Hi all,
You are invited – but if everyone actually comes – standing room only;-)
Needless to say I am excited about the businesses my IPC 411 class groups built on Secondlife this semester as part of their grade for the course
on “Performing Digitally Mediated Identities”.
Important to note is that most of these students absolutely new to 3D virtual worlds
(when I asked who among the class had ever even played computer games I only got about 2 or 3 hands raised)
and non-exposed to anything technical and software related. But you wouldnt know that to see their projects.
MORE importantly – most of their group analysis, blogging and the group business plans show that many of them do understand the literacies
and digitally performative and cultural skills that go into such building of virtual/real businesses. I would say the best of the groups in the lot learned
about virtual economies and their the virtual-real communicative and material interdependences of such economies quite well:)
Thanks also goes to the various graduate student researchers who worked with me to help and record the process as we all together work to write up reports and publications based on such building of identities.
The winning team has also been awarded a slot on the facebook application called Cyberdivalive Creations. Feel free to gift your friends on facebook and show off.
An additional note that select creative and hardworking the students from this class engaging the Gender and Race frameworks will be working with me on a women’s studies History month Narrating Cyberselves Project to be presented in March 2009 at the Women’s Center.
Here is a link to an image of a Swim up bar that one of the group’s built (the other groups did a great job – but visually they are not all as showcaseable in 2 D images). Click on the link below.
