September 5, 2011
8am disaster, 9am Salvation – an hour in Massively Minecraft
Dean Groom,
Desighn for Learning, September 5, 2011.
This is a great story of authentic learning in an immersive game. "Netball Star is on Skype, having a melt-down. Every time she logs into Massively Minecraft, lava kills her. The other kids mount a rescue – frantic voices in Skype fill the house." As the crisis unfolds they solve the lava issue and rebuild the destroyed property. You might ask, what lessons were learned here? Perhaps something practical about not building your house next to a lava waterfall ("lava can be somewhat difficult to manage") but more important, in my mind, skills related to disaster management, communicating and working together in a crisis. And the adults, interestingly, have learned over time to step back and let the drama unfold. "Our parents accept drama is a learning thing and have sort of formed a circle around it. They don’t freak out when the kids do."
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Audio Chat and Conferencing, Adult Learning]
ALT-C Blogs
Various Authors,
Website, September 5, 2011.
Get the ALT-C blogs all in one place with the ALT-C bundle. I subscribed in Google Reader. See also Details for on-line attendance available here.
Aplha Launch! Cloud Learning Environment, here it is
Manish Malik,
Website, September 5, 2011.
Just arrived in my email, notice of the alpha launch of this cloud learning application. Manish Malik wrote, "perhaps you could use my CLE for collecting responses via email to question you want to ask your participants?" Too late to try for today, but tomorrow is another day (and another presentation).
Not ‘Natives’ & ‘Immigrants’ but ‘Visitors’ & ‘Residents’
David White,
, September 3, 2011.
I think there is a community-type analogy for internet use that would work pretty well, and this one is probably better than 'immigrants and natives': "our students appropriation of online services did not seem to follow a simple pattern based on skill level. It seemed to depend on if they saw the web as a ‘place to live’ or as a collection of useful tools. This underlying motivation led us to outline two main categories of distance learning student: ... residents and visitors." Yeah I know this post is old, but it's being discussed on iDC right now. And there's a slightly more recent video presentation of the concept.
Full Interview: Cathy N. Davidson on Evolving Education
Various Authors,
CBC, September 3, 2011.
Full half-hour interview on Canadian public broadcaster CBC with Duke University professor Cathy N. Davidson. According to the interview page, "She believes that how we learn is a relic of 19th century values, and if it has any chance at relevancy, must embrace aspects of our digital lives that are normally shunned by scholars – technology, collaboration, and yes, even distraction." I'm wondering whether CBC was unable to find any Canadians who hold these views, or whether they're just part of the publicity mill for Davidson's new book Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn. Yeah, the latter. That doesn't mean that the interview isn't worth a listen.
Open, online course: Educational technology for school leaders
Jon Becker,
Educational Insanity, September 1, 2011.
I guess we need to be clear about what we mean by "open". As in, not this: "Including fees, tuition for the 3-credit course for VA residents is $1,119. For those outside of VA, the tuition is $2,727." Look, if you're going to require people to take out a mortgage to take the course, don't call it "open".
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Traditional and Online Courses, Tuition and Student Fees]
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