Internet Art & Culture

Enhancing understanding of third space via Adobe Connect (AC) In what specific ways did the lesson help you gain a better understanding of the Third Space? Acting appropriately when the webcam was turned on So, did you act inappropriately when the webcam was turned off? Kekekee. What inappropriate actions are you referring to? I ask this because I see far more inappropriate activities at B1-14, sometimes right under Randall's nose. Ha ha ha. You can email me at nie15401@e.ntu.edu.sg or send me a Facebook message if they are too inappropriate to mention here. Ground rules: Needing to respond when called So is this method of compelling all students to participate something you'd like to see more of? Mirei mentioned in her reflection that she felt this made the experience inauthentic, as students only participated because Randall compelled them to. It felt scripted and thus not as spontaneous as it should be. I see the same thing at B1-14. Everyone generally remains silent unless Randall picks them out. Why do you think students wait to be questioned, instead of initiating discussion? Why don't students offer an alternative viewpoint to the speaker or even disagree? Chat box as form of entertainment I love how the chat box allows conversations and discussion without interrupting the ongoing lesson, as well. I wonder why the chat box was used more to crack jokes than to initiate more meaningful discussion about the topics being discussed. The chat box could be used to disagree and argue an alternative viewpoint, without disrupting the flow of the lesson. Yet, this did not happen. Why do you think a robust discussion or debate did not happen in the chat box? Perhaps it did occur, but in private chat. Did you use the private chat feature? Preference for online over onsite lessons Can you tell what you enjoy most about learning online compared to learning at B1-14? I seek to understand the benefits of online learning for undergraduates who live on and off campus. What are your main gripes about coming to ADM for lessons? Personally, I observe that you and several of your peers are far more animated at B1-14 than on Adobe Connect. Your range of facial expressions, postures, hand gestures --- what we term paralinguistic or non verbal actions --- at B-14, far exceed what is expressed online. In fact, I was photographing these fascinating aspects on Thursday evening, when Xin Feng expressed her annoyance with me. My apologies Xin Feng! It appeared that the range of paralinguistic markers was very limited on Adobe Connect, and that the mood only changed when Randall ran the collaborative activities. Collaborative online performance Can you tell me more about your experience as a live performer collaborating with other students on Adobe Connect? Which aspect of the activity did you find most interesting? Thank you.

Thank you for your long comment, I am surprised that your comment was much longer than my post! hahahaa! I was referring to more like public inappropriateness like scratching armpits, picking teeth, things that you wouldn't do when there's someone looking at you, since a webcam give the same psychological effect. As for the needing to respond, I think it will be a good way to make sure we are listening, also, there are always more outspoken student as well as quiet student in a class, if the teacher does not call and wait for participation,I am sure 99% of the time the outspoken students will be those that respond. Of course the chat box could be used to disagree and argue for different viewpoint, but at least for me since I am a student, it is always easier to listen to what the teacher taught and think for myself weather to absorb it or not. It makes far more sense this way than to think ignorantly that my point will always be right and start arguing who made more sense, I am sure that the teacher is wiser than me. As for the online lesson over physical lesson, I will have the comfort from home, save on transportation, transportation time(3hours altogether) and dinner outside, doesn't have to reach home at 12am(previously before the change in lesson time). Yes, I agree that we will communicate far better from the physical environment with non-verbal communication, however that is not what we must to do as a student, we just need to be responsive and productive. I understand that you would like to observe us with all our facial expression, posture and hand gestures due to the nature of your research, but for us, when the teacher asked us a question, we are expected to give our answer or opinion, having gesture or not is just not that important since I think that the teacher will be listening for our content and not focusing on our gesture(unless it is some psychological or communication lesson or something) Lastly, I like the collaborative performance as it was really funny since the physical left is the screen right, even simple task like matching the hand to the neighbor takes a huge amount of effort and we seems really dumb doing it, which I personally enjoyed because it was funny.

Oh my, let me guess---you probably live in Tampines or Pasir Ris---about 2 hours away from ADM.

