Future of Virtual Worlds in Education

I am currently taking a “Virtual Worlds” course online with the Univeristy of Manitoba.  The synchronous aspects of the course have taken place almost entirely in Second Life with a few side trips to Metaplace and World of Warcraft.  We have spent the first 4 weeks getting to better understand virtual worlds, how they work, what others have done, etc.  We will soon be moving into the phase of the course where we discuss the potential use of virtual worlds in school and specifically for instruction.

Although I can see (and have seen) many interesting uses of the virtual worlds in schools, I am not sure we optimize this technology when we completely remove it from our real world space as we do now in Second Life and others.  I recently finished reading The Daemon, and in this sci-fi book the author creates a world in which virtual worlds are part of the real world. One of the antagonists wears special glasses that contains a CPU and heads up display which allows the virtual worlds, and elements in them, to be overlayed on the real world.  Specialized gloves allow for the user to interact with the virtual worlds but in the context of the real world.  I am not particularly concerned about the type of glasses, or gloves, or other hardware that makes this possible (I am sure we will evolve good solutions sooner rather than later).  What interests me is how we can take the best of the virtual worlds and combine them with infinite possibilities into our real space.

For educational purposes, I think this will bring us to a real example of augmented intelligence that Ray Kurzweil discusses in The Singularity is Near.   I can imagine teachers creating and managing layers of virtual worlds (similar to data layers in Google Earth) that students and others could interact with.  Project based simulations (similar to quests in WoW minus the violence preferably) could be set in the real world with actual characters, real time information and feedback, and shared and published deliverables.

I know we still have some work todo on the hardware and software front to make this happen.  And who knows what it will actual come out looking like.  However, as I see these pieces coming togther, I can’t help but wonder about the power my “networks” will have and what the “networks” for students  will be like in the near future.  I believe, tha it is  more or less agreed upon in the progressive education commons that schools are not teaching in a way that is relevant to the changes we are seeing in modern society.  I see virtual worlds either helping to bring schools rushing forward or creating an even  greater digital divide.

Future screen in our digital lives…

Om Malik on Gigaom.com wrote recently:

Indeed, if you take all the emerging technology trends — multitouch, wireless connectivity, cheap silicon, better batteries, location-based services and a move toward open-source operating environments — and marry them to the explosion of digital information taking place, what you have is the opportunity for yet another screen in our increasingly digital lives.

The blog post discusses the combination of electronic ink (think Kindle) with the Android OS.  His time frame is 2-3 years.  Maybe we should start an Android development course in our schools?

Killer Feature on the Kindle 2

Nothing I have tried online or in a high-tech device has mimicked the experience I have walking into a bookstore and browsing/buying.   I love the reviews at Amazon.com, but they are still some how not enough.   I want to pick up books that look interesting.  I want to read the back cover.  I want to wander into an aisle I don’t usually wander down.  I want to sit in an over stuffed chair and in 5 minutes of actually reading a section of the book, get a feel for the book and be able to then make a better informed purchasing decision.

I was listening to the MacBreak Weekly podcast this morning on my way to work and they were discussing the new Kindle 2.    The killer feature to me is the free download of the first chapter of any Kindle book.  This is as close to the book store browsing experience as I can imagine without being there. (It also has advantages such as new releases being $9.99 instead of $25 in hardcover)  Think about being able to, for free, download the first chapter of any book you stumble across (browsing with the Kindle or at Amazon.com).  You can then read the individual chapters at your own pace at your own time.  And then, if you like the book, purchase it with a click (from anywhere with cell reception) and 60 seconds later you have the full text.  This may change my reading habits and selections completely.  I wish audible would do this with their audio books!!!

Effective Advertising….

Thought this was the best ad I had in a long time.  No more plastic bottles for me.

FilterforGood.com

Prensky’s “Backup Education” and 21st Century Curricula

Still thinking about the Marc Prensky presentation I went to at BLC 2008.  I put Marc Prensky in the same category as Newt Gingrich.  I both very much appreciate the fact that they are innovative and creative thinkers searching for new solution to existing or old problem.  I also think approx. 50% of their ideas are brilliant and 50%  are….not.   That being said, Prensky mentioned his take on curriculum and what he terms “Backup Education (click HERE for his article).  I think it is an interesting piece and I see it being used to spark a conversation among administrators, teachers, parents and students regarding what should and should not be in the “21st Century” curriculum.   Should we continue to include cursive? (No!) Should we continue to include the memorization of math facts? (Yes…for now)  Should we include handwriting?  How much content should we be teaching versus process across all levels?

If I were Superintendent I would include this article in my opening day packet.   I would be willing to bet, if nothing else it would spark a deeper conversation about curriculum and the “what” in our schools.

