In early December 2011, I was able to go to a talk in Second Life by anthropologist and author of Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human, Tom Boellstorff [Tom Bukowski in-world].
Athabasca University Island in Second Life held the event.

As stated by Boellstorff: In this …

It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted. Last semester was a tough one for me, but I managed to accomplish the things I had set before me. I took and passed the qualifying exams at the end of August, I wrote and had approved my full proposal, and I submitted …

Participant Information Sheet
PhD Glasgow Caledonian University Scotland
Project Title – Health literacy skills of people who access health information in virtual worlds and the impact on real life health behaviour?
Thank you for taking the time to read this information. You are being invited to take part in a study to find …

I recently learned that I passed my qualifying exams: the day would be September 9, 2011. It was a hot day, and I had been waiting 11 days, on pins and needles, awaiting a call from my chair. As I typed…no, I won’t bore you with the narration of the big …

It goes live for purchase next month, and I finally saw a cover of it, Encyclopedia of Social Networks. A classmate forwarded the call for submission to me over a year or so ago, and I immediately contacted those in charge of the call. Unfortunately, by the time I contacted …

Chapters are being sought for an edited volume, which seeks to map the study of religion in relation to digital games and gaming environments. The book will
focus on how video games can be read as religious texts, rituals or experiences, as well as investigations of religious narratives/themes employed in video …

Dear Colleagues,
Chapter proposals are invited for an edited book on Virtual Worlds in Online and Distance Education, to be published by Athabasca University Press as part of Terry Anderson’s Issues in Distance Education series. The book’s scope will encompass the use of virtual worlds for fully online/distance and blended modes …

I’m not sure how one is supposed to feel when she reaches this moment, but I was over-the-moon happy. What moment is this? Finally having my pre-proposal approved and quals date set.
I went through three revisions of the pre-proposal with my diss chair before we submitted it to the entire …

After mentioning several studies that she felt illustrated quality in their qualitative research (Cherny 1999; Danet 2001; Markham 1998; Turkle 1996; Baym 2000), Baym states that the arguments developed in these works are compelling because of “at least six interrelated strengths they share: they are grounded in theory and data, …

Statement about qualitative research that stuck out to me in Baym’s “Finding the Quality in Qualitative Internet Research”…
“Although counterarguments may be a little harder to predict, high-quality qualitative work should anticipate those counterarguments and provide a persuasive evidence-based case against them both in the structuring of the research design and …

Today, while chatting on Facebook, I joked about how a dissertation was a not a story but being a creative writer perhaps I would think about the dissertation as a story–perhaps it would help me to write it when the time came to do so.
Right now, I’m typing up notes …

I recently finished reading Martin Kevorkian’s Color Monitors: The Black Face of Technology in America [click cover to read more about book], and it was definitely a different way to examine the idea of race and technology. I have read many articles and several books that talk about the digital …

I wasn’t sure this day would happen, and it’s just a small, teeny tiny step in the progress, but it’s a step, so that makes it important. For the last month, month and a half, I’ve been going back and forth with my dissertation chair with my pre-proposal. With his …

Families are vital components of our lives. Through families, we receive unconditional love, trust, devotion, support, and encouragement.
Are families vital components to our Second lives?
Yes, to many of us. Many continue to see SL as merely a game, a place to live out fantasies that have nothing to do with …