, there are avatars who are well known within the Second Life community and beyond. Similarly, some avatars are instantly recognisable if shown in images.Thought will need to be given to what has to be anonymised and when it is appropriate to use an avatar name, for example quoting from a formal interview by permission when the informant has been recruited because of their high profile position in the SL community. I would see this paralleling the physical world where anonymity should be the norm, but expertis might be specifically cited.

I also need to think about my own identity.  My SL profile does not hide who I am, but it could be more specific an probably needs re-writing to provide more information and pointers to where more information can be obtained, eg a link to this blog. I may also want to use my profile to invite contact from people interested in being involved in my research. A notecard providing a summary would be useful to be able to give to interested avatars. I also need to pay attention to my role - when am I in SL as researcher, when as resident, when as teacher, etc.

The articles give attention to informed consent but none of them actually suggest how this should be obtained, not dealing with the sticky issue of avatars being seen as persons in their own right, rather than as substitutes for the person operating them. In this respect, Boellstorff (2008) is helpful as he provides a copy of the consent form he used which was signed by avatars using their screen names and he had no link to the human identity behind the avatar.  This also avoids any potential conflict with the Linden Labs Code of Conduct in respect of avatar privacy.

In Second Life, the procedure for getting permission is relatively clear. Apart from needing ethics committee approval, it is individual avatars who are involved. The position is less clear with email groups. Public email lists are public places, but if individuals are being quoted, it is only appropriate to ask their permission.  Does the same apply when a snippet of conversation is used to illustrate a point, or a conversation summarised without reference to the posters? For private email lists, I assume the initial approach should be to the moderator with a clear explanation, and possibly examples of how I might use data, prior to any approach to the list.

The final diagram in McKee and Porter is useful in suggesting that the 3 dimensions of degree of interaction, topic sensitivity and public or private have to be considered in determining whether informed consent is necessary in any given situation.

Knobel focuses more on planning the study and my next posting will be initial thoughts on planning, methodology and the ethical considerations.

Articles and books referred to in preparation of posting:

Boellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of age in second life: an anthropologist explores the virtually human. Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Cavanagh, A. (1999). Behaviour in public? : ethics in online ethnography. Cybersociology, 6. Retrieved from http://www.cybersociology.com/files/6_2_ethicsinonlineethnog.html
Knobel, M. (2003). Rants, Ratings and Representation: ethical issues in researching online social practices. Education, Communication & Information, 3(2), 187.
McKee, H. A. & Porter, J. E. (2009). Playing a good game: ethical issues in researching MMOGs and virtual worlds. International Journal of Internet Research Ethics, 2(1), 5 -37.
Reid, E. (1996). Informed Consent in the Study of On-Line Communities: A Reflection on the Effects of Computer-Mediated Social Research. The Information Society: An International Journal, 12(2), 169 - 174.
Sheehy, K., Ferguson, R. & Clough, G. (2007). Learning and teaching in the panopticon: ethical and social issues in creating a virtual educational environment. International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(2), 89-96.

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30/03/2009 by lizit.

Just finished a full week of conferencing.  CAL last Monday to Wednesday and Best Practices in Education over the weekend in Second Life.  Interesting participating in 2 such very different conferences and one f-t-f and one inworld.  On a practical note, advantages of inworld are being able to do other things in between sessions, having a cup of tea when I want, being able to join in the chat channel, and not having to mess around with trains and stuff.  On the other hand, it was nice to experience the buzz of the f-t-f, to meet people I had met before and make new contacts, and to discuss thoughts and reactions to the different speakers as it happened.

CAL is a general education conference.  It drew a number of ‘big’ names and there was a lot of discussion of learning and education theory and practice.  Somewhat disappointingly, there was not a lot said or demonstrated of current technologies. It is the only gathering I have been to recently where there wasn’t a hashtag for use in electronic media.  It felt as though there were a lot of old debates continuing to be worked out.  Having said that, I did meet some other folk actively involved in working in virtual worlds and we were ale to talk about what we are doing and the challenges we face.  There was also a salutary reminder that not everybody sees or uses the virtual world the way I do; I found myself questioning the seamless integration of real and virtual advocated by one speaker with little evidence of using the affordances of Second Life. Unfortunately, he had to leave immediately after his presentation, but we did swap cards and I have contacted him asking for details of his blog on how to teach in SL.  For me, the best session in the conference was Carina Garvin’s presentation of the work she has done on mapping SL affordances and pedagogy.  This is a work in progress and Carina and I have agreed to keep in touch.

VWPBE was less intellectually challenging for me than CAL.  There were many good presentations of different aspects of using Second Life in teaching and learning.  Perhaps because the territory was more familiar, I was able to focus more on content and methodology.  Although I had heard both Carina Garvin and Lisa Dawley present during the previous fortnight, it was good to hear their presentations again and to ‘hear’ things which I had not taken in first time round.  Some brief notes on some of the other presentations I attended:

Joykadia is an international learning community drawing together a mixture of individual educators, students, organisations, and parents of younger students. The focus is on informality and activity. A number of ‘unconferences’ are held during the year. There is a major emphasis on community (Wenger), design and use of space, facilitation and recognising skills.

Devon Alderton spoke about the ethics of undertaking research in SL and reminded us that behind every avatar there is a person. Linden Labs ToS and Community Standards are very clear about no disclosure of personal IDs.  IRB tends to focus on potential harm to research subjects, and may be phased by avatars and virtual worlds.  Tom Boellstorf offers some useful guidelines, eg double blind avatar names, locked and encrypted storage, waiver for written consent of inworld subjects (written consent would mean revealing ID) and very clear explanations of what would happen.

