Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?

The IOLE14 participants met on Akron Island this week.

We spent the first part of our class discussing our blogs: what you have done and ways that you can continue to improve them.

Part of the purpose for the blog is for you to report on your progress in the IOLE module, and you have done that.  But there is more to consider when you create your blog posts.

As part of your virtual identity or your personal brand, your blog posts influence the reader.  The writer should want to present their information and thoughts in a professional and thoughtful way.  How can you do that? Dudley Dreamscape and John mentioned a few ways.

First, you can be sure to provide the context for your post.  If you refer to what you did “for class,” let the reader know what class and give them a link to our blog (IOLE).  If the reader happened to find your blog post through a search and the key term showed up in your post, they found you – now let them know where this is coming from.

Second, and similarly, the context comes from something you read or experienced.  When referring to something you read, provide a link to it.  Just as you would in an academic paper with a footnote so the reader can find the original source, you can provide a link to the article, video, or other source that you refer to.  If you visited a place in Second Life, get the SLUrl, the location for the place as well as telling us the name of the place.  If the reader happens to find you because you mentioned a group they are in or a place they are familiar with, it is much better for them to see that others reading your blog are able to find their place (building good relations).

Third, you should do more “reflection” in your blog posts. Describe what you learned and what other people have learned and their experiences then spend some time reflecting on those lessons.  Bring it all into your own writing, a more discursive space – writing your opinions, support for your opinions, and relevance for your opinions.  This is a start to building respect for your opinions and perspectives – building your personal brand so that others want to follow you, read what you have to say.

Remember that there is no right or wrong way to reflect. Your reflections are your thoughts, and while we can all engage with them and you, we cannot fault you.  So don’t be afraid to express your thoughts.

In other words, we want you to think (as students and others should do). Share your thoughts and how they relate to your colleagues thoughts.  Along with your own blog, read the others and provide feedback to them, too.  Build and continue the dialogue.

We then broke into groups and gave feedback to our fearless leaders.

IOLE14 group working in our cabin

Group taking a photo op

IOLE14 group meeting on the cliff

NEXT WEEK:

The Akron students have “Spring Break” and may not be available.  The instructors (both Akron and DIT) will be available at the regular meeting time for anyone who wants to log into SL.  We can help with your planning for your final project, or provide some help with presentation techniques and tools.

However, we still want some activity from the students.

1. Read (see below), and
2. Post on your blog (catch up and continue); reflect on the readings as examples of the use of virtual worlds or in light of our theme “Reality.”

READINGS:

“Technology’s Impact on Disaster Relief,” examples:

http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/community/b/tsblog/archive/2012/10/31/technologys-impact-on-disaster-relief.aspx

Digital Marketing Blog

Hashtag use in social Media Engagement:

http://www.siliconcloud.com/blog/bid/92928/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool?source=Blog_Email_[Are%20Hashtags%20Actuall