Teaching and Learning in Virtual Words

Liberal Arts Education and Technology

2012-02-08T00:32:00.002-05:00

I am giving a presentation this week at Smith College on the role of technology in liberal arts education (job interview). Your comments, criticism, suggestions on this draft of the visuals for my presentation would be greatly appreciated. #change11

Dispositions and Virtual Collaboration

2012-01-12T17:10:00.000-05:00

Image: cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I prepare to meet a new group of students in two online classes I reflect on what will help them get started. I recently reread some of the thinking about habits of mind (see article by Describing 16 Habits of Mind). Costa and Kallick propose that there are discrete habits or disposition that, in concert, support thinking and problem solving.

Persisting
Communicating with clarity and precision
Managing impulsivity
Gathering data through all senses
Listening with understanding and empathy
Creating, imagining, innovating
Thinking flexibly
Responding with wonderment and awe
Metacognition
Taking responsible risks
Striving for accuracy and precision
Finding humor
Questioning and problem posing
Thinking interdependently
Applying past knowledge to new situations
Remaining open to continuous learning

With a bit of training, learners can develop these habits to improve their performance on learning tasks.

These habits of mind transfer to learning in online environments, and provide a basis for thinking about the unique challenges of learning and collaborating online. Because of the unique affordances of virtual learning spaces, it might be necessary to expand the definition of or add to the dispositions on this list.

In a recent presentation to the #Change11 course, Howard Rheingold talked about Attention as a digital literacy (see also this article in the Educause Review). With the abundance of information and opportunities to connect on the internet, our attention is constantly being redirected. It was refreshing to hear him address attention not as a behavior that is either present or absent, good or bad. Like Costa and Kallick, Rheingold sees Attention as a set of skills and attitudes that can taught and developed. He advocates the development of mindfullness regarding where a learner is directing her attention, and strategies for making what he calls "micro decisions" when ones attention is interrupted.

Together habits of mind and Rheingold's literacies will offer my incoming students a good start to online learning. Yet there are other dispositions that I believe are critical to success in virtual learning environments.

As I write three come to mind:

Norming. Making explicit what the norms will be for communication, behavior, timeliness, appearance. If it is a synchronous meeting, are multiple threads managable by the participants. Do I type while another is "talking" or wait and allow pauses between each contribution. Under what conditions do I use the mic or type my contribution. How to we notice when some people are not getting "airtime". Because we CAN work from home in our pajamas, does that mean we agree that during a Skype conference, it is ok to be dressed informally. If we represent ourselves with avatars, are there expectations about what those avatars will and will not look like.

Preparing. Some people and some environments demand a period of time to switch realities from the physical to the virtual. For instance the transition from sitting in my solitary office to being in a group of people in a Collaborate (formerly Elluminate) session or a virtual meeting in Second Life is instant. Without the time to drive to a physical meeting, adjust my clothing when I get out of my car and walk to the meeting room, I may find myself disoriented and unprepared to get right to work.

Sharing. Online learning environments are often collaborative spaces where learners may be called upon to participate in ways they are not used to. When I attend a physical conference session, I may be invited to ask questions at the end. When I attend a virtual conference, I often participate in "back chat" through the text channel while the presenter is speaking. As a presenter and learner the ability to engage in back channel discussions involves a willingness to share and a set of skills for handling multiple forms of communication.

These may be a start. Help me tease out the habits/disposition of online learning and collaboration. Comment below either to elaborate on these three or to expand my list.

Anchors for Glossary

2011-11-29T17:14:00.001-05:00

Teaching always makes me to learn. Usually it happens in discussion when learners share their thoughts - and they are different from mine. Sometime the difference is small but causes me to reconsider. Sometime the difference is huge and I get to struggle with my own perspective, incorporate this new way of seeing and figure out what I now know.

At other times, a student asks a question, that seems straightforward to them, but I don't know the answer (not even a lame answer). I could go into a long post about how I came to be ok about not knowing answers. But this post is actually about providing the answer (maybe a lame one) to a specific how-to while blogging question. Joan this is for you. Readers, if you know less lame answers please comment.

Joan has created a blogger.com blog for and with young children. She wants to be able to link key words to definitions but is not keen on what happens when she links to dictionary.com (it is busy and the reader ends up leaving the blog). I link from my blog often but have never been been trying to do a similar task. It would be awesome if the text definition popped up like they do on the NYT page, leaving the readers in the same spot. But that is probably way to fancy.

I searched the blogger.com gadgets to see if there is a gadget in which Joan could build a glossary. I looked for askaword-like gadgets that lead to a preexisting dictionary. I looked for online collaborative glossary tools. No luck. But here's my current answer.

1. Create a new page on the blog called glossary. (Yeah the tab will show but that isn't so bad if it is one page and not a page for every word.)

2. On that page build your glossary like this (of course this is my sample glossary - see the tab at the top of this blog). I have three terms in my glossary: Virtual Worlds, Pedagogy and Online Learning. Virtual Worlds has not been bold-ed yet. Pedagogy has been bold-ed but is not ready to link to. Online learning is both bold-ed and ready to link to.

HTML code for setting anchors on a glossary page (code for bold and new line
are also visible)

3. While in edit on your glossary page, choose HTML next to the COMPOSE button. This takes you behind the scenes into the HTML code of the page. Mostly it just looks like text but you will see some non-text stuff. In the above example look at the code in my glossary (which contains only 3 words and a lot of space for this example).

Look at "Virtual Words" in the above code. It is just text.
Look at "Online Learning." It has the code b and /b on either side in brackets. This is the code for bold that was applied to the HTML when I pressed the B bold button on the tool bar in COMPOSE
Look at Pedagogy. It has this code a name= "pedagogy" and /a before and it in brackets. This code is called an anchor and makes it possible to link to this specific place on the glossary page. As in the previous example b and /b will make the word Pedagogy appear bold.

4. While in Edit mode on your glossary page, AND in HTML (not COMPOSE), copy the code as above. Add a name= "youranchorword" in front of each of your glossary terms and /a after. Use the < > symbols as brackets. Replace "youranchorword" each time with a word that you will remember to refer to this term. In my example glossary I will use "pedagogy" for Pedagogy, "online" for Online Learning and "virtual" for Virtual World. Publish your glossary page to save it. You can edit it at any time.

5. Go to a post in your blog that contains words that you want to link to your glossary. In edit mode AND in COMPOSE (not HTML), highlight the word and choose the link button in the tool bar. (We can do this in HTML but it means more code!) Paste the url to your glossary page. You may need to open it in another tab in order to get the address. Follow the address with #youranchorword, where pedagogy is the anchor word you used for that item in your glossary. Click ok in the link editor and publish your blog post. The link will turn blue. When you click it, you will open your glossary with the anchored word in the top most position of the page.

6. Test our my glossary words now that I have anchored each of them: Virtual Worlds, Online Learning, Pedagogy

Self Assessment

2011-10-25T17:38:00.001-04:00

Today I read Jeffrey Keefer's post "Check in on Change11 goals and expectations" in which he reviews the 3 goals he set at the start of the Change11 MOOC and asks himself how he is doing. I am challenged to do the same. Thanks Jeffrey.

On September 30 I wrote:

"Today I've decided that I will spend less time on instructor generated material and more on participant generated. I want to understand the connections [learners make], follow some ideas, see how others embrace/struggle with/modify/define the process. "

This is no behaviorally written object but it was a good starting point for an emerging set of questions and learning goals.

1. I will spend less time on instructor generated material and more on participant generated.

My participation has been sporadic

I read the Monday daily all the way through as it gives me a sense of the talk in the blogs.
I have dipped into some of the other dailys.
I have attempted to attend synchronous sessions
Besides the daily and the synchronous sessions I have successfully avoided reading/watching an facilitator content. I have decided that I don't want to see the content through the facilitators eyes I want to see how others make meaning of it (or how I make meaning of what they say about their meaning making :).
When I read learner posts I dig deeply, read the posts and any comments, reflect in my journal, often comment and follow links to the author's other posts or links to referenced writers (unless they are facilitators).

2. I want to understand the connections [learners make], follow some ideas, see how others embrace/struggle with/modify/define the process.

This is harder to answer in one sitting. Some initial thoughts and the next questions I want to explore.

There really is a diversity of opinion here. I cannot say we are are a fully heterogeneous group. There is a high degree of education and computer facility. But I expected more agreement, more indoctrination perhaps. I am finding debate refreshing. What are the ways that we as a group diverge? How do facilitators handle difference. (I saw one very welcoming response to disagreement from George.)
Some people are grappling with the challenge of so much content and so little direction. This too is refreshing. I wonder if practice is all that is needed to take control of learning. Or does it take specific regulatory skills, or a certain temperament? What happens to people between their first and second MOOC? Or is three the charm? What makes a learner go on to their second MOOC, if the first was frustrating.
Some are openly reveling in the smorgasbord of knowledge. How do they stay engaged and resist the traditional expectations to do it all?
MOOC researchers and MOOC learners have overlapping but different needs (researchers are also learners but learners are not necessarily researchers).

