login2life living in a virtual world

I first became aware of this documentary during the 3rd virtual conference on counseling organised by Counselor Education in Second Life. Immediatly I was enthusiastic and noted down the air date of the documentary. It aired on ZDF [german tv] on monday the 17th of october. The reason that I am blogging a day early this week is that you can still watch it online for free until sunday evening. This is the link. If this subject interests you at all, I would urge you to do so. It's nearly 90 minutes long and don't be put off by the fact that it is German. Most of the documentary is in English, so you will be able to follow most of what is going on.
 
Now what is it all about? Filmmaker Daniel Moshel followed some people from all over the world who spend parts of their lives in virtual worlds and made a documentary about them. Last year I watched a documentary that highlighted the negative aspects of such a lifestyle and it was refreshing to see that login2life stresses the postives.

The focus is on two virtual worlds. One a gaming environment, World of Warcraft [WoW] and  Second Life [SL]. For those who don't know. SL allows you to make an avatar and then explore the many many worlds with that avatar. So it really comes close to a 'second life' especially with how fast technology is growing.

The documentary follows a few people active on WoW and doing more than just gaming. There is someone who makes movies involving Wow characters. Another swedish gamer talks about being in one of the best guilds in the game and what that means in his life. 2 stories moved me the most. A young chinese man who was up in the middle of the night collecting gold which he sold to other people and who actually made a living in the real world this way. He was just scraping by and his whole bio rythm was disturbed because he was online most nights. The other was a young man from the US who had been paralyzed in a car accident and could only work the computer with his mouth. It made me smile that he would tell those he defeated that they were defeated by a criple and the joy it gave him to be able to do this with his avatar. He was able to live out dreams that he would never be able again in the 'real' world.

The other part focussed on SL. Here the mother of the paralyzed young man would read parts of the story she had written about her life as a caregiver. There was a German musician giving great concerts to an audience all over the world. A man selling sex aides on SL, it was very funny to see how they had to make the movements so it could be translated digitally. :) The most moving part of the whole documentary for me was the story of Alice, gentle heron in SL. She is a woman from the US with MS. This makes life in the 'real' world harder and harder and movement gets harder with this disease. But she lives another life online, making friends and doing much more than that! She has actually set up a community in SL where people with disability can meet and learn how to enjoy themselves in SL. If you are interested to learn more follow this link.

This shows that even if you cannot move much or are bedridden, there is a world out there on the computer where you can make new friends and even live out some of your dreams if you are open to it!



So if you have time before monday, please go and have a look at this extraordinary documentary.

2nd Virtual Conference on Counseling

One of the great things of the internet, you can attend a conference without leaving your own home. Last week there was a virtual conference taking place in second life, organised by counselor education in second life. I had been in there once before, but to say that I know a lot about it would be an overstatement. That is why I took some time during the days before to make a new avatar and to make sure that I at least had the skills to make her sit down. But in case I totally sucked I had the backup of onlineventswho were going to show the whole conference few of charge. The great thing was also that their chatroom was integrated into the chatroom of the conference.

Let me give an overview of some of the lectures I attended, it will give you a bit of an idea of what was discussed.

Wednesday:
I attended the opening session and I must say I was very busy watching what other avatars looked like etc and amazed at the technology of second life.

Keynote session: sexualized Role Play in Second Lie and Beyond. 
I was a bit surprised that the conference opened with a discussion on a topic like this. But soon I was watching and found myself imagining the benefits this might have for counsellors working with sexual issues in clients. So much is possible in SL. You can make your avatar very life like. :) And to use this in issues, make it vivid so to speak, yes I can see the benefits in that.

Counseling in Genderland
As this is still a controversial topic, I was very interrested to hear this lecture. I have not worked with Transgendered clients myself, but I firmly believe that there are people who were born in the 'wrong' body. And that they are entitled to care and the possibility to change bodies. SL can help in this process. Before trying to live as the other gender in real life, they could safely practice the other gender role in SL and get a feel for it already.

Demonstrating Cyberculture through Film: Life 2.0. 
We started with watching the trailer for this movie. It does show some of the drawbacks of SL. The people who get into it too much and forget their first life. How healthy is it to be in SL more than 18 hours a day? Is it adultery to have a cyber affair on SL? all interresting questions for a counsellor. The cases of internet addictions will only grow in the future and how many of us are prepared for that? Do we run the risk of addiction ourselves when we work on the computer and also do our research there? How would you help couples with relationship issues if you don't know about cyberculture? So much to think about.

On thursday morning there would be a tai-chi session, I was interresting to watch that, as I did not think my avatar could manage it. But I could not find the location. Instead I did find the meditation area and tried a little bit of that.


Competencies in Addressing the Christian Client's Worldview.
This morning there were some technological problems. It wasn't until halfway through the lecturetime that the sound came back. That shows that even with many experts in one room, technology can still let us down. That is why it is important to have backups when working online with clients. Make sure there is an emergency telephone number you can reach each other on, so one of you is not left hanging and waiting what is going on.
The lecture had to be cut very short and it lost some because of that.

CACREP goes international with IRCEP: the international registry of counselor education programs. 
Very interresting to hear that there is now some movement to come to international counselling standarts. IRCEP will try to do that and counselling institutions from all over the world can apply. Right now there is such a difference between counselling education all over the world, in some countries it means a masters degree, in other countries you can call yourself a counsellor without any training again. Which makes it important for the client to check a counsellor's education before starting work with them.

So the conference gave me a lot to think about. I like the medium that Second Life is. I can see a lot of possibilities to use it in counselling. But before I could ever contemplate that I would have to get a lot more familiar with it. And find out how secure it is. Can it be encrypted so the client's anonymity can be guaranteed.


I would love to get feedback about what other people think about SL and counselling.

 



 

Review TILT magazine

I have talked about TILT magazine before and as I have now finished reading the magazine I would like to say some more. It is pretty exciting as this is one of the first magazines focussing completely on online work. 




I am going to focus on the articles that struck me the most.

What would you do?

This invites the reader to participate by posting their reply to a dilemma. This one is pretty close to my own heart. What would you do when others tag you in photos on the internet that you rather not be tagged in. you can post your reply on the forum. You can be so carefull about your own internet security making everything friends only but you don't always have control over what others write about you. Or post photo's of you.


Want to know what is in the top 10 hits when you type your name? Try this Dutch site. WieDanOok The text is in Dutch but it is pretty simple. Time your first and last name in the search box and see what comes up. you might be surprised.

Alice in virtualland

An article about the journey that a therapist and a client, Alice, make together. The client is already welversed in how new media work, she spends a lot of time on the internet and has a virtual life in Second Life. For this she has created an avatar a 11 year old girl.  The therapist, Lucy has a lot of experience and is totally confident at the beginning of therapy. But because she is a novice when it comes to computers, she totally misses the point of Alice's troubles. And only after many a session do they both realise this. At this point Lucy's journey of learning about new technology begins.


I think this raises a very important issue. Therapists working today, are going to get more and more clients, especially younger ones, for whom an important part of their lives take place online. Facebook, twitter, second life and words like avatar, tweet are normal to them. If we want to be able to relate we can't but help get familiar in this new world as well.


There are many more interresting articles, tips, reviews etc in the magazine, but I suggest you read them yourself.



The magazine is free and you can download it to your computer or your ereader like I did.


If you want to read the magazine for yourself you can download it here.