Education in Second Life - Part II

(In the previous blog, I examined the philosophical conundrums surrounding the claim of devotés that the Second Life virtual platform is capable of creating
viable learning experiences –
This time we transport ourselves to Renaissance Island in Second Life.)

If you were to take your avatar to Renaissance Island (knowing nothing about Renaissance history) you might be dangerously led astray. Although most avatars are probably able to separate big-ticket fiction from fact (we hope!), they probably aren't aware or too discriminating about the smaller details. Thus, while we read that a group of virtual creative anachronists created the Island only 18 months ago, how many of us (except specialists) would be able to offer critical analysis :

Renaissance Island was created in Feb 2007 by a group of dedicated historians that envisioned what life during tudor times would be. They collaborated to form a group that would take on roles of parish members that in this era would have lived such as what you will see. They created objects to allow visitors to interact and feel how life would have been in tudor times. Don’t be surprised if you see King Henry VIII, or Queen Bess, herself, as our sim covers the entire 16th period. Of course you shouldn’t see them all at the same time, but depending on our events, one or the other shall bestow their graces and blessings on their parish.

Quite apart from some worrying grammatical and tautological errors, there are many conceptual lacunae that need to be navigated first: why the entire 16th century? what is the significance of the parish in times of great religious and social upheaval? It would be historically impossible to see Henry the VIII and good "Queen Bess" simultaneously, etc.

In addition to this introduction, you’re informed that you've been given free clothes and access to several places including a monastery. How lucky! It would be something to find a religious house not ransacked (or looted?) by the king's men when church lands were seized as part of dissolution of monastic holdings in 1536.

One can even take a tour down to the most pristine wharf imaginable, where we will find "... on the Thames River [sic: River Thames] that hosts our Intimadating [sic: intimidating] Gallion [sic: galleon] who [sic: which] defends her [sic: England's] shores with ease.” Presumably, the author of this passage is referring to Elizabeth I's great victory over the Armada in 1588.

The lack of quality control in user-created Second Life environments is painfully apparent when we read one blogger naïvely fending off criticisms of Renaissance Island, by claiming that educational opportunities are enhanced when avatars can see Jan van Eyck's famous Arnolfini Portrait (1434) on the wall of an Elizabethan house! The iconic painting of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his (probably recently deceased) wife, Costanza Trenta, remained for a short time in the family's home in Bruges, Belgium.However, rather than going to England in the early 16th century, it wound up in the royal collection of the Hapsburgs until the Napoleonic Wars. In the 19th century, it traveled from aristocratic hand to aristocratic hand in England, finally winding up in the private collection of King George IV. In 1842, it was purchased by the National Gallery in London.

If seeing the Arnolfini Portrait were so important to this blogger, why not go to the National Gallery online and learn about it properly. Instead, mediated history somehow is seen as being superior - when in fact it is meaningless. The painting is infinitely more interesting in a true historical context than as decoration in a highly anachronistic context.

One of the greatest dangers associated with these kinds of historical reenactments has been called "fantasy farb [fake+garb]" (Thomson, 2004). Although Thomson is referring to a general reaction among inflexible, virtual historical interpretors to wannabes, Second Life falls perhaps more obviously prey to a desire to gravitate towards "elite" characters. (Just check out the snapshots of characters on Flickr.)

The knowledge gained through education is much more about facts – it cannot grow without the development of critical and comparative skills. Maybe Second Life will evolve (as we waft, dreamlike, through time and place), but it is unlikely it can without something like the implementation of controls, as those envisioned with the advent of Web 3.0.


References
Bean, Cammy. My Second Second Life Experience (blog). Aug 15, 2007. http://learningvisions.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-second-second-life-experience.html

Koster, Margaret. The Arnolfini double portrait: a simple solution. Apollo (Sept. 2003). bnet. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_499_158/ai_109131988

Ondrejka, Cory. “Education Unleashed: Participatory Culture, Education, and Innovation in Second Life.” The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 229–252.