More reflection to come. Would love to hear from anyone who has written or seen a post that would lead me toward answers or more questions.
#change11

Complexity, Cognitive Load and MOOCs

2011-10-03T13:18:00.003-04:00

I've just read two posts by Michael Gallagher Complexity, self-organization, and #Change11: reactions to Siemen's presentation(1) and Multiple interfaces, cognitive load and learning design: My appartment in Seoul (2). In the former Gallagher discusses the pattern making process we use to make sense from the chaotic stuff of life (and learning in a MOOC). In the latter he takes us on a fanciful tour of his high tech Korean apartment, a device to explore interface design and cognitive load.

Complexity and cognitive load - two of my favorite topics.

Complexity
I love complexity. I love to slosh about in it. But it isn't easy. My training compels me to approach problems with a linear logic. I learned to create a lovely 3x3x3 outline (three points on each of three levels I, 1, a. b. c. ) in 6th grade. I loved the rules of grammar. How shocked I was to learn that poetry was not always composed in iambic pentameter. I learned well.

When I fight the compulsion I am thrilled by the meandering journey from hyperlink to hyperlink, the "collision of actors, agents, feedback, waste, noise, and then, ideally, pattern, understanding." (Gallagher, 1)

I cannot even set goals until I muck about in the complexity of a topic. I absorb a shallow Gestalt of a problem. I see the problem through lenses I didn't know existed. My interests are assaulted and piqued. Then I am able to dig deeply into an aspect of the problem, to which I think I have a chance of contributing.

When I am able the resist the temptation to take a prescribed set of steps toward a goal, I remember that I don't fully understand the learning, sense making process. One does not get there from here simply by following these steps. The collision of ideas and patterns is currently unpredictable.

Cognitive load.
Cognitive load: This term, coined by John Sweller, explains the ability or inability of a novice to process information - based on the mental demands required by germane, intrinsic and extraneous load. It attempts to reduce complexity so that learners do not apply all their cognitive resources to achieving a goal or making a "means-end analysis."

I have long balked at the idea of cognitive load. Even though I recognize it all around me and employ techniques both for coping with it and designing instruction to control for it.

Cognitive load theory is like iambic pentameter (well maybe not, but let's see how far I can go with the analogy). It is a perfectly reasonable approach to instructional design. (Ok, so far. Iambic pentameter is a reasonable approach to poetry.) Cognitive load theory works. You want someone to be able to tell you the process involved in solving a three step math problem with a known solution. Providing a worked example reduces the load involved in solving the problem and enables the learner to see and repeat the solution. (If you want to produce a catchy verse that can be quickly learned and repeated to spread a bawdy joke or the news of the kings heroism in battle, or to get a rapping gig, iambic pentameter is for you.) But it isn't the only approach teaching or learning (or poetry).

I'm not sure about this yet but I think the strategies that Sweller offers have led instructional designers and educational policy makers to focus on a means-end analysis of the "problem" of education. Means-end analyses are not bad analyses for experts, but for novices (if I understand Sweller) they lead to a narrow expedient approach to achieving a goal that misses the important aspects of learning. Cognitive load reduction leads to complexity reduction which leads to the ability to move quickly from one topic to the next, which leads to efficient memorization of factual information, with leads to high achievement on standardized test. It does not lead to deep understanding or the ability to handle complexity in life.

Novices can develop without narrowly defining their responsibilities, without controlling for "extraneous" cognitive load (that's where the sparks of clashing ideas happen). Watch any pre-schooler (and I mean any person who has not been to school). It is messy. It is hard to assess, because the assessor's goals and accomplishments the learner makes are often not aligned. Deep understanding and understanding within complexity takes time, it requires the opportunity to observe, to see the decisions and outcomes of experts and developing novices. It requires the opportunity to act and fail.

MOOCing
My experience being a novice in the complex learning environment of a MOOC has been messy. In my first MOOC, PLENK2010, I often felt lost. If only they would tell me what to do (whine, whine, whine). They were not providing me the scaffolding I needed. (Sorry George and Stephen, they is you.) I loved it. I learned a lot. But I wasn't sure what I was learning because the goal was not clear, and that was unnerving. This time around, in my second MOOC, #Change11, I feel like my limitations have fallen away. I don't feel compelled to do it all. As I've said elsewhere, I don't feel compelled to do instructor promoted reading. I'm still a novice MOOCer, but a developing one. Complexity, collisions among actors, agents, feedback, waste, noise. Bring it on. My 3D pattern-finding glasses are on.

Making Change11 My Own

2011-09-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

Dave, George and Stephen have emphasized that one of the defining characteristics of a MOOC is the source of the goals. While the instructors/facilitators have a plan, (and personal goals) they do not determine the learning goals for the course. Each participant set her own goals. I think this is not just rhetoric. Not a variation on the "learner centered" model. MOOC and open learning in general has the potential to redefine what we mean by learning. I imagine that for some the goals may be clear cut from the start. For others they will emerge and morph.Like others, I am juggling many goals and all the possible content. Today I've decided that I will spend less time on instructor generated material and more on participant generated. I want to understand the connections, follow some ideas, see how others embrace/struggle with/modify/define the process. #change11

Determinism - non-Determinism Spectrum in Learning

2011-09-04T16:08:00.000-04:00

Today my colleague Rick Oller posed a dichotomy (perhaps a spectrum) with draconian on one side and organic on the other. We were discussing the application of theory to instructional design. He likes to talk about determinism and its opposite so I took that to be the meaning of his use of draconian (deterministic) and organic (non deterministic).As I grapple with understanding and teaching about learning theory I look for ways to tease out the distinctions and similarities of our big notions about learning. I decided to apply this spectrum as a lens to consider four big educational theories.I think the line between organic and draconian already exists within the theories with behaviorism and cognitivism on one side (draconian), constructivism and connectivism on the organic side. I won't draw the line in black, and as a techno virtualist my line runs the full gradient of gray.

Cognitivism is hyper draconian: instructor or content centered, rule oriented. At its basic level instructional design depends on cognitivism because the rules or design principles make the user experience pleasing and effective.

Behaviorism can be either very rigid or very organic. Strict behaviorism is content centered and very structured like a recipe. On the other extreme, all interaction is a complex dynamic system of stimulus response. Negotiation, pursuasion, manipulation and love are all the outcomes of organic behaviorism.

Constructivism sits in its own gray space between cognitivism and connectivism. It can be more or less instructor-, content- of learner- driven. It is always learner-driven by virtue of the underlying belief in subjective individually constructed reality.

Connectivism plays well with all the other theories-practices but is decidedly learner-driven. However in connectivism, I would argue that the "learner" may be a human, a group, a system or a machine. Connectivism is not rule oriented in a hierarchical sense, but "rules" or logics (not unlike and maybe including the laws of physics) apply in the dynamic and seemingly unpredictable direction learning and connecting takes.

I tell my students, and anyone who will listen, that the four theories are not mutually exclusive. They are all useful. They all explain some aspects of learning. And since there are different types of learning one theory or an other is more useful depending on content and goals. Skillful teachers incorporate strategies that are based on more than one of these theories. And each of us leans toward one or another of the theories because of our understanding of reality. If your world view includes objective reality I suspect you will favor practices based on cognitivism and classical behaviorism. If you believe that reality is a construction of each individual you are likely to favor constructivism or connectivism.

Fred, Red and Esme Go International

2011-05-19T15:52:00.006-04:00

Last night (or was it this morning) two of my students and I met with a class of English language students from West Java, Indonesia. The teacher, AnnaFarida Maggiore, and I met at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) headquarters in Second Life several months ago. Thank you ISTE for another fabulous connection.

It was 10 am Thursday in West Java and a sleepy 11 pm Wednesday in eastern US when Fred, Red and I met up with Anna and her students. Some were confident, others tentative and all the children were enthusiastic to introduce themselves and ask us questions. I could not stop grinning. The technology has its problems. Voice crackled and teleporting didn't work. But there we were, thousands of miles and half a day a part, and yet together!

West Java

Southern Vermont and Western Massachusetts

Check out Anna's post to see her in action with her students.

Adventurers Wanted

2011-05-02T16:54:00.005-04:00

Saturday May 7 is the kickoff of the 6th iteration of:

Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds

Instructor: Me, Jane Wilde (aka Esme Qunhua)
Offered by: Marlboro College Graduate School, Brattleboro VT, US
Mode: Fully online with a mix of asynchronous and synchronous activity
Credits: 3 graduate credits
Dates: running from May 7 through August

photo credit: Eruditus Drut c2010

This course will explore a variety of 2D and 3D virtual worlds including commercial and open source platforms designed for adults, teens and young children. We will examine research and theory about immersive environments, games, simulations and their pedagogical implications. We’ll consider the social, interpersonal, cultural, instructional, and technical implications of virtual worlds, while creating learning experiences within them.

The course will be taught totally online using a combination of the learning management system (LMS) Moodle and the virtual environments Second Life and Open Sim. You will learn to navigate within these virtual worlds by creating an avatar (digital representation of self), communicating with others, visiting virtual educational sites, creating and using educational tools, and meeting a variety of virtual world educators.

Much of the coursework will be done asynchronously (at different times on our own schedules). We will arrange to meet synchronously (at the same time, together) in one of the virtual worlds, six times during the term. We will attempt to schedule these sessions to accommodate participants and summer demands.

No experience with virtual worlds is necessary - but an adventurous spirit is a must.

Contact Jane Wilde, Instructor, wildejk@gmail.com about course content and Joe Heslin, Director of Graduate Admissions, 888-258-5665 x209, jheslin@marlboro.edu about registration, cost, etc.

