Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Fall 08 Data -- Still to come
Monday, January 12, 2009
Student Presentations in Second Life
Student Projects
Visit their blogs at:
Group 1: http://emily-second-life.blogspot.com/ - Option 1, Managing Change, an Implementation of SL
Anne Oppeneer
Emily Franz
Hayley McCune
Monica Sixtos
Tiffany Roberts
Presentation in Second Life on Sunday, December 21st, 1:00pm
Group 2: http://teamdynasty4.blogspot.com/ - Option 1, Managing Change, an Implementation of SL
Allan Hanson
Hadiyyah Clark
Lauren Anthony
Michael Berkebill
Presentation in Second Life on Thurs, Dec 18th, 2:00 CST
Group 3: http://www.teamcatalyst.blogspot.com/ - Option 2, Virtual Decision Making in Second Life
Catherine Lohr
Cori Schroeder
Elizabeth Weber
Jennifer Larson
Megan Jones
Presentation in Second Life on Wed, Dec 17th, at 4:00 PM CST
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Orienting Students to Second Life Fall 08
Students were asked to watch a video, "How to get started" at: http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/SL-Tutorials/.
Then, students completed an orientation activity described below.
ORIENTATION ACTIVITY
By November 16th:
Task 1: Review the Getting Started in Second Life documents in D2L and watch at least 2 You Tube videos on Second Life.
Task 2: Create a blog for your *group* at Blogger.com. E-mail to me the name of your blogspot once created. Make sure that your group members have access or that one member is in charge for updating the blog.
You will be posting your work product on Blogger for me and your classmates to view. Here is an example of a student project about Second Life on Blogger:
http://wwwolivesthesecondlife.blogspot.com/
There should be 1 blog per team.
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41440&topic=12498
Task 3:
Complete the Second Life Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt Instructions (you may want to complete this as a group or with a teammate):
1.) Create an Avatar (http://www.secondlife.com)
2.) While on orientation island, change your appearance (or clothes).
3.) Updated your profile by adding your 2nd Life and 1st Life information (Edit, Profile)
4.) Send to me (Juice Gyoza) a friendship offer (Edit, Friends or Ctrl Shift F)
5.) Visit the UWM island, Communication Building at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Arts%20and%20Letters/80/220/22
Turn around 180 degrees to see the building
6.) Review the Rules.
Post the following information on your Blog.
1.) The name of your avatar(s)
2.) A screen shot of your avatar(s) in Second Life on UWM's sim
3) Challenges in getting oriented to Second Life
4.) Your first impression of being "IN" Second Life and how it could impact organizational communication
HELP SHEET
Getting Started in Second Life
Creating an Avatar
Go to http://www.secondlife.com. Click on the large button that says “Free Membership, Join Now.” You will be directed to a screen where you create an “avatar,” which will be your persona in Second Life. On this screen, you should choose your avatar’s name (you will have to select from a list of pre-selected names). Follow the steps to create your account and password. After you have created your account, you will be prompted to download the program.
Getting the Software
If you are on your personal PC or Mac, please note the following minimum basic requirements for running Second Life. After loading Second Life on your personal PC, click on "Start" and “Programs” or click on the Second Life shortcut on your desktop. If you are on your personal Mac, you can go directly to the “Second Life” icon in the “Applications” menu on a Mac. You must have a cable or D2L internet connect to use Second Life from your personal PC or Mac.
PC Minimum System Requirements:
Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL (no dial-up)
Operating System: Windows XP
Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium Ill or Athlon, or
better
Computer Memory: 512 MB or better
Video/Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 2, GeForce 4 MX or better, or ATI Radeon 8500, 9250 or better, Intel 945 chipset
Mac Minimum System Requirements:
Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL (no dial-up)
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or better
Computer Processor: 1 GHz G4 or better
Computer Memory: 512MB or better
Video/Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better or ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better
More information on system requirements and recommended computer graphics cards can be located at: http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php.
If you are downloading Second Life to your home computer or laptop, please be aware that Second Life must run on certain video/graphics cards and that many video/graphics cards will not support running the program. If you do not have a personal computer with the capacity needed to load Second Life, you can access Second Life in one of the CCLs on campus. Second Life is available in the CCLs in the Union, Bolton, and Library on the Macs. If you are a PC user, but going to use a Mac on campus to access Second Life, look for a Mac with a Mighty Mouse (right and left click) for easy and familiar use. If you are working in a campus computer lab, then you will not need to download the program; you can go directly to the “Second Life” icon in the “Applications” menu on a Mac after creating your avatar at secondlife.com.