The Theorists’ Project was advertised as teaching difficult concepts in SL and turned out to be a total learning experience developed by and with counseling and psychology graduate students.  A fascinating place to visit and experience.

Jackie Darkstone (Jackie Marsh from Sheffield in rl) presented her work on literacy and ClubPenguin.  I found this more interesting and meaningful having seen ClubPenguin.  Hopefully she is sending a copy of a paper currently in press.

The DELVE project made two presentations based on different aspects of the current research project.  Interesting for me to hear Shailey and Ahmad talking about what they are doing.  Should be helpful with the work I am doing for the project!

Now the conferences are out of the way, I am hoping to be able to focus on doing some thinking and starting to pull some of my own ideas together and beginning to work out the way ahead!

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21/02/2009 by lizit.

I still have a sense of things going very slowly in general with little willingness to do more than the minimum on the different builds.  I keep visiting the island and hoping to see something really exciting, but so far there isn’t much to see and very few of the groups are providing any kind of notecard feedback making it difficult to know what is happening. On the other hand, the weekly project discussions are useful for exploring ideas on how the different builds could be developed. I feel more involved overall this year, no doubt helped by being involved in the workshops and hearing the material students are being asked to use in developing their thinking and learning experiences.

All but one of the groups has provided a specification and received feedback. This has made it much easier to begin to look at the projects both in terms of learning experience and of using the affordances of Second Life.

The workshop on simulations included looking at a number of builds in Second Life and categorising them by type of simulation.  Impressionistically, students appeared to enjoy this activity and to be surprised and interested by some of what they saw in the virtual world.

I need to pull together the material I have on machinimas and make that available to students during the coming week.  They now only have a little over two weeks until the presentations and it is difficult at this point to believe there will be much to present.  I look forward to being surprised and excited by what has been achieved.

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14/02/2009 by lizit.

Halfway through term already!

There has been a bit more activity this week but things are still slow.  Two groups have sent in their specifications and received feedback (one group having then prompty sent in a further submission incorporating the feedback, but missing the point to some extent).  Another group has sent in 2 progress reports - lacking in detail but at least meeting the requirement.

With the remaining 2 projects, I am keen to see both specifications - one of them because the student seems to be living in Second Life but it is unclear what is being done for the project apart from building, demolishing and rebuilding.  With the other group, I have seen one of the students in Second Life trying to get an understanding of scripting - we were able to discuss a couple of points inworld.

I spent an interesting hour or so on Thursday inworld.  I had some stuff to do on the SLZ island and there was a student working on trying to get a video player working.  We spent some time looking at the problem together.  There appeared to be a number of problems to overcome, from knowing how to program the object to making it play the desired film, to setting the video stream in the land details to having to make the student a member of the SLZ management group (with very limited permissions).  The good thing was that the video was playing by the time I left.  I noticed the same student was working on this again this morning, but I did not get involved this time - he knew I was inworld and if he needs to contact me, IMs go straight into my mailbox. It would be interesting to know what is the motivation to continue striving for a solution to the problem.

On Wednesday, we tried to play Primtionary in the ILE class.  There were a number of learning points from the exercise:

• Have laptops booted before needing to use them so students only need to log-in
• Stagger log-ins (some students had multiple versions of SL loading simultaneously)
• Stand up to get student attention while explaining activity (I should know that by now!)
• Be clear about activity -short, precise instructions
• Be clear about need to use IM for privacy

I suspect the activity works better in a distance environment where there isn’t the temptation to chat in real life or watch what others are doing.  Nevertheless, it was interesting to watch the activity and see how some students very quickly created artefacts while others didn’t seem to know where to start.  Some of this may have been lack of imagination at that moment in time (just the same as in Pictionary or charades), but some of it may have been lack of familiarity with the building and editing tools.  It would not be an appropriate activity with a group where building skills are not needed, but could be a fun warm up if there was a regular class with a building focus.

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07/02/2009 by lizit.

This week feels bitty, perhaps because we missed Monday’s session because of the snow, and because we are still waiting to get the student specifications for their projects.  Compared with last year, when people were building and doing stuff by now, this year feels like stirring treacle.  I know some of the students are talking to each other and developing their ideas, but we are seeing so little evidence of it.  There isn’t much questioning us happening either. The numbers failing to attend the Wednesday sessions is disappointing and it is a bit worrying wondering what we will have to present to clients come week 9 - still who knows, last year was slow at times and then suddenly things started to happen, so maybe more is going on than is apparent.

Personally, I am enjoying the Wednesday classes.  It is a good refresher for me of various theories and ideas and I am doing some of my own connections which I hadn’t been aware of before.

Going off on a tangent, it was fun having the first of the OU tutorials inworld this morning.  About 17 students turned up and we started with many of them asking how to sit - shows just how new they were.  We had fun just introducing ourselves, saying what we wanted out of the course and doing a group exercise with a jigsaw and then working out what we had learned from the exercise - listening, asking questions, watching each other, deciding which block not to move, etc. Some people were frustrated at not being listened to - gave an opportunity to talk about how difficult it can be to be doing stuff and watching the chat.  General impression was people had enjoyed themselves and were asking when we would meet again.  Nice seeing the enthusiasm.

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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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