Author: valibrarian

Who is Your Sidekick?

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Everyone needs a Robin. Batman simply cannot do it all alone.

Think about who you can count on day in and day out to encourage you. Who do you turn to at a time of struggle? Who do you know you can depend upon? I have an inspiring sidekick at the Community Virtual Library without whom I am certain the library would not have thrived in a virtual world. Virtual worlds hit a stage sometimes referred to as “the trough of disillusionment” in the Gartner Hype Cycle which analyzes adoption of new technology innovations.

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Yet, CVL survived the mass exit of educators after an economic downturn largely because of our head reference librarian, Carla (Suemoon). Carla, a law librarian in a physical world library, tirelessly persevered through thick and thin to update resources in the Community Virtual Library and train other librarians and volunteers.

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Carla was Hamlet’s Horatio- a good friend through it all. There are other literary sidekicks we all know and love as well as famous movie companions or real world right arms.

Sidekicks often do not receive the awards or recognition they deserve! But without the involvement, encouragement, and steadfast commitment of a good sidekick, projects can wither, falter and fail.

Think about your sidekick for a minute. Teamwork is crucial to processes of growth in any field. Members of a team work together. Yet a sidekick is an individual. In digital culture, we can connect to thousands of people and communities across the world. Perhaps we need a reminder about the importance of one individual in our lives.

My Thinkerer Award for Virtual World Contributions to Education & Librarianship

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Virtual worlds provide unique educational opportunities for learning in digital culture. How honored I am to receive the 2018 Thinkerer Award for contributions to education in immersive learning environments. The silver statue holds a glass ball in my favorite shade of blue!

Virtual worlds are often misunderstood and people think of videogames when they hear the word avatar. But an avatar is simply a representation of one’s self. Jaron Lanier (often credited as being the Father of Virtual Reality) says, “The visceral realness of human presence within an avatar is the most dramatic sensation I have felt in VR. Interactivity is not just a feature or a quality of VR, but the natural empirical process at the core of experience. It is how we know life. It is life (2017, 173)”. Having spent a number of years teaching, learning and developing a professional network across the world through my work in virtual worlds, I have come to understand the best practices (both advantages and disadvantages) of using an avatar as a librarian.

You may ask What does a virtual world librarian do? My virtual world library work is basically the same as the work I have done in libraries for over 25 years! As Director of the Community Virtual Library, I have witnessed and helped implement library programs similar to those found in physical world libraries, such as book discussions, writing workshops, exhibits, speakers, reference services and more. Imagine not just reading a book….but entering the book!

Library visitors have the opportunity to enter historical eras (like the life of Anne Frank or Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol). Moving pictures brought stories and books to life over a hundred years ago. Now, we can enter stories (both fiction and nonfiction) and experience them together. This interactivity with others is imperative to learning because we do not learn in isolation.

All media formats are valuable for various purposes: movies, images, sounds, as well as immersive virtual experiences (and certainly print). I think the real reason I continue to work in a virtual world is because the children growing up today will never know a world without constant incoming information on mobile devices. Exploring ways to use technology for deep learning (not disposable quick apps) and to promote digital citizenship is the purpose of the Community Virtual Library. A team of great librarians, educators and volunteers share my passion.

Thank you mentors, friends, family and colleagues who inspire me to persevere in an ever-changing information landscape. So many of you are the reason for this lovely Thinkerer Award!

Examples of CVL Programs and Projects

Exhibits and displays (Genealogy, Art, History, etc) Monthly book discussions & literary study, Digital Citizenship Museum in Kitely, Poetry garden and writing workshops, Art study group, Trivia nights, Reference services, Virtual World Database, Virtual World Bibliography, Book Orchard & immersive learning spaces, Virtual world networking of educational communities, Historical role play for immersive learning, Charles Dickens Resource Center (for historical simulation), Gutenberg Press (for historical simulation) Presentations & speakers Virtual archives.

