…they say, so why not write a post 20 minutes prior to lecture?
This semester started of as rocky as all previous has, a fact that has made me realize that this is how it is. But on top of my frustrations even inspiration lacked, although these last two weeks has made things clearer again. Well, at least more fun. First we had a guest from Vassar College, USA. Jeffrey Schneider introduced us to the MOO he has been a part of developing, and which they use in German-English studies at Vassar. It’s called MOOssiggang, and the “story” takes place in Eastern Germany, post war, at the time of the Stasi’s. This was quite interesting, but I didn’t really get the hang of it, mostly because I spent too much time in getting to know the space, instead of interacting. Which is a fact worth noticing. If you use a MOO for learning, I guess it’s important to make sure every type of “player” is taken into consideration.
This week we have continued with one of the MOO’s developed by our own University. The intention was, I guess, to let us get to know how the programme works a little, before we discussed certain aspects of it. This discussion should be especially with Julian Dibbell’s : “A Rape in Cyberspace” in mind.
The questions were obviously more related to ICT and Learning, but as always I drift off, and try to undstand it all on a more basic level. Who are we? No, seriously. Reading Dibbel’s article really triggers a lot of ideas in me, but I noticed that some of the students I discussed it with didn’t find it “believable”. They seemed to have a clear distinction between any online activities and and real life. “That’s not me”, they said. But I don’t agree, everything you do in any setting always involves your mind working (even if it doesn’t always seems so…), and I don’t think our physical brains has the same distinctions as our “thinking minds”.
Why not turn things around, and see if people are starting to behave and interact differently to other in real life? Give you an example why I firmly believe we’re absolutely affected by computer interactions:
A couple of years ago I played one of the Tombraider games in more or less one setting. Fun, but kind of exausting. Anyway, desperately in need for some fresh air I went into the woods to pick mushrooms. That is usually one of the most relaxing things you can do. I walked for a while, rather absent-minded, when there suddenly was a cliff right in front of me. First reaction -
jump five metres, skimmy to right and raise to the next level!
I could actually feel it in my body that I could do it, but in my mind I knew I wasn’t Lara Croft.
