I really enjoyed this article on many levels. First of all I truly appreciate an insight into the theories behind gaming in general as well as educational gaming. Lateral thinking of withered technology is genius! I had never hear of this before (not surprising because I know nothing!). We have done this type of technology use in the classroom in Keller (KMI@TMI, GPS Units, etc.). But, I truly believe they would have been more successful with the 5 principals of a “mature” technology. While the 5 questions were asked at some point during these projects, they were never grouped together for focus. I believe we missed some truly good answers to our project questions by not having this focus.

My other “Aha” moment was the “synthesizing” rules that games are comprised of. These four rules could also outline lessons that include little or no technology. Educational speaking the four rules could apply in this phrase: “Fun lesson must have quantifiable outcomes (learning) that are gained through true to life play.”

Finally, I do appreciate the fact that video games do cost $10-20 million to produce. I believe that video game manufactures and programers/designers should “give back” some brain cells to our students (and me) by helping public education via their “withered” technologies.

As an addendum to your blog this week, I would like you to think about the following based on your two sessions in Second Life this week and last:

Physical
At the end of the session, how did you feel physically?

My vision is skewed at first, tired, and yet over stimulated.

How long did it take for you to fall asleep after?

one hour longer than normal

How did you feel the next morning?

Fine.

Mental/cognitive/affective
At the end of the session, how did you feel mentally?

Over stimulated and a bit dazed.

How did working in SL make you feel affectively while you were in there? Engaged? Bored? Tired? Frustrated? When you completed the evening, how did you feel about it? Did you reflect or just stay with whatever emotion you left with?

I felt bored and frustrated with the other users issues (internet drop, confusion, etc.)

Cognitively, how much load was on you at any given time? Where did this load come from? Audio, video, text, activities, processing your physical virtual place in the space, navigating, other?

I felt over loaded with text as well as the spoken word happening at the same time.

Transfer. How much of what you learned do you think would transfer to the real world? Why?

I feel that I would be able to relate to surroundings better in the real world because it is real!

Instruction from the student perspective

Time. As a student, you all spent about 4 hours over two weeks working in SL. Was the time invested worth it in terms of what you learned content-wise? Was it worth it in terms of what you learned about SL from the perspective of its limitations and affordances, instructor and student issues, and general challenges of DL (which are usually the same regardless of whether it is 3-D or not?)

My most exciting moment in SL was discovering the “true” uses of SL and issues that might arise in an educational setting.  Naked people, bad language, addiction to game/social aspects, and unfocused use are just a few concerns I have with the program.  I feel that the time was well spent to discover how users work on SL.

Communication tools. I also felt that, as students, one or more people wanted me to use a couple SL communication tools (i.e. VoiP) that I was avoiding based on my own contextual restrictions as well as my own instructional need to have the class focus on the one best supported by SL (text) for this period. However, there was a level of frustration, that I’m not sure if it came from a personal student preference (perhaps based on Gardner’s learning style or just an efficiency of communication perspective.) In a DL space that takes hours to plan, is it possible to meet every student preference or personal requirement? Should we be?

The only issue I see with trying to meet every students learning styles is that it can cognitively overload the entire class with information from text, voice, and video.

What other challenges did you face when trying to learn in the space that may have interfered with understanding or your ability to complete tasks in the SL space?

I was very distracted by the gaming aspect of SL.  The 3D world made me want to jet around and play, I have a hard time stoping to watch a video or read a sign.

As an instructor yourself, how would you overcome this? Several mentioned last night that they pretty much would only use SL if they had a gun to their head. Are there appropriate times and places for using SL as a tool rather than as a course delivery mechanism?

I would use it as a tool to provide students an opportunity to experience parts of the world that they would other wise not have the opportunity to experience.  SL would be a good tool to build background knowledge to deepen the learning taking place FTF.

Visual/spatial tools. As an instructor, I saw some interesting visual/spatial tools in the spaces (the physics simulation aspects of the Star Trek sim) as well as some that were completely wasted (the constant use of text-based note cards in both places; the Toxtown being basically non-interactive, lacking in narrative).

Is there a way to design these places to truly be immersive and communicate what we want to communicate or is it just too time consuming? From a design perspective, if these spaces were highly interactive and reusable, would the time/cost investment be worth it in terms of learning?

Yes!  I am not fully aware of the limitations of SL but would imagine if there was a way for the user to actually do the cleaning up of Toxtown or see it as a mirror image clean and dirty the experience would be far more emmersive.  Same thing with the Star Trek island, the avatars for permanat characters were very lame note cards everywhere lame.  Although I do understand that in SL what I see on my comp is not truly what everyone else sees, based off of resolution, processcor, connection, and graphics capatbilities.