Renaissance Island. Second Life. http://world.secondlife.com/region/ccff7ba5-7c09-454f-8829-a7b4c501403e

Thompson, Jenny. Wargames: Inside the World of 20th Century Reenactors (Smithsonian Books, Washington, 2004).

Education in Second Life - Part I

I then desired to give my attention solely to the search after truth, I thought that a procedure exactly the opposite was called for, and that I ought to reject as absolutely false all opinions in regard to which I could suppose the least ground for doubt, in order to ascertain whether after that there remained aught in my belief that was wholly indubitable. Accordingly, seeing that our senses sometimes deceive us, I was willing to suppose that there existed nothing really such as they presented to us ... (René Descartes)

The express purpose of all media, whether they be Second Life, Renaissance paintings or Enlightenment philosphy, is to communicate. An aspect of Second Life that has excited many educational institutions is its didactic potential.
For instance, at the University of Saskatchewan, initiatives are being taken to “explore” the possibilities of creating online lectures, something that is would have a great impact on the quality of education available to distance learners.

Other proponents are less cautious, and enthusiastically extol the virtues of, for instance, teaching history through Second Life. Says one person: “How else could students so easily experience a period of history as when they are immersed in a virtual replica of it?”

Moving to a more philosophical evaluation, we are urged to believe that education in Second Life is like being given a “blank canvas and tools” to which we need only “bring our own inspiration and imaginations [to] make it happen” (Wiggins). (However, it is unlikely that John Locke would ever have warranted the notion that virtual knowledge counted as the experiential knowledge he suggested, when imprinted on the "blank canvas" (tabula rasa) of our minds, was the basis of our education.)

We'll try it out in the next blog.


References:
Descartes, René. Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking for Truth in the Sciences; 1637. Literature.org. http://www.literature.org/authors/descartes-rene/reason-discourse/chapter-04.html

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding; 1690. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Essay_contents.html

MaryAnnCLT. Educational Uses of Second Life. YouTube. Aug. 17, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA

Ondrejka, Cory. “Education Unleashed: Participatory Culture, Education, and Innovation in Second Life.” The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 229–252.

Renaissance Island. Second Life. http://world.secondlife.com/region/ccff7ba5-7c09-454f-8829-a7b4c501403e

Sibbald, Kirk. (2008-01-25). A virtual University takes shape in Second Life. University of Saskatchewan On Campus News. http://www.usask.ca/communications/ocn/08-jan-25/9.php

Wiggins, Cheryl. Education in Second Life: Explore the Possibilities. YouTube. May 27, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMGR9q43dag&feature=related

The Authentic Voice of Society: The Vlog or the Blog?

What is the appeal of a vlog (video weblog) rather than the traditional blog (weblog)? As a communicatory medium there is no doubt that the vlog offers a degree of immediacy that is lacking in the text blog. But, is it more authentic?

Again, this blogger finds interesting parallels in history. Central to the Reformation debate, for instance, was the issue of the primacy of the written word - over the graphic representations of sacred subjects. From c. 600 A.D., the image was recognized as the principle vehicle for disseminating religious and liturgical information to the illiterate (i.e., society in general). By the 15th century, Bibliae pauperum (or, Bibles of the Poor) proliferated in Europe (Kessler).

Thus, a move away from the iconocentric to the logocentric was espoused. In fact, we can place much of western society's emphasis on education down to this very fact: it was confidently felt that people gained a better and more authentic understanding through recourse with the written word rather than through viewing an image.

The Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam broaches this subject in the Introduction to his translation of the New Testament (1518). Given the epoch, his terms of reference are religious, but nevertheless we see how words were winning the battle against images:

[An image] represents only the form of the body — if indeed it represents anything of Him — but these writings bring you the living image of His holy mind and the speaking, healing, dying, rising Christ Himself, and thus they render Him so fully present that you would see less if you gazed upon Him with your very eyes (Erasmus, 108; see also DeCoursey).

