Week 5 Assignment 1Educational Technologies Blog

Two simulation websites, I am interested in pursuing seem to be closely related to each other.  They are along the very lines I want to encourage as one of many options in my learning environment.   They both offer the ability of the learner to partake in virtual experiences.   The military is even hosting environments for recruitment purposes and career options.  Although learning does not have to be entertaining I do believe it should try different methods to engage the learner.   
        I hope to find ways to incorporate and adjust these models to fit any scenario in order to provide the best hands on learning possible.  Realistic experiences in a safe environment provide for a more comprehensive learning.    Mix this with virtual interaction with others, and it sets the stage for learning second only to actual field training.   Is this not what learning is about; not just absorbing but full understanding mixed with some trial and error.

Specifically, I found foundational structures for learning in the virtual worlds of Second Life (http://secondlife.com) and Massively Multiplayer Online gaming or MMOs (http://www.mmorpg.com/).  Simply stated by their website, second life is “a 3D world where everyone you see is a real person and every place you visit is built by people just like you” (Second Life, 2012).  And a general synopsis for MMOs is are a virtual environment where players interact with each other for entertainment, but Steinkuehler claims it is also a learning environment where collaboration and problem solving take place (2012).  Although I understand second life as a place for fun and fantasy, I admire the educational experiences that are possible.  I would not have taken virtual realities seriously had it not been for our article on the Air Force’s involvement.  It is helping visitors learn about a life in the military, career possibilities, and even consequences of actions in decision making.    In their own way this is what MMOs provide whether it is purely for entertainment or professional learning.  

MMOs allow for many players to interact in an environment together.  Gamers who find themselves in difficult situations, work together to consider their options, collaborate, and solve problems.  Virtual worlds allow for hands on understanding and with the consequences occurring in the virtual world.  In both scenarios, these are the very options I need for understanding and that I hope to provide to students like me.  I need a place to “walk” through processes and try all options even if that means making mistakes.  Sometimes errors are the best educators.  I hope to incorporate both options in training in any learning scenario.  These are the scenarios I believe are key in my current position.  There are so many necessary rules and guidelines that is usually difficult for the new employee to grasp concepts and even reasonings behind data collections.  By adding virtual reality to my new employee trainings, adults could walk through the process of submitting information on their students to actually “see” the process in action. It could save the schools or districts funding from errors in incorrect data submissions on students.     Secondly, the same possibilities of understanding could happen in adult education courses.   Through the introduction of MMOs in highly technical classes, learners could interact with each other and collaborate virtually on science, math, leadership, music, or any of a number of team projects in order to work to resolve any issues that may arise or test concepts.  If education can take place in World of Warcraft then learning is possible in a number of MMO gaming worlds.   Pellerin quotes Dr. Striker in his article when talking about the gamers educational aspect of their second life environment, “‘As students must do in real life,” he said, in virtual-world learning situations “they have to develop skill sets to read the environment around them, collect data, interpret it, rationalize through understanding how to weigh the evidence, and then synthesize it and take a position’ ” (2011).  And similarly in MMO’s “Dr. Steinkuehler’s research has revealed that players of massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft often take part in scientific thinking practices through their participation in online forum communities” (2012).  Who knew gaming would have such a positive aspect to it, especially after the years of negative attention given via school shootings, light hearted commercials, and lazy men still living at home.  

Gaming has obviously matured with age like its users.   I believe it is all do the ingenuity of forward thinking educators and game enthusiasts meeting together to reach people where they are instead of settling for status quo.   I believe it will not be long until many games like second life and MMOs are infiltrated with higher learning goals and complex situations. It will be as if gaming has become a type of higher learning in itself.

Pardon the pun, but as gaming increases to intermarry with education, the barriers that once held back certain learners will be virtually destroyed!

