This week I attended and presented at the Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Below are some of my take-aways from the Conference.
Educators Range of Use
I had a great conversation with Chris Longe after the banquet about professional development. She gave me permission to quote her, "Some teachers are really pushing the envelope on a lot of the Web 2.0 technologies being presented here, while others are still trying to find the mailbox". This really fit well with the Coaching Educators’ Use of Information & Technology session I presented on an EETT grant I'm evaluating. I think administrators are key in helping educators move ahead with technology. I think that administrators need a couple of tools in their toolbox to help teachers move forward with technology. (1) They need to have buy-in and a belief that technology is important for their students (2) they need to be able to recognize what effective teaching practices with the use of technology are and (3) they need a variety of coaching strategies to deal with the large continuum of teacher comfort levels with technology.
Web 2.0 Conference Strategy
This year's WEMTA conference was filled with Web 2.0 tools and the word "collaboration" was everywhere. Diane Dorsh, in charge of technology for the Neenah Joint School District, shared with me a strategy that she uses with her colleagues when going to a conference. They start a wiki and everyone who goes to the conference contributes to it. That way it can be shared with everyone in their district. What a great use of a Web 2.0 tool!
Adventures on Second Life
Another presentation I did was on Second Life. A lot of educators ask me how Second Life can be used in education. I chose to share a couple of videos to help the audience better understand the potential that virtual worlds provides.
The first video I shared was a video that gives a nice overview of the power of using Second Life as a simulated environment.
I also shared two videos of the Pacific Rim/ Project. One of the things that I challenged the audience to think about while watching these videos was what ISTE NETS Standards, AASL Standards, 21st Century Skills, and Content Skills this project would cover. When you think about this project from this perspective it is truly amazing how deep this project is!
Part 1:
Part 2:
After showing the videos one person made the comment that she was glad that I showed this because she always had sort of creepy idea of what Second Life was and this really helped to see how it could be used in education.
Next, we met Michelle Kowalsky virtually in Second Life. Michelle is Michelle is a professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey and teaches school library media specialists. She recently finished her dissertation in which she studied communication patterns among librarians in Second Life.
The audience found it humorous because I couldn't always keep up with Michelle and my avatar was a little slower and more clumsy than her. Some people came up to me after the presentation and said that it was nice to see me struggle and that they were having trouble or feeling frustrated learning how to move and interact in Second Life. I think part of that is because we as adults don't like to be unsuccessful at something, but failing is a part of learning and important part of learning and we've forgot what it feels like to learn something unfamiliar and new.
We suggested that you go to ISTE's second life island if you are a newbe educator in Second Life. Another person asked where you can find other schools on second life- http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL
Showing posts with label Second Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Second Life. Show all posts
Mar 25, 2009
Sep 28, 2008
Multiple Communication Streams
Typically one week a month I fly from California to Wisconsin to meet with our consultants and clients. This week was one of those weeks. One of the things that really stood out this week was the whole concept of communication and all of the multiple forms in which it can occur and how new advances in technology can facilitate this.
On Tuesday, I did a video conference for school principals on how to collect walk-through data in their schools on how technology is being used to enhance teaching and learning. We used Mediasite to stream the meeting to multiple sites. Participants were able to see me on one part of the screen and what was on my screen (i.e. PowerPoints, documents) on the other side. Mediasite also allows you to achieve the meeting, which is nice for administrators who couldn't make the meeting or want to review how to score the walk-through data. Because the other sites did not have microphones, in order to encourage two-way communication we used skype both for voice and for chat. Skype allowed me to keep tabs on how each of the sites was doing, answer participant questions, and keep it interactive.
On Wednesday, I did a presentation for the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) E-Learning SIG Meeting on how Second Life is being used for training in organizations. As part of the presentation, I had a panel of speakers who from different parts of the country who joined me in Second Life to interact with the audience and answer questions. We were able to use the Voice over IP capabilities in Second Life as well as their real time chat feature. I believe that technologies such as Mediasite, Skype and Second Life are going to hit a tipping point in education and the workplace in the next five years because they allow people to cross time and space and meet together.
Some of the participants of the Second Life session invited me to attend the Art of ASL Festival (American Sign Language (ASL) at the Milwaukee Art Museum yesterday. I learned a lot about ASL and new technologies that are being developed around ASL. Jolanta Lapiak, an Ameslan literary artist, media poet, and textual catalyst talked about how ASL is about movement.
I also attended a session by Jason Hurdich, the team leader of Vcom3D Inc.’s Sign Language Division. Vcom3D specializes in creating multi-cultural, context sensitive, avatars for enhanced learning. Avitars communicate through body language (including gesture or sign language), facial expression and lip-synched speech. Their products are used in schools, families, corporations and government agencies in the areas of culture/language familiarization, training, and educational mentoring.
Jason showed us SignSmith Studio . This application allows you to type in text and the avatar will translate this into sign language. Jason explained that up until now most of the ASL resources were 2-D (printed materials) and how much more powerful it is to communicate 3-D as the language was created to be used. He also demonstrated how easy it was to make a change, just by swapping out the text. However, if you were producing a video of someone signing live it would be a lot of work to edit out a word and change it to something else. Another thing that I learned is the importance of facial gestures in ASL. This is referred to as “facial grammar”. When designing these avitars Vcom3D designers have to manipulate 2,500 polygons to get the facial gestures just right. There are even subtle differences in how a woman signs vs. a man and Vcom3D is also working on incorporating these differences into their avatar designs as well. I was amazed at how the addition of facial gestures and slight movements such as leaning back and forth slightly made the avitars much more life-like than the avitars in Second Life. The signing avitars can also be downloaded to iPods and touchtone phones like the iPhone so people can take them anywhere anytime.
