Virtual World Design

How does traditional instuctional design differ from teaching in a virtual world?  The first and most obvious difference is in the learning environment itself.  The traditional learning environment is the physical classroom with instruction being centered around and coming directly from the teacher.  In a virtual world the "classroom" can take any number of forms from a virtual room in a building modeled after a real classroom to a science lab on Mars.  This allows for teachers to have much more freedom in the virtual world to try to engage learners.  The virtual classroom also relies much more heavily on the social aspect of learning and how it can aid in the learning process and in this way it is much more student centered. 
How are traditional instruction design and teaching in a virtual world similar?  The end goal of both of the instructional strategies are the same, to empower students with some kind of knowledge or skill.  They both rely on some kind of grand design and guidance from a teacher or instructor as well as a good amount of planning. 
Why is social persistence considered important?  Social persistence is vital because we are social creatures.  When we are little, we learn to do most physical things by observing and imitating others and we learn speech and social skills by interacting with others.  I feel the importance of social interaction does not diminish as we get older, we are just forced to cut out the social aspect in a traditional classroom.  Teaching in a virtual world allows us to incorporate some of the social aspects of the learning process. 
What are some of the positives and negatives of using a virtual world with adults?  Some of the positives I feel are that it is less structured and allows for much more freedom for the adult learner.  Adult learners can come from all over the world and at whatever times are good for their learning schedule.   I feel that the main negative for adult learners are that most of them are still not very "tech savvy" and some of them are even afraid of new technology and interacting on social media.  Adults that are apprehensive about learning in a virtual classroom are not going to get as much out of it as one who embraces it and jumps right in.  As both of the articles stated, we are still very early in the design and implementation of virtual worlds in education, but I feel that the effect it will have on the future of education will be as dramatic as about anything else we have seen.

Games Can Make the World Better

Jane McGonigal brought up some very power ideas in her TED Talk on how we can use the power of games and gamers solve the worlds problems.    She said that research show that most kids today will have played over 10,000 hours of games by the time they are 21.  This is the same number of hours it takes from someone to be a virtuoso at something.  She says that these gamer virtuosos have four things in common: Urgent Optimism, Social Fabric, Blissful Productivity, and Epic Meaning.  In games like World of Warcraft, many people team up everyday to solve problems and go on epic journeys in the game together.  Some of them know each other but the vast majority of them do not but they know that they can tackle tougher problems and be more productive together.  This shows many of the things that she says these virtuosos have.  How can we take these skills and apply them to the real world and education?  I do think that something like the 3D GameLab experience points track is something that taps into the acknowledging progress that successful games have.  This can be used in the learning process to give student feedback as they progress towards their goals.  So can play and learning be combined?  Yes, I think it can and has to.  I think part of the future of education lays in the created of education simulations and games that make learning individualized, relevant, interactive, and fun.

EdTech Island

EdTech Island and some of its surrounding areas are some of the more impressive places I have visited in Second Life.  The are all sorts of areas and building to visit aimed at gamers which I found very neat.  It was also my first attempt at actually builds something in the Second Life world.  Yes it was just a box, but it was my box that I created.

This one box showed me just how easy it can be to build objects to interact with in Second Life.  I made a couple of other geometric solids before I left just to see what they looked like.

 

This made me think about how this could be integrated into a geometry class when talking about solids and geometric shapes.   All in all I had a very productive and fun day in Second Life and I look forward to learning how to do more things in this virtual world soon.

Ed Tech Picks

Camtasia Studio (TechSmith)
Camtasia Studio is a screen casting software that is very helpful for teachings wanting to record what is happening onscreen with added audio.  The software allows you certain cursor effects that you want in a screen casting software like the ability to highlight and circle text as well as change the cursor size.  The software also has the ability to do some annotations like the pixelation of text and x/y/z rotations.  This software allows for only one video track with up to 2 picture in pictures added.  The softwhttps://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8774509515445823398#editor/target=post;postID=9174746036015251374;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=1;src=linkare also allows for the addition of up to 3 audio tracks.  Camtasia Studio also has a basic video editor built in for most of your screencasting needs.  Camtasia is free to try but has a retail price of $299.00.  All in all Camtasia Studio is one of the best screencasting softwares on the market right now.
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia-features.html


Gizmos (ExploreLearning)
Gizmos are interactive, online simulations for math and science education in grades 3-12. They help students develop a deep understanding of challenging concepts through inquiry and exploration. Correlated with the Common Core standards and more than 300 textbooks, Gizmos are ideal for small group work, individual exploration, and whole-class instruction using an LCD projector or interactive whiteboard. “Gizmos allow my students to have virtual ‘hands-on’ interaction with difficult science concepts. Each student can manipulate the variables, record the results, and arrive at their own conclusions,” says Leslie Leduc, retired instructional technology specialist from Manatee County, Fla.
http://www.explorelearning.com

The seduction secrets of video games

This article kind of hit on some of points from the TED talk about how video games are very powerful motivators. Video games usually reward us for doing simple task which is why we feel a sense of accomplishment every time we get something.  The article talked about this stemming from not only liking rewards but also the fact that it everything we do in the game is recognized.  This is not usually the case in the real world especially at your job.  Autonomy is also and one of the characteristics of games that people are drawn to.  We really like having complete control over our on lives like we do in games.  People like power and to know they are in control.  Games also encourage people to take risks which is a very important part of the learning process.  As you know we usually learn more from mistakes than from triumphs. The game environment encourages taking risk be cause the consequences are minimal.  This is a very powerful and useful tool when thinking about how to use video games in the educational setting.  Just about all games teach us something even if it is about ourselves.  Angry Birds teaches us about angles of elevation and gravity, God or War teaches us about Greek mythology, and Mario teaches us how that we like to jump on turtles that can fly.  If we want to really use this in education that we the games need to have the fun elements of these game while help the players to actually make these connections to what is being learned.

Second Life Revisited

I took a stroll back through second life to a place called Eagle Island.  It was a very neat place, especially for an Auburn fan like me.  I took a tour of some on the builds and sights that the island had to offer.   I started off my tour of the island by just flying around to get a birds eye view of what was going on.

I then stopped my the ampitheatre to see what was going on.  I next went to the "Poutry Pride" where I popped a squat on the ground.  Then I went to watch a slideshow about the poultry industry and to the egg processing facility.  Finally after a long day of fly, walking, running, sitting, standing and jumping I decided to end my day at the beach on the hammock.

 

All and all I'd say it was a pretty good day in Second Life.  While I was doing these things I was trying to think of how I could use something like this in my classroom.  The slideshow about the poultry industry was probably the thing with the most direct teaching which I though could be useful in my virtual classroom but that is not the only thing I though I could use.  I though about what I would want to include on Geometry Island.  I think that the architecture alone could be a geometry lesson in itself.  I'm eager to jump back in soon and explore what mathematical world are already created in Second Life.