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trisha_poole

Using Synchronous Tools to Build Community in the Asynchronous Online Classroom | Facul... - 71 views

  • Synchronous tools can help humanize the classroom
  • Setting up open office hours via a synchronous tool allows students to reach out in a specific time window with questions and get a real-time answer.
  • Many synchronous tools allow us to use video or face-to-face chat, allowing the student to see our faces as we speak to them about their direct concern.
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  • Both students and instructors are learning while interacting. Communicating in the online classroom is very different than in a traditional face-to-face classroom.
  • Synchronous tools require real-time teamwork
Maureen Greenbaum

These 10 trends are shaping the future of education | Education Dive - 74 views

  • e demands for innovation probably won't create an all-new landscape, the resulting product of ongoing changes is likely to be unrecognizable compared to that of the last several decades.
  • alternative credentialing and changing demographics to testing concerns and the rise of STEM
  • America's 629 public four-year institutions, 1,845 private four-year institutions, 1,070 public two-year institutions, and 596 private two-year institutions will soon be competing over a smaller pipeline of potential incoming students. 
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  •  expect to see a number of for-profits make the transition to nonprofit or benefit corporation
  • 5. Open educational resources gaining popularity as textbook prices rise
  • Digital textbooks have solved some of those issues to an extent, carrying a lower price point on average and being capable of receiving updated content. But many in higher ed and K-12 are looking beyond the traditional-textbook-
  • 15 Virginia community colleges are using OER to pilot a "zero textbook cost" program that is expected to save 50,000 students $5 million in its first year.
Albert B Fernandez

Professor who wrote op-ed urging greater viewpoint diversity finds himself the target o... - 18 views

  • To get to the truth we have to have disagreement, and we’re not doing that now. The role of education is to elevate us, not necessarily to have solutions but to know how to think, to know how to have discourse, and to know how to debate. That’s why I’m so preoccupied with making sure students get a rounded experience.
  • Think Professors Are Liberal? Try School Administrators.”
  • liberal staff members outnumber their conservative counterparts by the astonishing ratio of 12-to-one.” He also related his concern that on his own campus, the Office of Student Affairs “was organizing many overtly progressive events . . . without offering any programming that offered a meaningful ideological alternative.”
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    • Albert B Fernandez
       
      CF SC black Dean of Students endorsing BLM
  • his door had been plastered with signs saying things like “QUIT” and “Go teach somewhere else you racist asshat (maybe Charlottesville?).” Personal items that Abrams had posted on his door, including a photo of his newborn son, had been stolen.
  •  
    "To get to the truth we have to have disagreement, and we're not doing that now. The role of education is to elevate us, not necessarily to have solutions but to know how to think, to know how to have discourse, and to know how to debate. That's why I'm so preoccupied with making sure students get a rounded experience."
icemanmelb

FAQ - Diigo help - 44 views

shared by icemanmelb on 11 Jan 10 - Cached
sabirshakir liked it
  • effectively utilize the vast array of information that resides on the internet and who are capable of processing the information collaboratively
  • superior to traditional classroom teaching alone
    • tariqy
       
      Important quote
  • skills
    • Sheri Stahler
       
      How to write comments directly on web pages and how to use easyblogs
    • toni holmberg
       
      Is there a way to disallow students from joining other groups. My students are young and I would rather have them just interacting with me and each other.
    • Vicki Davis
       
      Toni, you should set them up in the teacher console without a full profile.
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  • finding,
  • organizing
  • synthesizing
  • presenting information
  • facilitate online conversations within the context of the materials themselves. 
  • Teacher can setup separate accounts - one is for their professional / personal usage, and one to be used for instruction with their students.  That way, there is less concern of mingling these.
  •  
    The more I work with this tool the more I love it. This tells you how to set up student accounts even if your students don't have email.
  •  
    Diigo's page for using it in education.
  •  
    Sounds like a requirement
Paul Beaufait

The purpose of aggregating bookmarks for the Diigo in Education group - 143 views

