3VCC - Third Vitual Counselling Conference Program

As discussed in previous postings, the Counsellor Education in Second Life (CESL) group hosted the Third Virtual Counselling Conference (3VCC) between the dates 14 - 17 September 2011.

It involved an international community of counsellors interested in:

• Using virtual worlds as a delivery platform to present counselling related topics (not necessarily involving virtual worlds) to an international community, without the time and cost factors involved in international travel;
• Exploring the role virtual worlds do or could play in:
• Counsellor education
• Continuing professional development
• Networking
• Formal meetings of various counselling related groups
• Sharing of a range of resources:
• In-world tools
• Journals
• Books
• Workshop materials
• Exploring the ethical issues relevant to changing technology and therapy

The 3VCC Program Schedule can be viewed at: http://sl.counseloreducation.org/styled-2/index.html 

A PDF file of the 3VCC Worshop Abstracts can be viewed at: http://sl.counseloreducation.org/resources/3vcc-Program.pdf

Also have a look at John Wilson's videos http://www.onlinevents.co.uk/index.html . John also has a service where people can observe the vitual web events as a live video without participants having to come in as an avatar in-world.

John also has a YouTube Channel you may wish to explore: http://www.youtube.com/user/wilsoncounselling.

Stay tuned, some video extracts from the 3VCC are on their way.

Having Fun with Go Animate

Just a little digression. I will get back to sharing about the 3VCC shortly.

I just want to share with you about an animation website I have come across recently, called Go Animate. It is very easy to use. You choose a number of characters, choose the voices for each character and type in your dialogue for each. Sometimes you need to play around with your words and punctuation to get the dialogue to sound natural, but it doesn't take very long to do.You can animate and move your characters as well.  The site has both free and paid memberships.

I thought I would experiment and create two videos relevant to counselling. I think Steven Spielberg's job is very safe! lol, but I think the animation site has a lot of potential.

I am very much the novice here, but thought I would share it with you.

Clip 1: The Danger of Why Questions:  http://goanimate.com/movie/00pIgDXWr2HY?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0bt2iZCm4Gcs  Don't forget to use full screen.

Clip 2: Fighting Demon Thoughts - Part I: I tried to be creative about negative self-talk here. There will be other clips, but at this stage it looks like negative self-talk is coming from a demon-like character. The later clips will reveal how the "demon" is negative self-talk within the individuals, the heroes of the clip, and will lead into some useful cognitive strategies to address this.So it is a work in progress. The volume for the "demon" needs to be better at times, but as stated before, I am just dabbling at this point:  http://goanimate.com/movie/050aTBkS6K1k?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0bt2iZCm4Gcs

Fireworks and Dancing at the 3VCC Closure

I thought I would start with some of the lighter "stuff" at the conference - dancing and fireworks! 


Thanks Marty, it was great fun. The dancing animations lined up very well with the inworld radio link.

 

The concept of dancing was a peculiar one for me when I first came into Second Life. But having participated in a number of dances and firework sessions post-conference, I can really vouch for their fun, as well as the networking which ensues. It was a spectacular way to finish the conference. Being able to fly up into the colour and patterns of the fireworks, without injury, was fun too!

Third Virtual Counselling Conference (3VCC)

Greetings!

The next few postings will be about the Third Virtual Counselling Conference (3VCC) which was recently held in Second Life, hosted by the Counsellor Education Second Life (CESL) group. It was a wonderful conference. My only regret was that work commitments and the need for sleep curtailed my full attendance! But next year, I will make sure nothing is booked on those days. And being downunder means that my days and nights will be swapped, but it will be worth it.

Thank you to Dr Marty Jencius & Debra London for a wonderful opportunity. I have appreciated their hard work over the last three years. A thank you to all those guest speakers as well. The professional development and dialogue they have created has been excellent.

It was great to see the support from the American Counselling Association too!  Although I am located in Australia, it is encouraging to see how professional organisations are supporting such ventures in these new frontiers.

Counselling in virtual worlds certainly raises a range of ethical concerns and issues which are well worth considering, with regard to client work. So, the input from people such as DeeAnna Madfes and Kate Elize Larnia from the Online Therapy Institute http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/ is always invaluable at these conferences.

We are all committed to the safety and empowerment of the client. Keeping an open mind and continuing with that professional dialogue means new directions will emerge. Technology certainly poses many pitfalls for us, but also provides many new opportunities, It is an interesting labyrinth to explore. So the balance between ethics and technology will be an ongoing challenge.I look forward to future discussion with regard to this.

However, putting client contact aside as an issue, virtual worlds offer a range of opportunities for the international counselling community to meet inworld and to participate in conferences, workshops, meetings and general networking, such as that which occurred at the 3VCC.

