San Jose State University Colloquia Series Program March 6, 2014

San Jose State University SLIS/VCARA Virtual Worlds

Panel Discussion on

"Learning & Creating in Second Life"

March 6, 2014

VCARA Amphitheater in Second Life

This panel discussion by students in the Library & Information Sciences program at San Jose State University who have taken or worked on courses by Lori Bell and Pat Franks on  "Living in Tudor Times" or "Birth of the Renaissance" during 2013/2014. 

 Marie Vans (Amvans Lapis in Second Life) moderated the program which had 4 presenters speaking on a variety of topics and which focused on what it is like to be a student in Second Life.

 

 Chris Nelson (Snow Scarmon in SL), presented "Finding Your Inner Avatar".  Her talk focused on personal identification with ones' Second Life avatar as an extension of self.  She pointed out that this was an important component of immersive learning.

 Snow spoke about what Second Life is and isn't.  She pointed out that the "hook" for most people happens when they begin to identify with their avatars. This is what allows them to connect to other people, and ultimately that is what an immersive environment is about.

 Marie Vans (Amvans Lapis in Second Life) next spoke about documenting experiences in virtual worlds.  She pointed out that, aside from course assignments there are many reasons and several modes for doing so. 

Among the reasons for doing it; you might want to recreate a place for another event, to capture spontaneous events such as class presentations, social events or even to record builds that no longer exist. 

 Also important is to capture your own work and experiences in virtual worlds.

 Amvans recommended that students in virtual worlds  document their educational experiences using photos and machinma.  She gave some very useful tips about creating photos and videos (including recommendations for some video editing programs.)  She finished by pointing out that documenting allows you to keep a record of your work and experiences outside of the virtual world in which they were created.

Sarah Fihe (Sarah Bookworm in SL) was up next to speak about the value of in-world "field trips" in virtual learning courses.  She pointed out that the field trips help make her Second Life experience a richer, more fulfilling and meaningful learning experience.

 The field trips help students move beyond their "comfort zones", helped to demonstrate the power of virtual learning environments and overall, made the learning experience (and Second Life) more meaningful.

 

She talked about her experiences visiting different types of environments in Second Life.  These included interactive museums & libraries, historical role-playing sims and immersive learning simulations.  She pointed out that visiting builds such as the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and historical role-playing sims added a depth and connection that allows students to actually experience historical events.   These interactive field trips broaden the learning experience for students and helped make stale facts more accessible to students.  The interaction and immersion these learning environments  provide to students help make them among the most powerful educational experiences in virtual worlds.  In conclusion, Sarah pointed out that one of the true powers of virtual worlds is that they allow students to be truly immersed in whatever it is they are studying.  They can reinforce learning and offer students experiences outside the confines of a classroom.

 Sarah Walker (Veronica Gambara in SL) was the next presenter.  She focused on ways that educators who are considering using virtual worlds could make this experience more powerful and less difficult for students.  She discussed methods for improving the experience for students.

She pointed out that it's very important to be clear and honest about what's involved in participating in a course in a virtual world.  There is a steep learning curve, computer/technical requirements.  She suggested that instructors consider giving in world orientation sessions before registration.  A pre-class training session helps to alleviate student anxiety to learning about virtual activities. She also recommended places in world that provide Second Life orientations to students.

She also provided tips for structuring classes such as leaving time for exploration, discussion and social interaction.  She also wisely suggested preparing backup plans in case there are any technical difficulties with voice or sound. Such issues are commonplace in world and its best to be prepared for them just in case.

Sarah emphasized the importance of remembering how frustrating and intimidating virtual worlds can be when you're new at them.  It important that student understand that the experience may be frustrating.  Instructors should encourage student to help one another, and they should take advantage of the culture of helping that pervades Second Life.  She ended by pointing out that, while teaching can be a challenge in virtual worlds, the payoffs and accomplishments can be as rewarding as traditional classes.

