Liquid Learning

Paradise engineering

Recently, I have spent so much time 'in-world', exploring and living my Second Life that I have not actually been back long enough in Real Life to reflect and blog these experiences ... relying on room service and my trusty alarm clock to remember to eat and sleep. Ok, so I exaggerate, but this is not as flippant a comment as it might seem.

Talking with others both inside and out of SL then a pattern of use is emerging which on the surface is quite astonishing. Hours and hours a day being spent within this seductive virtual environment, hanging out, socialising, building, going to concerts, flirting, working and so on and so on (building social capital). And as increasing numbers of corporate and public institutions continue to stake out their territories within SL  then the reasons to venture out into our bleaker and less colourful, more physically determined world (so it seems?) become less and less attractive ... other than to seek nourishment and ensure our continued bodily presence? Waking this morning and feeling an undeniable urge to slip back inside my digital persona I began to wonder if Huxley's "soma", the utopian wonderdrug of Brave New World, had arrived almost unnoticed, not as a pill but in the guise of a compelling massively multi-user 3D immersive world.

And what of this analogy? I leave it open to question. In Huxley's multi-layered tome (and I take a quote from one reading of the novel):

"A regimen of soma does not deliver anything sublime or life-enriching. It doesn't catalyse any mystical epiphanies, intellectual breakthroughs or life-defining insights. It doesn't in any way promote personal growth. Instead, soma provides a mindless, inauthentic "imbecile happiness" - a vacuous escapism which makes people comfortable with their lack of freedom. The drug heightens suggestibility, leaving its users vulnerable to government propaganda. Soma is a narcotic that raises "a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds."

Perhaps I am being inflammatory and negative - but then, perhaps not? I am as yet unsure.

ELI 2007, Atlanta

Rather bleary eyed on a wet and cold Monday morning in Atlanta. I would have posted my own snapshot of the view from my 19th floor base of operations in the Omni Hotel at the massive CNN complex, except the cloud cover is so low, the colours so grey and the view so minimal that there is little point (so just like being in London then). Instead, here is the publicity shot from the website which at least adds a little geographical/architectural flavour.

Why am I here? Well thanks to partial financial support kindly provided by ALT I will be attending the Educause Learning Initiative annual meeting: "Creating a Successful Learning Culture: Connecting Learners, Communities, and Information" which runs through to Wednesday 24th January.

It is a packed program and the major themes being addressed this year are summarized as:

• What should we understand about learners, learning principles, and learning technologies that would allow us to enhance learner success? How do we build that into our institutional culture?How has technology changed the way people communicate and network? How can higher education leverage these changes to improve learning?
• How can technology help connect learners, communities, and information in meaningful ways?
• How do we address the need for evidence about learning, teaching, and technology? What questions should be asked? What evidence should guide future improvements?

I will be blogging as many of the sessions as I can, along with a colleague who has also joined me here here. As for today's agenda? Well, I will be taking the advice of a close friend (currently in Brussels) who has 'suggested' the following itinerary. It is great having someone else work out your schedule while you are asleep in a different timezone. So the sessions are likely to be:

The Next Generation of Digital Learning Spaces: Exploring the Frontier of Virtual Worlds, http://www.educause.edu/ELI071/Program/10825?PRODUCT_CODE=ELI071/SESS20

and maybe this: Emerging Educational Technologies and Neomillennial Learning Styles,
http://www.educause.edu/ELI071/Program/10825?PRODUCT_CODE=ELI071/GS02

and also: More Than Just a Game,
http://www.educause.edu/ELI071/Program/10825?PRODUCT_CODE=ELI071/SESS13

If anyone has looked at the program and would specifically like me attend something then let me know and I will do my best.

Addiction, reality and SL

The addiction element in relation to games and the focus on virtual worlds (particularly gaming)is not new but this article with quotes from a SL representative (Director of Community Affairs - whatever that means) does spark a few thoughts.

"All the people in Second Life are quite real and their emotions and motivations are quite real so in that way it's much more like socialising in the real world than it's is going into a game of World of Warcraft where it's an entire fantasy world that's quite well constructed and has a definite story line to it. In Second Life you're dealing with real people and real emotions."

Hmm ... really? I think that some definition of 'real' (mentioned 5 times) might be needed here to unpack this quote. If, as it seems to me, the authenticity of the SL experience constantly needs to be defended by 'fans' (not just here but in many quarters) then the crude collapsing of SL and RL (Real Life) to justify this authenticity is a bizarre way to accomplish this. The most glaring disjuncture for me is simply is the naming of avatars, the lack of [RL] profiles and the almost obsessive desire of most SL citizens to avoid any link to their real world selves. Perhaps I am reading too much into this. Alternatively I suppose, if this is a statement purely about the relations within SL, then yes I might have more sympathy. I can see how it is possible to identify very strongly with an avatar and respond to SL interactions in ways that are both mediated by and understood within RL frames of reference or I guess - societal norms. What I find fascinating once again though is the inability of most to capture any kind of complexity around the meaning and affect of social presence within immersive environments coupled with a certain desperation to declare that this is not a 'game' it is 'real'.

Bad hair day

Ok so everyone is doing it (or perhaps not - hard to tell with all the hype). I have been sneaking into Second Life trying to figure out what seems to be creating such vigorous debate within the blogging and press community (see also Second Life Education blog)

What has immediately has struck me as interesting about the environments (amongst a million other things) is this process of immersion, in other words at what point do we start to identify with our avatar ... or for want of a better word ... 'care'. I noticed yesterday evening that the simple act of buying something (an outfit and silly hair) formed part of my 'investment' in both my avatar and of course the 'reality' of the experience. This coupled with SL conversations that were entirely 'in-world' created a powerful emotional pull. Somewhat confusing at this particular juncture (i.e. attempting to maintain scientific/observer distance) as i felt part of 'me' slip into SL. Investment seems to be key and this also requires time . There is a real tension here that is displayed I think in the desire by those who have spent this time in inside SL (building) to have the world taken seriously in RL ... and I am thinking of the old style flame wars that are going on between some of the external commentators. The immersion element does raise serious issues for me about using SL for education in that the sociality (see more below) of the space arguably requires this investment to get the best from it i.e. the emotional or experiential impact at a deeper level (the repeat of the Stanley Milgram experiment has been pasted around a number of blogs). Is this feasible or one might argue even desirable (a host of complicated ethical issues rear up) or even applicable to the majority of students who come into our education systems? How many educational persona are we suggesting they maintain?

I have also been searching for narratives, and drivers of social order. Who or what denotes social status (social capital) within SL. Experience is one - be it knowing where to go or how to do things or manipulate objects. Discourse or language is obviously another (codes) and the biggest at the moment seems to be 'appearance' and with that brings the bizarre combination of 'shopping' coupled with a vibrant 'sexual' undertow.

All in all fascinating. So far ...