I should point out that I've never taken students en masse to any of
these locations...
However, I have taken visitors, people looking over my shoulder and
the like. And whilst I don't think I have any schizophrenic tendencies
I find the Virtual Hallucinations display deeply uncomfortable. It
doesn't stop me recommending it to others though, and taking visitors
there on occasion.
I would suggest, and I say some variation of this to people I take
there too, something about what I'm going to take them to, and that
they might find it disturbing and uncomfortable. If they do we can
leave. Pictures of Darfur are pretty disturbing, seeing it virtually
live and in 3D more so, in my opinion, but for most people if they're
warned about what they're going to see (in general terms e.g. "we're
going to VH, it simulates the way a schizophrenic patient experience
the world based on real clinical reports. If you find it disturbing
let me know and we can leave") then I think you've probably covered
yourself from both a legal and a moral point of view, at least for my
morals!
I don't think the Gitmo build is still there, but I didn't go to see
it because I rather suspected it wouldn't be good for my blood
pressure or my emotional stability at the time.
Consider it this way: if you're taking students there and expecting
them to work (so they can't just run away if they don't like it) then
presumably you'd be sending them to do research in other places about
Darfur or Schizophrenia or similar. What warnings do you give them
about that? I had, a long time ago, the extreme misfortune to have to
transcribe a psychologist's interview with a rape victim. Despite
basically not ever remembering my dreams, looking back I'm still
surprised I didn't wake up screaming that night. I've never read a
similar interview with a schizophrenic patient but I suspect the same
might happen given my reaction to VH. If you're going to research
those things, then you have to, surely, expect things to be unpleasant.
The alternative is that you take the students there as examples of
cracking good builds in Second Life. You can still warn them that they
might find the locations disturbing and they can leave - but as part
of their work they should consider what the builders have done to make
it affect them so much. You would, in fact you do with Genome, have
sites that are wonderful but hopefully far less likely to disturb the
students, so they've got other places they can go and see examples of
good building and scripting to analyse.
I really wouldn't consider dropping them in to any of those places
unwarned. That said, I wouldn't really consider sending them to Genome
without some idea about the content either, and probably in a similar
level of detail. But maybe that's just me.
El.
On 23 Oct 2009, at 09:38, David Westwood wrote:
> Hello, I am Dave Warwillow (R.L. Dave Westwood). I am the e-learning
> research developer for the Middlesex University. Our University is
> still
> a fledgling infant within the Second Life world and we are currently
> looking to establish our presence. I recently held a workshop to
> introduce our academics to second life. Upon showing examples of
> what I
> think are fantastic educational simulations and areas (Genome Island,
> Heart Sim, Imperial College's hospital, the virtual hallucinations
> sim),
> some of the academics began to worry about the mental wellbeing of
> their
> students. The worries focused upon the possible ability for persons to
> be affected either mentally (by for example the Darfur sim) or even
> have
> their mental health jeopardised - possibly underlying schizophrenic
> tendencies awoken. I tried to ally their fears with explanations of
> the
> lack of photo - realism, and the ability to 'escape' at anytime. The
> reason for my contacting you is that I understand that you are all
> active in the world of second life education. My question is this,
> have
> you had any negative experiences with students within second life? Do
> you in anyway provide forewarning/debriefing to your students, and
> if so
> how and in how much detail?
>
> I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences.
>
> Many thanks in advance Dave Warwillow (
[hidden email] )
>
> David Westwood Msc.
> e-learning research developer
> e-learning research and innovations team.
> Middlesex Univesity (ext. 4526)
>
>
>
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