Riding the Hype Cycle: the Resurgence of Virtual Worlds [1 ed.] 9781848882348, 9789004374058

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Riding the Hype Cycle

Critical Issues Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Lisa Howard Dr Ken Monteith Advisory Board James Arvanitakis Katarzyna Bronk Jo Chipperfield Ann-Marie Cook Peter Mario Kreuter S Ram Vemuri

Simon Bacon Stephen Morris John Parry Karl Spracklen Peter Twohig Kenneth Wilson

A Critical Issues research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ The Cyber Hub ‘Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds’

2013

Riding the Hype Cycle: The Resurgence of Virtual Worlds

Edited by

Paul Jerry, Nancy Tavares-Jones and Sue Gregory

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2013 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-234-8 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2013. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction The Hype Cycle Upswing: The Resurgence of Virtual Worlds Sue Gregory, Nancy Tavares-Jones and Paul Jerry Section I:

Participants Using Virtual Worlds An Exploratory Study of Jungian Personality Traits in Second Life Residents Nancy Tavares-Jones

Section II:

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3

The ALBO Project: Virtual Working Environments for the Detection of Organizational Well-Being Eva Venturini, Valeria Faralla and Alessandro Innocenti

13

Privacy as Commodity: Willingness to Sell Access to Private Information over the Network in a Virtual Environment Nili Steinfeld

27

Supplementing Self-Access Learning for an English Language Centre through Virtual Platforms Dean Anthony Fabi Gui and Andrew Northern

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Students’ Experiences and Ideas of the Library Services in Second Life Eeva-Liisa Eskola and Marja Anttonen

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Technology Associated with Utilizing Virtual Worlds Experiential Learning, Virtual Collaboration and Robots Michael Vallance and Catherine Naamani

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eLearning Technologies: Solutions to the Challenges Experienced by University Students in a Classroom Environment Heera Boodhun and Chandani Appadoo

77

The Death and Reincarnation of the Reader in Online Communities Saulius Keturakis and Audronė Daubarienė

91

Virtual Learning and Research Methods in Architecture: An Overview of the Last 10 Years at the Department of Information and Communication Technology in Architecture Pfarr-Harfst Mieke

101

Play Hard, Work Harder: A Gameplay Analysis of Goal-Oriented Narrative and Post-Narrative Play in The Sims 2 DS Heidi Mau and Cheryl L. Nicholas

111

Section III: The Ways that Virtual Worlds are Used for Education Purposes Comparison of Students Learning in a Virtual World Sue Gregory

123

Experiential Teaching and Learning as part of a Blended Approach: Classrooms, Blackboard and Second Life Practices’ Ridvan Ata

135

Breaking down Silos: Exploring the Effects of Graduate Cross-Programme Collaborations within a 3D Immersive World Barbara B. Howard, John H. Tashner and Robert L. Sanders

149

Using Second Life to Train Counsellors: Is Transformative Learning Possible in this Novel Environment? Tom Edwards

159

Section IV: The Immersive Experience of Participants and Their Avatars Guiding Social Research in MMORPGs from a Phenomenological Perspective Paul T. Scriven

169

Storytelling, Rules and Society in Modern MMORPGs Martin Hennig

179

Image Constructions in the Social Web Inge Wagner

191

Virtual Selves, Research Perspectives: Exploring the Role and Implications for Taking the Insider Perspective in Virtual Worlds Research Simon Evans

199

The Syntagmatic Cathedral: Experiential Learning through Flow-Waves of Immersion, Engagements and Reflection in a Multiplatform Paradigm Lorraine Smith

219

The Mechanism of Additional Personal Identification’s Appearance in Computer Role Games Angelina Demilhanova

229

Reading 3D Wor(l)ds: Poetic Words for the High Tech Generation Diogo Marques

237

Methods and Ethics in Virtual World Research: The Second Life Experience Paul Jerry

249

The Hype Cycle Upswing: The Resurgence of Virtual Worlds Sue Gregory, Nancy Tavares-Jones and Paul Jerry Abstract The works presented at the 3rd Global Conference on Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds in Lisbon, Portugal represent a resurgence in the popularity of the use of virtual worlds. Utilizing the Gartner Hype Cycle, we hope to bring an awareness of the resurgence and expansion of the many affordances that virtual worlds offer. We use the Hype Cycle to outline the future of virtual worlds, and how they will continue to be used during this Hype Cycle ‘upswing’. Key Words: Experiential learning, Hype Cycle, virtual worlds. ***** 1. The Gartner ‘Hype Cycle’ The organization Gartner Incorporated (Gartner) 1 has a long-standing reputation for analysing, researching, and disseminating information regarding technology. Every year, Gartner publishes a statement on the state of technologies and their relative maturity according to their ‘hype cycle’. The hype cycle has five distinct sequential zones in which technology passes through, and at various paces. The five phases are: A) Technology Trigger: ‘A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.’ B) Peak of Inflated Expectations: ‘Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.’ C) Trough of Disillusionment: ‘Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.’ D) Slope of Enlightenment: ‘More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.’ E) Plateau of Productivity: ‘Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly

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__________________________________________________________________ defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.’ 2 2. On An ‘Upswing?’ In their last press release, Gartner outlined the current position of virtual world’s in relation to other technologies. Although virtual worlds have spent the last few years in the ‘trough of disillusionment’, this is the first year that virtual worlds have begun the climb towards the ‘slope of enlightenment’. During a 4-day long weekend in Lisbon, Portugal, delegates from around the world contributed their assertions that support the Hype Cycle upswing for virtual worlds. This climb towards the slope of enlightenment is a truly exciting time for virtual worlds. From conducting research ethically, to participating in experiential digital poetry, delegates were treated to a wide range of ‘upswings’ in the uses of virtual worlds and what they will offer in the context of experiential learning. This 3rd Global Conference for Experiential Learning Virtual Worlds (ELVW3) was evidence of the growing breadth of emerging interdisciplinary fields utilizing the technology associated with virtual worlds. 3. Evidence of the Slope of Enlightenment These chapters reflect some of the presentations presented in Lisbon from a number of the conference participants of ELVW3. Using Jerry’s description of categories of virtual world research (see Jerry in this volume), the chapters have been separated into four general themes: the examination of the human beings engaged in virtual worlds, the technology associated with utilizing virtual worlds, the ways in which virtual worlds are utilized for education purposes, and the immersive experiences of participants with their avatars. 3.1 Participants Using Virtual Worlds We begin with Nancy Tavares-Jones’ study in Chapter 1. Her study examines the personality types of Second Life residents. Her examination of the personality type preferences of virtual world users explored the potential overrepresentations of certain personality types and what these overrepresentations might mean for educators who utilize this medium for experiential learning purposes. Chapter 2 presents the work of Eva Venturini, Valeria Faralla and Alessandro Innocenti. They discuss projects conducted in Second Life with students in Information Literacy Skills and Library Services courses. They discuss the reactions of student’s learning experiences to learning the virtual worlds and discuss the analysis. Nili Steinfeld’s work, in Chapter 3, reviews the willingness of some Second Life residents to sell their personal information. She shows us how ‘cheaply’ we are willing to sell our privacy and discusses the relative value of the personal

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__________________________________________________________________ information being sold as well as the general ignorance of Second Life participants of the implications of this lack of diligence to personal identity security. In Chapter 4, Dean Gui and Andrew Northern discuss the impacts and implications associated with implementing a virtual world self-access centre to handle some of the responsibilities in Hong Kong universities. Eeva-Liisa Eskola and Marja Anttonen explore the use of virtual worlds to evaluate stress within the workplace in Chapter 5. They provide a cross-exploration of virtual worlds and real world student evaluations. 3.2 Technology Associated with Utilizing Virtual Worlds Chapter 6 contains the work of Michael Vallance and Catherine Naamani. They discuss the experiential learning between groups of students in different countries to complete robotic programming tasks. Heera Boodhun and Chandani Appadoo discuss the use of various eLearning tools to enhance online learning experiences in Chapter 7. They remind us that we need to organize the various tools for a virtual learning environment and its use for course delivery, technology for preparation of resource materials, communication technologies, and so forth. They highlight the challenges of this process. Within Chapter 8, Saulius Keturakis and Audronė Daubarienė explore the transformation of a linear mode of learning and teaching in a non-linear hypertext based on beginning with traditional dialogue teaching. With the introduction of the Internet, the reader of the content can become the author. They explore the notion that critical thinking has been replaced by entertainment and listening has replaced reading. Nowadays, the reader listens to the talking that was produced by written text in the form of the spoken word. The work of Pfarr-Harfst Mieke can be found in Chapter 9. Mieke discusses the use of virtual worlds to teach architecture in Germany over a ten-year period. Three teaching methods were used – lectures, software training and practical sessions. Students were taught how to use digital media learning to identify, elaborate and illustrate drafts and space allocation using new media. Chapter 10 outlines Heidi Mau and Cheryl L. Nicholas’ work. They explored the use of Sims 2D over a period of one and a half years of study taking on the role of a virtual motel owner and the issues involved with managing this virtual business. The time spent in this virtual space (an average of six hours per day) has implications for the endurance of virtual world users as well as the nature of a compelling narrative which cast the user in a role that demanded her time to ensure her virtual business ran smoothly. 3.3 The Ways that Virtual Worlds are Used for Education Purposes Sue Gregory compares the learning experiences of students in Chapter 11. Gregory’s research looks at the description of changes in demographics and

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__________________________________________________________________ participation from 2008-2011, including those students who choose not to utilize a virtual world for their learning experience. Chapter 12 has Ridvan Ata discussing a blended learning approach to teaching using face-to-face learning management systems, web-based resources and Second Life in an Information Literacy course. Ata describes the structure of the courses, the learning activities and some interventions and strategies that were used for information problem activities. Barbara Howard, John Tashner and Robert Sanders’ work can be found in Chapter 13. Their work examines the relationship between distance learning and virtual worlds. In addition, the authors discuss topics such as leadership, technology and curriculum in relation to virtual worlds. The work of Tom Edwards can be found within Chapter 14. Edwards discusses the utilization of virtual worlds in training novice counsellors. He describes how virtual worlds were utilized in the training process and the utilization of virtual worlds as an educational medium. 3.4 The Immersive Experience of Participants and Their Avatars Chapter 15 contains Paul Scriven’s work outlining social research which is undertaken through MMORPGs. Scriven discusses research methodological issues in relation to MMORPGs as well as issues relating to phenomenological research and its capability in virtual worlds. Martin Hennig’s work can be found in Chapter 16. Hennig suggests that there is an opening to subvert virtual spaces inherent in their structure. The dialectic of structured narrative and open play space leave the potential for virtual spaces to be used in a manner different from their original intent. Hennig further discusses the implications of blurring the boundary of ‘in-game’ and ‘out-of-game’ distinctions. Chapter 17 contains the work of Inge Wagner. Wagner reminds us that we are always engaged in a semiotic construction of the ego when engaged in virtual spaces. We show different sides to our virtual selves depending on the virtual location. In Chapter 18, Simon Evans discusses the implication of participating in virtual worlds on the ‘self’, and how that conception might change over time and with differing experiences. In Chapter 19, Lorraine Smith explores states of engagement, immersion and reflection with adolescents in a multi-platform Internet space. Flow-waves are used to discover a unique rhythm of the activities of individuals. The concepts and implications of understanding experiential learning in virtual worlds are explored. Angelina Demilhanova’s study in Chapter 20, discusses the mechanism of personal identification in computer role games. She also suggests that there are certain personalities that engage with virtual spaces and that their immersion in it can lead to change in personality.

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__________________________________________________________________ Chapter 21 contains the work of Diogo Marques and his study of digital poetry and immersiveness. He outlines how virtual platforms can bring words to ‘life’ and produces an alternative method of teaching poetry through experiential learning. Lastly, in Chapter 22, Jerry discusses research behaviour in a virtual world, how ethics are communicated and how to manage post-research interaction with participants. Jerry looks at what it means to be at the same time a researcher and a resident in a virtual world. He discusses the management of boundaries and the roles played by each. 4. Evidence of the Slope of Enlightenment Lisbon taught us several things. Firstly, the use of virtual worlds is neither dying nor dead. As the Gartner Hype Cycle suggests, after the excitement has worn off, and after the technology in question has bottomed out in the Trough of Disillusionment, it moves to a space where its realistic potential is understood, leading to productive use. It may be that no one bothered to tell the researchers contained in this volume that virtual worlds were languishing in the Trough of Disillusionment. The rich diversity of the work being done in these spaces attests to the reality that we are well along the Slope of Enlightenment and in fact, some may be into their own Plateau of Productivity. Secondly, Lisbon taught us that the creativity of those who work and research these spaces knows few bounds. We see a range of usage from education and simulation training, to co-opting game spaces for others, educational and communicative purposes, to the development of virtual game spaces themselves for a particular immersive educational experience. And there is a ‘beyond’ as well. Digital poetry and self-transformation sit side by side with the pragmatics of implementing virtual spaces as educational activities in traditional universities. This speaks to a mature culture of educators and virtual world users who have transcended Gartner’s Trough and are working in a stable and persistent educational space – as stable and persistent as the worlds they immerse in. Finally, Lisbon is the (re-)opening of a door. On reflecting back to ELVW2 in Prague, 2012, participants left with a sense that perhaps a door had closed, or as Jerry, Masters and Tavares-Jones said then, …where are all these innovative and interesting educational projects? Imagine going to a party and finding the house empty, and then eventually opening the door to the garden and finding a crowd that was larger than you imagined. Welcome to our garden. Let us introduce you to the crowd. 3 From Lisbon, we would now say that the crowd has grown, that many more guests have arrived, and they have all brought exciting work with them.

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Notes 1

For more information about Gartner Incorporated, please see http://www.gartner.com. 2 Gartner Incorporated, ‘Hype Cycles’. http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp 3 Paul Jerry, Yvonne Masters and Nancy Tavares-Jones, Utopia and a Garden Party (Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2012), vii.

Bibliography Gartner Incorporated. ‘Methodologies: Hype Cycles.’ Viewed 2 July 2013. http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp Jerry, Paul, Yvonne Masters and Nancy Tavares-Jones. Utopia and a Garden Party. Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2012.

Section I:

Participants Using Virtual Worlds

An Exploratory Study of Jungian Personality Traits in Second Life Residents Nancy Tavares-Jones Abstract In virtual worlds such as Second Life, participants can engage in different activities with others. The personality type of the resident innately guides the activities in which he or she chooses to participate. Choices such as communication method (i.e. group communication versus one-to-one) and in-world community participation (i.e. exploring new worlds versus building their own) can explained through the use of personality type preferences. Carl Jung’s work entitled Psychological Types is regarded as one of the foundational guides to understanding the personality preferences of oneself and others. Understanding the personality types of virtual world users may help educators when designing online experiential learning activities. This understanding may also help educators understand why some students thrive with online experiential learning activities while others struggle. Utilizing a demographic survey and the Majors Personality Type IndicatorTM, I completed a quantitative analysis of Second Life users and their personality type preferences. An examination of a resident sample size (n=91) in relation to population norms will be outlined. Statistically significant differences between the Second Life sample and population norms will be discussed. The implications of this study for educators who choose to employ Second Life as an experiential learning tool will also be examined. Key Words: Second Life, virtual worlds, personality type, education. ***** 1. Introduction With the development of the internet, communication and interaction with others has become more accessible and interactive. New technologies have utilized the internet to promote communication with others using methods which were not possible in the recent past. These methods range from static forms of communication (i.e. message boards, weblog postings, electronic mail, etc.), simultaneous texting (i.e. interactive chat communications, etc.) to video and voice communications (i.e. Skype). An additional method that combines and expands on these types of online communication tools is Second Life (‘SL’). 2. Second Life SL is a three-dimensional, virtual world where online residents utilize a threedimensional character (or ‘avatar’) to navigate their interaction with other online residents. 1 Residents can customize their avatar and configure it according to their

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An Exploratory Study of Jungian Personality Traits

__________________________________________________________________ wishes, ranging from different humanoid (i.e. woman-like, man-like, child-like), para-humanoid (i.e. vampires, zombies, etc.), and non-humanoid like figures (i.e. cars, animals, robots, etc.) 2. Residents can utilize these avatars to interact with other residents, and participate in an array of activities such as karaoke, dancing, role-playing activities, and sexual intercourse 3. Depending on a person’s personality preferences, one can choose the level of online interaction they wish to participate in when engaging in virtual worlds such as SL. Ranging from solitary activities such as building a home, to more interactive activities such as role-playing in simulations with many others, 4 residents can personalize their chosen activity according to their personal inclination and personality type preferences. 3. Personality Theory Carl Jung defined 5 three dichotomous scales, and provided descriptions for each of them. Within his manuscript, Jung discussed that individuals have an innate, natural tendency to choose one dichotomy over another when communicating with others, having to make decisions, and taking in information. He emphasised that these dichotomies are preferences only, and that everyone has the ability to act in either manner. For the first dichotomy, Jung described the personality preferences that describe one’s attitude to the world. He labelled each dichotomous side as extraversion and introversion. An individual who prefers extraversion favours action-oriented activities. Obtaining and directing energy by engaging in frequent interaction with others is a common interaction style of the extraverted attitude. The individual who prefers introversion prefers internal thought-oriented activities. Obtaining and directing their energy through inner reflection and minimizing interactions with others by having few, substantial interactions with people are common activities for the introverted attitude. Jung outlined the second and third dichotomies as functions. The section dichotomy or ‘function’ was defined as sensing and intuition. A person who prefers sensing enjoys learning and gaining information through direct, hands-on experience. The sensing individual prefers a pragmatic approach to situations. A person who prefers the intuitive preference enjoys examining the ‘bigger picture’ and theoretical possibilities when examining situations. The other function outlined by Jung was labelled thinking and feeling on the two dichotomous ends. The individual who prefers the thinking function prefers making decisions based on a logical set of rules. They often make decisions by detaching the situation from the individuals involved in order to do what they believe is reasonable and sensible. The individual who prefers the feeling preference chooses to run decisions through an internal set of values, while trying to create harmony with everyone involved.

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__________________________________________________________________ Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers expanded on Jung’s theory by indentifying a fourth dichotomy 6. The forth dichotomy was mentioned by Jung, but not clearly delineated as well as the first three noted above. Myers and Briggs outlined this dichotomy as the judging and perceiving type preferences. The judging preference enjoys systematic, structured processes. They also enjoy coming to closure with decisions and projects. The perceiving preference enjoys open-ended and free-flowing processes, being open to new information as it arrives. They also enjoy open-ended projects, often becoming anxious when projects end and decisions are made. 4. Personality Assessments and Population Norms Myers and Briggs created an assessment entitled the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (‘MBTI’) which was designed to assess the personality type preferences the respondent on the four dichotomies defined by Jung, Myers and Briggs. The MBTI has been used in several countries and translated into multiple languages. It is comprised of a series questions, of either/or words and phrases, asking the participant to select which word or phrased they preferred from dichotomous pairings. In 2005, Dr. Mark Majors expanded on Jungian theory and the MBTI by creating the Majors Personality Type Indicator (‘MPTI’). Instead of having participants select phrases, words and statements in an either/or manner, participants can make their selection based on a five point scale, which includes a neutral selection. For this study, I received a generous donation of 100 MPTI 7 assessments to use for the personality assessment section of this study. However, there were no population norms published by Dr. Majors to compare the results to 8. As the MBTI and the MPTI were created with the same underlying Jungian typology characteristics, the published population norms of the MBTI will used for the statistical analysis. 5. Methodology In September 2012, the Athabasca University Research Ethics Board provided full ethical approval for this study. The purpose of this study was to examine the Jungian personality types of SL residents, and determine if there are statistical significant results when comparing the SL norms to population norms. In order to obtain the data for my study, I opted to complete a quantitative analysis. My hypothesis for this study is that each of the four dichotomies will be statistically different from population norms found within the MBTI-USA population. The methodology to obtain the data required a three-pronged approach. First, I needed to recruit a sampling of SL residents. Secondly, I required demographic information on the participants of the study. Lastly, I would require their Jungian

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__________________________________________________________________ personality type as determined by an assessment. The following subsections delineate my methodology for each of these three portions. 5.1 Recruitment To obtain participants, I utilized several methods to garner attention for the study. I, along with the assistance of my supervisor, Dr. Paul Jerry, placed online advertisements with New World Blogs, the Second Life community forum, with Athabasca University’s Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology message board and with different social media outlets (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn). Other methods of recruitment included convenience sampling (i.e. contacting residents on a one-to-one basis, messaging online friends) and word of mouth from participants who already participated in the study. After a slow beginning with recruitment, an exponential growth in response occurred after contacting New World Notes 9 and having a posting placed there directing. The advertisement directed clients to an SL landing site, which contained background information about the study, the link to the survey, and contact information for my supervisor and me. 5.2 Demographic Information Participants, once they provided informed consent to participate in the study, were given a demographic survey to complete. Information about their gender, main avatar gender, avatar age, how they heard about the study, and main country of residence comprised of the first half the survey. The second half of the demographic survey asked participants to review to words and phrases that outlined the four dichotomies, and provide an estimate as to their personality type. This satisfied a requirement by the MPTI for reliability reasons. 10 5.3 MPTI Personality Assessment Lastly, all survey participants were assigned an MPTI assessment to complete. The MPTI asks 51 questions and is completed online. It is then scored electronically and results sent to me for review and tallying. A review of the assigned MTPI values and the estimated values provided during the demographic survey were analysed. If any of the estimations that the participant gave did not match the assessed values, an email requesting clarification was sent, along with the MPTI results. If I had no response from the participant after 48 hours, I used the MPTI assessed results for the statistical analysis. 6. Demographic Findings The data collected during the above processes was entered into a passwordprotected spreadsheet, over the four-week period. A total of 150 survey responses were received, of which 91 completed the MPTI. The findings outlined below capture 150 respondents for the demographic survey and the MPTI statistical

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__________________________________________________________________ information captures the 91 respondents 11. For actual gender, 60% indicated that they were female, and 40% indicated they were male. When asked about avatar gender, 67% indicated they were female, while 32% indicated they were male. There were no respondents who indicated that their actual gender was female, and their main avatar was male. Experimentation with different gender roles has been found in different studies, and is congruent with individuals who wanted to roleplay different gender simulations. 12 For avatar age, survey respondents were asked to indicate how many days old their avatar was. A mean value of 1,610.64 days across 150 participants was found. The standard deviation was 760.43 days. At the time of writing, I have been unable to verify if this mean value is congruent with other research studies. For actual age, the largest participant group was found to be residents aged 45-54. They comprised of 31.3% of the total SL sample group. A report released by Linden Labs 13 in 2008 indicated that this age group occupied a total of 21.4% of the total hours spent in SL. According to Linden Labs, the age range which occupied the highest percentage of time within SL were aged 25-34. It should be noted that my values were calculated with a headcount value, whereas the Linden Labs values were calculated as a percentage of total time used within SL. Participants were asked what their primary country of residence was. The top three countries represented within the SL sample group was the United States of America (44.7%), Canada (22%) and the United Kingdom (13%). For a 2008 report released by Linden Labs 14, the top three countries represented were the United States of America (39.4%), Germany (9.6%), and the United Kingdom (6.6%). It should be noted that my values were calculated with a headcount value, whereas the Linden Labs values were calculated as a percentage of total time used within SL. 7. Statistical Analysis In order to analyse the each of the four dichotomies, population norms are needed. As mentioned earlier, the population norms for the MPTI have not yet been established. As such, the population norms for the statistical analysis were completed utilizing MBTI statistics. Specifically, the statistics based on the USA population were utilized, as the largest group of respondents indicated that they were from the USA. I completed an initial examination between the assessed personality preferences with the MBTI population norms. The results can be found under Table 1. At first glance, one can see striking differences between the sample size and the MBTI population norms. In order to determine if these differences were statistically different, a quantitative analysis—specifically a chi-square test—needed to be undertaken.

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An Exploratory Study of Jungian Personality Traits

__________________________________________________________________ Table 1: Assessed Preference Type versus MBTI Population Norms Assessed Personality Preference (n=91) Extraversion Introversion Sensing Intuitive Thinking Feeling Judging Perceiving

37.3% 62.6% 47.3% 52.7% 61.5% 38.5% 44.0% 56.0%

USA-MBTI Population Norms (n=6009) 49.3% 50.7% 73.3% 26.7% 40.2% 59.8% 54.1% 45.8%

A Chi-square analysis analysing each of the dichotomies was completed utilizing the SPSS software package. An acceptance level of .01 was adopted which indicates that any statement made regarding accepting the alternative hypothesis was being done so with a 99% confidence level that it was not acquired by chance. For the first dichotomy, Extraversion and Introversion, a chi square analysis calculated a value of 5.03, which equates to a p value of .03. As this did not meet the .01 acceptance level, I cannot state that there was a statistical difference between the SL sample and the MBTI population. For the second dichotomy, Intuitive and Sensing, a chi-square analysis calculated a value of .001. This value meets the .01 acceptance level, so I can state that there was a statistical difference between the SL sample and the MBTI population. For the third dichotomy, Thinking and Feeling, a chi-square analysis calculated a value of .001. This value meets the .01 acceptance level, so I can state that there was a statistical difference between the SL sample and the MBTI population. For the last dichotomy, Judging and Perceiving, a chi-square analysis calculated a value of .06. This value does not meet the .01 acceptance level, so I cannot state that there was a statistical difference between the SL sample and the MBTI population. 8. Impact for Educators For educators charged with educating a student population, having an understanding of student personality typology can be a valuable piece of information. As there is an overrepresentation of Intuitive and Thinking preference types, creating exercises that emphasize and utilize these traits can help foster learning and development.

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__________________________________________________________________ When creating activities for intuitive types, activities which foster and develop theory and ‘bigger picture’ activities will engage these students instead of detail oriented work primarily engaged in senses. In addition, when designing activities for students who have a preference for the thinking dichotomy, creating activities which foster and develop logic and understanding will engage these students. Also, ensuring that decisions which allow students to make pragmatic and emotionally detached decisions will further engage them.

Notes 1

Paul Jerry, ‘The Courtship Hypothesis and Second Life: Explaining Sexual Behaviour in a Virtual World’, Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds: Opening an Undiscovered World, eds. Paul Jerry and Linda Lindsey (Oxfordshire: InterDisciplinary Press, 2011), 57-67. Brian E. Mennecke, et al., ‘An Examination of Theory of Embodied Social Presence in Virtual Worlds’, Decision Sciences 42.2 (2011): 413-450. 2 Sarah Robbins and Mark R. Bell, Second Life for Dummies (Hoboken: Whiley Publishing, 2008), 75-97. 3 Jerry, ‘Courtship’, 57-67. 4 Sue Gregory and Yvonne Masters, ‘Real Thinking with Virtual Hats: A RolePlaying Activity for Pre-Service Teachers in Second Life’, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 28.3 (2012). 5 The summarization of the three dichotomies were gathered from Jung, ‘Psychological Types’, 1921. 6 Isabel Briggs Myers and Peter B. Myers, Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type (Michigan: Davies-Black Publishing, 1980), 1-24. 7 Sincere thanks to Ms. Denise Hughes, President of Career Life/Skills Resources for her generous donation. 8 Mark S. Majors, email to author, 10 July 2012. 9 ‘Take a Short Survey for a Academic Research on SL Personalities’ last modified 19 October 2012, Viewed 17 January 2012, http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/10/survey-for-research-on-second-life-userpersonalities.htm. 10 Mark S. Majors, Majors Personality Type Inventory: Professional User Manual (Toronto: Career/LifeSkills Resources Inc., 2012), 17-24. 11 It should be noted that respondents had the opportunity to skip questions if they so chose, which is why calculated values may not always equal 100%. 12 Sabine Trepte and Leonard Rinecke, ‘Avatar Creation and Video Game Enjoyment: Effects of Life-Satisfaction, Game Competitiveness, and Identification

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An Exploratory Study of Jungian Personality Traits

__________________________________________________________________ with the Avatar’, Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications 22.4 (2010): 171-84. 13 ‘Linden Lab Second Life Virtual Economy Demographic Summary information Through November 2008’, viewed 12 December 2012, http://static-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/economy/stats_200811.xls. 14 Ibid.

Bibliography Gregory, Sue and Yvonne Masters. ‘Real Thinking with Virtual Hats: A RolePlaying Activity for Pre-Service Teachers in Second Life.’ Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 28.3 (2012): 420-40. Jerry, Paul. ‘The Courtship Hypothesis and Second Life: Explaining Sexual Behaviour in a Virtual World’. In Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds: Opening an Undiscovered World, edited by Paul Jerry and Linda Lindsey, 57-67. Oxfordshire: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2011. Jung, Carl S. ‘Psychological Types.’ In The Portable Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell, 178-269. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1921. Linden Labs. ‘Linden Lab Second Life Virtual Economy Demographic Summary information Through November 2008’. http://static-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/economy/stats_200811.xls. Majors, Mark S. Majors Personality Type Inventory: Professional User Manual. Toronto: Career/LifeSkills Resources Inc., 2012. Mennecke, Brian E., Janea L. Triplett, Lesya M. Hassall, Zayira Jordán Conde and Rex Heer. ‘An Examination of a Theory of Embodied Social Presence in Virtual Worlds.’ Decision Sciences 42.2 (2011): 413-50. Myers, Isabel Briggs, and Peter B. Myers. Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type. Davies-Black Pub., 1980. Robbins, Sarah, and Mark R. Bell. Second Life for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, 2008.

Nancy Tavares-Jones

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__________________________________________________________________ Trepte, Sabine and Leonard Reinecke. ‘Avatar Creation and Video Game Enjoyment: Effects of Life-Satisfaction, Game Competitiveness, and Identification with the Avatar.’ Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications 22.4 (2010): 171-84. Nancy Tavares-Jones is in her final year of her Masters of Counselling Psychology degree program at Athabasca University. Her research interests include psychometric assessments and their applications, psychoanalytic theory, personality theory and understanding the concept of ‘identity’ in actual and virtual worlds. She also has her own private practise in psychotherapy in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The ALBO Project: Virtual Working Environments for the Detection of Organizational Well-Being Eva Venturini, Valeria Faralla and Alessandro Innocenti Abstract Substantial evidence from social and cognitive psychology suggests that lot of behaviours are driven by processes operating outside of awareness. Many implicit or indirect measures to capture such processes have been proposed. Thus, the literature of risk perception shows the role of the heuristic thinking in the individual evaluation of the risky situations. The aim of the ALBO Project is verify, both theoretically and experimentally, if the traditional instruments for assessing work-related stress (questionnaires, check-lists and interviews) are inappropriate to detect the individual perception of psycho-social risk factors in work environments. It is also claimed that virtual reality simulations permits a better assessment of the potential factors of stress in workplaces. Game simulations based on the techniques of virtual reality are potent tools to provide a substantial improvement in the quality and quantity of information and awareness on the safety and psycho-social risks existing inside organizations. Also, the virtual reality exposure (virtual movies) can facilitate the objectivity in judgment of audience. The final product called Adventure Game, was submitted in three pilot firms to test it. The result of the first step of the project is the demo version including scenarios of virtual work environments. The final product will be used for assessing job stress and for designing training experiences in workplaces on online platforms. Key Words: Virtual reality, job stress, risk perception, workplaces, heuristics. ***** 1. Theoretical Background A. Work-Related Stress and the Limits of Evaluation Tools The examination on the scientific literature shows that the production of a stress reaction is not due to the nature of the stimulus, but rather to its cognitiveemotional evaluation, in terms of subjective past. 1 In our field of work, in accordance with JD-R model, 2 the job strain is defined as the individual evaluation of balance between the job demands and the personal or job resources to answer them. In this sense, the subject is an active element in the relation person-environment, a dynamic interaction based on causal reciprocity, a continuous process of assessment of stimulus and reactions of adjustment. Thus, it is proposed that individuals who are confident about their capabilities and optimistic about their future may identify or even create more aspects of their environment that facilitate goal attainment. This capability leads to goal confrontation and consequently to work engagement. 3

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__________________________________________________________________ In the perspective of comprehension of this process’ result, it is fundamental to focus attention toward the individual response to stimulus, therefore toward the importance of personal resources and coping strategies in the process of stress perception. 4 At present, in Italy, the measurement of work-related stress is done through the use of checklists and questionnaires, both for the valuation of objective aspects of work and subjective aspects of workers’ perception. 5 The questionnaires are self-report tools organized in a series of open or closeended questions, which request the subject to report his/her own experience (thoughts, judgments, motivations, etc.). Some of these tools point out the presence or absence of a specific behaviour, while some others imply the evaluation of the frequency of the event. These tools are still widely used in psychological research on the behaviour in working and managerial fields. Their use is based on the prerequisite that the subject who replies is fully aware his/her own mental processes. 6 Furthermore, these tools can be influenced by some sources of distortion. The main factors individuated are: the expectations of the subject who replies, the search for coherence, social desirability, the perception of personal risk (unrealistic optimism), sources of distortion due to the context and to the situation in which the subjects replies, and the order of questions. For further details, please refer to Luccio. 7 Several studies on implicit associations, 8 call into question the effective reliability of these evaluation tools. In particular, the debate concerns the idea that the subject can have an aware control of his/her own thoughts and behaviours. 9 On the contrary, it is considered as correct the assumption that subjects are not always fully aware of these processes. In fact, while self-report tools highlight the intentional and conscious aspect of behaviours, implicit measures point out an implicit and scarcely consciously controllable level of elaboration. 10 Self-report tools exclude from the evaluation all those mental processes automatically and instinctively activated, which escape from both awareness and introspection, ‘loosing’ this information and not representing correctly the perception of risk factors. Moreover, some authors, 11 argue that thoughts, emotions, actions, can be partially defined as automatic processes, since they are led by characteristics present in the environment (for instance people, objects, behaviours, environments, roles, rules, etc.) and by conscious automatic processes not mediated by aware choices or reflections. B. The Influence of Heuristics in Risk Perception A key assumption on how people perceive risk and take decisions in risky settings, such as insurance and financial markets, is that information processing is generally affected by a number of cognitive biases. The criticisms addressed by Kahneman and Tversky’s 12 heuristic approach and by Slovic’s 13 psychometric paradigm to revealed preference theory, according to which individuals are rational

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__________________________________________________________________ in processing valuable information in decision-making, inform recent empirical research. A first result is that individuals are generally myopic in assessing risks. They tend to be over-concerned with minor risks having an immediate impact on their daily life, while practically neglect the long-term effects of unfamiliar risks. This attitude explains why non-experts tend to rank certain risks as more severe than experts and to overestimate the magnitude of the same risks. Slovic 14 identifies two sources of ‘lay’ people’s risk misperception: the degree to which risk is dreaded, defined as the combination of having a catastrophic potential, perceived lack of control, the unequal distribution of risks and benefits, and the degree to which it is unknown, that is the condition of being unobservable, novel, and with a long latency period. Another well-known fact is that individuals perceive benefits and costs associated to risky events as negatively correlated, which is in contrast with empirical evidence. If individuals exhibit a positive attitude to a risky prospect, they overvalue the associated benefits while under-assess the associated costs. Similarly, when their attitude is negative, the related costs are systematically overvalued. Finally, it is generally acknowledged that reactions to risks are triggered emotionally and not determined by rational scrutiny. The concept of somatic marker proposed by Damasio 15 supposes the existence of automatic and unaware affective reactions, discerning what is risky or not independently from a careful weighing of pros and cons. Since it has been demonstrated that risk perception is influenced by several components among which the background context, Schonberg et al. 16 propose to study the decisional processes in risk conditions in more realistic environments, where motivational, positive and negative aspects linked to decisional processes can be considered. In these environments it will be possible to analyse the emotional dimension in its elementary aspects keeping the requisite of external validity. The virtual simulation is suitable for this kind of analysis, because it can produce real situations while having the control of environment where subjects interact. 17 Moreover, it is believed that the methods of indirect scientific survey, such as laboratory experiments and tools of virtual risk simulation, also combined with the use of neuroscientific techniques (brain imaging, as it was specified in the previous paragraph), are more appropriate for the study and description of decisional processes related to risk perception. These techniques in fact allow to consider the complexity of decisional processes and to monitor at the same time emotional reactions and cognitive system, in analytic and experiential modality, of the subjects involved. More specifically, it is believed that the application of virtual simulation techniques can be particularly useful in relation to work environments, a context in which it is relatively more difficult to carry out surveys on risk perception and analysis, if not a posteriori, that is, after the damaging event.

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The ALBO Project

__________________________________________________________________ C. Using Virtual Reality to Improve Objectivity in Judgment Virtual reality is a powerful tool to simulate events and tasks by allowing an accurate control of the setting experienced by the decision-maker. This technique can be usefully applied to the investigation of risk perception and management. Virtual reality is different from real life because it applies a sort of ‘filter’ to the contradictions due to the conflict of individual perspectives. As a consequence, it is not important to bridge the gap between reality and virtual reality, but rather to select what information in virtual reality is important for scientific or practical purpose. 18 The technical set-up of virtual reality affords detailed control of the simulated environment in which individual users process information, decide and interact. The plasticity of virtual reality allows the detection and the handling of various problems: the problem of information overload by making users’ attention focused on a subset of factors, the saliency of external factors otherwise neglected, the assessment of the effect of cognitive biases, the lack of awareness, the temporal latency of the consequences of present choices. These arguments are also related to Riva’s remarks. 19 They underline the usefulness of the use of avatars, since this modality allows the creation of a simulated agent with essential requisites, 20 such as for instance the body schema, so that the user can identify him/herself, but not totally, with the situation, as if he/she could effectively see him/herself acting. Furthermore, there are differences in the activation of both levels of physiology and cerebral areas, for what concerns the observation of actions made by an avatar or a real person. In a survey carried out by Perani 21 and his collaborators, it is hypothesized that actions made by virtual agents are not understood through the typical human body schemas, since their action seems not to have the feature of intentionality. The same study also gives importance to the activation of specific brain areas in the vision of 3D or 2D actions. 22 Recent studies 23 highlight the positive effects of the use of hybrid realism, obtained by means of the use of avatars instead of physical subjects; it gives a high sense of co-presence, and it does not inhibit the self’s openness toward the interlocutor. In the recent years, virtual reality has been very useful in treating anxiety, thanks to the possibility provided by this tool to express a marked sense of presence; at the same time it diminishes the sense of fear during experiments. 24 Finally, virtual reality allows the simulation of social interaction by creating virtual scenarios that are networked, computer-simulated environments, in which human participants interact by means of virtual identities called avatars. A virtual world may reproduce realistic features of the physical world or be simply fictional, but in both cases users can communicate, interact and make exchanges within them.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2. Aim of the Project The project aims to explore the emergence and the dynamics of psychosocial risks among the employees of these organisations, as well as to develop innovative tools for the assessment and management of those risks according to the provisions of country-specific laws and regulations. The project focuses on the actions and behaviours of individuals working in the organisations, at any level of the hierarchy, and on the particular mechanisms through which they interact with one another and within the contextual and structural aspects of their workplaces (e.g. including the means of production used, the particular conformation of the personal working space, the rules and routines adopted, the command and control chain etc.). We suggest that the reproduction of those interaction mechanisms by means of ‘immersive workplaces’, or VR-like scenarios reflecting the actual experience of the individuals in their own working spaces, can offer deeper insights and better knowledge of the main risk factors than the current practice of distributing anonymous survey questionnaires in a company or conducting face-to-face interviews with selected workers. 3. Research Method First: How the tool was made. The ALBO project adopts a multiple case-study approach. This methodology enables the researchers to maintain the complexities and contextual contingencies in which the firms and the phenomena under study are embedded. For each case study, the following data collection procedure will be set up in accordance with the top management of the selected organisation: identification of a suitable number and quality of production processes and working spaces where these processes develop; video recording of real-life instantiations of the selected interactive scenarios, with the aim to identify the most common ‘misinterpretations’ and ‘misbehaviours’. The materials collected as described above are turned into short ‘VR-like scenarios’ tailored on the real-life processes, workspaces, interaction mechanisms, and psychosocial risks examined in the previous phase, and where the real-life actors are modelled by the use of avatars. These scenarios will be returned to the people involved and technically refined in close collaboration with them. It is foreseen to create simulated sessions of usage, either with different people belonging to the same organisation, or with different organisations active in the same business sectors. In association with each of these scenarios, a set of performance indicators will be defined and a number of evaluative questions, points of decision, proposed action items will be introduced with the storyboard developments. Individual performance will be measured by the set of indicators and in accordance with the ‘score’ achieved at the end of the ‘game’.

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The ALBO Project

__________________________________________________________________ Second: Laboratory research method. The team is carrying out two experiments: the first is into physiological responses in the viewer of the videos and the second into social influences on decision making, most pertinently, the effect of being observed during the experimental task. The preliminary findings suggest that, in the first one, people watching the ‘virtual scenarios’ have a physiological response lower than those who watch ‘real scenarios’. In the second one the condition to be observed influenced decision- making. 4. Preliminary Results The main result of this research project is a prototype of a tool to assess job stress in workplaces. This tool is composed of 3 steps. In the first step the employee has to watch a video about a stressful job situation. We decided to use videos featuring avatars because they can allow a third point of view. This facilitates a greater objectivity in participants’ assessment. After watching the video, the virtual coach asks the employee to answer some questions about what is happening during the work situation shown.

Image 1: Screenshot from Adventure Game: Video Social Services. © 2013. Image courtesy of the authors An example of a question is: ‘Does the worker in the video feel mental fatigue?’ and there is a multiple choice ‘not at all; to a small degree; quite a bit; to a great degree’.

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__________________________________________________________________ In the second stage, the viewer is encouraged to adapt what he/she has observed in the video to their own professional experiences and environment. Then the virtual coach asks the participant to answer the same questions of their own professional experience. An example of a question is: ‘In your job experience, do you feel mental fatigue?’ and there is a multiple choice ‘not at all; to a small degree; quite a bit; to a great degree’.

Image 2: Screenshot from Adventure Game: Questionnaire of Job Stress. © 2013. Image courtesy of the authors In the third step, the participant views brief extracts from the video. These are typically 10 to 20 seconds in duration. After this, the participant responds to a single pertinent question, usually phrased as: ‘What was wrong….?’ that is a openended question. Finally the programme gives an evaluation of subject’s performance. The analysis of the first set of data shows that conspicuously those who have viewed the avatar videos are more attuned to negative behaviour than those who watched similar scenarios played out by human actors. Our explanation of this result is that people watching virtual scenarios are more able to focus on behaviours than those who watched the scenarios played by actors. They get a better awareness of their work activities by partially removing the biases and heuristics activated in their daily work life.

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The ALBO Project

__________________________________________________________________ 5. Conclusion According to the literature reviewed for this study, it is evident that the most commonly used instruments in the assessment of work-related stress are largely inaccurate. As such, the ALBO project aims to create a new tool for work-related stress assessment. The first findings show that in order to facilitate a more impersonal evaluation of their own work experience, it is useful to show subjects stimulus from virtual scenarios. Virtual scenario allows the subject to evaluate the scenario more objectively and partially remove the effect of heuristics and biases commonly activated in daily work life.

Notes 1

Sabir I. Giga et al., ‘The UK Perspective: A Review of Research on Organisational Stress Management Interventions,’ Australian Psychologist 38, no 2, (2003): 158–164. Arnold B Bakker, Maria Tims, and Daantje Derks, ‘Proactive Personality and Job Performance: The Role of Job Crafting and Work Engagement,’ Human Relations 65, no 10, (2012): 1359–1378. Robert A. Karasek, ‘Job Demands, Job Decision Latitude, and Mental Strain: Implications for Job Design,’ Administrative Science Quarterly 24 (1979): 285–308. Johannes Siegrist, ‘Adverse Health Effects of High-Effort/Low-rReward Conditions,’ Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 1 (1996): 27–41. 2 Evangelista Demerouti, Arnold B. Bakker, Frank Nachreiner, and Wilmar B. Schaufeli, ‘The Job Demands: Resources Model of Burnout,’ Journal of Applied Psychology 86 (2001): 499-512. 3 Stevan E. Hobfoll, ‘Conservation of Resources: A New Attempt at Conceptualizing Stress,’ American Psychologist 44 (1989): 513–524. 4 Mäkikangas, Anne, Ulla Kinnunen, and Taru Feldt, ‘Self-Esteem, Dispositional Optimism, and Health: Evidence from Cross-Lagged Data on Employees,’ Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004): 556–575. 5 INAIL, Valutazione e gestione del rischio da stress lavoro correlato (Milano: Inail press, 2008), 19–33. 6 Anthony G. Greenwald, Debbie E. McGhee, and Jordan L. K. Schwartz, ‘Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (1998): 1464–1480. 7 Riccardo Luccio, Ricerca e analisi dei dati in psicologia (Milano: Il Mulino, 2005), 192–195. 8 Natarajan Sriram and Anthony G. Greenwald, ‘The Brief Implicit Association Test’,’ Experimental Psychology 56, no. 4 (2009): 283–294. Anthony G. Greenwald and Linda H. Krieger, ‘Implicit Bias: Scientific Foundations,’ California Law Review 94 (2006): 945–967.

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__________________________________________________________________ 9

Anthony G. Greenwald, Jacqueline E. Pickrell, and Shelly D. Farnham, ‘Implicit Partisanship: Taking Sides for no Reason,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 (2002): 367–379. 10 Brian A. Nosek, ‘Implicit-Explicit Relations,’ Current Directions in Psychological Science 16 (2007): 65–69. 11 John A. Bargh, Mark Chen, and Lara Burrows, ‘Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effect of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71 (1996): 230–244. Ezequiel Morsella, Christopher C. Berger, and Stephen C. Krieger, ‘Cognitive and Neural Components of the Phenomenology of Agency,’ Neural Networks 23 (2009): 14– 15. 12 Daniel Kahneman, and Amos Tversky, ‘Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk,’ Econometrica 47, no. 2 (1979): 263–292. 13 Paul Slovic, Melissa L. Finucane, Ellen Peters, and Donald G. MacGregor, ‘Rational Actors or Rational Fools: Implications of the Affect Heuristic for Behavioral Economics,’ Journal of Socio-Economics 31 (2002): 329–342. 14 Paul Slovic, ‘Perception of Risk,’ Science 236 (1987): 280–285. 15 Antonio R. Damasio, Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (New York: Putman, 1994), 88-100. 16 Tom Schonberg, Craig R. Fox, and Russell A. Poldrack, ‘Mind the Gap: Bridging Economic and Naturalistic Risk-Taking with Cognitive Neuroscience,’ Trends In Cognitive Sciences 15, no. 1 (2011): 11–19. 17 Hunter G. Hoffman et al., ‘The Illusion of Presence in Immersive Virtual Reality during an fMRI Brain Scan,’ Cyberpsychology & Behavior 6, no. 2 (2003): 127– 131. 18 Rita Lauria, ‘Virtual Reality: An Empirical Metaphysical Testbed,’ Journal of computer-mediated communication 3, no. 2 (1997): 138–157. Maria V. SanchezVives and Mel Slater, ‘From Presence to Consciousness through Virtual Reality,’ Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6 (2005): 332–339. 19 Giuseppe Riva, ‘Virtual Reality in Psychotherapy: Review,’ Cyberpsychology & Behavior 8, no. 3 (2005): 220-240. 20 Eva Bonda, Stephen Frey, and Michael Petrides, ‘Evidence for a Dorso-Medial Parietal System Involved in Mental Transformations of the Body,’ Journal of Neurophysiology 76 (1996): 2002–2048. 21 Daniela Perani et al., ‘Different Brain Correlates for Watching Real and Virtual Hand Actions,’ NeuroImage 14 (2001): 749-758. 22 Giuseppe Riva, Francesco Vatalaro, and Gianluca Zaffiro, ‘Tecnologie della presenza concetti e applicazioni,’ Mondo digitale 3 (2009): 32–45. 23 Jeremy N. Bailenson et al., ‘The Effect of Behavioral Realism and Form Realism of Real-Time Avatar Faces on Verbal Disclosure, Nonverbal Disclosure, Emotion

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__________________________________________________________________ Recognition, and Copresence in Dyadic Interaction,’ Presence 15, no. 4 (2006): 359–372. Frank Biocca, Chad Harms, and Judee K. Burgoon, ‘Toward a More Robust Theory and Measure of Social Presence: Review and Suggested Criteria,’ Presence: Journal of Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 12, no. 5 (2003): 456–480. 24 Matthew Price et al., ‘Does Engagement with Exposure Yield Better Outcomes? Components of Presence as a Predictor of Treatment Response for Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Social Phobia,’ Journal of Anxiety Disorders 25 (2011): 763–770. Willem-Paul Brinkman et al., ‘The Therapist User Interface of a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy System in the Treatment of Fear of Flying,’ Interacting with Computers 22 (2010): 299–310.

Bibliography Bailenson, Jeremy N., Nick Yee, Dan Merget, Ralph Schroeder. ‘The Effect of Behavioral Realism and Form Realism of Real-Time Avatar Faces on Verbal Disclosure, Nonverbal Disclosure, Emotion Recognition, and Copresence in Dyadic Interaction.’ Presence 15, no. 4 (2006): 359–372. Bakker, Arnold B., Maria Tims, and Daantje Derks. ‘Proactive Personality and Job Performance: The Role of Job Crafting and Work Engagement.’ Human Relations 65, no 10, (2012): 1359–1378. Bargh, John A., Mark Chen, and Lara Burrows. ‘Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effect of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71 (1996): 230-244. Biocca, Frank, Chad Harms, and Judee K. Burgoon. ‘Toward a More Robust Theory and Measure of Social Presence: Review and Suggested Criteria.’ Presence: Journal of Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 12, no. 5 (2003): 456–480. Bonda, Eva, Stephen Frey, and Michael Petrides. ‘Evidence for a Dorso-Medial Parietal System Involved in Mental Transformations of the Body.’ Journal of Neurophysiology 76 (1996): 2002-2048. Brinkman, Willem-Paul, Charles van der Mast, Guntur Sandino, Lucy T. Gunawan, Paul M.G. Emmelkamp. ‘The Therapist User Interface of a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy System in the Treatment of Fear of Flying.’ Interacting with Computers 22, (2010): 299–310.

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__________________________________________________________________ Damasio, Antonio R. Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Putman, 1994. Demerouti, Evangelista, Arnold B. Bakker, Frank Nachreiner, and Wilmar B. Schaufeli. ‘The Job Demands: Resources Model of Burnout.’ Journal of Applied Psychology 86 (2001): 499-512. Giga, Sabir I., Andrew J. Noblet, Brian Faragher, and Cary L. Cooper. ‘The UK Perspective: A Review of Research on Organisational Stress Management Intervention.’ Australian Psychologist 38, no 2, (2003):158–164. Greenwald, Anthony G. and Linda H. Krieger. ‘Implicit Bias: Scientific Foundation.’ California Law Review 94 (2006): 945-967. Greenwald, Anthony G., Debbie E. McGhee, and Jordan L. K. Schwartz. ‘Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (1998): 1464-1480. Greenwald, Anthony G., Jacqueline E. Pickrell, and Shelly D. Farnham. ‘Implicit Partisanship: Taking Sides for No Reason.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 (2002): 367-379. Hobfoll, Stevan E. ‘Conservation of Resources: A New Attempt at Conceptualizing Stress.’ American Psychologist 44 (1989): 513-524. Hoffman, Hunter G., Todd Richards , Barbara Coda, Anne Richards, and Sam R. Sharar. ‘The Illusion of Presence in Immersive Virtual Reality during an FMRI Brain Scan.’ Cyberpsychology & Behavior 6, no. 2 (2003): 127-131. INAIL. Valutazione e gestione del rischio da stress lavoro correlato. Milano: Inail press, 2008. Kahneman, Daniel and Amos Tversky. ‘Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.’ Econometrica 47, no. 2 (1979): 263-292. Karasek, Robert A. ‘Job Demands, Job Decision Latitude, and Mental Strain: Implications for Job Design.’ Administrative Science Quarterly 24 (1979): 285308.

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__________________________________________________________________ Lauria, Rita. ‘Virtual Reality: An Empirical Metaphysical Testbed.’ Journal of computer-mediated communication 3, no. 2 (1997): 138-157. Luccio, Riccardo. Ricerca e analisi dei dati in psicologia. Milano: Il Mulino, 2005. Mäkikangas, Anne, Ulla Kinnunen, and Taru Feldt. ‘Self-Esteem, Dispositional Optimism, and Health: Evidence from Cross-Lagged Data on Employees.’ Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004): 556-575. Morsella, Ezequiel, Christopher C. Berger, and Stephen C. Krieger. ‘Cognitive and Neural Components of the Phenomenology of Agency.’ Neural Networks 23 (2009): 14-15. Nosek, Brian A. ‘Implicit-Explicit Relations.’ Current Directions in Psychological Science 16 (2007): 65-69. Perani, Daniela, Ferruccio Fazio, Nica Borghese, Marco Tettamanti, Stefano Ferrari, Jean Decety, Maria C. Gilardi. ‘Different Brain Correlates for Watching Real and Virtual Hand Actions.’ NeuroImage 14 (2001): 749-758. Price, Matthew, Natasha Mehta, Erin B. Tone, Page L. Anderson. ‘Does Engagement with Exposure Yield Better Outcomes? Components of Presence as a Predictor of Treatment Response for Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Social Phobia.’ Journal of Anxiety Disorders 25 (2011): 763–770. Riva, Giuseppe. ‘Virtual Reality in Psychotherapy: Review.’ Cyberpsychology & Behavior 8, no. 3 (2005): 220-240. Riva, Giuseppe, Francesco Vatalaro, and Gianluca Zaffiro. ‘Tecnologie della presenza concetti e applicazioni.’ Mondo digitale 3 (2009): 32-45. Sanchez-Vives, Maria V. and Mel Slater. ‘From Presence to Consciousness through Virtual Reality.’ Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6 (2005): 332-339. Schonberg, Tom, Craig R. Fox, and Russell A. Poldrack. ‘Mind the Gap: Bridging Economic and Naturalistic Risk-Taking with Cognitive Neuroscience.’ Trends In Cognitive Sciences 15, no. 1 (2011): 11-19. Siegrist , Johannes. ‘Adverse Health Effects of High-Effort/Low-Reward Conditions.’ Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 1 (1996): 27–41.

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__________________________________________________________________ Slovic, Paul. ‘Perception of Risk.’ Science 236 (1987): 280-285. ———. ‘Rational Actors or Rational Fools: Implications of the Affect Heuristic for Behavioral Economics.’ Journal of Socio-Economics 31 (2002): 329-342. Sriram, Natarajan and Anthony G. Greenwald. ‘The Brief Implicit Association Test’.’ Experimental Psychology 56, no. 4 (2009): 283–294. Eva Venturini is Assistant Researcher at the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Siena. Her main interests are in the field of virtual reality and perception of risk and stress in the workplaces. Valeria Faralla is Assistant Researcher at the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Siena. Her main interests are in the field of Cognitive Economics, as applied to human decision-making. Alessandro Innocenti is Associate Professor of Economics of the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Siena. He is also coordinator of the Experimental Economics Laboratory LabSi and of the Laboratory of Virtual Reality and Economic Behavior (LAVREB), associate researcher of The Research Laboratory for Behavioral Finance (BEFINLAB) and director of the Interuniversity Center for Experimental Economics.

Privacy as Commodity: Willingness to Sell Access to Private Information over the Network in a Virtual Environment Nili Steinfeld Abstract This research examines the willingness of users in an anonymous virtual environment to sell access to their social network profile. The experiment was held in Second Life, a virtual world that requires and stresses the importance of anonymity of its users. Participants were faced with an offer to connect to their Facebook accounts and allow access to their profile, thus undermining their anonymity in Second Life, in exchange for varying amounts of money. Results show that even in an anonymous environment, money plays a great role and users tend to allow access to information for small sums of money (1 USD and less). But a closer look at the results reveals that many participants have created fake Facebook accounts in order to enjoy the compensation without waiving their privacy. Key Words: Privacy, social networks, virtual worlds, Second Life, information economy. ***** 1. Introduction One of the values prominent in the discourse around the effects of technology on modern society is privacy. Privacy is seen as a basic human right in all western democracies, and often as an essential precondition for the establishment of other rights. 1 However, claims about erosion in the value and importance of privacy are increasingly being made in public discourse, usually with regard to new media and the effect of the Internet on the perceived importance of privacy. 2 Some argue that personal bits of information in the information age are becoming a commodity with which individuals trade in exchange for services and goods, in a rationale cost benefit process. 3 Opponents to this approach claim that an individual cannot be perceived as equal to commercial companies in the process of personal information trading. An individual cannot properly value a specific piece of information, being unaware of how that information is treated and managed, when one piece of information is aggregated with other data in a process of cross referencing sources and databases, and when the growing social tendency for information sharing undermines the importance of privacy as a social and personal value. 4

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__________________________________________________________________ 2.

