Archive for February, 2007
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Today there was an article on TechCrunch entitled “Second Life Speaks.” The article outlines a beta development for the world of Second Life in which residents will not only be able to talk with one another using VOIP protocol, but avatar’s voices will be adjusted “relative to you based on the distance and direction of the speaker.” Wow! Now that is getting more real life.
I have been playing around in Second Life for some time and while my first experience left me intrigued, I kind of dismissed its possible educational use as a virtual classroom. Relationships were being developed, knowledge was being transferred, but it just took too long to communicate. With this new development we will have the two most important senses for learning, audio and visual.
Potential
As I think about my last post about Second Life, I am starting to see the potential here. If you recall, I was inspired to write because of an article written about Second Life becoming the new internet. Not just a place to go, but a virtualization of the net.
Imagine with me for a moment logging onto second life and going to your virtual history classroom (that looks just like your real one). You sit down with the teacher, and start a lecture, but soon you all transport to a history site and walk through some virtual pictures, or even buildings of some historic event. Class ends, but you bookmark your location so you can come back later and take a better look around.
You transport yourself to your virtual Art classroom next. Same story. Class starts, you talk for a couple minute then transport to the Salle des États to look at the Mona Lisa. You can move around the room to look at it from different perspectives, or zoom in as close as you want to see each tiny detail.
Next you have Spanish class, but this class doesn’t meet on campus, it meets on popular virtual beach in Mexico. Today you are interacting with all sorts of locals talking, chatting, building relationships with the Spanish skills you have been honing the past 3 years.
You really enjoyed the “break” in the middle of the day and head off to your last class of the day, business. You quickly change the profile on your avatar to professional attire (the swimsuit from Spanish just won’t do) and transport to your business class (which just happens to me meeting around a virtual board room table). The class has invested in some virtual property and are discussing some ways to market that property in Second Life.
With all your classes done, you decide to do some research for your business class and take your avatar and head off to a popular executive meeting place. You start chatting with some people, not knowing who they are, and soon realize you are talking with a marketing director from IBM who likes to hang out in Second Life in his spare time. You try to glean as much information as you can before he has to leave. He adds you as a friend and every once in a while you’ll meet up and talk.
Okay, perhaps all this is an idealized view of what can happen with Second Life, but a lot of this is already happening too. As I mentioned in my previous post, I met people from all over the world, in all sorts of different backgrounds. There are no apparent social classes and you can talk to pretty much anyone, anywhere. The person you are talking to may be a CEO of an organization, or it may be your friend from high school.
This little scenario is just one example. The possibilities are endless.
UNC’s Second Life
On a sidenote, for those reading this from UNC-CH, I went to a lecture
last week on campus about Second Life and apparently we have our own
island. If you are familiar with Second Life you can find it at these
coordinates: 215.176.27. It is a work in progress, but it constantly
amazes me how much we can make a virtual landscape look like the real
one. Stop on by, take a look around, but if want to see a fully
functioning University Campus check out Ohio University (22.137.26).
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There was an article in the BBC News Today entitled “Burgers Paid for by Mobile Phone.” It basically outlines a system that is going into place in Japan that allows people to pay for their orders at McDonalds with a cell phone. This doesn’t have much to do with instructional technology, I just think it is cool!
The article points out the benefits of a program like that for marketing and tracking consumer’s. While I don’t believe McDonald’s isn’t already tracking what is most popular, I do think that there is a lot of potential there.
I attended a Educause Webinar last week given by Ellen Wagner entitled “Mobility Matters: Why Learning Professionals Should Care.“ The seminar itself was great, packed with all sorts of great data and information. But what stood out to me was two points she made during the seminar.
1. Productivity and Immediacy
The point was made that a lot of times mobile learning is about immediacy. We want to get to the information anytime, anywhere. This in turn has the potential to turn many of those less productive times immediately into learning opportunities.
As I think about our burger scenario I see all sorts of potential for productivity. If customers can use their cell phones to pay for dinner, why not order it in the car on the way there, pay for it and pick it up all through an easy to use/easy to navigate web portal. The technology is certainly there. It would save the company money on production and certainly make us happier… I get my food faster! Win/Win! I imagine this won’t be too far off.
2. Killer Applications
At one point in the presentation Ellen said something to the effect of “What is it that we can’t do now that mobile [devices] will allow us to do better.” She goes on to say that killer applications are the ones that are derived out of practice. The ones that chance our entire pedagogical approach because it just works better.
I think that we spend too much time making applications to do something we can already do in real life. I have reached a cross-roads of sorts in my digital life in which I realize a lot of what I am doing with technology is counterproductive because it takes longer. The point is to save time and increase learning, not spend hours making something that takes even more time for students to understand.
There are those applications out there that are going to revolutionize both education and the world, but we have to sort through dozens and dozens of apps that are just mimicking what we are already doing in real life.