ACRL-VWIG Program February 16, 2014

"Digital Citizenship, Librarians and Information Literacy"
Sunday February 16, 2014, 12-1:30pm SLT (Pacific Time)
Dr. Valerie Hill, (Valibrarian Gregg)

For this program, Valibrarian Gregg shared information about Digital Citizenship, how information literacy is changing and how each learner is responsible for learning to become good digital citizens. Val outlined the 7 elements of Information Literacy  and showed how they could be modeled for learners in a digital participatory culture.

Step 1 was to Identify ones' information needs.

Step 2 was to use critical thinking to ask what you already know.

Step 3 Learn to use many formats and search tools.

Step 4 Requires that learners question and analyze the enormous amount of information available in various media formats in order to locate and access useful information.

Step 5 involves learning how to become ethical digital citizens by learning cyber-safety, respect for intellectual property and good communication skills.

Step 6 involves providing learners with opportunities to create content through both individual and networked activities.

Step 7 requires self-assessment.  Learners must reflect on how well they did.

In a global digital culture, digital citizenship cannot be separated from information literacy.

The program ended with Val reviewing some of the ways librarians can teach Information Literacy Skills and Digital citizenship by providing users with help in: evaluating websites, learning the in's and outs of intellectual property, providing cyber-safety/privacy help and by providing content curation.

ALA Midwinter Meeting, January 25, 2014

Joint Meeting of the

ACRL Virtual Worlds Interest Group (VWIG)

and the

ALA Virtual Communities & Libraries Interest Group

at the ALA annual Midwinter Conference
 Saturday, 25 Jan 2014, 3 pm - 4 pm ET 
Philadelphia, PA.

 

 Valerie Hill (Valibrarian Greg) & other "real life" conference attendees in Philadelphia braved the snow to meet in the Jefferson Boardroom at the Loews Philadephia Hotel.  Val moderated the real life meeting in Philly. 

 Joe served as moderator for the in world meeting from within Second Life.

 

Attendees in Second Life gathered at the Virtual Communities Library meeting space.

Since June 2013, the ACRL-VWIG has put on 6 programs ranging in topics from MOOCs to Conference reports, to a workshop on avatar appearance.  At this business meeting, we reviewed the accomplishments and programs of our group during the last 6 months.

Joe created and is writing a blog for the ACRL Virtual World Interest Group this year to report on the groups' programs and activities.

Esther created a Pinterest Board in order to create a visual record of the groups activities. Members of the group have also been adding photos to the site.

Upcoming programs include a discussion of the revisions to the ACRL Information Literacy standards and a joint session with the ALA Virtual Worlds Committee on embedded librarians.

We also talked about Virtual Community Library plans for 2014, which include an exploration of libraries and librarians in other virtual worlds such as Inworldz and Kitely.

The meeting concluded with question & answer period. The attendees' in Philadelphia were very interested in knowing the kinds of activities librarians were engaged in within Second Life.

ACRL-Virtual Worlds Interest Group Program, December 13, 2013

"Avatar Librarians: Fashion, Appearance and Identity in Second Life"

 

presented by:

Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Instructor, Monterey Peninsula College

(Zinnia Zauber in Second Life)

and

Marcia Meister, University of California, Davis

(Hyacinth Cortes in Second Life)
 

 

For this program, Marcia provided an introduction to concepts and implications of avatar appearance and it's impact on Librarian identity in Second Life.

 

 

 

She examined how stereotypes and self-image  might influence how librarians are perceived as professionals in vitural worlds. She pointed out that immersive environments aim for authentic, realistic representation and, that appearance and dress are two of the important tools librarians have of constructing identities for themselves as professionals in Second Life.  These aspects really do have an impact on relationships and interactions in virtual worlds.

 

 

 

 

Marcia provided an overview of current research on avatar appearance in virtual worlds and  highlighted the findings of a study that examined how librarians establish "professional identitys" in Second Life.  A study by Lorri Mon found that an upgraded avatar appearance was necessary to convey credibility, help create professional identity and build levels of trust while provding information services within Second Life.

