An educator scratching around in Second Life

AN INTRODUCTION

Here's the general picture: I teach New Media Art modules in a Singaporean teacher training college and this semester, i've decide to take that big leap into the unknown and trial some classes in Second Life. Personally I've scratched around Second Life for about two years now. i've done what every self respecting SLitizen has done! I've tried to make myself look beautiful, i've bought clothes, I've bought skin, I've even made my own clothes via texturing with photos of some of my favourite shirts and i've even bought my 512m2 first land and built my first house! That didnt last too long though as the novelty of owning SL property wore off.

Perhaps it's because i already own land in real-life.... or perhaps SL's attractiveness has been about the social networking aspects that i found myself rather lonely in my multicoloured translucent neo-modern house overlooking a lovely bit of lake!

There were still a few things missing with my SL existence... I couldn't script... i didn't really know how to animate things and my building skills were still a bit dodgy... But SL is alluring. It offers tremendous translatable things for art and art education.

THE PUSH FOR FLEXIBLE LEARNING

Thus leading to these experiments that i am doing in SL. In my college theres a strong push for all our classess to translate into E-Learning modules. Curiously though, instead of a potential money making proposition to neighbours in the region, its rationale is more about Emergency. In time of disease outbreaks like avian-flu or SARS it's hoped that our classes could seamlessly switch tracks to the E medium. Now as yet, we have wonderful institution purchased apps like 'Blackboard' and 'Hot Potatoes' and 'Curry Fish Head' and what not and its not quite fitting the bill for a decent translation of a Visual Art education. Where those software applications strive for perfecting multiple choice questionnaires and plagarism checkers, the visual arts needs an E-platform that allows more real-time interaction and a sense of 'space'. Admittedly Second Life is not a perfect solution but it does offer sculptural / object creation in 3 dimensional (space) and 4 dimensional avenues (time/motion through machinima). Curiously 2D is perhaps rudimentarily available with still photography in SL. But then again. in our natural world, we draw on a 2D surface perhaps because we there is no easy way to conveniently mark make in a natural 3 dimensional space. So perhaps drawing conveniently in 3D brings 2D drawing into obsolescence? .... Ok so before your hackles raise in the defence of Drawing.... Its just a thought.... Perhaps a silly thought... one of those that is filed along with the exclamation that the 'painter is dead' (note, not painting... but instead the painter) as evolution in contemporary art practice is now being made by the programmer.

THE GRAND PLAN

I'm straying a little off tangent here, so i'm going to steer this back. The grand plan is this. I've got two classes. One is a BA (ed) class thats got to fulfill a Curatorial Practices and Exhibitions module and the other is an In-service module of returning Primary school art teachers that are here for some New Media Art fortification. The grand plan is to have the BA(Ed) class, the curatorial practices one, create an online virtual gallery and the returning teachers would make sculpture in Second Life

FINDING LAND

My first order of the day is to secure some land for the class usage. I was very fortunate to have met 'Alvin Korvin' of Lion City and negotiated a rental at the very edge of Lion City. For those of you who've never been there, Lion City was a sort of replica of buildings in Singapore, It had Suntec City complete with the 'worlds biggest fountain', it had some coffee shops, and shop houses and even the ubiquitous HDB apartment.

(26 Aug 2007) As i am writing this, Alvin Korvin has just informed me that Lion City is up for sale as he is no longer able to run the place.

So for a brief 3 weeks our home was in Lion City 29,223,22.

Ok, so i'm now in the market for land. I am hoping to get something in a quiet non built up area as i really don't want it too cluttered and i'd also rather not have visitors.

In service : Creating Second Life Sculpture

This in-service group comprises of existing Singapore Primary school art teachers. They are part of an advanced diploma group that leads to a Bachelors Degree.

The general outline for this course is to immerse the participants in an aspect of New Media Art and a general 'get up to speed' with art and its intersections with technology. Second Life was not originally on the cards but i felt it opportune as this was the first In service class that i have done and this content would not just deal with current art+technology trends but instead bring it to near future exploits in art education.

I started things a little slow as i was not sure on the prior competencies. As anticipated, the participants come from diverse backgrounds and there appears to be a somewhat mixed reaction toward the activities. Perhaps the main and most attractive benefit to conducting flexible non classroom activities is the lure of doing it from home (or at least devoid of making the journey to NIE)

To be honest, i thought it was going to be a simple and straightforward endevour! Famous last words eh... The general feel i get about what i've done is that i feel as though i jumped into this and now the world (virtual) is out of control.

Today 28.8.07 we semi officially went entirely online. Just about all my participants logged in from their homes or schools. The objective of the day was to create a single primative sculptural object. Kudos to some who flew through this with flying colours! There are still a few issues that need attending too. For instance computers with Intel Graphic adapters are unstable ( i verified this too on the SL web site) This is giving me hell as a lot of the participants laptops run on Intel graphic cards. timely attendance is also an issue and continued mixed abilities still reign.

