Second Life exploration

Two years ago, I took a graduate level course in Simulations and one of our central tasks for the semester was to create a Second Life character and explore the virtual world each week and complete a 16-week "journey."

My character, TM Dreadlow, was admittedly a bit underdeveloped throughout that course, and though I found a lot of dead ends and annoying areas of Second Life that yielded nothing interesting, there were flashes of brilliance. For example, I attended a live "concert," an academic conference, and several soccer games. These led to a full exploration of how athletics works in Second Life.

As you build your Second Life character and explore the virtual space, what have you found most intriguing? Were there any notable experiences? What does this tell you about virtual identity, subjectivity, or online composition?

Conferences

This week, we're meeting for individual conferences either in person (Tawes 1116-B) or in the Wimba Classroom. The meeting times have been e-mailed and I'll post them below as well.

When you come to your meeting, think about what makes a successful one-on-one conference. Most of you have met with an instructor or teacher before to discuss a project. What worked for you? How much did you prepare for that meeting? Why do instructors cancel classes to promote one-on-one conferences? Feel free to share your opinions below so that we can get the best out of these meetings.

MONDAY
1:30 - 1:40: JC
1:40 - 1:50: (empty)
1:50 - 2:00: (empty)
2:00 - 2:10: Isaac
2:10 - 2:20: Sander
2:20 - 2:30: (empty)
2:30 - 2:40: Sean
2:40 - 2:50: (empty)
2:50 - 3:00: Manda
3:00 - 3:10: (empty)
3:10 - 3:20: Maitreyi

WEDNESDAY
1:15 - 1:25: John

1:30 - 1:40: Adam
1:40 - 1:50: Sydney
1:50 - 2:00: Stephen
2:00 - 2:10: TC
2:10 - 2:20: Joe
2:20 - 2:30: Indigo
2:30 - 2:40: Kayleigh
2:40 - 2:50: Brian
2:50 - 3:00: Jessica
3:00 - 3:10: Gary
3:10 - 3:20: Caitlin

Dissoi Logi

There's an ancient Greek rhetorical exercise called dissoi logi ("different words" or "dilemmas"). Students would practice this exercise to learn both sides of an issue and gain rhetorical talent; after all, you won't be able to argue against something (refutation) as well if you don't understand other perspectives and know when to concede. If you've taken ENGL 101, you'll remember completing this as a set of essays: Considering Another Side and Final Research Paper.

It seems that this class could benefit from a dissoi logi exercise. You're all open minded and well researched this semester, but I'm seeing a lot of reluctance to see different perspectives. In the next week, expect at least one dissoi logi exercise and remember that it's skill building and not necessarily a way to force you to change your mind; you might, however, find value in more than one position.

Class Participation?

Rather than grade all of you with my own criteria for class participation - at least for the first quarter of class - I'd like for each of you to reply to this blog post with the Comment feature and argue for your class participation grade thus far.

Quite simply, you'll write one paragraph arguing for the class participation grade you have earned from weeks 1-4. This does not take into account last week or this week's classes.

You'll want to consider your attendance, your vocal presence in class, your preparedness for class (having completed readings and homework), your listening ability, your focus, your group work contributions, etc.

I will either agree or disagree with your assessment, but persuasive arguments are more likely to sway my opinion.

Multimodal tools?

In today's class, we are reviewing Vuvox, a photo collage tool, Screenr, which creates screen captures for Twitter, and Voicethread, a multimodal communication (and doodling?) program. Earlier in the semester, we looked at Prezi and Camtasia Studio, and we've already explored virtual worlds and machinima creation. These lesser known tools are interesting for our Writing in a Wireless World course because they hold a lot of potential for composing or communicating in digital spaces.

Prezi allows for spatial-based presentations

Today, I'm hoping you'll all bring in your own interesting tools that are emerging for composition in digital spaces. Though I'm a digital native, I'm always finding new programs and software to utilize, and it's always worth checking something out even if it fizzles.

Which mode are you using?

Our current project, the Digital Remix, a.k.a. the Transduction, is quite open-ended in terms of which medium of communication students can use. I allow this open-endedness because I want everyone to think hard about which medium best conveys the inquiries for the semester-long project. For example, if you want to question how police in the College Park area are conveying crime alerts and notifications to members of the campus community via Web 2.0 applications, would the effects best fit your vision via video? Audio? Image? Design? Blog? Twitter? How will you best persuade your audience of your questions?

To consider your mode is to consider what you'll gain from using that medium but also what you'll lose. If you choose to demonstrate your ideas via photos, for example, what limitations do you have? If you're using video, what problems might you run into?

Inquiries and Transduction

As a self-proclaimed digital native, I should have nothing but confidence going into the Digital Remix project that we're transitioning into today. After all, I've posted videos to YouTube, developed podcasts for our writing program and the CTE-Lilly Graduate Fellows at UMD, familiarized myself with Photoshop, and transformed scripts into video.

But I can't help but feel apprehension with transduction, a Kress term that isn't widely promoted in visual rhetoric courses yet, but I feel best fits our situation. The problem is that there's such a wide array of choices one could make. How can I recommend the "right mode" for everyone when this is a contextualist classroom in which creativity in exploring digital media is promoted.

That is why we're working in groups of three. Your class partners will help you ease the anxiety of finding the "right mode" as you all explore the use of software, bounce ideas off one another, and become comfortable with the uneasy act of transduction. If even I'm a little unsure of the act, then you know this will be a fun exploration together! :)

Tom