Orientation to Second Life
First Entry into Second Life
When you first run the program, you will be prompted to enter your avatar name and your password. As this will be the first time that you will enter Second Life, you will be taken to “Orientaton Island.” In general, it is a really good idea to go all the way through the Orientation Island guide. The guide is simple and appears automatically on the left hand side of your screen.
There are four areas on the island to visit and develop the skills needed in Second Life:
Move – Help you learn basic movement and motor skills. It allows you to practice moving fluidly through Second Life and avoiding bumping into objects. You will also learn how to drive a
vehicle and to fly.
Appearance – How to change your appearance and buy clothes.
Search - Gives you practice using the Search function in Second Life. Learning about this aspect of moving throughout Second Life will be very important if you want to find out about people,
places and events at other campuses and regions.
Communicate – Provides you with practice in chatting and communicating with other avatars.
While it may be tempting to skip this step, going through Orientation Island will greatly accelerate your participation on the main land. Make sure to complete the tasks on orientation island to develop the needed skills to complete your course activities.
If you simply must get onto the main land immediately then there is a sign on Orientation Island right where you first came on. If you click on this sign it will let you go to the main land to an area called “Help Island.” Here you can pick up all sorts of free items. However, it is *strongly* recommended that you complete Orientation Island skills. Getting to the UWM Sim
Once you have gone through Orientation Island, go to the UWM sim. To do this, you can click on your Map and type “Arts and Letters” into the search box. Choose the sim called “Arts and Letters Region.” Click on Teleport. Otherwise, you can follow this link once you have created an avatar and downloaded the Second Life software to your computer:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Arts%20and%20Letters/80/220/22
Basics of Second Life
Getting Help
The Second Life Help menu at the top gives you pull down menus with instructions for various concepts and Second Life needs.
Navigating
There are several options available for controlling your avatar's movement.
Using the Mouse: To walk or fly, right- (or apple-) click on your avatar, select go, and click on the directional arrows with your mouse.
Using the Keyboard: Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move forward (up arrow), back (down arrow), or right and left (right and left arrows, respectively).
To fly, push the flu button OR press and hold Page Up (or press the "f" key). To hover, let go of Page Up; you can now use your arrow keys to fly around. To land, press and hold Page Down (or press "c").
There are spaces around the campus where you can "park" your avatar while you chat or look around. You can sit on almost anything in Second Life, including the ground, the edges of steps and walls, and most objects. To sit down, right- (or apple-) click on the desired spot and select "Sit Here."
To view an object, use the alt key and click on it. To zoom in and out, use the mouse. Adding the control keys allows you to orbit around your avatar, and adding control and shift allows you to pan from side to side.
Note: Moving takes some getting used to. Play around. Remember that if you fall or find yourself in water, you will have to fly out instead of jumping.
Chatting
Make sure your toolbar is on view at the bottom of the screen. Click the button that says “Chat.”
A button saying “History” will appear, next to a bar with a space to type. When you type, your avatar will appear to be typing on an invisible keyboard. When you are done chatting, click escape.
Changing View Are you tired of looking at the back of your avatar? Want to see something from a different angle? Want to look at something without moving the avatar? Here are the basics.
The “View” button at the top allows you to select movement and camera controls to display on screen, and also gives tips and commands for some other actions. The Toolbar at the bottom of the screen can be taken on or off display from this menu. We suggest leaving the toolbar open, as you might need to use some of its features.
Inventory
Your avatar comes with a basic inventory, which includes clothing and body parts, objects you have acquired, gestures, note cards, and your library. Your library is where you can store things that you create and where items that are given to you will be located. You can access your Inventory by clicking the “Inventory” button on the bottom-right side of the toolbar, which then gives you a pop-up box with a basic directory and sub-directories for items.
If you’ve clicked on an object which can be added to your Inventory, there will also be a “Take” command.
Appearance
Right click or Alt+click on your avatar, and select the “Appearance” piece of the command pie. You get a box with a list of body parts (shape, skin, hair, and eyes) and a list of clothing items. When you click one of these buttons, you get another list to the right with boxes that show how you can modify all the components of that feature. For example, when you click eyes, you then get a sub menu that allows you to change the color and the lightness of your iris. You can change the shape of your eyes, the position on the face, and so on by clicking the “eyes” sub menu which appears after you’ve clicked “Shape.”