As somewhat of a Johnny-come-lately to this group, since hearing of new Diigo outline functionality AND planned deprecation of Diigo lists, I believed this group would focus on the transition in Di...

aggregations Diigo education groups purposes moderation noise-to-signal signal-to-noise tools

Kim Loeffen

A Personalized Learning Backlash -- THE Journal - 11 views

    • Kim Loeffen
       
      Elementary school Summit backlash includes concerns on data usage and other issues
  • personalized instruction is getting renewed attention as schools in the northeast consider calling their experiments in the instructional model a failure.
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  • there's "little evidence for the effectiveness" of personalized instruction delivered through technology.
    • Kim Loeffen
       
      Student protest of an online Facebook driven learning "experience" causes the NY DOE to drop the program in grades 11-12
Roland Gesthuizen

Educational building blocks: how Minecraft is used in classrooms - 85 views

  • Levin actually views these negative behaviors as a positive aspect of the lesson, and will often stop the game to address these concerns. He sees it as a way to help shape the way his students behave in an online environment, showing them the importance of acting in a responsible and considerate manner.
  • Class begins with the students away from the game, as Levin explains the goals for the day. Then they go to work, often in pre-built worlds created by Levin which feature specific tasks to accomplish or puzzles to solve. But they always need to work together.
  •  
    "With its open-ended nature and robust creation tools, Minecraft has been used to create some amazing things. And as one teacher learned, those very same elements that make the game so compelling also make it a great educational tool.
  •  
    Using Minecraft to solve problems as a class and learn how to work together.
  •  
    Some good learning angles with this multiplayer Hamelin. Have used it myself :-)
meghankelly492

