{"id":1691,"date":"2020-11-20T11:11:15","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T17:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitex.org\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2023-05-08T15:53:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:53:33","slug":"levels-of-mediated-aliveness-mozilla-hubs-and-1984-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/2020\/11\/20\/levels-of-mediated-aliveness-mozilla-hubs-and-1984-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Levels of Mediated Aliveness, Mozilla Hubs, and 1984 – Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Todd Ellis, Director of Teaching and Learning, Grayson College<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This post is the first in a two-part series and is, in part, a response to last month\u2019s post, “<\/span><\/span><\/em>Ready Player One<\/span>, <\/span>Hamilton<\/span>, and Me: ‘Liveness,’ Mediated Communication, and Building Relationships in a Virtual World”<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span> by <\/span>DigiTex<\/span> Executive Director Judith Sebesta.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe now live in a world that resembles a dystopian novel.\u201d Henry Giroux, –<\/span>Fascist Culture, Critical Pedagogy and Resistance in Dark Times 10\/22\/20<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As a long-time advocate and practitioner of dialogic pedagogy including Paulo Freire\u2019s critical problem-posing education, I\u2019m sure I have more questions than pithy answers to offer on how mediated communication is changing higher education at this historic moment. The issue is emergent. I also think that the more I contemplate what \u201cliveness\u201d even means anymore, the more lost I get. <\/span>Liveness<\/span><\/em> has, in a sense, become deconstructed. By this I mean that I can often only bring parts of my <\/span>aliveness<\/span><\/em> to an instance of <\/span>liveness<\/span><\/em>, depending on what tool I am using and why. I have to choose which part of my <\/span>aliveness<\/span><\/em> I want to share<\/span>:<\/span> my voice, my image, my written thoughts. Zoom, for example, can enable all or some of these at the host<\/span>\u2019s<\/span> and\/or user<\/span>\u2019s<\/span> discretion. COVID-19 is a disruption that is requiring a lot of re-thinking and re-seeing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe an emerging question is whether I want to promote <\/span>aliveness<\/span><\/em> or <\/span>liveness<\/span><\/em> in any scenario, and by <\/span>aliveness<\/span><\/em> here I mean vitality. For example, the social annotation tool Hypothesis brings a vitality to otherwise isolated reading exercises that aren\u2019t possible without internet connection. It brings an <\/span>aliveness<\/span><\/em> in the sense of vitality to reading without any <\/span>liveness<\/span><\/em> in the sense of present moment spontaneity or synchrony. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been reading some insightful books on mediated communication like <\/span>Personal Connections in the Digital Age<\/em>, by <\/span>Nancy K. <\/span>Baym<\/span> <\/span>and what stands out <\/span>to<\/span> me from every page as I read through the excellent social science research is my own thought<\/span>:<\/span> \u201cYeah, but you didn\u2019t HAVE to use this digital tool in order for you and your civilization to remain alive!\u201d That is a context that can greatly <\/span>a<\/span>ffect research conclusions. Fortunately for <\/span>Baym<\/span>, her technology decisions weren\u2019t made around her ability to remain alive as they potentially are now during COVID-19. Because whatever downsides may have been discovered in research concerning the human effects of digital mediation<\/span> — <\/span>and there are absolutely valid downsides as well as upsides<\/span> \u2013 they <\/span>are temporarily obliterated by the emerging realization that \u201cI am deeply grateful that I have this tool! Maybe my civilization and I have a chance to survive!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I recently saw the release of gamified Mozilla Hubs <\/a><\/span><\/span>advertising ways for people to have virtual Halloween parties. Since a big part of my job is to test drive new technology for faculty at our <\/span>school, I thought<\/span>,<\/span> \u201cWhy not?\u201d <\/span>So<\/span> I entered a digital haunted house and walked around as a <\/span><\/span>robot wrapped in my own personalized <\/span>Starlink<\/span> skin<\/span><\/span><\/span>. The personalized skin was under \u201cadvanced settings<\/span>,<\/span>\u201d and I always click on an advanced option or two just to s<\/span>ee if anything blows up<\/span>,<\/span> thus the personalized skin<\/span> (t<\/span>hat and I love <\/span>Starlink<\/span> so I had some visuals handy<\/span>)<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
