My new favourite software company, Plasq, have generously agreed to donate 25 copies of Comic Life to Debney Park so the kids can have more copies to make their machinima comic book (Soundhouse has 12). At $30 a copy this quite valuable in terms of money and allowing the kids to be able to work on their assignments at the same time.
Thanks to Mark and the team at Plasq.
Many (most?) people associate avatars with game characters however research is revealing other uses for these digital representations of our selves. Researchers have been actively investigating the potential for using avatars to support theories which suggest that online behaviour (avatar use) affects offline behaviour.
Researchers at Stanford University recently conducted a study that utilised the connection many people feel to their avatars coupled with the power of visualisation, to test the effectiveness of using avatars to initiate and reinforce behavioural changes . The research, described as ‘weight loss with a mirrored, optimal-self avatar through vicarious reinforcement’ revealed a tendency for people to physically exercise more often in real-life after they had seen their avatar exercising online (1). While this might seem a little Machiavellian to some, consider the possible applications for treating obesity. Conversely, research has been conducted using avatars as a tool to assist in repairing the fractured body image of people with eating disorders (2).
Using avatars to encourage ‘perspective taking’ through online role-playing activities has also produced positive outcomes. Research findings from an activity that placed young people in a role-play situation as an ‘elderly’ avatar demonstrated a reduction in stereotyping.
Although the use of virtual reality technology is not new, the rich graphics, the availability of online virtual environments, and tools that enable user created content are resulting in great leaps forward in understanding and using these digital representations of the self to affect positive outcomes in many areas of mental health.
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/04/npr-on-the-stan.html
Riva, G., Bacchetta, M., Baruffe, M., et al. (1998). Experiential cognitive therapy: a VR based approach for the assessment and treatment of eating disorders. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 58:120–135.
Using http://plasq.com/comiclife-win - the subject matter is a little droll but I just wanted to see how it all worked, better things to come!
This will be one of the lessons at Debney Park.
This will be published as a comic book for the students to take home, and the best story will be turned into a short machinima film towards the end of the year.
Classes at Debney are going well, the network is up and running, we have installed new graphics cards, and it’s all systems go. The kids are all very keen, with more than we can handle attending voluntarily at lunch classes, and a full class of 20 students who are thoroughly engaged.
As an addendum to yesterdays post - I have located the source of my meme about future politicians growing up playing computer games. Be warned the writing could be interpreted as vitriolic however, being familiar with the author’s work, I think there is also a fair amount of ‘tongue in cheek’.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/28/games.censorship
Cheers!
Debbie
You’ve probably all heard, and possibly used the term ‘Web 2.0′ but could you define it? I’ve read many similar but different definitions, but I think this one that is supplied by www.webopedia.com paints a pretty clear picture:
Web 2.0 is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online. Web 2.0 basically refers to the transition from static HTML Web pages to a more dynamic Web that is more organized and is based on serving Web applications to users. Other improved functionality of Web 2.0 includes open communication with an emphasis on Web-based communities of users, and more open sharing of information. Over time Web 2.0 has been used more as a marketing term than a computer-science-based term. Blogs, wikis, and Web services are all seen as components of Web 2.0.Web 2.0 can be a difficult concept to wrap your head around so here’s a link to a video that I think does the job beautifully: http://tinyurl.com/4×4fn2
If you doubt the ubiquity of Web 2.0 (or Social Software as it’s also known) check out the array on this site: http://www.go2web20.net/
If you’re wondering what all this has to do with anything, consider this comment that I heard, or read today (not sure which - I hear and read a lot!), that in the next generation the USA would have a president who had grown up playing computer games. The use and uses of today’s technology will affect most areas of business and governance tomorrow when control is in the hands of those who routinely use Web 2.0 applications to communicate, collaborate and network .
Comments?
Cheers!
Debbie
Apologies for my tardiness, I had hoped to blog weekly but as we all know, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry” (Robert Burns).
I’ve been reading some of the excellent publications that can be found on the VicHealth Mental Health & Wellbeing: Publications and Reports page (1) and I’m particularly enjoying “Bridging the Digital Divide” (Blanchard, Metcalf and Burns, 2007) and the fantastic report “Young people, wellbeing and communication technologies” (Wyn, Cuervo, 2005).
Given young people’s early adoption of technology it’s not surprising that they are also flocking to virtual worlds at a staggering rate. Here are some facts:
- There are now (April 2008 ) more than 100 virtual worlds operating or being developed that specifically focus on young people (under-18 ) (2)
- Registrations for existing youth oriented virtual worlds are in excess of 200 million young people globally (3).
These figures highlight the the need to understand how young people use these spaces and underscore their importance as an emerging space where young people gather to connect.
For more information - http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/2008/youthworlds.html
Cheers!