(PDF) A Systematic Review of Treatments for Music Performance Anxiety - 2 views

  • Four other studies (three of which are dissertations) assessed behavioral treatments forMPA on music students. Grishman (1989) and Mansberger (1988) used standard musclerelaxation techniques, Wardle (1969) compared insight/relaxation and systematic desensi-tisation techniques, and Deen (1999) used awareness and breathing techniques
  • A systematic review of all available treatment studies for music performance anxiety was undertaken.
  • reported that 24% of musicians frequently suffered stage fright, defined in this study as themost severe form of MPA, 13% experienced acute anxiety and 17% experienceddepression.
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  • 59% of musicians in symphony orchestras reported performance anxiety severe enough toimpair their professional and/or personal functioning.
  • A recent study indicated that MPA is not limited to orchestralmusicians, showing that opera chorus artists are also prone to high levels of performanceanxiety
  • However, since not allperformers suffer the same degree of MPA, or indeed report the same levels of occupationalstress, individual differences in a range of psychological characteristics are likely to accountfor variations in the degree to which musicians experience symptoms
  • A large number of treatment modalities (e.g., behavioral, cognitive, pharmacological andcomplementary) has been developed for music performance anxiety (MPA)
  • However, areview of this literature indicates that the field is still in its infancy with respect to theconceptual and theoretical formulations of the nature of MPA and its empiricalinvestigation.
  • Anxiety may be triggered by conscious,rational concerns or by cues that trigger, unconsciously, earlier anxiety producingexperiences or somatic sensations.
  • These findings suggest that multi-modal interventions are needed toaddress the multiple difficulties experienced by test anxious individuals.
  • with some focusing on behavioral change, some on cognitivechange, others on reduction of physiological symptoms through the use of pharmacotherapy,and some on idiosyncratic formulations
  • For drug studies, the keywords were beta-blocker [Beta blockers block the effect ofadrenaline (the hormone norepinephrine) on the body’s beta receptors. This slows downthe nerve impulses that travel through the heart. As a result, the resting heart rate is lower,the heart does not have to work as hard and requires less blood and oxygen
  • Brodsky (1996) and Nube´(1991) were most useful.
  • The interventionsassessed included systematic desensitization, progressive muscle relaxation, awareness andbreathing and behavioural rehearsal
  • In summary, behavioral treatments do appear to be at least minimally effective in thetreatment of MPA, although the heterogeneity of the treatment approaches employedmakes it difficult to isolate consistent evidence for the superiority of any one type ofbehavioral intervention
  • Two studies (see Tables II and IV) assessed the therapeutic effect of cognitive techniquesalone on MPA.
  • A dissertation by Patston (1996) reported a comparison of cognitive (e.g.positive self-talk, etc.) and physiological strategies in the treatment of MPA. No significantimprovements on vocal and visual manifestations of performance anxiety were found foreither treatment or control groups. However, the sample consisted of only 17 operastudents who were not specifically selected on the basis of their MPA severity, and theintervention was conducted by the author, a singer and teacher, who had no training inpsychology.
  • Three studies (see Table III) assessed the therapeutic effect of cognitive-behavioralstrategies on MPA. Harris (1987), Roland (1993), and Kendrick et al. (1982) all reportedthat standard CBT techniques were effective in the treatment of MPA in studentsspecifically selected for study because of the severity of their MPA.
  • Harris (1987) and Roland(1993) reported that CBT led to reductions in state anxiety as measured by the STAI,although Kendrick et al. (1982) failed to find a significant difference between treatment andcontrol groups on this measure.
  • The evidence for improvements in MPA following CBT is quite consistent, althoughfurther studies with larger samples are needed to confirm this evidence.
  • Beta-blockers have become increasingly popular among performers in recent years. Forexample, Lockwood (1989), in a survey of 2,122 orchestral musicians, found that 27% usedpropranolol to manage their anxiety prior to a performance; 19% of this group used thedrug on a daily basis.
  • Nube´ (1991) identified nine studies examining the effects of various beta-blockers(Atenolol, Metopolol, Nadolol, Oxprenolol, Propranolol, Pindolol) on MPA.
  • The findings regarding the effects of beta blockers on otheroutcome measures were less conclusive.
  • A rigorous definition of MPA is needed to advance treatment. However, defining MPA as asocial anxiety (social phobia) using criteria set out in DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) as theinclusion criteria may be too restrictive, particularly if the musician presenting for treatmentexperiences MPA as a focal anxiety (ie does not meet other criteria for social anxiety).
  • Few ofthe intervention studies reviewed acknowledged that performers need a certain amount ofarousal or anxiety to maximise their performance.
  • None of the studies could be pooled in a meta-analysis primarily because too fewprovided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes, use of diverse subject groups andtreatments, duration and intensity of treatment, and use of disparate outcome measures
  • In conclusion, the literature on treatment approaches for MPA is fragmented, incon-sistent, and methodologically weak. These limitations make it difficult to reach any firmconclusions about the effectiveness of the various treatment approaches reviewed. Forsignificant progress to be made, future research will require a clear definition of MPA,consistency and strength in methodology, and the development of robust and appropriateoutcome measures.
Martin Leicht

How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results - WSJ - 17 views

  • a shift from its founding philosophy of “organizing the world’s information,” to one that is far more active in deciding how that information should appear.
  • Google keeps blacklists to remove certain sites or prevent others from surfacing in certain types of results. These moves are separate from those that block sites as required by U.S. or foreign law,
  • Far from being autonomous computer programs oblivious to outside pressure, Google’s algorithms are subject to regular tinkering from executives and engineers who are trying to deliver relevant search results, while also pleasing a wide variety of powerful interests and driving its parent company’s more than $30 billion in annual profit.
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  • Google made more than 3,200 changes to its algorithms in 2018, up from more than 2,400 in 2017 and from about 500 in 2010
  • testing showed wide discrepancies in how Google handled auto-complete queries and some of what Google calls organic search results
    • Martin Leicht
       
      Alternatives - Microsoft's BING - DuckDuckGo and Yahoo. check them out when you get time
  • Google said 15% of queries today are for words, or combinations of words, that the company has never seen before, putting more demands on engineers to make sure the algorithms deliver useful results.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      How do you connect your post/content to future searches? Tagging only gets you so far. Thus, Google "tinkers" with the algorithm to product "the best" results. Interesting & concerning!
  • ALGORITHMS ARE effectively recipes in code form, providing step-by-step instructions for how computers should solve certain problems. They drive not just the internet, but the apps that populate phones and tablets.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      Yet, we never (almost never) eat the same thing (recipe) twice in a day. We indulge ourselves with comfort food, yes. And we seek out new taste sensations.
Robin Holleman

