Summary/Response: The Avatar that therefore I AM (Following) M. Elizabeth Garza 7/25
|Currents in Electronic Literacy.” What Games Have to Teach Us About Teaching and Learning: Game Design as a Model for Course and Curricular Development | Currents in Electronic Literacy, Sept. 2018, currents.dwrl.utexas.edu/2010/hoag_schell_the-avatar-that-therefore-i-am-following.html.
What is Second Life? a writing device that is plugged into another device this how it unfolds onto "Second Life." These devices were a team project for the digital writing and research lab study that the students from the University of Texas in Austin was acquited with the assignment of using a network game Second Life as a stage to expand game participation that could educate college students about expressing their thoughts, writing, or speech. That would allow students and professors to work in a good place, for this to be successful the students encountered many obstacles, for example, they needed to understand the rhetoric language of Second Life. Nevertheless, rhetoric is used in much upper-level class, for example, history, Social Science, Sociology. Some of the obstacles they found were that Second Life needed plenty of money for computers and other necessities. A further obstacle was teaching Second Life in virtual space. Despite the obstacles, they had fun creating an avatar and community. According to Hoag and Schell ( 2010). Because Second Life can imitate the appearance of the characters, the professors were intrigued with innovative pedagogical methods. The students enjoyed creating some of the avatars. Hoag and Schell (2010) state “if there is one thing that we have learned from our escapades in SL, it is that forming a research community rhetorical vocabulary are made more enjoyable when one is a gothic vampire, zombie, werewolf, or fire-breathing dragon!”
It seems to me that the students of the University of Texas in Austin had a field trip with this experiment in creating a community of Avatar. As I was reading this article I could sense the frustration of many of the students. Even though the student had their doubts, they persisted in their project. It's understandable how network game Second Life (avatar) can be misguiding; this reminds of the movie I saw called "avatar" In the movie, they show the people getting into a machine and that's how they were transferred into another world called the "avatar."Besides, I don't agree with the experiment that the students made in creating a network game SL to expand the knowledge of students. I feel that even though we are in the twenty-first century, I really don't believe that we are "there" yet to fully explore our digital identity through second life in virtual space.
QUOTATIONS: “[that I] in the electronic age, there is no ‘real world’ that is unmediated and unaffected by the so-called the sham world.”
REFERENCES:
Terjesen, Andrew. “It Doesn't Take an Avatar.” Avatar and Philosophy, May 2014, pp. 62–73., doi: 10.1002/9781118886717.ch5.
I have never used Second Life but I'm pretty sure it would be fun for a lot of students. Especially those who have social anxiety disorders that don't allow them to speak freely in an actual classroom setting. I'm assuming that in these virtual classrooms, the students are able to "speak" more freely without having to worry about other students judging their right/wrong answers to professor questions.
ReplyDeleteI however do agree that it is, not pointless, but unnecessary. There are lots of successful online classes that have taken/are taking place that don't need to see little avatars sitting in a virtual classroom. Plus, I'm pretty sure you need a very good PC to be able to run this program and I know that there are a lot of students who can't afford a monster PC.