Research Question The research examined the relationship between offered exchanges of money and users’ tendency to allow access to their Facebook profile for an academic body. The study asks whether individuals combine cost-effective considerations when making a decision to undermine their anonymity in the virtual world. I hypothesize that the higher the sum offered to users is- the more users will tend to allow access to their personal profile. I also hypothesize that users will tend to allow access to their profile for relatively small sums of money, e.g. less than 1$ USD. New media privacy research is rich and vital, but whereas most studies deal with individuals’ attitudes and views, this research, through a behavioral experiment, is aimed at shedding light and describing users’ actual behavior with regard to their privacy, rather than their statements. The experiment was held in Second Life™, a rich virtual world where users choose an avatar to represent them in-world, through which they maintain and live a complex virtual life, perform everyday functions, form friendships and even trade in a local currency called Linden. A main characteristic of Second Life is anonymity, which enables users to distinguish their online, in-world identities from their offline identities. 5 Many users state that they feel like their Second Life identity is significantly different from their ‘real life’ identity. 6 In this sense Second Life is profoundly different from social networks such as Facebook, which requires users to login and use their authentic names and identities. 7 Therefore, in this environment it is especially interesting to examine the reaction of users to a request by a formal body to reveal their authentic identity to it, and this way in effect undermine the anonymity of their in-world environment. This is to the best of my knowledge the first privacy experiment made in the virtual and anonymous world of Second Life. 3.

Methodology Advertisements calling for avatars to take part in an academic survey were published across the virtual world. Participants were told they are requested to answer a few survey questions regarding their online habits. All participants were paid 20 L$ 8 for participating. The survey included some demographic questions (age, gender, country, education level and marital status); Second Life usage related questions (How long have you had a SL 9 account, How many hours a day do you spend on Internet and logged in to SL, What SL communities are you a member of), Second Life anonymity related questions (Do you use your real name in SL, Do you share personal information with others in-world, Do you have any relationships with SL residents outside of SL) and social networks usage questions (Do you have Facebook or other social network accounts).

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Image 1: The Study’s Advertisement as Published on Boards in Second Life. © 2013. Courtesy of the author After answering these questions, participants who declared they have a Facebook account were presented with an offer to connect to Facebook and allow access to the institute’s application for research purposes. In exchange for their cooperation, participants were offered money in variable sums randomly selected by the program running the experiment. The sums offered differed from 50 L$ (equal to 0.21 USD), 150 L$ (equal to 0.61 USD) and 250 L$ (equal to 1.02 USD). A control group was asked to perform the connection without a payment. In order to verify a successful connection, participants were required to connect to Facebook from a web page created for that purpose and linked from the survey in Second Life, and allow access to the institute’s Facebook application through their user profile in Facebook. Upon a successful connection and authentication, the money offered to the participant was transferred to the avatar in Second Life. Participants who refused to connect were asked for the reason to their refusal with the following options: 12345-

I would login for a greater L$ amount I don’t trust you will pay I wish to protect my privacy I do not have a Facebook account Another reason (elaborate)

If the first option was chosen, the participant was asked for how much L$ would she have agreed to allow the application access. The experiment allowed participants to request to Learn More before making their choice. The message presented stated vaguely and shortly that the information collected would not be published in a manner which would identify the user. However, the participant had no knowledge of the extent of personal data collected

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__________________________________________________________________ by the institute, which kind of data related to the user’s Facebook profile is accessible for the institute, and what exactly does the institute intend to do with that data in the present and in the future. Unlike previous experiments which examined willingness to sell specific pieces of information, 10 this study examines willingness to sell access to personal information the user is not aware of its exact boundaries and depth, a case which more accurately simulates services offered to users over the Internet. 11 4.

Findings The total number of participants is 203. 42% are male and 58% female. Participants were mostly Americans (45.3%), Western Europeans (23.9%) and Eastern Europeans (18.4%). Education levels varied from less than high school (5%), HS/GED (40.3%), BS/BA (37.8%) and MA/PhD (16.9%). Most participants are relatively new to Second Life - 55.2% are SL members for less than 1 week, 14.9% - less than a month, 7.5% - less than 6 months, 4% - less than 1 year, 8.5% - less than 3 years and 10% - 3 years and more. The reason for the large percentage of new residents may be due to the locations of advertisements inviting participants to the survey, and the nature of new residents looking to get to know the world and also gain some money to start their virtual life with. A strong significant correlation was found between the sum of money offered for the connection, and participants’ willingness to allow access to their Facebook profile (Cramer’s V = .53 ; p < .001), while among the participants who were requested to connect without compensation, only 5% allowed the institute access. For 50 L$ compensation- 18% allowed access. For 150 L$- 49% allowed access, and for 250 L$- 70% allowed access.

Facebook confirmed connections in… 100 Facebook confirmed connections in percentages

50 0 250

150

50

0

Chart 1: Access to Facebook by Compensation Amount- in Percentages.

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__________________________________________________________________ Only 2.5% of participants who were presented with a request to connect to Facebook (4 participants) requested additional information before making their choice. These findings correspond with current debate on the issue of information economy and the commodification of personal information on the Internet. With regard to the meaning of the value of privacy in the information age, the findings raise some interesting questions. While claims over the ‘loss of online privacy’ and the erosion of the value of privacy are frequently being made in public and academic discourse, it seems that privacy is still a main consideration in individuals’ decision making process: Out of all participants who refused to connect to their Facebook profile, 68% stated that the reason for their refusal was their wish to protect their privacy, while 25% stated they would have signed in for a greater amount of money, with the average desired sum being 10,331 L$ (about 41.66 USD), and the median being 500 L$ (about 2.02 USD). However, such a high percentage of connection in exchange for 250 L$ indicates that the perceived value of personal profile information among Second Life users is as low as one USD. But another observation further complicates this statement. Another important and interesting aspect was examined during the research, which relates to the authenticity of the participants’ Facebook profiles. As a way to deal with the trend of information collection over the Internet, security experts and privacy scholars recommend users to lie in every opportunity. 12 Inspecting the profiles given by participants in the experiment reveals that no less than 51% of them are fake profiles, generated on the same day of the experiment. This method enables users to enjoy the goods and services offered to them online- without having to lose control over their personal information. 5. Conclusions The findings confirm the hypothesis that users combine cost-effective considerations in decisions related to sharing personal information on the web. The sum of money offered in exchange for access to personal information was the only predictor to the participants’ decision. However, it seems that the value given by participants to the access to their profile, in extents they have no knowledge about and which they cannot measure, to a purpose unknown to them, is significantly low- for a sum equal to 1 USD most participants agreed to give away their profile information, and almost half have allowed access in exchange for 0.60 USD only. A negligible number of participants requested additional information regarding the use of their personal data, despite being presented with this option. This finding is interesting in the context of widespread claims being made by scholars and privacy advocates about the lack of transparency by companies and the need for users’ awareness as a key for a fair trade of personal information online. With that said, the choice of more than half of the participants who connected to Facebook to create a fake account and by that enjoy both the compensation and

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__________________________________________________________________ control over their privacy is fascinating and offers a new approach for maintaining privacy on the web and for handling with the sharing trend. In a situation (much familiar to practically all Internet users) where a user is facing two options: Waive control over your information and enjoy benefits and services online, or keep your information private and be bounded from much of what the web has to offer- these users offer a third option which allows them to enjoy the best of both worlds- the services provided in the web and their privacy protected, by creating ‘noise’ in the system, originated from giving away false information. This research helps understand the role of economic considerations with regard to online information sharing and supplies some interesting insights, which simulate the different developments in the perception of privacy. When on the one hand we witness an erosion of the value of personal information and of the importance of privacy protection and control, we also witness on the other hand an increasing movement or users acting for the preservation of their privacy, even in the price of waiving online benefits, and a third group- of users who learned that there is another way of handling an increasing trend for sharing information for the exchange of good- a way that exploits the weakness of digital systems unable to distinguish between authentic and false information, thus allowing users to keep their privacy and still stay ‘in the game’.

Notes 1

Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, ‘The Right to Privacy’, Harvard Law Review 4.5 (1890); Anita Allen, ‘Coercing Privacy’, William and Mary Law Review 40.3 (1999): 723-724. 2 Daniel J. Solove, The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age (New York: New York University Press, 2004): 87-90. 3 Mathias Klang, ‘Privacy, Surveillance and Identity’, In Human Rights in the Digital Age ed. Mathias Klang and Andrew Murray (London: The GlassHouse Press, 2005): 188; Laurie Thomas Lee, ‘Digital Media Technology and Individual Change’, In Communication Technology and Social Change: Theory and Implications, ed. Carolyn A. Lin and David J. Atkin (New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007): 266; George H. Pike, ‘Online Privacy Protection Gaining Momentum’, Information Today 28.5 (2011): 28; Nicola Jentzsch, Sören Preibusch and Andreas Harasser, ‘Study on Monetising Privacy: An Economic Model for Pricing Personal Information’, Report for the European Network and Information Security Agency, Viewed 10 December 2012, http://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/identity-andtrust/library/deliverables/monetising-privacy. 4 Alessandro Acquisti and Jens Grossklags, ‘Privacy and Rationality in Individual Decision Making’, IEEE Security and Privacy (2005): 2; Jens Grossklags and Alessandro Acquisti, ‘When 25 Cents is Too Much: An Experiment on

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__________________________________________________________________ Willingness-To-Sell and Willingness-To-Protect Personal Information’, WEIS (2008): 5-6; Zizi Papacharissi and Paige L. Gibson, ‘Fifteen Minutes of Privacy: Privacy, Sociality, and Publicity on Social Network Sites’, In Privacy Online: Perspectives on Privacy and Self-Disclosure in the Social Web ed. Sabine Trepte and Leonard Reinecke (Heidelberg: Springer, 2011): 82-85; Danah Boyd and Eszter Hargittai, ‘Facebook Privacy Settings: Who Cares?’, FirstMonday 15[8] (2010), viewed 15 January 2013, http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3086/2. 5 Tina Lynn Taylor, ‘Life in Virtual Worlds: Plural Existence, Multimodalities, and Other Online Research Challenges’, American Behavioral Scientist 43.3 (1999): 34; Michele D. Dickey, ‘Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds and Distance Learning : Two Case Studies of Active Worlds as a Medium for Distance Education’, British Journal of Educational Technology 36.3 (2005): 445. 6 Tom Boellstorff, Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2008): 120-122, 134. 7 Kevin Lewis, Jason Kaufman and Nicholas Christakis, ‘The Taste for Privacy: An Analysis of College Student Privacy Settings in an Online Social Network’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14 (2008): 80. 8 Linden Dollars, equivalent to 9 cents. 9 Second Life. 10 Grossklags and Acquisti, ‘When 25 Cents is Too Much’; Alastair R. Beresford, Dorothea Kübler and Sören Preibusch, ‘Unwillingness to Pay for Privacy: A Field Experiment’, Economics Letters 117 (2012): 25-27; Jentzsch, Preibusch and Harasser, ‘Study on Monetising Privacy’. 11 Solove, The Digital Person, 87-90; David Kirkpatrick, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010): 200-210. 12 Linda Rosencrance, ‘How Online Dishonesty Protects Your Identity’, Tech News Daily, Viewed 19 July 2012, http://www.technewsdaily.com/7951-lying-identityprotection.html; Kevin Fogarty, ‘Protect Your Online Privacy: Lie’, PCWorld, Viewed 12 July 2012, http://www.pcworld.com/article/251121/protect_your_online_privacy_lie.html; Jentzsch, Preibusch and Harasser, ‘Study on Monetising Privacy’, 2, 11.

Bibliography Acquisti, Alessandro and Jens Grossklags. ‘Privacy and Rationality in Individual Decision Making’. IEEE Security and Privacy (2005): 24-30. Allen, Anita L. ‘Coercing Privacy’. William and Mary Law Review 40[3] (1999): 723-757.

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__________________________________________________________________ Bellotti, Victoria. ‘Design for Privacy in Multimedia Computing and Communications Environments’. In Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape, edited by Philip E. Agre and Marc Rotenberg, 63-98. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1997. Beresford, Alastair R., Dorothea Kübler and Sören Preibusch. ‘Unwillingness to Pay for Privacy: A Field Experiment’. Economics Letters 117 (2012): 25–27. Boellstorff, Tom. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2008. Boyd, Danah and Eszter Hargittai. ‘Facebook Privacy Settings: Who Cares?’ FirstMonday 15[8] (2010). Viewed 15 January 2013. http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3086/2589. Dickey, Michele D. ‘Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds and Distance Learning : Two Case Studies of Active Worlds as a Medium for Distance Education’. British Journal of Educational Technology 36.3 (2005): 439–451. Fogarty, Kevin. ‘Protect Your Online Privacy: Lie’. PCWorld. Viewed 12 July 2012. http://www.pcworld.com/article/251121/protect_your_online_privacy_lie.html. Grossklags, Jens and Alessandro Acquisti. ‘When 25 Cents is Too Much: An Experiment on Willingness-To-Sell and Willingness-To-Protect Personal Information’. 6th Annual Workshop on ‘Economics and Information Security’ WEIS 2007, Pittsburgh PA, 2007. Jentzsch, Nicola, Sören Preibusch and Andreas Harasser. ‘Study on Monetising Privacy: An Economic Model for Pricing Personal Information’. Report for the European Network and Information Security Agency. Viewed 10 October 2012. http://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/identity-and-trust/library/deliverables/ monetising-privacy. Kirkpatrick, David. The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010. Klang, Mathias. ‘Privacy, Surveillance and Identity’. In Human Rights in the Digital Age, edited by Mathias Klang and Andrew Murray, 175-189. London: The GlassHouse Press, 2005.

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__________________________________________________________________ Lee, Laurie Thomas. ‘Digital Media Technology and Individual Change’. In Communication Technology and Social Change: Theory and Implications, edited by Carolyn A. Lin and David J. Atkin, 257-279. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. Lewis, Kevin, Jason Kaufman and Nicholas Christakis. ‘The Taste for Privacy: An Analysis of College Student Privacy Settings in an Online Social Network’. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14 (2008): 79-100. Papacharissi, Zizi and Paige L. Gibson. ‘Fifteen Minutes of Privacy: Privacy, Sociality, and Publicity on Social Network Sites’. In Privacy Online: Perspectives on Privacy and Self-Disclosure in the Social Web, edited by Sabine Trepte and Leonard Reinecke, 75-90. Heidelberg: Springer, 2011. Pike, George H. ‘Online Privacy Protection Gaining Momentum’. Information Today 28.5 (2011). Rosencrance, Linda. ‘How Online Dishonesty Protects Your Identity’. Tech News Daily. Viewed 19 July 2012. http://www.technewsdaily.com/7951-lying-identityprotection.html. Solove, Daniel J. ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy’. San Diego Law Review 44 (2007): 745-772. Solove, Daniel J. The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age. New York: New York university press, 2004. Taylor, Tina Lynn. ‘Life in Virtual Worlds: Plural Existence, Multimodalities, and Other Online Research Challenges’. American Behavioral Scientist 43.3 (1999): 436-449. Warren, Samuel D. and Louis D. Brandeis. ‘The Right to Privacy’. Harvard Law Review IV.5 (1890). Nili Steinfeld is a PhD candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the academic manager of the Institute for the Research of New Media, Politics and Society at the School of Communications at Ariel University Center. Her research focuses on online privacy, participation and deliberation on the web, and users’ behavior. As a software engineer, she integrates technology and new software development in her research.

Supplementing Self-Access Learning for an English Language Centre through Virtual Platforms Dean Anthony Fabi Gui and Andrew Northern Abstract This chapter investigates discussions in Hong Kong universities regarding the expanding role of Self-Access Centres (SACs) in expounding the extended responsibilities of language centres. In particular, the authors consider the Centre for Independent Language Learning (CILL) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and its place within the English Language Centre (ELC) and the university-at-large as the local tertiary system adopts a change in its Undergraduate curriculum starting in the 2012/2013 academic year. In preparation to accommodate a potential influx of students and the possibility of classroom space issues, a Virtual (Second Life) Self-Access Centre (VSAC) project is being developed to help supplement the existing SACs, providing an alternative solution for students to learn independently in a safe, interactive and stimulating environment. Research on other electronic self-access centres has been conducted, including visitations to online (and, where possible, physical) SACs from universities locally and globally, and SACs built in Second Life and other virtual worlds. This initial enquiry evinced 1) general online SACs as being flat, static web platforms that do provide some level of interaction, yet primarily behave as navigational panes rather than as rich, immersive environments; 2) physical SACs as having a more personable appeal, yet being restrictive in their visitation hours; 3) Second Life self-access learning as taking on a less traditional meaning. Using theoretical principles to underscore discussion surrounding the ELC VSAC project, this study attempts to explore the possibility of further expanding the contemporary SACs and swaying the current debate into the domain of virtual platforms. Key Words: English Language Centre, Hong Kong, Second Life, Self-access centre, university. ***** 1. Introduction The emergence of Self Access Centres (SACs) both in Hong Kong and internationally as a necessary site for autonomous language learning was preceded by increasing theoretical support in the field of Applied Linguistics for the importance of the active role of the learner in the learning process. 1 SACs traditionally constituted a physical space in which learners could easily access a variety of published language learning materials in order to take control of their learning beyond the classroom. An example of such a space is the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s (HK PolyU) Centre for Independent Language Learning

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__________________________________________________________________ (CILL), which the English Language Centre (ELC) is currently operating and maintaining. The concept of an SAC has been redefined in the digital age to incorporate virtual self access centres (VSACs). A VSAC can be broadly defined as an institutional website that facilitates independent language learning. Typically, these websites include resources for self-study, as well as, in some cases, forums or message boards to encourage interaction. However, the convenience of accessing materials through a VSAC is offset by the limitations of asynchronous online communication and, consequently, more visual and experiential learners may be restricted by the isolating and repetitive nature of this mode of learning. ‘Virtual Worlds’ are a potential platform that may be explored as a supplement to traditional online self-access resources. Second Life (SL), created and run by a U.S. company called Linden Lab, is the largest and most widely-used virtual world. The universal accessibility of Second Life land means that there is a small but perpetual risk of invasion by unwanted guests (commonly referred to as ‘griefers’) but security measures can be implemented to lessen the possibility of such intrusions. 2 A number of global corporations, such as Adidas, Disney and IBM currently have a Second Life presence. Educational uses of SL include ‘English City’ a virtual city created for international English students by a company called LanguageLab, and at the tertiary level, courses offered by departments at several leading institutions, such as Harvard Law School and the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. A number of studies have recently been conducted regarding the effectiveness of English acquisition in Second Life, 3 with some of those studies taking place in Hong Kong. 4 At the current time, the HK PolyU has two virtual campuses. The ITS department operates a server host which provides a closed virtual environment (ReactionGrid) supporting similar functionality to Second Life. This virtual world does not require much bandwidth and can be carried on a memory stick. However, the graphics are less aesthetically appealing than SL and it does not offer the possibility of interaction between sims and may therefore be less conducive to collaborative language study. The HK PolyU also has a virtual campus in SL that is currently being adopted by the Educational Development Centre (EDC). As the newly-proposed, university-wide four-year curriculum is being implemented in Hong Kong and the physical campus is close to full capacity, development of a supplementary VSAC may be an area worth exploring. Departments across the HK PolyU are in the process of developing and piloting courses that include online independent learning components, blurring the distinction between self-access and traditional classroom learning. The ELC uses a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Moodle to provide independent learning materials targeted specifically to its language courses. Inter-institutional collaboration on self-access materials in Hong Kong is also on the rise as six higher education institutions in Hong Kong are currently collaborating on a UGC

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__________________________________________________________________ funded project to create an online repository where English language self-access materials may be shared across institutions (ICOSA). A VSAC in Second Life would complement these other self-access endeavours. This chapter argues in favour of using a virtual platform (SL) as a gateway for self-access language learning (SALL) – it does not claim to define learner autonomy, 5 even though the two are not mutually exclusive. The purpose of this project is therefore to build a Virtual Self Access Centre in Second Life to supplement the existing virtual environment and self-access centres, providing an accessible space for autonomous learning that is multimodal, interactive and collaborative. The vision and principles behind this project are as follows: 1. The VSAC will be built to resemble a transparent mobile café, open to all students at the HK PolyU. This design takes into consideration that it is important that the semiotics of the learning space are familiar to the learners 6 and reflect the philosophy or ‘collaborative autonomy’ 7 behind the centre. 2. The idea of a mobile café promotes the notion of a flexible learning space which all stakeholders, the learners and the design team, may shape through virtual objects. 3. The VSAC will provide a creative and innovative space that affords dynamic and interactive ways for students to learn, interact and retrieve resources. As such, it is necessary to navigate through the theoretical underpinnings for selfaccess through virtual platforms, relating them to the idea of a mobile café in Second Life, and finish with concluding remarks. 2. Theoretical Underpinnings for Self-Access through Virtual Platforms A. Self-Access in Asia One of the key theories underpinning self-access language learning (SALL) is rooted in the notion of effective language learning being a combination of intensive language learning (e.g. through explicit instruction on a university language course) and extensive language learning, through accessing outside materials beyond the time and space of the classroom and the course itself. 8 It has been noted that extensive learning requires learners to assume authority in directing and managing their learning. Asian students may be especially reluctant to assume control of their learning as they progress in their education and reach tertiary level due to the high esteem in which the teacher figure is traditionally held within Asian societies and the expectation that the learning experience be teacher-centred. 9 Nevertheless, the need for greater learner autonomy has been recognized by institutions and governments across Asia 10 and self-access centres providing both printed and

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__________________________________________________________________ electronic resources have emerged in Asian university language centres along with a series of studies indicating that they have been positively received by students on the whole, and that those students who view them positively are likely to make use of them to improve English performance. With SACs becoming a commonplace feature of Language Centres, Morrison and Navarro 11 observe that the presence of such centres does not guarantee that successful autonomous learning will take place in Asian universities. The purpose of a self-access centre should hence be clearly defined within the institution and students should understand their role as equal stakeholders in shaping the identity of this learner-centred space. The emergence of SACs in Asia is therefore an evolution of theory of what is regarded as successful learning that extends beyond the course and the institution into lifelong learning and has validated a shift in the role of educators and learners so that educators assume an advisory role, supporting learners in exploiting the resources available in a systematic way in the self-access environment. B. Self-Access in Hong Kong Students in Hong Kong contexts tend to be subjected to long hours of prescribed learning and, consequently, may have limited experience of autonomous learning. SACs have been integrated into Hong Kong university language centres in varying ways ranging from voluntary centres to integrated components of taught courses. 12 For example, the SAC at City University of Hong Kong has been used on remedial English programmes in conjunction with a course designed to scaffold the development of learner autonomy, proceeding from directed to semi-directed to self-directed learning. 13 Conversely, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University operates its Centre for Independent Language Learning as a learning space, equipped with physical and online resources on both language learning and independent study skills that students may use voluntarily at any time during their studies. However, Morrison 14 maintains the importance of support from experienced educators being readily available and these educators assume the role of ‘learning advisors’ rather than their traditional role. The CILL at HK PolyU therefore offers learners the option of making appointments to obtain this advice or make a query at a ‘Help Desk’, which is attended by an experienced educator at all times. A further rationale behind this type of SAC is that it affords the necessary flexibility at a time of curriculum reform and increasing student numbers. C. The Debate over Online Learning The constant emergence of new technology, much of which may potentially be used as a learning aid, is an exciting development for language educators. However, the rate of technological development allows a multitude of possible educational usages to be put into practice before they can be demonstrated as

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__________________________________________________________________ pedagogically viable. Gremmo and Riley 15 advise learners and educators to remain ‘vigilant’ rather than unquestioningly embracing the emerging technologies proposed to them as learning tools. Adoption of new technologies inevitably requires extensive training for learners and, particularly, for educators with varying levels of ‘ICT preparedness’, 16 and who may be sceptical of their pedagogical value. 17 Incorporating emerging technology as an option in the self-access space goes some way to resolving this issue. New technological developments can potentially be integrated into voluntary SACs more easily than existing language courses, affording learners the necessary time and space to experiment with and evaluate the pedagogical value of technology according to their own preferred learning style. Learning advisors in the CILL may be equally comfortable directing students towards online learning resources without feeling the pressure to incorporate them into their teaching practice, which would require them to reach a level of comfort or mastery of the tool. As the World Wide Web has evolved from an information server towards a platform favouring user-created content, interaction and collaboration, online learning has become accessible, and arguably both more communicative and more authentic than classroom learning. 18 Kirova, Petkovska, and Koceva 19 conducted an interesting study into anxiety among Macedonian ESL learners in the communicative language classroom and suggested that educators tend to create a restrictive high-stakes environment which may increase learner anxiety, which has a negative correlation with effective communicative learning. Online interaction may essentially remove a great deal of this pressure and naturally foster an environment where students can learn freely and at their own pace and comfort. The interaction that learners may engage in online education is likely to be challenging, especially in the period of adjustment for those students who are not familiar with online modes of interaction, but the resulting social discourse is likely to be more personal, authentic and learner-centred. The above debate is pertinent when considering Second Life’s educational potential. Departments that have implemented Second Life as a requirement on blended learning courses tend to report that learners who have prior in-world experience are more likely to perceive it in a positive way. 20 A positive perception of the virtual world is of particular relevance here as the learning curve for new users of Second Life is particularly steep. This necessitates the presence of experienced Second Life users in any educational use of the platform to guide those who are unfamiliar with the platform so that they do not become frustrated or lose confidence through negative initial experience. Once a mastery of the basics of the virtual world has been achieved, the potential value in creating a unique identity and sharing educational objects and resources with other individuals may be gauged.

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__________________________________________________________________ D. Self-Access in Second Life While it can be argued that Second Life is, in its own rights, a massive SelfAccess Centre where users can retrieve and interact with multifarious learning tools and materials, performing a word search in Second Life for ‘self access’ yields few results: Thomas Jefferson University provides ‘self guided’ exhibits and a showcase home to help children with different learning abilities; the Centering Place affords ‘self help’ information for those suffering from depression; and the Particle Laboratory Learning Center uses ‘self paced’ classrooms for scripting. A paper by Knutzen and Kennedy 21 reports the progress of a collaborative TESOL pilot project (with over 200 participants) exploring the integration of Second Life with the instruction of English courses at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. Coordination of online activities was done using the Moodle learning management system. A large non-traditional language learning facility was developed in SL in the style of a 1950’s American diner on a private island, complete with Cadillac booths, traditional diner booths and tables, and outdoor campfire settings to facilitate conversational groupings. In Hong Kong, English language acquisition is viewed as a prerequisite for attending a university in the West, for entry into highpaying occupations, and as an important part of globalisation and international communication; and thus, both instant messaging (IM) typed chat and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) interactions were explored inside the virtual environment as media-savvy methods for language immersion. These two modes of chat may be used in conjunction or separately according to user preference, with instant messaging providing the inherent benefit of permitting second language learners additional time to compose and send responses. The British Academy and LanguageLab are two additional examples of successful virtual language projects with the latter cited as providing hands-on learning scenarios such as going to the grocery store, reserving a seat on a flight or visiting a doctor. A virtual self-access centre is a natural extension of a traditional SAC in that it would require the same maintained motivation and capacity for self-directed learning, but would be more informal and flexible. The creation of an avatar affords the user a fictional identity, which may relieve some of the social anxiety of real-world interaction thereby building learners’ confidence and self-efficacy. 22 Students in SL who do not wish to participate may choose not to respond, or simply log out, options that are not available in the traditional language classroom or self-access centre. Resources from the existing CILL at the ELC may be incorporated into the virtual world and shared between participants along with specifically designed objects and multimedia. The architecture (a mobile café) of the VSAC would allow the virtual space to serve as a familiar place for students as they ‘order’ and ‘take away’ knowledge afforded by the learning environment. A vital aid in the construction of the VSAC will be the prior experience of members of the project team in Second Life, which will enable the ELC to introduce a basic virtual world induction programme to facilitate students’ and

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__________________________________________________________________ learning advisors use of the VSAC. The technical support currently provided in the HK PolyU for online learning may be extended to Second Life at little cost as the facilities (desktop learning spaces and headsets) are already in place. It is also feasible that current students may have extensive interest or experience in Second Life or similar virtual environments through gaming platforms. These students could equally shape the virtual environment and give in-world assistance and encouragement to newcomers. The creation of the VSAC may be a first step in the integration of virtual worlds into language teaching at the HK PolyU. With an understanding of the need to integrate the VSAC into the institution and an awareness of the potential contribution of such a learning space to the ongoing theoretical debate on learning in online environments, the potential benefits of such an endeavour appear, in the minds of the centre developers and authors of this chapter, to outweigh the low costs. 3. Concluding Remarks As an integral part of the English Language Centre at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Centre for Independent Language Learning was set up in support of the University’s aims to facilitate the learning experience of its students by using state-of-the-art, innovative, learner-centred methodologies, with effective programmes to further develop English language skills relevant to their courses of study and future careers. In this regard, the VSAC offers students an approach to independent language learning in a way that takes into account varying language needs and learning styles among the student community, providing pedagogical support, a wider range of educational materials, and providing both emerging technology and more traditional and familiar learning approaches through avatar representations in the virtual world. The possible long-term positive outcomes of this project are: • The VSAC will supplement the current CILL providing an additional virtual space with greater capacity and 24 hour, 7 day a week access. • The VSAC will offer an alternative platform for future English language events, both for staff within the ELC and for external guest speakers. • The VSAC may be developed beyond the initial design and the viability of a ‘virtual classroom’ could be explored further. The VSAC might serve as an alternative venue for ‘makeup classes’ or student consultations if classrooms on campus are fully booked, as well as general events. • The VSAC may be a step towards supplementing student experience of Moodle 23 and Blackboard with interactive virtual world activities.

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__________________________________________________________________ In addition, the ELC’s ties with HASALD (The Hong Kong Association for Self-access Learning and Development) point to the collaborative potential ELC initiatives might have with other tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools, thereby expanding the range of potential beneficiaries of the VSAC. A virtual self-access centre will add a further dimension to the current debate over autonomous and self-access learning and the potential of technology to support language learning in new ways.

Notes 1

Bruce Morrison, ‘The Role of the Self-Access Centre in the Tertiary Language Learning Process’, System 36.2 (2008): 123-140. 2 Patricia Anderson and Maureen Ellis, ‘Teaching in Second Life: Opportunities for Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs’, Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011.1 (2011): 2019-2024. 3 Tomoko Traphagan, Evaluation of a Pilot Use of Second Life in an English Course: 2006-2007 (Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, 2007). 4 Lan Li, Dora Wong, Dean A. F. Gui and Gigi AuYeung, ‘Collaborative Learning in the Virtual English Class: A Hong Kong Case Study’, in Cases on E-Learning Management: Development and Implementation, eds. Harrison Yang and Shuyan Wang (IGI Global, 2013), 343-370; Dean A. F. Gui, Lan Li, Dora Wong and Gigi AuYeung, ‘‘Good to Use for Virtual Consultation Time’: Second Life Activities for and Beyond the Technical Writing Classroom’, in Metaverse Creativity Journal, eds. Elif Ayiter and Yacov Sharir (Intellect, 2011, 2, 1): 57-76. 5 David Gardner and Lindsay Miller, ‘Managing Self-Access Language Learning: Principles and Practice‘, System, 39, 1 (2011): 78-89; Xuesong Gao, ‘Autonomous Language Learning Against All Odds‘, System, 38, 4 (2010): 580-590; Hsio-fang Cheng and Nina Chiulan Lin, ‘Exploring Students’ Perceptions of Self-Access English Learning’, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2 (2010): 2676-2680. 6 Phil Benson, ‘The Semiotics of Self-Access Language Learning in the Digital Age’, in Educational technology in language learning: Theoretical considerations and practical applications, eds. Veronique Darleguy, Alex Ding and Marie Svensson (Lyon, France: National Institute of Applied Sciences, 1997): 70-78. 7 Alex Ding, ‘Theoretical and Practical Issues in the Promotion of Collaborative Learner Autonomy in a Virtual Self-Access Centre’, in Distance Education and Languages: Evolution and Change, eds. Borje Holmberg, Monica Shelley and Cynthia White (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2005): 21-40. 8 Cheng and Lin, ‘Exploring Students’ Perceptions’, 2676-2680. 9 Ibid; Xiuhing Lu and Jingbi Zhang, ‘College Students’ Use of the Computer and Network-Based Self-Access Centre and Their English Learning Achievement’, IERI, 2 (2012): 149-154. 10 Lu and Zhang, ‘College Students’ Use of the Computer’, 149-154.

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__________________________________________________________________ 11

Brian Morrison and Diego Navarro, ‘Shifting Roles: From Language Teachers to Learning Advisors’, System 40.3 (2012): 349-359. 12 Gardner and Miller, ‘Managing Self-Access Language Learning’, 78-89. 13 Johanna Klassen, Champa Detaramani, Eva Lui, Mrudula Patri and Jenny Wu, ‘Evaluating the English Foundation Programme in the Self-Access Mode at City University’, in Case Studies of Improving Teaching and Learning from the Action Learning Project, eds. David Kember, Bick-har Lam, Lousia Yan, Jessie C. K. Yum and Susan Blumberg Liu (University Grants Committee funded project: Action Learning Project, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 1994). 14 Morrison, ‘The Role of the Self-Access Centre’, 123-140. 15 Marie-Jose Gremmo and Philip Riley, ‘Autonomy, Self-Direction and Self Access in Language Teaching and Learning: The History of an Idea’, System 23, 2 (1995): 151-164. 16 Airil H. M. Adnan and Zarlina M. Zamari, ‘Computer-Aided Self-Access Language Learning: Views of Indonesian, Malaysian & New Zealand Practitioners’, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 67, 10 (2012): 49-60. 17 Nazime Tuncay and Huseyin Uzunboylu, ‘English Language Teachers’ Success in Blended and Online E-Learning’, Procedia Social and Behavorial Sciences 47 (2012): 131-137. 18 Gremmo and Riley, ‘Autonomy, Self-Direction and Self Access’, 151-164. 19 Snezana Kirova, Biljana Petkovska and Dragana Koceva, ‘Investigation of Motivation and Anxiety in Macedonia While Learning English as a Second/Foreign Language’, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012): 3477-3481. 20 Tuncay and Uzunboylu, ‘English Language Teachers’ Success’, 131-137. 21 Brant Knutzen and David Kennedy, ‘The Global Classroom Project: Learning a Second Language in a Virtual Environment’, The Electronic Journal of eLearning, 10, 1 (2012): 90-106, Viewed 5 January 2013, http://www.ejel.org. 22 Timo Partala, ‘Psychological Needs and Virtual Worlds: Case Second Life‘, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 69, 12 (2011): 787-800. 23 Jeremy Kemp, Daniel Livingstone and Peter R. Bloomfield, ‘Connecting VLE Tools with Emergent Teaching Practice in Second Life’, British Journal of Educational Technology 40 (2009): 551-555.

Bibliography Adnan, Airil H. M., and Zarlina M. Zamari. ‘Computer-Aided Self-Access Language Learning: Views of Indonesian, Malaysian & New Zealand Practitioners’. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 67, 10 (2012): 49–60.

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__________________________________________________________________ Anderson, Patricia and Maureen Ellis. ‘Teaching in Second Life: Opportunities for Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs’. Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011, 1 (2011): 2019–2024. Benson, Phil ‘The Semiotics of Self-Access Language Learning in the Digital Age’. In Educational Technology in Language Learning: Theoretical Considerations and Practical Applications, eds. Veronique Darleguy, Alex Ding and Marie Svensson, 70-78. Lyon, France: National Institute of Applied Sciences, 1997. Cheng, Hsio-fang and Nina Chiulan Lin. ‘Exploring Students’ Perceptions of SelfAccess English Learning’. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010): 2676–2680. Ding, Alex. ‘Theoretical and Practical Issues in the Promotion of Collaborative Learner Autonomy in a Virtual Self-Access Centre’. In Distance Education and Languages: Evolution and Change, edited by Borje Holmberg, Monica Shelley and Cynthia White, 21-40. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2005. Gao, Xuesong. ‘Autonomous Language Learning Against All Odds‘. System 38, 4 (2010): 580-590. Gardner, David and Lindsay Miller. ‘Managing Self-Access Language Learning: Principles and Practice‘. System 39, 1 (2011): 78-89. Gremmo, Marie-Jose and Philip Riley. ‘Autonomy, Self-Direction and Self Access in Language Teaching and Learning: The History of an Idea’. System 23, 2 (1995): 151-164. Gui, Dean A. F., Lan Li, Dora Wong and Gigi AuYeung. ‘Good to Use for Virtual Consultation Time: Second Life Activities for and Beyond the Technical Writing Classroom’. In Metaverse Creativity Journal, edited by Elif Ayiter and Yacov Sharir, 57-76. Intellect, 2011. Kemp, Jeremy, Daniel Livingstone and Peter R. Bloomfield. ‘Connecting VLE Tools with Emergent Teaching Practice in Second Life’. British Journal of Educational Technology 40 (2009): 551-555.

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__________________________________________________________________ Kirova, Snezana, Biljana Petkovska and Dragana Koceva. ‘Investigation of Motivation and Anxiety in Macedonia While Learning English as a Second/Foreign Language’. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012): 3477–3481. Klassen, Johanna, Champa Detaramani, Eva Lui, Mrudula Patri and Jenny Wu. ‘Evaluating the English Foundation Programme in the Self-Access Mode at City University’. In Case Studies of Improving Teaching and Learning from the Action Learning Project, edited by David Kember, Bick-har Lam, Lousia Yan, Jessie C. K. Yum and Susan Blumberg Liu. University Grants Committee funded project: Action Learning Project, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 1994. Knutzen, Brandt and David Kennedy. ‘The Global Classroom Project: Learning a Second Language in a Virtual Environment’. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning 10, 1 (2012): 90-106. Viewed 5 January 2013. http://www.ejel.org. Li, Lan, Dora Wong, Dean A. F. Gui and Gigi AuYeung. ‘Collaborative Learning in the Virtual English Class: A Hong Kong Case Study’. In Cases on E-Learning Management: Development and Implementation, edited by Harrison Yang and Shuyan Wang, 343-370. IGI Global, 2013. Lu, Xiuhing and Jingbi Zhang. ‘College Students’ Use of the Computer and Network-Based Self-Access Centre and Their English Learning Achievement’. IERI 2 (2012): 149-154. Morrison, Bruce. ‘The Role of the Self-Access Centre in the Tertiary Language Learning Process’. System 36, 2 (2008): 123-140. Morrison, Brian and Diego Navarro. ‘Shifting Roles: From Language Teachers to Learning Advisors’. System 40, 3 (2012): 349-359. Partala, Timo. ‘Psychological Needs and Virtual Worlds: Case Second Life‘. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 69, 12 (2011): 787-800. Traphagan, Tomoko. Evaluation of a Pilot Use of Second Life in an English Course: 2006-2007. Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, 2007. Tuncay, Nazime and Huseyin Uzunboylu. ‘English Language Teachers’ Success in Blended and Online E-Learning’. Procedia Social and Behavorial Sciences 47 (2012): 131-137.

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__________________________________________________________________ Dean A. F. Gui is a Language Instructor for The English Language Centre at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). His B. A. is in English Literature from Western Illinois University, his M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Illinois. In addition to his research on language and literature in virtual worlds, and hybrid identity, he also spends time writing poetry. Contact: [email protected]. Andrew Northern is a Language Instructor for The English Language Centre at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). He has an M.A. in Modern Languages from The University of Cambridge and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching English for Academic Purposes (PGCTEAP) from The University of Nottingham. His research interests include academic literacy, writing feedback practices, academic presentation and seminar skills, blended learning in EAP and language learning in virtual worlds. Contact: [email protected].

Students’ Experiences and Ideas of the Library Services in Second Life Eeva-Liisa Eskola and Marja Anttonen Abstract Libraries are committed to support students in their learning process and to continuously develop their own services. This chapter presents and summarises two development projects of the library and the students of Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) which aimed to examine the possibilities of virtual worlds in teaching and learning information literacy (IL) skills, and to explore what role the virtual reality could play in library and information service (LIS) education. The focus of TUAS’ library in developing the virtual services is on instruction in IL skills and promoting the use of e-resources. Therefore the different functionalities in the library’s Second LifeTM (SL) area were planned to trigger the learning of IL skills and the use of e-resources. The triggers were seen as affordances or clues in the environment that indicate possibilities for action. In the first project, students from the Degree Programme in Social Services attended an introduction to IL skills in SL and their opinions and thoughts were gathered with a questionnaire. In the second project, an information specialist familiarised LIS students and their teacher with the use of SL. Between the sessions the students worked in groups on three themes: 1. SWOT analysis of the utilisation of SL in higher education, 2. Development of the library’s area, 3. Networking and internationalisation. The findings suggest that virtual environments may enhance learning of IL skills of those students who are interested in or have a positive attitude towards the environments and unconventional ways of seeking and finding information. LIS students gained understanding of virtual worlds and their relation to information work and got experience in organising events. Through the projects, the library developed its profile from a traditional services library to a participatory medium that can support students’ learning in a new way. Key Words: Virtual worlds, Second Life, library services, information literacy skills, user experiences. ***** 1. Introduction Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in Finland. It is a multi-branch educational community of some 9,500 students and 800 academics, offering education that develops working life and entrepreneurship, research and development services (R&D) and holistic development of organisations. In the strategic plan of TUAS 2010–2013, the quality and enhancement of the students’ counselling and tutoring activities is

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__________________________________________________________________ emphasised. Tutoring of students should be increased and social media and other web-based learning tools should be utilised.1 The strategic plan also guides the function of TUAS’ library, which is responsible for supplying high quality information resources and supporting information literacy (IL) skills within the university. The purpose of the library is to integrate into teaching, learning and research. This integration into the processes of the university has been the library’s priority from the beginning. Thus, in accordance with the strategic plan, the library and the student counselling office launched the Second LifeTM (SL) virtual presence at the beginning of 2011 with a project where a Second Life service was created. The aim of the project was to improve student counselling and tutoring with social media. The second project of the library started in February 2012 and it aimed at developing further the services in virtual reality. Additionally, the projects examined the possibilities of virtual worlds in teaching and learning IL skills, and explored what role virtual reality could play in library and information service (LIS) education. Other fields of study, for example health care, have also implemented SL in their courses and new projects are initiated. The TUAS Second Life island is part of a virtual community, EduFinland, which is a group of islands in the three-dimensional virtual world of Second Life. It is also a collaborative network for Finnish educators. At the moment EduFinland consists of 25 islands, and more than 50 schools, universities and other non-profit organisations from Finland have their places there. The EduFinland group in Second Life has over 400 members.2 A concentration of Finnish educators and schools in Second Life serves many purposes and provides possibilities for cooperation. Finnish universities and schools may rent land from EduFinland for educational and research purposes. EduFinland also provides shared spaces like an orientation island, auditoriums and meeting facilities. EduFinland has also organised social events and seminars.3 Using Second Life in the educational context is motivated in the literature by its possibilities in simulation creation, distance learning, visualisation and roleplaying.4 It provides a more economical and safer way to try and learn different things, which in real life could not be possible, or would be too expensive to realise. One of the arguments for using a virtual world is that it increases the sense of presence and immersion, which may promote learning in online distance education.5,6 Libraries have been active in SL since Linden Lab, the proprietors of Second Life, launched it in 2003. According to Elliott & Probets,7 librarians have regarded it as important to gain understanding about virtual worlds, while it has been forecast that the amount of users of 3D worlds will increase.8 Libraries organise different events and seminars in SL, such as book discussions, author visits, virtual art and history exhibits. They create contacts and partnerships with vendors, other libraries, and educational organisations, develop reference services and instruction.9,10

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__________________________________________________________________ Second Life and other virtual worlds offer an interesting option for higher education institutions to vary and enhance learning and services. Even so, those who are planning to use virtual worlds should carefully think, what added value a virtual environment brings to learning or providing and using services. Other learning environments or methods may suit better than a virtual world for learning certain contents, also different learners prefer different methods of learning.11,12 According to Clarke who has reviewed the literature on libraries and their use of Second Life, the virtual reference services have got most attention.13 In the studies, librarians have also reported the disadvantages based on their experiences in providing the services in SL. The disadvantages identified include computing requirements, unreliability of software and connections, security issues, poor search functions, limits on the number of users in each area, integration with other media, and the steep learning curve and complexity of the software interface.14 2. The SL Environment of the Library and the Student Counselling Office The appearance of the virtual learning environment may influence student learning. The preliminary results of research indicate that students both like more and learn better in an aesthetically pleasant environment than in a plain room without any stimulating objects.15 A pleasant and expansive environment was one of the starting points for the planning of the TUAS island in Second Life. The visual theme of the environment was decided as an archipelago, as the City of Turku is situated on the southwest coast of Finland with a vast and beautiful archipelago. In the shared area of the library and the student counselling office, there are insular houses of different types for different kinds of functions and information, such as the red insular warehouses of the student office, which include information about the degree programmes and studying for applicants, and the insular house of the library with access to and instructions for e-resources. In the area there are also many different meeting places for the avatars such as a light house, campfire, sailing ship, and café. The different functionalities in the library’s Second Life area were planned to trigger the learning of IL skills and the use of eresources. Those triggers were seen as affordances or clues in the environment that indicate possibilities for action according to the affordance theory.16,17,18 One of the clues guiding the avatars to access the e-resources is a fishing net, which is hanging on the wall of the library’s insular house. The three-dimensional symbols of different study fields represent the fishes in the net. There is, for example, a palette, which refers to the e-materials of arts and media, and a drug pot, which refers to nursing and healthcare. When an avatar touches a symbol, s/he will open an information retrieval portal and is provided with access to ereferences, mainly full text articles of that certain area (Image 1).

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__________________________________________________________________

Image 1: Avatars, the Fish Net and the Insular House of the Library. © 2013. Image Courtesy of Library, Turku University of Applied Sciences The area includes also some fairy tale elements. An avatar can walk like Thumbelina on a Monet-inspired path on water lilies and at the same time learn the six steps of the information retrieval process (Image 2). Thus the library in the virtual world differs completely from the library with bookshelves and computers in real life.

Image 2: Avatars Walking on a Monet-inspired Path on Water Lilies. © 2013. Image Courtesy of Library, Turku University of Applied Sciences

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. The Pilot Project of Teaching and Learning IL Skills in Second Life A pilot group of students (25 students) from the Degree Programme in Social Services attended a four-hour introduction to IL skills in Second Life, after having some introduction in ‘real life’, e.g. in a computer classroom. Since this was a pilot course, there were also two teachers present, usually only one. After the course the students’ opinions and thoughts were gathered with a questionnaire. The students were supportive of the idea of learning IL skills in Second Life by saying for example: ‘We got good ideas; some of them were new, some of them we already knew.’ ‘We had the possibility to use and learn more about how to use SL in our studies.’ ‘I learned more about information seeking, and the many forms of information seeking. Information seeking is more than just the seeking a title of the book in the library’s database, and I learned a lot of new methods for seeking information.’ On the other hand, there were students who preferred more traditional training of IL skills: ‘I did not really learn anything new from the IL learning path on water lilies, because new information came all the time, and I got confused, and did not know which part of it I should have read first. Some of the information I read many times and on the other hand I’m not sure whether I read all or not…On a normal lecture also these things would have been better learned. Technical difficulties in using the SL environment caused the learning experience not to be optimal: ‘It was very difficult to read the information from the notecards of the IL learning path on water lilies, because they disappeared from time to time. It would have been easier to read from a printed text or a computer screen. Anyway, the ideas and information were good.’ 19 In Second Life a notecard is an item containing, for example, text. The comments were similar to the comments of those students who had been attending traditional IL skills learning courses. Comments of similar nature are also received in the library’s customer satisfaction surveys and student barometries in which the students give feedback on the instruction of IL skills or the quality of eresources. 4. SWOT Analysis, Benchmarking and Simulation Creation of Future Librarians The next step in the implementation and integration of the virtual world into the activities of TUAS’ library was to further develop the Second Life area and the IL training in SL. In this second project the library cooperated with the Degree Programme in Library and Information Services at TUAS, whose personnel and students wanted to gain understanding of the possibilities and meaning of virtual reality in LIS education.20 This continuation project proceeded simultaneously on two levels. On the first level the LIS students got acquainted with SL and learned to use it. The library staff familiarised the LIS students (12 students) and their teacher with the use of SL once a week during a 12-week period. The first time all the participants were in

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__________________________________________________________________ a computer classroom, but the following times the group met in SL. The group members attended the meeting either from their home computers or from the computer classroom at the school. On the second level the students worked in groups on the three following themes: 1. Considering and developing different ways to use and integrate virtual worlds in the curriculum of the LIS degree programme, 2. Developing the functionalities of the library’s SL area from the point of view of IL training, and 3. Networking and internationalisation through SL. The students presented the results of their group work in a Second Life seminar organised by the group, which examined networking through SL. The theme of the seminar was Second Life as a platform for education. In the seminar there were also invited speakers from the other degree programmes of TUAS and a musical performance by one of the student avatars. The first group made a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the utilisation of Second Life in higher education. The strengths of Second Life, according to the students, are in its possibilities in role playing, simulation creation and implementation within distance education. In addition, the possibility to use Second Life free of charge was seen as a strength. When considering the weaknesses of Second Life, the students focused on technical issues. They evaluated the SL application as already a little bit outdated, the audiovisual level could also have been better, and the interface itself was perceived as clumsy. As an opportunity of Second Life the students regarded the user-created content. Using a virtual world as a learning environment was assessed as a novel approach which could add variety to teaching and learning. The students thought also that Second Life offers different tools for communication, which strengthens the possibilities to utilise it in educational contexts. The threats for Second Life’s future were partly connected with the rapid technological development. There are new virtual worlds available, which fascinate the users because they are ready to use without having to download separate software. The new worlds are more targeted and customised to different user groups. In turn, this may impact on the amount of users of Second Life negatively. The second group of students gave proposals for improvement from the point of view of the area’s appearance, access to information sources and collections in Second Life and the internet, and instructions in information seeking. Generally, the students regarded the library’s area as pleasant; also the signs in the area were clear. The students highlighted the use of more imagination and utilisation of 3D possibilities in order to enhance the library’s area. During the implementation of Second Life at TUAS, an important question has been how to market Second Life and its services for the non-users, and the students had also considered solutions to that issue. This group also conducted a short multiple choice questionnaire on the use and opinions of SL among the LIS students at TUAS. Twenty-three students of

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__________________________________________________________________ whom 14 were familiar with SL and, of which five used it, answered the questionnaire. Two main reasons why the students did not use SL were, according to the questionnaire, that the students did not experience using SL as meaningful and that they did not know anybody who uses it. The answers chosen most frequently to the question: What would make you interested in using SL? were: useful contents, possibilities to use SL in distance education and if my friends would use SL. The students of the third group concretised their theme into a SL seminar. During the project they learned how to utilise different possibilities of Second Life, for example in creating the facilities for the seminar and in using different software applications for the presentations and performances. Organising an event in SL gave the students practice in planning and carrying out a seminar in real life. They had to establish the theme, select the place, plan the programme, invite the speakers and other performers, take care of the marketing and hosting of the seminar, and even arrange refreshments for the attendees. In spite of the technical problems connected with the quite significant hardware and software requirements of Second Life, during the projects the students got an insight into how a virtual world, such as Second Life, can be utilised in the context of LIS education, libraries and learning of IL skills. The LIS students participating in the project experienced the cooperation with the library staff as positive. Even though it was an optional course, the Second Life project gave LIS students an opportunity to become acquainted and work together with the students enrolled in different years in an environment new to everybody. 5. Discussion In 2010 the personnel in TUAS library had been acquainted with the use of Second Life and were aware of the possibilities and, to a certain degree, the disadvantages of the application. We had an idea that SL could offer something new to the TUAS students and teachers as well as to the library, and that is why we decided to initiate the projects. During the planning and building process and the projects with the students we met challenges of similar kind as reported in the literature.21,22,23 We did not have the expertise in designing and building 3D environments in the library, and because the schedule of the projects was tight, we hired a private company for the work. Nevertheless, a lot of planning and work were needed before the virtual environment was ready to be explored by the TUAS avatars. Among other things, the copyright questions with the builder of the area had to be worked out and resolved. Questions connected with the installation and upgrading the SL application in the university’s IT-environment needed special attention. The amount of PC’s connected to the TUAS network is large, and there were, for example, computers where the SL application could not be installed because of the inadequate graphic cards. SL differs from other software and applications used in the university and the questions concerning information

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__________________________________________________________________ security had to be explored. Also among the TUAS students there existed resistance to the use of SL for learning. The function of the library is evaluated by quantitative and qualitative methods and we have to be able to show that our services, including the ones in Second Life are used. When our project started, we noticed that SL is not so well known or popular in Finland. Also, the first avatar from TUAS, a student counsellor at the virtual campus, had very few visitors. We have noticed that the students don´t come to SL without a special reason. This is confirmed by the results of the small scale study of our LIS students. In our case, the reason is teaching and learning. A calculator, which is situated in the library’s area, tells that there are approximately 100 virtual visits per month. On Friday afternoons, a coffee break in SL gathers five to six avatars every week for changing ideas and reflecting the use of virtual environment. The amount of visitors is not huge, but we have been able to prove, in a relatively short period of time, that our SL environment is used, which in turn has had a positive impact on project financing and new projects could have been initiated in the study fields. 6. Conclusions The findings of the projects suggest that virtual environments such as Second Life may enhance the information literacy skills of those students who are interested in or have a positive attitude towards virtual environments and unconventional ways of seeking and finding information. The students understand the possibilities of virtual worlds in distance learning and simulation, but the 3D software or application should be easy to use and the contents meaningful and applicable in 3D environments. While applying Second Life in teaching and learning IL skills, the library has developed its profile from a traditional services library to a direction where the library may be seen as a participatory medium that can facilitate and support users in developing necessary competencies in seeking, creating, storing and sharing of information and learning from it.24

Notes 1

Turku University of Applied Sciences, The Strategic Plan of Turku University of Applied Sciences 2010-2013, viewed 10 April 2013, http://www.turkuamk.fi/public/default.aspx?nodeid=17945&culture=enUS&contentlan=2. 2 Kim Holmberg, ‘Lessons Learned from the Birth and Evolution of the EduFinland Virtual Community for Educators’, Knowledge Management & ELearning: An International Journal 4 (2012): viewed 10 April 2013, http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication/article/view/169.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3

EduFinland, EduFinland is a Place, a Network, a Community and Cooperation, viewed 12 April 2013, http://edufinland.fi/in-english/. 4 Holmberg, ‘Lessons Learned’. 5 Kim Holmberg et al., Kirjasto 2.0: muuttuva osallistumisen kulttuuri (Helsinki: BTJ, 2009), 178. 6 Maggi Savin-Baden, Practical Guide To Using Second Life In Higher Education (Berkshire, GBR: Open University Press, 2010), 7–8. 7 Naomi Elliott, Steve Probets, ‘Is There a Second Life for Librarians?’ The Electronic Library 29 (2011): 354–366. 8 Gartner, Gartner Says 80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have a ‘Second Life’ in the Virtual World by the End of 2011, viewed 10 April 2013, http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=503861. 9 Holmberg, ‘Lessons Learned’. 10 Natassa Tsoubrakakou and Panorea Gaitanou, ‘Managing Virtual Environments in Libraries: Second Life and Information Literacy’, in Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models and Strategies for Libraries (IFLA Publications), ed. Anthi Katsirikou (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter), 54. 11 Kim Holmberg and Isto Huvila, ‘Learning Together Apart: Distance Education in a Virtual World’, First Monday 13 (2008), viewed 10 April 2013, http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2178/2033. 12 Holmberg, ‘Lessons Learned’. 13 Christopher P. Clarke, ‘Second Life in the Library: An Empirical Study of New Users’ Experiences’, Program: Electronic Library & Information Systems 46 (2012): 242–257, viewed 10 April 2013, http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.turkuamk.fi/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh& AN=75057488&site=ehost-live. 14 Ibid. 15 Holmberg, ‘Lessons Learned’. 16 Elizabeth Bess Sadler and Lisa M. Given, ‘Affordance Theory: A Framework for Graduate Students’ Information Behavior’, Journal of Documentation 63 (2007):115–141. 17 Karen Ruhleder, ‘Understanding On-line Community: The Affordances of Virtual Space’, Information Research 3 (2002), viewed 10 April 2013, http://informationr.net/ir/7-3/paper132.html. 18 Lennart Björneborg, ‘Behavioural Traces and Indirect User-to-User Mediation in the Participatory Library’, in Information Science and Social Media: Proceedings from the International Conference Information Science and Social Media ISSOME 2011, ed. Isto Huvila, Kim Holmberg and Maria Kronqvist-Berg, viewed 10 April 2013, http://issuu.com/informationsvetenskap/docs/issome2011.

