Purplegrrl’s Second life

As outlined in the subject guide for E-learning experiences one part two of this assignment should describe your experiences of being a participant in the learning community that you described in part one of the assignment. After much consideration I decided to change the learning community that I have chosen to study from NMC to Jokaydia. Both of these learning communities are situated in Second Life they share similar characteristic, goals and users. You may ask “why change your learning community in the middle of an assignment” the reasons are as follows:

Firstly: NMC is based in the US and because of the time difference I have had problems getting to events. Jokaydia is owned and operated by an Australian and all events are held in Australian time not Second Life time (PDT). As a consequence I have been able to attend events and meet other participants without having to stay up till 3am on a weeknight to participant in the group.

Secondly Jokaydia is a much more active community presently. NMC teachers buzz is an active group however it only meets twice a month and because of the time constraints I have not been able to join these groups. In April I attended the Jokayia spring festival which was an exciting and interesting experience and I will outline that in detail later in this assignment.

Thirdly Jokaydia has a number of resources that as a student I have found invaluable

Wiki Second life in education which I have tagged in my delicious account http://del.icio.us/purple_girl1971 http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/

Jo’s blog http://jokay.com.au/

Facebook group that lets you know when the next event is on http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6569906581

Jokaydia blog http://jokaydia.com/

Teachers Buzz does have similar resources but are not updated as regularly as Jokaydia sites.

Finally have had the opportunity to discuss Jokaydia and how Second Life could be used for educational purposes with Joy Kay herself which has been invaluable as I have learned how to negotiate the space more effectively as well as gaining new skills which I am able to share with others.

A concise description of the community – including the technological environment and the participants

Jokaydia aim is to “provide a space to explore uses of virtual worlds in education, the arts and social change” http://jokaydia.com/about-jokaydia/

Jokaydia is a group of islands in Second Life that are self funded and supports various activities and events. Jokaydia is designed as a flexible learning space for educators.

The space includes both formal and informal spaces for people/avatars to meet. Examples of these spaces include:

The newbie gardens where new avatars or participants engage in simple interactive play (playing with instruments or getting coffee from the coffee vendor) http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/138/121/23,

The sand box where avatars can create various objects http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/28/74/22,

The artist in residence area/virtual classroom where avatars can attend more formal events (This was one of the locations for the April festival) http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/64/218/22

The main users of Jokaydia are Australian educators. However the high use/or traffic time on the island is late in the evening AEST when northern hemisphere residence come online. Jo is currently working on a metric system to record who uses the site on a daily basis. The population consists of about half visitors and half residences who rent land on the island. http://jokaydia.com/current-residents/

These residents have created various building/structures on their part of the island to promote their various groups as well as facilitate learning. Jo Kay aka Jokay Wollongong has created a head office in Jokaydia that include various places where groups can meet. http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/158/240/22

A description of the learning events /activities occurring in that community

There are number of learning events and activities on Jokaydia both informal and formal. Informal activities/events include exploring the different parts of the island(by air or by foot) ,communicating with and collaborating with other avatars on various projects, and interacting with objects that are located on the island such as drumming circle in the newbie garden or building objects in the sandbox.

The more formal learning activities and events include the April Festival, May 1 event and the Newbie tour of the island. Jokaydia also has a variety of discussion groups weekly that are advertised on the Jokaydia blog. http://jokaydia.com/2008/04/29/events-whats-happening-in-sl-this-week/

For the purpose of this assignment I am going to focus on the April Festival. This event occurred over two days (19^th-20^th May). I attended two sessions facilitated by the artist in residence Leroy Goalpost. In this lecture Leroy outlined his current project of creating living and learning spaces out of trucking containers and how this simulation in Second Life could be translated into Real life or First life. He also talked about home schooling and the de-schooling of society which seems like a model of social learning that may be interesting to investigate.

New avatars or Newbie’s were also offered the opportunity to go on a guided tour of Jokaydia, which included a ride in the Jokaydia Balloon. Unfortunately I also had time constraints that weekend I was not able to participate.

A description and analysis of your role as a learner participant in the learning activities.

There are two roles I play as a learner in Jokaydia/Second Life they are as an active participant and observer. The reason why I have defined my participation as “active” is for the following reasons, from the moment you log into Second life you are learning. You have to learn a new vocabulary, create a new identity learn the social etiquette of the different islands and how relate to different people in different settings. This type of social learning I believe akin to when you arrive in a foreign country and may not know the cultural rules of the place you are visiting.

The other reason why I have defined myself as an active participant in Second Life is because the only way you can operate in this world is know how the technology works. In Jokaydia there are a number of places where you can practice these skills my favourite on this site is the drumming circle in the Newbie gardens. You and your avatar friends can make music together using the instruments on the island. This exercise is useful as it teachers the participant how to use their right mouse click controls which is vital to negotiate Second Life.

I would describe myself loosely as an observer. As I am relatively new to this medium I have tended to sit back and observe proceedings in more formal learning environments such as the lecture at the April festival. As I have got more familiar with the environment my role as an observer has decreased.

