Student looking to speak to Second Life users for Master's degree project

Derek Torvalar · June 4, 2016

Trinity Yazimoto wrote:

Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

Wel, you see... I remember a time, not so long ago, when we would see a flood of these types of posts every spring. Invariably they were all from students who had ZERO info about SL and assumed that it was a MMoRPG like WoW or EverQuest.. This kid, one day in SL and already asking for peoples input in a forum rather than just walking around and asking people inworld.

I am all for helping people.. I give things away constantly. I have freebies in my store and have no probem helping people in SL. The difference is, he has no interest in SL nor does he care one bit about any part of it. He is only here because SL is the biggest name in virtual worlds. And putting that in his dissertation will draw attention to him. A simple search of the forums would have given him a novels worth of good and bad tales of SL.

You obviously have no idea what a student can be asked during their studies. In no way, the teacher has asked to join sl and have fun with that.

Yes, SL is seen here as a subject of study and not as place to hang out for the fun. Where is the offense in that ?

I never understood why people take so much offense everytime someone is asking for this kind of help.

And i remind you your first post here was about geting reward for answering. Now it turns about being offensed by the request. There is a lack of coherence here.

Your turn to be hilarious.

Neither do you.

You do not know what his teacher may or may not have asked him to do.

On the contrary, it is quite conceivable, given that a MA thesis requires the student to typically submit versions to the advisor for editing, the teacher may have indeed asked him to go into SL and get hands on experience and to interview residents to flesh out the paper, prior to final submission.

I am with the Drake on this one. The student has left this to the last minute which would mitigate the quality of the paper. He has had a long time to investigate SL on his own and to contact people inworld, 'man in the street interviews' for their opinions, to add relevance to his paper. Coming here now at this late date asking for help smacks of desperation and incompetence.

Trinity Yazimoto · June 4, 2016

yeah of course,

it's a super known fact that teachers use to ask their student to come and enjoy SL for their studies....

Well... as i said... i'm not going to bother.

I saw Tommy inworld yesterday, and answered his questions. He also contacted the other peoples who have offered help here in this thread. That's the only thing that matters to me.

The rest is pure bla bla bla, the same we got endlessly here in the past.

I no longer have time for that.

so yeah... I've said what i have to say and now im going to follow Phil's advice and no longer bother.

have fun !

Phil Deakins · June 4, 2016

Just a quickie. Do you imagine that an MA student who has been asked by his tutor/teacher "to go into SL and get hands on experience" wouldn't actually do that but stay outside and ask in the forum? An MA student? You don't know one way or the other what he'd been asked to do, so your comment was totally worthless.

Another quickie. The way a student conducts his/her research is none of our business. Everyone is perfectly free to help or not, and it would be nice if those who prefer not to help stay right out of these threads if all they can do criticise the students. 'Mute and move on'.

Phil Deakins · June 4, 2016

Hi Tommy. I don't usually offer to help with these things but, in view of what's been said here, I'd be happy to help. IM me inworld if you think I can be useful. If I'm logged in but don't reply, it's because I spend a lot of time away from the keyboard, but I'll reply as soon as I see the IM.

Derek Torvalar · June 4, 2016

Phil Deakins wrote:

Just a quickie. Do you imagine that an MA student who has been asked by his tutor/teacher "

to go into SL and get hands on experience

" wouldn't actually do that but stay outside and ask in the forum? An MA student?

You

don't know one way or the other what he'd been asked to do, so your comment was totally worthless.

Another quickie. The way a student conducts his/her research

is none of our business

. Everyone is perfectly free to help or not, and it would be nice if those who prefer not to help stay right out of these threads if all they can do criticise the students. 'Mute and move on'.

Your first paragraph is merely a restatement of what I said to Trin.

Do YOU actually believe that I am so self-unaware as to not realize that I do not know myself what was said, not being present at any of their meetings? That was the whole point to my post to Trin. I do however have a real good idea of what might be "conceivable" having been in that role before. For the record, having been acquainted with a number of undergrad and grad students over the years I can attest that they are all not exemplary students, or necessarily do they all follow the suggestions of their advisors, me included. When I was getting my MA in History my advisor expected me to hand in versions of my paper every month and wanted to see that the revisions she had suggested were being done. I explained that I did not write that way and she suggested I should start to. I did not and still don't. Maybe that is why I only received an "A" on the paper. So my experience in the area, I believe, makes my comments a damn sight more than worthless Phil.

The methodolgy the student chooses to employ certainly is our business. If it is slipshod, why should I waste my time contributing to its completion?

wherorangi · June 5, 2016

Derek Torvalar wrote:

The student has left this to the last minute which would mitigate the quality of the paper. He has had a long time to investigate SL on his own and to contact people inworld, 'man in the street interviews' for their opinions, to add relevance to his paper. Coming here now at this late date asking for help smacks of desperation and incompetence.

no it doesn't smack of desperation and incompetence

OP already said (in their second post) that when he began his paper he was focusing on VR as seen and experienced thru VR input devices (headsets)

his exploration of this lead him to consider other forms of input device experiences for maybe inclusion in his paper

is how students learn. One thing leads to another. If they already knew what those others things were already, then they would have nothing to learn, and they wouldn't be a student

is a maybe inclusion, which will depend on the quality of information that he can gather in the time remaining. Should the info be of low quality and detract from the paper then he wont include it, and still get a A for his paper

Phil Deakins · June 5, 2016

My replies are in red.

Derek Torvalar wrote:

Phil Deakins wrote:

Just a quickie. Do you imagine that an MA student who has been asked by his tutor/teacher "

to go into SL and get hands on experience

" wouldn't actually do that but stay outside and ask in the forum? An MA student?

You

don't know one way or the other what he'd been asked to do, so your comment was totally worthless.

Another quickie. The way a student conducts his/her research

is none of our business

. Everyone is perfectly free to help or not, and it would be nice if those who prefer not to help stay right out of these threads if all they can do criticise the students. 'Mute and move on'.

Your first paragraph is merely a restatement of what I said to Trin.

Do YOU actually believe that I am so self-unaware as to not realize that I do not know myself what was said, not being present at any of their meetings?

It certainly sounded like you made an assumption as to his tutor's instructions.

That was the whole point to my post to Trin. I do however have a real good idea of what might be "conceivable" having been in that role before.

So you assumed that this student didn't fit with what you imagine things should be like?

For the record, having been acquainted with a number of undergrad and grad students over the years I can attest that they are all not exemplary students, or necessarily do they all follow the suggestions of their advisors, me included.

So you assumed that this student didn't fit with what you imagine things should be like?

When I was getting my MA in History my advisor expected me to hand in versions of my paper every month and wanted to see that the revisions she had suggested were being done. I explained that I did not write that way and she suggested I should start to. I did not and still don't. Maybe that is why I only received an "A" on the paper.

So you assumed that this student was like you were?

So my experience in the area, I believe, makes my comments a damn sight more than worthless Phil.

Your experience means nothing. Your comment was worthless here.

The methodolgy the student chooses to employ certainly is our business.

It is absolutely none of your business - unless you actually want to help the student, in which case youy'd help him instead of judging and criticising him.

If it is slipshod

You have no idea whatsoever whether or not it is slipshod

, why should I waste my time contributing to its completion?

My point exactly. Why should you waste your time? It is far better to do as I suggested earlier and "

mute and move on

". That means ignore it if you don't have anything positive to contribute.

Trinity Yazimoto · June 5, 2016

Going to add something, in green (lol..This is the colored post !)