Transcriptions/LCI Funding Proposals: Instructional Improvement Program, 2007

Transcriptions/LCI is asking for an Instructional Improvement grant for a Web 2.0 Pedagogy Initiative. The proposal includes two parts:

English Department Knowledge Base (EDKB)

In 2003-2005, Transcriptions led the English Department in expanding the variety and amount of its shared online instructional materials in a branch of the Department Web site called the English Department Knowledge Base (EDKB). Materials currently in the EDKB include syllabi, teaching notes, glossaries, historical guides, writing guides, and other resources for commonly taught courses. Part of the EDKB is available to instructors only, while other parts are accessible to students. The general goal of the EDKB is to make resources created for one course available for use where they are needed in other courses. Thus for example, a repository of annotated links or a bibliography of criticism designed for English 146EN (Contemporary Experimental Narratives) is now available to English21 (Introduction to Narrative), and vice versa. So, too (to take another example), all instructors in the department now have access to an evolving archive of primary materials organized by author and topic (examples include "Caribbean Poetry," "T.S. Eliot," and "William Gibson").

The technology now housing the EDKB combines static Web pages (created through Dreamweaver) and dynamic database-to-Web pages (resident within Alan Liu's custom-designed Voice of the Shuttle system). While quite advanced when this technology was originally created, it has limitations (endemic to all "Web 1.0" information architectures) that affect the use of the system. In particular, content-creation for the EDKB in its present implementation is de facto restricted to instructors and students who have the technical skills (knowledge of HTML, knowledge of FTP and how/where information is stored) needed to post materials easily. (Staff support for such work is not practical both because of limited office staffing and because staff usually are not trained in the research and pedagogy methods that would allow them to adapt course materials for the Web without extensive faculty supervision.)

To unleash the potential of the EDKB to a wider pool of instructors and courses--and to amplify the resources available in it in the now classic pattern of "Web 2.0"--Transcriptions/LCI proposes to migrate the EDKB to the open source MediaWiki application (familiar to most users as the wiki that drives Wikipedia). Because editing in this environment requires far less technical knowledge on the part of users (who place content in pre-defined templates, link content with a simplified set of tags, and collaborate on multiple documents with the safety-net of a version-tracking system), it will allow many more courses to participate. The end-goal of the EDKB-Wiki is to allow a larger number of instructors and their students in the department to contribute to shared instructional resources.

Capsule Summary: Wikis
    The most engaging attribute of a wiki is that it is an open repository of content. In the most liberal instance of a wiki, anyone may read the content, free of charge, and anyone may contribute articles, regardless of their credentials. To facilitate this, wikis are designed using web 2.0 logics and technologies that encourage a wide base of users and contributors. The most fundamental of these logics is "simplicity." A contributor need not know any advanced scripting languages in order to become a fully functional contributor to a wiki. Instead, the user adds content via a text editor with simple formatting buttons. The interface does not greatly differ from that of most word processing programs. Thus, users are able to adapt to writing in the wiki with an insubstantial learning curve. For instance, instructors in the UCSB English Department, such as Alan Liu, Jeremy Douglass, and Kim Knight, have used wikis in various ways to facilitate courses, even with the most technologically inexperienced students.

    Moreover, wikis are often lauded as a simple platform for collaboration. Once a contributor writes an article, any other user may revise or expand upon it. Thus the entire user community benefits from the diverse body of contributors. It is true that this causes occasional problems in large scale wikis, such as Wikipedia. However, on a smaller scale, in a user community where the readers and contributors are all known, the types of problems experienced by Wikipedia are unlikely to occur. On the off chance that editorial challenges or vandalism should take place, there are several administrative options available for solving these issues. Wikis save what is known as a "version history" that allows administrators to roll back any changes to a previous version of the document. Articles can also be restricted or locked to prevent abuse.

