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.