 

 

The current literature suggests that one of the tools avatar librarians can use to help establish strong social networking connections and a sense of authenticity in their interactions with Second Life residents is achieved by upgrading avatar appearance.  Findings suggest that avatar appearance and dress DO help convey professional credibility to residents of virtual worlds.

 

 

  For the second part of this program, Renne Brock-Richmond highlighted activities and principals  she uses in her workshops, to help virtual world educators & librarians create authentic avatars.

 

 

Using comparisons with story elements, she demonstrated how virtual world professionals could create awareness and highlight their own identities by working on their avatar's appearance.

 

Renne's holistic approach considered everything from the mission of librarians in virtual worlds to facets one should consider when developoing one's avatar appearance.

 

 

 

The activities that participants of her workshops engage in are designed to show, that, for librarians and educators working in Second Life, ones' avatar is a visual representation of  who you are, and what you represent.  Ones' avatar becomes an expression of ones'  prefessional reputation.

 

 

 

ACRL-Virtual Worlds Interest Group Program, November 17, 2013

 

 

"European Conference on Information Literacy, Oct 22-25, 2013"

Conference Report

 

presented by:

Esther Grassian, Adjunct Lecturer, UCLA Information Studies Department

&

Sheila Webber, Senior Lecturer, School of Information, Sheffield University, UK.

 For this program, Esther and Sheila presented their reports on the ECIL conference which they attended in Istanbul, Turkey at the end of October.

 

 Esther began began by providing information on the conference. There were over 350 participants from 59 countries.  Keynotes were given by Paul Zurkowski (the man who coined the phrase "information literacy") and Christine Bruce from Queensland University of Technology.

 

  

 

 Shiela provided details of the programs she attended.  She pointed out that participation from so many parts of th world, the variety of perspectives and the participation of people key to the development of IL showed the fields energy, maturity and relevance.

 

 

Esther finished by presenting more indepth info about several of the programs she had attended. These included the Keynote by Paul Zurkowski on Universal Information Literacy.

  

 

Andrew Walsh's presentation on "Game-Based learning for information literacy offered some suggestions and examples of how instructors can utilize games and play in IL instruction.

 

 

 

Esther also provided an overview of the workshop she did at the conference.  We hope to get her to provide more detailed information about this at a future ACRL-VWIG program.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who attended.  Both Esther and Sheila made their information available either via notecard or online.  Here's the link for Esther's slides: 

https://sites.google.com/site/esthergrassian/home/ecil-2013

 

 

 

ACRL-Virtual Worlds Interest Group Program, October 27, 2013

 

"MOOCS and Constructivist Information Literacy"

Valerie Hill, Texas Womens University; Michelle Keba, Nova Southeastern University;

Ilene Frank, University of the People

Val, Michelle, and Ilene gave a fantastic presentation on MOOCS and Information Literacy and librarianship.

Michelle Keba (left),  Ilene Pratt (center), Valerie Hill (right)

Michelle provided a brief definition of MOOCS and outlined their development and history.  She went over the different types of MOOCs and talked about a couple of the providers such as Coursera, and edX.

Ilene went over the in's and out's of Copyright and MOOCS. Included was information on who has access to the materials and the course as well as what kinds of resources and uses are permitted.

Valerie explored what MOOCS have to offer and why libraries should be interested in them.  She presented examples of MOOCs that had virtual world components, such as the Anne Frank MOOC from Fall 2012.  In this MOOC, educators meetings were held, and assignments for participants, were presented inside Second Life.  Participants felt that this virtual worlds component made the MOOC experience a more powerful, immersive experience and a better tool for learning.

Finally, she provided examples and details of how librarians are exploring and participating in MOOCs.  These include bringing their expertise on doing content curation and selecting appropriate, scholarly resources for use in MOOCs.   The program was very well attended and a lively discussion followed.