"There is so much I want to teach you."

2011-04-30T13:00:00.003-04:00

"There is so much I want to teach you."

This statement reflects my excitement at the start of a new term, as I think of how I will update and enrich my course content for incoming students. It reflects the frustration I sometimes feel when a class or online module ends and we have to move on. It reflects the pressure I feel as the term ends and we haven't covered or the students haven't grasped as much as I had anticipated.

This seemingly benevolent sentiment is the bane of my teaching/learning existence.

This statement is a setup for me as teacher and you as learner and vice versa. It suggests knowledge transfer instead of knowledge construction. It leads me to keep the class late, keep the modules open, lecture, direct, talk really fast. And yet I know that learning is not a process of receiving information from a teacher.

"There is so much I want my students to learn."

This slight change in wording leads me to think in a totally different way. By focusing on learning rather than teaching I am reminded that I believe learning is a matter of constructing meaning, not of receiving information. It reminds me to think creatively about what people, ideas, activities, questions, images, conversations students might engage with in order that they may grow their understanding.

Body Language vs. Attentive Use of Voice and Text Tools

2011-04-21T12:04:00.002-04:00

Photo by: Mariis Mills 2011, used with permission

Yesterday I attended Jeffrey Ventrella's presentation about his new book "Virtual Body Language" at the Arvel meeting in SL. Jeffrey is a graphics and animations programmer. He has explored technological solutions to improve virtual body language in the virtual world There, where he was a co-founder. While working at Linden Lab he developed flexi prims. His book Vitual Body Language: The History and Future of Avatars: How Nonverbal Expression is Evolving on the Internet, proposes the direction and influence that evolving nonverbal expression might take.

Virtual body language has much potential in virtual worlds to promote engagement, connection between avatars, immersion and presence. And Ventrella has both the technical skills and creative mind to make simulated body language a reality.

However the event raised some issues for me: the first having to do with body language and the second having to do with the communication channels, voice and text.

Virtual body language. First of all I believe that with further research we will find that body language is highly overrated. These are questions I have regarding body language:

Isn't one of the benefits of virtual embodiment the opportunity to mask our pajamas, AND the many unconscious messages our bodies send that are either misunderstood or unintentionally socially destructive?
Do we prefer artificial body language that serves as a social lubricant but sends a message that we don't mean (think AOs that make us more animated but suggest sexual intentions)?
Subjects of research are often people not experienced in virtual worlds and so cannot imagine suspending disbelieve to the point of immersion. Isn't it natural that the uninitiated might show a preference for (perhaps superficial) resemblance to real life?

I'm not saying that improvements to virtual body language lack merit. I definitely want my avatar to be able to automatically shift focus to the person who is currently typing or voicing. Control over pointing will also be a great advance adding to the benefits of being in virtual space. I'm only arguing that the importance of duplicating real life in general, and on this dimension in particular, has not yet been proven.

Communication channels. Some virtual worlds - Second Life among them - offer better-than-real-life affordances. Multiple simultaneous communication channels is one of these. It takes some practice but it is possible to listen to a presenter who is voicing while holding a rich text discussion with the participants, as well as send out brief IMs to particular participants. Likewise a presenter skilled in these multiple channels (Tom "Boellstorff" Bukowski is a master) Can speak and simultaneously follow either the discussion or at least note questions. Real experts (read Tom) can even send IMs in response to particular comments.

Ventrella showed little understanding of the power of these tools. Second Life is probably not his platform of choice - so I don't blame him for that. However this became a problem during the Q and A, as a few voices filled the airways and the many avatars with text questions did not get "heard." Ventrella might have concluded, in the absence of body language to the contrary, that most of his audience was AFK. And a frustrated audience member (read me) or two might have felt a disconnect with the presenter.

Presence and engagement are multidimensional experiences. While we work to improve Virtual World experience as educators and designers, we may focus on only one dimension - that which we can effect. But it is important to acknowledge and use the others or we shall fail. (also posted on the ArvelNing.

PLEs: Using VUE as my Dashboard

2011-04-02T11:42:00.005-04:00

VUE is a powerful concept mapping tool offered by Tufts University. It is both free and open source. I have been using it for years as a concept map builder. But thanks to my colleague Andrea Hodson's suggestion, I have started to experiment with how it can serve me as a personal learning environment, giving me quick access to important content, tools and resources.

Each node in the map can be a simple textual concept, as in most mapping tools.
Or each Nodes can contain hyperlinks to files on my computer, images on Flickr, blogs I frequent...
Clicking a node that contains a hyperlink (vue, web, jpg in the example above) will open the file/page.

While it doesn't pull together all the content and tools I use for learning, it is a step in the right direction. It has some important advantages over dashboard tools such as PageFlakes and iGoogle. It is completely under my control - which means to me that a) I can set and change the layout according to my way of understanding over time. b) The next time I open it, it will look as it did when I left it; design changes made by the company will not affect the appearance or cause me to relearn how to use my dashboard. c) It will not disappear if the company goes out of business. I also like the feature that I can link to files on my computer, giving me access to the things I am currently working on.

Cloud based dashboards have the advantage of being accessible from any computer. Because VUE is computer based software I am limited to using my dashboard on my own computers or those where VUE is installed. To do this I store my dashboard in my Dropbox folder, which is synced to each of my devices. When I open my VUE dashboard on any of my computers (work, home, laptop) it is up-to-date with my latest content.

Trawling for connectivism

2010-12-15T12:25:00.003-05:00

I am trawling the blogosphere (netting the net) for explanations of, reactions to, interpretations of, expansions on and critiques of connectivism. The net I'm using pulls in a lot of dumped tires and plastic bottles. But I'm also finding the good stuff.

I found a succinct 2007 post from Jeff Utecht that offers insight.

...We need to change teaching at its roots. At the very foundation….the pedagogy. Some disagreed with me saying that good teaching is still good teaching. I’m just not sure if I can swallow that.
Does good teaching in 1920 look the same as good teaching in 1950….1980…..1990…..2000?. With the advancements in brain research alone can you say that good teaching never changes?

At this moment I think George Siemens Knowing Knowledge and connectivism theory of learning best represents how learning and knowledge has been changed in this new 2.0 world. (Utrecht, 2007)

Jeff argues that society is changing, that knowledge and learning has changed, that the way we teach needs to change, and that the theory of connectivism can lead us to a new pedagogy (not that it is the pedagogy - which many critiques claim).

My beef with Instructional System Design (ISD)

2010-12-07T19:46:00.004-05:00

After presenting a two week module on Instructional System Design and ADDIE I present the following counter point to my students.

In the field of instructional technology you will hear touted the importance of Instructional System Design, of which ADDIE is one approach. Having had several careers I have run into this approach to planning in other domains: Management by Design, Individual Service Plans come immediately to mind from my time as an administrator and earlier as a special education teacher. ISD is popular among the accountability set.

To begin I'd like to say that ISD has a lot going for it.

It is valuable to think of any kind of plan or design in a systematic way.
It is important to think of planning/designing as being a constantly evolving process, one which you frequently evaluate and refine (the ADDIE model is laid out in an iterative cycle).
Tools, frameworks, templates, acronyms etc. that provide us with steps and easy checklists are helpful.

For these reasons, it is advisable to memorize the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) acronym and make sure that you have considered each step.

It is not what is in ADDIE that bugs me; it is what is not in ADDIE. Education is more than inputs and outputs. As you plan your courses please consider these aspects of teaching.

The act of teaching is made up of equal parts teaching technique and relationship building. How can my instructional design support positive relationships with and among my students?
All minds are different. Each of my students brings a differing experience, beliefs and uniquely shaped schema that affect how they engage with what I am trying to teach. How will my instructional design support shared understanding and openness to new perspectives?
Learning is a dynamic process that sometimes goes in unexpected yet important directions. Can flexibility be built into my instructional design so that it responds to student interest and inquiry while still getting the job done.
We hold beliefs about the way people learn. Our instructional designs should reflect that. As part of the design process I think we must ask ourselves What do I believe about how people learn? Followed by the question, Given that I am teaching on-line, in a classroom, on a boat, how can I design my instruction to match my learning theory?

So help me come up with an acronym for something like: Relationships, Differing Minds, Dynamic Process and Learning Theory and we can create a unified theory of instructional design.

PLN V.2 - in context

2010-09-17T22:56:00.004-04:00

I've expanded my PLN map. My map still emphasis the people in my Personal Learning Network. Access to lots of people, people from all over the world, people whose ideas interest me, who are interested in my ideas, from whom I want to learn, with whom I exchange, collaborate, chat, create, or with whom I correspond through their works. The tools make the meeting, creating exchanging possible.

Time is a theme that continues to emerge in all my computer mediated networking and communication.

Immediacy: information and expert opinions immediately available.
Synchrony: sharing - if not space, time. presence, connection, shared virtual experience
Asynchrony: in our own time, thoughtful contributions
Persistence: people, connections, artifacts persist over time. But for how long. Colleagues in sl for 3+years. Colleagues in MOOC? Will we continue to share time and space after the course is over.
Time zones - world wide time. Sometimes is is yesterday, today and tomorrow. Somehow this is important.

More to come.