Stay tuned, as I will upload a few video snippets of some of the 3VCC sessions.

Types of Learning Found in Virtual Worlds

Educators generally identify two (2) types of learning which can occur in virtual worlds: synchronous and asynchronous. These terms are not unique to virtual worlds, as they relate to a range of online learning modes and activities, as well as to some face-to-face class activities. However, as far as virtual worlds are concerned, these two terms can be defined as follows:

Synchronous learning: This refers to learning events which occur at the same time for participants. This means that a group of learners experience the same learning event together, as they would in a classroom setting. They may experience a range of different learning outcomes, based on a range of factors, but nevertheless, derived from the same learning event. In synchronous learning, students can interact with the learning event and with each other during the process. In this case the teacher/learning facilitator is usually present. So this type of learning has a same-time participant-interaction component.

Asynchronous learning refers to learning which occurs independent of the presence of other learners (and teachers/facilitators). So the learner would explore the learning activity at a time relevant for them. This may occur with the learner being the only one in the learning environment or there may be other learners nearby, but each would be focussed on a different learning activity. So it is an “alone” activity. However, this individual activity can still have a participant interaction, but with different-time participant- interaction components, that is, having time delays similar to what occurs with email communication.

Both these styles of learning are useful in our modern world. However, a number of safety considerations need to be given, especially where students are children. Some of these factors will be discussed in the “Safety Considerations” entry, coming soon.

The latest TILT Online Magazine Edition Out Now

The latest edition of TILT - Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology e-magazine is out now (Edition 6). Previous editions can be downloaded as well from the following link: http://www.onlinetherapymagazine.com/   .

This magazine is very professional in presentation and content. It explores a range of issues, erhics, pros and cons of current and emerging technologies in the field of counselling and coaching. 

An interesting read for those interested in virtual worlds.

Counselling Education in Second Life

A great network to follow is the Counsellor Education in Second Life (CESL) group, which as the group name suggests, explores the use of virtual worlds relevant to counselling. For more information, please refer to their website: http://sl.counseloreducation.org/

To date the CESL has run a number of in-world workshops and two very successful in-world conferences. These conferences have involved the exploration of virtual world usage in counsellor education and therapy, as well as using it simply as a delivery platform to explore topics unrelated to virtual worlds.

Virtual worlds are a great way to bring the international community together for conferences, without the cost of travel. Although "jet lag" can still occur because of the global time dynamics. But a bit of give and take means that we all take turns in day and night attendance!

The following links are the 2009 and 2010 CESL conference programs, to give you a better idea of what sessions were available at these events:

• 2009: http://www.onlinetherapyinstituteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/cesl-conference-program.pdf
• 2010: http://sl.counseloreducation.org/2VCC_Program.pdf

 

A third conference is coming up in September 2011, so stay tuned for more information!

 

In the meantime, here are a few snapshots of the past CESL conferences.

 

2009

 

Getting Together as a Group

Looking at a Concept in 3D

Becoming a Concept and Participating in an Activity

Exploring Traditional and Virtual Concepts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation on the Counselling Theorists Project



 





Experiencing the Theorist Project

 

 

2010

This was the fun finale for the 2010 conference: fireworks and dancing:





The 2009 EduFaire in Second Life

The EduFaire was held late January 2009 in Second Life. The purpose was for educational organisations in Second Life to showcase their projects, tools, activities and sims. There were a range of sessions to attend and displays to explore. The following photos provide examples of some of the EduFaire sessions:

In the above photo, you can see five (5) presenters with posters in the background, a display board which works like a PowerPoint presentation and a Chat Log tool. The Chat Log is the box in the front, just left of centre, with names in red font hovering above it. These are the names of the participants giving permission for their typed chat to be recorded into a transcript for later perusal.

One of the presenters in the above photo, has rezzed (brought in-world) a tool which helps teaching records and processes to be communicated between the First and Second Worlds. This tool will be discussed in greater detail in a later post.

This aerial view (above) allows you to get a feel for the learning space setup and the avatars in attendance. The text hovering above the avatar heads are their names. This function can be turned off to reduce visual clutter. In the left bottom corner is part of the typed chat of this session. The box with the blue circles is a camera tool on the screen and not inworld.

Above,  is a side view of avatars gathering for a session.

Overall, this 2009 EduFaire was an informative and successful event.

Now to the Educational Stuff

How I Learnt about Second Life 

In 2008 I received the bi-monthly newsletter which outlined the featured articles in Innovate: Journal of Online Education, an online publication of the Nova Southeastern University's Fischler School of Education and Human Services. The article which captured my imagination was written by Nancy Evans, Thalia M Mulvihill and Nancy J Brooks, entitled Mediating the Tensions of Online Learning with Second Life. There was also a link to a webcast about this article.

