Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?

At the start of class we had some more elevator pitches followed by a discussion on the visit last week to Virtual Ability Island. Most students were impressed by what they saw and the visit gave you a sense of how important virtual worlds can be to those who are housebound for one reason or another.

Then the students divided into their groups and found quiet parts of Akron Island in which to work on their projects while John, Dudley and Locks met with each group to discuss progress. We seem to have missed one or two groups so please let us know next week and we can meet you then.

Most groups appear to be making good progress and have decided on the general direction of the project. Each groups seems to have met synchronously and asynchronously and have agreed their communication methodology. While many are finding Facebook useful because they check it regularly already some have opted for email, google documents or Second Life as the key space for collaboration.

ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT CLASS:

1. Read this: interesting blog post about understanding Marshall McLuhan’s ‘medium is the message’ (accessed on 12/02/15).
2. Read: some of Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds, Eds Anna Peachy and Mark Childs, published by Springer 2011 (accessed on 12/02/15).
3. Write the sixth post: to your blog describing your contribution to the development of the group project.