On Tuesday, I did a video conference for school principals on how to collect walk-through data in their schools on how technology is being used to enhance teaching and learning. We used Mediasite to stream the meeting to multiple sites. Participants were able to see me on one part of the screen and what was on my screen (i.e. PowerPoints, documents) on the other side. Mediasite also allows you to achieve the meeting, which is nice for administrators who couldn't make the meeting or want to review how to score the walk-through data. Because the other sites did not have microphones, in order to encourage two-way communication we used skype both for voice and for chat. Skype allowed me to keep tabs on how each of the sites was doing, answer participant questions, and keep it interactive.
On Wednesday, I did a presentation for the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) E-Learning SIG Meeting on how Second Life is being used for training in organizations. As part of the presentation, I had a panel of speakers who from different parts of the country who joined me in Second Life to interact with the audience and answer questions. We were able to use the Voice over IP capabilities in Second Life as well as their real time chat feature. I believe that technologies such as Mediasite, Skype and Second Life are going to hit a tipping point in education and the workplace in the next five years because they allow people to cross time and space and meet together.
Some of the participants of the Second Life session invited me to attend the Art of ASL Festival (American Sign Language (ASL) at the Milwaukee Art Museum yesterday. I learned a lot about ASL and new technologies that are being developed around ASL. Jolanta Lapiak, an Ameslan literary artist, media poet, and textual catalyst talked about how ASL is about movement.
I also attended a session by Jason Hurdich, the team leader of Vcom3D Inc.’s Sign Language Division. Vcom3D specializes in creating multi-cultural, context sensitive, avatars for enhanced learning. Avitars communicate through body language (including gesture or sign language), facial expression and lip-synched speech. Their products are used in schools, families, corporations and government agencies in the areas of culture/language familiarization, training, and educational mentoring.
Jason showed us SignSmith Studio . This application allows you to type in text and the avatar will translate this into sign language. Jason explained that up until now most of the ASL resources were 2-D (printed materials) and how much more powerful it is to communicate 3-D as the language was created to be used. He also demonstrated how easy it was to make a change, just by swapping out the text. However, if you were producing a video of someone signing live it would be a lot of work to edit out a word and change it to something else. Another thing that I learned is the importance of facial gestures in ASL. This is referred to as “facial grammar”. When designing these avitars Vcom3D designers have to manipulate 2,500 polygons to get the facial gestures just right. There are even subtle differences in how a woman signs vs. a man and Vcom3D is also working on incorporating these differences into their avatar designs as well. I was amazed at how the addition of facial gestures and slight movements such as leaning back and forth slightly made the avitars much more life-like than the avitars in Second Life. The signing avitars can also be downloaded to iPods and touchtone phones like the iPhone so people can take them anywhere anytime.
Sep 27, 2008
What is the essence of Second Life?
Last night at dinner I was asked to explain what Second Life is and how it can be used in organizations. Martin Heildegger (1953), a German Philosopher and author of the book Questioning Technology and Other Essays, advocates questioning the essence of technology. Don Tappscot, author of Wikinomics, talks about how technology is creating participatory platforms. Second Life definitely Tappscot’s description of a participatory platform. I would describe Second Life as an interface that allows global network that is sort of like a the capability to do webinars plus simulation. The non-linear experiential format of Second Life can be quite a bit different from a webinar or teleconference where the connection between participants in often limited to online chatting and communications. Gartner, Inc. warns that companies should not ignore the growing trend as having a virtual world presence will be a significant factor in businesses within the next five years.
Sep 15, 2008
New Communication Patterns for the Neomillennials
Today I was exploring in Second Life getting ready for a presentation. One of the things I like I about Second Life is the multiple ways users can communicate. For example, users can chat with the whole group, instant message individuals, use voice, have their avitars use gestures, distribute movies, and text via note cards. This allows for multiple forms of communication to happen simultaneously.
Challenges ideas of how we have traditionally learned.
Dede(2007) talks about this in his article, Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles,
“For example, by its nature the Web rewards comparison of multiple sources of information, individually incomplete and collectively inconsistent. This induces learning based on seeking, sieving, and synthesizing, rather than on assimilating a single "validated" source of knowledge as from books, television, or a professor’s lectures” (Dede, 2007).
I also liked what Dede said about these types of learning environments "needing a balance among experiential learning, guided mentoring, and collective reflection". New pedagogy for new tools.
Challenges ideas of how we have traditionally learned.
Dede(2007) talks about this in his article, Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles,
“For example, by its nature the Web rewards comparison of multiple sources of information, individually incomplete and collectively inconsistent. This induces learning based on seeking, sieving, and synthesizing, rather than on assimilating a single "validated" source of knowledge as from books, television, or a professor’s lectures” (Dede, 2007).
I also liked what Dede said about these types of learning environments "needing a balance among experiential learning, guided mentoring, and collective reflection". New pedagogy for new tools.
Aug 26, 2008
ISTE Second Life Webinar
Today I attended ISTE's webinar on Second Life by Peggy Sheehly. There were some great quotes that she shared that I wanted to hang onto. One was "As technology evolves literacy evolves". Another was a quote by Marc Prensky, "Connectivity is their birthright". Peggy also shared that her students didn't want tutorials on Second Life. She said, "Our kids today expect the interface to teach them". I also like what she shared about Paul Gee's work that these environments allow students to take risks without fear of repercussions.
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