My superego Todd-1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To the right is an image of Todd-<\/span>1 created for my personal hub. I couldn\u2019t add my standard goatee so that really killed my liveness. But he\u2019s bald, so I can relate to that. I wonder if the <\/span>armlessness<\/span> is a comment from the collective unconscious? Maybe it\u2019s just from my own unconscious. I did, after all, have lots of avatars to choose from and I chose him. \u201cWhy the bald, armless robot<\/span>?<\/span>\u201d I find myself wondering now<\/span>.<\/span> Mostly I guess I was drawn to how his periodic eye blinks made him <\/span>seem thoughtful and sensitive.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is no option to take a <\/span>live <\/span>selfie screenshot that would allow you to see \u201cme\u201d in the 3D field, so <\/span>below I\u2019ve added<\/span> my snip of reggae dancer Todd-2 getting down on his own after entering the room from my other laptop. While Todd-1 blinks <\/span>calmly<\/span>, Todd-2 dances non-stop<\/span>:<\/span> my alter ego<\/span>,<\/span> my yin and yang<\/span>, <\/span>or maybe <\/span>my superego and id<\/span>. <\/span>One\u2019s <\/span>virtual <\/span>symbolic representations are certainly <\/span>fertile <\/span>archetypes for self-interpretation<\/span> unless you\u2019re a troll<\/span>, of course<\/span>. <\/span>I could move <\/span>Todd-2<\/span> around the <\/span>virtual space<\/span>, but I couldn\u2019t control his\/my dance moves which seriously killed my aliveness as vitality expression. He made his own pre-programmed funky moves. It was Mozilla\u2019s attempt at <\/span>a <\/span>pre-programmed <\/span>merging of <\/span>aliveness and liveness, I suppose.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
My id Todd-2: the ultimate in mediated liveness?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I thought maybe I could meet with my librarians (librarians will try anything, right?) in Mozilla Hubs to see if this might be a way to jazz up boring old Zoom meets. But alas, I realize that <\/span>that\u2019s<\/span> p<\/span>robably not going to<\/span> work well. The only standardly recognizable liveness in Mozilla Hubs is the liveness of synchronous voice from the shared mic. Of course, there\u2019s a certain amount of live personal expression within the confines of defined avatars, personalized skins <\/span>(digital fashion design<\/span>?<\/span>) <\/span>and our freedom of movement within the digital 3<\/span>D<\/span> environment. However, a<\/span>s<\/span> proud<\/span>ly<\/span> and stubborn<\/span>ly<\/span> introvert<\/span>ed<\/span>, I\u2019d almost surely have ended up on the porch all evening at a \u201creal\u201d Mozilla Hubs digital party. <\/span>I would have been live in my typical hardly <\/span>the life of the<\/span> party fashion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is no way to share screens or presentations. I know Mozilla didn\u2019t create these video-gamified hubs for personal meetings, but my point in trying the shared space of a hub was to ask the question<\/span>:<\/span> what is <\/span>liveness<\/span><\/em> now and how does it relate to <\/span>aliveness<\/span><\/em>? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the <\/span>E<\/span>d-tech that <\/span>I test drive end<\/span>s<\/span> up in a digital heap of junk that <\/span>lies <\/span>virtually <\/span>next to my desk. <\/span>A digital scrap <\/span>heap<\/span>. <\/span>Probably only about <\/span>five percent<\/span> even make it past my <\/span>five<\/span> minute <\/span>\u201cWhat is this?\u201d<\/span> <\/span>test.<\/span> This is a comment on the <\/span>quantity of E<\/span>d-tech tools, not the quality.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Usually we consider a face-to-face course as the definition of liveness in education. But a face-to-face course may be <\/span>live<\/span><\/em> without being very <\/span>alive<\/span><\/em> if it<\/span> i<\/span>s overly scripted or monologic in nature. <\/span><\/span>This is another way of saying that active learning is <\/span>alive<\/span><\/em> learning in that it\u2019s an emerging, creative and socially dependent construct within a given classroom. Or as Freire described it \u201cLiberating education consists of acts of cognition, not transferals of information.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Is the ability to share screens, digital images and textual artifacts<\/span> with each other the<\/span> defining aspect of <\/span>liveness<\/span><\/em> in this emerging world? It is certainly a huge aspect of our <\/span>aliveness<\/span><\/em> in our socio-cultural worlds generally. Is the important question concerning deconstructed <\/span>liveness<\/span><\/em> \u201cWhat authenticity can be shared (or risked)?\u201d<\/span> <\/span>Or more specifically, \u201cMust I display my personal home space?\u201d<\/span> <\/span>A<\/span>nd is that a \u201csoftening of culture?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In part two of this <\/span>post<\/span> I will offer some final thoughts on these emerging ideas of liveness as they occurred to me during my first experience of virtual theatre. <\/span>I\u2019m especially interested in the vulnerability of liveness and its relationship to the potential softening of culture made possible by global humanity\u2019s opportunity for solidarity surrounding COVID-19. <\/span>Theatre is a great medium through which to ask these questions because it is both highly mediated human behavior and very much live. <\/span>North Central Texas College <\/span><\/span><\/span>drama and Grayson College Theatre together won an excellence in educational collaboration award from The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for their virtual co-production of George Orwell\u2019s dystopian novel <\/span>1984<\/span>. <\/span>I hope to hear your responses and thoughts.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Todd Ellis, Director of Teaching and Learning, Grayson College This post is the first in a two-part series and is, in part, a response to last month\u2019s post, “Ready Player One, Hamilton, and Me: ‘Liveness,’ Mediated Communication, and Building Relationships in a Virtual World” by DigiTex Executive Director Judith Sebesta. \u201cWe now live in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news-events"],"acf":{"carousel_content":null},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/Todd1.png?fit=173%2C306&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peJQDx-rh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/digitex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}