Teaching in the Virtual Theatre Classroom - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 187

CONVeNTIONAL THINkINg see that their RL behavior was mirroring their SL

behavior, and that they were not instead checking
Facebook and cell phones.) When she asked for
questions, she received some very polite inquiries,
echoing the observations of Peterson (2006) on
the similarities between face-to-face and avatar
communication. He suggests that, with the lack
of “intonation and most paralinguistic features,”
the resulting virtual communication transfers RL
communication practices, “such as politeness,”
into the virtual world (p. 97). This, in addition
to the students “playing” the role of responsible
students in SL, led to a very civil conversation
and follow-up question and answer session.
Our visits to SL were unfortunately inter-
rupted by frequent crashes of the software in the
computer classroom where we met, resulting in
the air being punctuated by utterances of frustra-
tion. In order to hear more constructive comments
about their virtual experiences, I required that the
students record their experiences—about all of
their assignments, but most notably about their SL
visits—in a blog. This required some reflection,
and not simply a terse set of complaints about
their perceived aggravations. Again, taking a cue
from Carter (2006), this integration of another
kind of “RL resource” seemed a good idea for
the reasons Carter cites: “Students can share their
knowledge and experiences with one another as
well as access other online information” (p. 3). By
reading how the other students were interacting
with SL, they could see they were not alone in
their frustration with the software, and received
informal peer-teaching tips and suggestions by this
method. The postings also allowed me to check on
their progress and offer any guidance needed for
assignments or general navigation (or frankly, an
attitude check, to explain the pedagogical reasons
behind the inclusion of SL into the course to the
sometimes technology-resistant students).

An additional assignment I had given the students
was The Bacchae Assignment. In the summer of
2007 I had applied to the Foundation for Rich
Content (FFRC) within Second Life to fund a
large-scale theatre project. The first phase was
building the Greek Theater, and the second phase
would be to familiarize my students with SL
within this class. The final phase, occurring in the
summer of 2008, was to mount a production of
Euripides' The Bacchae , an ancient Greek tragedy.
The FFRC awarded me in Lindens, the SL cur-
rency, L$25,000.00 (approximately $93.00USD)
for the project.
In preparation for this, I asked the students in
my class to read The Bacchae and participate in an
in-class discussion of the play. Their assignment
was then to suggest ways of making the virtual
theatre production truly a part of SL. While many
theatre productions in SL tend to simply bring RL
theatre conventions in-world, I wanted to use the
conventions of SL in the production. For example,
when I staged The Perm , the avatar playing the
hairdresser moved from one poseball to the next,
each imparting a stance or animation to the avatar.
These poseballs were in full view of the audience,
and I did not hide them, as such poseballs can be
found everywhere within SL. In order to prompt
the students' imaginations (in the assignment I
urged them to think in terms of “creativity, origi-
nality and do-ability”), I suggested two possible
examples for them to consider.

1. Gender bending can easily happen in SL,
as members of either gender “present” as
the opposite. This happens in the play with
Pentheus, at the suggestion of Dionysus.
2. Attachments can be used to “do” various
things. For example, there are attachments
that show the wearer giving off sparkles.
Dionysus, in his usual godly form, may well
give off particles.