Reply to Bloomingdem

I was going to post on avatar-making in terms of identity, self-awareness, body image, beauty ideals, interracial perceptions and to what extent we may reproduce RL attitudes and ways in SL, but then I found about Blooming Demonia's disruption.

Bloomingdem, sweetie, a newborn and already a rebel! Couldn't they come in baby format for us to get used to them and learn little by little? Gee, this is the blog for MUVEnation and you aren't registered...why don't you post at your Flickr account, lovely? No worries, I won't read it, so complain as much as you want...It doesn't surprise me really, SL crashes so many times I keep bumping you against the walls but, hey, haven't you got new clothes and shoes?! Didn't you meet a handsome male avatar yesterday? True he defined himself as a "prostitute" and "man whore", but nobody's perfect. Didn't you hear English, Spanish, Italian, French & German? Ta, you don't speak, so it's gotta be me who does it for you so what if you tell me about you...Then you had that lovely encounter with the rude chap who called you "moron", which made us use your first gesture, and then practise a few others to the dismay of others who didn't get why you clapped, became sad and smiled within seconds...of course you belong to that "newbie" species, lol. I know you don't like it but give me a break, please. l8r SL. Shopping/clubbing? Ready for edu islands?

Will we have a happy ending? I guess only if we manage to become complementary rather than mutually disruptive, very demanding if to cater for her immediate needs to negotiate an agenda to achieve my goals. Maybe hilarious and frivolous in RL but appearances in SL through avatar customization (skin, shape, outfit & gestures) seem to have a specific social weight. So off to sort out Bloomingdem's nails and skin!

Featuring Blooming Demonia

I was born early 2008 and after a little sight-seeing I was to become an expert at flying, for my RL alter ego kept making me tumble down from islands...Gee if she could only use controls better and improve bandwith connection! She claims SL is highly demanding on resources though one may argue that best deserves best. My outfit is still rather embarrassing, not to speak about my shoes and wanting social life!
Gosh, how can she dare upload pics of mine! I know it's for that MUVEnation stuff, but isn't she being sort of selfish when I'm still trying to cope with five different skin colours and three body shapes in 24 hours? Gosh, can you imagine?! She made me fat as a whale and wild pink (purple at a distance)...and that horrid t-shirt, lool! Obviously I got expelled from the Imperial College Health Sciences island, where I had landed for unknown reasons before I was condemned to limbo...Big thanks MUVEnation! Otherwise, my nap could have been eternal...

PS: Please make her learn as much as you can, I'm craving for some social life! She tries hard, but... If I can't sneak in again, visit me at flickr.

Gaming

Blast Theory and Toni Dove's intertwining of performance, interactive media and pervasive gaming have had a deep impact on my understanding of narrativity, telling and interaction. This combined with Derrida's and other perspectives on language ownership/belonging, have led me to analyse language from performance theory and try to size potential creative approaches to teach/learn/assess intercultural competence, which would seem to have a specific weight on candidate failure at external ESOL exams. On 2007 I developed a pilot treasure hunt board game for a young learner oral exam, which was both fun and stimulating! Games and MUVE, essential here.

On the other hand, the online/CB/telephone language testing solutions I've had access to involve reading aloud, repetition, short responses to on-screen questions, etc. for the speaking component, and thus do not incorporate the full range of tools available. Besides technical complexity there are other issues to cater for (integrity, security, legal requirements, etc.) that make international language certificates lag behind other fields in terms of technology. I realise conducting oral exams in SL is unlikely, but adding avatars to existing software may not be that crazy.

This interview with James Paul Gee provides some room for hope.

A tale of online collaboration

In the quest to find out more about connectivism, networked learning and enriching online collaboration I landed at Wikieducator some months ago. Actually I was dragged in by a Chinese e-friend from a G-group and simply couldn't resist such a delightful project involving educators from all over the world to (among others) provide access and have a free curriculum by 2015. Rather than wiki editing, the main asset for me is the opportunity for intercultural exchange, sharing and the friends along the way. With a lecturer from India I've had the most wonderful discussion (wiki, email, G-groups) re concepts of culture and citizenship which on my side have led to an autoethnography exercise in text, wiki, blog and comic book formats for PhD research and workshops on intercultural competence; lesson plans and wiki on his, as far as I know. For learning may be envisaged as an interactive performance. Just a small anecdote, but hardly feasible offline.