I'm considering (in fact i am pretty certain) that i am going to call for a RL session next week just to try and reset things.. create clearer objectives and normalize the technical divide.

In regards to clearer objectives, I've found that my initial intention to try and treat SL as a kind of RL too challenging. Here's an example. Last week 21.8.07 i attempted a group walk through Architecture Island. In my head, i imagined one of those tour groups of Real Life where i'd lead a group of photo taking tourist through the wonders of Little Chinatown or something. In reality, participants were dealing with severly laggy network connections and computers, movement was jerky and one moment you don't seem to be moving ... another your running across the building. Then whilst dealing with these motor issues and trying to get a sneak peek at the world around you, i'm there blabbing away on the IM.... so the participants are assaulted with hand /keyboard /mouse /eye coordination with dodgy application performance and having to read the IM's flashing and disappearing on screen.

poor guys!

So i think part of the re-strategy is that i'd have to set certain objectives and regroup with the participants only when it is achieved. the learning process or more precisely problem based learning process could be accomplished by either an individual process of discovery (through Google research) or through some kind of buddy system with a classmate or through direct real life tutorial with me.

REAL LIFE TUTORIAL

Its now week 3 into the programme and I've held a general meeting in RL and tried to centre things back on track. This included gathering feedback and thoughts on things so far. Perhaps similar to any other art skill based module, some participants have adapted quickly and some have requested a bit of a hand holding approach. I also reset the objectives a bit... it was a backtrack but i feel it necessary for a successful scaffold of inworld creativity.

For starters, as a ramp up to the main event where the objective is to create a sculptural piece of work in SL, the participants have to fulfill 2 tasks. They have to re-do the single prim object as well as create a two person collaborative object. Only after those are complete, the final sculptural object can be dealt with.

The students of higher ability (or at least the ones that choose not to have RL assistance) will still be able to work autonomously from their home or office stations. they have approximately 2 weeks to fulfill each of the 3 structured tasks. The ones who request help are invited back into the classroom for some hands on group instruction with a human touch. It would appear that anything that needs to be done may require in excess of 18 contact hours for familiarity to get used to their new worlds and their new bodies.

I've also been thinking a bit about SL and its usefullness for teachers. To a large extent, its valuable information for them in the realm of advances in technology, as well as elaborate directions in Web 2.0 technologies. But there is a void in terms of content. The teachers in the field would require quite a bit of time inworld and that could be dissuade involvement with the technology. Perhaps in the secondary school scenario, SL would be advantegous as a platform for 3D realtime user interactive learning objects. Meaning, specific learning objects or stations could be implemented in SL. If the initial drafts of MOE's IDM initiatives are to be followed, this would be the logical first step as level 1 would cater to IDM use. In the IDM document, it was only students with higher ability that go on toward the creation bits. Though conceptually distant from web 2.0's user created community ideals, we cannot deny the community of people that just want to enjoy the technology as opposed to contribute to it. To a large extent, if everyone could create in SL, there wouldnt be anyone to buy houses or a new set of bling for their ears.

-session end-

Curatorial Practices and Exhibition

This group is comprised of full time NIE degree students that are art trained and don't quite have the same pressures or demands of my in service students who are balancing real work and part time study. This demographic is also a little different as they are younger, tend not to have family demands. (usually unmarried) and no office demands. There is also a slightly different perspective as they are wholly exposed to ideal teaching situations and dont have much reference to the actual demands of their jobs.

The objectives of this course

===EMAIL on 17 SEP 2007 ===

Hi there Catherine, A BIG THANK YOU for making it all possible!

yes it is difficult to read the audience... i totally agree. In real life, i was with 4 other students and all the rest were in their respective homes. I do know that one with me was having hardware problems and that caused her to log on an off every ten minutes, another had to leave early because of prayers before the breaking of Islamic fast.

I did brief the students about behavorial expectations and essentially said that the emphasis was to read the messages going by and literally not to move... (i was rather militant). To a large extent.... the behavorial modification was more for the presenters as it was the only human cue that we had. Apart from textual feedback.

(perhaps a new character animation called 'perfect student mode' should be conceived)...

all in all... i thought it went rather well... Ernest or Ernesthtically was fortunately very vocal as asking plenty of questions... .but students here tend not to ask to many questions so I was pleasantly surprised that they seemed a little more chatty. Comparatively if you were a caucasian person from the UK presenting in our classroom in real life, they would probably be even quieter.Curiously they seemed a little more willing to breakdown social and hierachical barriers.i suppose avatar representation tends to do that.

Over and above... i do think it went well.... it was extremely informative... i'll keep you posted on our progress and if there is anything that i could help you with, do let me know. Lets stay in touch :)

Paul

ps... will send you photos shortly