John / Tae explores the thinking of Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) whose work is central to an understanding of media theory and provides a useful framework for examining digital social media and online collaborative tools.
Spring semester 2023
February 13, 2023As we commence the new semester we were all shocked to hear the news of the catastrophic earthquake that devastated Eastern Türkiye and Syria. Our thoughts are with our friends, colleagues and students at Çağ University which has been unable to commence the new semester as a result. We hope they will be able to rejoin us soon. While the TU Dublin students commenced last week we will keep in mind that some adjustment to the syllabus may be necessary to accommodate them as they return.
Team presentations
December 7, 2022The student Team Project presentations were as impressive as ever this semester. We loved the creativity demonstrated in the project builds and the detailed research undertaken by the students and presented in the class. Well done to all the participants on reaching the end of another semester. Huge thanks to all our supporters, guest speakers and student facilitators.
Metaliteracy and the Metaverse
November 2, 2022This week John made an error about the clock change back from Irish summertime to normal time. Students were asked to come to class one hour later than normal but, in fact you should have been told that class was going to be one hour earlier … so, we missed an excellent presentation by Valibrarian Gregg titled ‘What is Metaliteracy?’ Val is the founder of Community Virtual Libraries and as a librarian and author she has a particular interest in books and literacy. Sitearm recorded the talk which explains the concept of metaliteracy in our metamodernist world in 23 minutes. Val also introduces the concept of digital citizenship. You can see the video below.
Following Val’s talk she brought the class to The Darkroom as a metaphor for the dark side of digital culture. She discusses the dark side of the some of the many useful apps we use daily basis. Once again Sitearm recorded the 6 minute presentation.
Finally, Sitearm and Val debated the nature of the metaverse and attempted to unpack their own operational definitions. Is Second Life a Metaverse? records their debate on the characteristics required in a metaverse. Sitearm’s recording has a viewing time of 16 minutes.
Autumn semester 2022
October 3, 2022Welcome to the module ‘Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?’ being offered as an elective module to students of Technological University School of Art & Design and Dublin School of Archtitecture.
Classes will start on 5th October on Wednesdays at 2:00 pm for two hours. We meet online every week at TU Dublin in Second Life. Please note: you will need a Mac or PC desktop or laptop to access Second Life – you cannot do so with a mobile device.
Full details about the module are available to eligible registered students on the university VLE, Brightspace, where you may self-enrol. Read the Introduction unit carefully where you will find instructions on how to access Second Life and set up your personal avatar. Learning how to get around the virtual world and familiarising yourself with the environment and how to control your avatar will take a few hours so give yourself plenty of time before class starts.
Please read pages 1 to 9 in the column on the right also. If you would like to find out more about what to expect during the semester read the posts in this blog: all class since 2009 have been summarised.
If you have any problems email John O’Connor at TU Dublin.
Once again, this semester we will be working with Prof Murat Gülmez (aka Magua) and his students at Çağ University in Turkey. We will be spending much of our time with Lynne Berrett/Lissena Resident, (aka Wisdomseeker) and her team at Whole Brain Health on Inspiration Island in Second Life.
Class 7: Metaliteracy and Digital Citizenship
March 21, 2022The complexity of issues around metaliteracy and digital citizenship were revealed by Valibrarian Gregg in her talk at the Community Virtual Library today. The visit began with a tour of the lovely facility which is a rich resource of information, data, references and texts while also being a calm space in which to relax – much like a library in RL in fact.
There was a good turnout of students and in addition to Magua and John we were joined by Sitearm and Wisdom also. After the tour Val brought us to the presentation platform which is rich with images and short texts to support the talk, based on her recent book Metamodernism and Changing Literacy: Emerging Research and Opportunities (2020).
A new addition to the space since our last visit is the Black Room where some of the darkness of the worldwide web and the internet is considered.
There was a good discussion around some of the topics raised by the talk, including consideration of the implications for democracy and freedom of thought in the metaverse, particularly if it is controlled by private interests. What impact might this have on a free society?
You can see a video of the lecture from last semester here.
Class 6: Online communities and relationships
March 14, 2022The visit to Virtual Ability Island (VAI) is always a highlight of the semester. Unfortunately, many students didn’t make it to class as this is reading week (despite the timetable clearly indicating there would be class this week!)
Gentle Heron welcomed everyone and spoke about the origins and activities of the community on VAI. In addition to hearing Gentle speaking her words were transcribed automatically in ‘nearby chat’ by means of the SpeakEasy HUD she uses on such occasions. This facilitates members of the community who cannot hear. You can view the video recorded by Sitearm Madonna from last semester’s visit or read about the previous semester’s visit to find out more about VAI.
Following Gentle’s introduction Magua and John divided the students into four groups who were sent to four different breakout locations for small group discussions led by members of the VAI community. We are really grateful to Suellen and James Heartsong, Mook Wheeler, The Tinys Slatan Dryke and iSkye Silverweb, Lorivonne Lustre for leading these sessions and sharing their insights and experiences in Real Life and in SL.
After the breakout sessions we gathered back in the meeting space where Gentle Heron posed three pertinent questions to the students who had equally perceptive responses before we concluded the visit with thanks to our friends in Virtual Ability Island.
