Drawing on SecondLife Experiences to Enrich the 1st Life Presenter Transcript

Introduction:
Hi, everyone. It’s great to be here, and thanks for coming to my presentation ‘Drawing on SecondLife Experiences to Enrich the 1st Life’! You can get an outline of the presentation by clicking on the box.

Also note that a full transcript of this presentation will be available at my wiki: “Herding Cats & Barrels of Monkeys” at http://cuttingedge-ucation.wetpaint.com.

I encourage everyone to give what I discuss here today a try and share your experiences on the wiki!

There will be some time at the end of the presentation for discussion and questions, so I ask that all questions wait until the end of the presentation.
All that said, let’s start the presentation with an introduction. My name here is Xirconnia Morphett, and in my 1st life I’m Suzi, the mild-mannered Instructional Design Specialist at Peirce College.

My day-to-day duties as an instructional design specialist involve training and aiding faculty with designing and delivering their online and on-campus courses, incorporating new elements to courses, and researching new ways to deliver content via online course tools.

I am a QM certified peer reviewer and I have a background in media, art, photography, web design, creative writing, technical writing, script writing, training, and instructional design.

In my spare time, I love to knit socks, and hope to have my first novel published later this year! :)

Right now, I’d like to get to know everyone, so if you would tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do in your 1st life as well as what you do in Second Life, that would be super!

(introductions removed for privacy)

Cool! Thanks everyone! I can see there’s a pretty diverse crowd here today. I hope everyone will find the information presented helpful and maybe even inspiring.
Some points we’ll touch on during the presentation include the following:
1. Virtual Self-Awareness vs. Self-Awareness in Real life
2. Using SL to Expand Imagination
3. Using SL to Enhance Group Dynamics
4. Gaining across-the-board Self-Awareness by Becoming Your Exact Opposite
And of course, how to apply all of the knowledge gained in SecondLife to the actual first life, or living outside the circuit box, if you will.

Using SecondLife to explore your own psyche -- getting to know yourself through your avatar:
Take a look at yourself-- compare and contrast the virtual you vs. the real you. How many folks here have an electric replica of themselves sitting here today besides me?

(responses)

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has a virtual doppleganger. LOL.

What does your avatar say about you ultimately? Note how you’ve dressed in Second Life and how your avatar looks.

Does it look like the physical you or is it something totally different? Is it an idealized version of you or the way you would like to look in real life?

Or… is your avatar a subconscious blueprint for making a better 1st life you?
As an example, while updating my avatar’s appearance, I began to look at myself, but I mean really LOOK. I took note of my facial shape, my eyes, chin, nose, etc. Things I had seen for years I seemed to see for the first time in my virtual doppelganger.

All at once the pieces came together in a surreal eureka! moment and I started to wonder just what else I had been missing about myself over the years. I started to take note of my SL interactions, and my 1st life interactions.
- Next questions to consider: what does your SL interaction say about you? (for example, are you secretly a wannabe dare devil risk-taker? Are you normally shy in your 1st life, and the life of the party in SL? Or is your avatar a virtual extension of the real you?)
- if you have a home or land in SL, what does it say about you? (for example, have your neighbors put up a wall around the side of their land that blocks out your property from their view?
Have you put up a wall to block your neighbors from your view?
- Would you do the same things you do in SL in real life? (Flying aside :))

2. * using SecondLife to expand imagination
Which brings me to my next point…. If you can dream it, you can be it in SL.. but we all knew that, right? :)

I've met many newbies in my SL travels and been a mentor to them. It was interesting how initially, almost everyone started off with 1st life limitations except when it came to bodies.

I admit I was intrigued by the idea of virtual plastic surgery. :)
My initial intent upon entering SecondLife was to build Something and gain insight into the inner workings of the human mind.
I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I expected from all of this, but SL was like a blank canvas waiting for a masterpiece.
Through explorations and experimentations I became very aware of my own limitations, and how to overcome many of them. And after seeing some of the creations in-world, I was even humbled by how much I needed to learn in order to accomplish what I was imagining.

As a writer, I was suddenly able to LIVE the characters I had written, complete with appearance and stature. I could create a walking, talking prototype and find out if it was believable to the casual observer.
As an educator I was able to create a virtual Battlefield at Gettysburg, complete with images that talk to the observer when touched.
I also created a rooftop garden that serves as both a Zen space for lunch break relaxation and an educational hobby tool when the visitor touches the plants.
Each plant tells the visitor what it is, and provides helpful growing tips.
Visitors to The Experimental leave with some keen ideas, and enjoy the relaxing space. I’ve also found that I’ve had ideas have come to me more rapidly and with less restrictions from sitting in (yes, IN) my rooftop koi pond than sitting around a boardroom table. But that’s just me. 