    In addition to simplicity, wikis draw upon the web 2.0 logic of "folksonomy." Rather than having a software program with a predetermined taxonomic structure, a wiki allows its users to determine the organizational strategy that makes the most sense for them. Contributors add articles and may categorize them according to user-created "tags." For example, a lesson plan on reading Romantic era poetry, may be multiply-categorized as "lesson plan," "poetry," "close reading," "Wordsworth," and the names of any other authors included. Other users may add tags to articles as they see fit. Having content that is organized in a multi-valent way and according to a user-determined "folksonomy" eases the search process and results in serendipitous searching in which users may encounter useful articles that they were not originally seeking. In other words, it increases the use value of the wiki.

    Combining ease of use, the potential for collaboration, and multiple options for organization, wikis provide both readers and contributors with an efficient and user-friendly tool to manage large repositories of content. The structure of a wiki lends itself to multiple users collaboratively managing a dynamic database of collective content.

"Transcriptions/LCI will establish a locally-controlled instance of the open-source MediaWiki application on the English Department's Linux server. (This server was acquired last year to allow the department to begin taking advantage of open-source applications. It currently houses several existing instances of MediaWiki used for particular courses.) Editing on the EDKB-Wiki will be restricted to department instructors and--in specific cases--students taking courses or assisting instructors. (Establishing permissions for students to help with specific parts of the site as opposed to others may require setting up two interlinked instances of MediaWiki.) Specific development plans for the EDKB-Wiki include:

Transcriptions/LCI has researched the increasingly prevalent use of the Second Life online virtual world for academic instruction and has consulted with faculty and experts at other universities knowledgeable in this area. (See "Capsule Summary: Second Life"). Based on this investigation, Transcriptions/LCI instructors feel that Second Life has the capability not just to augment their courses about the relation between literature and "new media" (in regard to which Second Life is itself a topic) but to open up entirely new kinds of instruction wedded to new topics.

In particular, Transcriptions/LCI envisions using Second Life as the most practical, low-cost way to enable new kinds of shared, interdisciplinary classroom activities that break down the barrier between the standard literary (and humanities) method of "interpretation" and such dominant methods of knowledge in other disciplines as "experiment," "model,""map,""survey," "interview," "game theory," "simulation," "prototype," and so on. All of the above named methods increasingly converge today in digital methods and media, and it is the special mission of Transcriptions/LCI courses in the next several years to exploit digital technology to give humanities students exposure to that convergence, one that stands to benefit them as they prepare for a future in which humanities graduates increasingly collaborate with other disciplines. Thus a significant number of Transcriptions/LCI courses in 2007-2008 are either focused thematically on the relation of literary works to other kinds of works (and literary interpretation to other kinds of research) or include assignments that require students to make such an interdisciplinary connection--e.g., by not just interpreting a literary work but also investigating it according to at least one other paradigm of research (creating a GIS-based map, role-playing a scene in an online world, creating a simulation, etc.)

Second Life is the most practical networked digital technology capable of creating a "world" in which such paradigm-bending instructional activities can occur through digital simulation. In this regard, "practical" has a double sense that is advantageous. On the one hand, Second Life makes it doable for humanities instructors and students (even the most technologically inclined of whom usually lack advanced programming skills) to take advantage of an advanced simulation environment. But, on the other hand, Second Life is not simply an off-the-shelf, take-it-as-it-is environment. Instead, it affords users considerable power to be practitioners themselves, building, designing, and exchanging.

In addition, Transcriptions/LCI instructors are excited about one other unprecedented kind of instructional activity enabled by Second Life: collaborating with undergraduate courses at other institutions by means of a limited number of common meetings held each quarter in the simulation environment. Toward this goal, Transcriptions/LCI has agreements-in-principle with members of the faculty at Duke University and at UCLA to partner their courses with ours through Second Life in 2007-2008 (see details below; see also "Appendix: Letters of Support.")