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__________________________________________________________________ 19

Eeva-Liisa Eskola and Minna Toikka, ‘Exploring the Virtual Worlds. Enhancing E-learning and Accessing Online Resources in TUAS’, in Information in EMotion, Proceedings BOBCATSSS 2012: 20th International Conference of Information Science. Amsterdam, 23-25 January 2012, ed. Wolf-Fritz Riekert and Ingeborg Simon (Bad Honnef: BOCK + HERGHEN Verlag), 118-119. 20 Eeva-Liisa Eskola, ‘Exploring the Virtual Worlds: Enhancing E-learning in Cooperation with Students, Librarians and Student Counseling in Turku’, Kreodi Special IFLA Issue (2012), viewed 10 April 2013, http://tiny.cc/zmgsvw. 21 Clarke, ‘Second Life in the Library’. 22 Holmberg, ‘Lessons Learned’. 23 Holmberg and Huvila, ‘Learning Together Apart’. 24 Björneborg, ‘Behavioural Traces’.

Bibliography Björneborg, Lennart, ‘Behavioural Traces and Indirect User-to-User Mediation in the Participatory Library’. Information Science and Social Media. Proceedings from the International Conference Information Science and Social Media ISSOME 2011, edited by Isto Huvila, Kim Holmberg and Maria Kronqvist-Berg. Viewed 10 April 2013. http://issuu.com/informationsvetenskap/docs/issome2011. Clarke, Christopher, P. ‘Second Life in the Library: An Empirical Study of New Users’ Experiences.’ Program: Electronic Library & Information Systems 46 (2012): 242-257. Viewed 10 April 2013. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.turkuamk.fi/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh& AN=75057488&site=ehost-live. EduFinland. EduFinland is a Place, a Network, a Community and Cooperation. Viewed 12 April 2013. http://edufinland.fi/in-english/. Elliott, Naomi, Probets, Steve. ‘Is there a Second Life for Librarians?’ The Electronic Library 29 (2011): 354–366. Eskola, Eeva-Liisa. ‘Exploring the Virtual Worlds: Enhancing E-learning in Cooperation with Students, Librarians and Student Counseling in Turku’. Kreodi Special IFLA Issue (2012): 32–35. Viewed 10 April 2013. http://tiny.cc/zmgsvw.

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__________________________________________________________________ Eskola, Eeva-Liisa, Toikka, Minna. ‘Exploring the Virtual Worlds. Enhancing ELearning and Accessing Online Resources in TUAS’. Information in E-Motion, Proceedings BOBCATSSS 2012 – 20th International Conference of Information Science. Amsterdam, 23-25 January 2012, edited by Wolf-Fritz Riekert and Ingeborg Simon, 116-120. Bad Honnef: BOCK + HERCHEN Verlag, 2012. Holmberg, Kim. ‘Lessons Learned from the Birth and Evolution of the EduFinland Virtual Community for Educators’. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal 4 (2012). Viewed 10 April 2013. http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication/article/view/169. Holmberg, Kim, Huvila Isto, Kronqvist-Berg, Maria, Nivakoski, Outi, WidénWulff, Gunilla. Kirjasto 2.0: muuttuva osallistumisen kulttuuri. Helsinki: BTJ, 2009. Holmberg, Kim, Huvila, Isto. ‘Learning Together Apart: Distance Education in a Virtual World’. First Monday 13 (2008). Viewed 10 April 2013. http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2178/2033. Ruhleder, Karen. ’Understanding On-line Community: The Affordances of Virtual Space’. Information Research 7 (2002). Viewed 10 April 2013. http://informationr.net/ir/7-3/paper132.html. Sadler, Elizabeth Bess, Given, Lisa, M. ‘Affordance Theory: A Framework for Graduate Students’ Information Behavior’. Journal of Documentation 63(2007): 115–141. Savin-Baden, Maggi. Practical Guide To Using Second Life In Higher Education. Berkshire, GBR: Open University Press, 2010. Tsoubrakakou, Natassa, Gaitanou, Panorea. ‘Managing Virtual Environments in Libraries: Second Life and Information Literacy’. Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models and Strategies for Libraries, edited by Anthi Katsirikou, 51–59. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011. Turku University of Applied Sciences. The Strategic Plan of the Turku University of Applied Sciences 2010–2013. Viewed 10 April 2013. http://www.turkuamk.fi/public/default.aspx?nodeid=17945&culture=enUS&conten tlan=2.

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__________________________________________________________________ Marja Anttonen is a Chief Librarian of Turku University of Applied Sciences Library. Eeva-Liisa Eskola is working as an Information Specialist in the same organisation.

Section II:

Technology Associated with Utilizing Virtual Worlds

Experiential Learning, Virtual Collaboration and Robots Michael Vallance and Catherine Naamani Abstract Virtual worlds are ideally positioned to construct new environments with unique tools and communication opportunities that can support experiential learning through interdisciplinary collaboration. They also simultaneously build bridges across international borders. This chapter will summarize the early stages of our international research, which has been designed to collate data and evaluate the learning experience of teams of sixth form and undergraduate students collaborating in a 3D virtual world when programming a LEGO robot with NXT Mindstorms software to follow pre-determined circuit tasks. Each circuit task is represented by tangible and quantifiably measured outcomes. The aim of each task is twofold: firstly, students are required to work in teams to teach one another a pre-prepared circuit; secondly, teams develop increasingly sophisticated communication, team-working and evaluative skills as they reflect on the learning that has taken place. Tasks so far have included maneuvering around obstacles, using touch sensors to find ways around obstacles, using light sensors to avoid obstacles, using touch and light sensors to scoop up objects, and constructing a bridge to move over an obstacle. The developments have enabled students to actively engage in international collaboration, problem solving, construction of solutions, communication and effective team working. Our observational research, supported by quantitative data, is anticipated to highlight the benefits and limitations of experiential learning in a virtual world. Key Words: LEGO, robots, Japan, Wales, communication, learning, immersivity, OpenSim.

collaboration,

synchronous

***** 1. Background In educational contexts, the theoretical foundations of collaboration lie in social constructivism where personal meaning-making is constructed with others in a social space. Collaboration can promote creativity, critical thinking, dialogue, assist with deeper levels of knowledge generation, promote initiative and, when conducted internationally, address issues of culture. 1 One outcome is the development of an essential 21st century skill Jukes et.al term collaboration fluency: Collaboration fluency is teamworking proficiency that has reached the unconscious ability to work cooperatively with virtual and real partners in an online environment to create original digital products. 2

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__________________________________________________________________ Knowledge is not merely a commodity to be transmitted, encoded and retained, but is personal experience to be actively constructed. 3 The subsequent learning is based on intuition, experimentation and discovery. 4 This is the learning that engages and motivates learners, and can be implemented through collaborative tasks. 5 Our research has been designed for students to collaborate, at a distance, on programming a robot to follow pre-determined circuits. Each circuit task represents tangible and quantifiably measured outcomes. Robot project work has been shown to develop independent learning skills, creativity, motivation, confidence and resilience. 6 The robot selected for the programming tasks was LEGO robot 8527 (supported by the LEGO Mindstorms NXT software version 2.1). LEGO robot 8527 was adopted due to its simplicity and potential for sensors to be added as the research tasks developed; see Images 1 to 4.

Image 1: LEGO 8527 robot. © 2013. Image courtesy of the authors

Image 2: Robot with touch sensor. © 2013. Image courtesy of the authors

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Image 3: Robot with iPod Touch streaming a live video feed to virtual world. © 2013. Image couresty of the authors

Image 4: Robot with scoop arm and touch and light sensors. © 2013. Image courtesy of the authors

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__________________________________________________________________ 2. Methodology Our current research is continuing the work of Vallance and Martin to explore the development of an evidence-based framework of learning for tasks of measurable complexity in virtual worlds. 7 This is currently undertaken by collecting data of collaboration in a virtual world: (i) capturing students’ procedural processes as they work through the task solution, and (ii) capturing students’ learning reflections during and after completion of tasks (to promote meta-cognition). From this data, we aim to (i) associate specific instances within the task process to a neo-Bloomian taxonomy, 8 and (ii) analyze the evaluations as outlined in the UK schools’ Essential Skills taxonomy. 9 It is posited that this will lead to an understanding of particular tasks performed in a virtual world where specific learning is expected to occur. Open Simulator (commonly referred to as OpenSim, an open source multiplatform, multi-user 3D application server) is used for the virtual space. The learner-centered design approach has enabled a number of innovative tools to be created and customized by the students: for instance, the ability to move a graphical representation of the LEGO robot object and leave a trace of the circuit in-world. In addition, media objects in-world (known as prims) can display live streamed video from the lab in Japan and also from an iPhone attached to the front of the LEGO robot. Virtual noticeboards can be updated with text and images to aid communication (see Image 5).

Image 5: Virtual 3D lab with live streamed video from Japan lab. © 2013. Image courtesy of the authors

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__________________________________________________________________ Students are set tasks based upon a unique Robot Task Complexity formula. 10 Considering the eminent work in robotics by Barker and Ansorge 11 and Olson and Goodrich, 12 task complexity was initially calculated according to the number of sections that made up a given circuit, where a section was defined as an element that was different in orientation (direction) to the preceding section. However, we found that the logic of assigning task complexity to circuits was inadequate. For instance, initially we assigned complexity values to distinct maneuvers such as forward – turn – back. We found over the course of our previous research that as circuits became more challenging, the NXT programming became more complex. At the same time, the challenges associated with effective communication, team working and problem solving also increased. This was especially the case when we needed to add sensors to maneuver around and over obstacles. Simply adding the number of obstacles to the circuit task complexity was flawed because the programming required to maneuver over a bridge using touch sensors, for instance, was far more complex than maneuvering around a box using touch sensors. Consequently, our modified task complexity is now determined by the NXT program solution rather than the circuit to be navigated. We call this Robot Task Complexity, which we posit can be measured as: RTC = Σ Mv1 + Σ Sv2 + Σ SW + Σ Lv3 M = number of moves (direction and turn) S = number of sensors SW = number of switches L = number of loops v = number of decisions required by user for each programmable block v1= 6 v2= 5 v3 = 2 In the NXT Mindstorms software, the Move block controls the directions and turns that the LEGO robot will take. There are six variables that need to be considered in a Move block: NXT ‘brick’ port link, direction, steering, power, duration, and next action. In other words, the students have to make six specific decisions about the values that make up the programmable Move block. Therefore, we assign v1 a value of six. Additionally, there are eight common sensors which are used in our tasks (timer, light, ultrasonic, colour, touch, sound, distance, wait) with the sensors’ capabilities determined by five variables (v2= 5). Finally, a loop has only two variables to consider so we assign v3 = 2). In an example shown in Image 6, the students have programmed the robot to move in four directions, with three turns and two touch sensors. Their NXT

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__________________________________________________________________ program solution in Image 7 can then be used to calculate the Robot Task Complexity. RTC = Σ Mv1 + Σ Sv2 + Σ SW + Σ Lv3 RTC = (8 x 6) + (3 x 5) + 3 + 0 RTC = 66

Image 6: Example of Robot Task Complexity. © 2013. Image courtesy of the author

Image 7. LEGO NXT program solution. © 2013. Image courtesy of the author

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__________________________________________________________________ We acknowledge that, at present, our modified Robot Task Complexity (RTC) index applies only to the LEGO Mindstorms robot, but it does provide a useful indicator in our attempts to analyze the experiential learning during the collaborative tasks. Screen capture software (i.e. Snapz Pro) has been used to record the virtual world interactions and the real world sharing of robot solutions. All text-based communication in-world has also been saved. Voice-enabled communication inworld with the Vivox utility has proven unreliable though. In addition, the Japanese students are more comfortable with text-based communication as they say it gives them time to consider their responses and check with one another for appropriate use of English. In addition, when tasks are undertaken solely between the Japanese students, they also prefer text communication; again, due to their desire to have time to consider their responses, even in their native language. For the researcher this has the advantage of archiving the communication for crossreferencing with RTC, immersion and student reflections. Conversely, the UK students report that while text-based communication is effective, they find visual communication via Skype and shared images more helpful in completing tasks. This cumulative data is being explored to see how task processes by learners can be located within Anderson et al’s neo-Bloomian taxonomy. 13 The six categories associated with cognitive processes identified in the taxonomy are: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. The taxonomy provides an instrument upon which to scrutinize learning and relate the outcomes to the observable learning instances expected by education authorities. The skills based core component of the WJEC - Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification is also used (see Table 1). Cognitive descriptors in Essential Skills Assessment Record, lists the cognitive descriptors extracted from the three levels of the Wales Baccalaureate documentation. These have then been assigned their equivalent Bloom’s descriptor (see column 3). Column 4 reveals the cognitive processes attributed within the neo-Bloomian hierarchy. The Baccalaureate essential skills ensures assessment of higher cognitive process of ‘evaluate’ and ‘create’ at each level measured by ‘increasing ability to manage the whole process’. 14 Skills development focuses on context and complexity of the task meaning that it is feasible to use similar or even the same descriptors for different levels. It is possible therefore to have a simple task at Level 1, requiring analysis and evaluation, with learners increasing their skill level as they progress to undertaking more complex tasks at Level 3 or Level 6 for example, requiring the same cognitive process.

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__________________________________________________________________ Table 1:Cognitive descriptors in WJEC Key Skills Assessment Record. Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification L3

L2

L1 - low

Cognitive descriptors in WJEC Key Skills Assessment Record Explore Identify Analyze Compare Plan Check Reflect Identify Plan Check Reflect Understand Plan Reflect (for improvement)

Equivalent Bloom’s descriptors (+ verb subset) of WJEC Evaluate (critique) Analyze (attribute) Analyze Analyze - (differentiate) Create Analyze (differentiate) Evaluate Remember (recognise) Create Analyze (differentiate) Evaluate Understand Create Evaluate

Bloom’s hierarchy assessed (not assessed) in WJEC Create Evaluate Analyze (Apply) (Understand) (Remember) Create Evaluate Analyze (Apply) (Understand) Remember Create Evaluate (Analyze) (Apply) Understand (Remember)

3. Implementation The research is a collaborative effort between Future University Hakodate, Japan and University of South Wales, United Kingdom. In Japan, there are four second year undergraduate students, all males aged 19, studying Media Architecture. In the UK, there are two groups of students: one group in Mt. Ash Comprehensive School, and the second in Aberdare High School. The groups are mainly male, aged 17 – 18, with one girl. They study a variety of science-based subjects at A level. The UK School leaving qualification is taken at age 18. Some of the students are planning on progressing into Higher Education, while others intend to seek Engineering apprenticeships or similar on leaving school. After two orientation tasks, the students were charged with designing their own tasks for the international collaboration. Data was then collected and aligned with each task’s Robot Task Complexity value. As well as the use of obstacles and sensors, a number of multi-modal communication tools such as the live video streaming and still images were utilized in the 3D virtual world as students deemed fit.

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__________________________________________________________________ At this stage of the research, 21 tasks have been undertaken. Some tasks have involved Japanese students collaborating with other remotely located Japanese students, and some with Japanese students and UK students. Tasks have included maneuvering around obstacles using distance and turn commands, using touch sensors to find ways around obstacles, constructing a bridge and using touch sensors to move over obstacles, using light sensors to avoid obstacles, using touch and light sensors to scoop up objects, and using RGB sensors to locate items. 4. Discussion This section summarises our personal observations. Although a collaborative effort, being 10,000 km and a nine hour time zone difference apart presents a number of challenges. In addition, the physical circumstances and technical issues differ. 4.1 Japan by Michael Vallance I physically meet my four student participants once every week for three hours. Each week, we discuss programming tasks and experiment with collaboration and communication in our 3D virtual world. Most often we prepare different tasks for the UK – Japan meetings; some tasks we discard and some we further develop. The students are encouraged to ‘play’ with the technologies, and design and add new tools; examples are the virtual world media prims and the real world video streaming from an iPod Touch or iPhone camera fixed to the robot. As a researcher I continually collect data regarding Robot Task Complexity, immersivity, task communication, and reflections on learning via a focussed post task discussion in Japanese and English. The initial tasks were purposely not challenging in order to capture students’ procedural knowledge and develop confidence. Tasks then became more complex according to the our Robot Task Complexity criteria but the students indicated that even though the tasks were considered ‘demanding’ they deemed their skills to be ‘competent’ thereby indicating some degree of development. In later tasks, students revealed that the level of challenge increased (from ‘manageable’ to ‘difficult’), and revealed that their skill level in attempting to seek successful outcomes decreased (from ‘competent’ to ‘reasonable’). Looking at the task communication transcripts and screen captures, they reveal that the students had to utilize different procedural knowledge involving, for instance, programming a touch sensor to coordinate with a motor action. These latter tasks required students to ‘analyze’ and ‘create’ unique solutions based upon their prior task experiences and were thus deemed most challenging. As an observer, I can state that the students’ programming and communication skills had increased. Simply watching video captures from Task 1 and then Task 16 reveal this to be the case. However, students felt that their skills had decreased, or had not matched the level of challenge being put on them. One particularly memorable challenge was to

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__________________________________________________________________ program the robot to use the touch and light sensors to move towards a ball and scoop it up. This was one of the tasks involving UK students teaching Japanese students. This task created the most anxiety. However, the following task involved a more complex program whereby the robot had to spin 360 degrees, locate a black line using a sensor, follow that line towards a red target, and when that target was reached a robot arm had to chop down and cut a piece of water melon. This is known as suikawari in Japanese. The increase in Robot Task Complexity was reflected in the students deeming the challenge to be ‘demanding’. By successfully completing the task, utilizing their NXT programming knowledge and being more strategic in their communication and collaboration, they considered their skills though to be ‘masterful’. Even though video captures of robot movements and the online collaboration, transcriptions of in-world communication, and post-task reflections are collated as data for this research, at present the data only superficially demonstrates a development of procedural knowledge and collaborative fluency. A cursory observation of the video captures and transcripts reveal evidence of the neoBloomian cognitive descriptors of create, analyze and apply. However, more tasks and a more detailed analysis will need to be undertaken. The tasks to date have also revealed pragmatic limitations of collaborating within the OpenSim virtual space. Although we can now upload image captures of our NXT program and LEGO robot to a presenter board in-world, there is an understandable desire for reliable live video communication. UStream live broadcasting has been enabled but the video feed cannot be reliably viewed inworld. Also, logging into the OpenSim space is temperamental and often determined by network bandwidth and port limitations; the UK schools have to often work outside their school network. Despite our attempts to set up our OpenSim with Vivox, we have never been able to get ‘voice’ enabled in-world. Moving objects (or prims) in-world has also been troublesome as permissions of each prim have to be assigned to other avatars. In the latter tasks for checking the completion of the robots, the students opened Skype. They found Skype to be more effective at troubleshooting the NXT program. In other words, the more effective collaboration actually takes place outside the virtual space when engaged in the more challenging tasks. Given these limitations of OpenSim, a new 3D space is being developed using Unity 3D where it is anticipated many of the functions desired by students can be developed. Also, remote control of the LEGO robot will be implemented in our next series of tasks. 4.2 Wales, United Kingdom by Catherine Naamani The students meet prior to the task with their teachers in the UK to plan and prepare. Where possible, I join them. They are taking part in the project in their own time and it is often difficult to find a time for them all to meet. At the start of

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__________________________________________________________________ the project, we also encountered numerous technological barriers, not least of which, the firewalls protecting the schools’ internet access, which blocked the collaborative technologies we hoped to use for the project. This was overcome largely thanks to the help of the schools’ ICT technicians who were able to set up alternative internet access for the project. The schools became involved in the project for 3 main reasons: 1. To provide a unique opportunity for them to collaborate on an international scale that would otherwise not have been possible 2. To develop students’ key skills, with a focus on communication, collaboration and problem solving 3. To improve students’ programming skills The first task set for the students did not involve any programming, but focused rather on ensuring students could access the environment and allowing the students to get to know one another. The students responded positively to this opportunity as it gave them confidence to interact in a more challenging, task focused environment as the project evolved. As tasks became increasingly more complex, the students became more comfortable with the technology and while they have reported feeling increasingly challenged by the levels of complexity associated with the programming, other ‘softer’ skills, in particular collaboration and problem solving have developed notably. The benefits and challenges of collaboration experienced mirror the comments made above. 5. Conclusion In this chapter, we have explained how we are supporting experiential learning of students immersed in 3D virtual world tasks. We have shown that the students’ aim is to effectively communicate solutions to problems which involve the programming of a LEGO robot to follow specific circuits. This is undertaken by (i) designing circuits which necessitate the use of robot maneuvers and sensors, and (ii) experiencing collaboration in a virtual world with students in Japan. These experiences lead to personal strategies for teamwork, planning, organizing, applying, analyzing, creating and reflection. Our aim, as researchers, is to design an evidence-based framework of learning for tasks of measurable complexity in virtual worlds. This is undertaken by collecting data of learning in a virtual world: (i) capturing students’ procedural processes as they work through the task solution, and (ii) capturing students’ reflection after completion of tasks. From this data we then (i) associate specific instances within the task process to Bloom’s revised taxonomy, and (ii) analyze the evaluations as outlined in the Baccalaureate taxonomy.

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__________________________________________________________________ 6. Acknowledgements The research has been supported by the UK Prime Minister’s Initiative PMI2, Japan’s JAIST, and Future University’s special research funding. The authors express thanks to UK teachers and students at Aberdare High and Mountain Ash schools in South Wales, research assistants at Future University Hakodate in Japan, and Metaverse designers at Reaction Grid USA.

Notes 1

Michael Vallance, Philip A. Towndrow and Charles Wiz, ‘Conditions for Successful Online Document Collaboration,’ Tech Trends 54.1 (2010): 20-24. 2 Ian Jukes, Ted McCain and Lee Crockett, Understanding the Digital Generation (Canada: Sage, 2010), 66. 3 Seymour Papert and Idit Harel, Constructionism (USA: Ablex publishing, 1993). 4 Andrea DiSessa, Changing Minds: Computers, Learning and Literacy (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001). 5 Jukes, Understanding the Digital Generation. 6 Andrew Lui et al., ‘Facilitating Independent Leaning with LEGO Mindstorms Robots,’ acm Inroads 1.4 (2010): 49-53. 7 Michael Vallance and Stewart M. Martin, ‘Assessment and Learning in the Virtual World: Tasks, Taxonomies and Teaching For Real,’ Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 5.2 (2012): 1-13. 8 Lorin W. Anderson et al., A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (New York: Longman, 2010). 9 ‘WJEC: Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification,’ Viewed 9 January 2013. http://tinyurl.com/cayuo64. 10 Michael Vallance, ‘The Affect of Collaboratively Programming Robots in a 3D Virtual Simulation’ (paper presented at the 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, HRI'13, Tokyo, Japan, March 3-6, 2013). 11 Bradley S. Barker and John Ansorge, ‘Robotics as Means to Increase Achievement Scores in an Informal Learning Environment,’ Journal of Research in Technology and Education 39.3 (2007): 229-243. 12 Dan R. Olsen and Michael A. Goodrich, ‘Metrics for Evaluating Human-Robot Interactions,’ Viewed 14 March 2009. http://www.icie.cs.byu.edu/Papers/RAD.pdf. 13 Anderson, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing. 14 WJEC.

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Bibliography Anderson, Lorin W., David R. Krathwohl, Peter W. Airasian and Kathleen A. Cruikshank. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman, 2010. Barker, Bradley, S. and John Ansorge. ‘Robotics as Means to Increase Achievement Scores in an Informal Learning Environment.’ Journal of Research in Technology and Education 39.3 (2007): 229-243. DiSessa, Andrea. Changing Minds: Computers, Learning and Literacy. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001. Jukes, Ian, Ted McCain and Lee Crockett. Understanding the Digital Generation. Canada: Sage, 2010. Lui, Andrew, K., S.C. Ng, Yannie H.Y. Cheung, and Prabhat Gurung. ‘Facilitating Independent Learning with LEGO Mindstorms Robots.’ acm Inroads 1.4 (2010): 49-53. Olsen, Dan R. and Michael A. Goodrich. ‘Metrics for Evaluating Human-Robot Interactions.’ Viewed 14 March 2009. http://www.icie.cs.byu.edu/Papers/RAD.pdf. Papert, Seymour and Idit Harel. Constructionism. USA: Ablex Publishing, 1993. Vallance, Michael, Phillip A. Towndrow and Charles Wiz. ‘Conditions for Successful Online Document Collaboration.’ Tech Trends 54.1 (2010): 20-24. Vallance, Michael and Stewart M. Martin. ‘Assessment and Learning in the Virtual World: Tasks, Taxonomies and Teaching For Real.’ Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 5.2 (2012): 1-13. Vallance, Michael. ‘The Affect of Collaboratively Programming Robots in a 3D Virtual Simulation.’ In Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, HRI ‘13, Tokyo, Japan, March 3-6, 2013. WJEC ‘Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification.’ Viewed 9 January 2013. http://tinyurl.com/cayuo64.

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__________________________________________________________________ Michael Vallance, Ed.D. is a researcher at Future University Hakodate, Japan. He was awarded the second prize in the Distributed Learning category at the United States Army's 2012 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge for his research in virtual collaboration. His website is http://www.mvallance.net Catherine Naamani, MA, FHEA is Head of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of South Wales, UK. She leads the University’s strategy to research and develop innovative approaches to Technology Enhanced Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Her website is http://staff.southwales.ac.uk/users/1338-cnaamani

eLearning Technologies: Solutions to the Challenges Experienced by University Students in a Classroom Environment Heera Boodhun and Chandani Appadoo Abstract There has been a real revolution in the field of higher education in the recent decade with the inclusion of educational technology to improve the delivery and quality of education being imparted. The specific research question was to consider the challenges experienced by university students in a classroom environment. Another research question was to identify educational technologies which would address the main challenges faced. An online survey questionnaire was used to reveal the students’ views. Challenges faced by students in the learning environment include different learning styles of students which face-to-face interaction may not always deal with effectively. Moreover, passive learning by students whereby they do not engage in critical analysis of information given to them as well as their reluctance to interact and ask questions in large cohorts have been found to be other challenges faced by some other students. As a solution elearning strategies are proposed for an online teaching and learning environment and comprising components such as stakeholders, resource materials, activities, monitoring and feedback. The main technologies to be used are: a virtual learning environment for course delivery, technology for preparation of resource materials (images, audio, videos, links to resources), communication technologies (Skype, email, mobile phone, news forum), technologies for running activities, monitoring and feedback (online discussion forum, online quiz and online surveys). This research chapter shows that adopting education technologies is an asset for an institution as they address the challenges encountered in a face-to-face environment. However, such an initiative cannot be taken in a vacuum. Factors such as training, infrastructural and technological improvements should also be taken into account during implementation process. This would ensure the optimum use of such facilities for the benefit of all stakeholders involved. Key Words: Classroom environment, university students, challenges, educational technologies, solutions. ***** 1. Introduction The field of education has known a real revolution in the last decade with the growing interest in the adoption of elearning. eLearning is referred to as ‘the delivery of course content via electronic media, such as Internet, Intranets, Extranets, satellite broadcast, audio/video tape, interactive TV, and CD-ROM’.1 Educational technology is now viewed as a more convenient alternative to the

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__________________________________________________________________ traditional face-to-face interaction between lecturer and students in class.2 Institutions are using more and more elearning facilities as they allow greater information access, greater communication and increased cooperation.3 Broadley pointed out that there is potential to establish a collaborative teaching and learning community through the use of an elearning environment.4 According to Naidu the critical attributes of elearning include flexibility of time, place and pace of study.5 He is also of the view that elearning affords opportunities to design learning environments that are authentic, situated in the learning context, and also problembased. Integrating information technology in academia enables the lecturer to adopt teaching and assessment strategies beyond the scope of the limited interaction within a classroom, improving thus the learning experience of the student.6 However, adopting Information Technology should be done while taking the specific context into account and applied accordingly.7 The purpose of this study is to design online classroom facilities that will cater for the teaching and learning challenges experienced by both the lecturer and university students. The research problem is to identify and better understand the requirements and features of the new online classroom environment. An online survey will be conducted to reveal the shortcomings of the traditional method of teaching and learning. An overview of elearning technologies available will be presented. The outcome of the survey will particularly help to design the elearning environment and consequently the selection of elearning technologies that will address the main challenges. 2. Research Problem and Questions The research problem is to discover the requirements of the new online teaching and learning environment that will include the demands experienced by the traditional classroom learning environment. Research questions are: 1. What are the demands of the current teaching and learning environment? 2. Do the current teaching and learning processes meet the expectations of students? 3. What are the components of the online teaching and learning environment? 4. What educational technologies can be used to address the challenges? 3. Methodology The methodology consisted of firstly reflecting on the current teaching and learning environment by the lecturer and secondly, through an online survey, investigating the challenges experienced by university students in a classroom

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__________________________________________________________________ environment. The target audience consisted of students following two programs at the University of Mauritius. The first group consisted of ten mature part time students of Criminal Justice Studies Level 2. The second group were BSc (Hons) Biology Level 2 and Level 3 students. The latter two cohorts consisted of 95 fulltime students. The survey questionnaire consisted of open ended and closed questions and was conducted using the Survey MonkeyTM program. The link to the survey was made available to students by through email. Using a class email and giving a link to a survey platform ensured anonymity of respondents. 4. Challenges 1. Students’ Learning Style versus Lecturer’s Teaching Style Teachers at different levels of academia adopt diverse teaching strategies depending on their preferences and personality. For example, lecturers can adopt four teaching styles namely: formalist, buddy, disciplinarian and interactor styles.8 It can be said that the dynamics of classroom management, as well as the style of material presentation differ according to the style adopted. Likewise, according to Felder and Solomon four pairs of learning styles can be distinguished among learners, namely: (1) active and reflective; (2) sensing and intuitive; (3) visual and verbal and (4) sequential and global learners. 9 It can thus be argued that relying on traditional means of teaching would be limited to deal with the diverse learning styles of learners. According to students, although lecturers are aware of the different learning styles of students, they may be unable to integrate information in such a way to ensure that maximum learning is taking place. 2. Passive Learning with no Real Discussions With the advent of globalisation and worldwide competition today, more than ever, there is a need to excel in education so that people have a higher probability of succeeding professionally. Integrating elearning challenges the banking concept of education according to which the lecturer is the expert who has all the knowledge and who gives the knowledge to passive recipients.10 Bloom stressed that education should promote knowledge and personal development.11 Yet, it is unfortunate to note that currently one of the challenges involved in face-to-face interactions is the passivity of students with no real discussion of the subject being taught. Students thus develop an overdependence on lectures and assimilate the information given without critical analysis. Students lack the willingness to ask questions as the relationship between the lecturer and students is viewed as a formal one whereby students feel anxious to clarify some information. In some cases students revealed that lecturers teach at a high speed so that they have difficulty to grasp and therefore concentrate on copying notes. Students have also complained that lectures give them a limited view of the subject in the field.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. Large Cohorts are Difficult to Manage-in Terms of Interaction and Assessment The University of Mauritius, being the oldest provider of tertiary education at an affordable price, the yearly demand for some courses has increased to such an extent whereby there are more than one hundred students attending some lectures. As such, lecturers could have difficulty to manage such classes as they may not have control over the attendance of students and it may be difficult to gauge the extent to which students have understood the topic. Due to lack of technological facilities such as microphones and presentation facilities, it is also more challenging to have interactive sessions with students therefore limiting the extent of deep learning and critical analysis made by students. Students have also stated that in some situations, due to the large number of students in the classroom, they have difficulty to see the whiteboard or to hear the lecturer. Moreover, in some cases, lecturers concentrate their attention on a small group of students who are in the front. Those in the back thus feel lost and are unable to grasp the topic being discussed. The lack of individual attention reduces the motivation of students to attend lectures, to concentrate in class or even to ask questions. 5. Solutions The new teaching and learning environment will have to cater for the following challenges: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Lack of individual attention. Lack of motivation. Lack of interaction, communication and discussion. Insufficient feedback. Lecture content and mode of delivery

As a solution, elearning strategies are proposed for an online teaching and learning environment. Four components are identified namely stakeholders, resource materials, activities, monitoring and feedback. The whole system is managed using an elearning platform. A summary of the main technologies that can be used is provided in Table 1. The eLearning platform eLearning platforms, also known as Learning Management systems (LMS), are applications used for delivery of learning content.12 They enable management of registration, offer electronic access to course material and virtual space for online interaction. An example is Moodle (abbreviation for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) which is a free source elearning software

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__________________________________________________________________ platform.13 Examples of other virtual learning environments include Blackboard, WebCT, Learn Research Network, Ecollege. Table 1: An outline of design components for elearning environment and associated educational technologies Design component eLearning platform Stakeholders and communication Resource material Activities

Monitoring and feedback

Educational Technology MoodleTM virtual learning environment Learner, Instructor, Course designer and associated communication technologies (Skype, email, mobile phones, news forum) PowerPointTM Use of multimedia Discussion forum for each topic Online Quiz Authentic assessment such as being assessed on activities based on real life situations (e.g. visit to police stations, visit to biological research stations) Online assignment submission Surveys Feedback on online quiz

The Stakeholders and Communication Technologies The three parties in the online environment are the course designer, the instructor/facilitator and the learner. The roles of the course designer, the instructor and the students should be clearly defined at the beginning as proposed by Aragon and there should be emphasis on creating social presence. 14 The instructor should contribute to discussion boards and provide opportunities for members to respond, promptly answer emails, provide frequent feedback, strike a conversation, share personal stories and experiences, use humour, use emotions, allow students options for addressing instructor. The learners too have to contribute to discussion boards. Communication is one of the most important components for effective learning to occur. It is very important in both a face-to-face environment and an online environment. Learners must feel at ease to communicate and they expect individual attention. Fox and Costello outline some of the communication technologies that can be used to facilitate communication.15 These are subdivided into synchronous and asynchronous methods of communication. Synchronous technologies require the individuals communicating to use technology at the same time. These include technologies such as Skype, online video-conferencing, web-conferencing, live webcasts/podcasts. Asynchronous technologies allow a period of time to elapse

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__________________________________________________________________ between them. Examples that would be useful include, email, electronic mailing list, discussion forums. The importance of online discussion forum should be stressed. This is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations through posted messages. Each forum topic can have a new discussion started and this is called a thread. A number of forum software are available and many for free.16 Online discussion forums allow students to participate in discussions to express their understanding. Weekly forums can be integrated in the course design to enable group discussion on specific topics. Facilitators also contribute to the forum by forming part of the discussions and sending comments and moderating any misconceptions. Discussion forum can be constructed on Moodle virtual learning environment. Implementing such forum is crucial as it addresses the problem of lack of interaction. It can also be used to enable all learners to participate, so that learners who are shy are not left out. Learners who contribute can be given marks for participating. It is also a way of enabling the facilitator to check whether resource materials have been understood (feedback). Markel points out that online discussion forums provided opportunities for active learning.17 Resource Materials and Learning Resource Technologies Design strategies for online courses are a very important aspect for producing appropriate online materials. Chen summarises the instructional design principles and compares the objectivist and constructivist approaches.18 According to Chen, there are an increasing number of online instructors who are adopting a constructivist approach. In the current design proposal, a similar constructivist approach is being used where the learning environment is flexible, students control the learning process, and exposure to real life situations is favoured. Fox and Costello classify learning resource technologies19 into different levels. Level 1 includes resource available from web pages, online journals, and online databases. Level 2 includes online material created by the lecturer. Level 3 includes institution created online material and online multimedia courseware and level 4 involves on-line simulations, closed virtual worlds. According to Fox and Costello, the closed virtual worlds are described as closed because although they allow users to interact, they do not allow users to add facilities to the virtual worlds. Learners can be provided with a whole variety of resource materials. There are also applications that enable guided web tours.20 Moreover, there are centres that make available online resources for use. Activities In the online learning environment, activities which support self-learning should be promoted. Online learning activities include online discussions, online self-assessments, virtual field trips, virtual laboratories, simulations, problem solving, concept mapping and interactive learning objects. Activities that can be

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__________________________________________________________________ used for assessment can include submissions, reflections, and activities encouraging collaborative learning. Monitoring and Feedback and Technologies In the online environment, methods to check on the understanding of learning material are important. This may include assessments using quiz or reflections, case studies that are marked. Surveys could be conducted to monitor and identify problems that may be encountered. Technologies are available for assessment and monitoring. There exist a number of automated assessment software. Some of these include programs that need to be purchased21 while there are a number of online free quiz makers.22 Other free software such as ‘Hotpotatoes’ are available enabling users to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises.23 Quizzes can also be created in quiz module in the Moodle platform. Online quizzes allow quiz assessments with immediate feedbacks. In order to monitor students, regular surveys to check their understanding can be conducted. There are free survey software available which enables online surveys, polls and feedback forms to be administered. Examples include Kwik Surveys and Survey Monkey (the latter allows 10 questions for free). One of the methods of involving learners in the classrooms is to use classroom response systems. These provide opportunities for engagement, and also help instructors in assessing student comprehension. With advances in technology, electronic response systems such as clickers have been developed. Clickers are electronic devices or remotes that allow users to key in their responses using transmitters. Students can send their responses through clickers. The advantages are anonymity of responses and the ability to project response graphs, storage of responses is also possible for future analysis. Students can also compare their responses to others in class. Instructors can ask students to discuss on the responses obtained. There is also free software for classroom response systems that are clicker free. Instructors can ask a question and audience answers using mobile phone or the web. Responses are displayed live on PowerPoint or the web. 6. Conclusion The adoption of elearning strategies by any lecturer cannot be done in a vacuum. Before designing an elearning environment it is crucial to understand the views of all stakeholders especially those who are going to use the system for teaching and those for learning. Several interrelated factors such as the pedagogy, curriculum and module delivery are crucial in influencing the enhancement in educational outcomes.24 Moreover, any institution in higher education that aims to excel in its service delivery needs to recognise that elearning facilities should be

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__________________________________________________________________ accompanied by proper technological and infrastructural innovations to be successful.25 The design of the new online teaching and learning environment will provide opportunities to re-engineer the educational processes to respond to the challenges experienced. Evidently, it is not always cost effective to implement all the educational technologies but sufficient low budget tools are available to change the traditional classroom teaching to make it more effective. Many higher education institutions have already taken elearning on board while others may do so. Yet, all the interrelated factors mentioned above should not only be implemented, but also assessed and improved upon to enhance the quality of service provided.

Notes 1

Jaffer Shaheeda, Dick Ng’ambi and Laura Czerniewicz, ‘The Role of ICTS in Higher Education in South Africa: One Strategy for Addressing Teaching and Learning Challenges,’ International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology 3.4 (2007): 131–142. 2 M. S. Kabir Alam and H. Elizabeth, ‘E-Learning in Bangladesh: Implementation and Evaluation of a Pilot Project,’ (n.d.): 77–82. Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.codewitz.net/papers/MMT_77-82_e-Learning_in_Bangladesh.pdf. 3 A.S. Sife, E.T. Lwoga and C. Sanga, ‘New Technologies for Teaching and Learning: Challenges for Higher Learning Institutions in Developing Countries’ International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) 3.2 (2007): 57–67. Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/include/getdoc.php?id=2385&articl. 4 Tania Broadley, ‘Implementation of E-Learning: A Case Study for Three Schools,’ Academia.edu Website (2007). Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.academia.edu/3051633/Implementation_Of_E Learning_A_Case_Study_Of_Three_School. 5 Som Naidu, E-Learning: A Guidebook for Principles, Procedures and Practices (New Delhi: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, 2003), 1-54. Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.giz.de/Themen/en/dokumente/en-e-learning-guidebook.pdf. 6 ‘UCLA Report for the WASC Capacity and Preparatory Review’, Using Educational Technology to Enhance Learning and Teaching (2007), Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.wasc.ucla.edu/cpr_essay6.pdf. 7 Ibid., 1. 8 ‘The Undergraduate Lecture: Four Teaching Styles,’ (Arizona University) (2009). Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmxpe5wjjo. 9 Barbara Solomon and Richard Felder, Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire, (NC State University) (n.d.). Viewed on 15 February 2012,

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__________________________________________________________________ http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html. 10 Hassan Selim, ‘Critical Success Factors for E-Learning Acceptance: Confirmatory Factor Models,’ Computers & Education, 49 (2007): 396–413. Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.qou.edu/arabic/researchprogram/elearningresearchs/criticalsuccess.pdf. 11 Alan Chapman, ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy: Learning Domains,’ (2009). Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.businessballs.com/bloomstaxonomyoflearningdomains.htm. 12 Ibid., 3. 13 ‘Welcome to the Moodle Website,’ Moodle (n.d.). Viewed on 22 February 2012, http://moodle.org/. 14 Steven Aragon, ‘Creating Social Presence in Online Environments,’ New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education (Wiley Publishers) 100 (2003): 57– 68. Viewed on 22 February 2012, http://insdsg602-s13-manning.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/social+presence+in+ online+learning.pdf. 15 Seamus Fox and Eamon Costello, ‘The E-Learning Teaching and Learning Technologies,’ (HEA Submission), (2009). Viewed on 22 February 2012, http://www.google.mu/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0cd aqfjaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.dcu.ie%2f~costelle%2felearning_t%26l_technol ogies_%28fox%26costello%29_12may2009.doc&ei=8dxgudrsjse_rgeznid4dq&us g=afqjcneiepirmh7bifhv_qpbvrtfm0cxra&bvm=bv.44770516,d.bmk. 16 ‘Blogging Bits’, (2008). Viewed on 22 February 2012, http://bloggingbits.com/22-free-forum-software-to-build-online-communities. 17 Sherry Markel, ‘Technology and Education Online Discussion Forums: It’s in the Response,’ Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration (State University of West Georgia, Distance Education Center), 4.2 (2001): Viewed on 22 February 2012, http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer42/markel42.html. 18 Sue-Jen Chen, ‘Instructional Design Strategies for Intensive Online Courses: An Objectivist-Constructivist Blended Approach,’ Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 6.1 (2007): 72–86. Viewed on 22 February 2012, http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/6.1.6.pdf. 19 Ibid., 16. 20 ‘E-Lecta Live,’ Your Turn-Key Solution to Teach, Manage and Track (Electa Communications LTD) (2012). Viewed on 21 February 2012, http://www.e-lecta.com/features.asp. 21 ‘E Webtest Assessments Made Easy,’ Ewebtest, (2010). Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.ewebtest.com, ‘Training and E-Learning Zone for

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__________________________________________________________________ Quizzes,’Wondershare Quiz Creator (14th May 2012), viewed on 18 September 2012, http://www.quiz-creator.com/blog/. 22 ‘Hotpotatoes,’ Hotpotatoes Webpage (22nd November 2012). Viewed on 10 January 2013, http://hotpot.uvic.ca/. 23 Deal, Ashley, ‘A Teaching with Technology White Paper: Classroom Response Systems,’ (2007). Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/whitepapers/classroomresponse_nov07.p df. 24 Ibid., 2. 25 Ibid., 10.

Bibliography Alam, M, S. Kabir., and H. Elizabeth. ‘E-Learning in Bangladesh: Implementation and Evaluation of a Pilot Project.’ (n.d.): 77-82. Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.codewitz.net/papers/MMT_77-82_e-Learning_in_Bangladesh.pdf. Aragon, Steven. ‘Creating Social Presence in Online Environments.’ New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education (Wiley Publishers) 100 (2003): 57– 68. Viewed on 22 February 2012. http://insdsg602-s13-Manning.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/social+presence+in+ online+learning.pdf . ‘Blogging Bits’. (2008). Viewed on 22 February 2012 http://bloggingbits.com/22free-forum-software-to-build-online-communities. Broadley, Tania. ‘Implementation of E-Learning: A Case Study for Three Schools.’ Academia.edu Website (2007). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.academia.edu/3051633/Implementation_Of_ELearning_A_Case_Study _Of_Three_Schools. Chai, Lee Goi and PohYen Ng. ‘E-Learning in Malaysia: Success Factors in Implementing E‐Learning Program.’ International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 20.2 (2009): 237–246. Viewed on 15 February 2012, http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/ijtlhe357.pdf. Chapman, Alan. ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy: Learning Domains.’ (2009). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.businessballs.com/bloomstaxonomyoflearningdomains.htm.

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__________________________________________________________________ Chen, Sue-Jen. ‘Instructional Design Strategies for Intensive Online Courses: An Objectivist-Constructivist Blended Approach.’ Journal of Interactive Online Learning 6.1 (2007): 72–86. Viewed on 22 February 2012. http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/6.1.6.pdf. Deal, Ashley. ‘A Teaching with Technology White Paper: Classroom Response Systems.’(2007). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/whitepapers/classroomresponse_nov07.p df. Dems, Kristina. ‘Webcast vs Podcast.’ (2011). Viewed on 21 February 2012. http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/audio/articles/110150.aspx. ‘E-Lecta Live,’ Your Turn-Key Solution to Teach, Manage and Track (Electa Communications LTD) (2012). Viewed on 21 February 2012. http://www.e-lecta.com/features.asp. ‘E Webtest Assessments Made Easy.’ Ewebtest. (2010). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.ewebtest.com/. ‘Exploring Online Research Methods,’ Restore: A Sustainable Web Resources Repository Website (n.d,). Viewed on 15 February 2012 http://www.restore.ac.uk/orm/questionnaires/quesads.htm. Fox, Seamus and Eamon Costello. ‘The E-Learning Teaching and Learning Technologies.’ (HEA Submission), (2009). Viewed on 22 February 2012. http://www.google.mu/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0cd aqfjaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.dcu.ie%2f~costelle%2felearning_t%26l_technol ogies_%28fox%26costello%29_12may2009.doc&ei=8dxgudrsjse_rgeznid4dq&us g=afqjcneiepirmh7bifhv_qpbvrtfm0cxra&bvm=bv.44770516,d.bmk. Hassan, Selim. ‘Critical Success Factors for E-Learning Acceptance: Confirmatory Factor Models.’ Computers & Education 49 (2007): 396–413. Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.qou.edu/arabic/researchprogram/elearningresearchs/criticalsuccess.pdf. ‘Hotpotatoes,’ Hotpotatoes Webpage. (22nd November 2012). Viewed on 10 January 2013. http://hotpot.uvic.ca/.

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__________________________________________________________________ Jaffer, Shaheeda, Dick Ng’ambi and Laura Czerniewicz. ‘The Role of ICTS in Higher Education in South Africa: One Strategy for Addressing Teaching and Learning Challenges,’ International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology 3.4 (2007): 131–142. Naidu, Som. E-Learning: A Guidebook for Principles, Procedures and Practices (New Delhi: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, 2003), 1–54. Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.giz.de/Themen/en/dokumente/en-e-learning-guidebook.pdf. Sherry, Markel. ‘Technology and Education Online Discussion Forums: It’s in the Response,’ Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. (State University of West Georgia, Distance Education Center), 4.2 (2001). Viewed on 22 February 2012. http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer42/markel42.html. Sife, A.S, E.T. lwoga and C. Sanga. ‘New Technologies for Teaching and Learning: Challenges for Higher Learning Institutions in Developing Countries.’ International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) 3.2 (2007): 57–67. Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/include/getdoc.php?id=2385&articl. Solomon, Barbara and Richard Felder, Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire, (NC State University) (n.d.). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html. ‘Survey Monkey: Create Surveys Get Answers.’ Survey Monkey Website (2013). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.surveymonkey.com/. ‘The Undergraduate Lecture: Four Teaching Styles.’ (Arizona University) (2009). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmxpe5wjjo. ‘UCLA Report for the WASC Capacity and Preparatory Review’, Using Educational Technology to Enhance Learning and Teaching (2007). Viewed on 15 February 2012. http://www.wasc.ucla.edu/cpr_essay6.pdf. ‘Welcome to the Moodle Website.’ Moodle (n.d.). Viewed on 22 February 2012. http://moodle.org/. Heera Boodhun, Academic Staff, Department of Law, Faculty of Law and Management, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius.

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__________________________________________________________________ Chandani Appadoo, Academic Staff, Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to students of University of Mauritius namely BSc (Hons.) Biology Level 2 and Level 3 and MSc Criminal Justice Studies Level 2 of the 2011-2012 cohorts for their participation and contributions in conducting the online surveys. The authors are also grateful to Dr Fran Greyling from Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, South Africa and Virtual Centre for Life Long Learning at University of Mauritius for providing a platform for exploring new teaching and learning environments.

The Death and Reincarnation of the Reader in Online Communities Saulius Keturakis and Audronė Daubarienė Abstract The chapter explores the transformations of a classical, linear mode of learning and reading into a non-linear, hypertext-based one. Starting with an oral culture tradition in Socrates teachings in the form of dialogism, it reviews the changing roles of and relationship between the Author (Speaker) and the Reader (Listener). The oral culture is characterised by transfer of wisdom from the master to his followers, and the written culture breaks this direct link between the two. The disciple, or the Reader gains freedom to study independently of the master. The advent of the Internet and hypertext opens opportunities for the Reader to become the real Author of every text. In this situation classical persuasion becomes modern self-persuasion. New Media Age creates ‘secondary orality’ and hypertext culture which can be defined as the culture of entertainment: entertainment replaces critical thinking, reading is replaced by ‘listening’. Reincarnation of the Reader takes place in the secondary orality where the Reader ‘listens’ to the ‘talking’ produced by means of written texts in the form of spoken word. Key Words: Classical learning, oral culture, dialogism, hypertext-based reading, the author and the reader, online communities, social media, secondary orality ***** 1.

Introduction This chapter searches for an answer about transformation of the classical manner of learning, the Socratic questioning – the fundamental idea of which expresses a view that the other can help acquire knowledge – into a non-linear, hypertext-based reading/learning. Socrates did not believe that any person could have enough intelligence to educate, but he suggested dialogism – a situation, when others are needed to increase our knowing. He described that in the following way: ‘I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think’. 1 The one who ‘makes them think’ could be defined as a cultural character of the author, the other – as the reader. This model has been a fundamental base of knowledge transfer for more than two thousand years. The master acts for his followers as the author showing a path of true knowledge, as a role model and a standard for imitating. The master and his followers, the author and his readers – thus, the whole traditional educational system could be described.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2. Oral and Written Culture This system had a much deeper impact on the whole western cultural system; it changed both an educational model and the cultural system. Cultural characters of a hero, a genius, a superman, and a model – they all have connections with the model of the sage and his followers. One has outstanding abilities to do something, and the others are imitators. This educational model could be called dialogical and has deep roots in the tradition of oral communication. The orality linked the author (the speaker) and the reader (the listener) into an indivisible system. The idea of written information independence was first explored by Plato in ‘The Phaedrus’. 2 This is an act of media emancipation from the author’s influence, the reader has got the power to interpret the information by herself/himself without supervision of the author. This moment of education from the point of view of communication act is presented by Plato as the essential change in the relationship between the author and the reader. 3 The reader is no more united with the author as a whole; the reader has become, more mobile in terms of an attitude on the map of knowledge. In a literal and metaphorical sense, the reader has obtained freedom to move anywhere s/he wants. And the author has less and less control over the reader. This freedom was, as Michael Foucault put it, 4 only an illusion because power found very special practices to control ‘the reader disconnected’ from the author. That was the starting point of disintegration of a symbiotic educational author/reader model. What have we lost by the disappearance of the oral culture? Walter J. Ong emphasized the difference between the wisdom as the label of educated man of the oral culture, and the study, as the label of the written culture. 5 He described wisdom as highly dynamic and highly connected to a concrete person and her/his environment. Ong stressed, that wisdom is related to the social and cultural moment of thinking and acting, wisdom is never abstract, it is every time concrete. 6 The character of Jim Carrey in ‘Bruce Almighty’, 7 who got a temporary power of God, attempted to exercise power by separating soup in the plate while having lunch and testing the possibility of repeating the biblical ‘Crossing of the Red Sea’. This scene is a good example of wisdom and power, which is emancipated and disconnected from a concrete situation and from a sage adjusting the use of knowledge. According to Ong, all of this has been lost with the oral culture. ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’, 8 as the famous group ‘The Buggles’ put it in the song in 1981. Writing could be described as media, which killed the author. The reader got a possibility to be alone, without a panoptical eye of the author. From community to increasing solitude – is the new way of being in the discourse of knowledge. The reader became less connected with an authority of the expert and acquired a higher degree of free movement in discourse of knowledge and became more self-educated.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. Reader as Author Who is speaking in the written text? Who is the owner of the voice in the book? The nightmare of Plato comes true when firstly Russian formalists answered the question about who is speaking in the written text, by asserting an idea that the sense of the written text belongs largely to the level of written language itself, which does not always correspond to intention of the author 9. After decades when this statement was made, French theorist Roland Barthes elaborated the idea in his famous essay ‘The Death of the Author’. 10 This essay finished the long history of interaction between the author and the reader as the communicational act justifying the traditional learning model. Barthes’ main idea is to move a cultural function of the author from the creator to the ‘scripter’, producer of a text. He proposed an idea that the real author of every text is the reader; s/he is the one who really creates a system of meaning from possibilities and hints provided in the text structure. The reader and the author overlap, it is possible to speak about a situation, when the reader is the author for herself/himself. This concept is the last possibility to maintain classical ideas about separated functions of information production and information consumption. After Barthes’ essay we have to move to a completely different discourse of terms and meanings, which is related to a networked structure of a text, with a concept of ‘speaking language’ created by the French poet Mallarmé, 11 with the anonymous or impersonal origin of the meaning. In terms of classical rhetoric, after Barthes no one was able to produce an argument which could be used for achieving a higher state of knowledge. The reading person uses the tools of intertextuality, thus building these steps by himself. This is a very unusual model of informational metabolism from a classical dialogical point of view – who knows and who wants to learn. This new model could be described as transformation from a classical persuasion to modern self-persuasion. A short repetition: orality created the author/reader system, the written culture killed the ‘book star’ in a sense of the author by liberating the reader from the direct impact of the author. The text mediated the author, and the reader no longer has a possibility to meet with the author as the individual. But the situation is getting completely strange when our analysis reaches a new media age, the age of electricity and communication. The hypertext culture has created completely new practices of consuming information, which has more in common with the culture of entertainment than with the culture of the classical reading, which always has a tight connection to critical thinking and intellectual work. The ‘book-non-reading’ as a special cultural practice of a rebellion against the dictate of a mainstream ideology has very deep roots in modern culture. A label of this classical meaning of the reading culture transforming practices could be represented by the famous saying of Oscar Wilde: ‘I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so’. 12 Umberto Eco extended this idea in a specific way

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__________________________________________________________________ by offering a new model of reading dissociated from a concrete printed book. Reading is not only following lines of a text, but also it is ‘listening to’ what others say about the book, too. 13 Entertainment instead of critical thinking and ‘listening’ to the others, instead of reading a concrete book – this is the situation when it is possible to speak about the death of the traditional reader as well. This statement is possible only in a situation of the discourse of meaning, completely constructed from opinions and comments. The source of the idea, the initial point of any discussion has disappeared, everyone is creating his own path of meaning from the point s/he has chosen, no possibility to evaluate the ideas if they are true or wrong because most of them have a completely different structure and a very unique source of meaning. The use of information like this has nothing in common with a traditional way; the most common criterion for assessing the information is different grades of effect, not the elegance of intellectual architecture of arguments and logical validity. If Barthes’ author has been lowered to the character of ‘scripter’, then the new generation of readers could be named ‘browsers’. Of course, the web browser is the icon of reading in the new digital media age. Therefore, the author and the reader are dead, no one spreads her/his truth as a teacher, and no one listens and learns. The traditional dialogical educational process has changed generally to self-education, which leaves few possibilities for measuring the results because standards of knowledge depend mostly on selfeducating persons themselves. 4. New Way of Reading The possible answer to the question of the new reader is related to new explorations in rhetoric, which could be called increased reader’s abilities to find a way for a meaningful use of databases. As an example, new way of reading could be research done by Lev Manovich where he discusses how to interpret largescale databases, i.e. he proposes that databases become a meaningful text after the reader picks out data and arranges it into a sequence of cohesive text. 14 It is impossible to read databases in a usual linear way, but it is possible to sort out the material according to some criterion into meaningful and logical ‘sentences’, which look acceptable even in a sense of classical thinking. To get a better understanding of the idea about the new reader, who acts alone and uses data of reality in her/his own way for creating a meaningful text first of all for herself/himself and sharing the results with others is the secondary effect only, it is useful to remember the idea by Proust, who suggested in 1905 the new possibility to understand a dialogue. It is very important to remember that the essay ‘On Reading’, where Proust developed the model of ‘dialogue in solitude’ 15, was published in the so-called ‘late age of print’, when writing as media for transferring of knowledge reached the highest point. Proust explored the idea, that the act of reading of a written text is very similar to the act of spoken dialogue. A spoken

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__________________________________________________________________ dialogue at least needs a small community of two people. But a written text allows a very special mode of dialogue with yourself. Proust stated that the spoken dialogue has too much of unnecessary and irrelevant information, which generally has nothing in common with the things discussed. The written text has the power to avoid that kind of superfluous information, to keep a look at things that are discussed in a very concentrated way. This is a kind of dialogue, the kind of community, which is routine to modern society, to the society of writing. This kind of dialogue helps to improve oneself, but at the same time closes all the traditional ways to be in a community. Proust describes in a very detailed and attentive way how a person acts by reading or writing. The reader or the writer should stay alone while reading or writing and no one has the right to interrupt them. The ethics of reading and writing according to Proust makes up practices of leaving this person in solitude. Reading a written text has started resembling not a way of getting information from the author, who knows better and who can teach something and could be useful in a concrete situation, but the ‘way of life’. To be constantly immersed in a flow of data without a clear view of application – that attitude has been used since the community of the master as the author and the follower as the reader has been disintegrated. The reader has started his ‘lifelong learning’ process, s/he never becomes an expert, or a master, who knows enough to lead others. S/he remains forever only an amateur. Oscar Wilde wrote that ‘if one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all’. 16 Information in the late print age became the source of entertainment and can be repeated ‘over and over’. ‘To enjoy’ and to read ‘over and over’ versus knowing what exactly to follow – that describes the difference between two modes of using the information, two modes of reading – as the way to ‘the pleasure of the text’ (Barthes) or as the way for following someone to find out who is who. If to speak about the idea by Wilde 17 in terms of IT, he accurately expressed it by talking about activity, which is characteristic to browsing. Browsing is a mode of using information, which generally has an end in itself. Marshall McLuhan interpreted traditional educational system as ‘a totally rear-view mirror’ 18 because of total orientation to the book reading. He evaluated this attitude of the electrical age for using information in a new way as very positive. McLuhan suggested a new understanding of the ‘literate man’. Considering his ideas, literacy has no more limitations, connected with the limitations of the book and the writing. He included into the new mode of literacy – ‘media literacy’ – almost everything, what forms the everyday life of a modern man: advertising, TV, cinema, drugs etc. And, the use of this networked knowledge has a completely different effect on the education of a person because he/she is being changed ‘not by transmission of concepts and theories, but by interior transformation of persons’ 19 through the confrontation of real life. McLuhan found in this the ground for speaking about

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘tribalization’, 20 when new ways of electrical communication recreated socialization of people, which was lost through the long history of the written culture. 5. Conclusion These tribes of McLuhan lead us finally to contemporary online communities of social media. Definitely, the new online communities are not the same as the classical ones. Most likely we can speak about communities of Facebook/Twitter personas, who constitute the new dialogical (or polylogical) situations, new hierarchical frames of the masters (the characters, who count on more ‘likes’) and of the followers, that are less popular. They are recreating the classical system of interacting community, which has the leaders and the followers, the authors and the readers, who are tracking the way to become popular and famous. These readers look like classical ones. They are learning from experience of the others, who are on the top of the ‘socializing’ top list. Do they read?