Finding things in Second Life
Click Edit on the menu, and select “Find” from the pull-down menu. You can look for a number of things, including places (including shops to buy new clothes, hair, skins, and so on), events, people, and classified ads. There are also numerous blogs, wikis and websites devoted to helping you discover new dimensions of this fascinating, ever evolving world.
UWM's Repository of Student Orientation materials on SL can be found at:
https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/groups/sa/ltc/SecondLife/Student%20Orientation%20Activities/
SL in Communication 310: Communication in Organizations
General Overivew of Team Activities
Team Activities Learning Outcomes:
- DEVELOP A MACRO PERSPECTIVE AND THEORETICAL PREFERENCE TO ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES
- Apply theoretical constructs to an organizational phenomena
- Position yourself as a researcher and practitioner in analyzing organizational processes
- Analyze communicative behaviors in an organizational setting
- Provide recommendations to transform organizational processes substantiated by research
- Develop skills and abilities needed to function as a member of a successful virtual team
- Support the role of technology in communication processes within organizations
1.) Your team assignments are posted on D2L under GROUPS. You will find a discussion area, drop
box area, and locker as tools your team can use to complete your team projects.
2.) Your team is composed of 5-6 other individuals.
3.) Your team needs to complete a Group Charter. See calendar for due date.
4.) Your team needs to choose two (2) team activities to complete from the array of team activities.
See calendar for due dates.
5.) Instructions for the Group Charter, Team Activities, and Assessment of Team Activities can be
found on D2L under the Team Activities module under CONTENT.
The purpose of team activities is to give you an opportunity for experiential learning. The activities that
you are required to complete are done in a team. Working in a team is a substantial part of
organizational life. Therefore, you will be learning how to develop an effective team and be a
contributing member of a team; both are very important in organizational life. Being a part of a team
provides you with a network of peers, or online learning community, which can assist you not only in the
completion of these projects, but throughout the course. Beyond your learning to develop a successful
virtual team, your team is responsible for completing several learning activities that are designed to
provide you with opportunities to apply theoretical constructs about which you read, take on the role of
researcher or consultant, analyze actual communication behavior in real-life organizations, analyze
organizations, and provide recommendations based on your research and information gathered.
You must be willing to work as a team in completing the team activities for this course.
There are 2 teams worth 50 points each for a total of 100 points (20% of overall grade). A portion of
your grade for teams may be impacted by your team members’ assessment of your performance on team
projects. All team members receive the same grade for each project outcome. Team due dates are on
the course schedule. Team details are posted on D2L.
There were 3 options offered to students in their projects that utilized Second Life as communication medium and as a phenomenonhat they explored.
OPTION 1: Second Life Implementation Plan: Planning for Change
Your project team has been hired by a company (of your choosing) to ensure a successful implementation of virtual worlds into their organization. The problem is that the company does not quite know what organizational needs could best be met by implementing virtual worlds. Also, they do not know how to successful implement the technology. They are putting a million dollars into the project and are looking to your project team to identify the organization need(s) that can be met by virtual worlds and to develop a successful implementation plan, not only a "big picture" plan, but also specific communication strategies and messages leaders of the company can implement. You will be presenting this plan to the Board of Directors of your company in Second Life.
Below are details of the project:
1. Identify the media characteristics of Second Life. Use Media Richness Theory and/or additional research to support your claims.
2. Choose a company that you would recommend implement Second Life into their organizational communication practice (e.g., Harley). You might want to choose a company for which you would like to gain employment upon graduation.
3. Identify an organizational need that could be met by implementing Second Life. Provide support for your claim from company literature or other resources (Business Journal, Journal Sentinel, etc.).
4. Develop a plan for change using Connor and Lake's Model of Planned Organizational Change (p. 182) and Covin and Kilmann's Typical Problems in Change. Make sure to highlight what the main concerns and challenges for the company will be when implementing virtual worlds, such as Second Life, into their organization. What will change? How could it change? What challenges could the company experience? How will they manage those challenges?
5. Develop a communication plan for helping facilitate a successful change. In the text, Clampitt, et al., give five managerial strategies for communicating about change (spray and pray, tell and sell, underscore and explore, identify and reply, and withhold and uphold). Explain which of these strategies your team will recommend that would be most effective and provide specific examples that leaders could use.
