Growing Up Digital: Cultivating Learning And Life Skills In A Virtual World

Reflections: This was the very first thing I was expected to write as a doctoral student. As a curriculum designer, my interest was in how content was delivered, particularly in an online platform. It was a good exercise to “flesh out” where my interest areas were but I was relieved to hear that many students change their research focus as they progress through the program.

EDLI 7100 Leadership in Education

Book Review: Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald Heifetz

Conceptual Framework: Leadership In A Global Virtual Community

Annotated Bibliography - Leadership

Reflections: By the time this class was completed, several significant changes had taken place in my personal and professional life. I had been promoted to the University Director of Educational Technology at Colorado Technical University. My responsibilities now included leading the university through technology initiatives and working with faculty to incorporate new technology tools into their teaching practices. I was helping to steer university direction as a leader, as opposed to designing curriculum in relative autonomy.

The second professional change had to do with my entrance into Second Life. Experiencing virtual worlds not only an educator but as an individual caused me to realize the potential for virtual worlds to change the way students learn.  This environment was immersive and engaging, where a student could actually walk on the rings of Saturn and take a simulated space flight in a Saturn V rocket, as opposed to looking at pictures in a book.

On a personal level, I had always considered myself to be analytic, with very few “soft” skills; after all, I was a tech geek. Taking the leadership assessment surveys we were assigned revealed quite the opposite; I am a very balanced leader with a need to relate, learn, and achieve. I still needed to be focused, but I was much more of a “people person” than I might have suspected. My professional goals as a leader began to take shape during this class, and have influenced a significant change of direction in my research.

EDLI 7000 Doctoral Seminar in Research Methods

Research Methods: Measuring the Impact of Instructional Technology

Qualitative Research Review: Dickey, M. D. (2003). Teaching in 3D: Pedagogical affordances and constraints of 3D virtual worlds for synchronous distance learning. Distance Education, 24(1), 105-121.

Correlational Research Review: Brewer, S., & Klein, J. (2006). Type of positive interdependence and affiliation motive in an asynchronous, collaborative learning environment. Educational Technology Research & Development, 54(4), 331-354.

Research Proposal: Measuring the Impact of Instructional Technology

Reflections: By the time this semester was completed, I had a quantum shift in research focus. I had been in Second Life long enough to know that in just a few years, differences in delivery methods would be moot; learning was going to happen in immersive, interactive environments and companies such as Sun Microsystems and IBM were working toward making that happen. In their models, when future users launch their Internet browser, an avatar will appear that is the user’s digital representation on the Web. The web will no longer be static pages of information, but a 3D experience that the avatar will actually interact with.

My research focus changed not because of my work in virtual worlds as an educator, but as something of a celebrity. In a truly serendipitous circumstance, I built a home of my own design in Second Life with a dance floor on the roof. As a live music enthusiast, I was able to be part of a music community with people who shared my passion for helping musicians bring their talents into virtual worlds - the House of Flames was born. From the start, we had a real-life business model, organized to be able to legally conduct business, and began holding live concerts, with musicians streaming audio via the Internet into my venue in Second Life. Aside from the interesting “prejudices” I mentioned in my problem statement, I began to pay close attention to the people who came to our shows. They came from all over the world, but they were all strangely “white,” looking like Barbie and Ken dolls. There may have been furry creatures or vampires, but if an avatar chose to look human, that person was very rarely a person of color. I became fascinated by that phenomenon and wondered if there was racial prejudice in Second Life, where people created their own fantasized sense of culture. I also realized I began to “profile” people who didn’t meet the Barbie and Ken standard. As a venue owner, it was my responsibility to ensure the concert progressed smoothly. When an avatar chose to be fat, have exaggerated physical features or even chose not to wear clothes, I immediately made them my focus of attention until they either left or were ejected. In the end, I was as much surprised at my reaction to these people as their choice of identity.

EDLI 7700 Pro Seminar II

Problem Space 2007

Reflections: This follow up to my first problem space paper narrows the focus of my research to virtual worlds, but still doesn’t make clear what aspect of virtual worlds I wanted to study. My interests were still around the use of these environments as learning spaces and the business case for such, but even as I wrote it the issue of identity and diversity kept coming back to my mind. In particular, I wondered if I had become immune to the differences in identity I have seen in Second Life, or if I have just seen enough people who have chosen to be different that it didn’t bother me anymore. In any case, I felt a sense of liberation in that it really didn’t matter who they chose to be; we interacted, shared our dreams, lamented about our children, and communicated as we would with any of our friends. I wondered if a virtual world like Second Life could help every organization, wether it was a school, a corporation, a church, etc., deal with issues of diversity, inclusion and identity. For example, if a school district wanted to use a virtual world as an interview site, or teacher training site, could a location be developed that stressed particular cultural attributes in building design? Could chat be logged that archived teacher reaction? If a multinational company wanted to send a key employee from one country to another, would it be helpful to have a conference within Second Life, where attendees were given roles to play or physical attributes to adopt to see how the potential transfer communicated?

At the end of my first year as an EDLI student, I have transformed from a reclusive, autonomous curriculum designer to a globally aware, respectful leader who sees people very differently than I did a year ago. I possess the ability to be at the very fringe of an emerging technological breakthrough that will bring us closer to a colorless world society that will be able to interact regularly with people anywhere, at anytime, from the computer in front of us. My responsibility is to develop the talents I have and continue the research I have finally focused on, to be part of that cause.

Adivsory Committee

Advising Form

Program Plan