- Salomon, 1999, p. 36, cited in Tutty & Klein, JD 2008, ‘Computer-mediated instruction: a comparison of online and face-to-face collaboration’, Education Tech Research Dev, vol. 56, pp. 101-124.

“Beware of inert ideas – ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilised, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations.”

- Whitehead 1929, cited in Barkley et al. 2005, Collaborative learning techniques: a handbook for college faculty, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco.

“The key challenges the Internet community will face in the future is not simply technological, but also sociological.”

- Kollock 1996, p. 1, cited in Dixon et al. 2006, ‘Breaking the ice: supporting collaboration and the development of community online’, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, vol. 32 no. 2, Spring.

“When there is trust among people, relationships flourish; without it, they wither.”

- Preece 2000, p. 191, cited in Rovia, A 2002, ‘Building sense of community at a distance’, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, vol. 3 no. 1.

The University of Queensland (UQ) has become the first sandstone university in Australia to expand into SL, according to Richard. It has leased an island for five years at the price of US$10,000. A “Religion Bazaar” will be set up on the island, where “students will be able to become characters or avatars in various places of worship, including a Mosque, Freemasons’ Lodge, Christian Church and Hindu Temple”.

While UQ may be the first of the ‘Group of Eight’ to venture into the virtual world, it is not the “pioneer” institution to do so, as pointed out by Richard; Deakin University, Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, and University of Southern Queensland, amongst others, have already had a virtual presence in SL long before the newly-introduced UQ’s “Religion Bazaar”.

The segment of a more risqué nature that was broadcast this morning was nothing insightful – it was more like an orientation session, with a SL resident giving a chronicle of her avatar and SL experiences, including the romance and other R-rated activities which I will not go into details here.

To listen to these two segements, click on the link below:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2008/2248858.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2008/2219422.htm

Molotov Alva and his search for his creator: a Second Life odyssey, a series of ten shorts filmed in Second Life, is the work of Douglas Gayeton who based the work around his own experiences as avatar Molotov Alva. He seeks to tackle the issues of virtual identities with the doco, and called his avatar’s explorations “a Marco Polo story for our times”. His goal was to make something for those who have never experienced Second Life, but were curious about virtual worlds and what they mean for society.

It’s truly fascinating stuff. Check out the preview on youtube, and you can watch the entire doco of ten shorts on the cinemax website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e716rQAdXw
http://www.cinemax.com/molotov-alva/index.html

So what has this got to do with e-learning?

My next assignment (group project) in EMT1 involves designing a learning community in Second Life (or SL to those in the know!). Psst…it’s actually my idea to use SL…for selfish reason…simply because I have no knowledge of SL, and my workplace is looking into having a presence in SL, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to immerse myself in SL, and learn from my group members.

I signed up for SL last night, and had a hard time coming up with a name as I didn’t want to be stuck with some crappy name for the rest of my SL! Thought I’d turn to the good, old Macquarie for inspiration…and bang, the very first word that I came across was “outré”. Loved it. Settled on “Finkel” as my last name simply because (1) I could pronounce it (!) as the rest (of about 20) had my tongue in knots when I attempted to, (2) it’s two syllables, as is my ‘first name’, and (3) it sounds a bit rude (well, at least to me anyway!).

I went into SL last night without the slightest idea of what I would be getting into. And guess what, I had to learn how to walk, with the arrow keys; to hop in and out of vehicles, and drive them; and apparently, I could fly, but since I hadn’t mastered how to walk, I wasn’t game enough to attempt flying. And all the SL and VW lingo! After 10 or 15 minutes of frustration, I gave up and went to bed.

I’m not exactly a computer whiz, but I am quite comfortable with it, and have been using it for the last 20 years. SL is really something else altogether. This is going to be a very steep learning curve. But I shall persist!

So is SL (and VW) for the young and young-at-heart, who are as comfortable in the real world as well as the virtual world? Is it totally beyond people like me, who have had virtually no experience in VW? And if SL is to be used in teaching and learning, the time factor is certainly a very crucial factor (as in getting inexperienced VW learners to be familiar and comfortable in be in SL) as there are only that many weeks in a semester.

Beginning to wonder if I am too old a dog to learn all these new tricks! Time will tell. Watch this space…