Notes 1

Richard M. Cash, Advancing Differentiation: Thinking and Learning for the 21st Century (Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, 2010), 111. 2 Harold N. Fowler, trans., Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925), 276. 3 Ibid., 277–278. 4 Michel Foucault, ‘The Confession of the Flesh,’ Power / Knowledge Selected Interviews and Other Writings, ed. Colin Gordon (London: Vintage Books, 1977), 194–228. 5 Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2007), 8. 6 Ibid., 101. 7 Bruce Almighty, directed by Tom Shadyac (Los Angeles: Universal Pictures, 2003), DVD 8 The Buggles. ‘Video Killed the Radio Star.’ Youtube.com. Viewed 14 April 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ. 9 Victor Erlich, ‘Russian Formalism: In Perspective,’ The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 13:2 (1954): 215–25. 10 Roland Barthes, Image-Music-Text (New York: Hill and Wang, 1978), 143–148. 11 Helen Abbott, Between Baudelaire and Mallarmé (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 168. 12 Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read (London: Bloomsbury, 2009), 4. 13 Ibid., 32.

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__________________________________________________________________ 14

Lev Manovich. ‘Database as a Symbolic Form.’ transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu. Viewed 14 April 2013. http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/courses/warner/english197/Schedule_ files/Manovich/Database_as_symbolic_form.htm. 15 Marcel Proust, et al., On Reading (London: Hesperus Press, 2011), 17–23. 16 Julie Rugg, Buried in Books: A Reader’s Anthology (London: Frances Lincoln, 2010), 51. 17 Ibid., 51. 18 Interview with Marshall McLuhan. Playboy Magazine, March, 1967. 19 Joshua Meyrowitz, ‘Morphing McLuhan: Medium Theory for a New Millennium,’ Proceedings of the Media Ecology Association 2 (2001): 8–22. 20 Interview with Marshall McLuhan. Playboy Magazine, March, 1967.

Bibliography Abbott, Helen. Between Baudelaire and Mallarmé. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. Barthes, Roland. Image-Music-Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1978. Bayard, Pierre. How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. London: Bloomsbury, 2009. Bruce Almighty. Directed by Tom Shadyac. Los Angeles: Universal Pictures, 2003. DVD. Buggles, The. ‘Video Killed the Radio Star.’ Youtube.com. Viewed 14 April 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ. Cash, Richard M. Advancing Differentiation: Thinking and Learning for the 21st Century. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, 2010. Criminal Minds. Created by Jeff Davis. New York: CBS, 2005–2013. Davis, William Stearns. A Day in Old Athens. New York: Book Jungle, 2008. Erlich, Victor. ‘Russian Formalism: In Perspective.’ The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 13, no. 2 (1954): 215–225.

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__________________________________________________________________ Foucault, Michel. ‘The Confession of the Flesh.’ In Power / Knowledge Selected Interviews and Other Writings, edited by Colin Gordon, 194–228. London: Vintage Books, 1977. Foucault, Michael. ‘What is an Author?’ artsites.ucsc.edu. Viewed 14 April 2013. http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/Gustafson/FILM%20162.W10/readings/foucault.aut hor.pdf. Fowler, Harold N., trans. Plato in Twelve Volumes, 9. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925. Keen, Andrew. The Cult of the Amateur: How Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the Rest of Today’s User-Generated Media are Destroying Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our Values. London: Doubleday, 2008. Manovich, Lev. ‘Database as a Symbolic Form.’ transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu. Viewed 14 April 2013. http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/courses/warner/english197/Schedule_ files/Manovich/Database_as_symbolic_form.htm. McLuhan, Marshall. Interview. Playboy Magazine, March, 1967. Meyrowitz, Joshua. ‘Morphing McLuhan: Medium Theory for a New Millennium.’ Proceedings of the Media Ecology Association 2 (2001): 8–22. Nicholl, Charles. Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind. New York: Penguin Books, 2005. Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2007. Pink Floyd, The. ‘Another Brick in the Wall.’ www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com. Viewed 14 April 2013. http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/another-brick-2-wall.html. Rugg, Julie. Buried in Books: A Reader’s Anthology. London: Frances Lincoln, 2010. Saulius Keturakis is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Sciences at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. His research interests

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__________________________________________________________________ focus on interconnections of film and literature, hypertext narratives, print and digital convergence. Audronė Daubarienė is a lecturer in the Center of Foreign Languages at Kaunas University of Technology. Her research interests include language and technologies, computer-mediated communication and elearning.

Virtual Learning and Research Methods in Architecture: An Overview of the Last 10 Years at the Department of Information and Communication Technology in Architecture Pfarr-Harfst Mieke Abstract For more than 10 years the Department Information and Communication Technology in Architecture has been engaged with the interactions between digital media and architecture. The chapter provides an overview on teaching and research of this topic. In numerous seminars different topics of this subject area were investigated. One of the main topics was on research projects in the field of history of architecture. These research projects were integrated into science studios which are part of teaching. Science studios are a special kind of teaching and were established in this subject group. The definition of science studios is an interdisciplinary discussion determined by different perception of the respective research project in the areas of art, technology and society. Digital reconstructions were the tombs of the Emperor of Xi’an as well as the visualization of the vision of Atlantropa. This concept of teaching and researching was completed by workshops and seminars which looked into current topics in the field of architecture and digital media. Part of it was the discussion of the virtual world ‘Second LifeTM’ as place of teaching of architecture and the draft of new concepts of teaching which will be used there. Furthermore, the façade design with the new building material ‘information’. At this subject group basic teaching is focused on how to use digital media as a design medium. Students learn to identify, elaborate and illustrate drafts and space allocation plans of architects by using new media. This chapter will present some of the science studio results worked out by students as well as the most interesting seminar topics. On the basis of theoretical architectural discussion the potentials of digital media for teaching architecture are shown. In this discussion the focus is on virtual models as teaching and research medium. Key Words: Interaction, digital media, architecture, new concepts, virtual models. ***** 1. Department of Information and Communication Technology in Architecture The Department of Information and Communication Technology in Architecture (IKA) is part of the Technical University of Darmstadt. The department deals with the impact of information and communication technology on architecture as well as with their interactions. Architecture is influenced in all directions by ‘New

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__________________________________________________________________ Media.’ This reflection alternates constantly between theoretical approach and practical application. 1 Teaching at the department is based on three pillars. • Fundamental course, which offers a foundation of knowledge at the interface of architecture and the digital media. • Seminars with experimental character in which the newest directions in the area of digital media are examined and transposed onto architecture. • Scientific studio as a form of teaching as a distinctive feature of the department. Here, the technical detail is not so important, but rather the coordination of the new tools into the present and future methods, and goals of architects. In the following these three pillars in the teaching programme will be discussed using case studies. 2. Fundamental Course For workflow in architecture, the independent application of the program requires a basic understanding of current work strategies and future developments in this area in order to classify, evaluate and apply digital media with respect to architecture. This is taught during the fundamental course in order to acquire the ability to demonstrate and formulate topics specific to architecture. The teaching concept has a three-part structure: course; software training; and a practical course. Fundamentals such as the development of the digital media and current research are the content of the lectures. The content of the software training are the structure and application of 3D programs, 2D vector-based and pixel-based programs, as well as haptic output procedures such as rapid prototyping. In the practical exercise, the students learn to demonstrate and describe architecturespecific topics in an appropriate and innovative manner using digital media. The themes of the practical exercise deals with design forms in architecture using selected buildings such as modern classics and residential buildings from young, international architecture firms. This practical exercise involves analysing the buildings with respect to their basic concepts and the resulting execution in construction and representing them appropriately using digital media. The primary focus of the input of the building as a 3D model is not on one-to-one transfer, but rather on the discovery of the elements that are necessary for understanding the overall concept. This is supported by ‘packaging’ designed especially for the given building and its concept. Finally, the 3D models of the packaging, as well as the building model itself, are translated into a haptic model by means of laser-cut or rapid-prototyping

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__________________________________________________________________ procedures. For example, a haptic model is a three-dimensional model of a building. 3. Experimental Seminars In the following, the concept, the character, and the structure of the experimental seminars will be described using some examples of selected seminars. 3.1. Second LifeTM A seminar took place in 2007 titled ‘Spaces in the Second Life – Not a New Game but a New World.’ The intention of the seminar was to examine various focal points of the potentials of the virtual world, ‘Second LifeTM’ that were available in the media at that time. The first part of the seminar analysed on the basis of concrete questions, the virtual world with its own rules. For example, the independence from space and time. The topics included technology, basic requirements, existential questions, societal structures and the distinctive features of Second Life. The research, corrections as well as the presentations of the preliminary and final results took place exclusively in Second Life. Each student had access to his or her own Avatar. The conclusions drawn from the research and analysis were applied to the topic ‘Learning Spaces for Architecture in Virtual Reality’. Here the following question was of major importance: ‘What do the spaces for learning and teaching architecture look like in this sort of world?’ Selected results from the student’s projects display the creative and innovative variety of the developed concepts: • Construction Box: The volume of a virtual house can be represented by ascertaining the corresponding parameters in various types of construction, such as wood or steel, masonry or concrete and their structural physical characteristics. • Architram: A virtual architecture tram station brings the user, according to his or her interests, to the most varied of locations where architecture can be experienced. The timetable is flexible and can react to the current developments in Second Life with respect to architecture. • Learnable Structural Analysis: Structural systems are explained by colours using a bridge as an example. It is the intention of the concept that, through the determination of various parameters, the different load cases can be made visible in each case.

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__________________________________________________________________ • Space Simulator: The Space Simulator reacts to the requirements and wishes of the user. In this manner various space concepts of architecture can be simulated by the alteration of such parameters as wall height, number of windows and colour. The architecture can thus be experienced 3.2. Update 2055 Again and again architects concern themselves with the vision of the future and the effects on architecture. The students designed a vision of the future based on a theoretical contemplation of the key technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology and information and communication technology. At the outset there was a theoretical examination of the key technologies and their future effects on society. The result of this analysis was then applied to concepts that include a spatial-architectural content. Topics of the theoretical section were vision and utopias, leaps in technology and their effects on society, medicine, education, science and research, as well as art and culture. During the practical part the concepts that had been developed were transferred into 3D. A vision arose from the use of the digital media tools that in its entirety makes a statement concerning architectural content about the world 50 years from now. The concepts applied three-dimensionally were, for example, a vision of future medical care through mobile hospital units in which patients lie in a culture medium. The students also considered future travel that would take place only as a transfer of data on an emotional level. 3.3. Media Façade Façade projections are being increasingly used to highlight cultural and commercial events as well as for the façade design of buildings. The media façade has been used in recent years as a means of creative expression in modern architecture. However, the true potential of projections as the construction material ‘Information’ has not yet been fully exploited. In this context, the seminar ‘Night Architecture’ can be considered to be a case study that demonstrates the potentials of façade projections and the New Media for future architectural design. The students were to devise concepts for the illumination of the Architecture Building of the TU Darmstadt. The content of the projection should make visible the architecture of the building itself as a complex of ideas, concepts, construction and content. 4. Scientific Studio The Scientific studios are a very important column of the Department IKA in teaching and research.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4.1. Idea and Subject Matter The Scientific Studio is an interdisciplinary examination of various architecture-specific topics concerning art, technology and society. 2 Generally, a scientific studio is embedded into an international research project. The results of the cooperation between students and researchers are later used for cultural purposes such as exhibitions. Normally approximately 25 students participate in a Scientific Studio. It is guided by departmental staff, as well as by external researchers. The goal is to expose the students to an interdisciplinary and scientific working procedure that will qualify them in the future for work in research as well in as for practical work as architects. The application of digital media as a teaching tool and working with 3D encourages general understanding of the principles for construction elements and force progression, architectural styles and building construction which must subsequently be understood and constructed three-dimensionally as a 1:1 model. Topics of previous scientific studios have been: construction history of the Kremlin, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rom, the Vatican Palace as well as Ephesus during the Byzantine era. 4.2. Structure The structure of scientific studios remains in principle the same. At the beginning there is a thematic introduction and technical-methodological training. After that there is work on a concrete topic in small groups. At the end the student’s results are merged and, for example, prepared as an exhibit. The thematic introduction can take place in the form of a seminar or of an accompanying series of lectures. The goal is to place the task to be dealt with in an overall cultural and historical context. The technical-methodological training is held in block courses. The basics of 3D software are taught and the methodological approach for the transfer of various sources such as drawings or photographs into the three-dimensionality of the computer. Subsequently the students receive their individual topics to work on. These are part of a collective project. The degree of detail of the individual topics ranges from macro-structure, for example urban complexes to micro-structure such as buildings or objects. 4.3. Methodology In the scientific studios the conversion into 3D in the computer proceeds in the same manner and can be divided into phases. Specifically, the phases involve preparation, reconstruction and verification as well as finishing. In the preparation phase, the thematic introduction includes the topic itself as well as further research into missing basic information and sources for the reconstruction. When sufficient basic material is available, the reconstruction phase can begin with modelling in the computer. 2D data such as sectional

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__________________________________________________________________ drawings or ground plans are loaded into the program and then transferred into 3D. In the subsequent verification phase the results are presented to the external experts and discussed with them. This phase can take on different forms. In addition to the classical communication by e-mail, discussions via Skype, or also excursions to original sites, as well as visits to the project partners in Darmstadt, can also be organised. The reconstruction and the verification phases are subject to an alternating process which, during each project, is applied several times in order finally to achieve a reliable result. At the end of this collective disciplinary process the resulting 3D data are refined according to the individual goals of the research project. In general, the main focus is the knowledge transfer of complex scientific questions. There is a wide range of variations in the output forms. They include, in addition to the classical film, also the involvement of rapid prototyping or 3D stereo projection technologies. 4.4. Reference Project: The Imperial Tombs of Xi´an An exhibition from the year 2006 at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany was the motivation for the digital reconstruction of ‘The Imperial Tombs of Xi´an’ and for the scientific studio. 25 Students from nine countries worked on the project for more than two years together with scholars from China and Germany. The primary goals of the project were to demonstrate the immense spatial dimensions of the area and the almost incomprehensible number of archaeological finds. Also included was the examination of the details of individual exhibit pieces. The intention was to integrate the most recent unpublished excavations, surveying, findings and research results to imperial cities and tombs. 3 The content of this scientific studio was outlined together with the scientific partner and three core themes were defined. The first content focus was on the overall context of the imperial tombs and the old imperial city Xi’an. The intention was to make the historical interplay and the dimensions of the entire complex visible. Further, the imperial cities from the Qin, Han and Tang dynasties and selected individual buildings were digitally reconstructed in the scale of urban development. The 3D model in this content focal point can be assigned to the macro-structure degree of detail. The second content focus is the digital reconstruction of the tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi, with its ceremonial precinct, the tumulus, the actual tomb and the depiction of the 180 known pits.

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__________________________________________________________________ The tomb of the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Taizong, on the Zhaoling hill and its digital reconstruction constitute the third focal point. Here, at the time of the scientific studio, the main challenge was the incomplete excavations and research. This scientific studio was influenced greatly by the alternating processes of the reconstruction and verification phases. The lack of published research results made cooperation between Chinese and German scholars indispensible. The verification phases were carried out in China and Germany and were characterised by joint work on the computer. On the basis of the subproject ‘Tomb Complex at Zhaoling’ the workflow of the scientific studio as a teaching form will be explained in detail. It can be applied to all scientific studios. The basic information and the sources for the reconstruction of the tomb complex was made available directly by Prof. Zhang, Archaeological Institute Xi’an, as the existing research results had not yet been published. The tomb complex at Zhaoling consists of four fields; the northern ceremonial complex, the southern palace complex, the South Gate and the actual tomb. A pair of students examined each field. In order to finally merge all of the 3D partial models into a data set, uniform systems of measurement and basic principles must be defined at the outset. For this purpose reference models are constructed that are made available to all students. On this basis, each group creates its 3D model. In the case of the tomb complex at Zhaoling a reference model was generated for the entire complex in which the individual parts were placed and ground plans or excavation plans were uploaded to scale. For the northern ceremonial complex, initially the only available materials were an aerial photograph of the excavation situation, some construction surveys, a sketch by the responsible archaeologist, as well as pictures of comparable buildings from the Tang Dynasty. On this basis, the students developed a first threedimensional thesis. The key to the digital reconstruction of the palaces was the roof construction which plays a large role in Chinese architecture. In order to transfer this into the computer, the students first had to analyse and understand the construction principles and style elements of Chinese architecture. A 1:1 transfer of the construction into the computer followed. The 3D model of the construction was then also made available to the students who were working on the southern palace and the southern gate. The task was then appropriately modified. The model of the northern ceremonial complex was produced in three reconstruction phases, four verification phases and a final finishing phase. The verification of the model was carried out together with Professor Zhang directly at the computer. After each joint workshop, a 3D outline with corrections was available. In the following reconstruction phase this outline was fleshed out into a sustainable 3D model. After consulting with the expert texturing and materials were also defined. Subsequently, a reference file dataset with all textures for the whole group was created.

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__________________________________________________________________ Finally, all results of the individual groups in the form of partial models were referenced in a general model and then adapted for the exhibition. The workflow of a scientific studio described here makes clear the importance of cooperation among the groups of students in order to achieve a final common result. 4.5. Reference Project: Atlantropa Herman Sörgel’s project, Atlantropa, was intended as a television documentary for the general public. The department IKA was to visualise Sörgel’s vision: The Atlantropa project is the most complex of all known architectural utopias and at the same time is a prime example of the history of European technology and planning from the zenith of the ‘Modern’ era. 4 The focus of this macro-project was the lowering of the Mediterranean Sea by means of a retaining dam at Gibraltar in order to reclaim land and produce energy. Famous architects of the time such as Peter Behrens, Hans Döllgast and Erich Mendelsohn also worked on the overall concept Atlantropa. Twenty students participated in this scientific studio. This scientific studio dealt with three main topics, the lowering of the Mediterranean Sea, the dam, and the city of Genoa. The focal points were each dealt with differently. For the topic ‘lowering of the Mediterranean Sea,’ the sinking of the water level and the effects on the coastline were simulated. For this purpose, a topographically exact elevation model of Europe with integrated GIS data was fed into the 3D model. In addition, after previous research and analysis, the students determined and developed the parameters for the simulation of the lowering of the water level and transferred these to the software. The topic ‘retaining dam’ was characterised by a discussion of engineering problems and the cooperation with mechanical engineers. Sörgel’s detailed technical drawings were available and had to be transcribed three-dimensionally. During the transfer of 2D drawings and sources into 3D, the students had to examine and understand engineering principles of function and construction. The visualisation of the new Genoa was, for the most part, a task involving the history of architecture. Since very few concept drawings of the new Genoa exist, the students had to deal with the known architectural trends of Sörgel’s time. A 3D vision of the new Genoa arose through comparative projects from urban development and intensive investigation of the architectural theory of the time. At the end, the students visualised Sörgel’s vision as a whole.

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__________________________________________________________________ 5. Summary This is a small selection from the results of the projects. This section deals with the experimental character of dealing with a medium as a tool for learning, the development of which is not completed, but which is subject to a continuing process. Further, the potentials of the digital media for teaching and learning become clear. They are manifested in the basic pillars of teaching, especially the scientific studios encourage understanding of architecture in its entirety and sensitivity for culture and cultural heritage.

Notes 1

‘Department IKA,’ last modified 2004, Viewed 12 November 2012, http://www.ika.tu-darmstadt.de/a_profile/index.html. 2 Manfred Koob, Bauhaus: Architektur als Vision. Avantgarde der 20er Jahre (Berlin: Edition Braus, 1994), 12. 3 Marc Grellert, Manfred Koob and Mieke Pfarr-Harfst, ‘Eine dreidimensionale Computerrekonstruktion der Kaisergräber von Xi´an‘, in Xi´an. Kaiserliche Macht im Jenseits. Grabfunde und Tempelschätze aus Chinas alter Hauptstadt. Ergebnisse der deutsch-chinesischen Zusammenarbeit im Kulturgüterschutz, ed Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2006), 131. 4 ‘Department IKA’.

Bibliography Grellert, Marc. Immaterielle Zeugnisse. Potentiale digitaler Technologien für das Erinnern zerstörter Architektur. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2007. Grellert, Koob, M.; and Mieke Pfarr. ‘Eine dreidimensionale Computerrekonstruktion der Kaisergräber von Xi´an‘, in Xi´an. Kaiserliche Macht im Jenseits. Grabfunde und Tempelschätze aus Chinas alter Hauptstadt. Ergebnisse der deutsch-chinesischen Zusammenarbeit im Kulturgüterschutz, edited by Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH, 131– 139. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2006. Koob, Manfred. Bauhaus. Architektur als Vision. Avantgarde der 20er Jahre. Berlin: Edition Braus, 1994.

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__________________________________________________________________ ———. ‘Fachgebiet CAD in der Architektur’, in Almanach 93/97. Fachbereich Architektur der Technischen Universität Darmstadt, edited by Fachbereich Architektur Technische Universität Darmstadt, 130–147. Darmstadt: Verlag DasBeispiel, 2001. ———. ‘Bauhaus. Avantgarde der 20er Jahre’, In Almanach 93/97. Fachbereich Architektur der Technischen Universität Darmstadt, edited by Fachbereich Architektur Technische Universität Darmstadt, 148–153. Darmstadt: Verlag DasBeispiel, 2001. Pfarr, Mieke. ’Dokumentationssystem für digitale Rekonstruktionen am Beispiel der Grabanlage Zhaoling’ Dr.-Ing. diss., Technische Universität Darmstadt, 2010. Technische Universität Darmstadt. ‘Department IKA’. Last modified 2004. http://www.ika.tu-darmstadt.de/a_profile/index.html. Technische Universität Darmstadt. ‘Department IKA’. Last modified 2004. http://www.cad.architektur.tu-darmstadt.de/atlantropa/soergel/soergel_start.html. Voigt, Wolfgang. Atlantropa. Weltbauen am Mittelmeer. Ein Architektentraum der Moderne. München: Dölling und Galitz Verlag GmbH, 1998. Pfarr-Harfst Mieke studied architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt and after completing her studies, in addition to her work as architect, she became an academic staff member, Assistant Professor, at the IKA Department of the Technical University of Darmstadt. After achieving her doctoral degree on the topic ‘Documentation Systems for Digital Reconstructions,’ she has directed her scientific work toward the theme ‘Virtual Scientific Models’ and the continuous and improvement adaptation of experimental teaching to the current developments in information and communication technology.

Play Hard, Work Harder: A Gameplay Analysis of GoalOriented Narrative and Post-Narrative Play in The Sims 2 DS Heidi Mau and Cheryl L. Nicholas Abstract The adaptation of a computer game for use with other platforms can require a redesign of the game itself – it changes the game. The Sims 2 DS, created for the Nintendo DS handheld game platform, is a single-player, goal-oriented narrative game based on The Sims single player open-ended virtual world. The Sims 2 DS narrative, based on the player’s performance as a hotel manager, exacerbates the already present but less literal hegemonies of labour and consumption found in the standard Sims virtual world, where play is spent building a life and home in a suburban neighbourhood. We discuss narrativity in video games, and the residue of labour and consumption intrinsic to post-industrial play. Operating as researcher who is a participant-in-play, one author conducts a qualitative gameplay analysis of the narrative introduced in The Sims 2 DS. The conversion of The Sims original virtual world into a truncated goal-oriented narrative play structure invokes extant hegemonies of labour and consumption. We argue, however, that when the narrative is played out and the player is left to her/his virtual life in the postnarrative virtual world, these notions of labour and consumption are amplified into the more powerful hegemonies of overwork and over consumption. It may be ‘only a game,’ but The Sims 2 DS eerily parallels the erosion of work/life balance present in everyday American work culture and provides yet another cultural site supporting the hegemonic voice of overwork and over consumption—couched within entertainment and ‘play.’ In the Sims 2 DS, the player is thrust into a job s/he cannot leave. Play hard, work harder – even when the story is over. Key Words: Video games, narrative gameplay, work, play, virtual world, The Sims, post-industrial play, gameplay analysis. ***** 1. Labour and Consumption in The Sims 2 DS The Sims, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 (released June 2009), constitute the base of The Sims franchise of computer and video games created by Electronic Arts, Inc. In The Sims series of computer games, a player assigns physical attributes to characters and designates percentages of aspiration attributes – ‘wealth, knowledge, family, romance, or popularity.’ 1 The constructed Sims characters move into a neighbourhood, build and furnish a house, and engage in simulated social interactions with neighbours and friends. The Sims universe is an openended game architecture that has no ‘game over.’

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__________________________________________________________________ Cultural critics and scholars popularly and critically praise The Sims series for the space it gives players in individual expression and for its potential as a social and psychological learning tool. 2 Although these same authors mention the active presence of consumerism within The Sims series, consumerism is seen as an aspect of the games’ everydayness – shopping as entertainment, home design as creativity, and usually secondary to other gameplay components of the game. James Paul Gee proposes that another option is also available to the player: ‘On one hand, their presupposed perspectives on the world might be reinforced….If someone thinks that the quality of life is integrally tied to one’s possessions, The Sims…will not disabuse him or her of this perspective, either.’ 3 Joost Raessens correspondingly asserts that games ‘contribute to the representation and reproduction of ideologically charged values.’ 4 While The Sims series exhibits a certain persistence of consumerist culture throughout its gameplay, the themes of success based on labour and consumption become dominant in the adaptation of The Sims 2 for Nintendo DS. The Sims computer game universe may allow for a work/career module to be added to the main game, however, The Sims 2 DS series transforms The Sims’ game world from an open-ended simulation to a focus on a single Sim with a single storyline that incorporates goal-oriented gameplay. In the Sims 2 Nintendo DS series, the player completes the goal-oriented gameplay through success in one’s career: as a hotel manager (The Sims 2 DS), a veterinarian (The Sims 2 DS: Pets), or apartment petsitter aspiring to open a pet spa (The Sims 2 DS: Apartment Pets). The Sims series of computer games focus mostly on the home, whereas The Sims 2 DS series stay in the world of work. The Sims 2 DS series, in which cultural hegemonies around labour and consumption (career success and consumerism) are manifested through an entertainment medium and its game narrative, support the maintenance of those hegemonies as norms of individual and collective success in a capitalist-based, U.S. American culture. How prevalent in American society are the hegemonies of success related to labour and consumption? Where are we experiencing these invisible ideologies? What form do they take? We conduct a narrative gameplay analysis of The Sims2 DS game to examine if labour and consumption are cultivated as ideologies and cultural hegemonies of success, and if so, how they are cultivated through The Sims 2 DS storyline and themes found within the gameplay. Studies on the relationship of videogames to capitalism and consumption focus on virtual capital and the commodification of virtual property and players yet little attention is given to the possible hegemony of labour and consumption prevalent within video game genres and narrative architecture. The Sims series is additionally unique in its extension of The Sims franchise from its computer game origin to different gaming technologies. What occurs to The Sims game genre and game world mythology when it truncates its world to exist in a single narrative gameplay – forced to be at work day in and day out? Even slight adjustments in a game world, such as

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__________________________________________________________________ experienced in the adaptation of The Sims 2 to The Sims 2 DS, can exacerbate already present hegemonies of labour and consumption. We argue that such changes can convert these extant hegemonies into more powerful hegemonies, which are of overwork and over consumption. 2. Video Games as New Media The core of game design theory emerges from a history of games and the cultural study of play. We use the general term ‘gameplay’ to refer to both the game design and the game as it plays. Game design refers to how a particular videogame incorporates the components of what Caillois refers to as ‘ludus’ 5 – or the practice and rules of the game, with play as the essence of the ‘fun-element.’ 6 The second use of ‘gameplay’ refers to how narrative is enacted within a game genre. Genre and narrative are fundamentally different in videogames than the genres and narratives linked to literature, cinema and television. It is helpful to think of narrative in video games as a ‘narrative architecture,’ 7 a structural formation in which options for possible narrative trajectories are designed/programmed into the game and then enacted by the player through gameplay. Gameplay is therefore both what is possible given the design of the game, as well as the course of action (narrative of play) enacted by the player of the game. One of the defining properties of new media is interactivity. P. David Marshall states that the new media audience shifts from being readers to writers – they shift from merely receiving and interpreting mass culture to becoming active agents in its cultural production. 8 The participation in gameplay provides a new role for the audience, but it may not always provide as much agency as predicted by Marshall. Work and play in the culture industry may be more complicated than anticipated, especially when approaching the specific topics of labour and consumption in a post-industrial age. 3. Hegemonies of Labour and Consumption in Post-Industrial Play Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s theory of the culture industry 9 and Herbert Marcuse’s theory of technical rationality 10 emerge from the effects of world wars and the rise of an industrial capitalist economy, yet elements of these theoretical concepts can be useful today in examining labour and consumption as experienced through The Sims 2 DS. Engaging in The Sims 2 DS may ironically demonstrate a loss of interactivity; mass cultural entertainment mimics labour, as one spends the day at work and then comes home to engage with entertainment that mimics work. 11 These interactions potentially result in a contemporary version of Herbert Marcuse’s ‘technological rationality’ in which people get used to not questioning the rules of the game and eventually rationalize their world in favour of the expectations of the system in which they are working. In this system, there is a loss of interactivity – one is merely mimicking the waking day through repetitive

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__________________________________________________________________ actions – ‘going through the motions’ and not ‘interacting’ at all. 12 Antonio Gramsci’s definition of hegemony discusses how a dominant social group is able to constitute an oppressive worldview that becomes for the populace, everyday common sense and thus unquestioned. Fordist production, for instance, built consensus in a production ideology that increased a company’s profit margin while simultaneously ‘making the whole life of the nation revolve around production,’ creating a cultural hegemony of work in the industrial age. 13 Caillois claims that out of this industrial society emerges the hobby – a pastime undertaken during leisure that ‘is primarily a compensation for the injury to personality caused by bondage to work of an automatic and picayune character.’ 14 The hobby is a response to the urge to play and can include collecting items, creating/building objects, distinctive achievements, or even the pleasure in playing a game that requires skill or talent. Correspondingly, ludus may generally relate to ‘the primitive desire to find diversion and amusement in arbitrary, perpetually recurrent obstacles.’ 15 Although the nature of work might change for some citizens of the post-industrial age, video games may inherently contain repetitive labour residue from the industrial age intrinsic in their gameplay design. Building, collecting, decorating and leisure activities, which are common actions within The Sims games, are also hobbies under Caillois’ definition, potentially creating a potent meta-environment of labour and consumption. 4. Methodological Considerations As narrative operates differently in video games than in literature and film, Heidi engaged in what we term a ‘narrative gameplay’ analysis of The Sims 2 DS. This method allowed for a narrative analysis of the goal-oriented storyline of The Sims 2 DS as expressed through gameplay. Operating as researcher who is a participant-in-play, Heidi was required to play the game from beginning to end to identify the main themes in the narrative that she enacted as player. She kept a gameplay log that tracked the overall story narrative along with mission goals encountered in the game. Heidi’s gameplay schedule averaged one to two hours per day, five days per week over a six-week period. She started the game from the very beginning and played until the closing credits appeared, signifying the end of the goal-oriented narrative storyline. She played six hours beyond this point for this particular analysis, and she additionally had a game saved that she had played beyond the storyline for 1.5 years. This analysis looked through a particular lens – how labour and consumption is expressed in the gameplay of The Sims 2 DS. Since consumerism as an aspect of gameplay in The Sims franchise, we expected that consumption would occur. The longer version of this chapter provides a gameplay analysis detailing the gameplay narrative. This longer analysis is informed by Consalvo and Dutton’s methodological toolkit for gameplay analysis; 16 incorporating a map of

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__________________________________________________________________ Strangetown (where the game takes place), the game’s primary/secondary missions, interfaces for character creation and character interactions, as well as character strategies for maintaining ‘sanity’ and developing skills. In this shorter report, however, we provide an overview of our main themes. 5. Labour and Consumption in The Sims 2 DS Narrative Play The Sims 2 DS uses two types of goal-oriented missions to enact the narrative. The primary mission goal drives the narrative forward and the secondary mission goal is a distraction or deterrent that if left unsolved, may delay the narrative. The main mission goals include getting rid of unwanted visitors intending to invade the hotel and hotel maintenance and upgrades so that the hotel progressively improves. Secondary mission goals involve obstacles that take time away from achieving primary missions, such as dealing with complaints from guests or exterminating rodents that show up in the hotel. In these missions The Sims 2 DS aspects of labour and consumption may be more linked to the hegemony of labour and consumption inherent in post-industrial play than solely linked to ‘success’ as achieved in goal-oriented gameplay. As discussed earlier, the post-industrial play thesis posits that a residue of labour and consumption exists in contemporary hobbies and play and as such may already be intrinsic in the game design but not necessarily as a direct function of the goaloriented narrative gameplay. If Heidi was not following the rules that we arranged for this analysis, she may very well have started decorating the rooms without instruction. She did in fact, continue building rooms in the hotel after the first few initial mission goals, even though she was not directly encouraged to so by the game. The encouragement for the room building came from seeing a list of un-built rooms. Her rationale as a player was that these rooms would have to be built as part of the completion of the narrative. The fact that much of her work was in service to a career, called attention to her focus on labour, but mission goals were not exclusively linked to her career as a hotel manager. Hegemonies of labour and consumption were present and encouraged in the goal-oriented narrative gameplay, but not exacerbated; that is, she could fulfil the mission goals without extensive careercentric labour and consumption. Where The Sims 2 DS is a possible hegemonic site of overwork and over consumption occurs after the narrative gameplay is completed and the player remains in Strangetown to play beyond the narrative in the open-ended portion of the game. 6. Overwork and Over Consumption in The Sims 2 DS Post-Narrative Play In the post-narrative gameplay of The Sims 2 DS, labour and consumption are all that remain as options for play. This post-narrative gameplay is also where overwork and over consumption become unavoidable if one wishes to continue achieving success in the game. It is difficult to subvert the subtext of success in this

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__________________________________________________________________ post-narrative play. Ignoring hotel guests results in unpaid room charges, destroyed furniture, room fires and unhappy guests. Ignoring goon attacks results in power shutting down or robbery of hotel funds. The next step in this post-narrative gameplay is to search what has yet to be completed in the game. In order to continue ‘progressing’ the narrative, the player has to continue gaining skill points, collecting objects and successfully run the hotel. Upkeep and improvements to the hotel, making Simoleans (Sim currency) and purchasing luxury items become the post-narrative gameplay. A typical hour or two of post-narrative gameplay for Heidi consisted of taking care of her Sim’s basic needs, and then making the rounds around the hotel: the checking in and out of guests, visiting hotel atrium lounges, and checking out the penthouse, guest rooms and basement for cleaning and maintenance needs. Along the way, she engaged in positive social interactions with guests and Strangetown citizens to keep the customers happy and the hotel in running order. Heidi’s Sim could gain ‘pal’ or ‘lover’ status but the process and choices in even these social interactions remained tied to her career. She could visit guest’s rooms but they could not visit her room. Game characters could socialize in the atrium lounges, and they could clap encouragingly as Heidi’s Sim played a musical instrument in the hotel lounge, but the ‘professional relationship’ between Heidi’s Sim and other game characters was a palpable component in all interactions. Heidi’s Sim was treated by the game characters as one would treat hotel staff – no friendships were possible, only service. She was tipped with Simoleans, fuel rods or gourds at the end of her lounge performances, and her paintings disappeared, having been purchased by guests, earning her Simoleans and requests to make more paintings. After engaging in activities and mini-games, Heidi’s Sim had a game-phone that would ring with messages missed ‘while she was out.’ Her time in the post-narrative play was continually interrupted by phone calls from guests with special requests (find their couch, bring them food, come cheer them up), or with messages that alien or other invasions had to be stopped within the hour or some detriment would come to her hotel. As a Simolean-earning strategy, decorating rooms and replacing objects with higher-quality objects earns the player a better rate for the room. Each room has a limit of objects it can hold, so the strategy becomes to reach the maximum of highest-costing objects allowed in each space. The concierge informed Heidi of this strategy and encouraged her increase of hotel profit. In the game Heidi played for over a year and a half, she decorated all of the rooms with the maximum objects allowed. She earned 999,999 Simoleans, the largest amount the game could record. Still, she was compelled to continue working to avoid the downfall of her hotel or Strangetown, the one-street desert town in which the hotel exists.

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__________________________________________________________________ 7. The Logic of Overwork and Over Consumption In the absence of the goal-oriented narrative, the post-narrative gameplay is reliant on labour and consumption as the definition of play required to progress in the game. In fact, labour and consumption works as the invisible narrative that provides the goal-oriented structure otherwise missing in post-narrative gameplay. In order to achieve game happiness or ‘success,’ Heidi’s Sim lived in a game world of continual labour and consumption. This world can be compared to the general Sims universe, although that universe allows for greater breadth in social interaction, life in places outside of work, and some opportunities to subvert dominant hegemonies. Abbreviating The Sims gameplay to a single-narrative work environment in The Sims 2 DS exacerbates the ideology of earning Simoleans and spending them for the happiness of Sims. The Sims 2 DS requires the player to stay at work and invest in work in order to play the game, cultivating within the postnarrative play, hegemonies of success through overwork and over consumption. Heidi was forever in Strangetown as the hotel manager, and after a year and a half, the car that brought her there and broke down, forcing her to take the job to pay for repairs, was still in the garage – no word yet from the mechanic. 8. Beyond Strangetown If we accept video games as invented worlds, we can accept that these worlds may also include the hidden influence of ideologies and hegemonies. Similarly, if we accept video games as an active element of popular and mass culture, the game narrative becomes a conduit of experiential learning, 17 where we learn about our world and ourselves via our participation in that world. The conversion of The Sims original virtual world into a truncated goal-oriented narrative play structure invokes extant hegemonies of labour and consumption. We argue, however, that when the narrative is played out and the player is left to her/his virtual life in the post-narrative virtual world, these notions of labour and consumption are amplified into the more powerful hegemonies of overwork and over consumption. It may be ‘only a game,’ but The Sims 2 DS eerily parallels the erosion of work/life balance present in everyday American work culture and provides yet another cultural site supporting the hegemonic voice of overwork and over consumption – couched within entertainment and ‘play.’ In The Sims2 DS, the player is thrust into a job s/he cannot leave. Play hard, work harder - even when the story is over.

Notes 1

Troy Dreier, ‘The Sims 2 Proves Grown-up Games Still Live’, PC Magazine 23, 19 October 2004, 42.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2

In particular, this point was made by Diane Nutt and Diane Railton, ‘The Sims: Real Life as Genre,’ Information, Communication and Society 6.4 (2003): 577– 592. 3 James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2003), 139. 4 Joost Raessens, ‘Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture,’ in Handbook of Computer Game Studies, eds. Joost Raessens and Jeffery Goldstein (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005), 383. 5 Roger Caillois, ‘The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games,’ in The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, eds. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006), 122–155. 6 As defined by Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon, 1955), 3. 7 Henry Jenkins, ‘Game Design as Narrative Architecture,’ in The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, eds. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006), 670–689. 8 P. David Marshall, New Media Cultures (London: Arnold, 2004), 10–11. 9 Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. J. Cumming (New York: Herder and Herder, 1972). 10 Herbert Marcuse, ‘Some Implications of Modern Technology,’ in Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, ed. Douglas Kellner (London: Routledge, 1998), 41–65. 11 Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 126–127 12 Marcuse, ‘Some Implications of Modern Technology,’ 41–65. 13 Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1971), 285. 14 Caillois, ‘The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games,’ 145. 15 Caillois, ‘The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games,’ 145. 16 Mia Consalvo and Nathan Dutton, ‘Game Analysis: Developing a Methodological Toolkit for the Qualitative Study of Games,’ Game Studies 6.1 (2006): viewed 3 August 2011, http://www.gamestudies.org/0601/articles/consalvo_dutton. 17 This point is made by Cyril Orvin Houle, Continuing Learning in the Professions (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980).

Bibliography Caillois, Roger. ‘The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games.’ The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, edited by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, 122–155. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.

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__________________________________________________________________ Castronova, Edward. Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2005. Consalvo, Mia and Nathan Dutton. ‘Game Analysis: Developing a Methodological Toolkit for the Qualitative Study of Games.’ Game Studies 6.1 (2006): Accessed 3 August 2011. http://www.gamestudies.org/0601/articles/consalvo_dutton. Dreier, Troy. ‘The Sims 2 Proves Grown-up Games Still Live’, PC Magazine 23, October 19 2004. Gee, James P. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2003. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers, 1971. Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Translated by J. Cumming. New York: Herder and Herder, 1972. Houle, Cyril Orvin. Continuing Learning in the Professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980. Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1955. Jenkins, Henry. ‘Games, the New Lively Art.’ Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by Joost Raessens and Jeffery Goldstein, 175–189. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Jenkins, Henry. ‘Game Design as Narrative Architecture.’ The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, edited by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, 670–689. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. Marcuse, Herbert. ‘Some Implications of Modern Technology.’ Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, edited by Douglas Kellner, 41–45. London: Routledge, 1998. Marshall, David P. New Media Cultures. London: Arnold, 2004.

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__________________________________________________________________ Nutt, Diane and Diane Railton. ‘The Sims: Real Life as Genre,’ Information, Communication and Society, 6.4 (2003): 577–592. Raessens, Joost. ‘Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture. Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by Joost Raessens and Jeffery Goldstein, 373–388. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. Heidi Mau is a doctoral candidate in Media & Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Her research interests are in media studies, visual culture, memory studies, and technology in popular culture (contact: [email protected]). Cheryl L. Nicholas is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State Berks in Reading, PA, USA. Her research interests include language and social interaction, (inter)cultural communication, and identity (contact: [email protected]).

Section III:

The Ways that Virtual Worlds are Used for Education Purposes

Comparison of Students Learning in a Virtual World Sue Gregory Abstract The author, a Lecturer in ICT Education, has been teaching students, using the affordances of a virtual world, since 2008. Over this period of time, students have been participating in Second LifeTM learning activities either as on-campus (compulsory) or off-campus (voluntary) students. Undergraduate and postgraduate students have participated in this learning. They have undertaken a variety of activities in Second LifeTM to gain an understanding of how it could be used in their future careers as an educator. Some students were training to become teachers, others to become industry educators. Diverse groups of students gathered together to undertake their learning. Since 2008, off-campus students were able to choose whether to use a virtual world for their studies, as it could not be assured that they had suitable technology for the sessions. Numbers of students participating on a voluntary basis has increased over the years to approximately 100 students per year in the later years. On-campus students were required to participate in virtual world sessions from 2010 onwards. 239 off-campus and 284 on-campus students have participated in virtual world learning with the researcher. This chapter explores the differences in the students and their learning. Cross comparisons of student cohorts are presented. This research expands from 2008 to 2011 and examines differences in students’ age, demographic, level, mode of study, activity and grades. A brief overview of the themes that arose from student perceptions of their learning through the examination of 52,000 lines of recorded text will be presented to provide context to the overall research results. Analysis of quantitative data from VirtualPREX role-plays from 2011 and 2012 also support the student perceptions of their learning in virtual world learning activities. Key Words: Second LifeTM, virtual worlds, learning, comparison, on-campus learning, off-campus learning, student perceptions. ***** 1. Introduction Virtual worlds have been used in higher education for more than a decade. Australian and New Zealand institutions began their exploration of virtual worlds as early as 1997. 1 The University of New England began teaching in the virtual world of Second LifeTM in 2008 with the author as the researcher and educator/academic. This chapter discusses the experiences of students and compares different cohorts of students to provide an overview of the virtues of teaching and learning in a virtual world.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2. Background and Context The University of New England (UNE) is a traditional university comprising of both on-campus and off-campus students. On-campus students reside in university accommodation or within the city attending lectures and tutorials/workshops, using a Learning Management System (LMS) for study materials and resources. Offcampus students reside anywhere within Australia or overseas and receive all their study materials and resources via the LMS. The LMS provides a range of online tools such as discussion boards, chat rooms, blogs, wikis, videos, images and downloadable documents. The tool used depends largely on the unit (subject) that students are studying and on the preference of the academic who sets up the interactions. A major difference between the online interaction using the LMS tools and a virtual world lies in the nature of the interaction. Interaction via a discussion board is mostly asynchronous and both students and academics are generally responding to one or more posts placed on the board by individual students. The interactions tend to be task-related, rather than social, and the academic more frequently responds only to specific questions, rather than commenting on student discussion, and often expects students to read all of the discussion board for responses rather than responding to individuals about the same question. In contrast, interaction in a virtual world is typically synchronous and the discussion is both social and taskrelated, more closely replicating discussions that occur in face-to-face settings such as tutorials, workshops or conversations. Presented in this chapter is the data collected over a four-year period from 2008 to 2011, of student interactions in the virtual world. Voluntary participation of students is compared with students who chose not to use the virtual world (for various reasons). This group included students who only undertook virtual world activities as a requirement of their studies (compulsory). 3. Methodology Mixed methods, using both quantitative and qualitative data, were collected to facilitate triangulation. Action research methodology, as outlined by Kemmis and Taggart, was used throughout the research. 2 Three action research cycles were conducted that continuously planned, implemented, observed and reflected on the research. By conducting the research in this manner, the analysis strengthened interpretations based on more available evidence. Findings were corroborated across data sets, reducing the impact of potential biases that exist in a single study. 3 Data was gathered through surveys, observations, feedback and recording of inworld (in Second LifeTM) discussions and activities. Fifty two thousand lines of inworld discussions were recorded through text chat. Text chat was the main communication tool used in the virtual world at the time. The surveys collected demographic data. The activities consisted of discussions, lectures, tours, excursions, role-plays, basic building and scripting techniques and web quests.

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__________________________________________________________________ Students where studying one of seven (7) Information Communication Technology (ICT) or Learning and Teaching units. They were either participating on a voluntary basis (off-campus students) or required to participate (on-campus students). Over the four years, 523 students participated in the virtual world sessions out of a possible 3,576, of which 3,236 were involved in the research discussed herewith. One aim of the research was to explore whether student interaction in a virtual world has greater impact on learning, as evidenced in the quality of assessment work, than the interaction available through LMS tools, such as chat room and/or discussion boards. A second aim was to analyse student perceptions of their inworld experience. Enhanced interaction capabilities of a virtual world, not only peer-to-peer, but also student-academic, are reflected in assessment grades. The on-campus students, who have face-to-face tutorials, provide a point of comparison regarding this method of interaction. 4. Results and Discussion This research was conducted from 2008 to 2011. There were a total of 3,236 students enrolled in the units that were used for this research. All students were encouraged to complete surveys. Table 1 is a breakdown of the years, units and number of participants. The number in parentheses is the number of students who voluntarily chose to participate in Second LifeTM learning activities. The number in brackets indicates the number of students who were required to undertake Second LifeTM activities. Table 1: Number of Students Enrolled in Each Unit – 2008 to 2011 Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6 Unit 7 Total each year Total students enrolled

2008 21 (2) 443 (10)

2009 13 (2) 337 (16)

464

[80] 430

2010 17 (3) 665 (25) 241 (24) [91] 18 (5) 17 (5) 352 (18) 414 (19) 1724

2011 56 (7) 252 (12) 337 (50) [113] 48 (6) 33 (3) 232 (32) 958 3,576

There were a total of 239 students in the four years who chose to use the virtual world of Second LifeTM as a teaching and learning tool. That is 6.7% of students chose to study using Second LifeTM. The numbers of students who were required to learn using Second LifeTM was 7.9% (284 students). The percentage of students

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__________________________________________________________________ opting to study using a virtual world increased over years, with the most dramatic increase occurring in 2011, with 11.5% of students opting for this type of learning. Sessions in Second LifeTM were combined classes with students from across all units attending together. Even though unit learning outcomes were diverse, they were achievable by the individual students through the inworld learning activities. Over the four years of research, off-campus students had the option of attending sessions in the virtual world on a weekly basis. There were, on occasion, asynchronous session with the option to work on their own or with their peers on tasks that had been set for them. For on-campus students, from 2009, inworld sessions were a requirement of their studies through two two-hour workshops. All compulsory sessions were conducted synchronously with the academic. By comparing the age of students, those students who enrolled in 2008 and 2009, 14% were aged under 29, 67% were aged 30-45 years and 19% were from 46-59 years and 0% over 60 years of age. These results show the maturity of the off-campus students with the majority aged over 30 (86%). In 2010 and 2011 the survey instrument was amended as five extra units offered virtual worlds as a component of their studies. This group included first year pre-service teachers and it was necessary to change the survey instrument to get a better understanding of the age groups choosing to study via a virtual world. Many of these students included school leavers. The age of the students who completed the survey were, in fact, much younger than those who completed the survey in 2008 and 2009 with 37% of the students aged less than 29 years of age. There were 27% aged 30-45 years of age, 23% aged 46-59 and 5% aged 55 years and over. A further comparison was made of student grades. Students volunteering to study using a virtual world were compared to students who chose not to use a virtual world for their studies. The comparison of grades over the four years is shown in Image 1. The darker shade in Image 1 indicates the Second LifeTM group of students received higher grades than those who chose not to study using Second LifeTM, consistently across the four years of research. In 2008 and 2009 there were two Education ICT units used in the research discussed here with 464 students in total in 2008 and 350 in 2009. In 2010, seven Education units were used in the research, five ICT Education units and two Learning and Teaching units with a total of 1,633 students. In 2011, five ICT Education units were used in the research with a total of 789 students. Over the four years, with this comparison, there were 3,236 student grades compared. A High Distinction is a grade of 85% or higher, and a Distinction is a grade of between 75% and 84%. 79.3% of students who chose to study using a virtual world received a grade above 75% (Distinction or better) compared with 46.5% of those who chose not to study using the virtual world. Overall, the group that studied in Second LifeTM performed at a much higher level. Those students who received a Credit or less, i.e., less than 65% in their studies, were 20.7% of Second

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__________________________________________________________________ LifeTM voluntary students. 53.7% of students who chose not to use Second LifeTM for their studies received a Credit or less, indicating that those who chose not to use Second LifeTM as a teaching and learning tool were in the lower portion of grade results.

Image 1: Comparison of grades between students who chose to study using Second LifeTM and those chose not to. © 2013. Image courtesy of the author

An analysis was undertaken to compare students who were studying in undergraduate or postgraduate modes. 11% of the undergraduate students (154) and 4% of postgraduate students (81) chose to study using a virtual world. The postgraduate students received the best grades overall with more than half receiving a High Distinction. As indicated in Image 2, the group who chose to study using Second LifeTM as a teaching and learning tool received higher grades than the group that chose not to. It did not matter whether the students were studying in an undergraduate or postgraduate course. They still received much higher grades than the group that chose not to use the virtual world as a teaching and learning tool. The darker coloured shading are the students who chose to study using a virtual world. It can be seen that they performed significantly better than their counterparts, those students not choosing to use a virtual world for their study. The undergraduate and postgraduate students who participated in virtual world activities have darker shading whilst the lighter shading are those undergraduate and postgraduate students who chose not to use a virtual world for their learning

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__________________________________________________________________ activities. Image 2 shows a very significant positive trend towards those students who chose to learn through participating in virtual world activities.

Image 2: Comparison of Undergraduate and Postgraduate results across four years of research – 2008 to 2011. © 2013. Image courtesy of the author

During their study, students were provided with a choice of synchronous communication tools – chat room, virtual world, both or neither. The chat room was provided through the LMS and the virtual world of Second LifeTM was used. Both were provided as tools for communication with peers and/or academics. Of those who completed the surveys, the majority of students indicated that they chose to study using one method or the other as outlined in Table 2. 256 students completed end of semester surveys in 2008 to 2011. The first two columns are the total numbers across the four years including percentages of those students who chose to use a chat room or virtual world to communicate. The next four columns indicate a trend in the use of virtual worlds over chat rooms and are segregated into 2008/2009 and 2010/2011, including percentages. Table 2: Tools used for synchronous online discussions

Chat Room

Second LifeTM Both Neither

2008 to 2011 (n=256) 99

38.5%

54 7 96

21.1% 2.7% 37.7%

%

2008/2009 (n=152) 52 13

34.0% 8.5%

2010/2011 (n=104) 47 41

0 87

0.0% 58%

7 9

%

% 45.2% 39.4% 6.7% 8.7%

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__________________________________________________________________ Indications reveal that students found their experience in Second LifeTM both engaging and effective in enhancing their learning. However, there were also students reporting the same perceptions of chat rooms and discussion boards. The differences in perception often lay in the perception of ‘being there’ as opposed to other online tools as indicated by a student who enjoyed using Second Life more than the discussion board or chat rooms because it felt like a personal contact with others present, was more engaging and therefore felt more motivated to achieve. The majority of students who chose to study using a virtual world were female, with 72% female, 16% male and 12% did not indicate their gender. This is the type of result one would expect, as those students enrolled in education are 4 predominantly females. Voluntary students were also asked where they lived to provide some demographic information. As can be seen in Image 3, students were residing in regions across the nation. Students were not asked which country they were living in, therefore this data is not available. The results indicate that the students could be located anywhere and not necessarily in areas were it would be presumed that faster Internet connections existed as Broadband capabilities is often cited as a reason for not being able to participate. There is a fairly even distribution across the locations, with smaller numbers of student residing in a regional major city or metropolitan location (15.6%). Almost one-fifth of those who responded lived in rural or remote locations (22.9%).

