revisiting orientation island

i ventured back to orientation island, or at least the public version of the island. this island was crawling with people, most of which looked like they have been playing the game for a while. Alot of people approached me asking me if I had any questions about the game. Some where nice and helpful, some had a hidden agenda in their questions. I was asked to teleport to unknown locations by certian people, and other people were hitting on me. It was a little off putting to say the least. The other interesting thing about these people is that none of them had normal appearances, all were dressed in outrageous clothing or had very unusual skins. There was one individual who kept following me around in a helicopter. He was unresonsive to questions of what he was acutally doing in a helicopter. The funniest thing about being on the public orientation island is that for all the people i saw, none of them llloked like they actually had a purpose of being there. I only saw 3 people who looked like they had just started playing the game. Alot of the people at the top of the hill on the island all knew each other and where having a conversation about some party that had happened in real life. It was interesting to see them all gathered there to talk about something that happened in real life in a virtual world. It was an unusual spot as well to talk with friends, as everyone was able to listen and view their conversations. most of the conversations on the island were dealing with sex, and i would rather not get into the details of some of those conversations. Alot of people where also spending time editing their appearances as well, most of the female avatars on the island where dressed in gothic clothing.

INTERVIEW READINGS

Questions should be worded so that respondents cannot simply answer yes or no, but must expound on the topic. n-depth interviews involve not only asking questions, but the systematic recording and documenting of responses coupled with intense probing for deeper meaning and understanding of the responses. Thus, in-depth interviewing often requires repeated interview sessions with the target audience under study. Unlike focus group interviews, in-depth interviews occur with one individual at a time to provide a more involving experience. The actual interview consists of three main parts. The first part involves introducing yourself and the study. It is critical that you establish a good rapport with the respondent. You also should put the respondent at ease. Your main responsibility is to listen and observe as you guide the respondent through a conversation until all of the important issues on the interview guide are explored. This, of course, is one of the most difficult aspects of the in-depth interviewing process. However, there are some strategies that have been used by researchers to improve the quality of the in-depth interview experience for both the researcher and the respondent. I belive that the hardest part about interviewing in second life is that you are not face to face with the person, and in essence loose alot of the important parts of an interview. When interviewing someone in a situation like Second Life, its impossible to tell if the person is giving you truthful answers, because you cannot read body language, or hear the sounds and pitch of the voices. Because of this, you must be able to analyzle indepth the interview and try to interpert the best you can with out the added benefits of interviewing someone face to face.

Class Notes October 15

Ontology
How do we know things- experience, an authority figure tells you, read about them, social norms, Religion and faith. Travel of experience, know about other cultures, weather. Science is a big one, experements back up ideas and prove certian ideas.
Ways of Knowing
Quantitative-positivist paradigm
-researcher has to be objective
-fixed reality
-predictions that will generalize to other situations
Qualitative
-we can't experience world directly, so we dont knwo for sure what world is.
-Constructivist paradigm
-reality socially constructed by participants
ever changing
know our research is subjective

Class Notes October 1 2007

Direct oberservation is when the actual researcher is doing the observation in the fact that they are the ones going to different locations, talking to people getting involved with the reasearch. Participant observation i belive is when the researcher sends people out ahead of time to certian locations to ask the questions and makke the observations for the researcher. The researcher then talks to the participants and gathers the information based on their experience from the participants. In a way the researcher is still doing direct observation, however in participant observation, he is sending people out to ask the questions then they gather the information.