This period also saw a widespread reaction against images whipped up by anti-Catholic religious fervour. Iconoclastic acts effectively wiped out centuries' worth of religious art in an attempt to focus churches on the role of the preacher, pulpit and written word. What is now modern-day Holland and Belgium saw the worst iconoclastic devastation in the Beeldenstorm (or wave of iconoclasm) of 1566-7. Notably, these rampages were characterized by a massive upsurge of hostility from the people and directed against the materialism associated with ruling political and religious elites (Crew). In effect, they were the first European revolutionaries (Brandon).

Today, we see similar patterns – but in reverse. While the written word is considered to be superior, it is increasingly the visual message that attracts attention. In the same way as television news has replaced the newspaper, vlogs are overtaking blogs in popularity.


References:
Crew, Phillis Mack. 1978. Calvinist Preaching and Iconoclasm in the Netherlands, 1544–1569. Cambridge: University Press.

DeCoursey, Matthew. N.d. Erasmus and Tyndale on Bible-Reading. http://www.tyndale.org/Reformation/1/decoursey.html

Erasmus. 1987. "Paraclesis," in J.C. Olin, ed. Christian Humanism and the Reformation,New York: Fordham University.

Kessler, Herbert. 2006. Gregory the Great and Image Theory in Northern Europe during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century, in C. Rudolf (ed.), A Companion to Medieval Art. Blackwell Reference Online. http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405102865_chunk_g97814051028658#citation

Brandon, Pepijn. 2007. The Dutch Revolt: A Social Analysis. International Socialism. no. 116. Oct. 1, 2007. http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.digischool.nl/kleioscoop/beeldenstorm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2007/05/25/low-countries-in-revolt-against-king-of-spain/&h=463&w=600&sz=38&hl=en&start=131&um=1&usg=__ryQeY4n9NOTK3cEz31EBTQQGAjk=&tbnid=utbsKD5vE456HM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Diconoclasm%2Beurope%26start%3D120%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

Images:
"Erasmus at the keyboard using an iMac." Adapted by Stephanie Miller from Hans Holbein the Younger's Portrait of Erasmus (1523; National Gallery, London) : http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/34937/21H-418Fall-2002/NR/rdonlyres/Global/0/0AE311FE-4824-488F-A587-520C34EF24D2/0/chp_erasmus_imac1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/34937/21H-418Fall-2002/OcwWeb/History/21H-418Technologies-of-Word-1450-2000Fall2002/CourseHome/index.htm&h=300&w=398&sz=33&hl=en&start=8&um=1&usg=__WhuGR6bsf2EnuZdihr_d-8yU1zE=&tbnid=rj2-5k4gQ6QcXM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Derasmus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

Ten Brink. J. 1882. De eerste jaren der Nederlandsche Revolutie (1555-1568). Rotterdam: Elsevier.

The Dark Side of Second Life

A documentary by Tracey Smith on CBS’s Early Show discusses some of the more disturbing dimensions to Second Life as they pertains to illicit and/or illegal activities. (Ironically, it’s been posted on YouTube by the self-styled “Hugh Hefner of Second Life,” Kevin Alderman (a.k.a. Strokerz)!)

Last year, a reporter from Britain’s Sky News uncovered a hidden world of violent pornography, Wonderland, in Second Life. Exposed, the world was removed – but not by Linden Labs, the creators of the virtual reality. (In fact, a spokesperson denied that there was any “firm evidence of wrongdoing … in Wonderland.” If there had been, the statement goes on, “any illegal activity or content [would] be investigated and appropriate action [would] be taken” [CNN])

It has been noted that “virtual crime has real victims.” There is a real worry that fantasies will be brought into the real world and that children will be exploited. The problem is that user-created content can’t be policed in the same way as regular explicit software.

Indeed, in some countries, like Germany, have ruled virtual pedophilia as possession of pornography and therefore legally punishable. By contrast, the Supreme Court in the US holds that digital images do exploit real people.

