We assembled at the outdoor auditorium in Çağ after the break. John spoke about the impact of technology on society, drawing on the ideas of mid-to-late twentieth-century media theoretician Marshall McLuhan. Although this presentation had not been scheduled it provided an opportunity for a useful discussion in the context of the Team Project. There was a good response from the students who engaged with the ideas enthusiastically.
John reminded the class that the field trip next week is another high point of the semester – so don’t miss it !
Merino’s workshop for advanced building in Second Life took place for the first half of the class this week. Now that the building areas for the Team Projects have been allocated everyone is beginning to master their building skills. Every semester there are participants who already have experience of building in virtual environments or using tools for 3D modelling. Others don’t have such skills so the allocation of roles within the teams becomes a very real proposition. Nevertheless, most people develop some mastery at building, an increasingly useful skill, even if you only ever use it for prompting AI.
Halfway through class there was a region reset so we went back to the TU Dublin campus for a chat. One of the interesting questions that emerged was about the use of AI on the module. John and Merino told the students that it is encouraged throughout this module. AI can be useful for helping with 3D modelling and building, particularly for writing scripts. You can also use it to discuss your projects and tease out ways of approaching your builds. There is no requirement to report on this use. The one area that AI should be avoided is in writing the reflective text on the conclusion of the module. Because this is an opportunity to reflect on your own learning over the semester it would be a pointless exercise to use AI. You deprive yourself of this important time to look back at the experience and synthesise your understanding. AI is such a new tool, subject to ongoing rapid development, that society in general, and education in particular, is still coming to terms with its impact. There has not been time to develop appropriate guidelines so we need to approach it with care, attention and a dose of scepticism. But, as it seems to be here to stay, it is important that we all learn to engage with it and see how we can use it to enhance our work without becoming a slave to its undoubted charms.
John reminded the teams that there is a budget available for each student Team to buy items on the SL Marketplace, or in-world. Requests should come from the team lead or communications coordinator to John, either by email or in the WhatsApp group. Include a rough budget, an indication of how many Linden Dollars are needed.
We took a ten minute break after the building and John asked the class to return for a talk on technology and society, From Hammer to Pixel.