If you wish to explore these resources yourself, please click the following links:

• Journal Article (Evans, Mulvihill & Brooks)
• Webcast (Evans, Mulvihill & Brooks)
• Back Issues of Innovate Online

Evans, Mulvihill & Brooks (2008) had a similar frame of reference to my own, so I built up the courage to explore this strange "new world" of Second Life. It took quite a bit to overcome my hesitations in taking the first step, as I did not come from a computer nor a gaming background. In fact the last video games I played were Pac Man and Frogger when they first came out! Although I could see that this virtual world was more than a game, I felt lacking in the skills that a gaming background would have given me for this venture..... but that was soon to change!

So, I typed in the Second Life web page, and ventured into registering for membership. I got half way though this process and got cold feet. It was late at night and too eerie for me. I wondered if I was opening my computer up to risk in this activity and the darkness of the night created shadows in my mind. So I cancelled the process and decided to let sleep regather my energy and courage.

The next day I tried again, this time successfully, and thus embarked on such an amazing journey of exploring a range of creative, beautiful, strange and imaginative sims. I met new people where distance was no barrier and even talked to people in different languages using a translator program. I then started building and tapped into a creative side I could not even imagine I had.

As for the educational world, I met fellow educators from around the globe, attended educational faires, conferences, workshops, panel interviews, and participated in a range of creative simulated learning areas. It was amazing to be sitting in a workshop with people who were physically located in their respective countries. l attended every opportunity I could and rediscovered that childlike energy and enthusiasm for learning. I was once again on that steep learning curve and loving it! It was great experiencing the thrill of learning. So too often as educators we see this enthusiasm for learning in our students, but we can begin to fall into the 'same ole, same ole' routine because we are repeating some subjects. And although we can be creative each year in our delivery, the scope is limited in the required content coverage. So not only did I love exploring this virtual world because of its newness to me, I embraced the access it gave me to a huge range of learning opportunities, whether these were virtual world in focus or just using the virtual world for an international delivery platform of educational concepts unrelated to virtual worlds.


Educational Samples to Follow in the Next Few Posts

The following posts will provide a number of samples of how various educational organisations are using virtual worlds. In particular, we will see picture examples of:

• Educational Faires
• Conferences
• Meetings
• Learning Spaces
• Inworld Tools

And then we will explore how these are being used for counselling and community services education.

A Tapestry of Virtual World Experiences

The following are a range of fun activities I have experienced within the virtual World of Second Life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are plenty of areas to explore in Second Life. It is a huge virtual world, which has millions of residents (avatar members). It has its own economy in which you can particpate, however, you can freely participate in this virtual world without any membership fees.

  

There is a strong educational presence in Second Life and it hosts a number of workshops, events and conferences each year, worthy of participation.

Terminology and Acronyms

In the right hand column is a section called, "Terminology and Acronyms". This section will be reviewed regularly and new terms and acronyms added, relevant to online and virtual worlds.

Please type a comment, if there is a term or acronym you would like explained or added to the list.

Some Useful e-Links

There are a number of useful e-links for you to explore under a number of categories in the right hand margin of this Blog. These will be reviewed and updated regularly.

At this stage, there are six (6) main areas of focus:

1. Virtual Worlds to Explore: Although there are many virtual worlds, these are the key ones used by the author of this Blog. But, please feel free to discuss any other virtual worlds you believe to be useful for counselling/community services education;
2. Useful E-Counselling Links: These links will take you to professional counselling/community services organisations which use virtual worlds in a range of different ways;
3. Virtual Education Publications and Resources: These links will take you to a range of e-journals and hard copy resources relevant to education in virtual worlds;
4. Events, Workshops and Conferences: These links will take you to web sites which discuss a range of events, workshops and conferences, either hosted in a virtual world, or about e-learning in the real/first world;
5. Podcasts and Webinars: These links will take you to a range of audio and/or visual presentations relevant to virtual worlds.
6. Relevant Video Links: This will take you to a range of interesting videos relevant to the educational use of virtual worlds in counselling/community services.

Remember to check these links periodically, as they will be updated regularly.



Welcome

Welcome to Michigan Downunder, a Blog dedicated to exploring the use of virtual worlds in teaching counselling and community services.

I am your host, Annemaree Michigan, and you can find me in a number of virtual worlds, especially Second Life, Jokaydia Grid, Reaction Grid and OpenSim.

Come join me in exploring how such virtual worlds can assist students in developing a range of concepts and skills relevant to counselling and community services.