Assignment Requirements:
1. Follow the Getting Started guidelines
a. Each person should create an avatar, download the software, enter Second Life, and teleport to UWMs sim, etc...as outline in the Getting Started document.
b. Each group should create a blog (one per group) at blogger.com.
i. For example: http://wwwolivesthesecondlife.blogspot.com.
ii. E-mail to me your blogspot and post it in your discussion forum.
c. A picture of each person's avatar (or your team's group picture) should posted on the blog and the other corresponding information from the Getting Started orientation activity, scavenger hunt.
i. Feel free to post additional screen shots, if necessary.
ii. Click Function, Print Screen (upper right) and then paste your screen shot into Paint or another image program to create images.
2. Orient yourselves to Second Life. Visit other places in Second Life and familiarize yourself with the navigation (arrow keys), flying, finding places, teleporting, etc.
3. Research in Second Life and in the literature on how companies are using Second Life.
4. At least one member should post weekly project team progress updates to your blog on Mondays starting November 24th (and continue posting Dec 1st, Dec 8th) for (3) three total.
a. You can post updates or new information on your blog as much as you all want, but at a minimum, a weekly post should have a summary of your progress, even if minimal.
5. Meet as a group in Second Life at least once a week. Post your group chat logs to your blog.
a. You can save chat logs by changing your Second Life preferences. Click on Edit: Preferences: Communication in Second Life. Then, check the box under logging options that states "Save a log of IM on my computer"
6. Complete the assignment as outlined.
7. Determine a time and day when your project team will present their plan to the Board in Second Life. Remember, you will be hypothetically trying to convince this Board of Directors that you are the right project team for the job.
a. Not all members have to present, but all members should be present. A
b. Present should plan to use voice tools in Second Life.
c. You can use Doodle to compare each team member's schedule. Presentations must be no later than December 21st. http://www.doodle.com/main.html
d. Submit your first and second options to the instructor for approval as soon as it can be determined.
GRADING:
1.) Did each member complete the orientation activity? 10 points
a. Was a blog created? Was the name posted to the discussion forum and e-mailed to the instructor?
b. Was each team member's avatar name and picture posted on the blog? If not, did they describe their challenge in doing so?
2.) Did your team post at least 4 weekly progress updates to their blog? 10 points
a. Did your team meet in Second Life weekly?
b. Did your posts include your chat logs?
3.) Did your team address the 5 items outlined in the assignment? 25 points
a. Was the final product posted to the blog by the deadline, December 21st?
b. Did you include at least 5 outside references including academic sources?
c. Was your writing formal, academic, and followed APA guidelines?
d. See RUBRIC
4.) Did your team present the plan in Second Life in a persuasive manner? 5 points
OPTION 2: Decision Making in a Virtual World
A company has approached your project team to put together a proposal for them regarding using Second Life for management decision making activities.
Smith Corporation of America, based in New York, NY, is a U.S. subsidiary of Smith Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo. Smith is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its motion picture, television, computer entertainment, music and online businesses make Smith one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Smith's principal U.S. businesses include Smith Electronics Inc., Smith Pictures Entertainment Inc., Smith Computer Entertainment America Inc., and Smith Music Entertainment, one of the largest recorded music companies in the world. Smith recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $88.7 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, and it employs 180,500 people worldwide. Smith's consolidated sales in the U.S. for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008 were $29 billion.
Their company is a global company with offices in Tokyo, New York, Bangladesh, Amsterdam, and Nuevo Vallarta. Being that the company is a global company, they have to resort to using various communication technologies in order to make decisions. They have had some failures in their decision making using other communication technologies, such as telephone conference, NetMeeting, and instant messenger. For example, the arguments have gotten very heated and their have been some personal attacks. The management team in the different locations have never met face-to-face, so they are not familiar with each other beyond their previous mediated decision-making meetings. They are thinking that virtual worlds might be the tool for them because it is 3D, so people can feel more like they are in an actual conference with each other. They are putting a million dollars into the project and are looking to your project team to create a proposal for them clarifying why virtual worlds would be an effective tool for decision making for their global management team.
You will be presenting this plan to the Board of Directors of the company in Second Life.
Below are details of the project:
1. Identify the media characteristics of Second Life in 1 page. Use Media Richness Theory and/or additional research to support your claims.
2. Develop 2+ pages discussing the importance of decision making in online environments (via computer-mediated communication). Also, include a discussion of the characteristics of *effective* computer-mediated decision making. Make sure to bring in pertinent research on decision making (see Kiesler, Poole, Hirokawa, DeSanctis, etc.).
