Reality has changed! Extended Reality includes mixing physical world and virtual world spaces. For the celebration of Second Life’s 17th Birthday Party, my friend and colleague Renne Brock built a giant Polaroid Camera set up on an oversized desk for avatars to tour, sit, and share memories of meeting both physically and virtually. Playing with the “size” of our world is an interesting phenomenon.
SLB17 by Renne Brock of Nonprofit Commons
My avatar looks tiny sitting on the yellow beanbag. The memory of my librarian colleagues meeting in San Francisco at a conference can be viewed on the Polaroid picture. Many other “real world” meetups were shared as the pictures scrolled by on the giant desk.
Meeting folks in the “real world” after working together virtually is always a pleasure, yet virtual environments like Second Life ARE real. The Assistant Director of the Community Virtual Library (center of photo) has worked with me on numerous projects on a plethora of virtual platforms: Skype, Google Hangouts, Discord, Zoom, SineSpace, Virbella, AltspaceVR, Kitely, Second Life, Mozilla Hubs and more!
The “X” in XR can stand for any type of reality: AR (augmented), VR (virtual), or MR (mixed). Notice the little colored buttons on the desk? Renne gives out a button each time she meets a colleague in the physical world. I have quite a collection of them. Yes…reality has changed for sure!
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”.