Response: Ways to Cultivate 'Whole-Class Engagement' - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazz... - 106 views

  • consistently use basic motivation strategies.
  • we need to ensure that we are implementing a series of factors that elevate our students' focus and level of concern.
  • Your odds of keeping your students on task go up when you mix things up and keep the energy feeling fresh.
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  • Work to establish a classroom culture in which it is understood that, with every task they perform, students know there is a strong possibility that they will have to share out their results in front of their peers.
  • Small changes of routine increase the motivation to attend to the task at hand.  
  • The A-Z Sentence Summary:
  • Total Participation Techniques frame the context so that all students are responding to higher-order prompts in low-risk settings.
  • The Chalkboard Splash:
  • he "Pause, Star, Rank":
  • we need to be conscious of the amount of work we give the students.
    • Robin Holleman
       
      Two contrasting direction sets illustrate very well the more engaging tactic.
  •  
    Have used several of these strategies at the college level and they really do work.
meghankelly492

"Can't We Just Change the Words?": EBSCOhost - 1 views

  • The idea of wanting to be true to the music of a culture, to the people of that culture, and to one's students in teaching is at the heart of the discussion of authenticity.
  • However, teaching music without attention to its cultural context is a problem in several respects: it risks misrepresenting the musical practice being studied, it fails to take advantage of the potential benefits of culturally infused music teaching, and it promotes a conception of music as isolated sonic events rather than meaningful human practices.2 Discussion about this struggle to balance accurate performance practice with accessibility has focused on the concept of authenticity
  • The definitions of authenticity represented in the music education literature fall into four models: the continuum model; the twofold historical/personal model; the threefold reproduction, reality, and relevance model; and the moving-beyond-authenticity model.
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  • how does each author use authenticity as a strategy for making or justifying decisions in music education?
  • authenticity enhances an aesthetic experience; for others, authentic musical encounters enhance student motivation
  • since the original loses some of its essential qualities in a simplification.5
  • His view of historical authenticity calls for knowing the intentions of the composer, the performance practice of the time, using period instruments, and being musically creative within the boundaries of the composer's intentions
  • Peter Kivy's twofold model of authenticity. Focusing on historical authenticity in performance, Kivy explores two main aspects of authenticity: historical (attention to the intent, sound, and practice of the original) and personal (interpretation and expression of the performer).
  • Swanwick writes: "'Authentic' musical experience occurs when individuals make and take music as meaningful or relevant for them"
  • Swanwick's emphasis on the importance of personal relevance yields different choices for a music teacher than Palmer's position does.
  • Another example is found in the work of music educator and researcher Kay Edwards, who also reached the conclusion that attention to authenticity increases student response to learning. In her qualitative study of the response of children to a unit on Native American music, she found that the group using instruments of the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, and Yaqui peoples generated more journal responses overall (her criterion measure) and more responses about instrument playing than the groups with the inauthentic (traditional music room) instruments.
  • Using indigenous instruments, original languages, and involving culture bearers in instruction benefits student involvement and interest as well as helps them develop musical skills. Connecting the story of a piece of music to students' own experiences and encouraging students to create new music in the style of music being studied help facilitate meaningful experiences for students.
  • "World music pedagogy concerns itself with how music is taught/transmitted and received/learned within cultures, and how best the processes that are included in significant ways within these cultures can be preserved or at least partially retained in classrooms and rehearsal halls.
Martin Leicht

Treehouse teaching and laundry art: Educators find creative ways to reach kids - 5 views

