Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe  Leigh Harris/Laguna Vita Distinguished Lecturer UCLA Writing Programs  Annelie Rugg/Sunny Laffer Director UCLA Center for Digital Humanities Sloan-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning San Francisco, CA • June 18, 2009

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe Overview  Institutional context (Annelie)  Instructional component (Leigh)

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe Institutional context  What is the Center for Digital Humanities (CDH)?  How did this project come about?  How does this fit CDH goals?  Testimonials: Why does the Summer Institute work?

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe Institutional context What is the Center for Digital Humanities (CDH)?  IT support unit for Humanities Division at UCLA  Technology support for 17 departments and programs, 300 faculty, 600 grads, 250 staff  Computer infrastructure, desktop support, research and instructional support

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe Institutional context How did this project come about?  CDH Summer Institute 2008  Professor Harris applied for help learning Second Life to pilot with upcoming courses  CDH Instructional Technology Consultant (ITC) team designed curriculum and made connections with existing campus expertise  One week in August of intensive hands-on learning to use Second Life and discover instructional uses for Second Life  Follow up consultations as needed within regular ITC support framework

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe Institutional context How does this fit CDH goals?  Supporting innovation in instruction  Instructor-driven; technology supports pedagogical goals  Collaboration across campus (Library, other IT units)  Using existing resources and availability; no extra cost  Targeted, “just-in-time” help for instructors  Supporting those who have limited opportunities to explore, learn, develop new materials

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe Institutional context Testimonials: Why does the Summer Institute work?  Janet Goodwin, UCLA Applied Linguistics & TESL Undergraduate Interview Website/iWeb, iMovie, FTP http://media.humnet.ucla.edu/projects/summer institute/janet.m  Alma Andersson, UCLA Asian Languages & Cultures Oral assessments for Filipino language distance- learning/Wimba OAB, Photoshop http://media.humnet.ucla.edu/projects/summer institute/alma.m

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe  Leigh Harris/Laguna Vita Distinguished Lecturer UCLA Writing Programs

“Digital Literacy and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe”  English Composition 100W  Satisfies Writing II requirement  Small, upper-division writing course  Humanities, Social Science and Life Science majors  Beta version

Initial Student Responses  “I am an avid user of second life.”  “I find Second Life a very useful source for just about anything in life.”  “My first impression was puzzlement and curiosity.”  “I have no experience with Second Life. To me, it sounds very futuristic and somewhat menacing.”  “I have been banned before from second life.”

Mechanics of Class  Computer classroom  Voice with headsets or text chat  Multi-disciplinary readings  Visitors & excursions  UCLA Library in Cybrary City

Alexandria Knight UCLA Info Literacy Librarian

Goals for Students  Writing  Digital/Informational literacy  “Visuality” (Kevin Kelly)  Immersive learning experience

Goals for Instructor  Pedagogical  Professional  Digital Humanities

Bridging Deep & Hyper Attention  “As students move deeper into the mode of hyper attention, educators face a choice: change the students to fit the educational environment or change that environment to fit the students.” --N. Katherine Hayles  Aesthetics of SL  Analysis of SL

Theories of Second Life  Immersion vs. Augmentation  SL importing from RL  SL exporting to RL

Writing Assignments  Exploration of avatar’s identity  Investigation of information literacy  Research project/UCLA Library proposal

Class Avatars

Experiential Learning  Community groups  Texts or Arguments  Artists and social art  Filthy Fluno  AM Radio’s “The Far Away”

Filthy Fluno: “ucla rocks the house!” With permission from the artist 6/23/09.

“The Far Away” by AM Radio

Thematizing Compositional Elements  Transitions  Intertextuality

Poetry in “The Far Away”  The Radio: Laguna, welcome to The Far Away. Please see the vendor above the powerlines to donate to http://www.heifer.org  [10:03] The Radio: Laguna, bienvenue à The Far Away. Veuillez consulter le pré sentoir au-dessus des lignes é lectriques, Un don à: http://www.heifer.org serait trè s appré cier. Merci beaucoup!  [10:03] Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...  [10:03] Connected  [10:03] The Radio: Laguna, The Far Away にようこそ。電線の上にあるベンダーを見て http://www.heifer.org に寄付をお願いします  [9:51] ::: imprinted with a chemical mix  [9:51] ::: in a grand collection  [9:51] ::: of landscapes upon a life  [9:52] ::: I never stopped sketching you.  [9:52] ::: The smooth flesh on your cheek,  [9:52] ::: the gentle wave in your hair  [9:52] ::: dictating calculations of graphite onto paper.  [9:52] ::: The blurry trees behind you  [9:52] ::: drawn like baby's breath  [9:52] ::: in a wreath around your portrait  [9:52] ::: growing like vines  [9:52] ::: in stop motion animation  [9:52] ::: until you're gone.  [9:52] ::: The memory is left behind,  [9:52] ::: imprinted with a chemical mix  [9:52] ::: in a grand collection  [9:52] ::: of landscapes upon a life  [9:52] ::: of sketches as memories  [9:52] ::: looking to incorporate the next.  [9:52] ::: -- AM Radio

Globe Theatre Discussion  Slide omitted for student privacy

Writing Projects  Areas of expertise or knowledge  On-site presentations

UCLA Library in Cybrary City

Tarfang

Noumea Island

Rasta Ventures

Liverpool Philharmonic

Pleasure for All

Porcupine Region

Tzopelic Chatli

Ballers City

IslamOnline dot Net

Mellon Seminar in Digital Humanities @ UCLA and SL  Mixed-reality symposium  Students attended in RL & in SL

Learning Outcomes “there is some sort of cultural revolution occurring…. Definitions and criteria are changing or shifting, like the world of arts.” -- Chen-Yao  Learning spaces  RL & SL  Boundary blurring/Spatiality  Electronic frontier

Learning Outcomes, cont. “in the near future most education will [exist] primarily on computers because the capabilities far surpass the traditional forms of education.” --Andrew  Experiential & interpretive  Critical thinking expertise  Technological proficiency

Proposed Class Projects  UCLA Royce Hall  3D Photosynth of campus spaces  Immersive foreign languages program

Proposed Class Projects, cont.  ImmersSpace  Sensual multimedia tour  ShowSpace

Recommendations  Time  Visual & linguistic rhetoric of SL  SL community involvement  Project-based

Teaching and Learning in Second Life “Major themes of digital humanities include: …collaboration, … cumulative research, language and code, alliances between expert scholars and amateurs.” --Melissa

Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Universe

by annelierugg on Jun 19, 2009

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