What does my PLN look like

2010-09-17T00:52:00.005-04:00

In PLENK2010, this first week we are considering Personal Learning Networks and Personal Learning Environments, what they are, what they look like... One of the challenges this week is to visualize our PLN. So here goes:

First I distinguish PLN (Personal Learning Network) from PLE (environment). It seems that PLE refers to the tool or virtual place where learning occurs: in an LMS, on a blog or wiki or through an rss feed. My PLN is a network of people and resources. I already see how this graphic could be improved. I could add artifacts (books, wikipedia, blogs...)

What strikes me about this image is that my PLN used to be almost exclusively made up of people I've met in Second Life. Through a virtual world I have been able to locate hundreds of people from around the world with whom I share common interests and intellectual pursuits. Many fewer people at my university and in my home community are members of my PLN. Though we share physical space we do not share common interests. What is new to my PLN is the MOOC - which like a virtual world has the capability and capacity to bring together dozens/hundreds/thousands of people who share interests and expertise. There is a dimensionality to the MOOC experience that I did not think could be accomplished on the 2D internet.

Holy Moly a Really Massive Open Online Course (RMOOC?)

2010-09-10T00:50:00.003-04:00

Since I last posted 2 days ago enrollment in the Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge (PLENK2010) has jumped from 300 to 1090. That is a 1090 separate people participating in one Moodle course. This is going to be an interesting ride.

Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge

2010-09-08T21:55:00.002-04:00

As part of my study of networking, distance learning and how technology is changing us, I have signed up for PLENK2010. Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge is an open course (open enrollment, freely shared content) facilitated by George Siemens (Connectivism), Stephen Downes (Personal Learning Networks), Dave Cormier and Rita Kop.

This 10 week course begins officially on Monday September 13 and as of this moment has 306 participants enrolled in the moodle course area. This is a massively multiplayer (hehe) on-line course. It is actually billed as a Massive Open Online Course (a MOOC :). My colleagues include residents of Canada, US, Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Portugal, UK, Ukraine, Spain, Italy, Venezuela, Uruguay, Greece, Malaysia, Argentina, Russian Federation, Peru, Belgium, India, Finland, Ireland, Ghana, Germany, and New Zealand.

What is it about? Besides PLEs, networks and knowledge as the title suggests, "there is no particular body of knowledge..." I quote from the course research consent document:

Though there may be a central theme or structure offered by the facilitators, there is no particular body of knowledge or information expected to be acquired by learners; rather, learning occurs as a result of interaction and participation in the distributed community, completion of authentic tasks within that environment, and the growth and development of the learner’s own capacities as a consequence. The course design, therefore, is that essentially of a community of learners who are learning to learn.

For more information or to register, check this out http://connect.downes.ca/

For updates on my experience, stay tuned.

Emse Says Goodbye

2010-03-21T14:30:00.004-04:00

Fascinating stuff - motivation, culture, friendship of World of Warcraft. But today Emse the dwarf said goodbye to the WoW community. Yesterday he looked like this:

a level 49 Paladin, Dwarf, rich in gold and skill. Today he is a homeless, penniless wanderer.I enjoyed the exploration, the play, the odd connections made - AND I want to spend my screen time in SL.

We are Web 2.0

2010-02-01T11:03:00.003-05:00

Do you have a favorite "Web 2.0 Tool?" I was pondering this frequently asked question today. Yes there are many many great ones and we use them. But when you use the web in its current version (2.0+), you think web 2.0. You look for ways to communicate, collaborate and create. You multitask, you enlist your friends to swarm information, you connect with and share, and you use whatever tools are at hand. Web 2.0 applications are becoming less important as the value of collaboration is becoming ingrained and our facility with the process is more automatic. We are the tools of Web 2.0.

The above image is from http://www.go2web20.net/ a good index of tools. This screen shot represents only part of one of the 67 pages of tools listed.

Connectivism in Action - a Meeting with George Seimens

2010-01-14T10:32:00.003-05:00

What an experience! I attended a meeting in Peru South America today. George Siemens, educational theorist was there to discuss Connectivism. And of course I attended in my bathrobe. This is not a dream, this is computer mediated Connectivism in action.

Let me describe my learning experience.
How I got to participate - I did not register for this event. I did not fly to Peru South America. I am not a member of the Peruvian organzation that sponsored it. I attended through my connections. My friend and colleague, Serolod invited me. She lives in Spain.

Learning as a conversation. Dr. Seimens did not lecture. We had a conversation. He described a concept and then we discussed it, asked questions, comment, stretched it.

Knowledge as a dynamic response to connections. The conversation was mediated by all kinds of connections that could not have been planned. Attendees grappled with the ideas through several cultural lenses and two languages. It was originally billed as occuring in English. But because the largest attendance was from three Spanish speaking countries a member of the group translated. This slowed down the conversation, but also made it more intimate and there was much more effort to clarify meaning. The disciplines of those in attendance affected the discource and the meaning drawn from the convesation. Concepts from Connectivism bumped up against communication, media, linguistics, highschool teaching.

There was a steady exchange of websites links. We were all searching and bringing new knowledge and resources to the table.
Multimodal communication brought the group together in various combinations. Because of text and voice, listeners commented while speakers talked, questions were asked when they were thought of and answered when time permitted. Members of the audience spoke to each other in private chat. I even interacted directly with Dr. Seimens in IM.

If I understand one nugget of Connectivism it is that meaning is negotiated through connections. While participants ideas and external artifacts have attributes of their own these attributes change in connection with others. So today was a connectivist event.

Connectivism resources

Wiki bio of Dr. Siemens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Siemens
Good intro article on Connectivism http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Siemens blog and a post on what makes Connectivism a unique learning theory http://www.connectivism.ca/?p=116
A recent presentation http://elearnspace.org/Articles/systemic_impact.htm

Introducing Emse - an exploration into WoW (World of Warcraft)

2010-01-09T13:41:00.004-05:00

What is all this talk about gaming and learning? Emse (aka Esme) decided to find out more and look to incorporate gaming qualities to my TLVW's course. Stay tuned to my experiences as a teacher/student/adventurer/newbie in World of Warcraft.

Theory of Mind

2009-12-07T13:30:00.007-05:00

In Pedagogy 1 this term, I introduced the concepts "theory of mind" and "folk pedagogy." The former being the ability to attribute mental states to another person and to recognize that they are different and separate from our own. Bruner's "folk pedagogy" acknowledges that we all have a theory of how people learn, often unconscious, sometimes deliberate, that guides our teacherly interactions with each other. Perhaps conflating the two, we began to refer to our own theories of mind to get at our changing ideas about how people think and learn. So what is mine?

I think of myself as a fringe social constructivist. By fringe, I fancy myself as being non-traditional. I am guided by an overarching belief that there is not one truth only interpretations of experience and many ways of making meaning of these interpretations. (I am after all a doctoral student; we are dedicated to contemplating our navels.) I tend to question the plausibility of all explanation.

I approach learning as a social activity. By this I mean that learning is a process best engaged in with others. When people of varied levels of skill come together with commitment and energy, learning happens. While I believe the teacher has unique responsibilities, learning can be a give and take among all involved. Whether I am with 5th graders or graduate students, I learn along side my students. As teacher/lead-learner I strive to provide support for each learner. Of course this is a goal and one toward which I continue to work and often make mistakes.

I employ strategies from both behaviorism and cognitivism. From behaviorism, I like "backward chaining" (that is teaching the last skills in a sequence first so that the learner has immediate success and sees themselves completing the task. I try to reward "successive approximations" (that is, giving positive feedback for small incremental successes, rather than expecting perfection). From cognitivism, I pick and choose. I like Will's activating exercise that is like an advance organizer - a way of stimulating schema to attach new learning to. I go for Gardner's controversial multiple intelligences and believe that we had a class of intelligent students, all with exceptional strengths in divergent "intelligences." Though Sweller makes me mad (he doesn't like constructivist practice much), I think he is mostly right about cognitive load. And I think I need to work on this in my own presentation of information. I like minimalism as it relates to the visual presentation of information, but not in my expectations of what students are able to investigate, grapple with, understand.

I haven't met a constructivist I didn't like (he he). But my favorite constructivist approaches include

Vygotski's "zone of proximal development." - the notion that there is a sweet spot, if you will, between the learner and the thing learned. In this place the learner can perform or interact with the knowledge successfully, if s/he has the necessary support of a teacher or knowledgeable peer. Outside of the zone of proximal development the learner is over- or under-challenged and learning in inhibited.
Bruner's "spiral learning." Bruner sees learning as an iterative process. We come in contact with an idea, construct a schema as well we can based on our past experience and developmental state. When the concept is presented again at a later date, then knowledge can be broadened and deepened, our schema expanding.
Lave and Wenger's "communities of practice." A community of practice is a group of people with shared goals and practices, at various states of expertise. Within the community, a novice can learn the language, actions, traditions and skills of the practice. They can find their zone of proximal development and receive the scaffolding they need to grow.
Paperts "constructionism". Papert challenged the concepts of knowledge and learning because he was among the first to position them outside of the learner and discourse. Papert used computer programming as a metaphor for how students could learn together while interacting with and creating objects, first with Logo programming and later with Lego Mindstorms.
Scardamalia and Bereiter's "knowledge building." Knowledge building is an expansion of constructionism in that it promotes learning through the manipulation not of external objects but externalized ideas. In other words, S and B encourage students to 1) share their ideas in a public space like a wiki or the software knowledge forum and 2) rather than constructing knowledge individually building on and manipulating the ideas of others.
Gee's "game theory" of learning. Gee looks to video and virtual world type games for examples of how to teach. He doesn't think we need to use games, but that we need to use the qualities of games that enable the learner to be challenged and excel. Some of these qualities include clear goals, pleasant frustration, just in time information.

