Missed our Plork Discussion?
If you missed our Second Life, Teacher’s Buzz session on Plork, Play+Work, stop by NMC’s blog post on it, complete with pictures.
Media Ecology: Discussions on Media, Culture, & the impact of emerging virtual worlds
This looks like a great series. I’ll be attending for certain.
Guest speakers include Eric McLuhan, (Marshall’s son)
“Media Ecology is an interdisciplinary field of media theory involving
the study of media environments. Media ecology looks into the matter of
how media of communication affect human perception, understanding,
feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or
impedes our chances of survival. The word ecology implies the study of
environments: their structure, content, and impact on people.
Kenny Hubble (Ken Hudson, rl) will introduce basic topics in Media
Ecology and will be joined throughout the series by noted scholars,
authors and researchers in the field of Media Ecology, who will visit
Second Life to deliver their ideas and interact with the participants.
The series will be presented select Mondays (Sept 24 - Dec 3) as scheduled from 5-7 SLT
PST, at the Media Ecology Pavilion in Second Life at We The Living 102,129,22.
For more info: http://kenhudson.net/
Rik’s Picks for September 13-16 - Fun things to do
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/09/riks-picks-fo-1.html
Rik scouts out great things to do and see in SL. Here are his picks for the next few days. Check the link above for more.
British indie music, a world famous orchestra goes metaversal, spooky story-telling, a celebration of cancer survivors, a ginormous jewelry expo, a benefit to fight child abuse, damaged DNA, and Viva Mexico!
Teacher’s Buzz Discussion Group - Plorking in SL
Heard it here first –plork (play+work). I’ll be leading a collective reflection (aka a discussion) on how we learn in Second Life. The session is In World, on Monday, Sept 17 at 6pm. My working hypothesis is that the majority of adults living in Second Life, plork quite a lot. I’m curious about how we SL educators experience our learning and that of others. This is a great opportunity to participate in an SL educational event, too.
Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned resident, you’ve probably noticed that Second Life is a bundle of plork. It’s fun, satisfying, frustrating, intense. It’s a lot of thinking and feeling rolled up into flow (Csiksczentmihalyi, 1991) experiences for many of us. I’d like to lead a lively discussion on our experiences and observations of others’ experiences learning in and about Second Life. How do people in Second Life come to have the skills and knowledge they have? How do we/they you learn? What kind of learners are successful in Second Life? What kinds of learning seem to work best? What kinds don’t? I work with faculty and instructional staff on teaching and learning issues. Our program, pICT – People, Information and Communication Technologies, recently launched a Second Life Initiative, The pICTsl Farm. We’re introducing faculty and instructional staff to SL, providing consulting and support for them to explore and experiment.
So let’s gather around the Teachers Buzz fire pit and talk about this notion of play and work (and learning). This Session is scheduled for September 17 6:00pm SLT/PDT (check for local time). We meet at Boracy (192,79,28).
http://sl.nmc.org/2007/09/11/plork/
NY Times Article — Even in a Virtual World, ‘Stuff’ Matters
“When people are given the opportunity to create a fantasy world, they can and do defy the laws of gravity (you can fly in Second Life), but not of economics or human nature. Players in this digital, global game don’t have to work, but many do. They don’t need to change clothes, fix their hair, or buy and furnish a home, but many do. They don’t need to have drinks in their hands at the virtual bar, but they buy cocktails anyway, just to look right, to feel comfortable.”
If you get a chance to read this article, entertain the idea that this emulation of “a mainstream culture” is just that. I’m keenly aware of the those individuals and cultural milieus which set themselves apart in SL. For example, just in the last month, I’ve noticed more women whose avatars are round(er), flat(er), old(er), unique(r), than the mainstream look. I usually see these women in women-only sims. As virtual environments and their cultures develop, I’m certain we’ll see pluralism expressed in a variety of ways.