Image 3: Demographic information in relation to where students reside. © 2013. Image courtesy of the author Finally, an analysis has been undertaken of the 52,000 lines of inworld text that was recorded from sessions over the four years of research. These have been 5 published elsewhere (see, for example, Gregory, ‘Learning in a Virtual World: Student Perceptions and Outcomes’). The main themes that arose from this analysis were: engagement, communication, anonymity, distance, interaction and collaboration, learning, technology and distractions. The research concluded that those students who choose to learn through virtual world activities enjoy the

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__________________________________________________________________ opportunity to interact with their peers and academics. They found the virtual world activities immersive and engaging. This is not so for the on-campus students, the focus in this section. On campus student’s perceptions of compulsory role-play activities during VirtualPREX (Virtual Professional Experience) are reported here 6 (see, for example, dissemination of VirtualPREX findings). These perceptions were gathered through student surveys in 2011 (72 students) and 2012 (82 students). Students were asked, after a role-play activity, where they played either the role of teacher or primary school student, ‘what was the best thing about the activity’ (Table 3) and ‘what was the worst thing about the activity’ (Table 4). Table 3: The best thing about the activity •

• • •

2011 I enjoyed being the teacher and • having to some up with strategies to deal with students that would not • follow instructions. Trying different things to keep the students in task, gave us a chance to • practice teaching. That you could express yourself without your identity being known. It was set in an environment which very much resembled a classroom.

2012 Being able to actually perform a lesson with other people. It was an interesting way to teach. Opens up the idea of teaching that way. It was also fun. I liked how effective the role-play situations was, and how it relates back to teaching in real life. It helped me see and experience what happens within the classroom with the students.

Table 4: The worst thing about the activity •

•

2011 Sometimes got a little confusing and • the teacher spent more time telling the students what not to do rather • than what to do. Hard to control students when you • are the teacher.

2012 Not having actual children to work with. It was difficult as not everyone listened or paid attention. I didn't find anything wrong with the activity. I found it very useful.

Presented in Tables 3 and 4 were a few examples of student comments and their perceptions of the role-play virtual world learning activity. There are some significant findings from these comments. The main ones are that the students were very receptive to the role-play activities from many different angles. They perceived them to be authentic, they could see the benefit of the role-plays from a teaching perspective but also from a practise viewpoint, how they could experiment with their teaching skills and developing teaching strategies. The perceptions of students in relation the worst things about the activities were often

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__________________________________________________________________ related to how a classroom actually is, such as ‘so many conversations you get lost’, ‘it was distracting’, ‘difficult as not everyone listened’, ‘not being able to control the children’. All of these perceptions are found in a real life classroom. It was felt that this research met its goal in providing students with an authentic alternative to practise their teaching skills through VirtualPREX. 5. Future Directions and Conclusion It cannot be concluded that the students reported in this research were able to achieve higher grades because of their participation in Second LifeTM learning activities as there may have been many other contributing factors affecting these results, such as age of the students, motivation of the students or time constraints. However, the evidence suggests that students who undertook the Second LifeTM component of their studies were immersed and engaged in their virtual world activities. Those students who choose to learn in a virtual world activity outperformed their peers who chose not to use a virtual world for their learning. The students perceive their learning activities to be authentic, immersive and engaging. Students who choose to learn in a virtual world may be the students that would have been successful no matter what they had chosen to do. These students are our future teachers who will provide their students with a rich learning environment and ensure that they are abreast of emerging technologies. The analysis indicates that a virtual world such as Second LifeTM provides an environment for extensive collaborative work amongst students in higher education. There must be more research in this area to determine if these results are just from this researcher and their institution or whether these results are occurring elsewhere, across researchers, institutions and nations.

Notes 1

Sue Gregory et al., ‘Sustaining the Future Through Virtual Worlds.’, in Future Challenges: Sustainable Futures. Proceedings Ascilite Wellington 2012, ed. Mark Brown, M. Hartnett, and T. Stewart (presented at the ascilite2012, Wellington, New Zealand: Massey University and ascilite, 2012), 361–368, http://www.ascilite2012.org/images/custom/gregory,_sue_-_sustaining.pdf. 2 Stephen Kemmis and Robin McTaggart, eds. The Action Research Planner, 3rd ed. (Melbourne: Deakin University, 1988). 3 Prevention and Public Health Group, ‘Triangulation’, Formerly Institute for Global Health: University of Southern Califormia. November 2007. http://globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/content/pphg/triangulation/b otswana-triangulation.pdf.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4

Michael Podgursky, Ryan Monroe, and Donald Watson, ‘The Academic Quality of Public School Teachers: An Analysis of Entry and Exit Behavior’, Economics of Education Review 23, no. 5 (October 2004): 507–518, doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2004.01.005. 5 Sue Gregory, ‘Learning in a Virtual World: Student Perceptions and Outcomes’, in Student Reactions to Learning with Technologies: Perceptions and Outcomes, ed. Kathryn Moyle and Guus Winjnaards, vol. 1 (Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global, 2012), 91–116. 6 Sue Gregory et al., ‘Changing Directions Through VirtualPREX: Engaging Preservice Teachers in Virtual Professional Experience’, in Changing Demands, Changing Directions. Proceedings Ascilite Hobart 2011, ed. G. Williams et al. (presented at the ascilite2011, Hobart: University of Tasmania, 2011), 491–501, Vicki http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/hobart11/procs/GregoryS-full.pdf; Knox and Sue Gregory, ‘The Creation of the VirtualPREX Classrooms: An Immersive and Interactive Space for Experiential Learning: VirtualPREX’, in Future Challenges – Sustainable Futures. Proceedings Ascilite Wellington 2012, ed. Mark Brown, M. Hartnett, and T. Stewart (presented at the ascilite2012, Wellington, New Zealand: Massey University and ascilite, 2012), 503–507, http://www.ascilite2012.org/images/custom/knox,_vicki__the_creation_of_a_3d.pdf; Yvonne Masters et al., ‘Branching Out Through VirtualPREX: Enhancing Teaching in Second Life’, in Utopia and a Garden Party: Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds, ed. Paul Jerry, Yvonne Masters, and Nancy Tavares-Jones, At the Interface (Oxford, United Kingdom: InterDisciplinary Press: Publishing Creative Research, 2012), 57–69, https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/ebooks/diversity-andrecognition/utopia-and-a-garden-party. .

Bibliography Gregory, Sue. ‘Learning in a Virtual World: Student Perceptions and Outcomes’. In Student Reactions to Learning with Technologies: Perceptions and Outcomes, edited by Kathryn Moyle and Guus Winjnaards, 1:91–116. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global, 2012. Gregory, Sue, Barney Dalgarno, Matthew Campbell, Torsten Reiners, Vicki Knox, and Yvonne Masters. ‘Changing Directions Through VirtualPREX: Engaging Preservice Teachers in Virtual Professional Experience’. In Changing Demands, Changing Directions: Proceedings ascilite Hobart 2011, edited by G. Williams, P. Statham, N. Brown, and B. Cleland, 491–501. Hobart: University of Tasmania, 2011. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/hobart11/procs/GregoryS-full.pdf.

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__________________________________________________________________ Gregory, Sue, Brent Gregory, Mathew Hillier, Lisa Jacka, Stefan Schutt, David Ellis, Frederick Stokes-Thompson, et al. ‘Sustaining the Future Through Virtual Worlds.’ In Future Challenges – Sustainable Futures. Proceedings ascilite Wellington 2012, edited by Mark Brown, M. Hartnett, and T. Stewart, 361–368. Wellington, New Zealand: Massey University and ascilite, 2012. http://www.ascilite2012.org/images/custom/gregory,_sue_-_sustaining.pdf. Kemmis, Stephen, and Robin McTaggart, eds. The Action Research Planner. 3rd ed. Melbourne: Deakin University, 1988. Knox, Vicki, and Sue Gregory. ‘The Creation of the VirtualPREX Classrooms: An Immersive and Interactive Space for Experiential Learning: VirtualPREX’. In Future Challenges – Sustainable Futures. Proceedings ascilite Wellington 2012, edited by Mark Brown, M. Hartnett, and T. Stewart, 503–507. Wellington, New Zealand: Massey University and ascilite, 2012. http://www.ascilite2012.org/images/custom/knox,_vicki__the_creation_of_a_3d.pdf. Masters, Yvonne, Sue Gregory, Barney Dalgarno, Torsten Reiners, and Vicki Knox. ‘Branching Out Through VirtualPREX: Enhancing Teaching in Second Life’. In Utopia and a Garden Party: Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds, edited by Paul Jerry, Yvonne Masters, and Nancy Tavares-Jones, 57–69. At the Interface. Oxford, United Kingdom: Inter-Disciplinary Press: Publishing Creative Research, 2012. https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/ebooks/diversity-andrecognition/utopia-and-a-garden-party. Podgursky, Michael, Ryan Monroe, and Donald Watson. ‘The Academic Quality of Public School Teachers: An Analysis of Entry and Exit Behavior’. Economics of Education Review 23, no. 5 (October 2004): 507–518. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2004.01.005. Prevention and Public Health Group. ‘Triangulation’. Formerly Institute for Global Health: University of Southern California, November 2007. http://globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/content/pphg/triangulation/b otswana-triangulation.pdf. Sue Gregory is a long term educator and lecturer in ICT education at the University of New England, Australia, chair of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group and leader of an Australian Government Office of

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__________________________________________________________________ Learning and Teaching (OLT)-funded project called ‘VirtualPREX: Innovative Assessment using a 3D Virtual World with Pre-Service Teachers.’ Since 2007 she has focussed on adult learning, authenticity, engagement, immersion, impact, and the efficacy of virtual worlds for education; in particular, she has been examining student perceptions of their learning in a virtual world. Acknowledgements The author acknowledges the contribution of fellow-researchers on the VirtualPREX project: Yvonne Masters, Barney Dalgarno, Torsten Reiners, Heinz Dreher, Geoffrey Crisp, Vicki Knox. She also acknowledges project evaluator, Deanne Gannaway. Support for the research has been provided by the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Learning and Teaching.

Experiential Teaching and Learning as part of a Blended Approach: Classrooms, Blackboard and Second Life Practices Ridvan Ata Abstract This chapter aims to illuminate teaching experiences of the tutors in a first year undergraduate module and explore the contribution of Second Life (SL) to students’ learning process from the perspective of a teaching assistant. The virtual world of Second LifeTM (SL) is being used as part of blended inquiry based approach, i.e. using physical classrooms, Blackboard, web-based resources, and SL in an Information Literacy in a higher education setting in the UK. I begin by describing the structure of the module and characteristics of learning activities that take place in class, including identifying the rational for conducting practical exercises in SL with disciplinary goals. I also detail some of the interventions and strategies that were adopted, such as an exhibition space of nine SL mini-islands, designed for the students’ information problem activities. I reflect on the learning and teaching experiences with the evidence from: tutors’ interviews, chat logs, inworld snapshots, and my own notes. I find the use of the structured group activity as a technique for dealing with the information problems, the use of reflection as part of the learning experience, furnishing and designing the mini-islands, and eventually conducting interviews in SL, as a means of understanding of the module tutors’ experiential teaching paradigms. I conclude this chapter by indicating that the teaching approach used for utilising experiential learning thus has important pedagogic implications to develop new skills such as navigating, integrating and designing in-world as well as interpersonal skills such as presentation, interview and teamwork skills within socially rich contexts. Key Words: Experiential teaching and learning, information literacy, inquiry based learning, virtual worlds, Second Life, virtual teaching. ***** 1. Introduction The study described in this chapter consisted of using physical classrooms, a virtual learning environment (VLE), web-based resources and Second LifeTM (SL) in a module for first year undergraduate students in a university in the United Kingdom (U.K.). That is to say, the module is a campus-based class involving face-to-face sessions with the use of the university’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Blackboard, and interaction with other Web 2.0 resources such as reflective journals, e-portfolios and wikis, as well as the virtual world of SL. The university provides a secure online environment in which students not only have flexible access to their courses via the Internet but also have facilities that engage them in a

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__________________________________________________________________ process, which ultimately enhance their learning. The virtual world of SL is being used as a part of a blended inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach, which I discuss in the next section. SL is a public 3D virtual world (vw) released by Linden Lab and is inhabited by millions of users, called residents, all over the world. People are represented within SL by avatars, which are humanoid or non-humanoid 3D characters that could be modified by users. People are using SL to communicate, to organise events, to establish businesses, to meet people and make friends across the world and to host many educational events including in-world classes, academic conferences, seminars, demonstrations, and exhibitions. The module, Information Literacy (IL), is a core part of the level one-year of Information Management (IM) degree offered in the Information School in the university each year. For the academic year of 2011/12, the class was primarily led by the module coordinator (the MC), and two teaching assistants of whom I was one. I assisted purely with inworld sessions and my role was to assist the students with their learning activities that took place in SL and to answer their questions to provide support and minimize potential chaotic preliminary experiences with vws. In addition, there was one internal tutor (TutorN) who covered the topics of ‘information’ and ‘information behaviour’ and two librarians who work in the same institution and a librarian (TutorP) who was geographically remote and worked in a different institution in the U.K. The class consisted of 43 students of whom 22 were originally from outside the U.K; 19 were female and 24 were male. The primary aim of the module was to enhance the information behaviour skills of the students and to help them to become information literate by focusing on both practice and theory of IL and information behaviour. In the reminder of the chapter, I first discuss and give some information about theoretical teaching and learning approach that was taken for this class. Then I describe and give details of the activities that took place both in classrooms and SL. This includes identifying the nature of the blended delivery of this module. I draw the conclusion by evaluating the MC’s teaching paradigms and pedagogic implications within the experiential teaching and learning context. 2. Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) Approach The central pedagogic approach for the module was IBL and it suggests that the students engage with the module more deeply. The aim of adopting the IBL approach in this module was to stimulate students’ curiosity and engagement. The main characteristic feature of the approach is identified by Khan and O’Rourke 1 as involving the students with their discipline through self-directed inquires in in a collaborative and engaging way. In essence, it is learning and teaching approaches that are based on student-led inquiry and a deepening students’ engagement with the discipline. With this approach, the students are expected to learn and build knowledge through guided exploration and investigation of the questions or problems that are established with the open ended structure either by the tutor, the

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__________________________________________________________________ student, or by negotiation among them. The MC aims to convey this by encouraging the students to develop their own arguments in order to become, and gain, the value information literate along with using a mix of technologies. The emphasis on this module explores existing knowledge and discovering the discipline, yet the IBL approach is associated with SL activities by focusing analysis of the students’ own information behaviour, by identifying ways in which they can become more information literate, and by interacting with others to explore their information behaviour and needs in SL. Arguably, the role of IBL perhaps is limited and ‘information-oriented’ 2, since the ultimate focus was primarily on exploring an existing knowledge and interacting with others. 3. Details and Description of Activities 3.1.Week 1 The first part of the introductory session included presenting aims of the IL module, a model of IL i.e., SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries), which attains the quality in library services in higher education and national libraries across the UK and Ireland, Seven Pillars of Information Literacy Model, 3 and the mode of working, i.e., lectures presented by the MC and others. Also included were individual and group exercises, the use of the university’s VLE and SL in the module, exploring the concept of IL. This included creating exhibits, interviewing in SL, exploring meanings of IL in a virtual world, and lastly information about assessment and asking for registration for SL. The last part of the introductory session included practical individual exercises during which the students demonstrated their areas of strength and weakness in IL. The students formed groups and had 60-minute SL tutorials arranged during the week. The attempt was to facilitate students to personalise their avatars and contextualise themselves in the environment using the communication channels available, i.e. local chat and instant message (IM). In SL tutorials, the students began to develop their basic SL skills such as communicating, moving on the island, manipulating their avatars’ outfits, and practising wearing objects and rezzing items, i.e. dragging items out of their inventory folder onto the ground to create or to make them appear. Image 1 provides a glimpse of the orientation tutorials.

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Image 1: A glimpse of the orientation tutorials. © 2013. Courtesy of the author 3.2. Week 3 In the practical exercise session the students formed nine nine groups each of four or five. Each team was allocated an information problem comprising one of the following: • Is the ‘Google generation’ really bad at searching for, and evaluating, information? • How reliable is Wikipedia? • Should Facebook users be concerned about their privacy and safety on Facebook? As there was only one computer lab, i.e. limited number of computers, in which the SL viewer was installed, nine teams were separated into three groups. While three teams were working on their task in the computer lab, the other six teams worked on their information problem in the classroom. The teams alternated with each other after they had finished their work. In the lab, teams were introduced to the exhibition task. In other words, each team was given a mini island by the MC for their information problem activities. The intention behind giving the students a mini island was to give them a sense of ‘ownership’, to provide a challenge by which they might improve their concentration, to enable them to learn teamwork skills through the activity, and eventually to engage them more effectively. The students practised auditing their team’s skills by positioning a house on their mini island and adding any other objects that might be relevant to their task.

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__________________________________________________________________ Furthermore, some freebie locations in SL, in which there are a lot of free items to purchase, including clothing, skins and more, were introduced in order to encourage them to visit and take some objects and furniture for their islands. Image 2 offers a glimpse of each team’s mini island.

Image 2: A glimpse of teams’ mini islands. © 2013. Courtesy of the author 3.3. Week 4 In the practical session, as they had done in the previous week, six teams continued to work on their information problem task in the classroom, and three teams were introduced to the Opinionator exercise in the computer lab. The Opinionator is a 3D tool that enables the students to express their opinion regarding given information by moving onto it. A pie chart then appeared in the middle showing what percentage of students had chosen each option. The MC, another lecturer from a different university (TutorP) and myself - who all presented in SL - asked entirely in text-chat if what was given was data, information or knowledge. The students were then asked to move onto the Opinionator and to type into text-chat why they had chosen that option. They continued to work on their exhibition task in SL for the remaining time after which the teams alternated. Image 3 illustrates the Opinionator activity.

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__________________________________________________________________

Image 3: The Opinionator Exercise. © 2013. Courtesy of the author 3.4. Week 5 All teams finished their information problem activity and prepared a PowerPoint presentation to be uploaded into SL in the classroom and they then worked on their exhibition on the mini islands in the computer lab. Furthermore, the students uploaded their presentations onto their islands, prepared some brief information about their presentation and put this onto a notecard, which is a text document, in SL, and prepared questions to put into a multiple choice quiz ball to get visitors’ feedback about their work in SL. Image 4 provides an example of their work.

Image 4: A team’s work on their mini island. © 2013. Courtesy of the author

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__________________________________________________________________ 3.5. Week 6 The MC introduced some interview techniques for an effective interview and the students formed groups, which consisted of an interviewer, an interviewee and an observer, and practised face-to-face interviewing in the informative session. The MC and a lecturer (TutorG) from CollegeG in USA formed a project for students’ interview activity. The intention for the MC was to involve a small number of the college students to be interviewed. Likewise, TutorG attempted to give CollegeG students an experience of connecting in real-time with a peer in the UK using a vw. Two different activities took place in the practical session. While six teams were learning more about an information behaviour project and completing a questionnaire, three teams practiced interviewing in SL after which teams alternated. The students were ultimately asked to analyse interview transcripts in relation to real life ‘information behaviour’ research models, and reflect on their performance as interviewers. Image 5 illustrates an example of students’ SL interviewing which was a rehearsal for their SL interview activity.

Image 5: Rehearsal interviewing in SL. © 2013. Courtesy of the author 3.6. Week 7 The students were allocated a potential interviewee in this week. The initial attempt was to involve the college students to be interviewed yet interviewees were mostly recruited by the MC through her personal contacts. This is because interviews did not take place at the scheduled time and the CollegeG had the Thanksgiving Holiday, which is a national holiday celebrated primarily in United States and Canada. The students were then asked to contact their interviewees for their SL interview task by email. In addition, the MC gave a presentation regarding

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__________________________________________________________________ the module in a virtual conference that took place in SL. She introduced the pedagogical approach that was constructed for the module, the rationale for using SL, the information problems that the students worked on, SCONUL 7 Pillars Model, and Modes of IBL. She then took the participants to visit the students’ works on the island. Image 6 provides an example of the MC’s presentation.

Image 6: The presentation by the MC for the conference. © 2013. Courtesy of the author 3.7. Week 12 There was no actual lecture or practical session so the module ended for the autumn semester. Meanwhile, the exhibition was visited by the students and TutorG from the college in the USA. Image 7 gives an example of their visit to the exhibition area. In the following section, I present the findings from both observations in the classroom and SL, from the interviews, and illustrate how I approached the data and end up with the scope of experiential teaching.

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__________________________________________________________________

Image 7: A visit by the college to the exhibition area. © 2013. Courtesy of the author 4. Experiential Teaching Experiential teaching is a concept that was obvious in my interpretation of the data both in terms of the learning outcomes and teaching activities. I argue that everything the tutors attempted to employ both in the classroom and SL was somehow associated to experiential teaching. It is an approach that promotes learning by doing, which has been described as a promising learning style. 4 In this approach the experience, as a key element of the teaching, is placed at the centre of the learning process. This approach is based on the underlying Neo-Vygotskian social constructivism assumption of learning ‘as the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience 5 that is construction of knowledge involves learners to be actively engaged as participants in the process of learning. Kolb’s argument is important as it relies upon an engagement with social interactions and experience drawn from the physical world. What I mean by the learners’ experience differs from Kolb’s context, in which experience is entirely linked to lived experience, rather harmonise with the understanding of experience which may be relate to virtual experience, tasks and activities between peers. Learning by experience is not a new idea and Bruner, 6 who is credited as one of the pioneers of constructivism, argues for the importance of learning by doing yet learning through immersive experience developed from the premise that there is potential for students to develop new abilities and knowledge by the immersive experience. 7 Teaching with vws seems to form a different path in which the students have the sense of immersion, which is a feeling that transports us to another place, of learning through experience.

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__________________________________________________________________ Within the context of vws, immersive experiences of the learners, their use of multiple media, and activities between peers lead to ‘transactional’ learning 8 that is learning based upon transactions, i.e. tasks, activities. It is from this perspective that vws are a good example of providing an environment wherein the tutors could configure the environment to augment existing (generic) teaching practice, i.e. lectures, with the ability to foster optimum learning process. To support this idea, for example according to White, 9 teaching and learning in vws is ‘an experience’. Teaching in these contexts provides less emphasis upon the schedule of the module and more emphasis upon sequencing learning experience, meta-reflection, peer assessment and group work. In literacy, immersive experience that drives sustained engagement in vws emerges in a number of ways. Interactions with people from different cultures and countries as well as manipulating with identity and objects in vws and sharing experience with others concurrently in 3D virtual environments are just a few examples. Here I focus on some explicit examples in which blended experiences of the physical and virtual incidents emerged. Data Excerpt#1: The link with SL there was getting the students to think about what they had just learned and try to apply it…………the ultimate objective is that the students are able to carry out a research interview in SL………so the focus is particularly on the basis they need to carry out the interview. The intention here was to display the MC’s objectives to bring SL into the classroom. This data is indicative of evidence in linking the classroom and vws. The MC chooses the verbs of ‘think’, ‘apply’, ‘carry out’, which are mostly associated with the cognitive dimension of Apply within Bloom’s 10 revised taxonomy, to explain as an endeavour to make sense of enabling the learners to put what has been learned into practice, i.e. to apply and contextualise what they have learned theoretically. The data therefore suggest that the MC anticipated that experiential approach of the teaching pedagogy might promote skills and better understanding of the subject with the activities implemented both in the classroom and SL. The data also indicated that the MC expected her students to conduct an interview in-world to understand information behaviour of the interviewees, who were seeking information for SL activities, by implementing interviewing techniques. A great number of scholars recognise that SL has the capacity to conduct this sort of activity. In this point, conducting an interview activity in SL would be an example of evidence of ability to gather the data and apply their understanding of the information behaviour models. Another example could be seen with the exhibition activity. The MC aimed with this activity to enable her students to improve their communication and

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__________________________________________________________________ presentation skills. Drawing implications from the above understanding, the common terms identified repeatedly as characteristics of immersive experience within the data are ‘exploration’, ‘performance’, ‘presence’, ‘reflection’, ‘experimentation’ and ‘abstraction’ in which these terms include the sustained involvement of the students in their learning process. As I focused on the experiential teaching paradigms, I found the following as a means of understanding of the MC’s experiential teaching mechanisms. • The use of the structured group activity as a technique for dealing with information problems. • The use of reflection as part of the learning experience. • Furnishing and designing the mini islands. • And finally conducting interviews in SL. 5. Conclusion I view these findings as a starting point to indicate that the teaching approach used for utilising experimental learning has important pedagogic implications to develop new skills such as navigating, integrating and designing in-world as well as interpersonal skills such as presentation, interview and teamwork skills within socially rich contexts. However, it is worth noting that the analysis of Duncan et al. 11 regarding implementation of vws in education over 100 published academic papers show that the major focus of studies about the educational application of vws is not based on experiential space in vws, rather vws have been used as simulation of space. This suggests that there is a trend, as an increasing interest in educational implementation of virtual spaces to reproduce reality using avatars, objects or tasks such as a virtual campus or classrooms in the form of the curriculum whilst experimental teaching paradigms could be utilisied successfully.

Notes 1

Peter Kahn and Karen O’Rourke, ‘Understanding Enquiry-Based Learning,’ Handbook of Enquiry and Problem Based Learning, eds. Terry Barrett, Iain Mac Labhrainn and Helen Fallon (Galway: CELT, 2005), viewed December 2013, http://www.aishe.org/readings/2005-2/chapter1.pdf . 2 Philippa Levy, ‘I Feel Like a Grown Up Person: First Year Undergraduates’ Experiences of Inquiry and Research,’ (Paper presented at a CILASS Research seminar, 2008). 3 The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Model, 2011, viewed December 2013, http://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/coremodel.pdf.

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Anita J. Green, ‘Experiential Learning and Teaching: A Critical Evaluation of an Enquiry which Used Phenomenological Method,’ Nurse Education Today 15, 6 (1995): 420-426. 5 David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984). 6 Bruner, S. Jerome, The Culture of Education (USA: Harvard University Press, 1997). 7 David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984). 8 Clark Aldrich, Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds: Strategies for Online Instruction (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009). 9 David White, ‘From Swords to Hairstyles: Bridging the Divide between Massively Multiplayer Game Design and Second Life,’ Paper presented at the 15th International Conference of the Association for Learning Technology, 2008. Viewed 9 September 2012 , http://openhabitat.org/res/swords-hairstyles-bridgingdivide-between-massively-multiplayer-game-design-and-second-life. 10 Mary Forehand, ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy: Original and Revised, Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology, eds. Michael Orey, 2005, Viewed 20 September 2012, http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/>.xx 11 Ishbel Duncan, Alan Miller and Shangyi Jiang, ‘A Taxonomy of Virtual Worlds Usage in Education,’ British Journal of Educational Technology 43 (2012): 949– 964. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01263.x Bibliography Aldrich, Clark. Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds: Strategies for Online Instruction. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Barton, Karten, and Paul Maharg. ‘E-Simulations in the Wild: Interdisciplinary Research, Design and Implementation.’ In Games and Simulations in Online Learning: Research and Development Frameworks, edited by Clark Aldrich, David Gibson, and Marc Prensky. Information Science Publishing, 2006. Bruner, S. Jerome. The Culture of Education. USA: Harvard University Press, 1997. Duncan, Ishbel, Alan Miller, and Shangyi Jiang. ‘A Taxonomy of Virtual Worlds Usage in Education.’ British Journal of Educational Technology 43 (2012): 949– 964. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01263.x

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__________________________________________________________________ Green, J. Anita. ‘Experiential Learning and Teaching: A Critical Evaluation of an Enquiry which Used Phenomenological Method.’ Nurse Education Today 15.6 (1995): 420-426. Forehand, Mary. ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy: Original and Revised.’ In Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology, edited by Michael Orey, 2005. Viewed 20 September 2012. http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt. Kahn, Peter and Karen O’Rourke. ‘Understanding Enquiry-Based Learning.’ Handbook of Enquiry and Problem Based Learning, edited by Terry Barrett, Iain Mac Labhrainn and Helen Fallon. Galway: CELT, 2005. http://www.aishe.org/readings/2005-2/chapter1.pdf. Kolb, A. David. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984. Levy, Philippa. ‘I Feel Like a Grown Up Person: First Year Undergraduates’ Experiences of Inquiry and Research.’ Paper presented at CILASS Research Seminar, 2008. The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Model, 2011. Accessed 20 September 2012. Accessed 20 September 2012. http://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/coremodel.pdf. White, David. ‘From Swords to Hairstyles: Bridging the Divide between Massively Multiplayer Game Design and Second Life.’ 15th International Conference of the Association for Learning Technology, 2008. Accessed 9 September 2012. http://openhabitat.org/res/swords-hairstyles-bridging-divide-between-massivelymultiplayer-game-design-and-second-life. Ridvan Ata is a PhD Candidate at School of Education, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. Recent interests have involved teaching strategies/approaches in virtual worlds in the form of blending context.

Breaking down Silos: Exploring the Effects of Graduate CrossProgramme Collaborations within a 3D Immersive World Barbara B. Howard, John H. Tashner and Robert L. Sanders Abstract Institutions of higher education frequently experiment with ways to deliver online graduate studies to working adult mid-career students. Many institutions have adopted a passive framework of distance education by using course management systems that model more traditional pedagogy with little interaction between and among students and faculty. Students in this type of programme engage individually with the content to complete assignments within an isolated learning environment. Increased specialization often leads to specific language, jargon, and discipline-specific experiences that cluster students within programmatic walls tending to isolate them. Communication between groups is generally discouraged, and substantive teamwork is diminished or non-existent. Faculty members at our university have been experimenting with the use of 3D immersive worlds to provide learning experiences for graduate students in the field of K-12 educational leadership. These virtual worlds enable students and faculty to work in collaborative, multi-user learning environments in which students (via their avatars) have senses of being somewhere else with someone else, thus maximizing the level of interactions among instructors and students leading to construction of knowledge. Our faculty has explored ways to create powerful learning experiences though various collaborative hands-on activities and projects. This chapter describes a project that expands the use of a 3D immersive world (AETZone/OpenQwaq) beyond the boundaries of a single graduate programme. Faculty capitalized on the collaborative nature of our virtual environment by assigning students preparing to become school administrators, instructional technologists, and curriculum specialists to work together on tasks in crossprogramme groups composed of three to four members. These tasks included explorations of institutional change, discussions, interviews, simulations, and other activities concerning school leadership, technology, curriculum, and policy. The reports and reflections of individuals and groups on the resulting experience provide insight into the immediate impact on students. Key Words: Collaborative learning, virtual world, online programmes, higher education pedagogy, transformative learning. ***** 1. Preparing Educational Leaders to Meet Current Demands Graduate programmes in educational leadership must strive to prepare school leaders to address challenges faced in 21st century schools. 1 To do this effectively,

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__________________________________________________________________ departments of educational leadership must recognize the interdependency of fields of study that may have been more discrete in the past. 2 This calls for faculty and students to move beyond their comfort zones afforded by traditional cohorts of like-minded individuals taught only by those steeped in the literature and paradigms of one particular area. 3 Yet, as good as this sounds theoretically, this often presents a challenge to graduate school faculties. Prior to transforming students’ perspectives, faculty must be prepared to adjust themselves by dismantling traditional silos found in most institutes of higher education. By becoming cross-curricular collaborators themselves, faculty begin to model practices of collaboration and problem-solving with the expectations that the learning outcomes of classes transfer to the real-life school situations students will face as future school leaders. 2. Context of the 3D Immersive World With the growing need of adult learners to fit jobs and families into the demands of graduate studies, higher education has established a trend of offering distance education and online courses with greater flexibility, lower cost, and overall convenience. Many universities have chosen the path offered by online course management platforms such as Moodle for these reasons. Even with the addition of Wimba and other synchronous web-conferencing tools, the online environment results in the majority of interactions occurring between the instructor and students. Student-to-student engagement in deep discussions or exchange of ideas outside class is rare. The 3D immersive virtual world (AETZone/OpenQwaq) utilized for this project offers the opportunity for students to interact independently instructors by allowing groups to meet online apart from the constraints of a structured class or lecture. Students may pursue investigation into concepts and theories presented through the coursework on their own time as part of their “citizenship” in a virtual world. AETZone/OpenQwaq allows students from wide geographical regions to meet synchronously online at their convenience. Much like traditional campuses with student centers, this level of interaction encourages exchanges of ideas not only across disciplines but across regions and districts as well. 3. Theoretical Framework The theory of transformative learning informed a major plank of the theoretical framework. 4 Engaging in new situations calls for the development of new paradigms based on interactions with others thus providing the opportunity to expand learning by recognizing the limitations of one’s own ethnocentric positions. 5 Ethnocentrism, as defined by Mezirow, is the ‘predisposition to regard others outside one’s own group as inferior.’ 6 If ethnocentrism exists unopposed among various leadership roles within schools, the ability of those roles to work together for the benefit of the school may be dimenished.

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__________________________________________________________________ The same is true of faculty members who attempt to begin collaborative efforts in teaching. Each faculty member, steeped in the literature and research of a specific field, tends to approach new teaching situations with a level of ethnocentrism, which may hamper collaboration if not acknowledged and tempered. This project offered a way to challenge two frames of reference that graduate students may develop: that from working within a field of study, and another 'inherited' from the faculty member teaching a course. Challenging existing paradigms often leads to diminished ethnocentrism resulting in an increase in empathy and ability to work with others. 7 A second major plank of the theoretical framework involved social constructivism. Social constructivism is the idea that students interact with others to construct new knowledge based on prior relevant experiences. 8 Therefore, students must have the opportunity to interact with others in meaningful ways that encourage not only the sharing of relevant ideas from different perspectives but the actual piecing together of new meaning resulting from these contributions. When students are provided information in didactic ways with the expectation they will absorb rather than internalize new ideas, the ideas will not become their own nor will they shape these ideas to make sense of them. 9 In the online environment, the challenge is to set aside all those human characteristics related to non-verbal cues such as body language and facial expression to convey deeper meaning to words and ideas. Grounded in the theory of social constructivism is the idea of presence pedagogy, an approach characterized by the use of online learning environments to encourage a wider community of collaborative learning than might otherwise be found in traditional classrooms. 10 When engaged in presence pedagogy, communities of learning expand beyond the confines of traditional classes to involve anyone present within the virtual world. They are not limited either by physical walls or technology to the interaction of their classmates or specific instructors. 4. Description of the Project The focus of this particular project was change leadership. Students were asked to investigate theories and practices of leadership related to the drive for change in twenty-first century schools and education in general. The scope of this particular project was possible due to the accessibility of AETZone/OpenQwaq. This project capitalized on the capabilities of this virtual world to bring students from three areas of graduate studies to engage in a collaborative project around leadership and change. Students from wide geographical locations had greater access to each other and resources than might have been possible with either traditional face-to-face or more restrictive online environments. They were able to use voice and text chat within sound regions to explore websites and library resources to create documents, videos, websites, and other original works.

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__________________________________________________________________ It is critical that students with different course requirements and different instructors receive the same instructions when engaging in this level of collaboration. All students were assigned to read two books as a foundation for group discussions. 11 They were required to participate in several online simulations and guest speaker sessions designed to help them think deeply about the state of schools and how they can be changed to provide the kind of students our world demands. Students were expected to meet with their teammates synchronously at least once a week for a discussion concerning the books, speakers, and their own experiences, which led to the development of the group projects. A closed Facebook page offered students and instructors across ta venue for sharing resources, ideas, and reflections of group work. 12 The universality of Facebook ensured that this platform would be familiar enough not to require a significant learning curve among students. By including the structure of a closed Facebook to encourage dialogue among all students, the intent was to capitalize on yet another form of communication beyond classes and small groups. 13 Feedback from students on the usefulness of Facebook was included in the design of the study. Student groups shared plans for changing a school during the final week of the semester by posting their work online similar to conference poster sessions within a dedicated forum of AETZone/OpenQwaq. During this week, students were invited to view all the other projects and leave feedback. Many met online and discussed the attributes of each project with instructors and other students. Along with the structure and design of the project, reflective practice is essential in the development of transformative learning and social construction. 14 Therefore, to encourage student reflection, students were given two opportunities at mid-semester and end of semester to reflect individually on the process as well as the content of the learning experiences gained through this project. 5. Methodology of the Study The participants (n = 58) in this study represented a convenience sample of graduate students from three areas of graduate study: Instructional Technology; School Administration; and Curriculum and Instruction. All students were enrolled in graduate courses in Instructional Technology or School Administration as part of the requirements for their degree or license. Open-ended reflection papers generated by students at two points of the semester offered the possibility of insight into changes in perception. The multistage coding of student reflections teased out predominant themes that seemed to cut across both area of study and time in the course. 15 The themes appeared consistent when data gleaned from the mid-term reflections aligned with that from the final or culminating reflection at the end of the semester. At the conclusion of the semester, students were asked to complete a forced-choice survey. The response rate to the survey was 47% (n = 27).

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__________________________________________________________________ 6. Findings and Discussion Analysis of the individual reflections led to the discovery of two major themes that seemed to emerge throughout student input: the benefit of collaboration and the changes in perspectives that occurred as a result of the collaboration. The following is a representative student quote expressing this benefit: Having the ability to meet and converse with other professionals outside of my own cohort has been exciting. Each individual has different backgrounds and brings different strengths and weakness as well as different vantage points to each conversation. It has been very beneficial for me to hear others who may not be in the same position as I am, and hear them speak on topics through a different lens. As with anyone, it’s always easier to see our side of the “story” but listening to other “sides” has been enlightening and brought a lot to the table for me. Along with this benefit came the difficulty in arranging meeting times for the groups, given the busy schedules of part-time adult graduate students. While most groups attempted to hold meetings online synchronously, the use of asynchronous communications circumvented busy schedules. Some groups resorted to using a variety of other Web 2.0 tools. The recognition of time as a barrier and persistence by students to circumvent it indicated the high value placed on the process. The following is a typical response to this challenge: Most of my group’s discussions about the readings were done via Google chat or Google docs. This was primarily due to the fact that we could not coordinate our schedules to be online at the same time. Two of the three of us have small children and work crazy schedules for work. This prevented us from having long discussions even when we did meet in the virtual classroom. Students began to realize that their own lenses could be reshaped through interactions with others. Not only did students represent different areas of study but different roles within schools. The following student expressed a typical change in perspective that was due as much to the life experiences of her group mates as to their choice for future leadership roles: Working with my discussion group has been an incredibly positive experience. I’ve learned about the challenges of innovation at all levels in the school system, which was rather eye opening. It was very difficult for us to find a project in which

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__________________________________________________________________ all four of us could participate in a meaningful way. I also learned more about leadership skills and collaboration, mostly through modeling from my group mates. Through the discussions generated by class experiences, readings, guest speakers, and small group discussions, students expressed changes not only to their thinking concerning large-scale change and global issues but in their current work as well. The following represents a sample quote: I must say that I started this project with an internal negative attitude. I am a creature of habit and structure and wanted certain guidelines. From not having certain guidelines and limitations, came an idea that I really believe in. I am ending this assignment with an internal positive attitude. Despite the group discordance, the extra meeting times, and a lot of reading, I learned a lot. It was all worth it! Perceptions of the overall value of participation in the project tended to reflect positive experiences. The majority of survey respondents (77%) found the overall experience to be significant to their understanding of change leadership while 81% found it relevant to their role as a future school leader. The majority (89%) reported that participation in this type of project is valuable to students enrolled in educational leadership studies. The least favorable aspect seemed to be the inclusion of Facebook in the project. Only 52% found it useful while 20% found it useless. Students reported feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of postings by a minority of participants, which basically discouraged a wider range of participants. Over 90% of the respondents reported finding participation in their small group as being useful. When asked to rate their overall experiences in the project, 81% reported that participation in the cross-programme collaborative project was a significant factor in their personal growth as an educator. 7. Conclusion This project represented a process of growth for faculty members as well as students in the art of collaboration among members of various fields. Faculty had to seek to understand each other’s areas of study and examine how these areas might blend or complement each other. Students had to listen to each other and respect different roles. AETZone/OpenQwaq offered the desired platform to bring our students together from wide geographical areas to exchange ideas and create solutions from a variety of perspectives in social interactions. Such interactions are the key to the success of this project. Of course, the true impact of our projects will be

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__________________________________________________________________ determined by the work our students do in their schools once they have assumed the leadership roles for which we are preparing them. Notes 1

Tony Bush, ‘Leadership Development and School Improvement: Contemporary Issues in Leadership Development,’ Educational Review 61, no. 4 (2009): 375-89. Simon Clarke and Helen Wildy ‘Preparing for Principalship from the Crucible of Experience: Reflecting on Theory, Practice and Research,’ Journal of Educational Administration & History 42, no. 1 (2010): 1-16; Mike Cowie and Megan Crawford, ‘Principal Preparation: Still an Act of Faith?’ School Leadership & Management 27, no. 2 (2007): 129-46. 2 Elizabeth Langran, ‘Technology Resource Teachers as School Leaders,’ Journal of Technology Integration in the Classroom 2, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 163-79; David Litz, ‘Globalization and the Changing Face of Educational Leadership: Current Trends and Emerging Dilemmas,’ International Education Studies 4, no. 3 (2011): 47-61. 3 Jennifer Mast, Jay Scribner, and Karen Sanzo. ‘Authentic Planning for Leadership Preparation and Development,’ Educational Planning 20, no. 2 (2011):31-42. 4 Sharan B. Merriam, ‘The Role of Cognitive Development in Mezirow’s Transformational Learning Theory,’ Adult Education Quarterly 55, no. 1 (2004): 60-68; Jack Mezirow, ‘Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice,’ New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education 74 (Summer, 1997): 5. 5 Johnson, ‘Mental Models and Transformative Learning’; Sandra Kerka, ‘Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of Adults,’ Journal of Continuing Higher Education 54, no. 3 (Fall, 2006): 55-56. 6 Mezirow, ‘Transformative Learning’. 7 Ibid. 8 Emily Fox and Michelle Riconscente, ‘Metacognition and Self-Regulation in James, Piaget, and Vygotsky,’ Educational Psychology Review 20, no. 4 (2008): 373-89. 9 Katherine C. Powell and Cody J. Kalina, ‘Cognitive and Social Constructivism: Developing Tools for an Effective Classroom,’ Education 130, no. 2 (Winter, 2009): 241-50. 10 Stephen Bronack, Robert Sanders, Amy Cheney, Richard Riedl, John Tashner, and Nita Matzen, ‘Presence Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Immersive World,’ International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education 20, no. 1 (2008): 59-69. 11 The books selected were Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century (New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) and Tony Wagoner, Creating Innovators (New York: Scribner, 2012).

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__________________________________________________________________ 12

Laura Malita, ‘Can We Use Facebook Like a Teaching and Learning Tool?’ Journal Plus Education / Educatia Plus 7, no. 1 (2011): 101-09. 13 Patient Rambe, ‘Constructive Disruptions for Effective Collaborative Learning: Navigating the Affordances of Social Media for Meaningful Engagement.’ 14 Beau Basel Beaudoin, ‘Creating Community: From Individual Reflection to Transformation,’ International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning 6, no. 1 (2012): 1-10; Edward W. Taylor, ‘Transformative Learning Theory,’ New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, no. 119 (Fall, 2008): 5-15. 15 Johnny Saldaña, The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009).

Bibliography Beaudoin, Beau Basel. ‘Creating Community: From Individual Reflection to Transformation.’ International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning 6, no. 1 (2012): 1-10. Bronack, Stephen, Robert Sanders, Amelia Cheney, Richard Riedl, John Tashner, and Nita Matzen. ‘Presence Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Immersive World.’ International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education 20, no. 1 (2008): 59-69. Bush, Tony. ‘Leadership Development and School Improvement: Contemporary Issues in Leadership Development.’ Educational Review 61, no. 4 (2009): 375-89. Clarke, Simon, and Helen Wildy. ‘Preparing for Principalship from the Crucible of Experience: Reflecting on Theory, Practice and Research.’ Journal of Educational Administration & History 42, no. 1 (2010): 1-16. Cowie, Mike, and Megan Crawford. ‘Principal Preparation: Still an Act of Faith?’ School Leadership & Management 27, no. 2 (2007): 129-46. Eacott, Scott. ‘Leadership Strategies: Re-Conceptualising Strategy for Educational Leadership.’ School Leadership & Management 31, no. 1 (2011): 35-46. Fox, Emily, and Michelle Riconscente. ‘Metacognition and Self-Regulation in James, Piaget, and Vygotsky.’ Educational Psychology Review 20, no. 4 (2008): 373-89.

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__________________________________________________________________ Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Johnson, Homer H. ‘Mental Models and Transformative Learning: The Key to Leadership Development?’ Human Resource Development Quarterly 19, no. 1 (2008): 85-89. Kerka, Sandra. ‘Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of Adults.’ Journal of Continuing Higher Education 54, no. 3 (Fall, 2006): 55-56. Langran, Elizabeth. ‘Technology Resource Teachers as School Leaders.’ Journal of Technology Integration in the Classroom 2, no. 2 (Summer, 2010): 163-79. Litz, David. ‘Globalization and the Changing Face of Educational Leadership: Current Trends and Emerging Dilemmas.’ International Education Studies 4, no. 3 (2011): 47-61. Malita, Laura. ‘Can We Use Facebook Like a Teaching and Learning Tool?’ Journal Plus Education / Educatia Plus 7, no. 1 (2011): 101-09. Mast, Jennifer, Jay Scribner, and Karen Sanzo. ‘Authentic Planning for Leadership Preparation and Development.’ Educational Planning 20, no. 2 (2011): 31-42. Merriam, Sharan B. ‘The Role of Cognitive Development in Mezirow’s Transformational Learning Theory.’ Adult Education Quarterly 55, no. 1 (2004): 60-68. Mezirow, Jack. ‘Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice.’ New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education 74 (Summer, 1997): 5. Perez, Lynne G., Cynthia L. Uline, Joseph F. Johnson, Cheryl James-Ward, and Margaret R. Basom. ‘Foregrounding Fieldwork in Leadership Preparation: The Transformative Capacity of Authentic Inquiry.’ Educational Administration Quarterly 47, no. 1 (2011): 217-57. Powell, Katherine C., and Cody J. Kalina. ‘Cognitive and Social Constructivism: Developing Tools for an Effective Classroom.’ Education 130, no. 2 (Winter, 2009): 241-50.

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__________________________________________________________________ Rambe, Patient. ‘Constructive Disruptions for Effective Collaborative Learning: Navigating the Affordances of Social Media for Meaningful Engagement.’ Electronic Journal of e-Learning 10, no. 1 (2012): 132-46. Saldaña, Johnny. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009). Taylor, Edward W. ‘Transformative Learning Theory.’ New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education 119 (Fall, 2008): 5-15. Wagoner, Tony. Creating Innovators . New York: Scribner, 2012. Barbara B. Howard is an assistant professor of School Administration, Appalachian State Univeristy, Boone, North Carolina USA. Her major research areas include use of technology in classrooms, classroom assessment practices, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Her email is [email protected] John H. Tashner is a professor of Instructional Technology in the Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina USA. His major research interests include the study of change leadership in the twenty-first century and school reform. His email address is [email protected] Robert L. Sanders is the chair of the Department of Leadership and Educational Studies in the Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina USA. His major research areas include use of virtual worlds in higher education and presence pedagogy.

Using Second Life to Train Counsellors: Is Transformative Learning Possible in this Novel Environment? Tom Edwards Abstract During 2011-2012 Tabor Victoria, funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching, conducted a unique project designed to develop and evaluate a transformative learning curriculum for student counsellors and adapt this to a virtual world environment. Narrative therapy tools were also embedded within the curriculum to enhance the degree of transformation. Preliminary results were reported at the 2nd Global Conference in 2012. Although final data collection will not occur until November 2012 it is suggested that: (1) although most students were mature age they approached virtual world learning with curiosity, not fear; (2) technical issues often related to student internet connections and hardware suggesting significant implications for institutional policy when seeking to utilise virtual world environments; (3) the experience of the teacher is radically altered in a virtual world environment, being neither instructor nor facilitator but more closely resembling a participant; (4) complex face-to-face exercises designed to elicit transformative learning could be adequately adapted to a virtual world environment; but (5) the transformative potential of the exercises may be enhanced, or confounded, by the usability of the technology. Further, adaptive transformation appears dependant on the ability of a student to regulate their arousal level when presented with a disorientating dilemma. To investigate this, the project team is developing a bio-feedback system appropriate for use with Second Life. In this way we hope to provide both consistent and positive transformative experiences observed by students taking on more adaptive and nuanced methods of problem solving. In sum, virtual world learning has provided challenges when adapted for counsellor education but represents a unique way forward where complex professional problems can be work-shopped in a safe environment, and new meanings made through a transformative learning experience, prior to students confronting such dilemmas in professional practice. Key Words: Second Life, transformative learning, counsellor education, arousal, bio-feedback. ***** 1. Introduction The current chapter has come out of a desire to teach student counsellors in a richer way so that when they graduate they will be able to engage complex client needs with depth and empathy, if not wisdom. Within the BA degree Counsellor Self-Care represents an important part of the curriculum both in the strategies

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__________________________________________________________________ taught but also in the self-awareness students gain. As such this represents an ideal place within the curriculum to introduce a Transformative Learning (TL) pedagogy designed to promote nuanced thinking brought about through self-reflection and new meaning making. This was first trialled in a face-to-face class in 2011 and found to be successful. 1 In 2012, the Counsellor Self-Care curriculum, and TL pedagogy, was adapted to a virtual world (VW) format whereby students were taught in Second Life (SL). First articulated by Mezirow in the 1970’s TL has, at its core, the construction of new and more adaptive meanings. 2 Specifically, what is aimed at are the transformation of attitudes, values and/or beliefs rather than the accumulation or systematisation of knowledge. 3 As such TL is distinct from common pedagogies which focus on the intellectual aspects of learning, instead making use of provocative experiences and processing the rich personal material that comes forth. 4 Given that TL was discussed in detail at the 2nd Global Conference on Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds in 2012 and elsewhere, it will not be discussed in detail here. Yet, in brief, the process of TL begins when a person experiences some event which has the characteristics of a disorientating dilemma. When standard methods of problem solving the dilemma are found to be insufficient a narrow frame-of-reference is thus identified and problematised. 5 Through critical reflection transformation occurs whereby new, more adaptive, frames-of-references begin to form. 6,7 This is typically experienced as ‘more inclusive, discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change and reflective…’ 8 ways of being. Within TL critical reflection is key. Two components are recognised as necessary for critical reflection. The first is a rational, cognitive process of questioning and exploration. The second is more subtle, but possibly more profound, where unconscious forces interact with conscious emotions. It is this interplay of the cognitive and the affective that creates a rich awareness of self and self-in-world. 9 As such, one can see clearly their present situation and now express a variety of more nuanced solutions than would not have previously been possible. 10,11 Taken together, TL represents an important pedagogy for the training of health professionals generally and counsellors in particular. 2. Methods Participants were healthy adult male and female volunteers studying for a BA in counselling. They were mature entry students (typically aged between 40-49) who had completed approximately two thirds of their degree. Using the Groningen Reflection Ability Scale (GRAS) all volunteers demonstrated above average reflective ability.

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__________________________________________________________________ Recruitment and data collection were conducted by an independent research assistant. Counsellor Self-Care represents a ‘half unit’ and was taught by an experienced counsellor through the medium of SL. Six topics areas were covered: (1) managing conflict; (2) burn-out; (3) failure; (4) self-renewal; (5) the counsellor in-body; and (6) the therapeutic relationship. For each topic an activity was designed which had both a disorientating dilemma and opportunities for individual and group critical reflection in accordance with TL principles. Data collection was by semi-structured interviews, including the teacher, at the completion of the unit of study. A thematic analysis was performed by the project’s Principal Investigator. 3. Results and Discussion To begin with, attitudes pursuant to the use of SL varied from ‘…face-to-face is limited [by being] in the body…’ by utilising an avatar there now becomes ‘…an element of fun, and new discovery…’ to ‘Everything is done better face-to-face. …I am not a big believer in on-line learning.’ As to why some students were resistant to using SL one commented ‘…face-to-face… that was something that I knew…’ while others commented ‘…I leant more information on more topics…in the face-to-face [class]…’. As such, SL challenged students as to their preconceptions of what a classroom and learning activity should look like. Therefore teachers would do well to spend time with students before embarking on VW learning to both brief them on what to expect and gain their buy-in to the experience. In addition, IT limitations were also identified as an important issue for students. For convenience this may be divided into technology and usability. In particular, group discussions using voice communication were problematic. For example, ‘Sometimes I could speak and sometimes I could hear but it seemed to just come and go randomly.’ As for the avatars students noted that they took time to materialise and were often difficult to use. Astutely, one student commented ‘…with Second Life there was a lot more of me having to make myself be able to function in that classroom…’ while another student commented ‘…you would have to be really quite invested...’ when referring to the time taken to gain proficiency in using SL. At an institutional level this presents a number of important challenges including those of cost, workloads and equity of access for all students. Although added costs and workloads most obviously pertain to the provision of additional IT support and training for both students and teachers equity of access is a surprisingly complex problem. When discussing equity of access, VWs may increase access to quality educational experiences for those at distance to the institution or for those with a physical handicap who now work through an avatar. Yet, for other students equity of access may be impaired through the increased cost

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__________________________________________________________________ of hardware up-grades and new ISP contracts. More importantly, equity of access is fundamentally impaired if the technology hinders full participation of the student in the learning experience. In the current context this may be suggested by comments about the time taken in training to reach proficiency. This becomes even more problematic if students then divert time otherwise devoted to concurrent units of study. Such questions must be faced by institutions and individual teachers alike before the adoption of VW learning. A more novel finding within the context of the current project was how the class culture shifted when in a VW learning environment. The teacher commented on their changed role suggesting a greater degree of comradery between students and teacher. For example, ‘…we felt like we connected together as a group more.’ From the perspective of the students several aspects are worth reporting. For example, classes in ‘Second Life was a lot more relaxed and less formal…’ Further, a shifting power dynamic was also observed whereby ‘The control of the class is not up to the lecturer.’ so much so that one or more students were known to opt-out of activities leaving behind apparently attentive avatars. Although theorists of adult education promote the autonomy of students and the role of teachers as facilitators one wonders if this was unexpectedly taken too far in this instance? For example, unbeknown to the teacher a duty-of-care issue arose when one student felt strong negative emotion but ‘…I didn’t let anyone know, I know I could have…’. Therefore it is suggested that prior to entering into VW learning students and their teacher develop a contract of rights and responsibilities. In this way the teacher may be better able to facilitate the learning experience and up-hold duty-ofcare. Moreover, this may also have significant benefits for students as they may now feel better held in this novel learning environment. In addition, and where class sizes are small, it would also be of benefit for the teacher to make regular times to check in with individual students to measure their progress and discuss any problems they may have. The final theme to be discussed revolves around TL and whether it can be adequately undertaken in a VW environment. To begin with, some activities did translate well from face-to-face modes of delivery to SL and were perhaps even optimised in SL given the immersive nature of the experience and other aspects of the technology. For example, nearly all students commented on the graveyard exercise. In this experience they entered a graveyard created on the Tabor SL island and were asked to explore it and then to write their epitaph as it may read if they died tomorrow or, having led a full life, at 101 years of age. The intent of this exercise was to both provoke somatic cues and to have students explore their core values. Although epitaphs can be thought about and written in a face-to-face class the uniqueness of this immersive activity was exemplified by comments such as ‘But I couldn’t have gone there easily in my own imagination. …I don’t think I could’ve had that [experience] out of Second Life. That was interesting.’, or from another student ‘I couldn’t have possibly envisaged that in a class face-to-face…’.