I am particularly excited about two uses of technology that can promote socially constructed learning. One is the use of well moderated forums for asynchronous discussion of ideas (community of practice, knowledge building, zone of proximal development). This is what we do in Moodle, when I structure the situation but much of the learning about a topic comes from students reading each other's ideas and challenging/expanding them. The other is the use of 3-D virtual spaces in which people from diverse locations can meet with experts, explore simulations, construct models of reality, and role play (community of practice, constructionism, knowledge building and gaming.)

Negotiation Training in Second Life

2009-11-15T16:55:00.007-05:00

ISTE SL Tour - Sunday November 15 9-10am SLT

We met with Marc Wizenheim (aka Mark Jankowski) for a training session at which we learned to prepare for negotiations. The skills were applicable to business and personal life.

Marc taught us 4 concepts having to do with negotiation preparedness and to do so he led us through a series of scenes. In each he told a story that illustrated one of the four points. He took us to a corporate office of a baseball team overlooking the ball field, at the Santa's village of a shopping mall, in an orchestra pit, and on a mountain side. Throughout we were to consider a case study of negotiating the purchase of 1200 computer monitors. At each phase we had to solve a problem and explain our solution. Visual, interactive, place based.

ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING!
Thanks to Praxilady for organizing this.

http://www.shapironegotiations.com/virtualtrainingregistration.html

Albany Class Meets for First Time

2009-06-01T23:48:00.005-04:00

Antics with Sal's toys. So much easier to have a group of 10 than the small group at Marlboro. I want to find a way to bring the groups together. While it is nice to be able to give individual attention, within the small class, the momentum of the larger group is helpful. And each person is anxious to share what they know with those that don't. In some ways that takes the pressure off of me. We toured ISTE, we practiced voice, we played with navigation.

Building

2009-05-30T23:34:00.000-04:00

From left to right are Barbara, Elizabeth (in distance), Eru looking the lady liberty, and Mandie.
Today I got to learn from a good teacher. Phicra, a guest instructor, gave our group a lesson in building snowflakes, one prim, one texture, one script. Seems simple. This task had it all. A comprehensive beginner building class in one prim. The snowflake encircling Eru's head did not belong there, but demonstrates what students who are allowed to multi task can come up with. Along the way we wore them as circular saws through our chests and other body parts. In the end we reduced them and wore them as broaches.

There is a gated garden in the classroom sandbox now where full perm builds sit to copy, deconstruct and improve upon. (Please tell me if they are not copy and modifiable. I have such a time with permissions.)

First Class Summer 09

2009-05-10T00:12:00.010-04:00

Today was the first day of the new term. Small class of 4, compared with last year's 16. Former student and current friend Eru is helping out this time around. Today I am going to reflect on my goals and maybe accomplishments:

My goal for today was to project warmth and welcome in a cozy, engaging learning environment.

I used text only today for several reasons:

Past readers know that I don't like using voice - so any chance I can, I avoid it. :-)
Text is force-ably slow, so I believe that gives newer users time to keep up and experienced users time to reflect. (But I am not sure about this - maybe it just makes it slow and boring.)
Text has a lot of uses and skills associated with it that take time to learn, so I immerse the group in those skills right away (local, group, IM, cross chat, back chat, abbreviations)
Voice often takes time to set up.

While this course is not about SL per se (it is about issues related to teaching), the first class is necessarily about the basics of SL. I encourage and hope that more experienced users will use this time to think about teaching practice, how one teaches the newly initiated, what strategies I use and what strategies they would employ.

Here's a little shopping list of the techniques and activities we sampled:
mini lecture - with a couple slides
explicit instruction
group discussion
"Esme Says" game - yep like Simon only with yours truly in the lead
Eru's agility exploration - lots of walking, running, flying and bumping fun and chat
Touring the college island - our home, and ISTE island

Here are the tools we used:
local and group chat
friending
the map
the mini map
environmental settings (to brighten to darkening day)
inventory
teleporting and landmarks
sl how-to books with notecard givers
Mysti tool follow chairs for touring
ISTE TP board
Angrybeth's community white board
two seating arrangements
Eru's amazing agility toys (mazes, slolom challenge, dino ribs, flying tube...)

My challenge is to balance my conflicting desire to create a cooperative, activity-based, learning environment with my desire to impart lots of information NOW. (I don't think of myself as being didactic, but certainly have that impulse.) This group promises to make this easy - as each is curious and all are helpful.

Now that the first exciting hurdle has passed, I anxiously await for the activity to begin in Moodle. Oh, and yay, barbarathelibrarian has started her blog: http://dragoninthelibrary.blogspot.com/

What is it about a HOME?

2009-03-09T19:42:00.005-04:00

A recent inquiry on the Second Life Researchers list inspired this post. "...why [do] people feel the need to put walls around themselves in SL when a 'home' is technically not necessary?"

To have or not to have a home in SL is a surprisingly important question and one that many people return to at different times in their SL residency.

When you arrive in SL for the first time, you don't have a home.

Some new residents notice the massive Frank Lloyd Wright houses, towering apartment buildings, small skyboxes, rustic seaside capes and consider themselves homeless. These residents might see home ownership as a goal, and set about raising $L at the nearest camping site. Or they might wear their new found status as a badge for months or years.

Others would notice how frequently these buildings are empty. They might remark on the absence of the effects of weather, and ask themselves, "Why would I need one of those?" These residents might consider themselves free spirits, or practical, or cheap. "I will never spend a $L in SL."

I was proudly homeless for about 6 months. When I was given a gift of SL property, I became an avid homeowner. Now at almost 2 years old, having gained membership in many land-holding groups, working on a university campus, and having favorite sandboxes, home ownership is less important to me.

I now provide a platform for each of my students to call home for the duration of the semester. Here are some of the reasons why:

An SL home is:
1) A place to land when logging in. - Landing at welcome centers gets old.
2) A place to go to change clothes. - As you begin to identify with your avatar this can be important. Later tnew residents will learn other strategies like flying up to change, or keeping outfits in folders that can be dragged onto the body. For others this is not important at all.
3) A place on which to build. - Sandboxes have auto return limits. Being able to leave something out (especially something that has lots of unfinished pieces) can help the creative process.
4) A place through which to express yourself. - My students have set up gardens, music studios, pubs, Martha Stewart parlors, and sometimes just an out-ventory (meaning they have dumped their inventory on the platform).
5) Gives you the sense that you belong. - Many rentals are in communities through which you make friends, engage in community run functions, participate in decision making...
5) Offers you privacy. - This is important if you offer tutorials, counseling, meetings with students/employers/employees or if you are involved in on-line dating.
6) A place to which you can retreat. - Sometimes you need a quick getaway from a griefer or an uncomfortable interaction. Sure you could sign off, but you might just want some privacy in which to regroup.
7) Familiar. - Most of us enter SL and are boggled. It's weird, exciting, clunky, limitless... But what does a person, a resident, know? We know homes. We start with what we know. We buy, scrounge or build the familiar. Then as time passes we explore and expand. Wait there is no rain. And we can fly. No need for a roof. We are in control of three dimensions. Privacy can come from being 300 meters in the sky. No need for walls.

There are alternative solutions for almost every concern on this list. And many residents will be quick to find them.

For others, in a world where the laws of physics are applied in new ways, a home is a desirable bit of sameness. In educational terms it might provide a scaffold on which to hang new understanding and try new ideas.

And then again, if your home is a spaceship, well, it just might be part of the fun.

Guidance not protection

2009-01-18T20:39:00.004-05:00

I was thinking about sex, predation and harsh winters the other night. Bear with me.

I live in rural Vermont in the USA, where winter temperatures range from +30 to -15 F (-1 to -26 C). Like many homes in Vermont our is heated by a wood fire. A wood stove is the central focus of our living room.

The extreme cold temperatures of the out of doors and the extreme hot temperatures of the exposed wood stoves indoors would seem to present real dangers to young children in Vermont. And though both have the potential to kill, less than 1 death per year of a child can be blamed on burns or exposure. Even the few incidences of frost bitten or burnt fingers in children is more likely to occur among visiting relatives than native Vermonters. From infancy Vermont children are taught to dress for the cold and to steer clear of the hot stove. They go outside and they play in the living room without injury because adults guide them

What does this have to do with sex and predation? Internet sex and predation are seen as significant dangers to children. The US federal government has created the child's Internet protection act. State and local police forces employ undercover cops to act as young children to snag predators. And schools are mandated to filter the Internet so that children are not exposed to obscene words, images, and websites like YouTube. We are trying to keep children away from something that is as ubiquitous as weather.

Protection is unrealistic and is no replacement for the wisdom of guided experience. As educators we have an obligation to provide children with opportunities to play near the wood stove. We need to have students stumble onto the inevitable naughty page, or talk with a stranger on line. It is only then that we can demonstrate the choices a child has and the benefits of each option. A parent's attempt at explaining the intense heat of a fire cannot replace the experience of being allowed to stand uncomfortably (but safely) close to the intensifying heat. Talking on-line with unknown "experts" and "students" provides a real opportunity to discuss the knowledge we have about others online, not to create fear of the unknown - to give students the skills (like layers of insulating clothing) to make good decisions.

