And The Proud Shall Be Made Humble...
I have always considered myself to be pretty good with technology. As a secondary classroom teacher who taught Arts and Digital Media, I have always prided myself on being able to "figure it out" and learn what I need to know so that I can demonstrate it for and troubleshoot problems for my students. This strategy of jumping in headfirst, making mistakes, and correcting errors always seemed to work well as, in the process, I inevitably learned some "deep" features that would prove useful later. I learned Photoshop, Sketchup, Illustrator, LMS, movie and music production, and other skills by bumbling my way through and improving over time.
So when I first approached Second Life, I naturally thought that it was going to be "no problem" at all! Much to my chagrin, it wasn't the learning curve, itself, that is particularly difficult. Rather, it is the fact that you are interacting with others in real time in a virtual environment. This social context tinges my mistakes and bumbling with some feelings of "shame" and embarrassment. If I am individually using a software tool like Sketchup or Imovie, no one will actually observe my process or the mistakes that I make. They only observe snapshots in time (i.e. beginning, iterations, and final product). By contrast, doing things in SL is very much a social activity that carries with it connotations of social pressure, shame, and embarrassment. For example, I have been having trouble with my voice server. SL simply refuses to load voices on my Macbook Pro OS. Consequently, I have been unable to hear the instructions from Dr. Peter during his SL virtual lectures. I have been left to stumble blindly- which I don't normally object to! However, recently during the gift bag building activity, I was particularly lost. I remember vividly not even knowing how to res the bag from my inventory to the ground in front of me. Without knowing it, I dragged the bag onto me and literally "lost my pants." There I was, standing bare-assed for the entire SL community to see. It was a truly humiliating experience. It took me several long minutes (that seemed like an eternity) to figure out how to put my pants back on. Truly, the God of Technology humbles us all! I humbly beg forgiveness of all my classmates who I blinded with the horrifying view of my shiny, pale full moon!
So when I first approached Second Life, I naturally thought that it was going to be "no problem" at all! Much to my chagrin, it wasn't the learning curve, itself, that is particularly difficult. Rather, it is the fact that you are interacting with others in real time in a virtual environment. This social context tinges my mistakes and bumbling with some feelings of "shame" and embarrassment. If I am individually using a software tool like Sketchup or Imovie, no one will actually observe my process or the mistakes that I make. They only observe snapshots in time (i.e. beginning, iterations, and final product). By contrast, doing things in SL is very much a social activity that carries with it connotations of social pressure, shame, and embarrassment. For example, I have been having trouble with my voice server. SL simply refuses to load voices on my Macbook Pro OS. Consequently, I have been unable to hear the instructions from Dr. Peter during his SL virtual lectures. I have been left to stumble blindly- which I don't normally object to! However, recently during the gift bag building activity, I was particularly lost. I remember vividly not even knowing how to res the bag from my inventory to the ground in front of me. Without knowing it, I dragged the bag onto me and literally "lost my pants." There I was, standing bare-assed for the entire SL community to see. It was a truly humiliating experience. It took me several long minutes (that seemed like an eternity) to figure out how to put my pants back on. Truly, the God of Technology humbles us all! I humbly beg forgiveness of all my classmates who I blinded with the horrifying view of my shiny, pale full moon!
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