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__________________________________________________________________ Another exercise which was optimised through the use of SL was that of being one’s own outsider witness. In this activity students were in a virtual classroom and watched a video of their teacher discussing a time of professional failure. While doing so they used their webcams to video their reactions. Each student then played both videos in parallel as a type of outsider witness. Not that this exercise was immersive in the same way as the graveyard activity but it used both the technology and a key narrative therapy tool in a unique way. Students typically remarked ‘Actually I really liked the one where you could see yourself that was really great. I think that was something you could do more of…’. As to whether these, and other activities, met key aspects of TL it was generally agreed that SL could provoke a wide variety of potent disorientating dilemmas as ‘…everything was more heightened and there were more challenges…’. Nevertheless, while disorientating dilemmas provoke transformation the process of transformation occurs as a consequence of critical reflection. While critical reflection may be done individually, group reflection is as important - if not more so. Interestingly, when discussing times of individual critical reflection within SL water was often mentioned. Be it walking underwater, being at a lake etc. The benefit of water at such times is suggested when one student commented ‘…I went under the water. It just seemed really quiet and peaceful… I find water really calming.’ However, individual critical reflection was also done in other ways and outside of SL with one student remarking ‘In the breaks you would stop and think and journal…’. In contrast, group reflection was difficult in SL. In general terms it was noted that in a face-to-face class there is a ‘…presence…’ and that this could not be mediated by the avatars. Group reflection within SL was also encumbered by poor voice communication and avatars which could not adequately mimic the physical cues of human communication, let alone in real time. For example, ‘…when more than one person spoke it was a blur.’ Nevertheless students turned to text communication with one commenting ‘You do one line answers…’ but in doing so ‘…probably gave a lot more thought to what you said.’ As such, although not as rich as what voice communication could be it had surprising benefits. Moreover, a couple of students used their ingenuity to overcome communication problems in SL by turning to Skype. The value of mixed mode learning was discussed by a number of students. As to the transformative potential of working within SL this was difficult to evaluate given that transformation may take weeks, months or even years. Nevertheless there exists some evidence for prototypic transformation for both the outsider witness activity and the graveyard activity. However clearer statements of transformation included ‘I became more creative…’ and from another student ‘…I don’t need to put things under the carpet anymore, but let them be explored and see where they take you.’ Yet these related not so much to set activities as richly

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__________________________________________________________________ engaging in the SL experience. To this end the notion of ‘discovery learning’ became an important finding of the project. In the context of this project discovery learning referred to unexpected happenings within set activities as much as incidental learnings had as a result of exploring the Tabor SL island and SL more generally. Moreover, this experience of discovery was closely linked to the use of avatars. In particular, it was the metacarnate nature of the avatars which made them so appealing. By this it is meant that although each avatar had form and mass they were able to walk underwater, fly and, as one student put it, be ‘…resurrected…’. Although the exact relationship between a student’s control of their avatar and their experience of discovery is yet to be fully understood it appears to parallel TL in so much as new meanings were made as a result. However, unlike a single disorientating dilemma within TL leading to a transformation of attitudes, values and/or beliefs here many small discoveries permitted a vibrancy of thought. Taken together, SL provides a unique environment where potent disorientating dilemmas can be created and transformation occur. However, those who wish to use TL must find other ways to facilitate group critical reflection. Finally, a consistent finding across the two years of the project, both in face-toface and SL classes is the need to monitor student arousal during disorientating dilemmas. One student exemplified the problem of strong arousal and its inability to bring about adaptive transformation when they said ‘Frustration, it block my thinking, it gives me a bad attitude…’. To prevent strong arousal from disrupting transformation, and consistent with the objectives of Counsellor Self-Care, we are currently prototyping a biofeedback system for use with SL. Using galvanic skin response and an unobtrusive colour-based ordinal scale at the side of the computer screen users will be able to monitor and manage their stress levels while in SL. In doing so we hope to further enhance the transformative potential of the activities undertaken. Taken together, SL provides a unique platform in which Counsellor Self-Care can be taught in new and exciting ways. However, while a TL pedagogy may be consistent with the aims of the unit to develop more nuanced practitioners through increased self-insight only aspects of this pedagogy are optimised in SL. To this end, future developments within SL will seek to concentrate on the disorientating dilemmas while utilising other technologies, such as Skype, to facilitate group critical reflection.

Notes 1

Tom Edwards, ‘Transformative Learning Theory as a Framework for Designing Experiences in Virtual Worlds as Appropriate to Counsellor Education’, Viewed 18 January 2013,

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__________________________________________________________________ http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/TEdwards-wpaper.pdf. 2 Jack Martin, ‘Self-Regulated Learning, Social Cognitive Theory, and Agency’, Educational Psychologist 39, no. 2 (2004): 136. 3 Jack Mezirow, ‘Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice’, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 47, no. 2 (1997): 9. 4 Valerie Grabove, ‘The Many Facets of Transformative Learning Theory and Practice’, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 74 (1997): 90. 5 Jack Mezirow, ‘A Critical Theory of Adult Learning and Education’, Adult Education Quarterly 32 (1981): 3-24. 6 Joyce A. Mercer, ‘Transformational Adult Learning in Congregations’, The Journal of Adult Theological Education 3, no. 2 (2006): 163-178. 7 Jack Mezirow, Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning (USA: Jossey-Bass, 1991), 3-24. 8 Leona M. English and Marie A. Gillen, ‘A Postmodern Approach to Adult Religious Education’, in Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education, eds. Arthur L. Wilson and Elizabeth R. Hayes (USA: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 523-538. 9 John M. Dirkx, ‘Images, Transformative Learning and the Work of the Soul’, Adult Learning 12, no. 3 (2001): 15-16. 10 Grabove, ‘Many Facets’, 90-95. 11 Jack Mezirow, ‘Transformative Learning as Discourse’, Journal of Transformative Education 1, no. 1 (2003): 61.

Bibliography Dirkx, John M. ‘Images, Transformative Learning and the Work of the Soul’. Adult Learning 12, no. 3 (2001): 15-16. Edwards, Tom. Transformative Learning Theory as a Framework for Designing Experiences in Virtual Worlds as Appropriate to Counsellor Education. Accessed January 18, 2013. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/TEdwards-wpaper.pdf. English, Leona M. and Marie A. Gillen. ‘A Postmodern Approach to Adult Religious Education’. In Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education, edited by Arthur L. Wilson and Elizabeth R. Hayes, 523-538. USA: Jossey-Bass, 2000. Grabove, Valerie. ‘The Many Facets of Transformative Learning Theory and Practice’. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 74 (1997): 90.

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__________________________________________________________________ Martin, Jack. ‘Self-Regulated Learning, Social Cognitive Theory, and Agency’. Educational Psychologist 39, no. 2 (2004): 136. Mercer, Joyce A. ‘Transformational Adult Learning in Congregations’. The Journal of Adult Theological Education 3, no. 2 (2006): 163-178. Mezirow, Jack. ‘A Critical Theory of Adult Learning and Education’. Adult Education Quarterly 32 (1981): 3-24. Mezirow, Jack. Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. USA: Jossey-Bass, 1991. Mezirow, Jack. ‘Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice’. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 47, no. 2 (1997): 9. Mezirow, Jack. ‘Transformative Learning Transformative Education 1, no. 1 (2003): 61.

As

Discourse’,

Journal

of

Acknowledgements: Mr Scott Morgan, Mr Michael Walker and members of the project team. Funding: Support for this publication/activity has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (grant: PP10-1786). The views expressed in this publication/activity do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. Tom Edwards is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Tabor Victoria ([email protected]) and also holds an adjunct position at Monash University. He is also a professional counsellor. His interests are around personal transformation.

Section IV:

The Immersive Experience of Participants and Their Avatars

Guiding Social Research in MMORPGs from a Phenomenological Perspective Paul T. Scriven Abstract This chapter discusses the application of a phenomenological framework to inform research in immersive virtual worlds such as MMORPG’s. Based on the phenomenological sociology of Alfred Schutz, the chapter examines some of the key problems facing researchers in online spaces. Some virtual worlds such as those found in MMORPG’s are immersive spaces that facilitate experiences dissimilar to the physical world; consequently the ideas and meanings generated by these experiences need to be treated as somewhat unique in their nature. From the viewpoint of researcher-as-observer in physical space, a subject’s body acts as a field of expression, with their actions as indications of their motivations. In most online spaces, the physical body is absent and no longer available as a field of expression, and action in its traditional sense becomes difficult to define. Consequently, the availability of knowledge of the physical participant, as well as access to the contexts in which action takes place is often limited. In discussing these issues using the vocabulary of Schutz’s phenomenology, this chapter attempts to clarify some of these concepts to build a useful framework for conducting social research in MMORPG’s. The key points to be discussed are the adequacy of player characters as a field of expression; player characters interacting with virtual environments as observable action; and determining to what extent knowledge of the player character, rather than player, can contribute to establishing contexts of action. Ensuring an understanding of the ways in which virtual social worlds can be constituted as sites of distinctive experiences is important for all research methods, but is of great importance for more qualitative research methods such as ethnography and discourse analysis. Key Words: MMORPG, virtual worlds, phenomenology, Alfred Schutz, online research methods. ***** 1. Introduction Virtual worlds such as those found in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG’s, or MMO’s for short) such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, Star Wars: The Old Republic or Guild Wars, present something of a paradigm shift for social research methods. The phenomenological sociology of Alfred Schutz (1899-1959), while not at the forefront of contemporary sociological method may contain some important insights into the nature of virtual worlds in regards to the constitution of subjective experience, the typification of meaning

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__________________________________________________________________ from with the natural attitude, 1 and importantly, patterns of social exchange. This chapter presents some preliminary investigations into the potential application of Schutz’s phenomenology to virtual game worlds, with particular consideration given to the extremely popular World of Warcraft. I focus my attention primarily on the ‘giveness’ of the player’s avatar as a proxy for the corporeal player, for which I will use the term player character. I will first turn my attention to the phenomenological distinctions between offline and online spaces, which will facilitate a discussion of how the player character acts as a field of expression for the corporeal player. I will then discuss how the player character interacts with the virtual environment in ways that are socially meaningful, and how these considerations influence the overall context of meaning for players within the natural attitude. To conclude, I briefly discuss the application of these considerations as a guiding frame of reference for social research in applicable virtual spaces. 2. The Internet, MMO’s and Phenomenological Sociology MMO’s provide at this point in time the most ‘realistic,’ multi-faceted technologically mediated entertainment experience available to the general public, and their popularity is something not to be disregarded. For example, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has had at its peak over 12 million subscribers at any one time. 2 The field of academic research into not just MMO’s but of electronic games in general is also currently expanding, with the recent emergence of dedicated multidisciplinary journals such as Games and Culture, Game Studies and Eludamos. Research into virtual worlds such as those found in electronic games and MMO’s is arguably becoming more important, as the genre has often been associated with negative social issues. For example, following the infamous Columbine school shootings in 1999, research emerged soon after linking ‘violent’ video games aggressive and antisocial behaviour, 3 a theme which persists in current times. 4 Other research into MMO’s in particular has focused on areas of antisocial behaviour such as addiction. 5,6 Yet little attention has been paid to the ‘everyday’ experience of engaging with immersive virtual worlds, and the commonplace contexts of meaning and practice by players. As with many things, we seldom enquire about the nature of something until there is a perceived problem with it. The core of Alfred Schutz’s phenomenological project is outlined in his first major work Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (The Phenomenology of the Social World) published in German in 1932. In it Schutz adapted the phenomenological method of Edmund Husserl to offer a critique of Max Weber’s sociological theory of rational action. 7 In later works, published posthumously by his associate Thomas Luckmann, Schutz continued his project of understanding the life-world in greater detail. 89 Schutz’s phenomenology may be useful in helping us establish a greater understanding of the meaning-contexts of experiences by

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__________________________________________________________________ players in MMO’s, if some necessary modifications are made. First we need to briefly cover some of the relevant themes in Schutz’s work, and how these have been carried on in contemporary academia in regards to virtual worlds. In the umwelt of direct social experience we encounter our ‘consociates’ with which we share ‘a community of space and a community of time.’ 10 Schutz emphasised the importance of the We-relationship, embedded in our face-to-face experience with another person or persons as the core of all meaningful experience. 11 Within the We-relationship, the existence of the ‘Other’ is taken for granted. They are presented as a living object in our immediate experience that is conscious and not unlike our self in its constitution of meaning in what Schutz regards as the general thesis of the alter ego. 12 This realm of direct social experience is what Schutz calls the ‘realm’ or ‘world’ of consociates. 13 Within the We-relationship, people share experience through the ‘simultaneity’ of ‘streams of consciousness,’ meaning that parties to the experience grow older together. 14 The world of consociates sits in contrast to the world of contemporaries, or people with who we share a community of time but not a community of space, and who exist ‘in an objective context of meaning and only in such.’ 15 We interact with these people in indirect ways, and only in ways that are typical. On the face of it, there is little discussion in Schutz’s Phenomenology regarding how technology influences lived experience, or how relevant technologies may fit into Schutz’s stratifications of the life-world. In some of Schutz’s later works the authors briefly touch on the influence of technology on action, 16 as well as the ways in which the meaning-contexts of experience can ‘transcend’ immediate experience, 17 but there is not enough depth to be able to draw inferences concerning virtual worlds. In more recent times, sociologist Shanyang Zhao has considered the application of Schutz’s stratifications of the life-world to online spaces like forums and chatrooms, arguing that Internet presents the emergence of a new realm of ‘consociated contemporaries, where people interact face-to-device with each other in conditions of telecopresence.’ 18 Telecopresence is defined as a technologically mediated form of direct experience, requiring direct interaction with an object (such as a telephone) as opposed to direct sensory experience of another person’s voice. Importantly though, it fulfils a specific criterion of direct experience: by sharing a community of time in concert with an intersubjective (shared) experience, individuals can still grow older together. 19 While Zhao offers quite a comprehensive discussion of the conditions of telecopresence in places such as Internet chatrooms, his discussion has not yet been extended to account for MMO’s. One of the key distinctions between avatars in forums and chatrooms and immersive virtual worlds is the usually three-dimensional player character. 3. Player Characters in World of Warcraft Of upmost consideration for social research in virtual worlds is the level of adequacy of the player character as a ‘proxy’ for the corporeal player. The player

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__________________________________________________________________ character is the player’s virtual agent in the game world, allowing the player to ‘act’ within the game, albeit as an ‘imperfect intermediary.’ 20 The player is reliant on the player character to be able to act within the game world, and it also becomes how the player is identified within the game world. Within virtual worlds, the direct face-to-face We-relationship no longer exists, and is replaced by a telecopresent, mediate experience of the Other through player characters within the game world. This raises an important question: how are the visual manifestations of the player character in the game environment (i.e. movement, interaction with virtual objects and other player characters) ‘symptoms’ 21 of the intentions of a corporeal player? Even though the experience is heavily mediate, in that direct observation and interaction between player characters can offer no empirical ‘data’ of any qualities of the corporeal player, the player character’s expressive actions within the game environment are of high importance for social cooperation in the context of game activities. The human body, as a field of expression, carries with it facial cues, body language, distinguishing features, tics, alongside conscious expressive actions such as gestures and speech. All of these contribute to a rich intersubjective context of meaning in the situation of the face-to-face We-relationship, but also in the broader world of direct social experience. Within virtual worlds inhabited by player characters, however, players must rely on a relatively more limited set of visual symptoms expressible by the player character. More or less gone are unconscious body language, observable states of consciousness, facial cues, and so forth. In considering World of Warcraft, the range of expression available by player characters can be categorised as: 1) Active movement, such as walking, running, jumping or combat 2) Programmed emotive moment, such as dancing or blowing a kiss 3) Static movement, which is the programmed ‘idle’ movement for a player character not actively being controlled by a corporeal player 4) Textual communication, even though the player character does not appear to ‘visually’ talk Apart from static movement, all other available expressions by the player character necessarily require input from the controlling player. The player must decide where the player character should go, how the player character must interact with the environment in a way that meets the player’s goals, and where possible, how to communicate with others effectively via textual chat or emotive expression. With the visual removal of all unconscious behaviour on the part of the player character (i.e. body language, facial cues), the available field of expression by

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__________________________________________________________________ player characters is limited. However, it may be possible to claim that apart from idle static movement, the remaining observable actions on the part of the player character are indications of the subjective intentions of the corporeal player, although within a more modest set of available interpretable symptoms. It is the player who must necessarily make ‘rational’ decisions as to the actions of the player character in the virtual environment as part of a project in the future perfect tense. 22 Players are oriented towards their player character, whose motivated acts in the game world are in this sense observable through their player character. At the same time, these acts are principally relevant to the game environment as the player character can only ‘express’ that which is possible within game world. Observations of the actions of player characters in the game world allow other players to orient the actions of their own player characters meaningfully in situations that require cooperation or conflict, while using a much less comprehensive set of interpretable phenomena than is available in the physical world. 4. Meaningful Action The range of expressive actions as visually depicted by player characters in World of Warcraft are necessary for players to work together (or against each other) in the absence of direct face-to-face experience. Again, in respect to the highly mediate nature of the intersubjective experience between players through player characters, this highlights the importance of ideal-typical constructs in the absence of physical symptoms. The nature of typicality exists in the idealisations of ‘and-so-forth’ and ‘I-can-do-it-again,’ 23 in that my mastery of a situation before me, or my expectations of the behaviour of another, are generally predictable from within the natural attitude. Although ideal-typical constructs are of prominence in the life-world of contemporaries, the limited field of expression by player characters means that interpretation of observable behaviour in the game environment is also heavily reliant on ideal-typical knowledge. The situations upon which ideal-typical knowledge are brought to attention in order to engage with the game world appropriately with others find its context in that which the player character finds itself: virtual situations within the game environment. In other words, the relevant typifications for a virtual situation are contextually located in the game world, rather than the physical world. The interpretation of meaning in regards to the observable actions of other player characters, while perhaps based on ‘similar’ 24 types found in the physical world, are located within a distinct meaning-context. To give an extreme example, mortal combat in daily metropolitan life is not considered a ‘normal’ behaviour in any way. Yet in World of Warcraft, routinely engaging in battle with other players travelling through an area minding their own business is commonplace. What constitutes typical behaviour in World of Warcraft, and how these ideal types are constituted is an area that warrants further research but for which a full discussion

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__________________________________________________________________ is beyond the scope of this chapter. For now, we will need to consider the idea that the constitution of ideal types in World of Warcraft is heavily determined by the observable actions of player characters in the game environment, rather than the actions of players. In this regard, the subjective intentions of the player within the context of the game environment are translated into meaningful action on the part of the player character. 5. Contexts of Action As Schutz writes in regard to the everyday stock of knowledge of the lifeworld, ‘the structure of subjective experience of the life-world is… a fundamental element of the stock of knowledge.’ 25 He is here referring to the spatial, temporal and social aspects of experience that are ‘cogiven in every situation’s horizon.’ 26 Every subjective experience occurs in a given time, at a given place, in a given social context, be it with others or alone. In our preliminary discussion of the phenomenology of player characters, we have discussed some of the constitutive aspects of the player character in a virtual world. The subjective experience of controlling a player character in a virtual world, as well as interacting with Others in mediate telecopresence, contributes to a distinct collection of knowledge, which in turn contributes to the construction of a distinct set of typifications. Schutz, following Max Weber’s lead, positions the ideal type as central to the social sciences. 27 The telecopresent, heavily mediate experience between players in virtual worlds thus lends itself to a distinct set of typifications, which, in turn, influences the meaning-constitution of intersubjective experience. In a game server of potentially thousands of players, a suitable stock of knowledge of typical action and behaviour within the game’s context is paramount for players to navigate successfully through the virtual social world. This also makes it paramount for social researchers wishing to explore the relevant aspects of ideal-typical behaviour by players engaging in these games. From the foundation of understanding the phenomenological constitution of the player character in the virtual world, we are then able to focus our attention on other aspects of the game environment such as the social constitution of cooperation through ‘structural’ elements such as in-game guilds, parties and raids, as well as begin to understand the social norms (typifications) that dictate ‘good’ behaviour in these contexts. We could also start to examine the elements of social conflict within the game, for example the in-built factional warfare in World of Warcraft (Horde versus Alliance) but also how failure to fulfil typical behaviour leads to social tension within cooperative situations, and by this, potentially start to identify some of the key sources of frustration that could later manifest in other ways in the physical world. Again, this highlights an important question for another time: to what degree do ideas, actions and behaviours ‘bleed’ between online and offline spaces?

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__________________________________________________________________ 6. Conclusion My discussion here addressed the question of how and in what ways could Schutz’s phenomenological project help us begin to make sense of the kinds of social interactions taking place in a virtual world like World of Warcraft. I have argued that the kind of phenomenological enquiry introduced by Alfred Schutz, can, if appropriate revisions are made in the context of telecopresent, mediated experience, offer a firm foundation for social researchers to start to understand social interaction in virtual spaces like MMO’s. In considering the player character as a field of expression for the intentions of the remote corporeal player, we find that actions within MMO’s exist within a distinct context of the virtual environment in question, and that the experience itself contains certain elements that allow intersubjective experience to manifest. Such experience contributes to the overall stock of knowledge by an individual, which is paramount in the formation of objective typifications, which are used to both make sense of lived experience and to project future actions. This is a particularly important consideration in social research, as it allows the researcher to understand and appreciate the distinct contexts in which virtual social action occurs, and develop appropriate research designs.

Notes 1

Alfred Schutz and Thomas Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 1 (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1973), 3-5. 2 Blizzard Entertainment, ‘World of Warcraft Subscriber Base Reaches 12 Million Worldwide,’ Blizzard Entertainment Inc., http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?id=2847881. 3 Craig A Anderson and Brad J Bushman, ‘Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior,’ Psychological Science 12, no. 5 (2001). 4 Andy Ruddock, ‘Violent Videogames Should Worry Us (but Shouldn't Be Banned),’ The Conversation Media Group, http://theconversation.edu.au/violent-videogames-should-worry-us-but-shouldntbe-banned-11490. 5 Sophia Achab et al., ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games: Comparing Characteristics of Addict Vs Non-Addict Online Recruited Gamers in a French Adult Population,’ BMC Psychiatry 11, no. 1 (2011). 6 Karsten D. Wolf, ‘Communities of Practice in Mmorpgs: An Entry Point into Addiction?’ in Communities and Technologies 2007, ed. Charles Steinfield, et al. (London: Springer, 2007). 7 Walsh in Alfred Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World (United States: Northwestern University Press, 1967), xvii.

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Schutz and Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 1. Alfred Schutz and Thomas Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 2 (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1989). 10 Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World, 163. 11 Ibid., 165. 12 Ibid., 97. 13 Ibid., 173-76. 14 Ibid., 103. 15 Ibid., 184. 16 Schutz and Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 1, 41-5. 17 Schutz and Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 2, 99. 18 Shanyang Zhao, ‘Consociated Contemporaries as an Emergent Realm of the Lifeworld: Extending Schutz's Phenomenological Analysis to Cyberspace,’ Human Studies 27 (2004): 92. 19 Ibid., 99. 20 Jeff Rush, ‘Embodied Metaphors: Exposing Informatic Control through FirstPerson Shooters,’ Games and Culture 6, no. 3 (2011). 21 Schutz and Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 1, 63. 22 Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World, 61. 23 Schutz and Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 2, 241. 24 Schutz and Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 1, 229 25 Ibid., 105. 26 Ibid., 105. 27 Walsh in Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World, xxviii-xxix. 9

Bibliography Achab, Sophia, Magali Nicolier, Frédéric Mauny, Julie Monnin, Benoit Trojak, Pierre Vandel, Daniel Sechter, Philip Gorwood, and Emmanuel Haffen. ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games: Comparing Characteristics of Addict Vs Non-Addict Online Recruited Gamers in a French Adult Population.’ [In English]. BMC Psychiatry 11, no. 1 (2011): 144-44. Anderson, Craig A, and Brad J Bushman. ‘Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior.’ Psychological Science 12, no. 5 (2001): 353-59. Blizzard Entertainment. ‘World of Warcraft Subscriber Base Reaches 12 Million Worldwide.’ Blizzard Entertainment Inc., http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?id=2847881.

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__________________________________________________________________ Ruddock, Andy. ‘Violent Videogames Should Worry Us (but Shouldn't Be Banned).’ The Conversation Media Group, http://theconversation.edu.au/violent-videogames-should-worry-us-but-shouldntbe-banned-11490. Rush, Jeff. ‘Embodied Metaphors: Exposing Informatic Control through FirstPerson Shooters.’ Games and Culture 6, no. 3 (May 1, 2011 2011): 245-58. Schutz, Alfred. The Phenomenology of the Social World. United States: Northwestern University Press, 1967. Schutz, Alfred, and Thomas Luckmann. The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 1. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1973. Schutz, Alfred, and Thomas Luckmann. The Structures of the Life-World Vol. 2. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1989. Wolf, Karsten D. ‘Communities of Practice in Mmorpgs: An Entry Point into Addiction?’. In Communities and Technologies 2007, edited by Charles Steinfield, Brian T. Pentland, Mark Ackerman and Noshir Contractor, 191-208. London: Springer, 2007. Zhao, Shanyang. ‘Consociated Contemporaries as an Emergent Realm of the Lifeworld: Extending Schutz’s Phenomenological Analysis to Cyberspace.’ Human Studies 27 (2004): 91-105. Paul T. Scriven is a PhD candidate in Sociology at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, currently writing a thesis on the phenomenological distinctions between virtual and face-to-face social interactions, and the consequential meanings of social experiences within virtual environments like MMOs. His academic background is in applied social policy and research, with a keen interest in social justice.

Storytelling, Rules and Society in Modern MMORPGs Martin Hennig Abstract The virtual world of modern MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Games) can be defined as a ludic, narrative as well as a social room: what happens in the fictional world of a (online-) computer game is determined on the one hand by the rules of the game, and on the other hand by its narrative structures and contexts, as well as by a communicative component between the players. Research into this complex environment must consider more and more complex story contents and game structures, whose effects and discursive potential should not be underestimated due to the global distribution of the products. In this respect, the MMORPG must be regarded as a paradigmatic representative of a development which leads to the boundaries between the real products and the social, political and economic contexts, in which these are embedded, becoming increasingly blurred. In particular, online computer games can be read as a paradigm of both a discursive practice entering the home and the dispositif (Foucault) of the virtual space, which manifests itself within the rules and laws of the game. Just from this dialectic of the game, between its strong rules and playing liberty, both the conformist and subversive efficiency of the MMORPG arises. Since the interaction between the players takes place only technically mediated, it has to be assumed that reality's valid specifications of social behavior are reflected here critically or reconsidered with respect to their load-capacity in socially self-contained rooms. Therefore, the central problem is, whether the anonymity of the user leads to different behaviors than in real life – or are the social events in the game limited by their ludic and narrative specifications? Key Words: MMORPG, role-play, social-learning, player-communication, ludic rules and goals, storytelling, narrative. ***** 1. Current State of Research and Approach A study of the social structure in the virtual space of the online role-playing game must be related to the scientific debate about the computer game in general. Instead of going after concrete semantic issues, ludologists and narratologists dispute about the relationship between ludic and narrative structures in the medium of examination since the beginning of cultural studies dealing with computer- and videogames. Game-oriented (ludologic) approaches deal primarily with the rules, structures and mechanisms of the products. 1 As a result, the ludology defines itself first and foremost as structuralist science, which strictly adopted its analysis methods from the formalized character of the rules and laws of the game.

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__________________________________________________________________ Narrative studies, however, have emerged from the narrative and literary theory. 2 In this respect, ludologists often accused the unilateral and unreflected transfer of established theories from one medium to the other. 3 The concentration on purely narrative content is criticized also, in particular, the exclusive understanding of the computer game as an interactive story. 4 In the scientific community, however, approaches increase which take an intermediate position between ludologists and narratologists. Media scientist Henry Jenkins stresses that the ‘experience of playing games can never be simply reduced to the experience of a story. (…) If games tell stories, they are unlikely to tell them in the same ways that other media tell stories’. 5 Nevertheless, as a result of the discussion what the nature of a video game actually is (a story or a simulation), there is still little debate about the interaction and the mutual influence of the three components. The following chapter is intended to make a small contribution to this topic, using the example of MMORPGs. As a result, the online role-playing game is considered in the following as a holistic structure, whose social, ludic and narrative components are in a relationship of interdependence to each other. Accordingly, the ludic and narrative specifics of different types of MMORPGs should be distinguished from each other, to make conclusions on the respective virtual social structure. Along with the user-side established differentiation 6 between so-called Sandbox- and Themepark-MMORPGs, it will be shown, that a specific social structure can be correlated to its ludic and narrative fundamentals. While Sandbox-MMORPGs provide a virtual world to the user in which he appears ideally fully autonomous in his actions, 7 Themepark-MMORPGs guide the players through quests/missions, irreversible decisions (such as the accession of a faction of the diegesis) and playable stories on his way through the game world. In these, a more heteronomous structure of the online-public could be expected, whereas it has to be shown, how much the public in Sandbox-MMORPGs acts selfdetermined, or follows finally the requirements generated by the ludic and narrative components of the game. 2. Classification of MMORPGs Sandbox- (see section 2. 1) and Themepark-MMORPGs (see section 2.2) can therefore be considered as the central variations of the online role-playing game, because they focus on different game components (social or narrative). 2.1 Social Structured: World of Warcraft Narrative components: The continuous display of character aliases leads to the presence of social references in both types of the MMORPG, which make it more difficult to perceive the game as a closed fictional world. But compared to offline-videogames and the second type, a widespread withdrawal of cinematic staging strategies can be found in the MMORPGs of the first type. This applies to the visualization of intradiegetic

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__________________________________________________________________ space, people and events, and in particular to the massive presence of metatextual 8 user commentaries, which highlight the game as a social setting. In this respect, the usual display of character aliases can lead to the presence of life-world references, because the real persons behind the avatars need not necessarily take the contextual story of the game world into consideration when they name their characters. Accordingly, by rejecting non-interactive in-game cinematics, a high degree of user-side influence is suggested in relation to the game world, so that the social component of the game process is greatly accentuated. Ludic Components: The first major online role-playing game that established the genre permanently in the West, was Ultima Online (Origin Systems/Electronic Arts, 1997) – the production defined essential elements of the genre, which have been preserved in its core today, and highlighted the work as a milestone: 9 On the one hand, a possibility for players to take possession of a part of the game world by marking houses as private (Player Housing) was opened up here for the first time. Paradoxically, this implementation of local refuges resulted in an emphasis of the game world as a public or social sphere, because local privacy is only useful in opposition to a clearly identifiable public. On the other hand, an economic component was integrated into the game system, which enabled players to extract raw materials, produce objects of their own and sell these again with the help of the so-called crafting: 10 ‘That meant, conversely, the emergence of an economic system that follows the principles of supply and demand. (...) The result is a second motivation field next to the of character’ 11 that also influenced World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment/Vivendi, since 2004). 12 In addition to the integration of these economic components it must be spoken about grinding as one the central ludic principles of WOW – the monotonous repetition of basic actions is the prerequisite for achieving higher levels of the game. For example, the player has to fight again and again struggles against standard opponents to get experience points. 13 The associated character progression leads to the expansion of the player's scope of action, because in many areas of the diegesis are located such powerful enemies, that the trial to enter these places with a weak character would cause the immediate death of the avatar. Therefore, this form of the MMORPG is replete with worklike features, which are not traditionally associated with games. Virtual RPG-worlds also differ in the degree to which they support the player to create a role mask differing from their self-concept. The rules and regulations of a work constitute the immediate prerequisite, whether the user can also perform unusual professions (i.e., away from fighters for law and order or their equivalents on the side of the lawless). Schmitz reported in this context of a Dark Age of Camelot-player (Mythic Entertainment, since 2001), who earned money in the

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__________________________________________________________________ diegesis by virtual sexual favors; this activity was based on the in-game economy and the possibility of undisturbed communication between users via chat. 14 As one can see, ludic aspects must not exclude a functional role reversal in the theory, however, in reality often the opposite is true. In this regard, WOW seems to be guided by a prototypical hero ideal in its character creation. For example, it is impossible here to modify the body of a human character, all selectable variants are characterized by visual highlighted attributes of physical strength. The same applies to the case where the player chooses a female human avatar. Symptomatic here is the always visually prominent bust of all female figures – the character menu therefore appears to be based on a very specific definition of femininity and masculinity. Finally, the strong compulsion to sociability in WOW should be mentioned, which is directly correlated with some kind of task complexity. If the missions to be fulfilled have such a high level of difficulty, that they cannot be solved by the players on their own (e.g., a battle against an enemy superiority), the users are dependent on the support of other users: ‘at the high-end game participation in groups and collectives generally becomes the only way to gain experience and advance’. 15 This can be of short-term nature (a so-called raid means such a temporarily limited group of several players in order to achieve a predefined aim of the game; often special missions are programmed in a way that they only can be started after the occurrence of a predetermined number of players), or based on longer-term connections (the theoretically unlimited collaboration between users in a guild). Social Components: Thus, the social component in WOW is also reinforced by ludic parameters like the Deindividuation of the single player (complexity reduction by using schematic character creation). Furthermore, the public clearly marked as one by means of the necessity of sociability (cf. the mentioned raids) seems to produce a not reflected convergence of the game world towards the characteristics of the real environment. In this respect, the repetitive actions of the users (grinding) equip the game with the quality of work. Consequently, WOW is also characterized through the utilization of its complex economic system by the players (see the modes of behavior like farming, crafting or the various auction houses, in which users sell preserved items). Over and above that, Richard A. Bartle, co-author of one of the first Multi-User Dungeons (MUD1), refers to the dark side of technological progress in relation to the MMORPG, as the possibility for simultaneous voice communication during the game process (via voice conferencing software such as TeamSpeak) makes it more difficult to take advantage of the self-concept relevant function of the virtual role reversal:

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__________________________________________________________________ You cannot be someone else, when you have to be yourself. Imagine the effect, what impact it would have if you were playing a character that bears your own face - would that have a positive effect on the extent to behave differently or maybe just like in real life? To play a character that has your own voice is not much different. 16 In this context, it is symptomatic that humans are the most popular race in the WOW-universe, suggesting that a large number of users give up the ability to take on a role mask completely decoupled from reality, but instead prefer figures which show visual references to the real world. The human-like elves for example, who stand at second and third place in the popularity scale, differ in their physiognomy far less from the human race, as animal characters such as trolls or orcs, who are consistently in last place of the ranking. 17 2.2 Narrative Structured: The Secret World Social Components: In The Secret World (Funcom/Electronic Arts, since 2012), one of the latest representatives of the genre, there can be regarded a telling transformation in the social level of the game. As a game reviewer puts it: As soon as I pursue my quest, the blinders go down to everything else. And if a different player is on his way in the same mission, that arouses the jealousy about food rather than helpfulness. (...) Not too outstanding for an MMO. 18 From this review it is clear that the pressure for pro-social cooperation is perceived as one of the basic characteristics of a MMORPG. Accordingly, the sales of The Secret World remained far behind expectations. In fact, little social cooperation can be observed within the game world, however, a special form of user interaction is happening here. In this regard, the following dialogue was logged during a game session (preceded by a dispute about the legitimacy of asking for puzzle solutions): [Stoxos]: 19 for me its a serious lack of time, I have 3 kids to take care of and Im only able to get maybe an hour of gaming in a dday (…) [Kanycma]: if u dont have time for play – just dont play. huh. (…) [Kanycma]: i dont have time. what a excuses (…) [Manatheren]: Kanycma, who are you to judge how someone spends their free time *playing a video game*?

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__________________________________________________________________ [FleurDeMort]: we’re not all pimply teens with nothing better to do :) (…) [FleurDeMort]: some work [FleurDeMort]: some have families [FleurDeMort]: some even have a life :) This debate is an example of a relatively high level of reflection of The Secret World users. They counteract approaches of harassment / defamation and sanction inappropriate behaviors in the chat area. Even the intradiegetic user behavior shows peculiarities. In the player lounge of Agartha, from where all the story-relevant sections can be reached, two types of distinctive behaviors are striking: First, single players try to get the attention of bystanders by magical / artistic actions that, in Agartha, which does not include any opponents, are actually useless. Such behavior is, however, rewarded through the second group of players, which form the audience for those self-promoters. Narrative/Ludic Components: It should be clear that the social structure of the diegesis is constituted in response to the ludic and narrative defaults. Such productions, like The Secret World, which increasingly rely on non-interactive narrative strategies, are converging to the characteristics of the offline-videogame, which means in this case: the accentuation of the narrative level causes the absence of ludic requirements for social cooperation – that in turn produces a more individualistically structured social system. For example, the names of other players are displayed by default not permanently, so that other users seem less like social actors, but more like characters in a non-interactive movie. Correspondingly, and in contrast to WOW, the player has the choice here between large amounts of attributes to individualize his avatar. Such correlations between the social level and the narrative / ludic framework can be found several times. Thus, the interface of the production includes a time specification (apparently in response to the addiction debate, linked with the MMORPG), which cannot be hidden. The user is prompted here implicitly to a conscious time management and a reflected use of the provided game content – correspondingly, an example of this demanded user behavior shows up in the dialogue quoted above. In addition, the attraction of this game on players with such a mature use behavior can be set in relation with the self-reflexive handling of the production with its own fictionality. For example, an implemented browser may be opened at any time during a game session, because for some tasks the user has to browse web pages specially created for the game, 20 to discover passwords from computers positioned in the diegesis. Because the game browser is equivalent in its functionality to the game-external browser installed on the user's PC, every page in

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__________________________________________________________________ the Web can be obtained, so only the framing of the game allows a distinction between intradiegetic functional and other web content. Such a break with the intradiegetic fiction on the basis of a hint to the constructed nature of the product can be defined as self-referentially. Using this self-reference, The Secret World reinforces a genre-related tendency to refer to the artificial nature of the game and its embedding into the real world that is here consequently transferred to all areas of the work. Thus, the production includes a variety of hints on popular culture. This begins already at the character creation menu, which is not oriented to popular role-playing conventions like role models, borrowed from the literary fantasy, but rather to contemporary-popular personalities and styles of clothing. So players can decide on a 'Beckham-Wave’ or ‘Gothic-Makeup’ in the category ‘Hair and Makeup’. 3. Conclusion Based on the previous, we see that ludic, narrative and social aspects in the online role-playing game are always interdependent. The specific characteristics of the two variants mentioned produce distinguishable social-structures within the diegesis. The first type (cf. WOW) is the one from which conventional genre definitions and social animosities (addiction debate) derive themselves. The capitalist foundation of the reality concept represented here, in association with the almost complete absence of a significant narrative component, implies a tendency towards a closed, not self-reflexive social environment. This fact gives a broader understanding of the contemporary social discussion, because such observations fosters speaking of a virtual world (as opposed to the interactive stories or playing challenges of offline-videogames) and stir at the same time the fear of the loss of skills to draw boundaries between real and virtual life. Even though the videogame always provokes spatial metaphors based on the primary spatial structure of the object, only the mentioned parallels between MMORPGs and reality allow us to talk of getting lost in the game world, which is the theme in the addiction debate. The second form of MMORPGs includes current productions [cf. also The Old Republic (BioWare/LucasArts, Electronic Arts, since 2011)], that specifically emphasize their narrative components. This leads to a subordinated relevance of the social level: The hero model of the games creates the illusion of uniqueness of embodied avatars, which stands in direct opposition to the traditional idea of the MMORPG community. The social system in the online role-playing game requires predetermined specifications by the product in order to constitute itself as such – if grouping is not explicitly required in the game, an atomized public structure is formed, to which user interactions are only useful for the individual player progression, and other users are perceived as competitors. The Secret World defines itself first and foremost as a narrative und ludic environment, so selfpresentation tendencies can be diagnosed here (in the form of self-enhancing

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__________________________________________________________________ actions) – points, achievements and reputation are of the highest importance within the community. Consequently, this type correlates with increased self-reflexivity from players and game: The increased production of aesthetic distance between avatar and user generates a playful handling of role aspects in the MMORPG. Knowing these characteristics of the second type should therefore help to produce compensation strategies with regard to addiction risks of the first type in the sense of a pedagogical monitoring – for example when the stated reflexivity of the game is artificially generated by conversations after the use of the media.

Notes 1

Gonzalo Frasca, Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology, Viewed 15 January 2013, http://www.ludology.org/articles/VGT_final.pdf. 2 Britta Neitzel, Computerspiele: ein literarisches Genre?, Viewed 15 January 2013, http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/DigiLit/neitzel/computerspiele_lit_genre_druck.html. 3 ‘If I throw a ball at you I don’t expect you to drop it and wait until it starts telling stories.’ Markku Eskelinen, The Gaming Situation, Viewed 15 January 2013, http://gamestudies.org/0101/eskelinen/. 4 Hans-Joachim Backe, Strukturen und Funktionen des Erzählens im Computerspiel. Eine typologische Einführung (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008), 104. 5 Henry Jenkins, ‘Game Design as Narrative Architecture’, in First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004), 119f. 6 ‘Wikipedia, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game’ last modified 19 December 2012, Viewed 15 January 2013, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online-Rollenspiel#Unterteilung_in_Themepark_und_Sandbox-MMORPGs. 7 Of course already at the level of basic rules and laws of the game structure an ideological perspective of the production manifests itself. 8 Cf. for the concept of Metatextuality: Gérard Genette, Palimpseste. Die Literatur auf zweiter Stufe (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993). 9 For a historical overview of the development of the MMORPG cf. Andreas Lober, ed., Virtuelle Welten werden real. Second Life, World of Warcraft & Co: Faszination, Gefahren, Business (Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2007). 10 The term refers to a learnable and optional ability in the game-world, under which various craft activities are subsumed. As a rule, those users who have increased their point values in crafting are producing better and thus more valuable items.

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__________________________________________________________________ 11

Translated from Tobias Schmitz, ‘Mit Multi-User-Dungeons fing alles an: Frühe Multiplayer-Online-Games’, in Virtuelle Welten werden real. Second Life, World of Warcraft & Co: Faszination, Gefahren, Business, ed. Andreas Lober (Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2007), 14. 12 Abbreviated in the following with WOW. 13 Such incentives to stay in the game world for a long time are of course related to the previously dominant subscription business model, which relies on a permanent player commitment. 14 Tobias Schmitz, ‘Faszination Rollenspiel’, in Virtuelle Welten werden real. Second Life, World of Warcraft & Co: Faszination, Gefahren, Business, ed. Andreas Lober (Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2007), 47-50. 15 T. L. Taylor, Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006). 16 Translated from Andreas Lober, ed., Virtuelle Welten werden real. Second Life, World of Warcraft & Co: Faszination, Gefahren, Business (Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2007), 113. 17 ‘WOW Statistic,’ last modified 20 May 2010, Viewed 15 January 2013, http://ninjalooter.de/8670/wow-statistik-unkaputtbare-blutelf-paladine-mit-einemhang-zum-bergbau/. 18 Translated from Frank Erik Walter, ‘The Secret World: Test’, Eurogamer.de, 5 September 2012, Viewed 15 January 2013, http://www.eurogamer.de/articles/2012-09-05-the-secret-world-test. 19 In parentheses, following corresponding chat practices, are noted the nicknames of each articulating user. Any spelling and grammatical errors were adopted. 20 Cf. for example the homepage of the fictional Orochi Group: ‘Homepage’ last modified 8 January 2013, Viewed 15 January 2013, http://orochi-group.com/.

Bibliography Backe, Hans-Joachim. Strukturen und Funktionen des Erzählens im Computerspiel. Eine typologische Einführung. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008. Eskelinen, Markku. The Gaming Situation. Viewed 15 January 2013. http://gamestudies.org/0101/eskelinen/. Frasca, Gonzalo. Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology. Viewed 15 January 2013. http://www.ludology.org/articles/VGT_final.pdf.

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__________________________________________________________________ Genette, Gérard. Palimpseste. Die Literatur auf zweiter Stufe. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993. Jenkins, Henry. ‘Game Design as Narrative Architecture’. In First Person. New Media as Story, Performance and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 118-131. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004. Lober, Andreas, ed. Virtuelle Welten werden real. Second Life, World of Warcraft & Co: Faszination, Gefahren, Business. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2007. Neitzel, Britta. Computerspiele: ein literarisches Genre?. Viewed 15 January 2013. http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/DigiLit/neitzel/computerspiele_lit_genre_ruck.html. Ninjalooter. ‘WOW Statistic’. Last modified May 20, 2010. http://ninjalooter.de/8670/wow-statistik-unkaputtbare-blutelf-paladine-mit-einemhang-zum-bergbau/. Orochi Group. ‘Homepage’. Last modified January 8, 2013. http://orochi-group.com. Schmitz, Tobias. ‘Faszination Rollenspiel’. In Virtuelle Welten werden real. Second Life, World of Warcraft & Co: Faszination, Gefahren, Business, edited by Andreas Lober, 47-50. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2007. Schmitz, Tobias. ‘Mit Multi-User-Dungeons fing alles an: Frühe MultiplayerOnline-Games’. In Virtuelle Welten werden real. Second Life, World of Warcraft & Co: Faszination, Gefahren, Business, edited by Andreas Lober, 11-15. Hannover: Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, 2007. Taylor, T.L. Play Between Worlds. Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006. Walter, Frank Erik. ‘The Secret World: Test’. Eurogamer.de, 5 September 2012. Viewed 15 January 2013. http://www.eurogamer.de/articles/2012-09-05-the-secret-world-test.

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__________________________________________________________________ Wikipedia. ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game’. Last modified December 19, 2012. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online-Rollenspiel#Unterteilung_in_Themepark_und_Sandbox-MMORPGs. Martin Hennig holds an M.A. in Literature, Media and Communication studies and is PhD-Student at the German Graduate School ‘Privacy. Forms, functions, transformations’. Currently his research is devoted to the symbolism of the public space in contemporary MMORPGs.

Image Constructions in the Social Web Inge Wagner Abstract Observing today’s social life, it quickly becomes obvious that a significant part of it has shifted into a multimedia space, the Internet. Simultaneously there also a variety of possibilities were developed which allow an individual not only to portray and present himself in a web based social community but also to update, modify and vary facets of himself continually. The so-called Web 2.0 provides the technical foundation for self-portrayal and social networking. An individual and his description of himself is no longer tied to specific situations. Social web platforms, such as Facebook, Xing, Badoo, or C-Date, offer the possibility to describe all fields of real life which includes the portrayal of professional, friendly as well as erotically or sexually motivated relationships. This investigation centres on a semiotic description of an Ego that is not in the tradition of Freud's psychoanalytic instance between an instinctive Id and a standards-complying Super-Ego but rather on an Ego as a de facto person who perceives himself as an active acting being which experiences itself as a subject distinct from the counterpart, or is perceived as such from the outside. The ‘person’ in the social web is no longer distinguished through a uniform and consistent user identity, but rather a designed image, which is defined with Dyer as ‘a complex configuration of visual, verbal and aural signs’ which acts as an aspect of the user’s persona and adapts to the external circumstances of the chosen platform. Key Words: Image and persona, identity, self-portraying, social web, social networking, semiotic. ***** 1. Introduction Observing today’s social life, it quickly becomes obvious that a significant part of social interaction – from private to professional networking, procurement and dissemination of every kind of tangible or intangible goods – that do not necessarily depend on physical proximity, has shifted into a (multi) media space, the Internet. In that way we create virtual circles of friends on Facebook, organize meetings with business partners on Xing or buy technical equipment, books or even food on Amazon. With embedding the integration of the Internet in our private as well as our professional everyday life a variety of possibilities were developed which allow an individual not only to portray and present himself in a web based social community but also to update, modify and vary continually the facets of himself. Besides this, the Internet offers users the possibility to re-create an image of themselves or to

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__________________________________________________________________ hide their personality behind masks or to disclose only aspects of their identity that might lead to successful social inclusion. Through the transition of the Internet to the so-called Web 2.0 1, especially to the Social Web, which provides the technical foundation for self-portrayal and social networking, it seems useful to deal more closely with the individual and his description of himself, which no longer takes place briefly and tied to specific situations. Social web platforms, such as the Facebook, Xing, Badoo, or C-Date, are suitable for an investigation due to their technical and contentual structure; they offer the possibility to describe all fields of real life which includes the portrayal of professionally, friendly as well as erotically or sexually motivated relationships. Regarding content, those platforms offer the possibility to capture current information or to reflect old information and to optimize the presented content afterwards. Based on that, it will become apparent that ‘person’ in the social web is no longer distinguished through a uniform and consistent user identity, but rather a designed image, which is defined with Dyer as ‘a complex configuration of visual, verbal and aural signs’ 2 and that is isolated of the users persona 3 and, for a specific purpose, adapts to the external circumstances of the chosen platform. 2. Web 2.0 and the Social Web According to Hippner’s definition of Web 2.0, it is a broad collective term, which includes technological development, launching new Internet applications as well as the users’ altered perception of the Internet. However, this was to be considered as a marketing-driven buzzword and to be seen mainly in connection with the spread of so-called ‘social software’ due to its conceptual blur and a lack of separation. 4 Also Reichert describes Web 2.0, a term coined by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty in 2004, as the development of new digital media forms and communications technologies that offer the prospect of free circulation of information, an unlimited participation as well as collaboration without commanded structures based on a peer-to-peer system. 5 In this way even inexperienced users will be enabled to increase their opportunities to pursue their ‘do-it-yourself’-strategies with user-friendly software solutions and to publish multimedia contents and formats on the Internet. In this manner, the Internet has been transformed with the spread of the so-called social software into a dynamic discursive-operational network, where users perceive themselves less as passive consumers than as self-empowering subjects. This led to an evolution of a previously decentralized web of socially isolated individuals to communities that are actively engaged. 6 While Reichert is using the concept Web 2.0 in a more general meaning, Ebersbach provides a more differentiated approach to describe a change in the

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__________________________________________________________________ www that is less technical but more perceived. To this end, her definition of a social web depends on the concept of ‘social software’ which has been described by Hippner in 2006 and is delimited as a subset of the Web 2.0 and its technical, economic and legal aspects. Thus social web can be described as quantity of webbasierte[r] Anwendungen, die für Menschen den Informationsaustausch, den Beziehungsaufbau und deren Pflege, die Kommunikation und die kollaborative Zusammenarbeit in einem gesellschaftlichen oder gemeinschaftlichen Kontext unterstützen, sowie den Daten, die dabei entstehen und den Beziehungen zwischen den Menschen, die diese Anwendungen nutzen, 7 Specifically, this means that in addition photo-/video sharing platforms, like YouTube or MySpace, the blogosphere, microblogging services such as Twitter, RSS, widgets and gadgets, Vod-/Vid- and Podcast, social commerce portals such as e-bay, and in particular social network sides like the Facebook can be summarized as platforms of the Social Web. 8 It becomes apparent that the description of Web 2.0, or to be more precise the description of the social web, focuses in particular on technically based networking of individuals in social communities and thus on a controlled combination of virtually generated records by physically existent users. Thereby a more detailed discussion of the participants in the social web - and in particular with their virtually generated representations - seems essential. But what does identity and personality mean in a web-based community? And how can a concept of person be designed within social network sides like Facebook or Twitter? 3. Conception of Identity on the Internet In psychology the concept of identity can be described in einem allgemeinen Sinn auf die einzigartige Kombination von persönlichen, unverwechselbaren Daten des Individuums wie Name, Alter, Geschlecht, Beruf, durch die das Individuum gekennzeichnet ist und von allen anderen Personen unterschieden werden kann. In diesem generellen Sinn lässt sich Identität allerdings auch auf Gruppen oder Kategorien anwenden. In einem engeren psychologischen Sinn ist Identität die einzigartige Persönlichkeitsstruktur, verbunden mit dem Bild, das andere von dieser Persönlichkeitsstruktur haben. Für das Verständnis von Entwicklung […] ist aber noch eine dritte Komponente der Identität wichtig, nämlich das eigene Verständnis für Identität,

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__________________________________________________________________ die Selbsterkenntnis und der Sinn für das, was man ist, bzw. sein 9 will. Thus the concept of a person can only be deduced by the observation of a person’s behaviour in different situations and over a longer period of time as well as the observation of statements and reactions of the person’s fellow men. Therefore, the investigation of a concept of ‘person’ on the Internet centres on an Ego which is manifested by his user profile within a platform of the social web and whose real-world identity only can be determined in a technical way through a combination of server IP address and personal data. In this manner, the investigation focuses on an Ego that is not in the tradition of Freud's psychoanalytic instance between an instinctive Id and a standardcomplying with the Super-Ego but rather on an Ego as a de facto person who perceives himself as an actively acting being which experiences itself as a subject distinct from the counter-part, or is perceived as such from the outside. Furthermore, this Ego discloses consciously or unconsciously (sub-) aspects of himself on Internet-based platforms whereby relevant information on constructing the users’ concept of ‘person’ are available to the platform’s community or the general public on the Internet. This information can be qualitatively examined by using media-semiotic inventories since the combination of written, visual and audio-visual signs within pre-structured and self-contained platforms user profiles, each for itself, construct a secondary semiotic system 10. That is, to create and transport meaning by linking primary sign systems, in other words by linking written, visual or audio-visual signs which can be simultaneously combined on multimedia user profiles in different ways. 11 With this in mind, on the one hand a user’s concept of ‚person‘ can be reconstructed at a specific point of time but on the other it also can be described in its modification with the passing of time. Thus each user profile for itself creates a framework within a platform of the social web – a limited space for the user to make himself a subject of discussion. 3.1 (Self-) Portrayal in the Social Web It is fundamental to all of social web platforms that a delineated area within the platform, a so-called user profile, is provided to users who log in and register by means of a guest home and a registration form and thus become part of the specific social community within that platform. With these registration forms all information is collected, which is important for social interaction, and is also published in preset templates for other users of the platform or the general Internet public. To guarantee a retrieval and an unambiguous allocation within the platform, the user has to disclose fundamental information about his identity, including his

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__________________________________________________________________ name, e-mail-address for authentication, his sex or age; and depending on the platform, he has to disclose descriptions of his appearance, his profession, career or essential attitudes by means of preset dialogue boxes, partly by typing his own words into free text boxes, partly by choice from predefined concept lists. Which further information is additionally important largely depends on the intended usage and the positioning of the specific website. In this manner, Xing focuses on the professional career with curriculum vitae and certificates, while on the Facebook the focus tends to be on recreational activities, which are shared with other users and virtual friends. In contrast, platforms like C-Date requests disclosure of intimate nature about sexual needs and ideas to present one or more appropriate adult partners. By the presentation of empty boxes in registration forms, a written request to upload one or more profile pictures or by the change from the Facebook’s wall to its timeline, platforms of the social web create gaps which suggest to the users that they need to reveal more about themselves in order to provide a complete selfportrayal. Thus the user, consciously or unconsciously, generates content which manifests a certain concept of his person suitable to the platform he is using and which distinguishes a (self-) portrayal that fits in a social role created by this platform. This portrait does not necessarily have to be identical with the total of the realworld users’ characteristics and attitudes. In this manner, the same user who presents himself on Xing seriously with stylish profile picture wearing a suit and presenting excellent references, could publish erotic photos in explicit poses on CDate. 3.2 Constructing Images in the Social Web Although the high speed of transmission of information and messages to a third party simulates a direct and thus basically a volatile kind of communication, this communication within the networked computer via the Internet will always be the result of engineered processes and mechanized methods. In this way, information submitted to a third party will be transmitted with those methods and thus technically-coded and retained over a longer term. Information that is published by the user himself and is accessible by a certain number of Internet users can be communicated in four different ways: in a merely written form by using a keypad; in a visual or audiovisual form by means of consciously uploaded pictures or videos, which portray the user in a certain situation and at a certain date; in mixed form, i.e. a combination of text and pictures; or, in the form of any annotated or non-annotated ‘posting’ and/or ‘sharing’ of pictures (photos, graphics, etc.), web-links or videos. In this way concrete, favoured or strongly rejected statements are communicated. Thus the data which is produced in this way complement the initial disclosed information and extend the users self-portrayal.

