Yet another virtual worlds for education resource…

October 26, 2008 — Daniel

Been my recent pleasure to welcome Paul Andrews back to Second Life. Paul was the third member of the SLOODLE founding tri-umverate, but left the project (and Second Life) for a number of reasons. Now, with a new job, he’s back. In his time away he’s continued to look at 3D worlds for e-learning – and has a nice section on these on his e-learning resources site.

Good set of materials on using Google’s Lively – including how to give a presentation in Lively (which currently does not allow you to upload your own graphics).

Posted in Education, Second Life, Teaching, Technology, Virtual Worlds. Tags: . 1 Comment »

Yet another slide viewer for Second Life… but nice

October 23, 2008 — Daniel

That recreating powerpoint in Second Life is not the best use of the platform is something that is both agreed on almost universally by educators using the platform AND something we inevitably turn to on occaision – commonly to present our work at meetings and seminars.

There are a number of good free or cheap presenters out there – my personal favourite being the Meta Lab interactive whiteboard by AngryBeth Shortbread.

But now SLOODLEr Peter Bloomfield has released the script for a new presentation tool – one especially well suited for shorter presentations using only a few slides and with some nice 3D touches. More…

(more…)

Posted in Education, Second Life, Technology, Virtual Worlds. Tags: . 2 Comments »

Imagine Teacher

October 20, 2008 — Daniel

Has anyone out there reviewed Imagine Teacher yet?

This is a new game from Ubisoft which puts players in the role of a new teacher at school – so naturally, I’m wondering a little on its potential for game-based learning.

In Imagine: Teacher, you play a new teacher who has just taken over a class in a brand new school. Teach and recruit new students as you develop and eventually manage the school! But be careful of those who want to stand in the way of your success

The game is based round a number of mini-games – and I guess the question is going to be the extent to which playing a mini-game in this title to teach your virtual pupils about science (or whatever) actually helps introduce scientific knowledge or supports the learning of same.

Posted in Education, Games Based Learning, Play, Teaching, Technology. Tags: . No Comments »

Second Life is not the only fruit…

October 18, 2008 — Daniel

Virtual World Watch and Eduserv have released the latest virtual worlds survey of UK higher-education. More here. I have yet to review report, but the summary itself is worth reading. Quite amazing to see how rapidly institutions (or at least, individuals across a huge range of institutions) have been adopting virtual worlds. Primarily Second Life, but increasing awareness of alternatives.

This theme, that Second Life is not the only option for teaching, learning and other educational activities in virtual environments, will be explored in future snapshots and activities of Virtual World Watch.

Posted in Education, Second Life, Teaching, Technology, Virtual Worlds. Tags: . 2 Comments »

Children on Virtual Worlds – an EU review

October 15, 2008 — Daniel

ENISA “Children on Virtual Worlds”

“The EU Agency ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Network Agency, launches a report on virtual worlds with 25 safety tips for parents on how to make their children behave safely in online virtual worlds.”

Some commensense guidelines and rules for parents to help support their children play safely and happily in online virtual worlds. Overall a positive review that doesn’t seek to demonise virtual worlds. Instead it argues that:

Parents should be educated, empowered and engaged to ensure truly positive and valuable experiences for their children, while reinforcing safety online habits in these three-dimensional environments.

Posted in Communication, Play, Technology, Virtual Worlds. Tags: . No Comments »

Web 2.0 In the classroom (or not)

October 13, 2008 — Daniel

New BECTA report on Web 2.0 in the classroom…

In summary, lots of potential – which is not being met. While children and teachers are already using a wide range of web 2.0 technologies, teachers are generally unsure how to manage or support the productive use of such technologies in class:

However, the majority of teachers questioned had never used Web 2.0 applications in lessons, despite being frequent users of technology in their personal and professional lives. Their main concerns involved a lack of time to familiarise themselves with the technology and worries about managing the use of the internet in class.

Posted in Education, Learning, Teaching, Technology. Tags: , . No Comments »

Microsoft backs games for learning

October 8, 2008 — Daniel

Title says it all really. Well other than half the funding coming from a consortium of NY universities and research institutions (Columbia, Dartmouth, …)

This is all over the internet it seems, so I don’t really need to add much.

Links here (GameDaily), here (Gamasutra), here (Microsoft), here (eWeek) and at a whole bunch of other places too. Most articles are based on excerpts of the press release to be honest.

Posted in Education, Games Based Learning, Learning, Teaching, Technology. Tags: . No Comments »

Links for today

October 6, 2008 — Daniel

Who plays, how much and why?

Dmitri Williams, Nick Yee and colleagues have published the first results from a Sony Online supported study into Everquest 2 players. With a rare item gift in-game for participants, the survey had a very large response – and the team also have been looking at a huge range of in-game data.

North  Carolina High Schools to Pilot Game Development Based Learning for Science

“Ideally, our goal is that students will create educational games that appeal to their counterparts so that teachers can then integrate those games into their classrooms,”

Posted in Education, Game Development Based Learning, Play, Technology, Virtual Worlds. No Comments »

The Nintendo Generation?

October 5, 2008 — Daniel
The Nintendo Generation grows up

The Nintendo Generation grows up

Does the term ‘The Nintendo Generation’ have any meaning left? When the Nintendo Generation includes pensioners living in care homes, perhaps not.  Story  including video – on the BBC, here.

Posted in Play, Technology. Tags: , . 2 Comments »

When Second Life goes bad

October 3, 2008 — Daniel

Janette Bonar-Law et. al. reported on a class taught using Second Life, and challenges faced at this year’s HEA ICS conference (proceedings). The students found a lot to complain about – and the majority clearly didn’t enjoy or see the point of using Second Life. I’ve had some students with similar reactions in the past – and it makes me think again of Sarah Robbins keynote at SLEDcc this year…

The core point of which was (I write from memory here) that educators have a responsibility to ensure that Second Life will be used in a way that is relevant to what the students goals, and that they can communicate this to the students.

Not always easy. I’ll find out in three months how I do with my new class on this…

Posted in Education, Learning, Second Life, Teaching, Technology, Virtual Worlds. No Comments »
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