The Virtual Peace Garden

I've been meaning to reflect on my first three class uses of Second Life after each class, but this entry will have to re-cap all three. I am using Second Life in Writing in the Design Professions; my students are architecture and landscape architecture students; their assignment is propose a new installation for the Virtual Peace Garden.

Day one: I was introducing the new unit, and was projecting Second Life on the class screen. I showed them Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace Island, and that didn't go very well. The video didn't load, the Peace Tower was not lit. But they seemed interested. I then teleported to the VPG and I showed them around the Peace Chapel. Without invitation or instruction, one of my students teleported in and started running circles around me. He climbed on the fountain and generally was running around like an out of control kid. This got laughs. He left and came back in the car available on the Island, started zooming in and out of the screen that the rest of the students could see. My avatar actually ended up on the roof. Students got excited, started signing up, and teleporting in. I let them work for the rest of the class, getting signed up and learning the ropes. I didn't offer any significant structure.

Day two: I had a full class planned, but before I could get started, my students started asking me questions about appearance, moving around, doing various things in SL. I let them play / explore for about 20 minutes, including a little informal gathering on a remote corner of the island. I then asked them to check out the architecture island, which a few got to, and started chatting with a resident who says he does all virtual architecture now. I did cut off the SL use, and had students start to brainstorm possible topics. Again, great energy and excitement, which I unfortunately had to redirect towards the assignment.

Day three: I decided to start with SL again, and invite back channel discussion as we brainstorm, but that didn't go very far. My playful student brought in a flying carpet and others went for a ride. That was probably a good thing. Then I asked them to settle on possible topics and teams, and start to push their projects forward. Here is where some resistance started to emerge. A few groups wanted to know, "What's the purpose of SL?" (and implicitly this assignment, I suspect). "Why build something in SL that has to do with first-life?" Interesting and insightful resistance, really. I don't sense massive resistance, and these questions will in fact help me refine what I am trying to do with this assignment and SL. I do need to think "in game" more effectively, and clarify that we are still "writing architecture" and not precisely playing Second Life. Which of course, raises the question: why use SL at all?

Novelty / excitement (learn something new).
Design in 3D is going to be apart of architecture and LA in the near future.
Creativity: some barriers to building have been removed.
Interactivity: SL demands that proposals think about users.

Now I need to figure out if SL works / makes a difference.

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