Capsule Summary: Second Life

Second Life is one of the most widely used of the general-purpose Internet-based, immersive, 3D, and highly scalable (massively multi-user) "virtual worlds" where users can create an avatar (a visual, mobile representation of themselves), create richly rendered spaces and objects, and interact with each other as well as with various media sources (e.g., videos). (Such virtual worlds are general-purpose relatives of the more specialized "massively multiplayer online gaming" [MMOG] environments devoted to collaborative computer gaming.) In early February 2007, there were 30,000 concurrent users of Second Life, out of a total of approximately 100,000 active accounts. (There were two million active or inactive accounts in all in December 2006). [3]

One of the key features of Second Life is akin to that of Web 2.0 in general: it allows users to add value to the world and, uniquely, to take an ownership stake in such added value (both in terms of collective use of shared resources and individual ownership of artifacts/sites).

The combination of a critical mass of users and the above mentioned features has in the past year brought not just individual members of the public but major for-profit and non-profit institutions into Second Life, where they purchase property and build resources for public use or for internal meetings and training workshops. Currently, for example, the following institutions have either established or are building presences in Second Life: Adidas Reebok, American Cancer Society, BBC Radio 1, Creative Commons, Dell, Disney, IBM, MTV, Reuters, Starwood Hotels, Sun Microsystems, Toyota, Wells Fargo. [4]

Importantly, approximately 70 educational institutions have moved into Second Life. The following institutions, for example, have built facilities or held classes in the virtual environment that are managed by program units, individual faculty, or both: UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Harvard Law School, Stanford U., Duke U., NYU, Pennsylvania State U., Trinity U., U. Texas at Austin, U. Wisconsin at Madison, Seton Hall U., Rochester Institute of Technology, and Ohio U. Some of these examples are discussed in the 2007 Horizon Report released by The New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE. Another source with special expertise on the UC system is a forthcoming story in UCLA Magazine by Jack Feuer (an advance description of which Feuer sent to Transcriptions/LCI with selected examples and citations). [5]

The 2007 Horizon Report summarizes the educational rationale for using Second Life (and similar virtual online environments) as follows. The statement is worth excerpting at length:

           Virtual worlds can be used to create very effective learning spaces. Since they are generalized rather than contextual, they are applicable to almost all disciplines. Settings can be created to pertain to any subject or area of study; locations and artifacts can be as realistic and detailed, or as generic and undefined as desired. 3D construction tools allow easy visualization of physical objects and materials, even those normally occurring at cosmic or nano scales.

           The social aspects of virtual worlds are also useful for educational purposes. These worlds lend themselves to role playing and scenario building, allowing learners to temporarily assume the responsibilities of an astronomer, chemist, or engineer without incurring real-world consequences. Researchers and ethnographers have ventured into worlds like Second Life to interview and study the inhabitants. New art forms are emerging in these spaces that take advantage of the unique possibilities for expression available in them. Machinima filmmaking using virtual world settings and avatar actors is just one example; new forms of sculpture, painting, and architecture are also evolving. . . .

           A sampling of applications of virtual worlds across disciplines includes the following:

            * Expand understanding of cultural and societal experiences. Many virtual worlds offer an opportunity for students to create as well as observe their surroundings. A literature course at the University of Texas at Austin forwards its goal for students to engage in discovery learning and gain deeper understanding of world literature by extending a study of world architectural styles into Second Life. Students create their own buildings that reflect styles they have studied, enabling them to carry their experience of world literature into a virtual world.

            * Experiment with new art forms. Virtual worlds lend themselves to creative work, blending flat texture design with more sculptural three-dimensional forms. The Otis College of Art and Design has built a gallery, sculpture garden, and meeting space in Second Life, where students and faculty can exhibit work that stretches their creativity in painting, sculpture, fashion design, cinematography, interactive displays, and other media.

            * Stage theatrical productions. All of the activities that are part of real-world theatrical productions have counterparts in virtual worlds: costume design, set design, scriptwriting, choreography, acting, and directing all contribute to a virtual play as to a real one. Productions from murder mysteries to westerns have been staged in Second Life.

