Assignment 4: Social Presence in SL (Activity 3 Reflections)

ACTIVITY 3:  Meet in Second Life at the UH open area classroom.  Come to meeting with avatars modified (funny, scary, goofy, etc).  Keep a journal of your Second Life experiences in the context of social presence and learning.  Students can keep their journal in their class blog.

At our group’s first meeting, we first met on Skype then coordinated to meet in Second Life at the UH Campus.  We made COE our home location.  While “hanging out” at COE we familiarized ourselves with how to change our appearance.  I, personally, was having some challenges trying to change my outfits, and kept losing my hair to bout.  It was pretty hilarious. At first, I found myself spending a lot of time trying to find my “character”, basically dressing my avatar to fit my personality.   When I got passed the frustration of trying to figure out how to dress myself, I started to feel more at ease trying wardrobes that were out of character.  I also had some trouble maneuvering my avatar.  We all had our challenges in SL but it was all a learning experience.

Does it distract in any way?

One thing I found distracting at first was the loud Hawaiian music playing in the background at COE.  We were able to turn down the volume of the music so it was ok.  Nonetheless, I found the entire interface of SL interesting and fresh.

How is this the same/different from the “real world”?

It’s the same in the “real world” in that you make friends, communicate and socialize in a particular place.  However, there are more differences in the virtual world from the “real world”.  First, perhaps the most obvious, is the capability of flying and teleporting.   The idea of soaring above ground and actually viewing the blue sea, clear sky and beautiful flowers from a bird’s eye view was terrific.  Another difference is the idea of having to change your appearance more often than once.  One can practically change their wardrobe based on their mood, or event appropriateness.

Because SL can be perceived as a gaming environment, the learning can be fun, thus, combining the elements of gaming and learning.   When students have fun learning, they gain greater interest in the subject matter.   In addition, unlike the real world, communicating in a virtual world can be a little more comfortable since there is no face to face interaction.

How does this compare with conducting class using other delivery tools (i.e. Elluminate, Blackboard, Adobe Connect, Laulima, etc)?

Compared to the other delivery tools, SL is a multi-user virtual learning environment, and communication is via social-networking.  In addition, SL has the advantage to educate by creating replicas of places such as cathedrals and cities, as well as artifacts and historical sites.  Furthermore, this affords learners opportunities to interact with other learners in realistic, authentic, and relevant settings such as offices, shops, athletic events, business meetings, and classrooms. SL is considered a digitally-mediated literacy practice (together with blogs, online chatting, email correspondence, online postings) and social-networking practices, mediated by such tools as Facebook and MySpace, and can provide learners with meaningful opportunities to engage in multiple literacy practices and to construct learner identities through interactive activities in virtual communities.