I'll let you in on a secret --- teachers tend to give more attention to students who respond with positive body language --- posture, gesture, facial expression. How an individual responds to the teacher and classmates, often affects their responses, giving rise to a continuous feedback loop. Breaking this loop can be troubling to certain people, as your classmates have mentioned. The sense of discomfort is amplified when the speaker cannot see the reactions of the listeners. That is why it is vital for me to know what effect Adobe Connect and B1-14 have on teaching, learning, motivation and engagement during lessons.

Teacher knows best So you are more eager to learn from the professor you believe is wiser. Do you also think your classmates are also wiser than you?

Do you think your classmates would necessarily know better than you, all the time? Were there times when you disagreed with the views of other students? How did you respond when you disagreed with your classmates or had a different viewpoint? Is there anything stopping you from disagreeing with your peers either verbally or through electronic means?

I ask this because I rarely see student comments signalling disagreement or alternative ideas or suggestions for improvement. Virtually all student comments indicate agreement and support for the views expressed.

Why is there hardly any vigorous intellectual debate, onsite and online? Have you ever seen ADM students arguing with one another about their work or ideas?

I just read an interview where SMU don, Kirpal Singh, revealed how even at SMU, a creative arts professor was expected to listen to directions coming from the top. Even SMU administrators and professors were not prepared or allowed to exercise their own imagination. This, he argues, is a problem with education because, if we don't stimulate learners' imagination in ways which are different from the norm, creativity cannot work successfully. Often, the system is geared towards making you conform and comply. I wonder if this is also in the teaching and learning of the creative arts at ADM. I can understand why in Singapore, few Singaporean students would dare openly disagree with the professor, but what about disagreeing with your classmates?

I am always as captivated by what I see in the background in each user's window as well, as it presents a portal into everyone's unique personal First Space. I for one, am always nervous when my niece messes up my study room just before Adobe Connect (AC) lessons, as the chaos behind me would clearly be visible on webcam. Can you help me understand why you were initially nervous?

What were your main doubts and fears attending an online lesson for the very first time?

I am glad you enjoyed the interactivity, and opportunity to learn from the creativity of your peers on Adobe Connect (AC). What specific aspects of AC do you find facilitate interaction and creativity? How do these aspects compare with the opportunities for interaction and creativity at B1-14?

I suppose one way to replicate the mask experiment to which you refer, is for everyone to bring a mask to B1-14, and aggregate the individual videos from Facebook Live like we did in week 1. How does live aggregation on Adobe Connect (AC), compare to live aggregation with Facebook Live? Educational researchers have a term to describe the excitement that comes with new learning environments like AC. We call it the Novelty Effect (NE), which can last for as long as 15 months, even if all other variables are kept constant. There is the tendency for student performance to initially improve when new technology is used --- not because of any actual improvement in learning or achievement --- but purely in response to increased interest in AC. How would you react to the (fake) news that AC lessons will completely replace traditional onsite lessons for over half the courses at ADM, as part of NTU's TEL@NTU (Technology-Enabled Learning) initiative? What do you think of such a radical move towards fully online courses using AC?

Suddenly a normal class was turned into an art piece, huh? I find that interesting as well! Instead of us staging and building the artwork, WE became the artwork instead. I am also curious on how Randall were able to manage the virtual class from just the tips of his fingers.

Hi Tiffany, I agree with you that the adobe connect screen can be used as platform for artistic expression! It's interesting to see what each person presented on camera when we had to show an object near us or an object with a face. I'm also curious to find out Randall's experience, because it really seemed to me like he was a host of some show.

More than doubling the classmates you had in Media & Performance, certainly changes the online learning experience, in terms of the class dynamics or student-to-student and professor-to-student interaction. You have to share Randall with many more people. Kekekee. Since you've experienced bring on Adobe Connect with both sets of classmates, I wonder how the two experiences compare. How does the experience being in a much larger online class this time, compare to your experience in Media and Performance?

Well, Dina, Mirei and Tiffany, it probably takes just as much --- perhaps even more effort on the part of the professor --- to conduct a 3 hour lesson at B1-14, yet the three of you aren't as impressed. I wonder why.

... Apart from allowing you to see a greater variety of visual information from more people that you found exciting.

