A Sociotechnical Systems Analysis of Second Life in an Undergraduate English Course.

Sociotechnical systems analysis is a term frequently used in computer supported collaborative work that refers to the interaction between people and technology. Technology adoption can be seen as consisting of both a social and technical system. This paper will provide a socio-technical analysis of an implementation of Second Life, an online virtual world, into an undergraduate English course at a large public university. The paper will 1) describe the pilot course, 2) analyze affinities from a socio-technical perspective, and finally 3) give recommendations based on lessons learned from implementing Second Life in an undergraduate English course. Introduction Members of organizations sometimes have differing goals in regards to instructional technology adoption. Different users have varying interests and it is especially true when looking at innovative technologies (Akerman, 2000). In a classroom adoption of a technology, students and teachers are not the sole users within a system. Users include instructional designers, technical managers, teaching assistants, technology trainers, and technology support personal. Each user is a node within the social system and each user may have a different interest in the adoption of a particular technology (Duggan, 2003). Instructional designers might have the goal of creating an open constructivist-teaching environment, while a technology manager may be more interested in creating a secure, private, tightly controlled environment in order to reduce risk. Instructional technology implementations consist of both technical and social networks, mutually constituted (Kling, 1991). This paper will provide a socio-technical analysis of an implementation of Second Life, an online virtual world, into an undergraduate English course at a large public university. The paper will 1) describe the pilot course, 2) analyze three affinities collected through a focus group (Sanchez, 2007) from a socio-technical perspective, and finally 3) give recommendations based on lessons learned from implementing Second Life in an undergraduate English course.