23/05/2009 by lizit.

I’m feeling a great deal happier about the DPhil than I have for weeks. I think there are two things contributing to that, one less expected than the other.

Driving into Sussex yesterday, it struck me that one of the positives out of the annual review meeting was something more than feeling affirmed; it was actually that I had a sense that I had as much right as anybody else to be a DPhil student.  In fact more than that, a recognition that I have always felt a bit of a fraud academically - sort of gate crashing a gathering full of clever people.  Although I haven’t suddenly started thinking of myself as clever, I do realise I am probably (note the slight caution there) as capable as anybody else who is on that path of working towards and completing a DPhil. No doubt there will be times ahead when I feel an even bigger academic imposter, but for the moment I’m staying with the positives!

The second thing is a sense that I have now got some ideas about what my DPhil will be about.  Although I know not many people read this blog, I don’t feel quite ready to formulate those ideas apart from for myself at the moment but I do have a much more distinct sense of where I am going and I am feeling quite excited and interested in the ideas I am playing with. I think it is also very clear to me that it is highly unlikely I would have arrived where I am at this moment if I hadn’t been on the circuitous journeys of the past months.

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17/03/2009 by lizit.

Week 9 marked the last of the formal classes with the machinima presentations.  During the days running up to the 11th March, I was very aware of increased student activity in Second Life.  Over the weekend, I found myself engaged in trying to assist students with sorting out media streams and providing other last minute advice and assistance.  Monday morning, there were heated words in one group as work had not been done which should have been, and little apparent understanding from some team members that failing to attend team meetings messed up other people’s planning and time management.

Come the day of the presentations, I was bowled over by the work the students had done and the professional quality of the machinimas.  Given that most, if not all, the students had never been near Second Life before early January, their achievements were truly remarkable. Perhaps as important was the response of the clients, one of whom is planning to use the resources developed on a course next term and another who is planning to discuss how the machinima and materials might be used with colleagues on the Newton Project.  Although the ethnography project is incomplete, it is still possible that this migh be used in some way with students next year.

Although it probably only applies to a very small percentage of students, there was a warning note sounded about the potential to become over-involved in Second Life.  Some months ago, there was discussion on the SLED list about the fears expressed by some that Second Life might be addictive.  The general view was that this was not the case.  Students did not choose to go into Second Life, but were there because we took them there and, in general, did not engage with the virtual world beyond what their courses required them to do.  Although students might spend long hours in Second Life engaged with specific projects and course requirements, this was seen as relating more to ‘flow’ rather than indicating anything more worrying.  One student in his ILE presentation did indicate that he had found himself over-involved in Second Life to a point where it was becoming addictive.  Not only had he engaged with the project, but he had become involved in the virtual world to the extent of finding a partner in the virtual environment.  Although for many students this would not have been problematic, for this young man it was.  He did acknowledge that he had ignored advice and it was only now he was aware of the problems, but nevertheless there may be something to be learned from this experience when it comes to considering the advice given to students about SL risks and the formation of working groups.

Apart from the housekeeping that will need to be done now - arranging to get builds moved to more permanent locations on the island, I have a number of tasks to address.  I need to look at the chat logs and make sure files are appropriately named and saved.  I need to speak to Pablo (and hopefully Judith) and sort out arrangements for next term.  How will students be introduced to SL? What kind of induction will be needed? Possible use of the Sussex avatars?  I also need to consider what kind of tracking can be used to monitor what use is being made of the island and the resources.  For the past term, I have been clear that my interest is in how SL supports learning experiences and in how students deal with it when they get stuck when engaged in a learning experience or task.  I need to clarify what I want from the use of the SL resources.  Something about the effectiveness of SL as a learning environment when there is not the involvement and engagement that comes from creating products within the virtual world? I need to look at the augmentationist/immersionist stuff again - althought students may not fit those types, we are asking some to use SL as a tool and asking others to be more involved by doing stuff there. A lot to think about and plan!

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08/03/2009 by lizit.

It’s hard to believe the presentations will be next Wednesday!

During this past week, there has been evidence of a fair bit of student activity in Second Life.  Some have been fine tuning work that has already been done and some have been starting to work out how to film their machinimas ready for Wednesday.  I suspect that most, if not all the projects, will have something to show off and to be proud of.

My personal focus this week has been on thinking about the end of course survey. I still have to discuss it with Judith, but my inclination is to keep it fairly short with multip-choice questions and keep the questions about experiences of being stuck, etc, for follow-up interviews.  I need to make sure I have a means of contacting all the active students after ILE before they disappear!

The other thing I need to make sure I do is catch the clients who may be able to use the learning experiences in their classes, and arrange to see them and discuss the options. That way I - and they - can do some planning. Having found the 5 Sussex avatars again, they could be perhaps be used by students under supervision rather than requiring everybody to register an individual avatar initially.  It will also be necessary to ensure Second Life access is possible on whatever computers are being used.  That has not been a major problem as far as I know for Informatics, but I’m not sure how easy it will be elsewhere on the campus.

The other thing I need to do before the students disappear is get some of the builds moved to other parts of the island in order to free space up for ILE10 - really too far away to start thinking about that yet!

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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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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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