3. * using SL to enhance group dynamics.
How many here have group meetings in-world?
(response)

How many have created a virtual board room to hold those meetings?
(response)

How many use non-traditional style areas for your meetings?
(response)

I’ve found that my rooftop koi pond meetings of the minds bring a new dimension to brainstorming sessions.

Even something as silly as a KoolAid Man costume during a friendly chat can bring new ideas that might not have occurred to your group before.

As an example, during a presentation of Second Life to faculty, I asked a friend of mine to drop by and chat about his SL experiences—in-world, and via projection screen to the faculty meeting.

My physical audience was able to ask questions of my virtual friend, such as what he did in-world, what he liked about his experiences, etc.
At one point toward the end of the presentation he donned a KoolAid Man outfit and continued to chat with my audience.

The simple act of injecting absolute humor ignited my audience into a flurry of discussion and new questions they hadn’t thought of previously and they became thoroughly intrigued at the limitless potential of what could be done.
And in a group dynamic, Second Life DOES have limitless potential for cultivating collaboration, confidence, and imagination.

By holding brainstorming sessions in-world IN my rooftop koi pond I create a relaxed collaborative space with no restrictions and no expectations.
I frequently meet in-world with my friend that occasionally dons the KoolAid Man costume to discuss things we’ve found and to visit new places.

When we can’t meet online at the same time, we drop landmarks into each others’ inventory for later review and discussion.

By placing no restrictions on a meeting time, space, or how the meeting will take place, asynchronous collaboration can result, adding another dimension to group meetings.

And similar to online courses, in Second Life there is no ‘back of the room’, so everyone has a chance to collaborate equally, expanding group input.
If using this method for group meetings, be it academic or corporate, make sure to have the groups reflect on and evaluate their processes to ensure that a particular way of meeting is the most effective way of meeting.
They should consider things like:

Was there a group leader or facilitator?
Was a group leader of facilitator necessary?
Was it an efficient and effective way of brainstorming or meeting for what we were trying to accomplish?
Was everyone involved technologically savvy enough to navigate around SL?
Was anyone in our group adverse to meeting in-world?
What are the skill sets of our group members?
Did meeting in-world help or hinder the brainstorming process?
Did we accomplish what we set out to accomplish?
What new ideas emerged from the meeting, if any?
What did we learn about each other through this form of meeting and collaborating?

Can anyone else think of some other questions for the group to ask themselves?

(responses)

The group should also keep in mind that what is accomplished in-world is always a work in progress, that it can and should be updated and expanded, taken apart and put back together as much as possible so that it is always improving.

The question ‘What did they learn about each other?’ is an extremely important one.

What if certain members of the group didn’t see eye to eye? How were conflicts addressed and resolved. Was there a need for more or less group leader mediation?

These things should also be taken into account when reflecting upon the group meetings in order to get a better feel for the group dynamic.
Through reflection on the group process through Second Life, the group dynamic can be improved and interactions expanded.
One way to expand the group horizons is to ask ‘How can members of the group who disagree gain an understanding of where the other person is coming from if they don’t share the same experiences?’

4. * Gaining across-the-board Self-Awareness by Becoming Your Exact Opposite …. Aka Walking in someone else's shoes for 1 SL Mile

The answer in real life is not so easily found through role-play as the appearance of the team members is still very much the same.
The answer in Second Life is role-play to become their exact opposite for a day. It suddenly gives a new dimension to role-playing, doesn’t it? :)

While the concept could be potentially daunting, those willing to try a VERY new experience could gender swap for 1 day or modify themselves to be their exact opposite in-world.
I tried this gender experiment myself, and you can see the full details of my experience at my wiki along with pictures.
The first step in my experiment was to modify my avatar to be a man. No easy task having been a woman my whole life, and MUCH easier said than done, as I soon found out. :)

You can see the before and after pics behind me, as well as on my info cube and on my wiki.

Initially, I modified my looks to be very masculine, with a strong jaw line, muscular body, tall, with piercing green eyes, as this had always been my impression of all that was man.

As an aside, subconsciously, these were all features I found attractive—and it took someone else to point it out to me! LOL.