I think that it is interesting how you mentioned the context of body language and voice. It is not as easy to portray a message online and that is how communication evolves to adapt to this lack of context. EG. invention of emojis to substitute facial expressions.

Feeling more uncomfortable raising virtual hand & chatting online due to lack of paralinguistic (non-verbal) information I wondered why --- even though the chat and private chat features allow users to ask, comment, clarify, and initiate discussion amongst themselves without having to raise their hand to interrupt the presenter --- the chat feature was underutilized. So now I understand that the lack of paralinguistic information inhibits you from using the chat function, for fear of misunderstanding. Are you less (but still) uncomfortable raising your hand and participating in discussions at B1-14? I ask this because, only 2 other students have raised their hands without waiting for the professor to call on them, and only to ask for help or clarification. The rest simply wait for his turn or get the professor's attention to begin speaking. Has this got to do with the culture at your home university or ADM perhaps? Hand raising and student-initiated discussion are rare phenomena even at B1-14. How often do you raise your hand, or initiate discussion, during lessons at ADM and at your home university? Do you perceive that you initiate and participate in discussion more often at B1-14? Are other art lessons at ADM and your home university more student-directed rather than professor-directed? Ultimately, I seek to ascertain this: To what extent does this discomfort with raising your virtual hand and using the chat feature, inhibit you from asking, clarifying, contributing, participating during online lessons? To what extent is this discomfort due to the technology/interface (Abobe Connect platform), personality and ingrained culture? Every person had to participate in discussion with insufficient time to process information How does this compare with B1-14 and other art lessons at ADM and your home university? Do you feel you are given more time to process the information when discussions are onsite, rather than online? Also, did you indicate to Randall perhaps via private chat that you needed more time to think? I ask this because I see a similar DRE (Direct instruction - Response -Evaluation) pattern even at B1-14. Professor gives direct prompt, students Respond, listeners Evaluate the response --- like a question and answer session with little argumentation and debate. Do you find yourself participating more at B-14 or on Adobe Connect? How does your quality of online participation compare to onsite participation? In other words, how are participation and discussion affected, when you transition from onsite to online learning? I wonder if the key reason why Randall directs the discussion by calling on students, is because students generally do not speaking up, unless compelled to. I know from a number of students surprising reasons why they prefer to remain silent, even when they disagree and know they can significantly enrich the discussion by offering an alternative viewpoint. Why do you think students are reluctant to participate in vigorous discussion unless prompted? Lack of visual cues from classmates who are off camera Why do you want to see the faces of the other classmates listening to the presentation? Let's compare the online and onsite experiences:

• Even though you can look at all our faces at B1-14 during presentations, do you? How often do you do that, and why?

I seek to understand why it is important for you to see your classmates especially when they are not presenting or speaking. I completely understand your preference to be in the same physical space as your classmates, as humans are hyper social creatures by nature. That is a key reason why MOOCs or Massively Open Online Courses while popular, have high attrition rates. However, I observe very limited self-initiated interaction between you and your peers even at B1-14. Help me understand this: How does being able to see your classmates in the same physical space, improve your learning experience? When we had 4 to 6 students in previous classes, we were all on camera throughout the lesson. What if everyone were to appear on webcam throughout the entire lesson? How would that change your online learning experience? Would that sufficiently replicate the B-14 experience to put you more at ease? Felt like a radio or TV show Coincidentally Randall does host his own Internet broadcast channel! You are the first undergraduate to have said this. Could you explain what precisely made the lesson feel more like a TV show than a lesson? Also, what is your experience learning art from a TV host, rather than a professor? Did the TV show experience also make you feel more like a TV viewer than a student? Pardon me if I appear to be asking the obvious, but educational research is sometimes described as empirically verified common sense. Kekekee. You can send your responses to nie15401@e.ntu.edu.sg or to my Facebook messenger account if you prefer to keep them private. Thank you.

Interesting that you had trouble multi-tasking when I thought all the millennials were such experts...