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__________________________________________________________________ In this manner, fixing all details and information at a specific date on the users profile allows the user to reflect old information and to optimize the presented content afterwards. Thus according to Reichert, the user manages himself on platforms of the social web by selecting and combining information in multimedia ways. 12 Since self-portrayal on the Internet can be described as a constructed and complex arrangement of visual, audiovisual and written signs, it becomes apparent that ‘person’ in the social web is no longer distinguished through a uniform and consistent user identity. It can rather be described as a designed image according to Dyer that is manifested in its medially conveyed form. 13 4. Conclusion In summary, it can be said that a description of the social web focuses in particular on technically based networking of individuals in social communities and thus on a controlled combination of virtually generated records by physically existent users. Furthermore, identity on the Internet is manifest on a virtual surface and can be ‘read’ by the individual himself as well as by third parties. A concept of identity on the Internet does not allow any conclusions about the sum of virtual and real-world combinations of distinctive data of individuals that make up a de facto person. But it rather has to be primarily related to the portions of a user’s self that have been disclosed and in this manner, the concept of identity on the Internet has to be considered a designed concept. Therefore, identity on the Internet can only be comprehended in a publicized concept of a person which was adapted to the regulated framework of a platform of the social web and which, in this manner, conforms to a prescribed social role. Thus the self-portrayal of social web users can be described as as ‘a complex configuration of visual, verbal and aural signs’ 14 and has to be interpreted in this way.

Notes 1

Ramón Reichert, Amateure im Netz: Selbstmanagement und Wissenstechnik im Web 2.0 (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2008). 2 Richard Dyer, Stars (London: British Film Institute, 2011), 34. 3 C. G. Jung derives his concept of ‘Persona’ of the masks, which determined the roles of the actors in Greek Theatre. In his understanding, the ‘Persona’ is a mask within a collective psyche that fakes individuality, but it is only a played role which portrays the voice of the collective psyche.’ Cf. C. G. Jung, ‘Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Ich und dem Unbewussten’, in Zwei Schriften über analytische Psychologie. C. G. Jung (Zürich; Stuttgart: Rascher, 1964), 131-327. (trans. by the author)

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Hajo Hippner, Bedeutung, Anwendungen und Einsatzpotenziale von Social Software, Social Software, eds. Knut Hildebrand and Josephine Hofmann (Heidelberg: dpunkt.Verlag, 2006), 6. 5 Reichert, Amateure im Netz 6 Ibid., 8ff. 7 Ebersbach, Social Web, 35. To say it in English: The concept of a social web can be described as web based applications which were made to support the user’s exchange of information, building and maintaining of relationships, communication and the collaborative cooperation in a social or common context, and which include the resulting data and the relations between the people who use these applications. (trans. by the author) 8 Ebersbach, Social Web. 9 Rolf Oerter, Leo Montada, ed., Entwicklungspsychologie (Weinheim, Beltz: PVU 2008), 303. The concept of identity can be described in a general sense as the unique combination of distinctive data of the individual such as name, age, sex, profession, through which identifies the individual and can be distinguished from all other persons. However, in this general sense, identity can also be applied to groups or categories. In a narrower sense, identity is the unique personality structure, associated with the image others have of this personality structure. But there is also a third component of identity which is important for the understanding of development: that is the own understanding of identity, self-knowledge and a sense of what one is, or wants to be. (trans. by the author) 10 Jurij M. Lotman, Die Struktur literarischer Texte (Munic: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1993), 61. 11 Stefan Meier, (Bild-) Diskurs im Netz. Konzept und Methode für eine semiotische Diskursanalyse im Word Wide Web (Köln: Halem, 2008). 12 Reichert Amateure im Netz 13 Dyer, Stars 14 Ibid., 34.

Bibliography Books Dyer, Richard. Stars. London: British Film Institute, 2011. Ebersbach, Anja, Glaser, Markus, and Heigl, Richard. Social Web. Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2011.

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__________________________________________________________________ Hippner, Hajo, ‘Bedeutung, Anwendungen und Einsatzpotenziale von Social Software.’ Social Software, edited by Knut Hildebrand and Josephine Hofmann. Heidelberg: dpunkt.Verlag, 2006. Jung, C. G. ‚Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Ich und dem Unbewussten’. In: Zwei Schriften über analytische Psychologie, edited by C. G. Jung, 202-406 Zürich: Stuttgart: Rascher, 1964. Lotman, Jurij M. Die Struktur literarischer Texte. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1993. Meier, Stefan, (Bild-) Diskurs im Netz. Konzept und Methode für eine semiotische Diskursanalyse im Word Wide Web. Köln: Halem, 2008. Oerter, Rolf, and Montada, Leo, ed. Entwicklungspsychologie. Weinheim, Beltz: PVU, 2008. Reichert, Ramón. Amateure im Netz: Selbstmanagement und Wissenstechnik im Web 2.0. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2008. Websites badoo Inc. 'Registration process on badoo'. Last modified (07.05.2013). Accessed (07.05.2013). http://badoo.com/not_confirmed C-Date Inc. 'Profiles on C-Date. Last modified (07.05.2013). Accessed (07.05.2013). http://app2.c-date.com/myprofile.htm Facebook Inc. 'Profiles on Facebook'. Last modified (02.05.2013). Accessed (07.05.2013) http://www.facebook.com/facebook Xing Inc. 'Registration form on Xing'. Last modified (07.05.2013). Accessed (07.05.2013). http://www.xing.com/app/signup Inge Wagner is a PhD-student at the University of Passau. Currently, she devotes her research to the mediation of identity and self-constructions in literature, film and on the Internet.

Virtual Selves, Research Perspectives: Exploring the Role and Implications for Taking the Insider Perspective in Virtual Worlds Research Simon Evans Abstract The aim of this chapter is to consider the role and implications for taking the insider perspective in the context of virtual worlds research. It has its basis in the author’s ongoing doctoral research, which explores how participation in virtual worlds may reflect a transformation in the experience of Self in contemporary society. The chapter provides an outline of the research strategy, together with the case for an approach that emphasises the insider perspective when seeking to understand phenomena that occur through virtual world experience. The strategy is informed by theories that emphasise the emergence of Self through everyday actions and interactions in specific contexts (i.e. Symbolic Interaction, CulturalHistorical Activity Theory) and has an approach that places emphasis on the person, immersion into the virtual environment and inductive techniques. It indicates that foregrounding the perspective of virtual world users is essential for gaining insight into their experience and the phenomena that occur within virtual worlds, and to avoid the risk of imposing the predetermined objectives of the researcher’s perspective. The chapter also provides an example of one aspect of the research and an outline of the methods used, exploring some of the issues arising from them. Because the study seeks to develop an understanding of the Self from the insider perspective of virtual world users, it uses a variety of research methods and employs the virtual world Second Life as a case study. Methods include inworld individual and group interviews, and physical world face-to-face interviews and observations. The chapter indicates that conducting research of virtual worlds that emphasises the insider viewpoint is a non-trivial task: it requires the immersion of the researcher into the world they are researching, and detailed inductive research techniques and analysis that allow the insider viewpoint to emerge. Key Words: Virtual worlds, virtual self, Second Life, digital ethnography, Subjective Evidence-Based Ethnography, insider perspective, in-world interviews, in-world focus groups. ***** 1. Introduction This chapter has origins in the author’s experience of developing a doctoral research programme designed to understand the experience of the ‘Virtual Self’, the contemporary Self as experienced and mediated by New Technologies,

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__________________________________________________________________ (television, computers, mobile phones and other digital devices). 1 The research focuses on how participation in one particular phenomenon, virtual worlds, may reflect a transformation in the experience of Self and have implications for how it might be conceptualised. One research outcome has been the development of a methodological approach emphasising the insider perspective of virtual world users, to gain insight not necessarily evidenced in research concerning the Self in virtual worlds hitherto. The chapter summarises this approach by providing an overview of the research context, including the rationale for, and implications of, emphasising the insider. It provides an example of the approach in practice through an overview of one element of the research. 1. Theoretical Context and Research Question To understand how virtual world participation may impact on experience of Self, we need to consider how sense of Self emerges and the role of context in that emergence. Particularly informative are the Symbolic Interaction and Activity Theory approaches. While arising from different theoretical roots in the early part of the twentieth century (Symbolic Interaction in the American mid-west, Activity Theory in 1920s Soviet Russia), both infer that Self is not just influenced by context, but emerges from it. Symbolic Interaction theories focus on the everyday interactions that occur in social worlds, and consider how the person is not necessarily singular but a multiple product of the interaction with others in particular contexts. Based in notions such as James’ conception of Self as comprised of two aspects, ‘Self as knower’ and ‘Self as known’, and Cooley’s ‘looking-glass Self’ that reflects on the imagined judgment of the ‘generalised other’, Symbolic Interaction sees the Self as being in a continual process of evaluation and transformation. 2 For instance, Mead contends that the Self emerges from interaction through which one adopts the perspective of the Other or ‘generalised other’ and on becoming an object of observation to itself becomes Self-aware: 3 from multiple relationships and interactions emerge multiple selves, for ‘we divide ourselves up into all sorts of different selves with reference to our acquaintances’. 4 Goffman also sees social interaction and reflexivity as fundamental to emergence of Self, with the presentation of a credible image to interactants leading to ‘an awareness of the multiplicity of roles that are performed in various situated contexts’. 5 Activity Theory considers how every activity is comprised of a subject (the persons engaged in it), an objective and goal-oriented processes towards achieving the objective; hence, knowledge and cognition arise through actions and interactions between Self, Other and artifacts in situations and environments. 6 The approach taken by Cultural-Historical Activity Theory particularly focuses on how through collaborative practice, with the aid of tools in socially and historically specific cultural contexts, people change and create their environment, hence changing themselves and gaining knowledge of Self: the Self

Simon Evans 201 __________________________________________________________________ emerges from ‘collective practical involvement of humans in the world around them.’ 7 Comparing the two, both Symbolic Interaction and Activity Theory indicate that the Self arises because of the everyday interactions that occur between the person and other persons, and the person and their environments, in a process that is never complete but lifelong. Despite having roots in the early twentieth-century, they are able to illuminate contemporary experience of Self and the implications of the contexts provided by virtual worlds on that experience. They suggest an assessment of experience of the Self in virtual worlds needs to consider the day-today activities of people, the presentation of Self in everyday, and the interactions that occur between Self, Other and the environment, all in the context of virtual worlds. 8 Hence the main research question for the current programme is: What is the experience of the Self in virtual worlds? The programme pays particular attention to five areas with respect to virtual worlds: representation of the Self; activities; the relationship between life in the physical world and virtual worlds; the trajectory of experience; the processes involved in production of the Self. This final aspect acts a lynchpin for all other aspects under consideration, since it touches on all areas of experience. 2. Methodological Context In preparation for the research an informal review has been conducted of existing research considering the experience of Self in virtual worlds and other virtual environments, and allocating them to the three categories of Activity, Performance and Interaction. A list of all 32 research studies considered is provided in the appendix. The review includes an assessment of the type of methodological approach taken by each (experimental, quantitative or qualitative) and if its approach took an outsider or insider perspective. Table 1 provides a summary of the analysis. The analysis does not intend a strict typology or that the research was necessarily conducted within a Symbolic Interaction or Activity Theory framework, but merely seeks to understand the range of approaches. The majority of the research considered aims to understand the extent to which particular phenomena occur and the relationships between them, taking a quantitative approach. 9 Other research is concerned with experience concerning the range of phenomena and so uses qualitative techniques. 10 While a proportion seeks to replicate or model phenomena using experimental or quasi-experimental techniques, 11 the majority is conducted ‘in the field’ (e.g. chat rooms, MUDs, social networking sites and virtual worlds). In terms of perspective, while a small proportion takes purely an outsider approach (e.g. measuring or observing behaviour), 12 the majority are concerned with user inner experience. However, this is often in ways imposed from the outside researcher perspective, with methods such as questionnaires and deductive analysis where the researcher determines how findings are structured and tests them against hypotheses developed from previous research or theories. 13 A minority take an insider perspective, conducting

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__________________________________________________________________ interviews accessing virtual environment users’ experience in ways determined by research participants and/or with the researcher acting as a participant observer. 14 Given the focus of the present research is the experience of the Self, the present research programme seeks to put the virtual world user and their insider perspective central. Table 1: Overview of research conducted with respect to the experience of the Self in virtual environments. 15

3. Developing a Methodological Approach To achieve this objective of putting the insider perspective of the virtual world user central, the programme has three core methodological pillars. A. Emphasis on the Person This places emphasis on the users of virtual worlds and not the environment they reside. The research is informed by two approaches to research. The first is a theoretical approach, the Social Psychology of Cyberplaces, developed by Riva & Galimberti and Brivio et. al. 16 It is based on the premise that users of computermediated communication are not just technology users but social actors with their own aims and autonomy in situations. It emphasises the mediated interactions of users in the context of the social worlds they inhabit in Cyberspace i.e. Cyberplaces, rather than merely Cyberspace, the Internet, or technology per se. 17 In essence it draws upon Activity Theory, although as already demonstrated the emphasis of mediated interactions in specific contexts also applies to Symbolic Interaction. The second informing approach is methodological. Generally, given ‘the ultimate goal of qualitative research is to understand those being studied from their perspective’, 18 the present research has a qualitative emphasis. It is particularly

Simon Evans 203 __________________________________________________________________ influenced by the ethnographic tradition, in its open-ended practice based on participation, observation and research reflexivity, and focus on exploration, interpretation and meanings. 19 It specifically takes the stance of ‘digital ethnography’, which is not concerned with virtual environments per se, but how the tools of ethnography and digital media offer understanding for human culture and places the person at the centre of the research. 20 B. Immersion This concerns immersion into the field of study. Although in some cases it is appropriate to use techniques purely situated in the physical world, 21 insight depends on access to private experience in environments potentially unfamiliar to the researcher. For virtual worlds, conducting research ‘in the field’ (or ‘in-world’) has a number of benefits: it provides investigation of phenomena in their environment; it allows participant anonymity, potentially important for those who maintain separation between physical and virtual worlds; and it allows access to participants irrespective of physical location and cultural environment. 22 Immersion into these environments is key: everyday virtual life is constituted by practices within specific technological frameworks which require familiarisation. This is important because virtual world researchers must pay attention to ‘selfpresentation’ to establish themselves as ‘a bona fide researcher and trustworthy recipient of confidences’ 23 and hence time must be spent becoming familiar with the environment. 24 Hence, the expertise of the researcher in engaging with virtual environment practices and technology (e.g. avatar appearance, use of language, movement) impact on the representation of themselves, their institution and researchers generally, as well as the successful achievement of research objectives. However, an important consideration is avoidance of ‘going native’, losing critical external perspective and adoption of viewpoint that is shared in the field: the challenge is to become immersed while maintaining a fuse of commitment and distance. 25 In the present case, the research focuses on the Second Life virtual world; the researcher has been a user of Second Life since December 2007 and conducting research since February 2009, hence credentials as a ‘bona fide researcher’ are well established. C. Induction Rather than Deduction The third pillar concerns the inductive approach to research, i.e. allowing findings to emerge from the field and from data collected there, rather than imposing any researcher-led preconceptions upon data. Emphasis on the field means that the user’s insider perspective is central, as well as partially offsetting imposition of researcher-led preconceptions upon data which may be subject to ‘going native’. This inductive approach is applied both at data collection and data analysis. In data collection there is an emphasis on semi-structured interviews and discussions,

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__________________________________________________________________ rather than tightly structured questionnaires or interviews. While a topic guide is employed to provide ‘an easy and comfortable framework for discussion’, 26 discussions can be led by what emerges from participants’ responses. For data analysis, there is an emphasis on inductive thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is ‘a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally organises and describes your data in (rich) detail’. 27An inductive approach derives themes through a cyclical process of analysing and re-analysing the data, rather than applying a predetermined thematic framework and analysing data in relation to it. 28 4. Example Findings and Implications for Methods: A Player Taxonomy To illustrate the approach in practice, it is useful to consider one area of the present research, that of activities. This area seeks to develop a Player Taxonomy which categorises activities undertaken by virtual world users and provide insight into motivations for virtual world participation. The specific question addressed in this aspect is: What are the activities undertaken in virtual worlds? The approach to addressing the question is informed by two aspects of current literature: the observation of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory that the Self is achieved through goal-oriented activity in particular contexts; 29 and existing typologies. Current typologies tend to focus on game-playing environments, e.g. Bartle’s MUD Player Types, Utz’s MUD player typology, Yee’s Factor Analysis of MMORPG players. 30 While they indicate a role for socialsing, immersion and role-playing, also potentially applicable to non-gaming environments, they indicate gaming activities specific to context or goal achievement. While existing typologies may be informative, the development of a Player Taxonomy specific to Second Life can potentially provide insight into activities and motivations particular to it, and their role in the emergence of Self. A. Methods in Developing a Player Taxonomy Existing typologies use a range of methods including qualitative analysis of a discussion forum (Bartle), cluster analysis of questionnaire data (Utz) and factor analysis of questionnaire data (Yee). In accordance with the capturing the insider perspective, the present Player Taxonomy is constructed inductively. Because activity and motivation in Second Life permeates all aspects of experience, the Player Taxonomy arises from all aspects of the research process irrespective of its necessary intention to illuminate activity. Evidence is drawn from in-world textual individual interviews and group discussions, observations and interviews conducted in the physical world, and observations arising from several years immersion. Specifically, the taxonomy is based on data arising from 87 interviews, two discussion groups and three physical world procedures, explained below. Individual interviews are appropriate since they can be used to investigate individual lifeworlds and subjects of a personal nature, hence accessing the insider

Simon Evans 205 __________________________________________________________________ perspective. The majority of interviews are in-world and using text for a number of reasons: the default communication in Second Life is text and many users feel more comfortable with text since English may not be their first language, have hearing or speaking difficulties, or prefer a boundary between Second Life and the physical world. Nevertheless, textual interviews arguably involve a reduced form of communication (e.g. no body language) and reduced data (due to self-editing and the dependence on typing capability), as well potentially providing meanings specific to the interaction between interviewer and interviewee. However, other data collection can help supplement and verify findings emerging from interviews alone. Group discussions are useful on two levels: for allowing investigation of issues and for observing the consensus making and disagreement regarding those issues. Hence, in this case, group discussions can verify themes arising from individual interviews and allow observation of joint meaning making with respect to experience of Self. In-world group discussions using text differ in complexion from their physical counterpart: multiple streams of discussion may occur simultaneously; and interactions may occur both in the open forum and in private between participants or between participant and discussion moderator using the virtual world private message facility. Consequently, the researcher must be skilled in moderating and monitoring multiple discussions and teasing out main themes in the subsequent analytic process. The third strand comprises physical world individual interviews and observations, based on the Subjective Evidence-Based Ethnography (SEBE) procedure. This uses ‘subcams’, mini-cameras attached to spectacles worn by the participant and recording the participant’s perspective in a particular activity; the recording is used as a prompt for subsequent depth interviews with the participant discussing the processes in that activity. 31 In this case, a subcam is used to record a participant’s typical Second Life usage, capturing in-world activity and the physical world context within which it is framed. The procedure depends on trust between participant and researcher in allowing first-hand access to private worlds and in crossing from virtual research participation to physical. This necessitates extensive preparation to ensure this trust is developed, including addressing ethical concerns regarding the informed consent of both the participant and any interactants with whom they may have contact during the course of their activities in the virtual world. This method is a prime example of ‘insider perspective’ technique. B. The Player Taxonomy and Its Implications The Player Taxonomy provides a classification of the types of users within Second Life, based on the experience they seek, motivations for using Second Life, and their relationship with the virtual world itself. Given the insider perspective adopted and the qualitative methodologies employed it does not offer any

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__________________________________________________________________ indication of the extent to which these categories apply across users, nor are the categories mutually exclusive. An overview is in Table 2. Table 2: Summary of The Player Taxonomy.

Simon Evans 207 __________________________________________________________________ While there are similarities with existing typologies, it provides further insight into the characteristics of, and motivations for, usage. The analysis reinforces the role of social activities and relationships, but places them in the context of broader motivations (e.g. extending what is possible in the physical world) rather than as an end in themselves. It indicates activities which immerse users into the virtual world (e.g. role-playing), but again in the context of broader motivations (e.g. treating Second Life as a game). Activities that provide a sense of achievement are also included, particularly in the Resource User category, although not necessarily an end in itself but attained as a by-product of particular activities. The Taxonomy indicates how a person’s motivations and understandings of Second Life guide the activities they undertake, which then feedback into experience of Self. For example, a person seeking to use Second Life to earn money may engage in entrepreneurial activity, gain relevant skills and hence build a representation of themselves based on that activity. By adopting the insider perspective, it is possible to develop a Taxonomy that provides insight into not necessarily what types of activities are engaged in in virtual worlds, but the purpose they serve and hence their role in the emergence of Self. 5. Conclusions By considering the example of understanding the experience of Self in virtual worlds, this chapter has sought to demonstrate the role and implications for adopting the insider perspective of virtual world users. There are two main outcomes. Firstly, accessing the insider perspective provides insight into the experience of Self in virtual worlds not necessarily possible otherwise. A review of previous research considering experience of Self indicates that while seeking to access the insider perspective, they may be structured by the outside perspective of the researcher. True insider perspective is achieved by becoming immersed in virtual worlds, using open-ended research techniques and inductive analysis that allows themes that are important to virtual world users’ experience to emerge. However, gaining such insight is not trivial, since immersion, open-ended research techniques and inductive analysis are time consuming and complex undertakings. In the present case, the researcher has been resident and researching in one virtual world for a number of years, allowing him to develop credentials as an authentic user of Second Life and a ‘bona fide’ researcher. Over this time a pool of participants has been amassed and relationships based in trust developed, that allow the researcher privileged access into the private worlds of virtual users. It is through attaining this privileged access, that insight and understanding of the experience of the Self in virtual worlds is gained.

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Notes 1

Ben Agger, The Virtual Self: A Contemporary Sociology, 21st-Century Sociology (Malden, MA ; Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 1. 2 John Baressi, ‘From the Thought Is the Thinker to the Voice Is the Speaker: William James and the Dialogical Self’, Theory & Psychology 12.2 (2002): 23942; Laura Robinson, ‘The Cyberself: The Self-Ing Project Goes Online, Symbolic Interaction in the Digital Age’, New Media & Society 9.1 (2007): 94-96. 3 George H. Mead, The Social Psychology of George Herbet Mead (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956). 4 Mind, Self and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), 142. 5 Anthony Elliot, Concepts of the Self (Cambridge: Polity, 2001), 31. 6 Bonnie A. Nardi, ‘Studying Context: A Comparison of Activity Theory, Situated Action Models and Distributed Cognition,’ in Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, ed. Bonnie A. Nardi (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1996), 37-38. 7 Anna Stetsenko and Igor M. Arievitch, ‘The Self in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: Reclaiming the Unity of Social and Individual Dimensions of Human Development’, Theory & Psychology 14.4 (2004): 484. 8 There are examples of research applying Symbolic Interaction and Activity Theory to understanding virtual environment phenomena. These include: Zizi Papacharissi, ‘The Presentation of Self in Virtual Life: Characteristics of Personal Home Pages’, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79.3 (2002): 643-60. Eleonara Brivio, Francesca Cilento Ibarra, and Carlo Galimberti, ‘An Integrated Approach to Interactions in Cyberplaces,’ in Handbook of Research on Discourse Behaviour and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction, ed. Rotimi Taiwo (Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2010), 810-29; Carlo Galimberti and Giuseppe Riva, ‘Actors, Artifacts and InterActions: Outline for a Social Psychology of Cyberspace,’ in Towards Cyberspychology: Mind, Cognition and Society in the Internet Age, ed. Giuseppe Riva and Carlo Galimberti (Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2001), 3-18; Giuseppe Riva and Carlo Galimberti, ‘The Psychology of Cyberspace: A Socio-Cognitive Framework to Computer-Mediated Communication’, New Ideas in Psychology 15.2 (1997): 141-58. 9 Examples are: Katherine Bessiere, A. Fleming Seay, and Sara Kiesler, ‘The Ideal Elf: Identity Exploration in World of Warcraft’, CyberPsychology and Behaviour 10.4 (2007): 530-35; Richard L. Gilbert, Jessica A. Foss, and Nora A. Murphy, ‘Multiple Personality Order: Physical and Personal Characteristics of the Self, Primary Avatar and Alt,’ in Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds, ed. Anna Peachey and Mark Childs (London: SpringerVerlag, 2011), 213-34; Sonja Utz, ‘Social Information Processing in Muds: The

Simon Evans 209 __________________________________________________________________ Development of Friendships in Virtual Worlds’, Journal of Online Behavior 1.1 (2000). 10 For example: Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995). 11 For example: Kristine L. Nowak and Frank Biocca, ‘The Effect of Agency and Anthropomorphism on Users' Sense of Telepresence, Copresence and Social Presence in Virtual Environments’, Presence 12.5 (2003): 481-94 ; Helen Harris et al., ‘The Evolution of Social Behaviour over Time in Second Life’, Presence 18.6 (2009): 434-48; Tom Postmes, Russell Spears, and Martin Lea, ‘Breaching or Building Social Boundaries: Side-Effects of Computer-Mediated Communication’, Communication Research 25.6 (1998): 689-715. 12 Examples are: Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson, and Nicolas Ducheneaut, ‘The Proteus Effect: Implications of Transformed Digital Self-Representation on Online and Offline Behavior’, Communication Research 36.2 (2009): 285-312; Shanyang Zhao, Sherri Grasmuck, and Jason Martin, ‘Identity Construction on Facebook: Digital Empowerment in Anchored Relationships’, Computers in Human Behaviour 24.5 (2008): 1816-36. 13 For example: Nick Yee, ‘The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online RolePlaying Games:Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage,’ in Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, ed. Ralph Schroeder and Ann-Sofie Axelsson, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (London: Springer, 2006), 187-207. 14 Examples are: T. L. Taylor, ‘Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds,’ in The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, ed. Ralph Schroeder (London: Springer-Verlag, 2002), 40-62; Maeva Veerapen, ‘Encountering Onself and the Other: A Case Study of Identity Formation in Second Life,’ in Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds, ed. Anna Peachey and Mark Childs (London: SpringerVerlag, 2011), 81-100. 15 One of the examples is mixed-methods and so is included twice in research approach. 16 For work relating to, and developing, Social Psychology of Cyberplaces see: Riva and Galimberti, ‘The Psychology of Cyberspace: A Socio-Cognitive Framework to Computer-Mediated Communication’; Giuseppe Riva and Carlo Galimberti, ‘The Mind in the Web: Psychology in the Internet Age’, CyberPsychology & Behavior 4.1 (2001): 1-5; Brivio, Ibarra, and Galimberti, ‘An Integrated Approach to Interactions in Cyberplaces’. 17 Dennis D. Waskul, Self-Games and Body-Play: Personhood in Online Chat and Cybersex (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), 20-24.

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__________________________________________________________________ 18

G.E. Gorman et al., Qualitative Research for the Information Professional: A Practical Handbook (London: Library Association Publishing, 2007), 23. 19 For principles of ethnography see: Robert V. Kozinets, ‘The Field Behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities’, Journal of Marketing Research 39.1 (2002): 62-66; Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2007). 20 For details of the digital ethnographic approach see: David Masten and Tim M. P. Plowman, ‘Digital Ethnography: The Next Wave in Understanding the Consumer Experience’, Design Management Journal 14.2 (2003): 75-81; Dhiraj Murthy, ‘Digital Ethnography: An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research’, Sociology 42.5 (2008): 837-55. 21 For example, Sherry Turkle makes extensive use of physical world interviews and observations; see: Sherry Turkle, ‘Parallel Lives: Working on Identity in Virtual Space,’ in Constructing the Self in a Mediated World., ed. Debra Grodin and Thomas R. Lindlof, Inquiries in Social Construction (Thousand Oaks, CA US: Sage Publications, Inc, 1996), 156-75; The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (Twentieth Anniversary Edition) (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005); Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (New York: Basic Books, 2011). 22 Samantha Henderson and Michael Gilding, ‘'I've Never Clicked This Much with Anyone in My Life': Trust and Hyperpersonal Communication in Online Friendships’, New Media & Society 6.4 (2004): 493-4; Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Revised ed. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000), 12; Michael Herbert, ‘Online: An Introduction,’ Association for Qualitative Research, http://www.aqr.org.uk/inbrief/document.shtml?doc=michael.herbert.05-012001.onlineintro. 23 Christine Hine, ‘Research Relationships and Online Relationships: Introduction,’ in Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet., ed. Christine Hine (Oxford: Berg, 2005), 20. 24 Shailey Minocha, Minh Quang Tran, and Ahmad John Reeves, ‘Conducting Empirical Research in Virtual Worlds: Experiences from Two Projects in Second Life’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 3.1 (2010). 25 Uwe Flick, An Introduction to Qualitative Research, 4th ed. (London: Sage, 2009), 229. 26 George Gaskell, ‘Individual and Group Interviewing,’ in Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook, ed. Martin W. Bauer and George Gaskell (London: Sage, 2000), 40. 27 Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology,’ Qualitative Research in Psychology 3.2 (2006): 79.

Simon Evans 211 __________________________________________________________________ 28

Braun and Clarke, ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology,’ 83-85. Stetsenko and Arievitch, ‘The Self in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: Reclaiming the Unity of Social and Individual Dimensions of Human Development.’ 30 Richard Bartle, ‘Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit Muds,’ (1986). Utz, ‘Social Information Processing in Muds: The Development of Friendships in Virtual Worlds’; Nick Yee, ‘Motivations for Play in Online Games’, CyberPsychology & Behavior 9.6 (2006): 772-75. 31 Saadi Lahlou, ‘How Can We Capture the Subject’s Perspective? An EvidenceBased Approach for the Social Scientist’, Social Science Information 50.3/4 (2011): 607-55. 29

Bibliography Agger, Ben. The Virtual Self : A Contemporary Sociology. 21st-Century Sociology. Malden, MA ; Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. Bailenson, Jeremy N., Nick Yee, Dan Merget, and Ralph Schroeder. ‘The Effect of Behavioral Realism and Form Realism of Real-Time Avatar Faces on Verbal Disclosure, Nonverbal Disclosure, Emotion Recognition and Copresence in Dyadic Interaction’. Presence 15.4 (2006): 359-72. Baressi, John. ‘From the Thought Is the Thinker to the Voice Is the Speaker: William James and the Dialogical Self’. Theory & Psychology 12.2 (2002): 23750. Bartle, Richard. ‘Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit Muds’ (1986), http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm. Bessiere, Katherine, A. Fleming Seay, and Sara Kiesler. ‘The Ideal Elf: Identity Exploration in World of Warcraft’. CyberPsychology and Behaviour 10.4 (2007): 530-35. Brake, David. ‘Shaping the Me in Myspace’. Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-Representations in New Media, edited by Knut Lundby, 285-300. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology’. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3.2 (2006): 77-101.

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__________________________________________________________________ Brivio, Eleonara, Francesca Cilento Ibarra, and Carlo Galimberti. ‘An Integrated Approach to Interactions in Cyberplaces’. Handbook of Research on Discourse Behaviour and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction, edited by Rotimi Taiwo, 810-29. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2010. Cole, Helena, and Mark D. Griffiths. ‘Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers’. CyberPsychology & Behavior 10.4 (2007): 575-83. Ducheneaut, Nicolas, Ming-Hui Wen, Nicholas Yee, and Greg Wadley. ‘Body and Mind: A Study of Avatar Personalisation in Three Virtual Worlds’. Paper presented at the CHI 2009, Boston, Massachussetts, 2009. Elliot, Anthony. Concepts of the Self. Cambridge: Polity, 2001. Flick, Uwe. An Introduction to Qualitative Research. 4th ed. London: Sage, 2009. Galimberti, Carlo, and Giuseppe Riva. ‘Actors, Artifacts and Inter-Actions: Outline for a Social Psychology of Cyberspace’. Towards Cyberspychology: Mind, Cognition and Society in the Internet Age, edited by Giuseppe Riva and Carlo Galimberti, 3-18. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2001. Gaskell, George. ‘Individual and Group Interviewing’. Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook, edited by Martin W. Bauer and George Gaskell, 38-56. London: Sage, 2000. Gilbert, Richard L., Jessica A. Foss, and Nora A. Murphy. ‘Multiple Personality Order: Physical and Personal Characteristics of the Self, Primary Avatar and Alt’. Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds, edited by Anna Peachey and Mark Childs, 213-34. London: Springer-Verlag, 2011. Gilbert, Richard L., Nora A. Murphy, and M. Clementina Ávalos. ‘Realism, Idealization, and Potential Negative Impact of 3d Virtual Relationships’. Computers in Human Behavior 27.5 (2011): 2039-46. Gorman, G.E., Peter R. Clayton, Mary L. Rice-Lively, and Lyn Gorman. Qualitative Research for the Information Professional: A Practical Handbook. London: Library Association Publishing, 2007.

Simon Evans 213 __________________________________________________________________ Hammersley, Martyn, and Paul Atkinson. Ethnography: Principles in Practice. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2007. Harris, Helen, Jeremy N. Bailenson, Alexia Nielsen, and Nick Yee. ‘The Evolution of Social Behaviour over Time in Second Life’. Presence 18.6 (2009): 434-48. Henderson, Samantha, and Michael Gilding. ‘I’ve Never Clicked This Much with Anyone in My Life: Trust and Hyperpersonal Communication in Online Friendships’. New Media & Society 6.4 (2004): 487-506. Herbert, Michael. ‘Online: An Introduction’. Association for Qualitative Research, http://www.aqr.org.uk/inbrief/document.shtml?doc=michael.herbert.05-012001.onlineintro. Hine, Christine. ‘Research Relationships and Online Relationships: Introduction’. Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, edited by Christine Hine, 17-20. Oxford: Berg, 2005. Katz, James E., and Philip Aspden. ‘A Nation of Strangers?’ Communications of the ACM 40.12 (1997): 81-86. Kozinets, Robert V. ‘The Field Behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities’. Journal of Marketing Research 39.1 (2002): 61-72. Lahlou, Saadi. ‘How Can We Capture the Subject’s Perspective? An EvidenceBased Approach for the Social Scientist’. Social Science Information 50.3/4 (2011): 607-55. Liao, Christine. ‘Virtual Fashion Play as Embodied Identity Re/Assembling: Second Life Fashion bloggers and Their Avatar Bodies’. Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds, edited by Anna Peachey and Mark Childs, 101-27. London: Springer-Verlag, 2011. Masten, David, and Tim M. P. Plowman. ‘Digital Ethnography: The Next Wave in Understanding the Consumer Experience’. Design Management Journal 14.2 (2003): 75-81. Mead, George H. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

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__________________________________________________________________ ———. The Social Psychology of George Herbet Mead. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956. Minocha, Shailey, Minh Quang Tran, and Ahmad John Reeves. ‘Conducting Empirical Research in Virtual Worlds: Experiences from Two Projects in Second Life’. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 3.1 (2010). Murthy, Dhiraj. ‘Digital Ethnography: An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research’. Sociology 42.5 (2008): 837-55. Nardi, Bonnie A. ‘Studying Context: A Comparison of Activity Theory, Situated Action Models and Distributed Cognition’. Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, edited by Bonnie A. Nardi, 69-101. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1996. Nowak, Kristine L. and Frank Biocca. ‘The Effect of Agency and Anthropomorphism on Users' Sense of Telepresence, Copresence and Social Presence in Virtual Environments’. Presence 12.5 (2003): 481-94. Papacharissi, Zizi. ‘The Presentation of Self in Virtual Life: Characteristics of Personal Home Pages’. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79.3 (2002): 643-60. Peris, R., M. A. Gimeno, D. Pinazo, G. Ortet, V. Carrero, M. Sanchiz, and I. Ibañez. ‘Online Chat Rooms: Virtual Spaces of Interaction for Socially Oriented People’. CyberPsychology & Behavior 5.1 (2002): 43-51. Postmes, Tom, Russell Spears, and Martin Lea. ‘Breaching or Building Social Boundaries: Side-Effects of Computer-Mediated Communication’. Communication Research 25.6 (1998): 689-715. Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Revised ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000. Riva, Giuseppe, and Carlo Galimberti. ‘The Mind in the Web: Psychology in the Internet Age’. CyberPsychology & Behavior 4.1 (2001): 1-5. ———. ‘The Psychology of Cyberspace: A Socio-Cognitive Framework to Computer-Mediated Communication’. New Ideas in Psychology 15.2 (1997): 14158.

Simon Evans 215 __________________________________________________________________ Robinson, Laura. ‘The Cyberself: The Self-Ing Project Goes Online, Symbolic Interaction in the Digital Age’. New Media & Society 9.1 (2007): 93-110. Sproull, Lee, and Sara Kiesler. ‘Reducing Social Context Cues: Electronic Mail in Organizational Communication’. Management Science 32.11 (1986): 1492-512. Stetsenko, Anna, and Igor M. Arievitch. ‘The Self in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: Reclaiming the Unity of Social and Individual Dimensions of Human Development’. Theory & Psychology 14.4 (2004): 475-503. Taylor, T. L. ‘Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds’. The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, edited by Ralph Schroeder, 40-62. London: Springer-Verlag, 2002. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011. ———. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ———. ‘Parallel Lives: Working on Identity in Virtual Space’. Constructing the Self in a Mediated World, edited by Debra Grodin and Thomas R. Lindlof. Inquiries in Social Construction, 156-75. Thousand Oaks, CA US: Sage Publications, Inc, 1996. ———. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (Twentieth Anniversary Edition). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005. Utz, Sonja. ‘Social Information Processing in Muds: The Development of Friendships in Virtual Worlds’. Journal of Online Behavior 1.1 (2000). Vasalou, Asimina, Adam Joinson, Tanja Banzinger, Peter Goldie, and Jeremy Pitt. ‘Avatars in Social Media: Balancing Accuracy, Playfulness and Embodied Messages’. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 66.11 (2008): 80111. Veerapen, Maeva. ‘Encountering Onself and the Other: A Case Study of Identity Formation in Second Life’. Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds, edited by Anna Peachey and Mark Childs, 81-100. London: Springer-Verlag, 2011.

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__________________________________________________________________ Walther, Joseph B. ‘Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal and Hyperpersonal Interaction’. Communication Research 23.1 (1996): 3-43. Waskul, Dennis D. Self-Games and Body-Play: Personhood in Online Chat and Cybersex. New York: Peter Lang, 2003. Yee, Nick. ‘Motivations for Play in Online Games’. CyberPsychology & Behavior 9.6 (2006): 772-75. ———. ‘The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games:Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage’. Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, edited by Ralph Schroeder and Ann-Sofie Axelsson. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 187-207. London: Springer, 2006. Yee, Nick, Jeremy N. Bailenson, and Nicolas Ducheneaut. ‘The Proteus Effect: Implications of Transformed Digital Self-Representation on Online and Offline Behavior’. Communication Research 36.2 (2009): 285-312. Yee, Nick, Jeremy N. Bailenson, Mark Urbanek, Francis Chang, and Dan Merget. ‘The Unbearable Likeness of Being Digital: The Persistence of Nonverbal Social Norms in Online Virtual Environments’. CyberPsychology & Behavior 10.1 (2007): 115-21. Yi, Zhao, Wang Weiquan, and Zhu Yan. ‘Antecedents of the Closeness of HumanAvatar Relationships in a Virtual World’. Journal of Database Management 21.2 (2010): 41-68. Zhao, Shanyang, Sherri Grasmuck, and Jason Martin. ‘Identity Construction on Facebook: Digital Empowerment in Anchored Relationships’. Computers in Human Behaviour 24.5 (2008): 1816-36. Simon Evans is a PhD student at the Institute of Social Psychology in the London School of Economics. His interest is the implications of virtual environments on how we may theorise the Self with his introduction to the Second Life virtual world in 2007. His doctoral thesis explores these implications with a research programme that uses various methods, including observation, interviews and group discussions, and this conducted both within virtual environments and the physical world. His research is ESRC funded, grant number ES/1025111/1.

Simon Evans 217 __________________________________________________________________ Appendix: Overview of the Research Reviewed

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The Syntagmatic Cathedral: Experiential Learning through Flow-Waves of Immersion, Engagements and Reflection in a Multiplatform Paradigm Lorraine Smith Abstract In 2012 I completed some ethnographically styled research representing a snapshot of the multi-platform Internet use of four adolescents in the Southwest of England. Through these in-depth case studies I argued how young people are co-constructing unique multi-platform Internet spaces, combining online social networking and multiplayer computer games, to develop transformative arenas in which to journey through their rites of passage from childhood into adulthood. That thesis arose as a result of observing specific phenomenological behaviour in the way adolescents were interacting with Internet interfaces: not as discrete applications, tools, or resources, but as a way of co-creating and using shared space. In order to answer my original research question, ‘What’s in it for them?’ I argued for a critical rethink of how we conceptualise adolescent multi-platform Internet space: theorising my field-site as a place of play, ritual and learning and defining this cocreated and inhabited space generically, not by temporal parameters but by the function it serves. More pertinent to this chapter is the hybrid methodology I adopted, the field data arising from it, and more specifically the significance of both for studying learner interactions with online virtual world (vw) and digital games. By repeatedly asking ‘What are you doing now?’ and ‘Why are you doing that? I was able to map how each individual interacted with their own multiplatform paradigm by flowing seamlessly between states of engagement, immersion and reflection. Using a grounded research approach allowed for the emergence of both a new theoretical paradigm, The Syntagmatic Cathedral, to describe heterotopic adolescent multi-platform Internet space; and a new term, flow-waves, to describe unique rhythms of individual’s activity (through states of engagement, immersion and reflection) within it. This chapter discusses these concepts and the implications of both for understanding experiential learning in virtual worlds. Key Words: Computer games, adolescents, Internet culture, immersion, the syntagmatic cathedral, flow. ***** 1. Introduction: You Can Lead a Horse to Water But You Can’t Make it Drink Commenting on attempts to re-engage disaffected young learners with educational curriculum through the platform of computer games, David

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__________________________________________________________________ Buckingham paraphrased Paul Gee’s sentiments, writing in 2008 ‘... some researchers have argued that the way forward here is for educators to pay closer attention to the nature of learning in apparently ‘non- educational’ games ...’. 1 I propose that the way forward is to pay closer attention to the nature and autonomous activities of young people themselves. If your teenagers are awake they’re probably online; and any parent can tell you, it is practically impossible to get adolescent offspring to do anything unless there is something in it for them, some benefit/ gain or value. Inherent motivations are integral to the learning process, so drawing on a rich heritage of ethnographically styled media and cultural precedents, I set out to study a small sample of electively home educated young people hoping to illuminate the evolving nature of adolescent’s engagements in learning. Four findings emerged from using this grounded approach: that for these young people meaningful interaction with the Internet remained synonymous with playing online computer games; that motivations for long periods of focused temporal investment in online activities were primarily social; that these adolescents were interacting with multiplatform Internet technology not as an application of tools or resources but as a way of co-creating and using shared space; and that their technologically mediated activity within this multi-platform paradigm was enacted through unique individual flow-waves between temporal states of engagement, immersion and reflection. New analytical frameworks investigating our behaviours within vw and digital games have emerged from within a variety of academic disciplines, for example: Frasca's, 2007, ‘gameworld’ and ‘playformance’ taxonomy, from games studies; Burn & Carr’s, 2008, motivational theory from social-semiotics; Calleja’s, 2011, ‘player engagement model’, also from games studies; and Gilbert and Forney’s, 2013, identity mapping project ‘The Distributed Self’, from psychology. In the development of best practice, robust, repeatable, research methodology, it is important that the most appropriate analytical frameworks are chosen for each research context. This chapter presents a critical rethink of how we conceptualise authentic adolescent Internet space to encompass emerging cultural practices of simultaneous multi-platform use; introduces The Syntagmatic Cathedral as a theoretical paradigm; and the notion of flow-waves as an analytical framework for discussing experiential learning within it. 2. What is a Multi-platform Field-Site? Increasingly, young people are inhabiting perpetually existing virtual worlds via, not one, but simultaneous multiple platform interfaces. In each of my case studies the contextualising physical environment and hardware were easy to define: X-box games-consoles, networked microphone-headsets, Smartphones, Netbooks, and PC. All software ‘apps’ (applications) fell within the two genres of computer games and social networking. During a one hour pilot study, undertaken to ascertain the most effective research methodology, I noticed how C1 (aged 14) was

Lorraine Smith 221 __________________________________________________________________ co-creating a virtual space, through multiple platforms, predominantly with one particular friend, C2 (aged 13). Fascinated at how this extended the boundaries of my field-site beyond specific technological platforms, I began to define the multiplatform arena not as a geo-virtual location, nor as dispersed nodal points across parameters of space or time, but by its use value. As a point of departure for ‘meaning making’ I theorised this space as a site of play and ritual. A. A Place of Play When asked to let me research their multi-platform Internet use, all of the young people I observed, without exception, focused on sharing with me their favourite computer games. For these young people, ‘games’ were synonymous with ‘Internet use’. This is not a new finding but this salient revelation shaped my thoughts: as theoretical frameworks around ‘play’ , 2 ‘games’ 3 and ‘gameworlds’ 4 became important lenses for contemplating, defining and contextualising ‘fieldsite’. The notion of a ‘magic circle’ has permeated cultural theories since originally used, by Huizinga in 1955, as one term amongst many to illustrate play as taking place in a bounded arena ‘standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life’. 5 But notions of the Internet are not separate from everyday life 6 and I address the multiplatform field-site as being ‘understood and assimilated somewhere in particular’: 7 not a polarised relationship between a person’s physical environment and their entry into virtual computer gameplay, but an interplay of platforms in which each individual’s contextualising cultural environment, social connections, shared knowledge and ‘technicities’ 8 combine to create uniquely meaningful, lived experiences. There is a large body of contemporary research investigating current pedagogic practices (delivering institutional curriculum through computer games and other elearning platforms), but little that studies emerging, authentic, adolescent multiplatform use (co-creation, inhabitation and interaction) as a point of departure. B. A Place of Ritual? My previous argument, ‘that adolescents are co-constructing unique multiplatform Internet spaces ... to develop arenas in which to journey through their own ‘rites of passage’, from childhood into adulthood’, was predicated on understanding that the ritualised aspects of avatar identities (created within constructed MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) ‘magic circles’), and player’s relationships with trophies collected through guided questing narratives, applies to all areas of multi-platform Internet use (not just games). In developing that chapter I revisited Walter Benjamin’s seminal 1936 paper 9 as a lens to theorise our evolving relationships with both virtual spaces and the objects within them. No longer in an ‘age of mechanical reproduction’ we have moved, fleetingly through a transitional era of digital representation (the epoch from analogue to digital technology), into one of perpetual presence in multiple

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__________________________________________________________________ virtualities. Our existence in cyberspace is constantly facilitated through avatars, SMS postings and audio-visual archive platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. In relation to configuring adolescent multi-platform use I concentrated on relevant discourses around space, time, perception, aura and ritual use value, rather than Benjamin’s 20th century socio-political ideologies. I previously argued that time, space and ritual use value are all germane demarcations of field-site for socio-cultural ethnographers. I am now suggesting that these parameters should also be considered by educational theorists as valuable discourses when citing learning in virtual worlds. Both Benjamin, in 1936, and Foucault, in 1967, observed that our mode of (sense) perception changes along with our mode of existence and our notion of time and space both alter with changes in our modes of perception. 10 Benjamin argued that these perceptions altered because of our shifting relationship with objects in the ‘Age of Mechanical Reproduction’. I am suggesting that the shift from our dichotomous Internet relationship (engaged through a single screen) to a multiplicitous one (mediated through multiple simultaneous interconnected screen interfaces) marks another significant paradigmatic shift in ‘humanities mode of existence’: one of evolutionary significance because of its affect on our spatial cognition and sensory perceptions (notions of) time/space. In centuries past, new technologies of printed word and mechanical reproduction had a revolutionary effect upon learning and school education, giving rise to institutionalised pedagogic models. Through engaging with vw and game paradigms, new learning practices and pedagogic approaches arise organically. I now present an adaptable new model emerging from authentic autonomous ‘zeitgeist’ cultural (adolescent) behaviour. 3. The Syntagmatic Cathedral A ’Syntagm’ is a bundle of meaningful signs; and the adolescent multi-platform Internet world is a cacophony of 2D and 3D intertextual multimodal codes: where meaning is created from symbolic and cultural audio-visual cues within SMS and virtual ‘gameworld’ texts (voice, music, instant messaging, graphic icons, still and moving images). But, why ‘Cathedral’? Referring to Winnicot’s notions of play, 11 framed liminal and liminoid qualities of MMORPGs as transitional; 12 in fact the whole Gesamtkunstwerke of adolescent Internet constructs (not only games) function as transitional arenas. I first mapped adolescent multi-platform interaction as Venn diagrams:

Lorraine Smith 223 __________________________________________________________________

Image 1: Venn representations of case study, multiplatform Internet interfaces. © 2013. Courtesy of the author In these illustrations the central overlapping area represents a ‘magic circle’ of virtual immersion; its elliptical offshoots areas of engagement (spanning borderlands of virtual and physical); and a circumference of the whole area of corporeal reflection. However, this model lacked notions of interconnected on-line world-web activity. Finding case study adolescents were interacting with multiplatform Internet paradigms by co-creating and using shared space (as both meeting places and sites of transition) lead to the analogy of ‘Cathedral’.

Image 2: Plan view representing a ‘Syntagmatic Cathedral’ (based on Bramante’s plan for St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City). © 2013. Image courtesy of the author Early church architecture was based on the Roman ‘Basilica’ (meeting place) and adolescent ‘communities of interest’ share in creating use value from their congregation. Defining a notion of adolescent multi-platform paradigm by the function it serves allowed for the emergence of The Syntagmatic Cathedral as a

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__________________________________________________________________ new model. The interconnecting aisles in this diagram, based on Bramante’s plan for St Peter’s Basilica Vatican City, represent corridors of multi-platform interfaces acting as portals, through which engaged narrative journeys are enacted. More appropriately modelled in 3D, these threads converge, like branching structures of a Cathedral’s crossing (the architectural construct where the transept intersects the nave), in an immersive sphere (rather than ‘magic circle’); and window alcoves represent areas of wider cross border (virtual/physical) contemplation: corporeal reflection. In this new model, each adolescent’s unique performance functions like ‘the editing process supplying the ‘integration code’, the means of synchronising the elements through a common rhythm.’ 13 Just as game narrative is linked to the player’s location and movement through space, so meaning making within The Syntagmatic Cathedral is facilitated by each adolescent’s narrative journey of integrative movements between the multipleplatform. 4. Conclusion and Implications for Understanding Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds We inherently know that shifts in the way we use the Internet, from static reception to more interactive co-producing behaviours (beyond Web 2.0) is reshaping the way we learn. I was a media lecturer but the re-ignition of my own academic enthusiasm came when I found myself unexpectedly becoming an elective home educator, drifting organically into child lead autonomous pedagogies. Believing in Ryle’s profound, 1949, observation that whether you particularly like, respect or understand what a person is paying attention to in any given moment it is where their intelligence is most efficiently being deployed, 14 lead me to understand that, whether they like it or not, young people are co-creating multi-platform landscapes which function as optimum learning environments. Through grounded research approach this snapshot of case studies revealed how the transformative adolescent multi-platform arena is not defined by its bounded technological landscape but by its socio-functional (ritual-use) value; using hybrid methodology elucidated how activity within it was enacted through unique, individual, rhythms between temporal states of engagement, immersion and reflection. I called these rhythmical patterns, across the times and spaces inherent in multi-tasking multi-platform Internet screens, flow-waves alluding to both: a. Douglas and Hargadon’s description of a state in which readers are simultaneously immersed and engaged; 15 and b. The term ‘deep-flow’ describing a highly motivated, intensely pleasurable, euphoric yet focused, interactive absorption ... simultaneously cognitively challenging and emotionally rewarding ... which psychologist

Lorraine Smith 225 __________________________________________________________________ Csikszentmihalyi environment. 16

described

as

an

optimal

learning

In 2011 Calleja discussed valid concerns about the over-use and vagueness of the phrase ‘immersion’, but I don’t agree that its use ‘diminishes in analytical value’ 17 as long as it is concisely and usefully defined. In my work I use the terms: a. ‘Immersion’ to describe particular observations of research participants becoming totally submerged (in a trance like state), through specific interactions within a chosen virtual, or game, world (as indicated by a lack of response to direct verbal questioning) ... moments when it appeared that they had crossed some ethereal ‘tissue boundary’, which cognitively and experientially separated them from a sense of time and space bounded by physical environment. b. ‘Engagement’ to describe more critical, cognitive, temporal investments; indicated by wider, either single or multiplatform, physio-virtual field-site activity; and c. ‘Reflection’ to describe moments when they (literally) sat back, seemed to disengage from all Internet platforms but were clearly digesting information ... akin to classroom daydreaming (which is crucial for learning). Experiential learning is learning through doing. Applying hybrid ethnographically styled multimodal social semiotic methodology produces measurable data: recording seamless flows between states of immersion within the game, engagements with the wider multimodal environment, and periods of reflective contemplation. This data maps into existing contemporary frameworks such as David Kolb’s ‘Experiential Learning Model’ 18 (active experimentation enacted through immersion, abstract conceptualisation through engagement and concrete contextualised experience through reflective observation), and Calleja’s six dimensions of ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ involvement within the vw/gameworld 19. In the authentic adolescent Syntagmatic Cathedral learning is facilitated by feedback from peers and reflection is a crucial part of the experiential learning process (using this model as a framework allows for AFK (Away From Keyboard) to be viewed as reflective moments of knowledge assimilation). As a pragmatic analytical research framework, recording further flow-waves of authentic adolescent activity within The Syntagmatic Cathedral could be applied to deepen our understanding of autonomous knowledge transfer and develop pedagogic approaches for experiential learning in virtual worlds which might potentially help to ‘re-engage disaffected young learners’.

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Diane Carr et al., Computer Games: Text, Narrative and Play (Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press, 2006): 4. 2 Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955); Roger Caillois Man, Play and Games, (New York, Free Press of Glencoe, 1961); Brian Sutton-Smith, The Games of New Zealand Children (Berkeley: University of California Press.1959); Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (Masachusettes Institute of Technology, 2004). 3 Jesper Juul, ‘Introduction to Game Time’, in First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004): 131–142. 4 Espen Aarseth, Computer Game Studies, Year One 1, No. 1 (2001), viewed 15 April 2013, http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/; Gonzalo Frasca, Play the Message: Play, Game and Videogame Rhetoric (PhD Dissertation, IT University of Copenhagen Denmark, 2007), viewed 15 April 2013. http://www.powerfulrobot.com/Frasca_Play_the_Message_PhD.pdf. 5 Huizinga, Homo Ludens, 1955, 10 6 Kevin Leander and Kelly McKim, ‘Tracing the Everyday ‘Sitings’ of Adolescents on the Internet: A Strategic Adaptation of Ethnography Across Online and Offline Spaces’, Education, Communication, & Information (2003) 211–240. 7 Daniel Miller and Don Slater, The Internet, an Ethnographic Approach (Berg, Oxford, 2000): 1. 8 John Dovey and Helena Kennedy, Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media (McGraw-Hill International, 2006). 9 Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, (1936), Viewed 15 April 2013, http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm. 10 Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936. 11 Donald Winnicot, Playing and Reality (London: Tavistock, 1971). 12 Dovey and Kennedy, Game Cultures, 35 13 Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2001): 1–2. 14 Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Osmania University, 1951) 15 Yellowlees Douglas and Andrew Hargadon, The Pleasures of Immersion and Engagement: Schemas, Scripts and the Fifth Business (Digital Creativity 2001): 12: 153–166. Viewed 15 April 2013, http://andrewhargadon.com/Release/Hargadon_DigCr_5th%20Bus.pdf. 16 Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996)

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Gordon Calleja, In Game: From Immersion to Incorporation (Masachusettes Institute of Technology, 2011). 18 David A Kolb and Ron Fry, ‘Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential Learning’, in Theories of Group Process, ed. C. Cooper (London: John Wiley, 1975) 19 Gordon Calleja, In Game: From Immersion to Incorporation, 2011.

Bibliography Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. (1939). Viewed 15 April 2013. http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm. Carr, Diane, David Buckingham, Andrew Burn and Gareth Schott. Computer Games: Text, Narrative and Play, Cambridge and Oxford Polity Press, 2006. Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial, 1996. Dovey, John and Helen W. Kennedy. Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2006. Frasca, Gonzalo. ‘Play the Message: Play, Game and Videogame Rhetoric’. Ph.D. diss. IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007. Viewed 11 April 2012. www.powerfulrobot.com/Frasca_Play_the_Message_PhD.pdf. Foucault, Michel. Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias, 1967. Viewed 31 May 2012. http://foucault.info. Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Harviainen, Tomas. Player-Reported Impediments to Game-Based Learning, June 2012. Proceedings of 2012 DiGRA Nordi. Viewed 29 March 2013. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/12168.02279.pdf. Hock-koon, Sébastien. Affordances of Elliptical Learning in Arcade Video Games. Proceedings of 2012 DiGRA Nordic, June 2012. Viewed 29 March 2013. http://www.digra.org/dl/db/12168.59440.pdf.

