Second Life Presentation

Interesting Factoids

• About SecondLife
• 125 schools, colleges, and universities have used Second Life°
• Over one million real American crisp and shiny dollars are spent every day by the over ten million residents in Second Life.(http://www.finextra.com/community/fullblog.aspx?id=660)
• Symantec warned authorities with the possibility of criminals using online games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life for money laundering purposes.
• 10$/month leases you a small piece of land to create stuff

Applications to Education

• Advantages over standard distance education°
• "create a sense of class community — something that develops fairly naturally in a face-to-face class" -Rebecca Nesson
• English Language learners can take their time to read and type discussions
• Less likelihood of having people dominate the discussion
• Easier for less outgoing people to contribute
  
• Being able to do reconstructions of real places and times
• Sistine Chapel at Vassar Island in 2ndlife
• http://www.sloodle.org/
  
• virtual reality moodle!
  
  

Online Gaming

• America's Army
• America's Army (also known as AA or Army Game Project) is a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter owned by the United States Government and released as a global public relations initiative to help with U.S. Army recruitment.
• Chris Chambers, the deputy director of development for America's Army, admits it is a recruitment tool,^[16] and "the Army readily admits [America's Army] is a propaganda device," wrote Chris Morris, a CNN/Money columnist and director of content development.^[17]
• Social Aspects
• "Many MM ORPG gamers play with a romantic partner or a family member. About 16% of male players and 60% of female players play with a romantic partner, and about 25% of male players and 40% of female players play with a family member."
• "About 40% of players feel that their online friends are comparable or even better than their real life friends"
• "People are more willing to talk about personal issues when they can maintain their anonymity, and about 30% of MMORPG players have told personal issues or secrets to online friends that they have never told anyone else. These environments also encourage people to form trusting bonds with each other by repeatedly placing players in spontaneous and stressful crises that require players to work together in order to survive. And most importantly, players are pre-selected to be compatible with each other because MMORPGs are a very specific form of entertainment. People who enjoy gradual advancement in a fantasy world where they take on roles as ogres and elves are not a random slice of the population."
• Status Reversal
• Young people are more likely to take leadership roles than older people in MMORPGs. In fact, the younger age groups are the most active in 'leadership roles' in the online gaming community (under 25)
  
• Ender's Game - Orson Scott CArd
• Plays virtual reality interactive games on his computer to learn military theory
• Brother and Sister use the Web (net) and act like to rival political wonks to basically take over the Earth government
• Instanced Encounters in MMORPGs can take up to 20 minutes long and require near flawless execution of 40 players working cooperatively
  

Places to Learn about Education in SL

• Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Library on Info Island
  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/50/199/33/?title=Info%20Island

°http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/5122
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_critiques.html
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Top_20_Educational_Locations_in_Second_Life

2nd life

WOW! and Daedalus project!

Education in a Flattened World

The book The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman poses a lot of things to think about for the upcoming American generation. In his book, he emphasizes how technological forces are reshaping economies. It got me to thinking, how do his 10 flattener's, and his 3 convergences relate to the field of education?

For some time now, I've felt that our public school system is stuck in a deep rut. In fact, our society as a whole has not adopted the concept of what the world is becoming. To some extent we adopt the devices and conveniences of the flat world, but when confronted with the world wide developments I feel that most Americans prefer to either gripe or close their eyes.

For example, as we embrace the cheap prices at Walmart, we also mock the off shoring of call centers and manufacturing moving to China. Our schools would rather ban electronic devices for fears of cheating or distraction, rather than embrace the educational potential of these devices.

Although the human interaction of school is vital to student development, I can't help but feel the 32 student classroom and lecture followed by text book homework is hurting our education system. With information being so easy to mine, why are we still testing on meaningless facts, dates, and hundreds of abstract formulas and letting the concepts hopefully fit into the cracks left?

What do we tell our kids?

Something educators need to consider is that we are as much a part of the destiny of America as corporations. In a flat world, educators must "reach for a shovel and dig inside ourselves", we can't afford to build walls and try to protect old ways that make no sense. As time passes, what we teach is less important than how we teach it - what experiences we are bringing to our students. Friedman states that the small need to act big; it is every teachers job to be the 'value add' to our curriculum and teach our students to be the innovative thinkers that will propel them to success in the new America.

Story in 5 Frames

frame 1
Originally uploaded by majornoyes

Story in 5 Frames - link to flickr

Picasso Myth

Project management

Concrete begin middle and end within a defined time frame

Defined sets of tasks
Defined time frame
Defined milestones

Grease-Glue-Ring leader

"everyone is jumping through the right hoops at the right time and not getting burned"

"Scope-creep"
- the bane of the self employed and my downfall as an independent designer!

Money is a big issue for many people in the world

(Good) communication is the most important thing in the process of project management

Key Stakeholders ->
Person who signs the check
Person who certifies that the job is done

Needs Assessment ->
What needs to be done (not necessarily what the client may think or ask for initially)
'Change management training' - often the solution is a change in processes at the company or incentives rather than training

Statement of Work ->