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April 25, 2008
Beyond Second Life
Last night I spoke to a parents' group about Social Networking and balancing the opportunities and dangers on the Internet for kids of varying ages. By the end, we started to get to the fact that we really are at the very beginning of all of this when we look at things like Club Penguin or MySpace.
Today, I came across this slide show from Cory Ondrejka
. Mr. Ondrejka offered this as the final session of a faculty seminar at the Annenberg School at USC, part of the Charles Annenberg Weingarten Program on Online Communities (APOC).
Mr. Ondrejka was the CTO of Linden Labs and a leading architect of Second Life so he's got an important and well-informed viewpoint on all of this.
And in my continuing Twitter story....I came across this via a tweet from gsiemens directing me to a blog post from Brett Bixler with this slide show embedded.
This is the kind of thing the I hope I got across to parents as we think about what social networking will mean in kids' lives.
Posted by Pat on 7:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 8, 2007
Cheating???
This item caught my eye today.
Cheating at a popular Web site worries educators
The lure of having the coolest igloo on the block may be teaching some young children that cheating is acceptable. At the increasingly popular children's virtual-world site ClubPenguin.com, cheating has gone mainstream, with some children downloading software and consulting blogs that help them to pad their virtual pockets with ill-gotten gold coins instead of earning their way fairly. Chicago Tribune
I'm wondering whether these kids believe they are "cheating." Maybe they are using technology for communication (ISTE NETS*S #4), research (5), and problem-solving and decision-making (6). Maybe the idea of "cheating" is the adult view from a world where games were played mainly against others, rather than an electronic world where the challenge is against the machine or collaborating with others against the machine.
So where do I get this cock-eyed view of the world? I've been an avid video game player since the Nintendo days -- just plain Nintendo. I'm now laid up after a knee operation and playing my way through Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It's a great game with lots of puzzles. But sometimes the puzzles are tougher than I'm able to spot or they call for seeing some small item on the screen or recalling something from several dungeons past. The point of the game is for me to have fun, right? When I am thoroughly frustrated, I'm not having fun...so, I go to GameFaqs where people have published elaborate 100+ page hint and walkthrough books. I find just the next sentence to make it fun again.
I've discussed this with my 15-year old nephew who has been playing games on consoles and online since he was about 4. His great frustration early on was an inability to play any game that required reading. Pretty good incentive and practice space. By the time he was 7, he was playing complicated adventure games by using a printed guide. Why? Because it wasn't fun when he couldn't advance. The payoff was an ability to read better and to follow directions. Just what teachers wanted him to do!
Now, I'm not a regular in ClubPenguin but there might just be another perspective...
Posted by Pat on 4:59 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
September 15, 2006
Concert Time .... All Digital
Last night I tried something new. I attended a concert. But this was a bit different. This concert was held in Second Life and performed by the avatars of musicians and attended by the avatars of fans.
Second Life is a virtual world where you can be anyone you like and participate in all of the things you might ordinarily do or might just want to try. My avatar is pretty ordinary and I do pretty ordinary things. Except I can fly from place to place!
But let me take you back to the beginning. A few weeks ago I first listened to a podcast from Popular Science magazine. I really like the theme music and noted on the web site that the writer/performer, Jonathan Coulton, had another podcast called Thing A Week. He’s been using the podcast to keep him on track with his creative output. Some weeks the songs are very good and others they are fair. Then he announced this concert and I figured I’d attend.
Yesterday, earlier in the day I got into Second Life and found the right venue. I didn’t know how to make things work, but there was another friendly avatar nearby who offered me all the help I needed.
When I got back last night, almost every chair was filled. I went in and sat down and swayed along with the rest of the crowd as we watched the stage and listened to the concert.
What amazes me this morning is that every bit of the experience was digital and I can speak and write about it and other people get it. This is sooooooo 2006!
Posted by Pat on 8:03 AM
