Posthuman Pedagogy
I got ahead with my contribution to the posthuman pedagogy and produced my input over the weekend, entitled “Think Like a Robot”. So I was able to provide it to the class at the very start of the week for discussion. Some commenting on this and other entries as they came in towards the end of the week formed events in my Lifestream.
Eye on the EDEDC Final Assignment
To create the story I wish to tell for my EDEDC final assignment, I have been pulling together a number of threads explored during the Digital Cultures course and on other MSc courses such as IDEL11 and ULOE11. This has led to extracting some of the elements on different social media and platforms, especially aggregating content into my personal learning and asset collection space at http://atate.org/space/
Uncanny Pedagogical Experiences – Joking Apart
I have kidded on a bit with Siân Bayne in some discussions over the use of what I treated as "cute" terms like the "uncanny" and "ghostly" or "zombie" experiences. I got the idea of the uncertain and mind challenging environments she was described as a learning opportunity. And I do appreciate its a term that has some history (see Uncanny). But the Bayne (2008) reading did start to make more sense to me as a coherent approach to some people’s experiences in virtual worlds. I think I have used teleconference, distance collaboration and other forms of multi-user environments for so long, and have had experience of MUDs and MOOs as they grew from their text beginnings, so that its a more natural experience for me… just like I would not call using the telephone uncanny because I can heard a disembodied voice from a distance. But I can certainly put myself into an avatar shape or type which I know I find unusual or that feels “wrong”.
I found a very nicely constructed site in Second Life this week which allowed for just such an experience, and I blogged about it to draw it to the attention of others on the IDEL11 and EDEDC courses – see "Meta Body – Try an Out of Your Body Experience".
Second Life Pic of the Day
I added a further RSS feed to my Lifestream… the Second Life official feed from the blog which selects a representative “pic of the day”. This is something I already follow on Twitter and find useful. I feel this reflects the continuing improvement of the visuals in Second Life and OpenSim, indicates new facilities as they come along and show cases top builds inworld.
Reference
Bayne, Siân (2008) "Uncanny spaces for higher education: teaching and learning in virtual worlds", ALT-J Research in Learning Technology, Vol. 16, No. 3., pp.197-205.
Uncanny – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny