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-
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