Class 5: Teamwork and Collaboration
March 7, 2022
Sitearm Madonna met the class at the landing point in the Çağ University Second Life Campus for his presentation titled Composing for the New Era – Teamwork and Collaboration Online. After ensuring everyone had arrived he led us to the ornamental pool where he had installed a presentation board filled with text and images. He had thoughtfully placed seating around the pool so that everyone had a good view and then seated himself at the top of the board to indicate where we should be focusing our attention. Using his avatar to guide our attention in this manner is a very useful technique that Sitearm has developed in recent years (an interesting example of something that could only really work in a virtual world where you can use the camera to zoom in on the appropriate section of the board).
Last week all the Project Teams were asked to meet in Second Life to complete the task set in the class and discuss the Team Project. After he had introduced some of the basic principles around teamwork, Sitearm asked each team to come to the front and report on their meeting in turn. It didn’t matter whether or not the team had actually managed to meet or not, whether the meeting was considered a success or not, nor whether all the team members were present. The opportunity to give and hear feedback from each team gave us all a sense of how difficult it can be to contact people outside of the virtual world. Teams used email addresses and Instant Messaging (IM) to try and make contact and arrange meetings. Individuals did their best but sometimes received no replies, or were unable to agree to a time that suited everyone. However, some teams were successful and in all cases the conversations have begun and teammates are beginning to get to know each other.
The students engaged fully and shared their experiences, frustrations and successes and it was clear that they did very well for the first attempt. Their enthusiasm for meeting each other and figuring out how to proceed is impressive.
Unfortunately, the TU Dublin campus wifi network would not allow connection to Second Life so only those students who had access via a phone hotspot, or those working off campus, were able to join the class. The IT Support Team are currently reviewing the situation to find out what happened and hope it will be resolved for next week.
John shared a notecard with everyone listing the team leaders from TU Dublin so now each team has a Turkish and an Irish leader to facilitate meetings and progress.
Following the presentation on teamwork Sitearm guided us to an open platform in the sky with an elegant garden populated with blue butterflies. Here he gave a brief introduction to, and explanation of, the metaverse. Not Mr Zukerberg’s Metaverse with a capital M, but the multifarious digital spaces that make up what used to be known as cyberspace (after William Gibson introduced the term in his 1984 novel Neuromancer) but is now more commonly referred to as the metaverse (after Neal Stephenson popularised it in his 1992 novel Snow Crash).
Sitearm concluded with a live demonstration of teamwork. He brought us to a lower platform on which he had placed pianos and drum kits that played when touched. After we had fun making plenty of noise he explained the colour coding and gently led us to a more musical output, leaving us all with an example of a team moving from chaos to harmony.
Class 4: Getting to know teammates
February 28, 2022This week we all met at Whole Brain Health where Tooyaa summarised last week’s lesson to ensure everyone has been ‘friended’, joined the ISP group, and is up to date on our progress so far.
John introduced the Project Brief and shared a notecard with full details. We reviewed the details briefly so that everyone had a sense of what they will be working on for the remainder of the semester. He asked everyone to read the brief in detail after the class and to meet in their Project Teams during the week to discuss it. Sitearm Madonna reminded us that his talk on Teamwork next week will outline an approach to working together. He will ask some students to share the experience of the first team meeting to help identify issues around working together virtually – so ensure you arrange your team meetings!
Lissena Wisdomseeker then introduced the Project Teams. The team at WBH had kindly prepared sign boards listing all the team members and made more t-shirts. Each team member could take one from the boxes and each shirt was in the team colour with either Çağ or TU Dublin logos on back. Once everyone had put on their new shirts we teleported to the area where students will be working on their projects and presenting them at the end of the semester. Each team has a large working space sufficiently separated so you can talk without disturbing each other. Lissena explained that each team would produce a Share Board today, to get used to working in SL. She shared a notecard with details of how to carry out the task. But, first, each team was asked to select a Team Leader, one from each university. This will make it easier for the WBH team to communicate with you over the next weeks.
It soon became clear that everyone would finish the task during class time so you were asked to complete before next week.
Class 3: Visiting Whole Brain Health
February 21, 2022John realised this week that he had made a mistake about class time, blaming the time zone differences between Dublin, Turkey and Second Life for his confusion. Regrettably, it meant that the Dublin group met an hour before the other groups. After some discussion it was agreed accommodate those who would not be able to remain online after the scheduled finish time. Everyone agreed that they would be able to reschedule to the later time from next week onwards and John apologised for his error.
The extra time did give everyone a chance to catch up on progress so far. John expressed some concern that he had received only two blog links following the last class and reiterated the need for everyone to submit their links this week. Some participants said they were unable to set up a free account so John said he would circulate more detailed instructions following the class. Then we took a break before logging back in to go meet our new classmates in Whole Brain Health.
John distributed Landmarks (LMs) to everyone and we teleported to Inspiration Island. We were welcomed by Lissena Wisdomseeker who introduced her team: Tooyaa, Fran and Catseye and made us all feel at home. We also met the Turkish students from Çağ University and their professor Magua. After everyone had found a seat in the circle, which miraculously increased in diameter to accommodate everyone Tooyaa gave us an introduction what we would be looking at this week. She shared the Virtual Whole Brain Health website link which has complete details of all of it and will serve as a really useful reference for consulting later.
After everyone had ‘friended’ everyone else and joined the ISP group Tooyaa demonstrated how to change you avatar’s display name. She asked students to select their first names as display names so that we know who you are. Then we all teleported to male and female changing rooms to put on our new team t-shirts. This remarkably simple-sounding exercise is always much more difficult than it sounds and also requires having a classic avatar to work. But, everybody managed and in due course we all arrived back at the cafe suitably dressed and identifiable!