Lesson planning. I also looked for good online lesson plans for SL that I could just use with you to give examples, but found very few if any. Most were not really lesson plans with objectives, just lists of activities and some general outcome idea with no assessment or learning evaluation component. Why do you think that is?

Because it is hard to evaluate the experience in second life, it is artificial.

Sustainability of SL
I posted a link to an article about the perceived sustainability of SL as a tool in the Moodle. Given that SL has existed since 2003 and is a fairly mature technology, do you think it is sustainable for education? If so, how? If not, why not?

SL will sustain because of the social aspect.  I meet a few people when surfing last week that spend 24 hours on line at a time!  That is addiction.  I also posted another blog about the article here.

Doc posted: An article from last fall about the future of SL:
http://www.pixelsandpolicy.com/pixels_and_policy/2009/10/media-doubts-sl.html

Interesting article, but even better is the response from a reader! Look down towards the bottom of the page and read the post by Dusan Writer, damn. She rips that article up. Also went to Dusan’s page and like this youtube video.

Slurls:

1. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bobcat%20Village/128/128/20
2. http://slurl.com/secondlife/NASA%20eEducation/128/128/28

1. Bobcat Village, in Second Life (SL), is a campus tour of Texas State University. Other universities offer this virtual experience, but I found this one particularly nice. The island is very well built (from my experience) and you can set up “tours” of the campus. They also provide a YouTube tutorial to help perspective students.

On this island I experienced three of the four parts of LTCA Theory: Strategic, Normative, and Dramaturgical. Constantive communication might have occurred for me if I would have scheduled an appointment for a tour. Strategic communication occurred for me every time I read a sign or followed directions that SL/island gave me. The environment of SL provides the user with the normative communication so that he/she understands what is acceptable and possible in on the island. Of course second life would not be successful if it was not for the Dramaturgical aspect of the communication experience.

The 3D experience allows users to explore what Texas State University has to offer without the obligation to commit to anything else. I enjoyed the well thought design and how the different environments complimented each other.

2. NASA eEducation is one of the most exciting revelations for me in SL. After our last class experience in SL I found the program to be pointless for education. NASA changed that for me. Exploring the island was like stepping into a museum of vehicles, pictures, and text. I enjoyed exploring the different exhibits and reading about the history of various projects. This experienced allowed my “new” eyes to explore SL in a new way. I began looking for islands that provided students with experiences that would not normally have been afforded them (titanic, solar system, Eco-systems, etc.). Opening up students world to a larger perspective is the greatest aspect of SL in the classroom (that is right, classroom).

I experienced LTCA Theory in full at the NASA eEducation island. While I was there I spoke with other individuals that shared their ideas of second life. Most were there for recreation and spent and average of 20 hours a day on SL (their words). Which brings on the concerns of the artifical environment and escaping reality.

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SL Class experience:

As a distance learning tool I thought Second Life (SL) sucked! Sorry to be so straight forward but I have no other way to express it . As I explored SL this last week I found that it would be very cool to use SL in the classroom with students or even for students. Using SL can allow students to see and experience other places, times, events in a more immersive way than a text book or picture. The world is interactive (good and bad) which allows for students to live it rather than imagine living it. Again issues for me are the adult content that is not blocked, the way the user feels as if they are playing a game (addication), and technical difficulties.

Tapped in

Activity One
Favorite parts of Tapped In:

1. So easy to set up!
2. Transcripts of all chats
3. for K-12 classroom seems very sheltered and “clean”

Activity Two
Compared to other websites Tapped In (TI) is very bleak as far as eye appeal.  The website does not take full advantage of web 2.0.  With this being said, it is the easy website I have every worked with to set up a class.  Teachers, especially veteran teachers, would be attracted to this website.  Students on the other hand would find it out dated and bulky.  By bulky I mean not sleek and smooth like a flash based website or website that takes advantage of web 2.0 features (i.e. inline color chaning, or object interaction).  The other disadvantage to TI is that there is not really a way to integrate media heavy content only links.  I find that this is a great disadvantage to other sites that students frequent.

Activity Three
I would use TI as a way to promote 24 hour learning or even for tutorials.  I shared this with a fellow teacher this past week as a great tutorial tool.  Students must have a computer and internet access, but both technologies can be outdated and still work with the website.  The only planning teachers must do to use TI as a tutor is to set up student accounts before tutoring sessions.  The teacher I spoke with was excited and wanted to see more.