This week of our Virtual Worlds class, presentations were made by Valibrarian Gregg (VaI) and Sitearm with the themes of 'Metaverse and Metaliteracy'. We first gathered at our virtual campus and went to the virtual library from there. Magua gave the keynote speech here and talked about the topic of today's session.
Then VaI started her speech by introducing herself. VaI then asked the students questions to be asked at the end of today's session and asked them to think about their answers. VaI briefly introduced the virtual library and from there we returned to our campus. We moved to the 'Metaliteracy' themed presentation area, which was created before on our virtual campus. VaI started her 'Metaliteracy for Digital Citizens' themed presentation here. In the presentation, she explained the concepts of metaliteracy, metamodernism, prosumer and the basic concepts of the digital world we live in. Meanwhile, Sitearm asked students which social platforms they use. VaI stated that in the applications (such as Instagram, Blog pages) in the answers given, we are all actually 'prosumer', that is, we consume while producing. Later, VaI explained the concepts of digital citizenship, digital culture. She emphasized that today the concept of 'postmodernism' has been replaced by the concept of 'metamodernism'. Sitearm meanwhile asked the students if the concept of 'digital citizenship' was important to them.
Later in her presentation, VaI said that a lot of data is created and stored digitally today. From this point on, VaI talked about the dark side of the digital world and what needs to be considered. She explained that there is a lot of data in digital environments and that we provide a lot of data while using these platforms. Sitearm then asked the students the meaning of the concept of 'Fear of Missing Out'. VaI also talked about the importance of the concept of 'big data' and 'privacy' in the digital world. Sitearm, on the other hand, asked the students the following question: Are you worried about privacy in digital environments?
Finally, VaI concluded her presentation by stating that preserving our human characteristics in the metaverse is only possible with digital literacy and left the floor to Sitearm.
Sitearm started his presentation by asking students to somehow say 'hello' using voice chat. Then we flew to the 'Metaliteracy' themed presentation area with the students. Sitearm started his presentation with the definition of 'Metaverse'. He said that people have different ideas about the definition of metaverse and they cannot agree on the definition. In fact, he emphasized that there may be more than one definition of a concept, that it may vary from person to person, and that people could not reach a consensus on the definition of metaverse for this reason. Later, Sitearm talked about the importance of the concept of metaverse and that we are actually in a metaverse universe right now. Additionally Sitearm said the definitions of concepts can also change over time. As an example, he stated that the use of mail has decreased and lost its importance, and instead, instant messaging has become widespread. He also explained that platforms such as Sitearm Second Life and Zoom are a kind of metaverse and asked students which digital applications they use.
Sitearm continued his presentation by explaining the evolution of Metaverse technology. Here are the establishment dates of companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft; the publication date of the novel 'Snow Crash', which inspired the founding of Second Life; by stating the release dates of social platforms such as Facebook and Youtube, he explained the historical development of the concept of Metaverse and its arrival to these days. In fact, he emphasized that this concept has been in our lives for many years. Sitearm has completed its presentation here.
From there we went back to the virtual library where VaI and Sitearm asked the students various questions. Some of these questions were:
- What does that word mean and why might it be important to you?
- What caught your attention about metalliteracy?
- Have you heard this term before?
- What do you think it means?
- Do you think literacy has changed?
- Were you born into the internet age?
- How do you become metaliterate?
- How does SL help you become metaliterate?
- What are your concerns about the future as a digital citizen?
After a short discussion about the questions asked here, we returned to our campus and ended the session.