When I attended the April Festival it was only my second experience in a so call “virtual classroom” I was a bit nervous and did not know how to behave as I am so accustomed to the model learning where the teacher is up the front of the conducting the lesson, participants are paying attention and not getting up from their seat and only asking questions at the appropriate time. (In an ideal world)

I asked Jo is it okay to get up and look at the project as I did not want to appear rude while the presenter was talking. She said go ahead the etiquette of the virtual classroom is very different to a RL classroom.

The one thing which is common both to the RL classroom and the SL “virtual classroom” is participants do not speak Second Life has the functionality where participants and presenters can use their voice to ask questions and present to the group. The vast majority of the participants used the written chat function to ask the presenter a question. I thought to myself I must not be the only one who is a bit intimidated by the fact that they could ask questions using their real voice as opposed to a chat function. When you use a chat function you can think about what you are going to say before you say it therefore enabling the participant the opportunity to edit their thoughts. Most internet user has used a chat program one time or another so it is less intimidating.

An analysis of the community as a vehicle for learning. What aspects of the community’s structure or function support or hinder learning?

The design and structure of Jokaydia supports and facilities networked/social learning. examples of these include:

The formal and informal meeting places which are located in Jokaydia provide groups of learners a space to get together and collaborate on various projects and share idea’s in a three dimensional other world environment. Conducting training, have a discussion group in this space gives the participants an experience that would resemble a face to face meeting. This platform/medium is particularly useful for groups who have participants located in a different hemisphere and cannot meet in RL.

The interactive tools and activities which exist in Jokaydia provide the learner/participants with various experiences that will assist them in not only navigating Jokaydia but also Second Life as a whole. These include such things as the balloon ride, the sandbox (where avatars can build structures even though they do not own the land) and playing instruments in the drumming circle.

All these experience require the learner to use the various functionalities which are contained in the Second Life interface i.e. to build a structure the learner must master the build function/ menu bar the learner must also learn the etiquette of the island. You cannot build structures on land that you do not own except if you have permission from the owner.

In Jokaydia non land owners can only build in the sandbox, if you build it anywhere else on the land you will get a notice from one of the administrators explaining the rules and stating that your structure has been removed. (have had this experience in my early days of using second life) http://jokaydia.com/jokaydia-resources/venues-and-resources-on-the-islands-of-jokaydia/#conference

There are also a variety of spaces in Jokaydia which are rented by the residences. These spaces can be access by guests though using the right mouse click function pressing touch and teleporting to that group’s space. These spaces include the Second Life library, Spaceport alpha-the international space flight museum and Campus Second Life to name a few. http://slurl.com/secondlife\/jokaydia/148/88/24

There are various Web/online tools which are available to participants can utilise (see above)

The aspects of this learning community that would hinder learning include:

The learner needs to have a computer with the technical capability to run Second Life. When SANJT had our first meeting for the second assignment, one of the participants was having trouble getting in and operating her avatar in the space this was because her computer did not have an adequate graphics card to run the program.

Regardless of what kind of computer or the amount of memory the user may possess there is the problem of lag across the board in second life. This hinders interactions between avatars. It is particularly evident when you use the audio functionality in Second life and there is a slight echo.

The need for the user to have access to a broadband service. Second life cannot run on dial up as it would be too slow so this may exclude people who do not have the resources to afford broadband.

Your interpretation of your experiences in relation to your research and readings on learning communities.

As I have stated previously in this essay the learning which participants/avatar undertake in Second Life indeed in Jokaydia is primarily social. An interesting perspective on the nature of social learning is expressed in Etienne Wenger –Communities of practice learning, meaning and identity summarises twelve different characteristics of social learning. For the purpose of this essay I am going to focus on three of the twelve as I think they are most relevant to my experiences in Second Life.

Learning is first and foremost the ability to negotiate meanings

In Second life the learner is continually challenging and negotiating meanings. These include such things as notions of self and self construction, general operational meanings such as the names of currency, language and etiquette of the environment, notions of learning and how we learn. As I stated previously being a newbie in Second Life is like getting off a plane in a foreign country

Learning is fundamentally experiential and fundamentally social

For me my experiences as a learner in Jokaydia have been fundamentally social and experiential. Though using the various interactive tools and transporting to the various communities I have learnt a great deal about elearning and online learning.

Wenger states: “Learning can be defined as a realignment of experience and competence” (227)

This has been my experience in Second life joined as a Newbie not knowing what to do where to go and who to talk to now I am teaching other how to navigate the landscape

Learning transforms our identity

“It transforms our ability to participate in a world by changing all at once who we are our practice, and our community.

I feel like this has happening to me in Second Life and indeed in Jokaydia I now have a presence in that space and it has given me tools that I can use to teach others and has change my elearning practices. This reposition occurred after the April festival in Jokaydia where I experienced this type of learning first hand. Consequently since then I am been trying to find a way which as an educator and student I could use this medium. Currently as a member of the SANJT we are using Second Life for our group meetings

The first meeting of SANJT was convened on instant message this medium as it did not provide us with the same interactive feel that we had when we all met in Second life for our next meeting.

Bibliography

Wenger Etienne (1999) Communities of practice -Learning, meaning and identity Cambridge University press

Web pages, Blogs and Wiki’s

Wiki Second life in education which I have tagged in my delicious account http://del.icio.us/purple_girl1971 http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/

Jo’s blog http://jokay.com.au/

Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6569906581

Jokaydia blog http://jokaydia.com/