Multi-Tasking & Distraction I'm fascinated by your preference for uni-tasking rather than multi-tasking You mentioned that you were distracted as you had to do all of the following at the same :

1. listen to Randall talking
2. eye the chat section once in awhile
3. look at videos of classmates

I wonder what you found distracting---the ongoing chat or live video feed of your classmates (or both)? If both, which is more distracting? It is interesting that you did not find the live video feed of yourself distracting. One user previously mentioned how she kept looking at herself on Adobe Connect. I ask these questions for I'm always amazed by how many undergraduates can listen to the professor, while reading off the screen and recording information into their mobile devices (with several apps running), all while holding a conversation with several friends (online and onsite). Even at B1-14 right now, I see a number of dyads (pairs of students) and triads (three students) discussing their work. Three students are asking neighbours for help. Four are making wild gestures in their seats. One student is asking Randall a question. There is a hive of activity at B1-14, with 5 clusters of students in discussion---yet, no one appears to be distracted. Everyone is highly focused and engaged on the task. Could you please help me understand why aspects of Adobe Connect distract, while the hive of activity at B-14 does not? Fixing Issues Wastes Precious Time What if say these issues are ironed out in subsequent online lessons? How would a glitch-free Adobe Connect lesson affect your online learning experience? Would you therefore still prefer going to B1-14, to avoid the potential technical issues you may experience on Adobe Connect? In other words, is it worth the effort to B1-14, in order to avoid the technical glitches. Feeling Awkward Voicing Opinions in Class with Everyone Looking Do prefer your classmates to look at you at B1-14 in person, rather than onscreen? I ask this because we all look at the speaker at B-14, so I wonder why when we look at you on Adobe Connect, it feels so much more awkward for you. At B1-14, we also have to ignore our classmates' stares and focus on articulating our ideas. I see these parallels between online and onsite learning, as Adobe Connect tries to replicate the classroom experience. Yet, speaking on Adobe Connect feels more awkward. Would it be less awkward if you could turn off the webcam and speak into the microphone on Adobe Connect? Class Participation: Everyone has Chance to Answer This is the most pertinent point you raised in learning art online. Do you think that there is more opportunity to participate online (Adobe Connect) or onsite (at B1-14)? Do you prefer participating online or onsite? Why? Terima kasih.

An excellent and even visionary critique of Hole in Space. You are so right, we have barely harnessed the potentiality of what this work introduced. The technology has advanced, as you point out, but how far have we advanced conceptually, aesthetically, and logistically in our use of communications media to create third space opportunities for collective narrative. I like your comment about time, you are right, we are stretching spatial dimensions, but how can we alter time? A good FYP project for you!!

Good questions! I would like to discuss this idea with you of how third spaces can be constructed without involving the physical space. Maybe that is impossible? Because always a viewer is situated in a physical space. Multi-user game spaces are third space environments, but even the players need to be situated in their own 1st space. But that is indeed an intriguing question! One thing that was missing was a quotation from the essay by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz: Welcome to the Electronic Cafe. Be sure and incorporate the reading with at least one quote.

Many good points about the nature of social interaction in the third space. It is true, as you point out, that virtual exchanges are often considered less inhibiting than the ones we experience in the physical, first space. This was why people were so engage with Hole in Space, they literally felt unafraid to say and communicate whatever they felt. For many who find social interaction awkward, again as you point out, the medium works to free them to engage in new and unexpected ways. This explains why we are so drawn to social media, yet we also need to be careful about neglecting the importance of face to face forms of communication.

I like your point on virtual interactions didn't follow the social norms of that in a physical interaction. That one can be free to express, perhaps their alter ego, without being criticized so much. But the most interesting thing about this is that this is not virtual, it's real. But from how you view it, it is virtual. This to me is the greatest paradox. Until time travel exists, it will always be a paradox.

Very good! This was a particularly interesting comment:

We have always been looking at screens as a barrier when talking to another person in a Second Space but in this artwork, the screen acted as a platform which brought them together. This is the wonders of a Third Space.

The idea that we are both separated and joined by our screens is a very astute observations. What transforms the screen from a barrier into the connector is the network, plus as you point out, the ability to converse and/or interaction from behind our respective screens. And why don't we punch more holes in space? imagine if the projection screen in ADM were a window into the lobby of an art school in the US or Europe or Africa? We should open up our first space environments with third space conjoining windows. That would be the great takeaway from Hole in Space by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz!