Group Work Musings

The group work went somewhat well. I think it was a good idea to divide the groups up so people didn’t just work with their friends, but at the same time I think it would have been beneficial to divide people into groups based on who had laptops. No one in our group had a laptop, yet in one group every member had a laptop. This made it difficult, because although we were able to go to the lab it was awhile before all 3 of us got a computer (since there was a line-up) and needless to say, the computers were not beside each other. Although we communicated in SL, it would have been beneficial to be beside each other as well. As well, we all had conflicting schedules and we weren’t able to get it done in the class time provided since we lost a lot of time trying to find computers.

It was definitely interesting looking around at the different causes on Second Life. I really enjoyed looking around Health Info Island and Common Wealth Island. Neither focused solely on one cause but had many different areas that could be explored. I enjoyed Health Info Island more, although that could be partially a result of the fact that my computer kept crashing every time I went to Common Wealth. I was impressed with how much information was available and the creative ways that information was distributed. As an example, I really liked that they had this person-like thing at Health Info Island and you could touch on a different body part to find out where to access the information. There was also a spacious library and many exhibits. I especially liked the use of RL picture in their exhibits. On the other hand, the setting of Commonwealth Island was very camp-like and rural. The set up was very well done with each exhibit having a little hut of it’s own that included information about the cause and ways to access those involved as well as additional information.

I learned a lot about the causes involved at each of these places and about the different ways you can involve avatars in a cause. As well, I got lots of practice using the search engine in Second Life and seeing how many causes were listed. I also got to teleport around and communicate with my partners in Second Life which was helpful so that I wasn’t always exploring on my own.
I think our brainstorming went well on SL but in terms of writing up the actual assignment I think it would have been easier to be in close proximity to one another. We all ended up doing about an equal amount of work but I think it could have been a lot smoother. One benefit of the project was obviously that we got to experience new settings in SL and learn about the causes we selected. It was also helpful to think about how we would go about raising awareness for a cause on SL and what would be the best ways to get people interested and involved. It helped to look at strategies other people had used to promote their cause and think about what we would use and what we wouldn’t. As previously stated, however, the drawback was not always being able to coordinate schedules and times when we could all be online. Overall I think the benefits outweighed the cons. The experience was enjoyable but I think it could have been enhanced by having more time to work together as a group. It would have indisputably been completed faster, I feel, as a individual project but it was nice to have discussions and experiences together as a group.