Janine’s blog

I have agreed to be a lab rabbit in Lindy’s PhD project. THis means participating in professional learning activities and an action research project in Second Life.

We had an orientation session a couple of weeks ago where Lindy used her “Terra Incognito” island as the venue for an information session about what being a lab rabbit involves. We essentially had a presentation from Lindy followed by a group chat and then we went off and had some fun down in the village. I reflected on whether the 3D world added anything to the session over and above what might have been achieved in a 2D text based world. I think the main thing was that there were visual clues about what others were doing (seeing hands move as someone is typing a text message). My skill level was very basic and that certainly interferred with my interaction. I felt unco-ordinated and often confused though after the hour and a half I had mastered some things about moving around.

This evening I finally got back for my second session - on my own this time.  I had to reinstall the software as my laptop has been re-imaged. I got back in OK and fortunately was where I had left off. I had received some emails from Lindy which I followed up on - collected my lab rabbit t-shirt and a bouncing ball. As a result I now understand the inventory tool. I also changed my appearance. Scrolling through the various menus is quite overwhelming - there is so much to it! I think the next step will be to undertake some structured tutorials (should have done that first I guess). I certainly don’t feel at home here yet. I will try to be more regular as I know from past experience that that is the way to really understand the environment.

This link comes from Stephen Downes’ OLDaily. The introductory comment about which tool to use for the presentation being influenced by how the presenter’s brain now works, is interesting. It reminds me of working with some people in the past who needed to authorise content for the web but whose brains only worked in printed text mode. They simply could not see that a different style of writing was required. Maybe the brain adapts to whatever it is fed whether it be old new or emerging. I recall a summer in my teen years spent reading nineteenth century novels - Jane Austen etc. I found my natural conversation started to take on the style without any conscious thought at all.

Anyway, that meta-comment aside, this seems to be a good summary of the current state of play.

http://couros.wikispaces.com/emerging+technologies