TLAVC in the news at TAMU

Below is an article that recently appeared on the Texas A&M University News and Information page.

COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 30, 2007 –
“A long time ago, in a land far, far away...” Who hasn’t heard that before – the start of so many bedtime stories that signaled kids to let their imaginations run wild and take them to places where they were in charge of the charming prince, evil giant, grand castle and happy ending. Only that “far, far away land” is now not so far away. It’s available at the touch of a keyboard with a 3-D virtual world called Second Life.

B. Stephen Carpenter, II, associate professor of art education and visual culture at Texas A&M University, and his students are using Second Life to create a place where they meet for discussion and work on class projects. Carpenter, who teaches in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture, also uses the created world to collaborate with colleagues and even give lectures at other universities.

Similar to a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, Second Life is not a game but rather an online virtual environment. Since opening to the public in 2003, it is now “inhabited” by millions of residents around the globe.

“Second Life is similar to the kinds of online communication and social networking technologies we’re using to educate our students. It offers both synchronous and asynchronous communication possibilities, streaming video, voice communication and image display. It’s just a different package that offers a different way of teaching,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter has been a resident of Second Life since February, and his online character, or avatar, Metaphor Voom, lives on an island with other members of the Educator’s Co-op, a group of K-12, university and community-based educators interested in furthering education possibilities in Second Life. Voom even wears a TLAVC — Teaching, Learning and Visual Culture — shirt in Second Life.

“Think of an island in Second Life as a Web site and an avatar as a cursor. Users can see multiple avatars on an island at the same time. Second Life puts a tangible mark on places that people, through their avatars, visit and helps users visualize and interact with other users on the same site at the same time,” Carpenter said. “Instead of visiting a Web site and not knowing who else is there at that exact time, avatars create a location marker and path for all residents of Second Life to see.”

Students in Carpenter’s contemporary visual culture class have created their own avatars and meet with Carpenter and Voom in Second Life for class and office hours at the TLAVC House — outdoors near the ocean. He is able to upload student projects, photographs, written work, streaming video and slideshows to help conduct his Second Life classes, assign projects, offer tutorials and conduct research related to digital visual culture.

Second Life also allows Carpenter to offer virtual historic and contemporary worlds to his students, such as opportunities to visit Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the cave paintings in Lascaux and Gotham City — the home of Batman.

“In Second Life, my students are able to visit places they may never have an opportunity to visit in real life,” Carpenter said. “I’m also able to construct spaces that students normally couldn’t visit, such as unusual classrooms or art galleries,” he added. “In Second Life, the unusual is often the usual.”

Second Life can do everything most current computer software programs offer — send bulk email, instant message, hold multiple conversations — but it also allows its users an interface to connect internationally, market products and serve as a real world space-saver.

“I’ve given two lectures to students and faculty at the University of Texas in Second Life, which I wouldn’t have been able to do in real life because of time and money,” Carpenter said. “I meet with colleagues every Sunday afternoon to collaborate on research projects and critique white papers.”

Carpenter will host educators from other universities later this semester to serve as guest speakers for students in his class.

“One of my former students has opened an art gallery in Second Life and is selling her art. Toyota has used Second Life to test new car prototypes and receive feedback from residents,” he added.

While other universities such as Texas State and Harvard currently have campuses in Second Life, Carpenter hopes that Texas A&M will soon follow suit. He noted that Texas A&M currently has an informal presence in Second Life through the TLAVC House and two other Texas A&M affiliated groups, one of which established an “Aggie beach house.”

“Second Life could be one answer to all the space problems the university is currently facing,” he said. “Imagine students coming to a virtual Texas A&M, a virtual Harrington Tower, my virtual classroom, to have class with a virtual me.”

http://dmc-news.tamu.edu/templates/?a=5441&z=15

Second Life on Facebook

Now you can link your Second Life community of educators with your Facebook community of educators. Simply visit http://tamu.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7770933022 and become a "fan." Now you have another way to stay virtually connected.

Real Life Visual Culture in Second Life: CSI: NY (part II)

Here are three videos related to the CSI:NY/SL cross-over episode that aired on October 24, 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py65wBSKOCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfXb6zb6Upc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ZmjA7GCzQ

There are numerous other blogs, articles, and postings related to this crossover, such as:

http://members.aol.com/remiped/csi-newyork.htm

http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/10/10/esc-launch-sanctioned-new-viewer-to-tie-in-with-csi-ny-in-sl/

Real Life Visual Culture in Second Life: CSI: NY

Now you can be part of the TV show CSI:NY (sort of).
Go to http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/csi_ny/second_life/
and register to be part of this real world meets virtual world experience. Solve virtual crimes in virtual reality. Why not?