References:
CNN Today. CNN on pedophile sex in Second Life. YouTube. Nov. 12, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQM-SiiaipE&feature=related

Farrell, Jason. Sky News on Second Life in Wonderland. YouTube. Oct. 31, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_jr6xjs90

Smith, Tracey. Virtual Sex in Second Life. YouTube. March 14, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruMi3MAGkvc&feature=related

Folksonomies

Wikipedia is characteristically a-historical when it defines "folksonomy" accordingly:

Folksonomy (also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging) is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. Folksonomy describes the bottom-up classification systems that emerge from social tagging. In contrast to traditional subject indexing, metadata is generated not only by experts but also by creators and consumers of the content. Usually, freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary. Folksonomy (from folk + taxonomy) is a user-generated taxonomy.

Moreover, this description is fundamentally incomplete for failing to acknowledge the crucial importance of standardized spelling in humanity's communication success.

The process of organizing definitions of words is one that goes back millennia. For western society, however, the most comprehensive, universally accepted and reliable work was A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson, published in 1755. Two hundred years have also gone into developing top-down taxonomic and library classification systems. Unique today is the advent of the user authority and bottom-up classification. (This blog will not be able to address all the nuances of this situation; please see: Noruzi)

Notable about dictionaries is their organizational structure - usually alphabetical. With a folksonomy, by contrast, this is not necessary. Standardized spellings and meanings, however, are.

Thus while lexicographical errors are remedial in a published dictionary, they can be fatal in an electronic context.

Whether it's color or colour, judgement or judgment is minor when rationalized by software that has been programmed to correct simple errors or lexicographical variances. Orthographic differences like "plain" or "plane" can have more significant consequences to meaning. (See Orthographic Errors in Web Pages.)

More insidious than these are the malapropisms – or words that are incorrect. How can this be regulated?

Web 2.0: A Tower of Babel?

Andrew Keen summarizes the main theme of his most recent critique of web 2.0:

The cult of the amateur is digital utopianisn's most seductive delusion. This cult promises that the latest media technology – in the form of blogs, wikis and podcasts – will enable everyone to become widely read writers, journalists, movie directors and music artists. It suggests, mistakenly, that everyone has something interesting to say.

A little harsh considering he himself owes his livelihood entirely to web 2.0 technologies. In fact, he helped devise them!

That said, Keen’s comments do hold a kernel of truth. If we are not careful, if there is no natural Darwinistic selection process available, we run the risk of collapsing, like the biblical story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis. When the edifice built up to glorify humanity’s achievements but confused by the multiplicity of a single voice, it is doomed to collapse.

An interesting parallel …


Reference:

Keen, Andrew. 2007. The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing our Culture. Doubleday Business.

Image:

Brueghel, Pieter, the Elder. The "Little" Tower of Babel. Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, c. 1563.

Panopticon and Social Control

English philosopher, jurist and social reformer, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) devised the original Panopticon in 1785 as a utopian model for prisons. Part of the humanitarian, administrative and legislative tendencies of the late 18th century, Bentham and others sought to bring moral reform and the education of prisoners to the penitential system. Central to the structure’s conceptualization was the idea than inspectors could observe all (Greek: pan- all + optikon- observe) the prisoners without the latter’s knowledge. The effect was one of “invisible omniscience." According to Bentham, the Panopticon would be a “new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."

In the 20th century, the concept of panopticon has become a paradigm of “disciplinary societies.” Based on an Bentham's architectural model, the notion of panopticism became inexorably bound to notions of criminal psychiatry and psychology. Its paradigmatic usefulness was most succinctly analyzed by Michel Foucault. Characterizing the emergence of disciplinary techniques from a traditional punitive society in which offenders physically punished to one where they were controlled and normalized, panopiticism relied on a principle of constant inspection rather than ex post facto inquiry.

Our society testifies to the wholesale acceptance of panopticism. According to Nate Kavanagh, Britain has an estimated 25 million surveillance cameras (one for every two citizens). While North Americans don’t endorse the use of closed-circuit cameras to this extent, surveillance is routine on a more grass-roots level: vigilante groups are publicly encouraged to uncover and shame deviance on national television (cf. To Catch a Predator on NBC). Whether it’s regulated by (“objective”) government or fired by (“subjective”) public prejudice, the effect is the same: while some genuine criminals are brought to justice (and others are not or are wrongly accused), general social behaviours are modified and controlled.