With my new avatar and his rough-around-the-edges hunky intellectual looks as I had imagined them I thought I’d be a shoe-in for spontaneous conversations with hundreds of people.
After all, all of my other SL experiences as Xirconnia pointed to SL being a friendly, open place where everyone wanted to talk to you.

As my usual femme self most of the time I couldn’t get through the tutorial islands without having kazillions of questions and introductions thrown my way.
Instead nobody would really talk to me at all. As a woman having observed men in day to day life, I thought for sure guys would hang out and chat with other guys in Second Life like they do in real life.

Something I became acutely aware of was that in social areas, men didn’t really talk to other men in Second Life, and women didn’t seem too interested in chatting with me, either… at least not with phase 1 of the male avatar I came to call “Xircon”.

Even at the tutorial islands where I could barely pause to rest my fingers as my female self proved to be a challenge for conversations while I appeared to be a man.

I made a quick IM to some friends in-world with a request for their opinions of my new look and what I was doing wrong.

I started to realize it wasn’t so much that I was a guy that was bothering people. I just looked a little like a crazy guy with a ‘newbie default’ness about him.
Undaunted by this revelation, on day 2 of being a dude I gave Xircon a makeover.

I toned down his muscles and stature, made his eyes larger, rounded his face a little more, and curved his mouth up at the corners just a little bit to give him a friendlier expression.

I also traded in the combat boots and white t-shirt for Chucks and a Ghostbusters t-shirt.

In essence, I softened my look to be slightly younger-looking and more feminine. And it worked. Kind of.
People started to talk to me when I said hello… well, women did, anyway. Briefly, and always with hesitation.
My conclusion after this brief foray into being male is that men have it harder than I thought. :)
But in all seriousness, my initial suppositions going into my experiment were that it would be easy, and that interactions would be free-flowing.
What I ended up discovering within the first half hour of ‘being a man’ was that my male avatar was very foreign to me and I have to admit to feeling uncomfortable in my new skin.

After getting in touch with my inner guy, however, I felt almost guilty about becoming my regular self again once I ended the experiment.
I felt bad for “Xircon”, the poor misunderstood misfit that didn’t seem to fit in anywhere near as well as my regular avatar.

I was also a little amused/confused by my friends’ negative reactions to the new ‘me’.

Even my friend who knows me in real life and as my female avatar in-world reacted strangely to me as a man in Second Life at first.
It was a strange and surreal experience, to say the least.

Out of curiosity, has anyone here ever tried putting on a different ‘look’ or even a completely different avatar?

(responses)

If you’d like to share your story, my wiki will be set to open access for anyone who would like to post their experience, or you can drop me a note in-world detailing your mile in a different avatar’s shoes.

(This next portion was not presented due to time, but is available here :) )

For the curious, here are some guidelines to consider if you are going to try this/have tried this:

First and foremost, make a note of your expectations before slipping into a different skin. What do you hope to gain from the experience?
What do you think your results will be?
Do you think your interactions will be easier or harder as a different avatar?
As your new self, try visiting your usual haunts and observe reactions and interactions from both those that know you or new people, or visit completely new places and interact.
You should keep a Notecard journal of where you visited and your experiences and what you’ve learned about yourself in the process.
Some questions you should ask yourself:
1. Did I get treated differently as my opposite? In what ways did I get treated differently?
2. Were my interactions and ideas more openly accepted or rejected?
3. Was I more quickly accepted or rejected because of my appearance?
4. How did my initial ideas about being a different avatar compare to my actual experience?
5. What have I learned that can be applied to real life?


In a virtual buddhist sort of way, the path to enlightenment in this case is through knowing both yourself in real life and in SecondLife, and using virtual self-awareness to shape your experiences in both worlds into something more.
Examine your online experiences as if they were in-person interactions, then apply an objective viewpoint.

In closing, ask yourself what you take away from your Second Life experience and how it fulfills a need in your first life.

Is your exploration in Second Life an extension of your first life, have you explored beyond your comfort zones to places that are new and foreign to you?
Are you already subconsciously drawing on your experiences in Second Life and applying them to your first life, and possibly didn’t realize it?

For those interested in continuing the discussion, a transcript of my presentation will be posted to my wiki at http://cuttingedge-ucation.wetpaint.com so we can continue beyond the conference.
I am also available for those who would like to brainstorm or discuss ideas in-world. IM me: Xirconnia Morphett.

Does anyone have any questions about the presentation?