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__________________________________________________________________ Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955. Kolb, David A, and Ron Fry. ‘Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential Learning.’ Theories of Group Process, edited by C. Cooper. London: John Wiley, 1975. Leander, Kevin, and Kelly McKim. ‘Tracing the Everyday ‘Sitings’ of Adolescents on the Internet: A Strategic Adaptation of Ethnography across Online and 0ffline Spaces’. Education, Communication & Information 3 (2003): 211–240. Mitchell, Alice, and Carol Savill-Smith, The Use of Computer and Video Games for Learning: A Review of the Literature. Viewed 20 January 2013. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5270/1/041529.pdf. Smith, Lorraine. What’s in it for them? Adolescents and Multi-Platform Internet Use: A New Paradigm. ICLC proceedings, NIDA. 2012 Lorraine Smith is a documentary filmmaker and media educator with an MA in Media, Culture and Communication from the Institute of Education, University of London. Contact [email protected]; tweet @MediaCultureUK http://syntagmaticcathedral.blogspot.com.

The Mechanism of Additional Personal Identification’s Appearance in Computer Role Games Demilhanova Angelina Abstract This chapter covers the virtual reality of computer games and peculiarity of its influence on personal identity. And, for the first time, the virtual reality analyses in context of the well-known Lacan’s Mirror stage. The methods of research were the content analysis, and the psychodiagnostics method. The main conclusion is that people, who play computer role games, experience changing of self-identification. It can develop into appearance of additional personal identification. This mechanism of such identification is similar to the identification mechanism which takes place in early childhood at the ‘Mirror Stage’ described in the works of Jacques Lacan. Key Words: Mirror stage, identification, virtual reality, additional personal identification. ***** 1. Introduction It is very popular nowadays to speak about the virtual reality. Especially popular are the researchers of the reality created with computers. The virtual reality is closely concerned with game’s phenomenon today. But, in spite of such wide interest to the theme of virtual reality, the psychological mechanisms of involving to artificial game reality are poorly analysed. The purpose of this research is to explore the influence of virtual reality on the psyche of the person who plays computer role games. At the beginning of the 2000s it was a new social problem for Kyrgyzstan as well as for other CIS countries. There were not a lot of computer owners at that time and Internet café and clubs were very popular, especially among young people. Separate groups of customers in this café and clubs were young males playing Computer Role Games (This is not the ‘RPG’ as in computer classification. The role computer games in psychology classification means that the playing person takes the role of computer personage. The game makes a person to be a computer hero). 1 Most of these customers spend a lot of time (and money) playing at these cafes. We assumed that this type of activity might affect their personalities or be connected with some personality traits. Within this group we selected a sample for our research. The following criteria were used as a basis of determining the selection: 1- intensity/activity of participation in computer role games (not less than 1 year); 2- regularity of

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__________________________________________________________________ participation (daily); 3- long hours spent in front of the computer (5-7 hours per day). 2. Method of Research For researching the influence of virtual reality on psyche of the person, who plays computer role games, we used the following methods: the Leary Interpersonal Behavior Test, Mini-Mult (a short version of MMPI test), ‘Who am I’ test by Kuhn-McPartland, the projective techniques: House-Tree-Person Test by Buck, Draw-a-person by Machover, Draw-A-Person-In-The-Rain by Oster and Gould), and Non-existent Animal by Dukarevich. A group of 82 individuals at the age from 18 to 26 was tested. Average age of the tested persons was 20.9. Average ‘experience’ of participation in computer role games – 3.2 years, regularity of using computer games – 3.6 hours per day at average. All tested individuals were males. This group was called ‘gamers’. For the ‘control group’, 80 male persons of the same age were selected from non-customers of the clubs. The main criteria for selection was the following: they should be active computer/Internet users but not involved in regular playing computer games. 3. The Main Results One of the most interesting results of this research was the location of several men’s figures in ‘Draw-A-Person-In-The-Rain’ test (9.5 % of drawings) and drawings where the figure of a man has a mirror reflection in addition (3.7 % of drawings) (Image 1). This kinds of drawings were not represented in the control group.

Image 1: The Examples of Several Men’s Figures in ‘Draw- A – Person -In-TheRain’ Test. © 2013. Images courtesy of the author

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__________________________________________________________________ In order to explain this phenomenon, refer to the works of the famous French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Lacan proposes that human infants pass through a stage, in which an external image of the body (reflected in a mirror, or represented to the infant through the mother or primary caregiver) produces a psychic response that gives rise to the mental representation of an ‘I’. 2 The infant identifies with the image, which serves as a gestalt of the infant's emerging perceptions of selfhood. For Lacan, the mirror stage establishes the ego as fundamentally dependent upon external objects. When player enters to a space of computer game, chooses a character and begins to play, he sees himself on a computer screen as a specific character. Separation and visualization occurs at that time. The Internal and External separates. The External I – at the display, and the Internal I – as subject. It is important to understand that the identification of infant depends on his external visual image. So we have a visual image in virtual reality, which also comes from the outside, from the external, from the display of computer game. There are also some researches where computer games are described in terms of a doubling reality where a narrative view of the game shows: ‘In terms of the player – avatar relation, the player here has a dual function. In one sense, the player fuses with the avatar: both of them are the Actor, both do the attacking. Yet, in another sense, the player is like a puppeteer, pulling the character’s strings, or even a kind of author, composing sequence within a restricted language as part of rule-based structure of causality…’ The battle scenes are structurally separated from the larger narrative of the game, and make impact upon it. The cinematic element also contributes to the interactive work of the text, positioning the player in particular ways in relation to the action and the characters (Burn and Parker, 2001). Whereas in the rest of the game we are usually positioned much lower down, alongside the characters, as if fighting with them. The experience of play would therefore seem to entail an oscillation between two contrasting ways of relating to the protagonist-avatar. At one moment, we are laying Cloud, while at another we are watching his story unfold…different positions may be differently valued – or even differently ‘occupied’ – by different players.’ 3 But when we describe this phenomenon in terms of Lacan, the eye we are seeing in the mirror, (in case of a computer game the character’s eye at display), is an object - not the eye of the subject but his estranged representation. 4 4. The Other Results The results of Timothy Leary's test shows that the real self description, the ideal self description and the nick name (the virtual self-description) is very different. We assume that these distinctions can be consequences of changing selfidentification.

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__________________________________________________________________ We discovered, that increase of the octant ‘managerial- autocratic’ in description of nick name can be the consequence of the absence of social evaluation of own actions. Also we can say that there is a sociopath in the group of gamers. It is expressed in combination of high level of anxiety and disregard to the social responsibility, and also in non-productive activity. This activity is not focused on social contacts, but on own feelings and introspection. We can find in Lacan’s theory that the transcending from own personality (a view on myself from the outside introspection) is connected with introspection, which is always realized from the outside (from the outside self position). We suppose that the preponderance of ‘Reflexive features’ category (according to the ‘Who am I’ test) was concerned with the predominant meaning of the internal experience and feelings, as compared with external experience. In the ‘Reflexive features’ category, features such as dominance, egocentrism, identification with virtual personages were prominent. All these and other features we explain as poor unformed presentation of the self. That is why there is a tendency towards self-determination. This is demonstrated by the ‘seeking’ category answers in the ‘Who am I’ test. The gamers answer that they are in search of themselves, and that they want to determine who they are. Test features that highlight this include incomplete figures, abstract figures, and a figure with mechanical objects in ‘Non-existent Animal’ test also supporting the notion of an unformed presentation of self. The projective drawing tests allow us to make a suggestion that gamers have a sense of danger in the objective reality. And as consequence under the perception of real world they have imaginary life reception. The group of gamers also has difficulties in gender identification. 5. Discussion Changing of identification can develop into the appearance of additional personal identification. We can make an assumption that ‘I’ forms with the body model at the same time. And the forming of such unity speeds up if the own subject’s ‘I’ is formed by an image of another person. Jacques Lacan discovered correspondence between the beginning moment of forming Ego and primary narcissist experience, so-called ‘Mirror stage’. ‘The mirror stage is not only a passing phase of human psychological development but also a model for the relationship between the ‘I’ and its image of itself’. 5

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Display (virtual reality) Introjection Projection

Subject

Visual image (computer personage)

Internal

Image 2: The Mechanism of Additional Personal Identifications Appearance. © 2013. Image courtesy of the author We can have here the possibility of returning to the mirror stage. It is not more than only a supposition, of course. But, as we can remember, the genital stage in Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory appears again the second time in puberty. We know this stage as phallic at first. Between the age of 3 and 6 the source of pleasure is the genitals. During this stage the children can investigate their sexual organ; also they can be interested in the questions of sexual relationships. Their ideas about adult sexuality are usual mistaken, and can be not exactly formulated. Freud supposed that most children understand the nature of sexual relations more clearly than their parents think. The latency stage begins after phallic. Freud described the latency phase as one of relative stability. No new organization of sexuality develops, and he did not pay a lot of attention to it. For this reason, this phase is not always mentioned in descriptions of his theory as one of the phases, but as a separate period. The genital stage is the fifth and final stage of Freud’s stages of psychosexual development that begins during puberty. ‘During this stage, the individual develops a strong interest in the opposite sex. If the other psychosexual stages have been successfully completed, the individual will develop into a well-balanced, warm, and caring adult.’ 6 It is possible that the mirror stage appears for the second time in human life. 6. Conclusion It can be stated that within the group of gamers there is an unformed selfidentification which is expressed in terms of uncertainty in describing physical identity, and predominance of abstract characteristics in self-description, selection of self-description categories related to search for self-identification and selfdetermination.

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__________________________________________________________________ In the group of gamers there are high indicators of egocentrism and dominance, negative relation to oneself, identifying oneself with virtual characters, as well the presence of problems with sex/gender-role identification. Primary identifications based on identifying with gestalt are called imaginary. Primary identifications are consequences of the ‘Mirror stage’. Lacan considers identifications appearing in the oedipal stage as secondary identifications. The secondary identification is symbolic. These identifications help the subject to enter to the Symbolic Order. We think that an unformed self-identification is connected with identification problems on the Mirror stage. We suggest that problems in describing physical identity in ‘Who am I’ test are a primary identification and it represents the imaginary order. Problems with sex/gender-role identification correspond to the Symbolic Order. We suppose that virtual reality combines the Imaginary, Symbolic order and the Real. Playing computer role games gives people the opportunity to experience the identification process again. The mechanism of appearance of additional identification forms that was discovered in our work lies on the fact, that the role character in computer game, which is an image of a real object, as a result of a chain of identifications, the subject integrates himself/herself through the introjection mechanism. This mechanism is similar to the identification mechanism which takes place in early childhood at the ‘Mirror Stage’ described in works of Jacques Lacan. In 1936, Jacque Lacan presented his first analytic report at the Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association in Marienbad on the ‘Mirror Stage’, but Ernest Jones, the chairman and the Freud’s biographer, interrupted and ended Lacan's reporting. This report formed the basis of his further studies. Lacan described the theme of double in this report for the first time. Lacan covers the problems of adaptation in the idea of mirror stage. He made a suggestion that in the process of adaptation a person tries to adjust the reality to himself, rather than adjusts himself towards the reality. And, as a result, a new ‘I’ appears. This is the double in actual fact. And person begins to identify himself with this double. We suppose that gamer identifies him with appearing in virtual reality double that in the process of a game a person tries to adjust to himself. And as a result the double (doppelganger), that existence we discovered in our experiment, appears. Thus Lacan’s idea in the field of adapting virtual reality to itself receives experimental affirmation.

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Aleksander Shmelev, ‘The World of Reparable Mistakes’, Computer Engineering and Its Practice (1988): 27-39. 2 CriticaLink, Lacan: The Mirror Stage, viewed 11 December 2012, http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/index.html. 3 Andrew Burn, ‘Playing Roles’ in Computer Games: Text, Narrative and Play. ed. Diane Carr, David Buckingham, Andrew Burn and Gareth Schott (London: Polity Press, 2006), 84-87. 4 Jacques Lacan, The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I, trans. Bruce Fink (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002). 5 Jacques Lacan, Book II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis (New York, 1991). 6 Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, trans. James Strachey (New York: Basic Books, 1962).

Bibliography Burn, Andrew. ‘Playing Roles’. Computer Games: Text, Narrative and Play, edited by Diane Carr, David Buckingham, Andrew Burn and Gareth Schott, 84-87. London: Polity Press, 2006. CriticaLink. Lacan: The Mirror Stage. Viewed 11 December 2012. http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/index.html. Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Translated by James Strachey. New York: Basic Books, 1962. Lacan, Jacques. Book I. Freud's Papers on Technique. New York, 1988. Lacan, Jacques. Book II: The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis. New York, 1991. Lacan, Jacques. The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I. Translated by Bruce Fink. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. Shmelev, Aleksander. ‘The World of Reparable Mistakes’, Computer Engineering and Its Practice (1988): 27-39. Wollheim, Richard. Sigmund Freud. Cambridge University Press, 1981.

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__________________________________________________________________ Angelina Demilhanova, psychologist, PhD, senior lecturer, psychology department, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). Specialist in deviant behavior, virtual reality, cyberspace and Internet-addiction. She has also practical experience in psychotherapy of drug and alcohol addiction.

Reading 3D Wor(l)ds: Poetic Words for the High Tech Generation Diogo Marques Abstract Concerning the mutable, three-dimensional, kinetic and tactile aspects of 3D words in works of digital poetry, it is my intention to outline a comprehensive analysis of this genre in virtual environments such as CAVEs and Second Life. I will try to demonstrate that in these virtual platforms words can behave as living organisms that establish a paradigmatic relationship of cyclic creation between both author and reader, referring to what I call Poetic Words for the High Tech Generation. Finally, this chapter will also state some evidence regarding the potentialities of digital poetry as an alternative method of teaching poetry through experiential learning, by analysing some of the studies conducted in reading and visualising habits through eye tracking technology. Key Words: Digital poetry, CAVES, Second Life, 3D words, kinetic words, eye tracking technology ***** (...) The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you CAN make words mean so many different things. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see? Quote from movie Alice in Wonderland (1951) 1. Introduction In the midst of a digital revolution where almost every field of knowledge is being influenced by digitality, the boundaries between fields tend to blur. By losing some of its characteristics that, not so long ago, were to be considered as unique to a given branch of knowledge, but also by gaining other new characteristics inherited from interdisciplinary and intermedia phenomenon that starts in the public sphere and already entered inside privileged spaces for sharing knowledge (e.g. academics). This mix between Arts, Literature, Computer Science or Design opened space for dialogue on causes and effects of some significant aspects of these works. For instance, on what concerns theory of reception, methods of creation, and especially its impact in the way people read and learn

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__________________________________________________________________ through digitality and virtuality, not only inside schools but also in every single aspect of our social lives. In this paradigmatic revolution, literature is no exception. Poetry, being one of its oldest branches, is now being created and read in new fashions that differ in almost every aspect from previous premises that were used to discuss traditional forms of literature. Recognised as being poetry by researchers and critics, and by few as being a genre of its own, digital poetry is born from experiments with generation of words in a poetic and aesthetic fashion through the usage of a computer, with the purpose of being experienced by its readers/users inside this particular environment. Words, a fundamental medium for these digital practices are changing their status, not only by losing its fixed, stable presentation, (e.g., its role in a printed book page) but by becoming three-dimensional animated objects. Among the role of poetic experiments that are being created and studied as works of digital poetry, there are also works that are now being designed inside virtual reality platforms such as virtual worlds, hence becoming powerful instruments of study in the debate around the usage of experiential learning through these digital and virtual environments. Digital poetry as a genre of its own, is a question that has been discussed since the 1990’s. Within this dialogue, some critics share the thought that digital poetry has a significant range of compatible characteristics with poetic proposals from the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde movements of the 20th century. In fact, despite lacking the access we now have to digital technology and the impossibility, at that time, of using somewhat recent advances in electronics the experimental innovations in arts since the beginning of the last century were crucial to what can be considered nowadays as a ‘new avant-garde consciousness’, 1 to quote critic Friedrich W. Block. According to Anna Katharina Schaffner, The concern with space and the parameters of surface is arguably one of the major poetic features of concrete poetry. Values such as positions of the signifier material, relationships between the linguistic elements and their spatial interaction, and distance, density and exact arrangement of the letter material gain structural and semantic significance. 2 However, from page to screen, with new features such as the capacity of morphing, as critic N. Katherine Hayles states, in these digital poetic practices, words go beyond a simple change into objects, becoming what Hayles calls ‘flickering signifiers’. 3 Moreover, David (Jhave) Johnston, Canadian digital artist and scholar, tells us that:

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__________________________________________________________________ The rudimentary 2D tools of italics, bold and underline are being superseded by an enriched set of expressive utilities: morphs, tweens, kinematics, etc… These devices bring voice and temporality, cadence and intonation, emotive structure and animated ambiguity onto the page-screen-skin. 4 Turning back to Schaffner, with the adding of two fundamental dimensions, ‘a temporal one, and the third dimension, the simulation of depth’, On the screen, space is no longer flat, but multiple layers of textual organisation become possible. The dimension of depth is added, foreground and background relations can be constructed, letters can be superimposed upon others, distance and proximity can be simulated. Writing becomes volumetric: letters can suddenly be viewed from all sides, from behind, below, above, they can be rotated and turned around their own axis like real objects in space. 5 Since, at least 1959, when Max Bense’s student Theo Lutz made his first stochastic text with the help of a computer, digitality and poetry evolved together towards new ways of using words with a poetic function. These digital poetic practices, despite of sharing some poetic and aesthetic characteristics, also tend to differ from each other, always depending of the platforms and according to every new platform that can be a potential space for experiments. Such is the case of poetic experiments in virtual reality environments. 2. Words which Are, which Aren’t... When I first started writing on 3D computer animated poems, 6 in its relation with virtual worlds, my first obstacle had to do with the definition of what could be considered as being a virtual world. As stated by Espen Aarseth, ‘Virtual’ is a dangerous word (...). It stems from the Middle Latin Virtualis – effective which comes from the Latin Virtus – strength or power (virtue). In modern times it has come to mean a substitute which contains some but not all of the original’s features, something which pretends to be, but isn’t. (...) The strong meaning of the term is simply self-contradictory (a reality which is which isn’t), but in reality the term is used synonymously with ‘digital’ or ‘computerized’. 7

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__________________________________________________________________ Following Aarseth, The distinguishing quality of the virtual world is that the system lets the participant observer play an active role, where he or she can experiment and test the system and discover the rules and structural qualities in the process. 8 Regarding classical definitions of the words virtual and world - summarizing the first as something that does not physically exists but is made to appear by software 9 and the latter as some kind of organized universe or cosmos - I would add another definition for virtual world. That is, a multidimensional computerised universe of simulated elements where its inhabitants can interact with and change the nature of these same elements through a gameplay experience. Given these definitions of virtual worlds, my second obstacle consisted in finding proper examples of digital poetry within virtual reality platforms. 10 For that purpose, I researched different examples of what I would call 3D poetic words (or worlds) for the high tech generation, since this definition leads to my final obstacle: to identify what kind of experiential learning can be found within these examples, concerning causes and effects of its usage for teaching and learning purposes. 3. Screen: Learning from Experience through ‘Literary Virtual Reality’ Screen, 11 an example of a poetic VR environment, and the kind of work that Karin Wenz defines as a ‘performative digital poem’, 12 is a CAVE 13 project collectively developed by a team of scholars, engineers and designers 14 at Brown University. This is an experience of ‘literary virtual reality’ originally designed to establish a connection between the virtual environment in a CAVE and the virtual and unstable space of human memory. It starts with a wall projection of words similar to those on a print page or wall poster where a voice reads the projected poem as the user moves along the space of a cube. Along the process of reading, words change from a linear reading perspective and start to peel off the walls swarming around the user at an increasing speed. This is the point where words start to change into 3D form, becoming volumetric and animated. By disrupting the previous reading experience, words ‘come to life’, allowing the user to play with it through the use of a data glove and to put it back into the wall to its original place (or in random blank spaces created by the continuous pealing). At this point, the audio experience also becomes disruptive by the continuous overlapping of words pronunciation. Through the reader’s body and action, a third level of reading comes to life, since words that are put back into the blank gaps start to create neologisms. The experience finishes with the total collapse of words and projection of random words here and there back to its initial 2D plane, turning it into a circular work of art, evidenced by Coover’s final words in its audio prologue, We

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__________________________________________________________________ retrieve what we can and try again, and also into what Noah Wardrip-Fruin considers being a ‘playable media’. 15 According to Aarseth, ‘games are closer to life, since they demand that we act to the best of our abilities, rather than passively observe the events’. 16 Operating on a z-axis, the effect of 3D flickering words in Screen turns readers into players, since, like inside most virtual reality platforms, a reader has to change its perspective towards objects, using its virtual body in order to perceive potential messages and perspectives given and transmitted by its elements. As Rita Raley states in the Iowa Review Web, it is a completely new mode of reading that this experiment provides to its users, (...) the players’ successful navigation and battle victories depend on their capacity to adapt to a space with a different spatial logic. So, too, a three-dimensional text – whether it be presented in the immersive reading environment of a CAVE, a game space, a QuickTime video, or a JavaScript poem – requires an adaptive flexibility that we might even call a new mode of reading, a ‘deep reading’. 17 However, with all the similarities we can establish between Screen and the universe of video games, - and here I would stress the very final words of Coover’s prologue, ‘try again’, a paradoxical message filled with resignation and resilience, establishing a connection with the experience players in videogames that are given several and several lives or opportunities to overcome a certain challenge -, in its conceptualization, and despite of its virtuality, Screen does not share all of the characteristics that a virtual world experience can provide to its users, since, and still according to Raley, it (...) does not create a ‘virtual landscape’ and thus departs from conventional VR aesthetics, which position the user above a virtual terrain. Screen is embedded in mimesis to the extent that its initial reading spaces resemble those of print pages, but it does not invite total immersion into a simulated natural environment. Its backdrop, rather, is that of a machinic letter space and the structure of the cube is one that will be replicated in many 3D texts. 18 With respect to experiential learning through the use of digital poetic practices, and despite of its lack of accessibility and of affordability problems with CAVE equipment, Screen nevertheless raises many of the topics that are being discussed when talking about learning with digitality and virtuality, one of the main reasons arguably being the possibility of experiencing a fourth level of reading already

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__________________________________________________________________ identified by Raley, i.e., (...) along the z-axis. That is, the user does not simply read the words as they circle around her but she also reads through and behind them to the text on the walls. In other words, it is deep reading in this other sense: reading volumetrically, reading surface to depth and back again. 19 This new kind of tactile and positional reading, using not only optics but also haptics (for tactile interaction and choice of words), also brings up the need for both visual and frequently digital literacies. Despite of a huge resistance from many sections of the academy, as digital poetry is becoming an issue being increasingly discussed and integrated within several curricula that frequently intertwine Literary Studies, Computer Science, Performance Studies, or Art and Design, up to a level without precedent, critics point to the necessity of a joint effort from both teachers and students. In fact, some present models of teaching and learning have to be questioned and revised, particularly when it comes to learn about concepts that derive from different areas, e.g., the three elements WardripFruin considers being fundamental when taking a course as the one offered by Brown university in New Media, First, there is the development of media tools that use computation to enable interaction and display. Second, there’s the development of media artefacts that employ (and inspire) these tools. Third, there’s critical and historical reflection on these developments. When we educate our students, they need to be educated in all three areas. And the thesis work of our students should include technical work, media authorship, and critical and historical context and inquiry. 20 4 What Remains: Virtual Words for Virtual Worlds Second Life, with its ups and downs concerning its user’s adhesion, is the kind of virtual world where one can find some examples of digital poetic practices, mainly through performative experiences that convert words into virtual objects with the purpose of being manipulated not only by its original authors but also by other ‘Residents’. Alan Sondheim’s performative poems in SL are an example of such practices. 21 His virtual digital performances with avatars, concerning significant aspects of the relation between analog and virtual bodies, question new ways of reading digital poetry frequently through subversion of the program’s initial premises. In What Remains, 22 a machinima artwork created within SL, according to Wenz,

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__________________________________________________________________ The text describes the process of modifications on the code level as well as a metaphorical level by referring to life, science and technology. On the visual level beside seeing an avatar who does not represent the ideal of a perfect, idealized body as most avatars in SL do, the graphical layer that is included additionally shows how 3-D objects in virtual environments are created on the basis of abstract, geometrical figures. 23 Also, following Wenz, since digital poetic practices studies and works frequently tend to focus more on the processes than on the objects, it might happen that readers/users can frequently experience a sense of frustration, since most often expectation is identical to the one applied in traditional ways of reading. That is the reason why such practices should also be studied as performances, with its concepts of participation being confronted with a need for a new visual and digital grammar. To these new ways of experiencing such practices, I would call digital experiential reading. 5. ‘To Play or not to Play’ It is known that, when reading a linear sequence of text, our eyes tend to make short rapid movements (saccades) mixed with short stops (fixations). 24 While in a poem with kinetic words, where sentences may exist although in an intensely spatial and temporal way, our gaze is pulled in the direction of a movement, turning the process of reading into a global reading where everything happens at the same time. Since it deals with global vision, where everything that is happening in the screen, and behind it, can be part of the text, visualization of digital poems has much to do with the way we watch a film sequence. Several studies on the importance of eye movements in scene perception, according to Rayner, 25 referring to eye tracking studiesconducted by Loftus and Macworth, tell us that, (...) participants get the gist of a scene very early in the process of looking, sometimes even from a single brief exposure. Thus, it has been advocated that the gist of a scene is abstracted on the first couple of fixations, and the remainder of the fixations on the scene are used to fill in details. 26 Moreover, Rayner also tells us that, in scene perception, as studied by Boyce and Pollatsek, ‘(...) if something moves, the movement drives the eyes to that location’. 27 Regarding the use of words in digital poetry, this might well explain the fact that most of the sentences in some well-known digital poems cannot be read and assimilated as a literary verse or stanza. Nevertheless, regarding eye movements in dynamic situations, it is a fact that, as in eyetracking studies concerning driving, where novice drivers behave

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__________________________________________________________________ differently from experienced drivers, an experienced reader in digital and visual texts will also behave differently from a novice reader, since this has everything to do with the need of a visual and digital grammar capable of providing tools in order to facilitate a full or potential understanding of potential embedded messages. Of course this is also true concerning eye movements where there is a need of interaction between hand and eyes (e.g., videogames and digital poetry where users/readers can have more or less control over the elements waiting to be read), where Rayner tells us that, according to Epelboim et al, ‘eye movements in such situations were more efficient when participants had to perform an action than when they simply had to look at the sequence’. 28 Also, if we analyze much of the research made with eye tracking technology concerning eye movements, in order to study visual attention with 3D worlds, despite of a greater focus on videogames, 29 we will certainly be able to take some conclusions for the use of three-dimensionality in digital poetry, namely when it comes to create it in virtual worlds. As an example, some of these studies suggest that there is some evidence that players easily get lost when experiencing 3D game environments. This may be due not only to the lack of digital and visual literacies, that can be obtained through experiential learning, but also due to possible flaws or imperfections in the work’s environment, e.g., in significant features such as ‘colour, brightness, contrast, orientation, shape, size, lines and motion’. In this field, and for programmers and designers of digital poetry in 3D environments, eye tracking studies would certainly improve their skills in order to capture engagement of users rather than provoking frustration. In addition, of course not forgetting ludology, because, either we want it or not, for this new high tech generation, it is all about having fun.

Notes 1

Friedrich W. Block, ‘Digital Poetics or On the Evolution of Experimental Media Poetry’ (2002), viewed 28 February 2013, http://www.netzliteratur.net/block/p0et1cs.html. 2 Anna K. Schaffner, ‘From Concrete to Digital. Reconceptualisation of Poetic Space’ (2006, 2), viewed 5 January 2013, http://www.logolalia.com/minimalistconcretepoetry/archives/Anna-KatharinaSchaffner-From-Concrete-To-Digital.pdf 3 N. Katherine Hayles, How we Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (Chicago & London. University of Chicago Press, 1999), 25. 4 David J. Johnston, ’Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe’, (PhD Diss., Concordia University, 2011), 148. 5 Schaffner, ‘From Concrete to Digital, 8.

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To create a 3D computer animated poem can be described as the ability to create and read a mu,ltidimensional kinetic poem by and through subverted use of a computer’s programming and/or modelling software and hardware. 7 Espen Aarseth. ‘We All Want To Change The World: The Ideology of Innovation in Digital Media’, in Digital Media Revisited, ed. Gunnar Liestøl, Andrew Morrison and Terje Rasmussen (MIT Press, 2003), 429. 8 Ibid., 431. 9 Onlyne Etimology Dictionary states that this definition is attested from 1959. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=virtual&allowed_in_frame=0. 10 Poems that can somehow be experienced by users, through a gameplay experience, inside a virtual and immersive multidimensional environment, with the possibility of intervention in the established order of the poem’s elements, hence giving words new meanings and forms, eventually not predicted by its original authors. 11 Screen (2003), viewed 13 January 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLChcV_a3o&feature=endscreen. 12 Karin Wenz, ‘The Role of the Reader in Performative Digital Poetry’ (ELMCIP, 2008), viewed 14 February 2013, http://elmcip.net/sites/default/files/attachments/criticalwriting/wenz_fullpaper.pdf 13 CAVE stands for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, an immersive virtual reality environment where projectors are directed to three, four, five or six of the walls of a room-sized cube. It can also be understood as having an indirect reference to Plato’s allegory of the Cave. 14 Members of this team included Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Robert Coover, Shawn Greenlee, Andrew McClain and Ben Shine, at that time, all from Brown University. 15 Noah Wardrip-Fruin, ‘Playable Media and Textual Instruments’, (Dichtung Digital 1. 2005), viewed 5 February 2013, http://www.dichtung-digital.de 16 Aarseth, ‘We All Want To Change The World: The Ideology of Innovation in Digital Media’, 434. 17 Rita Raley, ‘Editor’s Introduction: Writing, 3D’ (Iowa Review Web, 2006), viewed 8 January 2013, http://iowareview.uiowa.edu/TIRW/TIRW_Archive/september06/raley/editorsintro .html. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid. 20 Robert Simanowski, ‘Interview With Noah Wardrip-Fruin’ (2004), viewed 5 February 2013, http://www.dichtung-digital.de/2004/2/Wardrip-Fruin/index.htm.

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Alan Sondheim is a Brooklyn-based new media artist, musician, writer, and performer. For a complete biography and list of works please visit: http://www.eyebeam.org/people/alan-sondheim or www.alansondheim.org 22 What Remains (2009), viewed 15 March 2013, http://www.netfilmmakers.dk/exhibitions/real-un-real-renamed/whatremains_artwork/view 23 Wenz, ‘Role of the Reader in Performative Digital Poetry’. 24 In this process, when we try to read a line, in addition to a series of regressions in order to capture the meaning of a word or phrase, we also tend to direct our gaze ‘to a point just left of the centre of a word’ or precisely to its centre, with more frequency than to other locations24, as in a sentence, where our gaze is pointed to a chiefly central position of the sentence structure involved, causing the other elements of the phrase to blur or, in someway, to disappear. 25 Keith Rayner, ‘Eye Movements in Reading and Information Processing: 20 Years of Research’ (Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 124, Nº 3, Amherst, University of Massachussetts, 1998), 398. 26 In a previous essay written for another Interdisciplinary.Net conference on Visual Literacies, I already introduced the theme of eyetracking technology studies in relation with digital poetry and the process of reading digital poems. 27 Rayner, ‘Eye Movements in Reading and Information Processing’, 402. 28 Ibid., 403. 26 As an example, please refer to the study on ‘Visual Attention on 3D Video Games’, conducted by Magy Seif El-Nasr and Su Yan, in 2006. ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology. Hollywood. Doi:10.1145/1178823.1178849.

Bibliography Aarseth, Espen. ‘We All Want To Change The World: The Ideology of Innovation in Digital Media’. In Digital Media Revisited, ed. Gunnar Liestøl, Andrew Morrison and Terje Rasmussen. MIT Press. 2003, 415. Block, Friedrich, W. ‘Digital Poetics or On the Evolution of Experimental Media Poetry’. In Netzliteratur. 2002, viewed 28 February 2013, http://www.netzliteratur.net/block/p0et1cs.html. Hayles, N. Katherine. How we Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago & London. University of Chicago Press. 1999, 25.

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__________________________________________________________________ Johnston, David J. ‘Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe’. 2011. PhD Dissertation, Concordia University. 2011. p. 148. Raley, Rita, ‘Editor’s Introduction: Writing. 3D’. Iowa Review Web. 2006, viewed 8 January 2013, http://iowareview.uiowa.edu/TIRW/TIRW_Archive/september06/raley/editorsintro .html Rayner, Keith. ‘Eye Movements in Reading and Information Processing: 20 Years of Research’. In Psychological Bulletin. Amherst: University of Massachussetts, 1998, 372-422. Schaffner, Anna K. ‘From Concrete to Digital. Reconceptualisation of Poetic Space’. 2006, 2, viewed 5 January 2013, http://www.logolalia.com/minimalistconcretepoetry/archives/Anna-KatharinaSchaffner-From-Concrete-To-Digital.pdf Wardrip-Fruin, Noah. ‘Playable Media and Textual Instruments’. In Dichtung Digital 1. 2005, viewed 5 February 2013, http://www.dichtung-digital.de Wenz, Karin. ‘The Role of the Reader in Performative Digital Poetry’. In ELMCIP. 2008, viewed 14 February 2013, http://elmcip.net/sites/default/files/attachments/criticalwriting/wenz_fullpaper.pdf Diogo Marques ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. Student in Literature at the University of Évora, Portugal, and a researcher in Centro de Estudos em Letras, CEL, Portugal. His present field of research deals with causes and effects of new modes of reading through visual and digital poetry.

Methods and Ethics in Virtual World Research: The Second Life Experience Paul Jerry Abstract Research in virtual worlds focuses on one of several points of contact. Research has been conducted on the people who use virtual worlds. It has been conducted on the means of entering and using virtual worlds such as the viewer or related software. It has also been done on the activities that are possible within a virtual world, especially from an educational stand-point. Finally, research has been conducted on the behaviour of people in virtual worlds. On this last point, works such as Boellstorff’s anthropological treatise on Second LifeTM and Meadows’ personal immersion in Second Life open a discussion of what it means to be a resident of a virtual world at the same time as being a researcher of that world. How do we manage boundaries and roles? How do we enact the necessary research ethics? What do we study, how and why? This contribution examines research methods in virtual worlds, with an emphasis on those that examine human/avatar behaviour in these spaces. The discussion includes issues of communicating research ethics and post-research interaction with participants. Key Words: Research, ethics, Second LifeTM, virtual world, immersion, ethnography, method. ***** 1. Introduction: What are We Researching? (Or Should That Be ‘Who?’) A review of recent literature suggests that researchers of virtual worlds (vws) tend to focus on one (or more) of four aspects of these spaces. These include the human beings who are engaged in virtual worlds, 1 the technology that allows us into vws, the many and various things one can do once logged in (see for example the work of recent ELVW conference participants) 2 as well as the many and various ways the data generated in virtual worlds can be examined (see for example Volume 3, Number 3 of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.) 3 Finally, there is the behaviour and experience of the avatar/person as they live their virtual life. 4 As noted elsewhere 5 until recently (see for example Tavares-Jones, this volume) most of the work done on the people who use virtual worlds has come in the form of demographics – primarily marketing, looking at who uses vws, and somewhat less so, why. 6 Much less common is the examination of the technology of vws. In spite of active discussions in the blogosphere about different viewers (SL versus third-

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__________________________________________________________________ party) and user experience in vws, little empirical work has been done on the technology that gives us access. 7 By far the largest grouping of studies is with regard to what we do in vws, including the many possibilities of their use for education and training. Virtual worlds have been used to train safety in contexts where real-world simulations would be too dangerous. The have been used to provide pre-training experience in simulations such as nursing scenarios and education, workplace safety, large-scale construction and harsh environment survival. A fourth area of study has also received high profile attention. Boellstorff’s 8 anthropological exploration of Second Life is well-known. Less well-known, and pre-dating Boellstorff’s work is Meadows’ immersive meditation on the culture of avatar and Second Life based on his continuous lived experience. 9 What people do – or more specifically, what avatars do as people in their everyday virtual lives is an object of research. It is in this area that I will direct most of my comments. Finally there is also the exploration of the interaction between multiple selves or locations of agency and the interconnection between the virtual and off-line (or so-called ‘real world’) experiences. 10 For the purposes of this discussion, I will include this category of research in the former. It seems that when one is examining the behaviour of avatars-as-people in a virtual space, one is also examining the behaviour of the person behind the avatar, if not explicitly, then certainly implicitly. 2. Second Life Jerry and Tavares-Jones 11 cite Bell’s definition of a virtual world, ‘A synchronous, persistent network of people, represented as avatars, facilitated by networked computers.’ 12 Although not the only vw available, I have spent my own research time in Second Life and my comments are directed to experience in this medium. Second Life’s persistent 3D environment allows residents to build, create, interact and live. Linden Labs, the company that owns Second Life™ places few restrictions on everyday behaviour of residents. An individual wishing to enter this virtual world first creates an account, chooses a basic avatar which they will use to navigate in-world, and downloads a viewer that allows them access to both their avatar and the virtual world. Once logged in, an individual uses their avatar to navigate a 3D environment. At the time of writing, the breakdown of the top 50 sims (places to go/things to do) in Second Life was 50% moderate, 40% adult, and 10% PG. 13 These proportions have shifted slightly since last year with the slight increases in moderate and adult coming at the cost of the PG sims. 14 3. Ethics and the Challenge of Human Interaction For the purposes of this chapter, a discussion of ethics will be limited to the forms of ethics as found in research and in the professions. Both areas of applied

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__________________________________________________________________ ethics are grounded in various ethical traditions including deontology (the ethical duty to act in a manner that is ‘good’ or ‘right’), a kind of ‘reverse consequentialism’ (consequentialism being summed as ‘the ends justify the means’, and the reverse of this, being ethical reasoning based on preventing a given set of ends); role ethics (in this case, highlighting the fiduciary responsibility of maintaining a defined role such as ‘researcher’), and pragmatics (considering the social context and the impact of ethical action on the bigger picture). 15 In the case of research in a virtual world, these many philosophical points come down to a necessary practicality – how to balance the desire to explore with the need to minimize harm, among other points. Any researcher positioned in an academic institution will be subject to rules and regulations regarding the conduct of their research. University Research Ethics Boards (REB) sometimes referred to as Institutional Review Boards (IRB), are tasked with review and oversight of research activities and form a kind of gateway between the researcher and his or her research activities. In the Canadian context, the Tri-Council Policy Statement 16 guides REB reviews of human subjects research. The ethical principles that guide research in Canada include respect for: human dignity; free and informed consent; vulnerable persons; privacy and confidentiality; and justice and inclusiveness. 17 It also requires the ‘balancing of harm and benefits’ with the aim of minimizing harm and maximizing benefits of research. 18 In practice, all research that will involve a human subject needs to account for these principles in the execution of the study, and this must be cleared or approved by a REB. 4. Paradigm, Methods and Ethics Before we can discuss methods, we must make a nod to the issue of paradigm as it will have some implication for ethics. In research, a paradigm is the overall philosophical approach one takes to knowledge and its exploration. Although this might constitute a broad brush, Tashakkori and Teddlie propose two major divisions in paradigm, the ‘positivist/empiricist approach or the constructivist/phenomenological orientation.’ 19 Historically there has been a philosophical rift where proponents of one or the other paradigm have refused to acknowledge the validity of each paradigm’s evidence used to make a truth claim. 20 In simpler terms, the empiricists do not consider the phenomenologists’ methods or data to be valid, and vice versa. The usual arguments are that the empiricist’s objectivity in observation is not so, whereas the phenomenologist’s immersion in experience invalidates their conclusions. Understandably, methods are determined in part by the phenomenon being studied. In my rough categorization in Section 1, each category of phenomenon would lend itself to different methods albeit with considerable cross-applicability. In part, because of the works of Boellstorff and Meadows, both authors immersing themselves in and living ‘Second Lives’, the paradigm that appears to garner more

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__________________________________________________________________ focus when examining in-world behaviour, is that of the phenomenologists. This is not to say that empirical studies or mixed-methods approaches have not been used. In fact, a method of lived experience leading to observation, leading to formal sampling (such as with a survey or interview) is not unheard of in Second Life research. Previously, Boellstorff has offered a typology of ethnographic methods along a continuum of ‘real-world’ to ‘virtual world’ exploration. 21 What this chapter lacked was a more hands-on approach to guide researchers’ work in vws. As of 2012, Boellstorff, Nardi, Pearce and Taylor’s Ethnography and Virtual Worlds 22 serves as a guide to examining behaviour in vws. Primarily a text on ethnography as applied to the virtual environment, it brings forward some questions that are, at the same time, basic to good research and yet still need to be articulated in the virtual context. The authors make it clear that their work is meant as a practical handbook and as such will have applicability as well as limitations. 23 What may be missing for some researchers are the ethical implications of various ethnographic methods. 4.1 Naturalistic Observation As a method, observing a phenomenon in its natural state is perhaps the most simple. For example, a researcher interested in crowd response to political speeches might attend a rally or convention and observe the phenomenon at hand. During and after the observation, the researcher may document the observations and, ethically, the only issues that pertain are the potential identification of individuals involved in the observation, and whether or not the phenomenon observed was staged to solicit specific reactions. In absence of these two issues, this method would normally be considered minimal risk. A researcher choosing this method may not have to have their work reviewed by a REB. 4.2 Participant Observation As a method of research, participant observation is likely the most common in anthropological research. Boellstorff et al. make the point that in some contexts, it is not possible to study a virtual world without being immersed as a participant because these ‘venue[s] are not available without full participation.’ 24 In other words, it may not be possible to engage in a minimal risk naturalistic observation of virtual experience because it is necessary to be immersed as part of the ‘price of admission.’ The ethical question with regard to data in this context rests on the extent of participation. Given that this is not simple observation, the potential use of material generated in interaction with others suggests that principals of consent and privacy need to be attended to. While still potentially classed as minimal risk, this method supposes activities that would be best reviewed by a REB.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4.3 Listening Posts/Observer This method is a variation on the previous two methods. Effectively, this is a method to attempt to control for observational bias and marks a subtle departure from pure phenomenology. The idea of a listening post is that a researcher chooses one or more locations and visits them consistently to make observations and/or to participate in a specific experience as part of an on-going study. The consistent observation is a means of establishing a fixed view point and to a degree contains or brackets the phenomenon being observed. This method moves closer to the kind of observation in which the context is staged (if only because the researcher becomes a predictable part of the landscape) and once again, might be classed as minimal risk but nonetheless in need of REB review. 5. Issues in Methods that Lead to Questions of Ethics in Virtual Worlds Several issues in research ethics come to a head when placed in the context of vws and the methods just mentioned. These include the consideration of public space, the question of secondary data, and the presence of a Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Standards document that regulates the use of content and conversation in Second Life specifically. 5.1 Second Life as a Public Space One can argue that Second Life is a public space, or at least mimics a public space. Orum and Neal define a public space as ‘all areas that are open and accessible to all members of the public in a society, in principle though not necessarily in practice’. 25 Barring the obvious issue that to access this so-called public space, one has to download a viewer and log in to a server, much of Second Life™ is set up to mimic the appearance (Neal’s socio-spatial perspective 26) of public space. Is it erroneous to consider ‘public’ something that has the appearance of public, but is in reality a space generated virtually? Certainly residents of Second Life treat public spaces as such. There is a distinction between private and public land. There is a sense that conversation is public spaces is open to all. Does this mean that a researcher could, under the rubric of naturalistic observation sit and record the goings on of a specific public space, listening-post-style, and not require REB review for the ensuing study? 5.2 The Question of Secondary Data Some REBs have ruled that chat logs and/or discussion forum postings in public bulletin boards or courseware like Moodle is ‘secondary data’ and not subject to REB review. The argument is often this: As long as the original chat or postings are stripped of identifying details, they are fair game for analysis without the consent of the original posters/chatters. This argument is particularly put forth when the researcher is not part of the original team that gathered the data. In other

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__________________________________________________________________ words, if my colleagues generate chat logs as part of training in Second Life, I could ask to make use of those chat logs, stripped of identity, to perform a (for example) discourse analysis on the text itself. The argument is that my object of research is the text – a secondary artefact, and not the people who generated the text in the first place (the human subjects that I would have to have approval for). Hine grappled with this issue as far back as the mid-1990s in asking what constitutes data, and artefact in on-line discussions. 27 To date, this issue has not been resolved universally, although with the advent of privacy laws through the 2000’s and changes to legislation regarding the ownership of data, researchers would be wise to take a conservative approach and seek REB approval for secondary data use. As a cautionary tale, Stanton provides an example of the use of public forum postings as secondary data where insufficient attention to risk led to disastrous consequences in a virtual community of sexual abuse survivors. 28 5.3 A Unique Feature of Second Life: The Terms of Service and Community Standards In Second Life’s Terms of Service 29 (ToS) a resident of Second Life is expected to follow a set of Community Standards as part of their agreeing to the ToS. The Community Standards 30 include a statement about disclosure. In whole, it reads, Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Life experience. Sharing personal information about your fellow Residents without their consent – including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, alternate account names, and real-world location beyond what is provided by them in their Resident profile – is not allowed. Remotely monitoring conversations in Second Life, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without the participants' consent are all prohibited. 31 [Italics added] It appears that any direct use of chat logs in Second Life, even as secondary data would not be allowed without consent, and the need to ask for consent places any research done in Second Life under the purview of a REB. 5.4 The Issue of Multiple Roles – Researcher as Resident What of the researcher who is also an active resident of Second Life? How does one differentiate between time spent in recreation and time spent as a researcher? How does one manage contact with participants after the research has finished? One source for negotiating these issues might be found in the form professional ethics. Professional ethics differs from research ethics in that it will provide guidelines for managing relationships in the professional context. 32 In the most

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__________________________________________________________________ simplistic sense, this might just be a variation of the application of certain professional ethical standards to research, given their relatively close connection conceptually. 33 Managing ethnographic and personal immersion in virtual worlds might be managed by examining dual role guidelines that professionals use when working in rural and remote environments. A review of an example set of dual role guidelines reveals that dual roles are not necessarily prohibited but they require careful management. 34 In most cases, management of dual roles involves communication and documentation, with the deliberate reflection on action that will minimize harm in any given situation. 6. Concluding Comments Stanton provides an excellent review of the ethical concerns residents of virtual worlds may experience when faced with an eager researcher. After a thorough (but American context) review of the history of IRBs, he presents several research scenarios, including one in which he participated in as a naïve subject, all of which suffered from some gap or gaps in their adherence to standard ethical research practices. 35 He concludes with a ‘Virtual World Subjects’ Bill of Rights’ expressing a number of research principles in the form of a set of expectations an in-world resident should expect. When working in Second Life as a researcher, it appears that the ‘best practice’ which will avoid any twists or turns of reasoning with regard to method, ethics, and ToS would be to generate a research protocol that accounts for principles such as those found in the Tri-Council (or similar) document, safeguarding privacy, obtaining consent, and working to minimize harm, and having this protocol passed by a REB. At a practical level, providing real world data about who the researchers are, where they work, the fact that the study or activity has REB clearance; and making available an external link to such a document, as well as providing details on the nature of the study and how a participant might find out more, receive results, and opt out if needed, should all be part of a standard package available to any resident who is approached to participate in research. Notes 1

Mark Childs and Anna Peachey, ‘Love It or Hate It: Students’ Responses to the Experience of Virtual Worlds’. In Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds: Opening an Undiscovered Country, eds. Paul Jerry and Linda Lindsey, (Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2011. 2 Yvonne Masters, Sue Gregory, Barney Dalgarno, Torsten Reiners and Vicki Knox. ‘Branching Out Through VirtualPREX: Enhancing Teaching in Second Life’. In Utopia and a Garden Party, eds. Paul Jerry, Yvonne Masters, and Nancy Tavares-Jones (Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2012), 57–69.

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‘The Researcher’s Toolbox’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 3(3) (2010). Carleen Sanchez, ‘My Second Life as a Cyber Border Crosser’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 2 (2009): 4–18. 5 Paul Jerry and Nancy Tavares-Jones ‘Reflections on Identity and Learning in a Virtual World: The Avatar in Second Life’. In Utopia and a Garden Party, eds Paul Jerry, Yvonne Masters, and Nancy Tavares-Jones (Oxford, UK: InterDisciplinary Press, 2012), 125–136. 6 ‘Metaverse Business: Second Life Metrics’ last modified December 2012, Viewed 12 January, 2013. http://www.metaverse-business.com/secondlifemetrics.php. 7 Luke Hillman, ‘User-Centered Design in Virtual World Interfaces: A Human Factors Perspective on Third-Party Second Life Viewers’ (Master’s thesis, Georgetown University, 2011). 8 Tom Boellstorff, Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2008). 9 Mark Stephen Meadows, I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life (Berkeley, CA New Riders 2008). 10 Richard Kolotkin, Maggie Williams, Casey Lloyd and Earnest Hallford, ‘Does Loving an Avatar Threaten Real Life Marriage?’ Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 5 (2012): 3–42. 11 Paul Jerry and Nancy Tavares-Jones, ‘Reflections on Identity’, 125. 12 Mark Bell, ‘Toward a Definition of “Virtual Worlds”’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 1 (2008): 1–5. 13 New World Notes, ‘Top 50 Most Popular Second Life Sims for August 2012’. Last modified 5 September 2012. Accessed January 12, 2013. http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/09/top-50-second-life-sims-for-august-2012. 14 Paul Jerry and Nancy Tavares-Jones, ‘Reflections on Identity’. 15 Ted Honderich, ed., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford: The Oxford University Press, 1995.) 16 Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, 1998 (with 2000, 2002, 2005 amendments). 17 Ibid., i.5–i.6. 18 Ibid., i.6. 19 Abbas Tashakkori and Charles Teddlie, Mixed Methodology: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998), 3. 20 Joseph Maxwell, ‘Causal Explanation, Qualitative Research, and Scientific Inquiry in Education,’ Educational Researcher 33 (2004): 3–11. 4

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Tom Boellstorff, ‘A Typology of Ethnographic Scales for Virtual Worlds’, in Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual, ed. William Sims Bainbridge (London: Springer Verlag, 2010), 123–133. 22 Tom Boellstorff, Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce, and T. L. Taylor, Ethnography and Virtual Worlds (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012). 23 Ibid., 8–9. 24 Ibid., 66. 25 Anthony Orum and Zachary Neal, eds., Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space (New York, Routledge, 2010), 1. 26 Neal, Zachary, ‘Seeking Common Ground: Three Perspectives on Public Space’, Urban Design and Planning 163 (2010): 59–66. 27 Christine Hine, ‘Virtual Ethnography’, When Science Becomes Culture Conference (Montreal: PQ, 1994). 28 Jeffrey Stanton, ‘Virtual Worlds, the IRB and a User’s Bill of Rights,’ Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 3 (2010): 7. 29 Linden Research Inc., ‘Terms of Service’. Last modified December 15, 2010. Accessed January 15, 2013. http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php#top. 30 Ibid.. 31 Ibid. 32 David Evans, The Law, Standards and Ethics in the Practice of Psychology (2nd ed) (Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publications Ltd., 2004). 33 Patrick O’Neill, ‘The Evolution of Research Ethics in Canada: Current Developments,’ Canadian Psychology 52.3 (2011): 180–184. 34 College of Alberta Psychologists, Standards of Practice (Edmonton, AB: 2005), § 15(1)-15(6). 35 Stanton, ‘Virtual Worlds’, 8–9.

Bibliography Mark Bell. ‘Toward a Definition of “Virtual Worlds”’. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 1 (2008): 1–5. Bergum, Vangie, and John Dossetor. Relational Ethics: The Full Meaning of Respect. Maryland: University Publishing Group, Inc., 2005. Boellstorff, Tom. ‘A Typology of Ethnographic Scales for Virtual Worlds’. In Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual, edited by William Sims Bainbridge, 123–133. London: Springer Verlag, 2010.

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__________________________________________________________________ Boellstorff, Tom. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2008. Boellstorff, Tom, Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce and T. L. Taylor. Ethnography and Virtual Worlds. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012. Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, 1998 (with 2000, 2002, 2005 amendments). Childs, Mark, and Anna Peachey, ‘Love It or Hate It: Students’ Responses to the Experience of Virtual Worlds’. In Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds: Opening an Undiscovered Country, edited by Paul Jerry and Linda Lindsey, 81-91. Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2011. College of Alberta Psychologists. Standards of Practice. Edmonton, AB: 2005. Evans, David. The Law, Standards and Ethics in the Practice of Psychology (2nd ed). Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publications Ltd., 2004. Hillman, Luke. ‘User-Centered Design in Virtual World Interfaces: A Human Factors Perspective on Third-Party Second Life Viewers.’ Master’s thesis, Georgetown University, 2011. Christine Hine. ‘Virtual Ethnography’. When Science Becomes Culture Conference. Montreal: PQ:, 1994. Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995. Jerry, Paul and Nancy Tavares-Jones. ‘Reflections on Identity and Learning in a Virtual World: The Avatar in Second Life’. In Utopia and a Garden Party, edited by Paul Jerry, Yvonne Masters, and Nancy Tavares-Jones, 125–136. Oxfordshire, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2012. Kolotkin, Richard, Maggie Williams, Casey Lloyd, and Earnest Hallford. ‘Does Loving an Avatar Threaten Real Life Marriage?’ Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 5 (2012): 3–42.

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__________________________________________________________________ Linden Research Inc. ‘Terms of Service’. Last modified December 15, 2010. Accessed January 15, 2013. http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php#top. Linden Research Inc. ‘Community Standards’. Accessed January 15, 2013. http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php. Masters, Yvonne, Sue Gregory, Barney Dalgarno, Torsten Reiners, and Vicki Knox. ‘Branching Out Through VirtualPREX: Enhancing Teaching in Second Life’. In Utopia and a Garden Party, edited by Paul Jerry, Yvonne Masters, and Nancy Tavares-Jones, 57–69. Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2012. Meadows, Mark S. I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2008. Maxwell, Joseph. ‘Causal Explanation, Qualitative Research, and Scientific Inquiry in Education’. Educational Researcher 33 (2004): 3–11. Metaverse Business: Second Life Metrics. ‘Second Life Statistics for 12 January 2013’. Last modified January 2013. Accessed January 12, 2013. http://www.metaverse-business.com/secondlifemetrics.php. Neal, Zachary. ‘Seeking Common Ground: Three Perspectives on Public Space’. Urban Design and Planning 163 (2010): 59–66. New World Notes. ‘Top 50 Most Popular Second Life Sims for August 2012’. Last modified 5 September 2012. Accessed January 12, 2013. http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/09/top-50-second-life-sims-for-august-2012.html. O’Neill, Patrick. ‘The Evolution of Research Ethics in Canada: Current Developments’. Canadian Psychology 52 (2011): 180–184. Orum, Anthony, and Zachary Neil, eds. Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space. New York: Routledge, 2010. Sanchez, Carleen. ‘My Second Life as a Cyber Border Crosser’. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 2 (2009): 4–18. Saukko, Paula. Doing Research in Cultural Studies. London: Sage Publications, 2003.

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__________________________________________________________________ Seale, Clive, ed. Researching Society and Culture. London: Sage Publications, 1998. Stanton, Jeffrey. ‘Virtual Worlds, the IRB and a User’s Bill of Rights’. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 3 (2010): 3–15. Tashakkori, Abbas, and Charles Teddlie, Mixed Methodology: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998. Paul Jerry is Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology, Athabasca University. He was a core member of the original development team that produced Canada’s first distance/distributed graduate degree in counselling psychology, which opened in 2001. Some of his early publications represent the first Canadian discussions of the implementation of webbased teaching and adult virtual pedagogy in this field. He is a Registered Psychologist maintaining a clinical practice in rural Alberta, Canada. He has been a resident of Second Life since 2010.