            * Learn through simulations and role-playing. Simulated problem-solving activities can be planned in custom settings like a hospital room, a power plant, or even an entire town. Students can become doctors, patients, journalists, or anyone else as they work to accomplish goals within the simulated environment. A few proof-of-concept simulations have opened the door to a host of these activities, and many are now in development.

Particularly elaborate educational sites in Second Life include the simulation of a real world room at the Harvard Law School where students are taught argument skills. (See the video of the Harvard Law School Second Life room on YouTube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZUNAhzwZkdU). Another elaborate project was created by the New Media Consortium to house

a virtual campus . . . that includes a library, museum, planetarium, auditorium, classrooms, and a welcome center. In the fall of 2006, the community affiliated with the campus had grown to nearly 1000 educators. . . . Plans included a machinma school and a life sciences center. The NMC has hosted several events on the virtual campus including IBM's Global Innovation jam, a Howard Rheingold keynote speech, and an Second Life artists event. [6]

Less elaborate educational sites created or managed by individual faculty (or small-scale program units) include the classroom built by Professor Timothy Lenoir's Fall 2006 course at Duke University. (See Lenoir's letter in "Appendix: Letters of Support" as well as the pictures he sent to Transcriptions/LCI, below.)

Beyond the virtual classroom, there is also an entire "world" to explore within Second Life, with all of the wonder and disorientation that implies. It is not uncommon for English speakers to find themselves in the minority, engaging with the avatars of people for whom English is a second or even third language. Students who have already been thinking about the problem of "Global English" (including minority languages, cultural imperialism, and the emergence of new idiolects such as "Spanglish" and "Hindlish") will be particularly engaged by an immersive environment in which text messaging is multi-lingual and abbreviated, somewhat like the uses of language common to SMS and chat settings, yet also "foreign." As we know, that encounter with difference or strangeness is a particularly powerful educational moment. Other topics for discussion that are raised by a virtual environment such as Second Life include global citizenship; race and gender performance; community; and market economies.

Instructors, students, and others create avatars, navigate, and interact in Second Life using free accounts and a free client program on their computer. It is important to stress that the program is remarkably easy to use, the introductory tutorial brief and informative, and the interface familiar to users accustomed to basic pie and windows menus. To organize a virtual class session, the instructor sends the "slurl" (the Second Life URL) to the students over email; this allows them to navigate directly to the appointed space. They follow the link and are presented with the kind of basic membership screen that one encounters for nearly every community online. After choosing a user name and password, students are given the option of editing the appearance of their avatars; they can do so or they can choose to continue in the guise of one of the default characters. Basic movement would no doubt be intuitive for a UCSB audience and certainly so for anyone who has ever played a video game: the left arrow moves the avatar left and movements such as "sit here" are available from the pie menu. Moreover, the help menu in Second Life is extensive and, as one would expect from an open-source program, there are a number of wikis where users discuss everything from the most basic questions of navigation to details of code (these wikis are especially useful for programmers and artists creating objects in the virtual world).

Although the basic accounts the students would create are free, a paid subscription is necessary to buy "property" on which to build an architectural site. Property is then priced by square area. A subscription is $72 annually; and a 2,049 square-meter parcel adequate for a small-scale instructional site is $180 annually. [Transcriptions/LCI and the UCSB English Department is committing to a minimum of three years of this combined standing cost as well as to providing computers in its facilities with the Second Life client program pre-installed and supported by Transcriptions TAs. (See proposal details below.)]

While instructors and students in Transcriptions/LCI courses will eventually be involved in designing objects and activities in the Second Life instructional space, advance work will need to be done to develop the basic UCSB English Department site in that space, create supporting (help) resources, and train users. Transcriptions/LCI thus proposes the following plan (N.B.: development tasks and training in the first year will be funded by the Instructional Development grant, while purchase, maintenance, and ordinary or continuing training/support will be funded by Transcriptions/LCI and the English Department):

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