References:

Pellerin, C. (2011). Air Force eyes new learning systems in “Second Life.” Retrieved from http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=63873
Second Life. (2012). What is second life?  Retrieved from http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US
Steinkuehler, C. (n.d.). Cognition and learning in MMOs. Retrieved May 30, 2012, from http://www.gameslearningsociety.org/research/cognition-and-learning-in-mmos

Mobile Environments for Learning

           Two mobile learning hardware devices peak my interest as far as advancing learning in the 21^st century.  When I first considered adult education I believed mobile learning would take place solely by way of laptop.  However, with the fast pace of technology, it seems laptops are just one of many ways to engage in learning.  I found learning can occur with some of the most popular mobile devices meant for leisure and entertainment that is via smart phone and iPads.  Due to the variety of options available I found there are a number of urls that can be explored.  As far as Smart Phones are considered I found at http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphone-reviews/, http://www.apple.com/iphone/, and http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us?ocid=sem_home&cmpid=sem_sewlZn9Ss_pcrid_16485399517_kwd_windows%20phone_pmt_e.   Smart phones are more than mobile phones, but mobile min-computers that allow users to access the internet, take photos, schedule events and important dates, and so many other tasks.  These tasks can all work in conjunction with the growing mobile learning trend. The second is very similar to the smart phone only in a larger format and capable of expanded tasks…the iPad.  The webpage is simple skip to the next tab or found directly at http://www.apple.com/ipad/. In short the iPad is a step between the iPhone and a laptop. There are at least as many applications available as on the smart phone and almost as many capabilities available as on a laptop. Whereas there are limited capabilities, where I have seen the iPad really come in handy has to do with a particular web based training platform we use at work called Adobe Connect.  
         
            As an example, I conduct trainings for our new collaboration and webinar tool and I noticed once the meeting is set up, basic tasks can be accomplished via a smart phone such as listening to the webinar, but even more tasks can be coordinated through the use of the iPad, such as conducting the webinar.  It seems we are just touching the edges of what is possible for remote training.  

Since the first introduction of Adobe training, my students were eager to move to a second level training which would involve the use of their Smart phones.  Both of these tools are what I consider the future of our webinar platform.  I am also considering both of these tools in my future creation of an adult community action class especially after consider two articles I read.  The use of a smart phone in my professional and community environment hold promise especially when I compare it to how Lemi demonstrates the “40 ways” schools can use cell phones (2012) and how Balasubramanian, Thamizoli, Umar, and Kanwar show how effective cell phones have been for the women of Southern India (2010).  Once I fully comprehend and can manipulate even half of all that learning platforms offer I plan to use them to post past, present, and future training or educational opportunities for my students to access via their smart phones. As far as the iPad is concerned, their use is becoming more and more popular.  Therefore after what I have seen in my Adobe Connect trainings, where again the smart phone will allow learners to hear and take part in presentations, the iPad allows the educator to conduct training.  This is not only advantageous for educators to be able to instruct from remote locations, but it allows for interaction with the Smart Board.  I have had one Adobe Connect training “graduate” already approach me on the wonders of using his iPad to conduct a webinar and how much more promise it holds.     

This is the exact future of training I look to move into where it is available virtually 24 hours a day.  As people are no longer limited to time and place for entertainment I believe trainings and collaborations need to follow suit. Before virtual meeting platforms were available I attempted to hold team meetings via email in order that team members who are limited in time do not have to attend a formal meeting and can still provide input over a day’s time period.  With the advent of collaboration or webinar applications, in conjunction with mobile devices, I plan to take advantage of such options in order to allow learners and peers to access important information at their own pace.  And with reports offered in applications I can track when the information was accessed. 

It seems each time technology is created to make life easier; something else comes along to fill the freed time.   Well with the virtual meetings and classrooms never out of reach due to mobile learning tools; score another minute or 30 for free time, yet to come.

Social Networks In Education

There are two addicting social networks I found. iGoogle at (http://www.google.com/ig) and Delicious at (http://delicious.com/) are both intriguing and resourceful sites.  When I first considered Delicious my thought was technology overload due to it promising to be what I consider a cousin to RSS feeds.  After some research and some initial hands on experience I like its promising aspects. Greenhow explains:

social bookmarking sites, such as Delicious, Diigo, and CiteULike, can provide the resources to facilitate a scholarly approach to teaching where teachers concerned with developing research-based best practices can collectively assemble, annotate, recommend, and share scholarly resources, such as books, journal articles, websites, and contacts (2009, p. 11).   