We cannot always be with a child to protect her from weather, fire, images or Internet interactions. So we need to take advantage of the time we are with her to give her guided experience that leads to the wisdom to keep herself safe.

Touring San Antonio - A Metaphor for Teaching

2008-07-21T17:48:00.002-04:00

Or What I Learned at NECC

There are three ways to explore San Antonio Texas.
1. In a riverboat
2. Along the Riverwalk
3. On the Street

If you walk on the street you find that San Antonio is like many urban cities. Messy. It is hot on the streets of San Antonio. It is culturally rich, ethnically diverse, wealthy and poor. There are lovely green spaces with sculpture and there are dark alleys. And if you take a dark alley you will wind up someplace unexpected - a restaurant off the beaten track, a cinema that can be gotten to from a more obvious route, or an even darker alley. Here you can have a genuine San Antonio experience.

If you walk along the Riverwalk you will find a tourist's paradise, the stuff of Chamber brochures. It is tidy: a partially below ground, cool, well shaded and garden festooned pathway along the water on one side. Along the other side you find a seemly endless (maybe because the river walk goes in a circle) array of restaurants for everyone's budget. Everyone is well dressed, either in holiday comfort or employee uniform. Here you can have a pleasant tourist experience.

Taking the riverboat (4-foot-deep-man-made-canal boat does't sound as good) provides you with a view of the garden festooned pathway along the water's edge and the restaurants. From here you can not smell the flowers or taste the food. You will learn the history of the Riverwalk as invented by the seasonal employee who motors the boat.

As a teacher I can opt to offer any of these three experiences. If I teach from the riverboat I can ensure my student's safety, at the cost of engagement with San Antonio. From the Riverwalk students can interact with a simulated San Antonio. While I don't mind taking a break with my class in the cool and pleasant underground passageways, I want to spend most of my class time up onto the hot and messy sidewalks of the city, where the residents are, authentic events occur, where the unexpected can be found.

Class 6 Another Look at Voice

2008-07-19T01:01:00.002-04:00

Or "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone"

For four weeks we have used a mix of voice and text chat in each class. Voice has been used - in every class except the first - in the following ways.

Presenters have used voice (though we have had two presenters who have opted to use text only.
Small groups have opted to use voice during group activities
I have used voice to convey information, occasionally a student will contribute with voice. More often students contribute, ask questions and answer questions with text.

After a half hour of struggling to get the most recent class started with voice, I called off the fight. "Give it up," I said, "After all I prefer text anyway." To my surprise I really missed it. In its absence I noticed that voice has become helpful in some important ways.

Quickly conveying information - the half hour setback was only extended by texting the agenda (my too many activities for one day) and explanation of each activity
Maintaining group focus and control - My text did not stand out from the background chatter and helpful colleagial instructions passing between students. With voice I was able to say, "keep talking in the background with text, as long as you can focus up here on my directions." On two occasions I resorted to in all caps typing STOP TYPING to get everyone's attention
Conveying teacher tone - While I don't like to speak into a microphone of any kind, and I like less hearing my recorded voice after the fact, I do recognize that my teaching voice conveys warmth. Given my virtual shouting STOP TYPING I regretted the absence of my warm voice to convey that I was calling for attention but without anger.
Use of dual channels to promote student collaboration. When voice has worked I would often respond to a text question by asking someone in the group to text an answer, which enabled me to continue with my information or instructions. With text only, I actively discouraged people from chatting to and helping each other because it confused the thread that I was trying to maintain.

I still see many advantages to text only communication - for another post perhaps. But voice does have its place.

NECC 08

2008-07-09T09:56:00.009-04:00

WOW. 18,000 (Count those zeros) edugeeks in one place. That's 6,000 more people in the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio Texas than there are residents in the "big" town I drive 12 miles to for grocery shopping.

The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) is the annual conference put on by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). This year over 1,000 workshops, one hour presentations, topical lounges and playgrounds were offered for the attendees. The daily events schedule, used to choose the sessions to attend, was a spiral bound book!

The edges of the conference were a little blurry. While, for me, the conference kicked off with an opening reception Sunday evening, there were a number of events earlier on Sunday - affiliate gatherings, membership welcome and the opening key note address. A day earlier many attendees participated in EdubloggerCon. I think I was the last attendee in the conference center Wednesday night when the tech guys came to unplug the amazing wired and wireless network that supported hundreds of event computer- and thousands of participant laptop- activity. I was uploading and tidying my posts to the sl-educationblog.org blog for which I was conference correspondent.

Imagine food for 18,000. Yes. We were fed at the opening reception! Already I'm thinking, "Great conference!" There were long lines at first - at the scores of tables set up through out the convention center - as we all feared there could not possibly be enough food for the slow and weak. But there was actually enough guacamole for the masses, and more than enough tacos, chalupas, tomales and frijoles to fill our bellies.

To my amazement Second Life was featured everywhere in the conference.
Though most of the sessions were on other educational technology topics: multimedia, blogging, podcasting, tech in math, tech in social studies... Second life was prominent in the opening celebrations, in the closing keynote, in a number of workshops and presentations, and was displayed on very large screens throughout the convention center.

During the opening reception (remember those punch bowls filled with guacamole) a band called One Horse Shy performed rockin' alt-country for our dancing pleasure. On a platform to the right of the stage sat five people, vaguely like judges. But they were not judges. They were, as their name tags indicated, digital rockstars. Each was assigned a band member. For the entire concert each drove the avatar of their designated band member who performed live (with sound streamed from San Antonio) iSL at ISTE's replica of the Alamo. The digital One Horse Shy played for the dancing pleasure of those who couldn't make the trip to San Antonio, and for those conference goers who were too shy to dance iFL. (Honest. There were people in the lounge nearby dancing their avatars iSL.) To the left of the stage on the larger than life projection screen, the digital lead singer swished her yellow flexi skirt and leaned into the microphone (remarkably like she did iFL).

Shall I admit that during the four days I attended exactly one workshop - the one I co-presented? Does that mean for me it was a bust? Oh no. I talked with incredibly creative people, networked, connected with people I have only previously met iSL, learned things that blew my mind. For instance, I met a woman who is a tech coordinator in Australia for a k12 school where all the students are required to carry cell phones. That's right - they are not required to drop their cell phones (and iPods) in the box at the front office; they are required to have them in class. They take pictures, record interviews, take notes, and get called at home to take quizzes by speaker phone when they are out sick.

I learned how a third grad teacher uses his blog as a course management system (like Moodle). He posts assignments. Kids get into their blog, and follow the assignments like an adventure - which leads them to podcasts and youtubes and math problems... Think of the reading and writing those kids do!

I learned that Sketch-up, Alice, Active Worlds, River City and increasingly Teen Second Life, are used all over the country (and in others) to engage kids, to teach advanced computer skills, to develop collaboration, problem solving and communication skills, to teach science and language arts. I learned that Texas, a place where intelligent design is taught as a legitimate scientific theory, requires all high school students to take a course in Microsoft Office apps and are taught to create access databases. Vermont did not look so good.

There was surprisingly little about higher education.

I worked for half a day in the SL Playground, where conference attendees could sign up for an SL account and learn the basics. And one night back at my hotel... I assisted at an SL wedding between one of the conference attendees and the desk clerk. Before you get the wrong idea, let me explain.

I was minding my own business catching the wireless in a pleasant lounge on the second floor. I over heard lots of giggling and guffawing from the floors above and below me. A man and women scrambled past me repeatedly going between the lobby and the third level. During one of their passes they asked me if 1. I was a conference attendee and 2. if I had heard of SL. I was informed that their group, from a school district in Ohio, had been assigned by their tech coordinator to have some kind of "authentic" experience iSL while they were at the conference. They had enlisted the help of the lovely desk clerk, who had on his own time, made an sl account and become proficient enough to participate as the groom in this staged wedding. I got to join in the fun and provide a freebie wedding gown from my 150Megapack. And when the vows were said and the groom wanted to kiss the bride, I quickly dropped them a hug script. Members of the Ohio team performed the roles of minister, photographer and witnesses. There was apparently much dressing up (don't know why the bride did not have a dress as all the men were in Tuxes and the women in lovely outfits), venue hunting, script writing etc, before I arrived on the scene.

I haven't even begun to mention the warmth that passed between those of us who had previously only met iSL or the smells, sounds and much needed breeze that met me on the River Walk. I had a damn good time.

Lesson for an Instructor - Class 4

2008-06-20T23:24:00.005-04:00

Wow this class had much to offer - especially for me.

