Surveillance

During out day our presence is recorded several times a day. Our phones have GPS, security cameras, our IP! Second Life is far from anonymous, especially if you have a premium account. When I visit regions and other avatars are present I can signal a wand I've scripted to grab the names of all those around me. This I used mostly for meetings with too many people to look up while trying to keep up with the multiple chat conversations going on. I applied this same type of device to our IML Islands to monitor the traffic going on and if something goes wrong (harassment, builds destroyed, etc) I have something to reference. When the students of the CTIN 482 class were told that their presence was recorded a few skeptical glances were shot in my direction. How does this affect assessment for projects when you have a record of how many times someone logged in World? Professors are probably very skilled at spotting the papers started hours before they were due. Can time spent on a project be separated from the final product? This is when documentation of the process comes into play. Sometimes final products don't work for a variety of reasons (technical limitations, technology failures, results aren't what you expected, etc), but that doesn't negate the knowledge gained. bzzzzzzzrp

CTIN 482 -Designing Online Multiplayer Game Environments

Yes that's right... but that won't be discussed in this blog post. HOWEVER, students in the Cinematic Arts Interactive Media 482 Class (CTIN 482) will be doing this over the course of the semester on IML 2, the new Second Life Island, that was just recently added. Steve Anderson has been handed the teaching torch and I'm helping with the technical side.

The first two classes were dedicated to explaining the task the students will face over the semester and to have them create avatars, join the CTIN 482 group...now....

Week 3.. The Students have now entered the IML 2 Island...and immediately something happened that you just can't predict... a giant mass of land sprung up in front of me... a cube rezzed next to me... spheres in the distance... the land rippled as multiple students began playing with the terraforming tools. I build on the IML Island alone and unless you are in public sandbox most of SL's architecture is already in place when you visit. So seeing 16 avatars all working on a space is something rare. Suddenly a scream cut through the room, in the physical space not the IML 2 Island, as someones newly created monolith was obliterated by another terraformer cutting across the virtual landscape. It was a lesson quickly learned and everyone realized the potential hazards and benefits of a collaborative space. Everyone eventually settled into separate areas to build, terrafom, or explored off IML 2 Island for research.