3. Using the decision-making models in chapter 8 and your research from step 2 as a foundation, create a new model of decision making that takes into account effective online decision making, a channel of computer mediated communication, and virtual worlds. Include an image of your model and a brief discussion (1 page).
4.) Using the new decision-making model your team created, identify the impact the new virtual worlds decision making model will have on individual tasks, organizational forces, strategic direction and the organizations' culturefrom Connor and Lake's Model of Planned Organizational Change (p. 182).
5.) Using Covin and Kilmann's Typical Problems in Change (p.183), identify any possible problems that may arise due to the implementation of this new model. What will change? How could it change? What challenges could the company experience? How will they manage those challenges? Could it fail and why?
Assignment Requirements:
1. Follow the Getting Started guidelines
a. Each person should create an avatar, download the software, enter Second Life, and teleport to UWMs sim, etc...as outline in the Getting Started document.
b. Each group should create a blog (one per group) at blogger.com.
i. For example: http://wwwolivesthesecondlife.blogspot.com.
ii. E-mail to me your blogspot and post it in your discussion forum.
c. A picture of each person's avatar (or your team's group picture) should posted on the blog and the other corresponding information from the Getting Started orientation activity, scavenger hunt.
i. Feel free to post additional screen shots, if necessary.
ii. Click Function, Print Screen (upper right) and then paste your screen shot into Paint or another image program to create images.
2. Orient yourselves to Second Life. Visit other places in Second Life and familiarize yourself with the navigation (arrow keys), flying, finding places, teleporting, etc.
3. Research in Second Life and in the literature on how companies are using Second Life.
4. At least one member should post weekly project team progress updates to your blog on Mondays starting November 24th (and continue posting Dec 1st, Dec 8th) for (3) three total.
a. You can post updates or new information on your blog as much as you all want, but at a minimum, a weekly post should have a summary of your progress, even if minimal.
5. Meet as a group in Second Life at least once a week. Post your group chat logs to your blog.
a. You can save chat logs by changing your Second Life preferences. Click on Edit: Preferences: Communication in Second Life. Then, check the box under logging options that states "Save a log of IM on my computer"
6. Complete the assignment as outlined.
7. Determine a time and day when your project team will present their plan to the Board in Second Life. Remember, you will be hypothetically trying to convince this Board of Directors that you are the right project team for the job.
a. Not all members have to present, but all members should be present. A
b. Present should plan to use voice tools in Second Life.
c. You can use Doodle to compare each team member's schedule. Presentations must be no later than December 21st. http://www.doodle.com/main.html
d. Submit your first and second options to the instructor for approval as soon as it can be determined.
GRADING:
1.) Did each member complete the orientation activity? 10 points
a. Was a blog created? Was the name posted to the discussion forum and e-mailed to the instructor?
b. Was each team member's avatar name and picture posted on the blog? If not, did they describe their challenge in doing so?
2.) Did your team post at least 3 weekly progress updates to their blog? 10 points
a. Did your team meet in Second Life weekly?
b. Did your posts include your chat logs?
3.) Did your team address the 5 items outlined in the assignment? 25 points
a. Was the final product posted to the blog by the deadline, December 21st?
b. Did you include at least 5 outside references including academic sources?
c. Was your writing formal, academic, and followed APA guidelines?
d. See RUBRIC
4.) Did your team present the plan in Second Life in a persuasive manner? 5 points
OPTION 3: Assimilation to a Second Life
They are putting a million dollars into EVALUATE the effectiveness of the project and are looking to your project team to create a proposal for them clarifying how virtual worlds, Second Life, are helping them meet the assimilation needs of their employees.
You will be presenting this plan to the Board of Directors of the company in Second Life.
Below are details of the project:
1. Identify the media characteristics of Second Life in 1 page. Use Media Richness Theory and/or additional research to support your claims.
2. Develop 1 page discussing the socialization literature and why it is important to organizations (see Meyers, Tracy, etc.).
3. Develop 2+ pages discussing the impact of Second Life on the phases of socialization (see chapter 7) of a potenial Manpower employee.
4. Describe in detail Manpower's use of Second Life's interviewing (informal and formal, if available) to be a recruiting and screening tool, info-gathering tool, and a socialization tool.
5. Using Covin and Kilmann's Typical Problems in Change (p.183), describe problems that have arisen due to the move to use Second Life as a socialization tool and the evidence that the problems exists (dialog with reps, dialog with others in SL, newspaper articles, etc.).