Don't hesitate to tell a guest presenter when they are getting off track (or in this case hadn't yet gotten on track). Today's presenter seemed to have forgotten who is audience was. The presentation begun was not that which we had agreed to. The audience was forgiving, the instructor (me) was direct, the speaker was flexible. After a few moments of panic I suggested we move right to questions. The ensuing discussion was highly interesting and productive.
Torley video's are great, put are not necessarily for beginners. After class Rosalita helped me do a run through, watching the Torely vid only as an overview of the project. We followed that with a step by step voice instruction by me.
Room/furniture layout doesn't really matter in a virtual world. Expecting today's presentation to be held on another island, I had left the classroom meeting space free of furniture. Change of venue, the presentation would occur where we were milling about. To settle-in students began to set out chairs of different styles from their inventory, some rezzed boxes to sit on, some rotated their seats along an unexpected axis so that their avatar was cocked at an unorthodox angle to the virtual floor. All faced in different directions. Some with their backs to the speaker. We were a motley crew. Yet all cameras were fixed on our speaker, all ears were listening - as was clear from the questions. In a virtual world you do not need to sit in rows and turn your avatar to face the speaker. But my goodness it can be confusing to an on-looker.

My First Look at RP

2008-06-16T20:58:00.005-04:00

There are so many things that have been introduced to me in Second Life. And so often I have started out thinking "I just don't get that." One of those things is role playing (RP). At first I just did not get it! But I am starting to, and even drawn to it.

To me role playing had two connotations before my SL began. Both were yucky. 1. Sex games that involve women in demeaning dress up - scantily clad nurses or housekeepers, 2. Embarrassing activities in college, in which unlucky students make fools of themselves in an effort to demonstrate the instructor's elusive point.

While I was intrigued by the phenomenon of Dungeons and Dragons, I never played it, and could not really even imagine it. I have never acted in a play, never enjoyed participating in skits (because of afore mentioned embarrassing college classes), never required my students to act out social skills (for same reason), never took a course in clowning or improv, or tap dance (at least not since I was 6). While I write a lot, I never have felt I could write creatively, with characters and dialog and scenes and imagined conflict and resolution. I never dress up on Halloween.

But I love to read fiction. I enjoy a good series - in which I can follow the life of a person through a variety of adventures. I can immerse myself in fantasy and science fiction, can imagine being a member of the crew, the love interest, the tortured protagonist.

Aren't all of these part of the same phenomenon. Don't we all have ways in which we enjoy leaving the grind of day to day life behind and become someone else, the protagonist in our own screenplay?

In Second Life I am role playing all the time. Esme is my protagonist. Her costume changes are arranged not in her wardrobe but (strewn about) in her inventory. She plays the welcoming docent at ISTE headquarters on Tuesdays, she is the cheerful tour guide on Sundays. Every other Saturday she is the wise teacher. And at the times in between she is the bold adventurer, traveling solo to foreign lands, talking to the strange natives.

How is this different from librarians and Shakespearean scholars who dress in period clothes and speak middle English on Renaissance Island, or the romantics who court at Avillion, or the waring gangs that gather on street corners in Toxian City.

The people I have met in RP sims have not been sick or creepy. They have been interesting and usually kind. Whether toting a scroll, an healing potion or a deadly sword, each is simply writing her own novel, playing dress-up, clowning around, having fun, immersing herself in something that will free her, however fleetingly from the stuff of everyday. And it looks like fun.

Virtual Web Quest - It's a SLeb Quest!

2008-06-01T23:12:00.004-04:00

Here's the SLeb Quest (I hope I just coined that).

The Task
You are journalists on assignment. Your editor (me) was to have a brief - containing the goals of your assignment and some background info - waiting for you at the airport. It did not arrive. Your team is made up of a project manager, a communicator/fact finder, a photographer and a writer. There is a story to write, but you don't know what it is. As a group you must determine how to divvy up responsibilities. You only have 10 minutes in each location...

Project Manager - Keep track of your team, the assignment and the time. Your job is to make sure the work gets done.

Communicator/fact finder - find people and ask questions. If no one is around or info is unreliable see if you can find out anything by searching google (name of island and "second life" as keywords)

Writer - create a notecard and record what the team learns about each sim. It doesn't need to be good writing, just clear enough for others and me to make sense of. The note card should contain the first name of each member of your team.

Photographer - take photos of the environs, something special about the place, something to show others about this sim, your colleagues in action...

Try to find out what is unique about the place, does it have any educational potential, why do you think I sent you here?

Week 5, In-World Class 3

2008-06-01T18:42:00.008-04:00

As we gather for the third time as a full group there is excitement in the virtual air - at least I imagine there is :-). Pamet and Drew have transformed themselves. Later Tiernan reveals that he has identity tricks up his sleeves as well. Others have adjusted hair, changed clothes... Though I have resisted the temptation to change my look for many months, I am drawn into the past weeks discussions and am myself donning a new outfit. Hair and "question reality" button remain so that I am easily recognizable from a distance.

I always pack too much into the agenda. Hour 1: SL version of a webquest. Hour 2: Teen SL with a guest speaker. Hour 3: debrief/sharing from first hour and building basics. Everyone was prepared with voice - just a few hiccups of screeching mics. Still it took us half an hour to get going... onto my agenda. The time was well spent. We are still getting to know each other, people have questions. And given voice I talk, perhaps too much.

The groups did not take off immediately to the first location on their quest, as I had envisioned. I would have traveled first and divvied up assignments once there. But most groups gathered first and made a game plan. I liked it - first because it is a sharp reminder that people have different ways of doing things. Second I had the opportunity to observe some of the process. This was only the second time the class members have worked in small groups, and signs of leadership and trust were apparent in all.

The pressure of our speakers arrival at the second hour left little time for the groups to travel to several educationally related sims. The world of Second Life is vast - with much worth looking at. I hope the brief visits were intriguing and will lead students to go back and explore the same or other sims on the activity note card.

In spite of the rush groups made brief visits to the International Spaceflight Museum, Reflexive Architecture, the Healing Pool, NOAA, Virtual Starry Night, Sistine Chapel, Dante's Inferno, Renaissance Island, Ivory Tower Library of Prim, Camp Darfur. TelRport was not what I had told that group to expect Dr. Danforth where is your testis?!

Selected sites that I don't think were gotten to include the towers at International Schools, Svarga, College of Scripting, Paris 1900, Info International, Greenies and Slolar.

Flexibility in teaching is an important skill. When adding the component of technology the need for flexibility increases exponentially. Our guest speaker did not arrive and my over planning and generally calm demeanor (ok don't talk to my husband about that) came in handy. We debriefed as a group and got spend a decent amount of time on the basics of prims, textures and uploading images to the texture folder.

As I reflect on what I'm doing I remind myself that there is not time to offer people comprehensive training in any aspect of Second Life. The emphasis must be on the potential for teaching and learning and not on specific advanced skills in communication, building, scripting... I offer an introduction to various aspects of virtual existence and encourage students to explore more during the intervening weeks. Once one knows that something can be done, s/he can take one of dozens of free classes offered daily in SL.

Through the instruction I provide in the basics of SL I hope that I am not only exposing students to some of the media available, but also modeling teaching techniques for maximizing the opportunities and minimizing the obstacles of the 3D classroom.

A Brush with Identity

2008-05-19T19:55:00.003-04:00

This 2 week session of TandLinVW has the focus of avatar identity. For me this is a key issue in SL. My avatar, Esme has transformed over the year that she has existed. She is young and casually elegant. Her personality is strong, direct, funny, kind, and at ease in unfamiliar situations. And she has made me just a little bit like her. Because of her adventurous nature, she meets many people. I meet many people, and delight at variety of personalities and interests that I find in SL.

Today I had the pleasure to meet a young, generous, quirky, extremely bright, furry. I can't say that I know _much_ about furrys. I know that furrys dress as cartoonish animals and many enjoy cartoonish animal art. (Esme once donned a furry avatar and received a tour of some furry haunts and was only slightly startled to observe furry sex animations.) I did not for instance know that some furrys opt for dominant submissive relationships. I was told today that unlike goreans, furrys are never slaves. My new friend is his master's pet. While he did not want to confuse his furry identity with the work relationship we were establishing, and therefore did not speak at length, he is apparently a furry lifestyler.

Until a year ago, I knew nothing of some of the subcultures that can be found in SL. Some might be fearful or repelled by the prospect of meeting people with such unfamiliar lifestyles and mores. To me it is the wonder of SL. I am safe here. I don't need the protection of my family, neighborhood, social class or ethnic group. I can travel freely among people from different nations, with varied abilities and disabilities, with opposing and similar political views, with lifestyles that I find intriguing, curious or even repellent. None of the obstacles that usually protect me from variety exist. And what I most often find is people who are engaging and helpful and open and curious just like me.

What does it mean to explore an identity in SL? Am I role playing the more confident persona of Esme? Can I learn from this practice to be more like Esme? Am I a voyeur or a participant in an exciting social experiment? As an educator should I steer clear of those who thumb their whiskered noses at the dominant culture? Can I use SL to help my students explore hidden potential within themselves? What is the potential for teens to "find themselves" in the safety of a world that offers Control-Q - the ultimate answer to unsafe situations?

