The Story of My “Second Life”

This event was last Wednesday night opposite our National Distance Learning Week event at ISTE Island and was streamed into Second Life. (At least one person lamented they could not be in both places at once!) Here is the website providing the background, including pics from the SL venue:

http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/events/events_detail/2541/

Here is the rebroadcast, a bit long at 77 minutes, but worth every one:

http://takeonedigital.blip.tv/file/488039/

Here are the panelists:

• Anastasia Goodstein, Journalist and author of Totally Wired: What teens and tweens are really doing online;
• Doug Thomas, Associate Professor, Annenberg School of Communication at USC, and founding editor of Games & Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media;
• Yasmin B. Kafai, Associate Professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, representing Whyville.net;
• Barry Joseph, Director of Global Kids.

I listened to the audio track this morning as I worked on several other things (channelling my inner millennial) and took some notes on the fly. I really like the tone and approach this panel took: they focused on education, understanding, responsibility, creativity, individuality, fun and LEARNING. It’s a terrific counterpoint to the “questionable” virtual worlds content that seems to get all the media ink lately. That’s changing, but it’s taking massive investments of time, money and effort by dedicated educators and forward-thinking foundations like MacArthur.

I’ll make a couple of comments and then log off or my lesson plans will NOT be written today.

First, I loved the comment made (I think) by Anastasia that virtual worlds are to some of today’s kids what paper dolls were to earlier generations. You can customize your ‘virtual’ self with unlimited flexibility (and even name brand gear), for free … endlessly changing your look on the slightest whim. But rather than being an act of fancy, teens are actually experimenting with virtual identity, because they then take these avatars into virtual worlds and meet with others in real time. While there is some legitimate concern about the crass commercialism that dominates these spaces, the simple fact is that investment drives innovation, and unless we somehow find a whole crop of MacArthur’s, we’re just going to have to live with the business aspect. (It’s a great teachable moment, incidentally.)

Second, I loved the discussion of what kids are learning in virtual worlds. To wit: how to be a member of a community; how to use a (sometimes) complex user interface; exploring ethics – making choices and understanding consequences; understanding the world around them (and the issues that inhabit it) which is all merely a keystroke away; developing 21st century, global “pen pals” that share world experiences within moments, not after days or weeks of waiting for the postman; and most importantly, learning how to learn, how to use electronic tools to locate – NOT MEMORIZE – information.

Finally, on the issue of overindulgence, addiction and managing time commitment: parents need to be able to recognize the difference between spending time/learning/collaborating and merely being compulsive or destructive. In short: parents need to understand WHAT their kids are actually DOING rather than making snap, uninformed judgments out of ignorance and fear. But therein lies the rub – the parent has to acquire knowledge of their own – they need to get involved – they need to be part of the child’s world (or at least more than peripherally involved in it).

I take enormous pride in the relationships I’ve built with my two daughters. We spend a lot of time together, much (but not all) of it involving technology. I don’t pretend to understand their world, but I know enough about them as people to be able to help them make (so far, thankfully) good choices. I can’t help but think that if more parents were involved with their kids, the world would be a far, far better place…

And on that note, I will close this browser, and head off to write my lesson plans!

-kj-