Mashup: Gmail and Twitter

I have to say that I still have mixed feelings about Twitter. On the one hand, I see it as a powerful tool harnessing the ideas of crowdsourcing. As a way to add email one-to-many and many-to-one functionality. On the other hand, I find it yet another fire hose of information coming at me at a time when I am not thoughtfully considering my other fire hoses. If it can become an asynchronous tool (not IM) to reach/leverage many people/thought leaders that is integrated into my personalized main knowledge tool of the time (Gmail), I am in! LINK

I see a few specific benefits of using Gmail as my Twitter client:

1) One tool for multiple modes of communication (email, IM, Tweets, voice-mail?, etc)
2) The ability to “thread” the tweets I follow (inherent to Gmail)
3) The ability to archive and search threaded tweets (some clients probably do this all ready???)

Can someone (Google? Other?) Make this happen, please.

BLC and Conference Format….An Open Letter to Alan

Hi Alan,

My name is Clint Kennedy and I am currently enjoying my last session of the last day of the 2008 BLC conference.  This is my first time attending the conference and I very much appreciate what you have done and are doing in the world of education and learning.

I do, however, have what I hope is some constructive criticism in regards to the conference and the way it is setup.  Twice during the conference I heard you mention that the real benefits of the conference come from the conversations attendees will be having by coming togther in this location for this week.  You and Ewan also mentioned that you believe the collective wisdom of the conference attendees is far superior to the  collective wisdom of the presenters.  Marc Prensky stated that “in 10 years the BLC conference will not be lecture based because people attending will not learn that way.”  Pedro Noguera stated that “teaching and talking is not the same.”  If we accept these statements as true, for arguments sake, why do we continue to sit in conference sessions as they are designed currently?  Who is to say that we are learning optimally with the lecture model?  Do we think that lecture is the way we as adults learn optimally?  Why do we continue to “sit and get” as opposed to having opportunities to be active learners?  The non-keynote sessions I have attended have ranged from very informative to very boring but most if not all were delivered using a teacher-centered model.   Can we change the format of the conference to be more attendee centric?  Could we  organize the conference around components of the unconference model?  

I would propose keeping the keynote speakers (they have been very thought provoking and they can and should provide theme and context), however, I would change all other sessions to unconference sessions.  Support teams would be needed to organize rooms, times, resources, etc.  Teams could organize and support the recording/capturing/tagging of the sessions.  And November Learning could certainly help educate the conference attendees as to what to expect from an unconference before they arrive.

I am writing this to you Alan because I think our community needs you to be the one that takes the learning conference to the next level and I think you are a leader that can make this happen.  I also think it would be great to be able to practice the pedagogy that we discussed so frequently during the last week.  Again, I want to thank you for a wonderful conference.  The people I met and exchanged ideas with were top notch.  I can only imagine the time and effort that goes into this production.  See you next year!

Thank you,

Clint Kennedy

Mystic, CT

Tools from BLC 08

I hate to do this becuase I am trying to focues on pedagogy, but I have to discuss briefly some of the wonderful tools I have discovered or re-discvovered:

Learning Event Generator – Davitt

Studio Code - Studiocode is an innovative technology that has revolutionized the way people all around the world look at video analysis and distribution. There is no longer a need to spend countless hours fast-forward and rewinding video tapes in order to pull out important bits of information.  Studiocode’s solid foundation lets you focus on the tasks at hand, whether it’s putting together a research paper, best practice video archive or student assessment task.”

Mind42 - Collaborative mind mapping in your browser…Isn’t 42 the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything? Well, in this case it means FOR TWO and indicates the collaborative character of mind42. Manage all your ideas, whether alone, twosome or working together with the whole world – collaborative, browser-based and for free.

Learning Score - Imagine planning a learning event in the same creative way you make a movie by dragging icons representing different activities and groupings onto a timeline. Now you can with the Learning Score.

Evernote - Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

Jing - Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

“Who is going to question the way we do business?”

Random Thoughts – Day 1

I am too tired and overwhelmed to bring this all together but I wanted to share some of the random ideas I was “saturated” with today and which I am currently “incubating” on:

The average K12 classroom in the USofA is indeed “boring”

There is no such thing a a “digital native”

Everyone in an organization plays a role in R&D…if they don’t they should be replaced/removed/fired

MySpace is the 3rd largest country in the world

Creativity: Saturation->Incubation->Illumination

Schools are based on convergence, the world is based on divergence

Johnny Lee is a divergent thinker

I want to create a parady of the old Apple “Think Different” ad for Ewan.  It would be called “Think Divergent[ly]“

Be a “retro-planner” not a “pre-planner”

Peer assessment online will lead to summative assessment genius (“2 stars and a wish”)

A Question for tomorrow?

What are the activities that can lead students to divergent ideas/thinking versus brainstorming/convergent ideas/thinking?

WebPlay.org

Interesting session (we got to actually participate instead of sitting and listening).  I like the possibilities of providing 21st Century skills thru dramatic experiences.  This company is based in London but has offices in NYC and LA.

webplay.org

think.com