  • was also concerned about her students’ lack of engagement — so few were completing the assignments she emailed to parents
  • Playing with her family’s laundry marked the first time Maliah seemed happy — actually happy — since the start of the pandemic.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - happy - happy is good. Happy kids want to learn or are more likely to learn.
  • Nobody should ever be penalized or put at a disadvantage for the supplies they don’t have,” Dillingham thought to herself. “But everyone’s got laundry!”
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  • Clark started an online fundraiser to pay for bikes. He raised more than $10,000, and neighbors donated dozens of bikes and helmets for the rides.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - a little digital citizenship too mixed in with online fund raising.
  • She couldn’t be sure whether her kids were uninterested or whether they lacked the necessary pens, paper and crayons at home.
  • He decided he would take his students on socially distanced bike rides across the city. “It was a leap of faith. I got extremely nervous. I was trying to find a way to connect with kids,” Clark said.
  • her young students are musical detectives, in search of learning. She teaches most grade levels and the school chorus.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - musical detectives searching for music.
  • t he’s found other ways to keep his students engaged and cycling the city. He invited students to a weekly entrepreneurship class for which they rode their bikes uptown from Dunbar to the gym where Clark works, Sweat DC. The students met with the owner of the gym and the owners of a nearby bar, Hook Hall, and the bagel shop Call Your Mother Deli to learn what it takes to run a business.
  • She wanted them to create their own composition, their own snowy-day song.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - used flipgrid for this
  • When Clark wanted to teach them about resilience, he took them through the hilly streets of Georgetown.
  • In lessons for older students, some days there were makeshift drums involved or recorders that students had taken home.
  • she was able to use the treehouse as a key part of her lessons.
  • She lugged a bookshelf, desk and heater into the 5-by-7-foot space, and ran an Ethernet cable from the house so she’d have Internet.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - properly set up
  • before climbing into what passes for her classroom in 2020: her daughters’ decade-old treehouse.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - different locals - maybe something with changing backgrounds.
  • So as one class studied architecture this fall, Daney, 54, encouraged them to walk in their neighborhood to take photos of houses of different styles: ranch, colonial, Victorian.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - use what you have around you.
  • nd he stuck with his usual method of helping students learn about the design process, asking them to prepare a meal. They started with ideas and research, made a plan, carried it out and evaluated it. The result: soups and pastas and pastries.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - edTech class on engineering and design
  • Kids need connection, he said. “I think they’re starving for conversation,” including with adults.
  • In fifth grade, students are expected to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide with whole numbers, decimals and fractions. Through a computer application the students have, they can program the robot to move a certain distance, stop, maybe even turn.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - use a robot or technology to achieve the same result.
  • With learning all-virtual, he packs a big Ziploc bag — for each student, each quarter — with things like fishing line, foam board, pipecleaners, magnets, Popsicle sticks and rubber bands. Whatever they will need for their projects.
  • And a lot of the math is a little sneaky. They think they are trying to get the robot to move, when they are actually measuring the angles to get it to move.”  
  • Others complete their math problems directly on the computer, which can lead to some troubles as they try to show their work.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - will share screen be viable.
  • When Kristin Gavaza interviewed for the music teacher position at Dorothy I. Height Elementary in the summer, she told the principal she had some ideas for how to create a festive concert while students were scattered and learning from home.
    • Martin Leicht
       
      NOTE - picture references a complete teacher set up of a large screen and standing desk. Sure, she's video editing yet the concept carries to teaching class too.
  •  
    Numerous creative examples to how educators promoted learning on line and worked to build engagement.
Marc Patton

iCivics | Free Lesson Plans and Games for Learning Civics - 56 views

  •  
    iCivics is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy. iCivics is the vision of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is concerned that students are not getting the information and tools they need for civic participation, and that civics teachers need better materials and support.
  •  
    iCivics prepares young Americans to become knowledgeable, engaged 21st century citizens by creating free and innovative educational materials.
Adrienne Michetti

Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" - 52 views

    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      This is, I think, why I'm more keen on today's social networks than I am on games -- games do not provide deep emotional support.
  • "bowling alone" hypothesis (Putnam, 2000), which suggests that media are displacing crucial civic and social institutions
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      Putnam - need to check this article. Interesting; not sure I agree.
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  • According to Putnam, time spent with relatively passive and disengaging media has come at the expense of time spent on vital community-building activities.
  • The evidence to date is mixed
  • A core problem on both sides of the debate is an underlying assumption that all Internet use is more or less equivalent
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      SO True
  • It would be more plausible and empirically rigorous, then, to consider how specific forms of Internet activity impact civic and social engagement as a result of their particular underlying social architectures
  • combining conclusions from two different lines of MMO research conducted from two different perspectives—one from a media effects approach, the other from a sociocultural perspective on cognition and learning.
  • By providing spaces for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home, MMOs have the capacity to function as one form of a new "third place" for informal sociability much like the pubs, coffee shops, and other hangouts of old.
  • loosely structured by open-ended narratives
  • They are known for their peculiar combination of designed "escapist fantasy" and emergent "social realism"
  • from two research projects: one an examination of the media effects of MMOs, the other an ethnographic study of cognition and culture in such contexts.
  • the conclusions of both studies were remarkably aligned.
  • the assumption that the most fruitful advances are sometimes made when congruent findings are discovered through disparate means
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      Love this quote.
  • demonstrate the "effects" of game play vs. no game play.
  • first project was a traditional effects study
  • second project, a qualitative study of cognition and learning in MMOs (
  • ethnography
  • sociocultural perspective
  • as a way to tease out what happens in the virtual setting of the game and how the people involved consider their own activities, the activities of others, and the contexts in which those activities takes place
  • a reasonable level of generalizability (random assignment to condition in the first study) and contextualization (ethnographic description of existing in-game social networks and practices in the second)
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      but I wonder why he chose these games -- this is not specified. Only their success in US and abroad?
  • brick-and-mortar "third places" in America where individuals can gather to socialize informally beyond the workplace and home
  • the exaggerated self-consciousness of individuals.
  • In what ways might MMOs function as new third places for informal sociability?
  • virtual environments have the potential to function as new (albeit digitally mediated) third places similar to pubs, coffee shops, and other hangouts.
  • in this section we analyze the structural form of MMOs that warrants this "third place" assertion.
  • eight defining characteristics of third places
  • there is no default obligation
  • To oblige any one person to play requires that explicit agreements be entered into by parties
  • the default assumption is that no one person is compelled to participate legally, financially, or otherwise.
  • Unless one transforms the virtual world of the game into a workplace (e.g., by taking on gainful employment as a virtual currency "farmer" for example, Dibbell, 2006; Steinkuehler, 2006a) or enters into such agreement, no one person is obligated to log in
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      and this is why, in my opinion, you will never see games in school. The game cannot be the Third Place because school is a Second Place.
  • Yee's (2006) interviews also reveal that individuals who game with romantic partners or family find that such joint engagement in the "other world" of MMOs allows them to redefine the nature and boundaries of their offline relationships, often in more equitable terms than what may be possible in day-to-day offline life
  • the relationships that play-partners have with one another offline are often "leveled" within the online world
  • an individual's rank and status in the home, workplace, or society are of no importance
  • appeal to people in part because they represent meritocracies otherwise unavailable in a world often filled with unfairness
  • conversation plays an analogous role
  • "In all such systems, linguistic interactions have been primary: users exchange messages that cement the social bonds between them, messages that reflect shared history and understandings (or misunderstandings) about the always evolving local norms for these interactions" (p. 22).
  • third places must also be easy to access
  • such that "one may go alone at almost any time of the day or evening with assurance that acquaintances will be there"
  • accessible directly from one's home, making them even more accommodating to individual schedules and preferences
  • barriers to initial access.
  • "What attracts a regular visitor to a third place is supplied not by management but by the fellow customer,"
