more ramblings…

The Visual Communication and Interactive Media area, within the School of Design, are looking to expand the team with new staff members

Link here

I am about to use this methodology in a new brief with my students.

Moving away from the Neilson/Nelson heuristic approach, I wish to use metaphor (as defined in this paper) as a medium for the students to assess their artefacts and processes, reflectively.

Go here to read the paper.

Gilly Salmon’s five stages of evaluation of an interactive educational environment are as follows:

1. Access & Motivation. Exploring the technology and motivation building are key issues. The e-moderator helps meeting people and learn the environment.
2. Socialisation. Building on the first stage, this stage focuses on social processes and ‘community building’. Moderator does bridge building.
3. Information Exchange. Information is exchanged and co-operative tasks can be achieved. Interaction happens with contents, other participants and the e-moderator that assists exploration activities.
4. Knowledge Construction. Knowledge development and discussion activities become important. Participants start recognizing the value of text-based asynchronous interaction and take control of knowledge construction.
5. Development. Participants become responsible for their own learning and that of their group. Ideas are applied to individual contexts. This stage is characterised by reflection and assessment.

I am going to take these five points as my leads into the workings of the Second Life environment.  I am endeavouring to create a learning matrix/outcomes from the above, which relates both to the SL world, and the present set of learning outcomes here at Uni.

E15 is an experimental architecture that places the power of presentation of web content into the hands of those that use it. Based on a dynamic, interactive OpenGL-based scripting engine, E15 exposes an entirely new face to web content, freely modifiable by each individual user.

Visit the MIT site here

Taken from Phasing Grace – thanks..

The fact that we can separate the avatar from the behavior allows an exploration of the extent to which this reliance on visible information in the perception process is due to the lack of conscious control and the relative stability of the body. Perceivers know that the avatar is consciously chosen, easy to change, and not stable. Therefore, if people rely more on a person’s behavior than on the visual information (avatar) when online, it is likely that people rely on characteristics of the offline body due to its stability and the fact that it is beyond conscious control. However, if the characteristics of the avatar have a stronger effect on the online person perception process than behavior, this implies that people rely on visual characteristics for some other reason.

…or so the lazy journalism at the Guardian would have us believe!

I find this quite staggering – to say it is World of Warcraft is the cause of the post-adolescent drop-out rate.  Nothing to do with the fact certain teenagers and young adults, have a preposition to addiction – and to be frank, an addiction to an MMORPG as opposed to something more destructive, isn’t that bad as addictions go!

The ‘expert’ consulted has had five (yes FIVE) students come to him in the last academic year, with ‘various’ serious addictions – however, it seems only one of them was in fact a gamer!

I think the most likely cause of drop-outs over the next few years will be the downturn in the economy, and the lack of part-time jobs which students need to supplement the tiny loan/grant system.

so here’s the srl :

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Northumbria%20Design%20School/68/40/26

if you have second life installed you can view it in google maps, and then go there.

my moniker in SL is Bigtam Aristocrat, so feel free to add me once you are there.

again, any responses to the design, layout etc. well recieved by us here.

I must thank Cube Republic for his committment to building the space.