References:

Albrechtslund, Anders. Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance. First Monday, 13:3 (3 March 2008). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949

Bentham, Jeremy. Panopticon (Preface). In Miran Bozovic (ed.), The Panopticon Writings, London: Verso, 1995, 29-95. http://cartome.org/panopticon2.htm

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison. Second edition. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage, 1995.

Kavanagh, Nate. 2006, But Has 1984 Finally Arrived? IndyMedia UK. September 19, 2006. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/09/351051.html

Marwick, Alice E. To catch a predator? The MySpace moral panic. First Monday, 13: 6 (2 June 2008). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2152/1966

Panopticon. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Piñero, Verónica B. On panopticism, criminal records and sex offender registries. First Monday, 11:12 (4 December 2006). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1420

Rajagopal, Indhu. Cons in the panopticon: Anti–globalization and cyber–piracy. First Monday, 9:9 (6 September 2004). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1174/1094

Robins, Kevin and Webster, frank. "Cybernetic capitalism: Information, technology, everyday life," The political economy of information. Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko, editors. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998: pp. 44–75.

Limits of Privacy in the Web 2.0 World

How concerned should we really be about posting our personal details on Facebook or on other social networking sites? Are we justified in feeling violated if any of these details are used against us, by others or governmental surveillance organizations?



What are the reasonable limits of self-expression in the Web 2.0 World?



Of course, one may say that – in voluntarily positing sensitive or personal information on a public forum – one has de facto abdicated one's claims to privacy, and that is is mad and naïve to think otherwise; but many of us – in reality – would be shocked to discover that our thoughts or opinions warrant criticism or censure.


Although there are many implications, it is my intention to consider one important question:
Is it legitimate to believe that our computer-mediated social networks as extensions of our own private spaces exist beyond the scope of external regulation?



It must be noted that our notion of "personal space" is a relatively recent notion in human history. Gaining momentum during the Age of Enlightenment in the 19th century (although articulated since Antiquity), philosophers advocated a notion of individual liberty that challenged traditional modes of social, economic and political organization and control. Initial proponents first supported guarantees of private property; but soon philosophers – like John Stuart Mill – articulated the ideology of cultural liberalism. For the first time, individual privacy, conscience and lifestyle choices (including sexual, religious and intellectual freedom) were beyond the scope of governmental intrusion and regulation, and, importantly, became legal rights protected by national constitutions.



What then if we choose to present ourselves publicly? Are our opinions and idiosyncracies entitled to the same degree of protection? Although the great 18th century British philosopher J.S. Mill underlined the importance of individual self-preservation in his seminal treatise On Liberty (1859) – that is: "The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection" – he importantly noted that,

the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

He adds: "His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant."



And, in the Age of Web 2.o, who – or what – defines what is harmful to others?

The death of rhetoric

Web 2.0 - whether it's a phenomenon or evolution - has profoundly influenced the way human beings communicate. It's more than just the spontaneity and immediacy with which we now can interact with the world, Web 2.0 has radically refigured the traditional discourse about form and content in language.

The hitherto apparent distinction between form and content in Western civilization has now become blurred.

At one time, we could easily interpret a Cinquecento Tuscan artist's challenge of his Venetian rival about the priority of disegno over colorito as being an extension of the dichotomy between form and content in rhetorical analysis.

This is no longer so simple. Where the form of rhetoric is now inexorably linked to its content, so too is the content of meaning inseparable from its form. Indeed, the fundamental discursive paradigm on which Western civilization rests (ie. rhetoric) has been refashioned. Without rhetoric, we no longer need to acknowledge a "division between what is communicated through language and how this is communicated."

Without acknowledgment for this division, what are the implications for society, or the way in which we interact on an individual - well, nigh, global - level?

References:
Burton, Gideon O. March 2001. "Silva Rhetoricae," Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/encompassing%20terms/Content%20and%20Form.htm

Farber, Allen. "Titian's Venus of Urbino," SUNY, Oneonta, NY. employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth213/Titian_Venus_urbino.html

Wesch, Michael. January 2007. "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing," Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE