Andy Powell’s live notes from the day are online here .

SECOND LIFE v. WORLD OF WARCRAFT
Friday 13th of June 2008
London Knowledge Lab
11 AM to 4 PM

Invited speakers: Aleks Krotoski and Tanya Krzywinska
Event convenors: Diane Carr, Martin Oliver and Andrew Burn

This will be an informal discussion with digital game theorists, educators and social world researchers to celebrate the close of our research project ‘Learning from Online Worlds; Teaching in Second Life’ The project was supported by the Eduserv Foundation. Participant numbers will be limited so RSVP directly if you would like to take part (d.carr@ioe.ac.uk) and note that we are not really expecting you to fight about the relative merits of World of Warcraft and Second Life.

Schedule
11 – 12.30
Session 1: Learning from Online Words, Teaching in Second Life
Diane Carr, Martin Oliver, Andrew Burn.

1.30 – 2.00 Lunch provided

2 – 4 pm: Tag team events
Each session will begin with a 20 min presentation from an invited speaker.

2 pm – 3 pm
Session 2: Virtual Worlds, Subjectivity and Methodology
How do we conceptualise the participating/learning/playing subject, and how does this relate to the questions that we ask as researchers, and the methodologies that we employ? How will we know learning (or meaning or pleasure) when we see it?
Invited speaker: Tanya Krzywinska

3 pm – 4 pm
Session 3: Putting the Social into Social World Research
How should we define or study the social in Second Life? What of the intersections between agency, community, code, terms of service, and various in-world currencies (such as reputation, stats or credibility for instance)? How might these things relate to learning and teaching practices? What do newbie educators and students need to know about SL culture and etiquette?
Invited speaker: Aleks Krotoski

Speaker biographies
Tanya Krzywinska is Professor in Screen Studies at Brunel University. She is the author of several books and many articles on different aspects of videogames, horror and fantasy and is particularly interested in occult fiction and fantasy worlds. She is the co-author of Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders: Videogames Forms and Meanings (IB Tauris, 2006), Sex and the Cinema (Wallflower, 2006), A Skin For Dancing In: Witchcraft, Possession and Voodoo in film (2001), and co-editor of ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces (Wallflower Press, 2002) and videogame/player/text (MUP, 2007). She convenes a Masters programme in Digital Games: Theory and Design at Brunel University, London, and is President of the Digital Games Research Association.

Aleks Krotoski is a columnist for The Guardian’s Technology section and for Guardian Unlimited, where she writes about the social dimensions of interactive entertainment, emerging community experiences in virtual worlds and other aspects of social software. She is currently working towards a PhD in social psychology examining the social networks of Second Life. In particular, she is interested in understanding online social influence, and how information diffuses through online populations.

Advertisement