  • "It is the regulars who give the place its character and who assure that on any given visit some of the gang will be there"
  • affective sense
  • As one informant satirically commented in an interview, "You go for the experience [points], you stay for the enlightening conversation.
  • engendering a sense of reliable mentorship and community stability.
  • Oldenburg argues that third places are characteristically homely, their d�cor defying tidiness and pretension whenever possible. MMOs do not fit this criterion in any literal sense
  • In neither of our investigations did the degree of formality exhibited by players within the game bear any relation to the degree of visual ornamentation of the players' immediate vicinity.
  • Thus, while the visual form of MMO environments does not fit Oldenburg's (1999) criterion of "low profile," the social function of those environments does.
  • Oldenburg (1999) argues that seriousness is anathema to a vibrant third place; instead, frivolity, verbal word play, and wit are essential.
  • The playful nature of MMOs is perhaps most apparent in what happens when individuals do bring gravity to the game.
  • the home-like quality of third places in rooting people
  • Participation becomes a regular part of daily life for players and, among regular gamemates such as guild members, exceptional absences (i.e., prolonged or unforeseen ones) are queried within the game or outside i
  • create an atmosphere of mutual caring that, while avoiding entangling obligations per se, creates a sense of rootedness to the extent that regularities exist, irregularities are duly noted, and, when concerning the welfare of any one regular, checked into
  • Are virtual communities really communities, or is physical proximity necessary?
  • Anderson (1991), who suggests that geographic proximity itself is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the emergence and preservation of "community."
  • Social capital (Coleman, 1988) works analogously to financial capital; it can be acquired and spent, but for social and personal gains rather than financial
  • operates cyclically within social networks because of their associated norms of reciprocity
  • bridging social capital is inclusive.
  • This form of social capital is marked by tentative relationships, yet what they lack in depth, they make up for in breadth.
  • On the one hand, bridging social capital provides little in the way of emotional support; on the other hand, such relationships can broaden social horizons or worldviews, providing access to information and new resources.
  • bonding social capital is exclusive.
  • social superglue.
  • it can also result in insularity.
  • shows that bridging and bonding social capital are tied to different social contexts, given the network of relationships they enable.
  • Virtual worlds appear to function best as bridging mechanisms rather than as bonding ones, although they do not entirely preclude social ties of the latter type.
  • One could argue that, if the benchmark for bonding social capital is the ability to acquire emotional, practical, or substantive support, then MMOs are not well set up for the task:
  • While deep affective relationships among players are possible, they are less likely to generate the same range of bonding benefits as real-world relationships because of players' geographic dispersion and the nature of third places themselves.
  • Despite differences in theoretical grounding and methodologies, our conclusions were remarkably similar across complementary macro- and micro-levels.
  • It is worth noting, however, that as gamers become more involved in long-term social networks such as guilds and their activities become more "hardcore" (e.g., marked by participation in large-scale collaborative problem-solving endeavors such as "raids" into difficult territories or castle sieges), the function of MMOs as "third places" begins to wane.
  • It may be, then, that the structure and function of MMOs as third places is one part of the "life cycle" for some gamers in a given title.
  • In such cases, MMOs appear to enable a different kind of sociability, one ostensibly recognizable as a "community" nonetheless.
  • However, our research findings indicate that this conclusion is uninformed. To argue that MMO game play is isolated and passive media consumption in place of informal social engagement is to ignore the nature of what participants actually do behind the computer screen
  • Perhaps it is not that contemporary media use has led to a decline in civic and social engagement, but rather that a decline in civic and social engagement has led to retribalization through contemporary media (McLuhan, 1964).
  • Such a view, however, ignores important nuances of what "community" means by pronouncing a given social group/place as either wholly "good" or "bad" without first specifying which functions the online community ought to fulfill.
  • Moreover, despite the semantics of the term, "weak" ties have been shown to be vital in communities, relationships, and opportunities.
  • is to what extent such environments shift the existing balance between bridging and bonding
  • In light of Putnam's evidence of the decline of crucial civic and social institutions, it may well be that the classification "lacking bridging social capital" best characterizes the everyday American citizen. T
  • Without bridging relationships, individuals remain sheltered from alternative viewpoints and cultures and largely ignorant of opportunities and information beyond their own closely bound social network.
  • it seems ironic that, now of all times, we would ignore one possible solution to our increasingly vexed relationship with diversity.
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