Out of the Virtual Frying Pan and Into the Virtual Fire

Second Life is not the only virtual world but currently avatars in Second Life are limited to exploring and living in Second Life. This "problem" may not be one for long as developers are discussing the possibilities of avatars moving between and among virtual worlds. Click on the following URLs to read variations of this story:

Free the Avatars (NYTimes)
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/free-the-avatars/

Universe Hopping for Avatars? (Daily Trends)
http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/14437/universe-hopping_for_avatars

Open Borders Sought for Virtual Worlds (Boston Globe)
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/10/10/second_life_ibm_in_open_borders_for_virtual_worlds/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Technology+stories

Spur of the Moment Distance Education via SL

Last week we put SL to the test as a quick fix to solve what could be described as a "distance education" opportunity. One student in my Contemporary Visual Culture evening class could not attend but did not want to miss out on the discussion and related class activities. After dismissing several options for webcam fixes we decided to use SL voice to at least include this student in a real time discussion.

The technology worked very well. The sound quality was good and clear and, after we adjusted the volume on the computer we were using in the classroom, all students in the room could hear the "distance education" student and be heard on her end of the line. Prior to class I sent the "distance education" student an e-mail with a PDF of the slides we planned to discuss that evening. Had I been thinking more clearly--and had there been a bit more time to prepare--I could have loaded the slides into one of the slide viewers in the TLAVC house and the student could have viewed the slides we were viewing in class. Unfortunately, the "distance education" student had to diminish her SL screen to view the PDF and then switch back which made for a somewhat awkward experience.

Perhaps we will hold most or all of a future class session in SL and use voice to facilitate discussion along with slides in world. I think I am changing my views of what distance education can be.

RL in SL and SL in RL

Here is a video spoof of SL.

RL in SL and SL in RL

I think I am becoming fascinated with the connections between RL and SL. Ok, so that statement does not make much sense as a general statement. What I have been thinking about lately are examples and implications of RL in SL. Why are some people compelled to infuse the SL experience with RL content? What are the benefits or gains from bringing RL content into SL? And does SL content have to reflect RL content, imagery, or purpose? (Thanks, Pam, for keeping this question fresh in my mind.) I have made some of my own RL to SL connections and have recently placed images from my own RL work into SL. I am excited about looking more deeply into these questions and ideas.

And we have examples of SL content in RL. The easy example to consider are conferences on SL in RL. These SL to RL examples might seem natural. But what about turning part of a RL town into SL? That is what happened in Austria. Or a video spoof of SL on YouTube.com (see above post) in which RL people move and perform as SL avis? Hmmm.

Meeting Students In World

Metaphor Voom watching a film in an empty detention center.

Metaphor Voom (right) with 2 students.

Metaphor Voom inside a holodeck.

We are now 4 weeks into the semester and all students in the course have spent time in world. Some students are experiencing the normal challenges of learning the technology and discovering how to move, fly, and other required tasks to gain permission to leave Orientation Island. Each student figures out how to "mouse around" (a term I borrowed from a dear friend of mine, Mike) and find her/his level of comfort in the virtual environment. Getting used to being virtual takes time.

Some students have taken to SL like digital ducks to digital water. I spend many late nights online and in world. I am finding that some of my students do, too. I have met with a couple of students in world late at night and on the weekends in unscheduled sessions. These sessions have taken the form of guided tours. In the first meeting with each of these students I was the tour guide. I showed them a few landmarks I thought were particularly interesting for whatever reason. The subsequent meetings have been ones in which the students have been the tour guides. I like this approach. I am the student. They are showing me what they think is interesting and offer explanations as to why. I suspect this turn of roles--when the tour guide becomes the guided--is a feature of SL as an educational context.

The Beginning of It All...

Last week I spent time with 2 students in Second Life-actually, my avatar Metaphor Voom spent time with their avatars. These students are enrolled in my EDCI 689: Contemporary Visual Culture course. I spent time with each student individually, taking them to various points of interest, making sure they has worked out their flying, landing, and landmarking skills; and generally giving them a good old avatar welcome into the Metaverse. The first avatar Metaphor met was Demeter Offcourse (In the image to the left, Metaphor is on the left, Demeter is on the right). The second avatar was Erwan McBride.


Metaphor teleported (TP) both to the Teaching, Learning and Visual Culture (TLAVC) parcel on the Educators Coop.

"The spirit of our vision for the Educators Coop Residential Community is to provide eligible educators and researchers with a simple and easy way to feel at home in an SL community and to begin exploring, collaborating, teaching, and conducting research in Second Life more easily and seamlessly. The heart of our effort is building a real community that provides educators with a unique cooperative residential environment in SL offering opportunities for creating meaningful new relationships and collaborations. Residents enjoy these benefits and share in the responsibility for cultivating and supporting a community spirit."

TLAVC is where Metaphor will spend the year trying to figure out various questions related to teaching and learning visual culture in the Metaverse. I was lucky enough to secure this parcel on the Educators Coop and receive support from my department, Teaching, Learning and Culture (TLAC) at Texas A&M University. The Coop has already been a wonderful place to meet other educators in a relaxed and supportive environment. It seems to be a great model that gets better everyday.

This should be a good year. Stay tuned.