Debbie
I’m a bit of a bowerbird and collect things on my travels around the web that I think might be useful or interesting (preferably both). I keep my video links at a site called Vodpod (www.vodpod.com). I’ve created a site within my site where I will keep my collection of video links that relate to this project - http://theavatarproject.vodpod.com/ - please feel free to browse…
Cheers
Deb
I’ve recently become part of the The Avatar Project team and I thought I should introduce myself. My name is Debbie McCormick but you will notice that my ’screen’ name is ‘Seeker Esparza’; Seeker is my avatar in Second Life.
I’m a PhD student at Monash University. My research background and interests are the interrelations of personality, identity and avatar customisation in virtual worlds. Although I’ve got a broad interest all virtual worlds I mainly ‘play’ in one called Second Life.
One of the main reasons I focus most of my research on or in Second Life is the support I get from being a member of the Second Life Educators (SLED) group. The group consists of more than 4,500 members, most of who are actively involved in education and/or research activities in or about Second Life. The mail discussion group is prolific, averaging around 900 posts per month . The number of educational institutions or their representatives that are conducting classes or research in the environment also continues to grow from a handful of pioneers in 2004 to more than 200 universities and colleges from around the world in 2008. Notable educational institutions with a presence ‘inworld’ include Harvard, Columbia and Princeton Universities in the USA; Lancaster and Leeds Metropolitan Universities in England; the University of Edinburgh and the University of Paisley in Scotland; the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) New Zealand; Monash University, the Universities of Southern Queensland and Sydney, GippsTAFE and Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.
In May 2007 the inaugural Second Life Best Practices in Education: Teaching, Learning and Research conference attracted 1,300 attendees from all over the globe and thirty academic presentations were conducted by participants from countries including Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The conference was conducted entirely ‘inworld’ (in Second Life).
A solid base of research literature is being established and compiled (Annotated Bibliography of Second LifeOnline Educational Resources). Notable publications include a comprehensive report by Dr. Megan Conklin (2007) entitled 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom that tables her experiences of planning and conducting lessons in Second Life and provides tips for planning and conducting educational activities and; a report on an Australian project called Virtual Worlds – Real Learning!(McPherson and Jolly, 2006) that was conducted in 2006 by GippsTAFE in Gippsland, Victoria. The excellent report from GippsTAFE provides a detailed perspective of both local and universal issues with specific reference to conducting an educational activity in Second Life.
My work on The Avatar Project will be to provide advice and assistance on research design and data collection, and to coordinate the collaborative production of project reports and papers. I will be writing something each week on this blog about what I’m doing so please feel free to add comments to any of my posts.
Annotated Bibliography of Second Life Educational Online Resources, PEPPER, M. ed., Purdue University, Website. http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib
Conklin, M. S., 2007. 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina. http://facstaff.elon.edu/mconklin/pubs/glshandout.pdf
McPherson, G. & Jolly, M., 2006. Virtual Worlds - Real Learning!, GippsTAFE, Victoria, http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/projects/2006/newpractices2006/pid/368
There is so much happening at the moment with the project I have started a blog where I can post all of my work, http://vuavatar.blogspot.com/
To summarise what is happening at the moment in the field….
- We are working with the Skoolaborate network of schools within Second Life.
- This includes projects such as a machinima theatre with a Japanese school, a ‘mood ring’ which captures students emotions about what they are doing, and a virtual mall where the kids will create and sell their own products.
- I am also creating a comic book type lesson and working on our activity and research framework with our new researcher Debbie. This should evolve over the year into a comprehensive lesson plan which can be modified to satisfy various mental health outcomes.
- We have a new adsl connection in at Debney Park and will be commencing classes over the coming weeks (machinima).
- We have a new teacher/counsellour called Grace who will be helping us in the field.
- I have continued to work on www.avatarproject.org, there is now a gallery here - http://www.avatar-project.org/?q=node/20
Now that we are able to work with young people in Teen Second Life for the Avatar project, we are facing what may well be the biggest issue of the project: how we approach working with under 18s in that environment. It’s coming to the fore now that we are involved in the Skoolaborate partnership, which is run by secondary school teachers - and also because we’re doing the intensive two weeks at a Western high school with a very diverse student body.
Questions come up like: how much freedom should we allow in the world? Should we let the kids try out the virtual world as they want to? Do we ban any desire to create and play with weapons And if so, at what point? How much should we try to steer activities and interactions? How do we avoid too much censorship of young people’s self-expression? (etc etc)
I think this is especially important for us because we’re not secondary teachers. Our work with VU’s TAFE students has worked well because that’s more or less our home turf, and they’re young adults who are seen as mature enough to guide their own decisions. But I think it’s a lot more fraught when dealing with younger folk.
We want our activities to be a combination of responsible and real - to recognise and work with what young people are into, yet not fall into traps. Our next steps will be to discuss this with VicHealth and the teachers we’re working with and I imagine will form the basis of some kind of position statement from us about this.
