E-4:
Virtual Worlds
Harvard Extension School
Mondays 7:35-9:35pm EST, Fall 2007
Berkman Center Conference Room and Live Webcast on Berkman Island
Instructor: Rebecca Nesson
Course
Description | Prerequisites | Administration | Syllabus |
Lecture Videos | Course
Wiki |
At-Large | Question Tool
Course Description
Today virtual worlds like Second Life are an exciting new frontier. Second Life has a flourishing economy and millions of users doing everything from teaching and taking Harvard courses to shopping at virtual American Apparel and Nike to running a night club. In the future, virtual environments promise to become a substantial part of our online existence. This course is your chance to get on the inside track. We will use Second Life as our classroom and laboratory. After an initial segment of the course where we introduce you to your second life, we'll examine models for virtual world law and government, economics and business, cultural norms, art, education and activism. Work for the course will be largely project-based. In the first half of the class a group project will be done in collaboration with the Harvard Law School class "Trials in Second Life". In the second half of the course students will individually do either an original research paper or an individual hands-on development project of their own choosing.
The course will meet in a non-traditional way. We will have bi-weekly lectures that may be attended live in Cambridge, viewed via live webcast to Berkman Island in Second Life, or viewed on recorded video after the lecture completes. Interleaved with the bi-weekly lectures we will have synchronous class meetings in our virtual classroom on Berkman Island in Second Life. These synchronous meetings are required class meetings, so you must be available to attend them in order to enroll in this class.
Prerequisites
There are two important prerequisites for this course. First, you must have access to a computer where you can install and run Second Life. Test this out before you begin the class. Second, you must be available for the bi-weekly meetings in Second Life. These meetings take place at a specific time and attendance at these meetings is required and will contribute to your grade. If you know that you will have to miss more than one of these meetings it is not advisable to take the course.
Administration
Contacting the Course Staff: e4staff@gmail.com
The course staff can be reached using the course email account e4staff@gmail.com. Email to this address goes to all of the course staff, guaranteeing you as quick an answer as possible. In addition, it can't get lost in the shuffle of everyday email. So please direct all your questions, comments, homework, etc. to this address.
Class Schedule
With some exceptions, the class will meet bi-weekly for lectures in the Berkman Center Conference room. These lecture meetings will be live webcast to Berkman Island in Second Life so that students who are enrolled as distance education students may also see the lecture live and participate in real time. These lectures will also be video taped and made available from this website within 48 hours after the lecture takes place.
On the intervening weeks, class will meet virtually in Second Life for all students. The time for the Second Life meetings will be the same: 7:35-9:35pm EST. If you need an accomodation on these meeting times due to time zones or other work requirements, please email the course staff. There will be 5 of these required meetings in Second Life (and one optional meeting). Attendance at these meetings does count towards the class grade. Each student is allowed to miss one of the required meetings without any penalty to his/her grade. Please be sure that you can attend these meetings before registering for the course. The dates of these meetings are as follows:
September 24
October 22
November 5
November 26
December 17
January 7 (optional)
Office Hours:
We will be holding weekly office hours on Berkman Island in Second Life on Thursday evenings from 8:00-9:00pm EST. Please come to these office hours to talk to the teaching staff about the course material, get help on homework, or just to hang out with your classmates and the at-large participants.
If you need help at other times it is always available by email to e4staff@gmail.com. If you'd like to make an appointment to meet with one of the teaching staff in person, perhaps for help on a problem set, send an email to e4staff@gmail.com to arrange it. For distance students we can arrange virtual meetings, chat sessions, or good old fashion phone calls.
Grading:
The course will be graded using a point system. The total points available in the course sum to 1200. Note that the required evaluations are not graded for content. The midterm and final evaluations are NOT exams. They are feedback forms where you will evaluate the class experience. There are no exams in this course and there will be no need for distance students to arrange for exam proctors at any time.
- 6 problem sets: 100 points each
- Final Paper (400 points total)
- Topic worksheet: 50 points
- Detailed outline: 50 points
- First draft: 100 points
- Final draft: 200 points
- Attendance at virtual class meetings: 100 points -- 25 points for each attendance
- Completion of Midterm Evaluation: 50 points
- Completion of Final Evaluation: 50 points
All homework assignments will be due at 12:00 noon EST on Mondays (with some exceptions). All homework must be submitted by email to the course email account e4staff@gmail.com.
Late Work Policy
Late work will be accepted up to 48 hours after the due date of the assignment. Assignments turned in within 24 hours of the due date will receive a 10% penalty on the grade. Assignments turned in within 24-48 hours of the due date will receive a 25% penalty on the grade. No assignments will be accepted more than 48 hours late.
One assignment may be turned in late (within 48 hours of the due date) without penalty during the semester.
Extension Policy
Extensions will only be granted in exceptional circumstances such as illness or other unexpected obtacle to completion of work. Extensions must be requested in writing to the course email account e4staff@gmail.com BEFORE the due date of the assignment. No extensions will be granted after the due date for an assignment has passed.
At-Large Participation
Second Life provides much more than just a virtual classroom for our class, it is also a vibrant virtual community with many residents interested in learning and sharing their knowledge. In order to promote the opportunity for free access to higher education and to gain the benefit of the support of the community for our enrolled students, we invite the Second Life community to participate in our class as at-large participants. At-large participants are invited to attend the lectures for the class virtually by coming to Berkman Island on Monday evenings from 8:00-10:00pm EST to watch the webcast. In addition, they are welcome to join our office hours on Thursday evenings to discuss the issues raised in the course during the preceding week. We hope that in return for sharing access to the course materials the at-large participants will be willing to serve as resources for the enrolled students in the class throughout the semester. At-large participants will not be able to turn in homework in the course, receive feedback on work for the course, or receive credit or a grade for the course. In addition at-large participants will not be able to attend the 5 synchronous class meetings in Second Life due to the number of enrolled students in the class and our need to keep those meetings small enough to be manageable. These are the privileges of the enrolled students that come from their official enrollment and payment for the course. If you would like to enroll in the course, please feel free to do so -- it is open to anyone -- at http://www.extension.harvard.edu.
Lecture videos not available to at-large participants can be accessed here instead.
Lecture Videos
You may watch the lecture videos here. Videos will generally be available 24-48 hours after the lecture takes place.
Syllabus
weeks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Week 1: Introduction to Virtual Worlds -- September 17In this class we'll discuss the idea of virtual reality and get acquainted with the specific virtual reality presented by Second Life. In this class we'll be thinking practically about computer simulated experiences that might be termed as virtual reality experiences. However, we'll begin by taking a broad view of the concept from two vantage points. First, we note that it is hard to find a distinction between computer simulated realities and other computer-mediated interactions (such as visiting a web page). What makes a computer simulation a virtual reality? What makes it different from any other computer experience? Why would we need to think about it differently. Second, we'll take the vantage point of the science fiction author or reader. What can we imagine as a possible virtual reality. The dreams of writers like Neal Stephenson have to a large extent been realized in some virtual reality technologies that are available today. What other types of virtual realities might we dream up? What can we do with the technology that hasn't yet been done. And, of course, we'll take a look at Second Life, figure out how to get in there and get started moving around. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 2: Introduction to Virtual Worlds -- Synchronous Virtual Meeting -- September 24This week we'll (virtually) get our hands dirty. We'll meet in Second Life on Berkman Island and work on getting acquainted with the environment. You will meet your fellow classmates, learn the basics of how to move and interact in Second Life. We'll have a class discussion about the topics from the previous week's lecture. Finally, I'll send you out into the world to complete a hands-on homework assignment in which you'll see the sights and get aquainted with the society. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 3: Intro to LambdaMoo -- October 1As we discussed in Week 1, what makes virtual worlds special and different from other technologies is the technology itself. It enables types of interaction that can't happen at all, or at least can't happen as fluidly as they can in a virtual world environment. This is an example of a very powerful idea elaborated most clearly by Larry Lessig in the reading for this week. Put simply: code is law. In the real world we live in a web of natural laws that govern how we can interact with each other. We are bound by the limits of our senses, by gravity, by all the laws of physics. Similarly, we have the benefits of our full range of senses -- we can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste easily. We can communicate fairly efficiently with those who speak our language. In a virtual world, a different set of laws apply. These laws are not determined by the natural world, but by the code that determines how the world works. In Second Life we find that some things that are easy in real life are much more difficult, such as communication, tracking the gaze, emotion or expression of others we meet, etc. These are limitations of our interface, of the code. We also have some advantages. Though it is more awkward to use our eyes, they can disconnect from our bodies and let us look great distances. We can teleport from place to place. We can choose how our bodies look. Reading:
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Week 3.5 -- Columbus Day Holiday -- No Class -- October 8We have no class this week, but we are starting with Scratch programming next week. For those who want a head start -- because I'm sure this will be challenging for some -- begin with these readings and try out doing the first section of the problem set. I will be holding an optional meeting in the lab (time TBD) this week to help people with questions and a discussion section in Second Life (or perhaps LambdaMoo) for distance students with Scratch questions. Reading:
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Week 4: Code as Law & Scratch -- October 15Reading:
Homework:
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Week 5: You Are Hiro Protagonist -- Second Life Building -- Synchronous Virtual Meeting -- October 22This week we'll get our virtual hands dirty doing some content creation of our own. We'll learn basic building and scripting in Second Life and complete small building projects. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 6: Aggregation of Willing Energy: The Second Life Model -- October 29This week we will consider the aspects of Second Life that have made it so successful. In particular, we will focus on the Web 2.0-style building and intellectual property model that Linden Labs adopted for Second Life. Much like other Internet phenomena such as Wikipedia and MySpace, Second Life is built from the bottom up. Instead of content that is programmed and made available to users by Linden Labs, the content that we encounter in Second Life is provided by other users of the system. Linden Labs simply provides the means to create it. They also provide incentives for that creativity by giving users granular control over the property that they create. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 7: Empathic Argument -- Synchronous Virtual Meeting -- November 5Students will split into small groups to work through the 3 Hats problem. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 7.5: Veteran's Day Holiday -- NO CLASS -- November 12 |
Week 8: The Boundaries of Code -- Governance, and Law in Virtual Worlds -- November 19Now that we've all been convinced of the power of code to shape our environment, we examine the boundaries of that power. Today we'll consider actions in virtual worlds that cannot easily be regulated by code even for those who are in control of the code as well as the questions of what input residents of virtual worlds should have into the control of the code itself. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 9: E4 Radio -- Synchronous Virtual Meeting -- November 26Podcast listening session. During this week's class we'll be listening to the podcasts of a few brave student volunteers and giving them constructive feedback on their project ideas and their execution of empathic argument. If you'd like to volunteer your podcast to be shared with the class, please let Rebecca know. Homework:
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Week 10: Virtual World Economy and Business -- December 3This week we'll look at the economy of virtual worlds and the prospects for starting successful businesses in virtual world economies, transplanting successful real world businesses to virtual economies, and the current trend in using Second Life as a fancy advertising platform for real life businesses. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 11: Second Life Education -- December 10Harvard is one of many schools exploring the great potential of Second Life for education. Compared to the distance education technologies of the past, Second Life can't be beat. And for face-to-face classes it provides a tool (and a community) that can be used to enhance the classroom experience. This week we'll address the questions: Does Second Life provide anything truly new and valuable to educators and students? How can educators make use of the community of people interested in participating in educational enterprises but not enrolled in our classes? How can Second Life be improved for educators and students or do we need an entirely different model of virtual communities to meet the needs of the educational community. Reading:
Homework:
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Week 12: Synchronous Virtual Meeting -- December 17We'll have an activity and discussion of the topics of the previous two weeks' lectures. There will be opportunity for students to schedule 1-on-1 meetings to discuss their papers. Homework:
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Week 13: The Future of Virtual Worlds -- Class Party in Second Life! -- January 7We'll discuss the future of virtual worlds while we have a virtual dance party in Second Life. Dance moves and virtual drinks will be provided. You'll be amazed at the great moves you'll have and also that you'll be able to carry on a serious discussion at the same time! Homework:
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Week 14: NO CLASS -- January 14 |