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I started reading a new book today and was just taken back by the introduction.
In this new age of technology, with televisions, computers, digital recorders, and so much more readily available to find and retrieve any information we might need, the one thing we may be neglecting is that marvelous God-given apparatus that exceeds them all - our brain. We may have become too content to let other people and things do the studying, the searching, and even some of the thinking and evaluating for us.
As a result, even while our brains are being increasingly enriched with sensory input, our memories, creativity, reasoning, communication, and other cognitive abilities may be atrophying in the wake of this increased dependency.
The author then goes on to talk about how we need to use our brain and rely less on technology to do things. As I thought about this I realized this is all too true. I rely on my computer to remember everything for me. I often say I have a bad memory and can’t remember if I don’t write it down (i.e. type it somewhere). That may be partly true, but I think I have also let technology take that over for me.
Wow! Something to think about today… but for heaven’s sake, don’t just bookmark it so you don’t forget, but then end up forgetting about it anyway… do something about it.
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Just found this great webpage that has 10 tools for college students. I post a link to it here both for my friends still in school that may read this, but also for instructors who want to know what students are using and how they are using it. Every teacher that I know is (or should be) a life-long learner too… enjoy!!
Top 10 list includes:
- Book Finder
- MynoteIT
- Ottobib
- Google Docs
- Tada List
- Meebo
- Wikipedia
- Zoho Show
- Google Reader
- Del.icio.us
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This past week there has been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about the changing web. Terms like Web 3.0, and even Web 4.0 have started to popping up again. For those of us in education, we are just now enjoying Web 2.0 and beginning to implement some of the technologies from that. Can we already look ahead to the next development?
Probably the best and most concise article I read was one written by Dan Farber on ZDNet blogs called “From semantic Web (3.0) to WebOS (4.0).” In this article he includes an evolutionary diagram for the Web that I find very intriguing. According to his article and the diagram, we are already on the far side of Web 2.0 with technologies like mashups, office 2.0 and social networking.
Web 3.0
What will the web be like in 5 or 10 years? Looking at how the internet
has already evolved and changed in just the past 5 years is very exciting for a techie like me. According to this article, the next evolution is the ‘Semantic Web.’ For those who haven’t heard of this (like me) here is a short definition from Wikipedia:
“The Semantic Web is an evolution of the World Wide Web in which information is machine processable (rather than being only human oriented), thus permitting browsers or other software agents to find, share and combine information more easily.”
This sounds both amazing and scary. Technology is finally getting to the point where we can take that final step into that fantasy realm where computers gain artificial intelligence. One can’t help but to think of “I, Robot.”
How close are we?
The way I see it, one of the major goals in using technology in education is to manage the information we are processing day in and day out.
The web is already an amazing tool for combing the mountains and mountains of information out there, but we still have to learn how to search. We use amazing tools like RSS readers, and widgitized webpages to pull information from all over the world. But we are still left with a smaller mountain to sift through to find the most important and relevant information for us.
With the advent of the semantic web the information we are looking for will be increasingly more relevant and useful to us.
Web 4.0
What I find most intriguing about the article is their vision Web 4.0 as a WebOS (operating system). We are already moving that direction with Office 2.0 and so much of what we are doing already being online. Think back to the last time your network went down and you didn’t know what to do… :-)
Read/Write Web posted an article about some evolutions coming with the Firefox 3.0. The biggest development is support for offline applications through the web-browser. This means that all that previously unavailable offline content will no longer be an issue.
Predicting the Future?
Predicting what the web will be like in 10-15 years is very difficult. There are very few people that saw what the web would be like today 15 years ago. :-) Has it changed the way we teach, learn and live… ABSOLUTELY.
Will everything change in the future as well? I think so… maybe not in the ways described in the article, but it will certainly change somehow. What about you? How could a semantic web, or a web operating system change your teaching and more importantly, your learning? Do you see Web 3.0, 4.0 as something similar or different?
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I remember well how terribly hard it is to learn a foreign language. For the most part, the departments here on campus subscribe to a system that moves away from repeated boring exercises. They instead seek to involve the students deeply in speaking the language though games and other interactive activities.
I came across this video this morning (thanks to Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis) and thought it was a good introduction to Google Earth. As you watch, think of ways you could incorporate this into your classroom to AUGMENT what you are already doing!
(Note, the video is kind of long, and although I think you could benefit from watching the whole thing, I know how very busy we all are. It specifically addresses foreign language use about 6:45.)
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A couple days ago one of my colleagues introduced me to Line Rider. For those (like me) who haven’t heard of this yet, Line Rider is a type of online “toy” where you draw lines and a little sledder-guy slides down the line according to the laws of physics. Sounds simple right? Check out this video.
This is just one of many such examples. There are obvious educational uses… mostly in the physics field. Granted it is probably mostly just a time waster, but it sure is a fun one. 
