Finally, an article that I think many interested in Second Life for education will find useful.  Will it tell you how you should setup your class?  No.  Will it help you make the argument to administration as to why this is useful?  Maybe.  So you are wondering what exactly it does do, right?  Well, it discusses what the digital humanities research lab and studio HUMlab at Umea University did when they began thinking about using Second Life, and it describes some of the mistakes they made and how they corrected them.  Generally speaking "Spacing Creation: The HUMlab Second Life Project" by James Barrett and Stefan Gelfgren is a good foundation piece to have in your arsenal for future use.

I find that I have written lots of "yeps" and "yeses" and put stars in the margins of the text.  Pedagogically speaking, the project decided to use the space as a "constructivist user driven exercise" , and they state that the decision to do so shifted "the emphasis on results . . . from the facilitators to the users in the project" (170).  I have read a lot in this text and in others about the constructivist approach to SL, and i am a believer.

While all of this information is good, there is one quote that really caught my attention concerning "space" in SL.  The authors state that "space, and subsequetly place, have a deep and defining connection to personal identity.  Even virtual space exerts a powerful influence over identity through self expression and as a gestalt to feelings of control" (171).  I couldn't agree more.  I have been to a LOT of places in SL and I've called several my virtual home.  Any property that I have ever owned has had to be on an island and be secluded from others.  My favorite "house" in SL is a treehouse, which is basically a tree with a platform.  i don't like walls, and I don't like being closed in.  The place I call "home" now is on the main island and is surrounded by other builds with very little "nature" to it.  I hate it.  So I never log in there and I rarely go there.  So why do I call it home?  Because everyone needs a "safe" place that they can quickly teleport to, and anything is better than nothing.

I must admit that the feelings I have in real life when I am at that patch of land on the main island surprise me.  I get antsy and nervous if I stay there too long.  Zoe is not meant to be a city girl in SL anymore than Dianna is meant to be one in RL.  And maybe it's because I am living in the city in RL that I can't tolerate it in SL.  Luckily, in SL I can easily find solitude in a wide open space and chill anytime I have the need.  Now ya know why I stay logged into SL all the time. :-)

First, Woo-Hoo, today is my 30th post.... only, ummmmm, well, 230 to go? At least I am sticking with it.  Second, if at any time someone reads a post and goes, oh, she should really read......, then post a comment and tell me what I should really read.  All this deciding what to read on my own is too much decision making for me.  Now, on to the "official" post for tonight.

This is once again about Web 2.0 technologies and the teaching of writing: two things that I am the most interested in, but yes, I am getting tired of reading words like pedagogy and Web 2.0.  In tonight's reading, "The Digital Imperative: Making the Case for a 21st-Century Pedagogy" J. Elizabeth Clark discusses the need to move writing into the 21st-Century by teaching our students a digital rhetoric that "emphasizes the civic importance of education, the cultural and social imperative of 'the now,' and the 'cultural software' that engages students in the interactivity, collaboration, ownership, authority, and malleability of texts" (28).  Quite frankly, I couldn't agree with her more.  She also discusses several ways in which she does this in her own classes, including ePortfolios, digital storytelling, interactive gaming (Second Life), and blogs.  Many of these, I have either tried, or use.

But she says something else that really peaked my interest, as I was thinking about this today as I was riding home from DMAC.  She aruges that "the future of writing . . . informs our classrooms and forms a new, "digital" imperative, one that asks how we can reshape our pedagogy with new uses of the technologies that are changing our personal and professional lives" (28).  Focus here, if you will, on "reshape our pedagogy with new uses of the technologies."  Are we, myself included, not always saying that the pedagogy always comes first, and then we adapt technologies to fit our needs pedagogically?  I had epiphany riding home today.  That idea of pedagogy first, technology second, can't always work.  How do I know what technologies will fit a digital pedagogy unless I just start experimenting with using the technologies first? 

I think, perhaps, that these two things have to grow together.  Sometimes the pedagogy will lead the way, at other times the technology will, and at times, they will progress hand-in-hand.  When we thought (back in the 80s and 90s) of computers and composition, we were mainly thinking in terms of word processors and networking our students together.  Then, perhaps, the pedagogy could always come first.  But now, with the explosion of Web 2.0 applications, I believe we have to rethink our approaches to designing our classes around digital literacies.  Yes, if you use a piece of software in your class, and you find it does not fit a pedagogical need, then throw the damn thing out!!  Don't tie yourself to using something that does not serve a purpose.  But don't discount using technology because you cannot conceive of how it might fit into your current pedagogy.  Give it a test drive and see if you don't perhaps find that your pedagogy needs a bit of tweaking, and this is the very thing to do it.  All I'm asking is that we try to expand our pedagogies by expanding our playful side.  We may find that we really do need a makeover.

I have decided that over the next couple of weeks I am going to read the introductions to ten books that I ordered or bought while at CCCCs in Louisville Last month.  This will be good practice for me and help me to decided where I want to begin this project.  I had originally said I would finish reading Hamlet on the Holodeck, but I think I want something newer, more cutting edge, something that is current and not two decades old already.  So, while I fully intend on finishing Janet Murray's seminal piece, I don't believe I'll start there.

So, the books I'll be reading the intro's too and making comments are

1. The Language of New Media Design: Theory and Practice by Radan Martinec and Theo van Leeuwen
   
2. Exploring English Grammar: From Formal to Functional by Caroline Coffin, Jim Donohue, and Sarah North
   
3. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication by Gunther Kress
   
4. Digital Literacy for Technical Communication: 21st Century Theory and Practice Ed Rachel Spilka
   
5. Producing for Web 2.0: A Student Guide by Jason Whittaker
   
6. Rhetorically Rethinking Usabiliby: Theories, Practices, and Methodologies Ed Susan Miller-Cochran and Rochelle L. Rodrigo
   
7. Lingua Fracta: Towards a Rhetoric of New Media by Collin Gifford Brooke
   
8. Going Wireless: A Critical Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies for Composition Teachers and Researchers (wow, what a title) Ed Amy C. Kimme Hea
   
9. Digital Tools in Composition Studies: Critical Dimensions and Implication Eds Ollie O. Oviedo, Joyce R. Walker, and Byron Hawk
   
10. Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, and Social Action Eds Kristine Blair, Radhika Gajjala, and Christine Tulley

So, I will begin reading the intros to these this week.  I am excited about officially beginning this project and hope that reading these intros will lead me to a good start.