Assignment Requirements:
1. Follow the Getting Started guidelines
a. Each person should create an avatar, download the software, enter Second Life, and teleport to UWMs sim, etc...as outline in the Getting Started document.
b. Each group should create a blog (one per group) at blogger.com.
i. For example: http://wwwolivesthesecondlife.blogspot.com.
ii. E-mail to me your blogspot and post it in your discussion forum.
c. A picture of each person's avatar (or your team's group picture) should posted on the blog and the other corresponding information from the Getting Started orientation activity, scavenger hunt.
i. Feel free to post additional screen shots, if necessary.
ii. Click Function, Print Screen (upper right) and then paste your screen shot into Paint or another image program to create images.
2. Orient yourselves to Second Life. Visit other places in Second Life and familiarize yourself with the navigation (arrow keys), flying, finding places, teleporting, etc.
3. Research in Second Life and in the literature on how companies are using Second Life.
4. At least one member should post weekly project team progress updates to your blog on Mondays starting November 24th (and continue posting Dec 1st, Dec 8th) for (3) three total.
a. You can post updates or new information on your blog as much as you all want, but at a minimum, a weekly post should have a summary of your progress, even if minimal.
5. Meet as a group in Second Life at least once a week. Post your group chat logs to your blog.
a. You can save chat logs by changing your Second Life preferences. Click on Edit: Preferences: Communication in Second Life. Then, check the box under logging options that states "Save a log of IM on my computer"
6. Complete the assignment as outlined.
7. Determine a time and day when your project team will present their plan to the Board in Second Life. Remember, you will be hypothetically trying to convince this Board of Directors that you are the right project team for the job.
a. Not all members have to present, but all members should be present. A
b. Present should plan to use voice tools in Second Life.
c. You can use Doodle to compare each team member's schedule. Presentations must be no later than December 21st. http://www.doodle.com/main.html
d. Submit your first and second options to the instructor for approval as soon as it can be determined.
GRADING:
1.) Did each member complete the orientation activity? 10 points
a. Was a blog created? Was the name posted to the discussion forum and e-mailed to the instructor?
b. Was each team member's avatar name and picture posted on the blog? If not, did they describe their challenge in doing so?
2.) Did your team post at least 3 weekly progress updates to their blog? 10 points
a. Did your team meet in Second Life weekly?
b. Did your posts include your chat logs?
3.) Did your team address the 5 items outlined in the assignment? 25 points
a. Was the final product posted to the blog by the deadline, December 21st?
b. Did you include at least 5 outside references including academic sources?
c. Was your writing formal, academic, and followed APA guidelines?
d. See RUBRIC
4.) Did your team present the plan in Second Life in a persuasive manner? 5 points
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Best Practices
· There are many free resources already on SL, so you don’t need to build or have an island to use SL in your courses.
Find Your Own Networks
· Work with another colleague on your campus and attend education talks in SL to find colleagues to share tips and receive answers to your questions
Create a Collaborative Activity for SL
· Link SL learning activities to course learning objectives and chunk the assignment into manageable pieces
· Students completing SL activities in a group creates peer networks allowing students to troubleshoot technical issues with their peers
· Incorporate other technologies for students to network on their SL progress (discussion boards, blogs)
Manage Student Expectations
· Introduce hardware and software requirements in the syllabus
· Orient your students to Second Life using You Tube videos and popular media articles
· Assign a “Scavenger Hunt” for students in SL where they can create an avatar, change their appearance, update their profile, send a friendship offer, visit SLURLS and specific locations in SL of interest, post a screen shot of themselves sin SL
Evaluate the Impact
· Administer a survey to your students to see whether or not SL is achieving your needs and students feel that it is impacting their learning.
· Share these results!!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Preliminary Findings
After discussion with my colleagues, the neutral responses were extraordinarily high possible indicating that the items were confusing or students cannot process their experiences in SL since it is such a new technology beyond their realm of conceptualization.
This is a small sample of the items that were administered. I will continue to analyze the items using factor analysis removing or rewriting items that factor low. Also, I will re-administer the revised survey. In addition, I will be conducting follow-up interviews with the students who completed the survey in order to develop a reliable instrument.
The instrument is one of the first (if not the first) developed to evaluate students experiences in SL. Variables included in the survey include Media Richness, Social Presence, Engagement, Online Learning Community, Satisfaction, Learning, and Course Design. I first introduced the instrument at the National Communication Association Annual Convention in Chicago, IL in November, 2007. For more information on its development, please contact me.