 

Again after some research I found this tool to be a tremendous asset to the learning environment.  Delicious not only allows one to access specific texts, but it moves beyond to create tags for better organization and recall and allows for social coordination.  That is to say, links can be established to other members of similar topic interest and the resources they found.  It is a social library and research team in one. Now as an educator, I will be able to assign writing or research tasks and have students work on them in class without having to access a library for resources. Secondly, I can have the adult learners work in groups to collaborate on projects.  In any scenario of incorporating recent learning I can see each group member taking on their role and one or two of those roles to act as the group researcher. Here members could act on the latest information regarding their topic to coordinate a team presentation.

As exciting as this sounds, I found it disheartening to have to launch and manage another site.  For that reason my second discovery provided me even greater joy.  What I longed for, in my young social technologic exploration, exists.  The ability to manage many sites at once came through in the form of Netvibes and iGoogle. Due to my GoogleReader and Blogspot account I stayed with what I figured would cause less of a transitional strain…iGoogle. iGoogle, and other products like it, use widgets to paste on to a dashboard for easy access.  Kroski explains, “With personalized start pages, you can access your favorite Web content simply by opening your browser” (2008, p. 43).  Finally, iGoogle is a tool for the web surfer that has everything, and wants their toys in front of them all at once.  (Of which I am a growing groupie as well.) Here again I see my adult learners using this tool to incorporate their favorite social media for the good of the class research.  Also, I would expect less resistance when I assign students to log onto the class blog and interact.  With the learners already accessing an iGoogle site for email, Twitter, Facebook, or other social interaction, the blog interaction would be just a click away and keep them in the same social mind frame.

Isn’t that what it comes down to? As the famous movie quip states “if you build it they will come” (Field of Dreams, 1989), if we want to reach the growing social media minded student, then we better build where they are then we can gain their trust and unlock their potential.

References:

 

Kroski, E. (2008). Widgets to the Rescue. School Library Journal, 54(2), 41-43.

 

Greenhow, C. (2009). Tapping the Wealth of Social Networks for Professional Development. Learning & Leading With Technology, 36(8), 10-11.

Educational Media and Applications

Thankfully there are a number of sensory stimulating options out there for education to take advantage of.  I like the possibilities that are taking place with regard to podcasting and video streaming.  For podcasting capabilities simply log on to http://audacity.sourceforge.net.   Live streaming personalized videos can be completed with the help of Ustream (http://www.ustream.tv).   Both can be used with iPhones or computer equipment.  Launching on these sites allows the user to edit or enhance their initial product.

These tools spark my interest simply because, what Richardson attributes to podcast can be the same for either of these techniques, “podcasting is one of those technologies that can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be” (2010, p. 117).   Authors: Sutton-Brady, Scott, Taylor, Carabetta, & Clark, provide a few additional positives for podcasts in general but also pertain to the growing abilities of multimedia in today’s education environment.  In short, they mention the benefit of enabling students to revisit covered material at their comprehension or language level, the visual appeal that can added by educators to classes of heavy content, the ability for students to take a class and personalize it for their learning style or again for a more detailed processing, and similarly the ability it can provide students to have their learning on their person (2009, pp. 220-221). These reasons speak directly to my education style.  In a higher education environment, I prefer student interaction, however I would allow and even encourage students to live stream or podcast the session for others who may be absent or may learn in a different manner.  Second, as I practiced in secondary education I would incorporate podcasts and or video streaming into a course by encouraging collaboration to complete a audio or video project and share with the rest of the adult learners. What also really draws me to these multimedia tools is the fact that they can be done by anyone anywhere with something as simple as an IPhone.  Who know what was once a nuisance in class is now a sought after educational approach.   

References:

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Sutton-Brady, C., Scott, K. M., Taylor, L., Carabetta, G., & Clark, S. (2009). The Value of Using Short-Format Podcasts to Enhance Learning and Teaching. ALT-J: Research In Learning Technology, 17(3), 219-232

Time to grow...again

So I am getting a grade for blogging...this is doable. I would not have entered the genre had I not been forced to,for the cause of higher education, but isn't that how life goes?  Sometimes when we are hard pressed we are actually being stretched. It is all a matter of perspective in the end.