Lanier, Jaron. (2017) Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality. Henry Holt & Company. Valibrarian on digital culture: “Whether or not one has an avatar, we all live in virtual worlds”.

Virtual Worlds vs Virtual Reality: a Comparison of Immersive Experiences

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After a decade in virtual worlds and a few years of exploring virtual reality (VR), I believe I understand the difference and predict that both have purpose and potential for learning. In my view, a virtual world is a persistent “land” space and virtual reality is a disposable “bubble” experience.

Virtual Worlds are persistent spaces of land

Virtual worlds can be visited again and again. One can explore spaces, build them and watch communities grow. An example is the Community Virtual Library which has recently undergone a huge move to a new space near educational writing/publishing communities. The Community Virtual Library (CVL) houses a main library building, a networking hub, a pier on the beach for events, a library pub, four exhibit/gallery/display areas, an art study group space, book discussion space, virtual poetry garden, book orchard, and other immersive experience locations. Library Land (on Cookie Island in Second Life) can be visited over and over just like a physical place. CVL is a real library.

Virtual Reality is an experience bubble

An example of a VR experience is my recent “walking out on a beam over the city”! It felt so real. Looking down below, my knees were shaking and then a helicopter came by right at eye level.

Other “bubble’ experiences (meaning one time experiences- then ‘pop’! it is gone) include: climbing an ancient rock structure, stabbing zombies, shooting arrows at medieval warriors, and working inside a rocket ship to troubleshoot the engine. While most developers focus on entertainment, there is obviously potential for education in virtual reality.

Teachers should use with caution as studies have not fully examined the impact on the human brain. VR can sometimes feel as real as the physical world, making it nearly impossible for young children to distinguish between virtual and physical world experiences. Reality is changing and anyone working in virtual worlds understands that they are “real” places.

One of my favorite VR experiences so far is Google Tilt Brush. It is like stepping inside an empty canvas of space to create digital art! Similar to programs like Paint, Photoshop or other applications, you choose colors, brushes, textures and tools to create and sculpt in 3D. What is amazing is that you can save your 3D work and share it with others allowing them to step inside. The ability to share work with others is unique to this VR experience and similar to the collaborative work I have experienced in virtual worlds. Most VR experiences are limited to a short period of time with little opportunities for user-generated content as developers create the space in programs like Unity or Unreal Engine.

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What’s the big deal with Information Literacy?

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We all love the convenience of looking for answers immediately and having “google” in our pockets. My dad, in his eighties, said, “People don’t really need to know anything anymore because they can just google it.” What a wise statement from a pre-Internet veteran. We have digital assistants on our devices to help us remember important things and manage our time. We are free of the burdon of having to remember small things and instead access and share information nonstop on a global scale.

A generation of citizens is emerging who have never known life without a networked mobile device with instant access to information. With that convenience comes the sacrifice of time to reflect and the guarantee of accuracy and quality of the hits we receive.

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An information literacy colleague, Esther Grassian, advocates the need for Information Literacy and explains why it is a big deal. Information literacy is not simply an academic term– it is an understanding of our current culture in networked society.

A friend posted an insightful quote on Facebook which I noticed had been liked and shared by many but without any attribution to a creator. I asked if she knew the source and she replied, “People share these things all the time now and nobody ever really knows where they came from.” I find it perplexing that this smart and tech-savvy young woman would simply shrug off intellectual property with a “Who knows? Who cares?” attitude.

In BEYOND THE BLOGOSPHERE by Aaron Barlow, we are given the image of the Internet as a “book of sand” in which nobody knows the origin of ideas. They are washed out to sea and scattered along the beach.

If we really don’t care about information literacy in the future, there will be a high price to pay. Idiocracy might be a concept too difficult for the citizens of the future to comprehend. The fear of artificial intelligence evolving into consciousness pales in comparison to the glimpse of human beings shrugging off any desire to acquire knowledge simply because easy access and quick apps have made it irrelevant.