Voice - How Do I Hate Thee

2008-05-18T23:03:00.003-04:00

I like to talk as much as the next person. But iSL I prefer to text. Prefer is not strong enough... I dread and loath voice. Dread and loath too strong? Maybe. Here are some of the reasons that I prefer text to voice:

I don't get the "social cues" that people give with just voice. I feel like my voice is just going off into the void. With text, we use a whole different set of social cues to convey attention, interest, appreciation, doubt. With text you have to be direct to convey those states. I like being direct.
I like the anonymity of sl. I enjoy imagining who a person is based wholly on the content of their words, not on their looks, age, weight, ethnicity, accent, voice. While almost everyone has a nice avatar, not everyone has a nice voice. Hearing a person's voice is usually disappointing.
Text is a communication equalizer. Sure, some people are at the disadvantage of not being efficient typists. But there is no urgency with text. When you get it out, it will be "heard." Text users expect comments to occur out of order. Voice demands speed and aggression. Only those who are aggressive get to speak, and those who are slow to process their ideas give up when the conversation has switched directions.
I am more thoughtful about what I write than what I say. I can edit as I go. Because I am not alone in this, text conversations seem to have more meat (or tofu if you prefer).
In SL there are just so many technical complications. We don't all have equal equipment, connections and don't all understand the intricacies of the audio settings. Getting people to toggle mics on and off, control the volume of individual speakers and making it work well is a hassle of questionable worth.

So are these "reasons" rational or psychiatric? I also avoid talking on the phone.

Day Two

2008-05-18T13:18:00.005-04:00

Well so much for my deeply thought out plans. Today did not go as well as I had hoped. Technical difficulties, less than perfect plans, unreasonable expectations, slow start and I became flustered. Oh and did I mention that I hate voice.

I decided to introduce voice in this class primarily because I believe that most people like it. Maybe if I can botch it up enough I can change minds (mwuhahaha). I intended to introduce it today and use it initially as a means to convey short bits of information. The idea being that auditory messages from me might rise above the visual over stimulation. I want text to continue be the primary way we exchange ideas with each other in class. 40 Minutes into the first hour and we finally have everyone able to hear me and all other mics turned off. (Several people still don't have earbuds or headsets.)

We started a self paced exploration on changing one's avatar's appearance. Students will be able to return to the island and complete the three stations for 1. saving an avatar and outfit; 2. changing the many perameters of physique and facial features; and 3. creating a new article of clothing. For new members of SL, appearance doesn't seem that important. As time goes on people begin to see that it matters how they present themselves. The choices they make will be highly individual and will likely change overtime. During the next several weeks I hope to promote discussion about avatar identity and presentation. We will read articles about identity, anonymity and some research that is being done about how one's SL identity can affect one's RL identity (weight loss, healthy behavior, confidence...).

Today we made our first foray into the practices of teaching in SL, besides my demonstrations of what works and doesn't (lol) to teach people basic sl tools. We visited with Clowey Greenwood at Biome Island. In addition to exploring some impressive, outsized builds of a drop of pond water on a microscope, and a soda bottle closed eco system, we met with Clowey and asked about her experiences teaching in SL.

We also got to try out the Likert voting floor described in the first post. Now that the basics have been covered the focus will turn to teaching techniques, tools and content.

As I reflect on today several things surface as important. 1. While I will experiment again with voice, it will be okay if I decide that it is not for me. Students will have opportunities to use it themselves and go to other edu events using it. 2. Each class should start off with a tour or virtually physical activity 3. Clowey's use of the class materials box could be useful. Then those who need to know what the schedule is can refer to the one they received. LMs to be used for the day will be there... 4. I have a great group of students that can help each other. I can relax and not try to convey _every_ possible thing each student might need to know.

Day One

2008-05-03T18:07:00.003-04:00

The much anticipated - by me :-) -first, in-world meeting of my class occurred today.

Until a week ago I had no idea if there would be enough students to hold the class. My department head told me she knew of at least one student who had definitely registered. With that information I went to the registrar, "Oh no, you have plenty," she assured. She got back to me with a number about a week ago. Twelve students were signed up., my ideal class size for a real world grad course. Let's see how it turns out in-world.

Well we were 19! Fifteen enrolled students, a guest, my assistant and a colleague who was there to document the event via machinima.

I anticipated a much more chaotic start. But everyone arrived at the island, on their own, within the first 5 minutes of the start of class. Sure it was chaotic - 19 people not sure what do with themselves, at least 10 not sure how to move or talk. Very exciting.

I greeted people and announced that the schedule and intent of the day were posted on large signs. The first activity was a scavenger hunt - an introductory lesson to moving, talking and other basic skills. It is hard to know where to look when you are new and many missed my text based greetings and directions. So these were repeated several times. The three hour period was divided into three periods with breaks between. The second involved meeting for intros and group activities in the island's sandbox. The final session was set aside for touring of other Second Life sims.

Scene and task: Marlboro College Graduate Center is a largely undeveloped but beautifully formed island with a central mountain range and river dividing the island roughly in half. Nine glowing flags were placed around the island at increasingly distant and more difficult to navigate locations. At the base of each flag is a notecard giving box. When the box is touch a notecard opens with step by step instructions on how to use a basic feature of sl and gives a task to complete.

Of course there is a glitch. Seven of the nine boxes do not give out their notecards. But the fix is remarkably quick and before most people noticed the box scripts are repaired.

This leaves only the awkwardness and discomfort of people in a foreign land - many not really knowing what is expected of them and fearing that they will do something wrong, get lost, or something unfathomably worse. I am not sure everyone liked it, but they all did fine. As a teacher, I struggle with the balance between throwing students in the deep end and giving them flotation devices that might ultimately cripple their independence. While I hope I don't come off as merciless, I am more likely to throw than buoy.

We gather in the sandbox just before dawn. Only a few people need to be rescued. All are unscathed. Time to practice sitting, standing, texting in a round robin introduction. One of the things about SL that takes some getting used to is that communication is vastly different. I personally think that it is easier to communicate iSL than iRL. But that is never apparent at first (and to some is probably never true). Text communication can be significantly slower than voice - though in large groups it doesn't need to be. There is the to-be-expected long pause between each "speaker" as, people who don't yet know they can prepare their speech in advance, type what they want to say. Then there is the business of standing up and knowing whose turn it is to speak, and all the tabs on the communication window, and the distraction of the sun rise and the sparkle of someone's bling. All so much to take in when you are only 3 days old in SL.

Next activity involves the so important skill of circling up. In SL whenever a new person enters an existing pair or group, the social convention is to reform the circle to include the new member. And groups gather often in sl. We stumble and bump and good humor is exchanged. Beyond circling up, friending is the goal. A teachable opportunity to use the camera controls to face the rising sun is added.

I distribute LMs and we are off to International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) Island headquarters. ISTE is one of the best places I know of to meet educators. There is often a docent on duty, making it a great place to stop by and chat with an experienced SLer and educator. Docents sometimes have a following, so it is not uncommon to arrive and join a stimulating conversation about technology and education (or perhaps sl shopping). ISTE is only the third place in SL to which some students have been, with Orientation Island and Marlboro Grad Center being the first two. Upon arrival there is some confusion as students attempt to talk with the docent on duty. They are in group chat and the docent cannot "hear" them. We fly to the campfires on the beach and enjoy the ocean dolphins and the seating arrangements around and _in_ the campfire, while I tell of events that occur on the island. Our guest happens to be from Cork Ireland iRL. A quick change in my plans and a dip into my extensive tour inventory and we are off to Cork Ireland iSL. A quick look about at the heathered landscape and shop lined cityscape and the class is over.

I am exhausted but pleased. In one session I saw terror turn to achievement, boredom turn to curiosity. Not _everyone_ had a great time, but I think we are off to a great start. It seems like a nice group who will work together. Experienced people supported the inexperienced. Lots of good questions were asked. Everyone tried everything. What more can I ask for.

A rest is in order. Then I must think deeply about how best to build on today's experiences. - Esme

What makes for a good learning environment

2008-03-09T21:50:00.003-04:00

The first weekend of May, I begin teaching a fully on-line course called Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds. On alternate weeks the class will meet synchronously in Second Life. In between we will work together asynchronously in the course management system Moodle. The course is a 13 week, 3 credit, graduate level, education course offered by Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. I anticipate my students will come from all over Vermont and hope some come from other parts of the US. (Wouldn't it be great if we got a couple people from overseas?)

So as I make my preparations, I ask the question what makes for a good learning environment.

For a distance course, we have a nice blend of the asynchronous and the synchronous - at least that is the hope. Through moodle activities we will use writing for that deep reflection and discussion that occurs in online forums. Through SL we will have opportunities to meet, get to know, work together in real time.

We will have a chance to explore if virtual presence has an impact on student satisfaction in an otherwise distance course.

Virtual Classroom Space
Sure I will use the occasional slide show. Though I hate voice, I will use it to give instructions to my students at least at the outset. But I refuse to turn second life into a traditional classroom. It is more than a replacement for the bricks and mortar classroom. It offers the potential for things not doable in a traditional classroom. But what?

Just for fun I made a set of 1940s attached bench/desks. We will play at me standing at the blackboard. But this is just my twisted self pushing on our tendency to replicate Real Life in Second Life.

Next in the works is a spaceship command center, where we will take turns being in control.

With my building buddy Entropy Hax, I have created two voting floors. What you ask? Early on I want my students moving their avatars through virtual space, interacting with others. The idea is I ask a series of questions. Avatars move to the segment of the floor that fits their response. The first one is a Likert scale. The floor is divided into 5 sections each corresponding to one of the following: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree. The second is a three-circle Venn diagram. Responses will lead avatars to one of the circles or their overlapping segments. A yet to be created set of cushions will be used to stand and sit for yes/no questions. I haven't mentioned the content of the questions, or what we will do with the information. My point is that I want to explore how virtual action contributes to learning. Initially we will be using these activities among other things to get to know each other and to practice basic movements.