Check out some other crazy examples… or just have fun yourself!
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A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about some of the new features available in Vista for Education. Today I finally found some time to test out one of those features, Window’s Meeting Place. This article reviews the features, pro’s, con’s and possible educational uses of the program.
Features:
- Users - A complete list of users is shown on the right hand side
- Note - Double click on a user and send them a note. (Note: does not function like a chat screen… only one way.)
- Share your entire desktop or just one program with the whole meeting - each participant can share their desktop too, but only one at a time. You can also give control of your desktop to any participant!
- Attach “Handouts” - The rest of the meeting can open a copy and edit a local copy (will not affect the original).
- Ability to connect directly with a projector with an IP address (not shown above).
Set-up:
Setting up a meeting or joining one was super easy!!
- Start up Window’s Meeting Space
- Click Start New Meeting (or join a meeting already in progress - shown on sign in screen)
- Give your meeting a name and a password and hit the little arrow button.
After you have started the meeting you can invite others via e-mail. The invitation will include a small attachment that the participants
only need to double click to join. You can also invite people directly if they are in the local network. They just accept the invitation and join in. Nice!
Pro’s:
- Easy and fast to set up a meeting and connect with other’s around you.
- Works both in an online environment or just connecting computers together where there is no network connection.
- Great way to share files with a class in real time.
- You can’t beat the collaboration ability! The response in instantaneous! No lag.
- FREE! Need I say more!
Con’s:
- Only supports up to 10 people at a time.
- No voice support, so another option (Skype… Skypecast?) would have to be employed for those not in the same room.
- No integrated Chat options… although the note is a beginning.
- When sharing program the content on everyone else’s computer goes blank when you navigate away from the shared program.
Educational Uses:
- The best and most obvious use would be in a classroom. If you had a small class and you wanted to share a presentation, but didn’t have a projector you could just all meet there and present. Not only could you present, you could share documents and the whole class could share content they found with each other! Great for a lab class!
- Document Collaboration. Have you ever tried to huddle around one monitor as several people tried to edit a document. Just log into the meeting room and edit the document together. (Con, only one person can have control of the mouse, but all could see it).
- Small Group Projects. Have students inside of a class set up their own meetings and collaborate on a project.
- Remote Assistance. Although this is probably not what it is meant for, you could set up a meeting and send a student an invitation. They could then share their desktop and give you the control if they need help configuring something on their computer.
- Remote Class. Although it would be hard without the audio integration, you could certainly set up a remote classroom and conference call (using Skype or another program).
I’m sure this is just the beginning. What other ideas do you have? How will you/have you used Microsoft Meeting Space?
I just read a great post from Neil Hokanson’s Instructional Technology blog. He posts the following (originally from Rae Niles).
Let’s have a little competition at school and get ready for the
future. I will use a laptop and you will use paper and pencil. Are you
ready…?
I will access up-to-date information - you have a textbook that is 5 years old.
I will immediately know when I misspell a word – you have to wait until it’s graded.
I will learn how to care for technology by using it – you will read about it.
I will see math problems in 3D – you will do the odd problems.
I will create artwork and poetry and share it with the world – you will share yours with the class.
I will have 24/7 access – you have the entire class period.
I will access the most dynamic information – yours will be printed and photocopied.
I will communicate with leaders and experts using email – you will wait for Friday’s speaker.
I will select my learning style – you will use the teacher’s favorite learning style.
I will collaborate with my peers from around the world – you will collaborate with peers in your classroom.
I will take my learning as far as I want – you must wait for the rest of the class.
The cost of a laptop per year? - $250
The cost of teacher and student training? – Expensive
The cost of well educated US citizens and workforce? - Priceless
If this doesn’t sum up instructional technology and our goal I don’t know what does!
I just had a conversation with someone that was complaining about a problem her computer was having opening up a link to her electronic plane ticket. She said something to the effect of “that is the problem with technology.” We chatted a little more and I gently reminded her that computers also make it possible to even book a ticket online when ever we want, comparing prices across the world instantly, and printing ticket’s at home. She laughed as she realized her fallacy.
Yes, there are technical problems with so much of what we do. There are things we have to work through every day, but look at the way education has changed and WILL continue to change! This change only happens because we persist, because there are those that have the courage to be on the edge keep trying till it works.
Today I am just so grateful for those who are willing to try new things. These are the ones that have, and always will change the world. For the most part, these are the ones reading this blog entry.
To each of you, thank you! Keep up the good work! Remember, the reward is PRICELESS… across the world!
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I just wanted to take a moment to reminisce on days gone by in Elementary school when we all brought all of our classmates (colleagues) Valentine’s cards for Valentine’s day. But in the true spirit of the 21st Century I have created an online valentine for all of you! Isn’t technology Great!!
Happy Valentine’s Day!!
I hope you have a screamin’ great day!
Jeff
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