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Ahhh...my favorite place...second life and virtual worlds! I was watching a video and found a speaker named Terry B, a prof at Montana State U. His strikingly beautiful virtual hair lead to instant "virtual love."

Do you spend much time in SL? I have 2 avatars but haven't been in ages.

No Jen...I just got crazy after that lesson in Wiggins on Backward Design. Then when I read your postings in Diigo, I researched it a bit more. Never seen an Avatara or a virtual world (as posted in this citing) or until last night when I read this post and the one I posted on Avatara. I play Farmville on Facebook now and then and Cafe World. Other than that, I escape into the recesses of my own mind and create my own reality in cyperspace. I cannot take serious too long. Sometimes reality hits me like a ton of bricks and I retreat to the only place I feel safe...creation and humor. Intellectuals get too stuffy for me. I like action!

In the Summer of 2010, I taught an online class called the Fundamentals of Interactive Entertainment for the University of Tasmania, via the Human Interface Technology Lab under the sponsorship of Dr. Thomas Furness of the University of Washington. This course provides an overview of interactive media - video games and real-time interactive simulations. It includes information concerning the history, theory, technology, design, and social impact of these emerging communications media. The course consists of thirteen modules, and in the Summer of 2010, was made up of two weekly events: 1) A lab session which met every Tuesday to provide discussions, team planning meetings, and hands-exercises and 2) a live classroom session which was videocast directly from Seattle to a University of Tasmania classroom in Launceston, Australia. I posted more information regarding this project on my Web2.0 Chronicle blog. PLEASE NOTE: This narrated screencast runs two minutes past the 5 minute recommendation given by Jennifer.

Bruce, applying the Boettcher/Conrad 10 Best Practices to a course you have already taught, was brilliant! It is always a source of learning when we can go back and critique our own work, finding needed areas of improvement or simply discovering how "right on" we were from the get-go! I enjoyed seeing this piece of your creativity!

I found your presentation very smooth and professional.

I just finished reading E-Habits, by Elizabeth Charnock, CEO of the company who puts out this blog. It was fascinating (and scary!).

I think there's more of an opportunity for us to recognize that with so many different ways to communicate, the nuances of interpersonal communication are more important than ever. I think the people who will be successful, are the ones who truly learn to connect with their audience and make the digital seem personal. I grew up with a dad who taught English and was an Air Force public affairs officer. My writing style has always been formal, and cold, and I've had to learn to add warmth in digital spaces. I'm still trying to figure it out!

My experience with your style is you are very intellectually based in your writing style, while your personal style when dealing with this student was warm and open, encouraging and sharing. Okay, it is one opinion among many, I am certain; but this one is mine. I spent many years with the military as a family member and the mother of soldiers. One has to be careful in the civilian world when it comes to interacting with others, because military directness and crispness can get in the way of showing warmth and interest. Hopefully, I have mastered a more civilian way of speaking over the past several years.

Just click and play. If you want to know what kinds of skills your students need and will be using in just 5 years from now, it may be important to follow futurists and developing technology...for instance, holograms and touchable holograms which will certainly benefit medical students. I had the experience of a robotic operation using the De Vinci robot. Only a handful of doctors were able to operate this way. Mine was a prof at UW, a respected researcher with Fred Hutch and a practicing surgeon with Swedish. Swedish was, at the time, the only hospital with that capability. He sat at a computer...several feet away and operated by looking at the computer.

P.S. It was major sugery and I was sent home the next day. I was back to work in less that two weekends and one work week!

What do you think about this?

A novel way to address shrinking school budgets that mandate class size. Usually elearning means there is a price tag for setting and maintaining the computers, programs, and internet. Maybe there was a different part of the budget that paid for the environment. I agree with the comments at the end of the article - primarily because of my own experience and just common sense in thinking about it - that a blended environment is probably the most effective.

A study by the US Government has concluded hybrid classes are the most productive learning environments for elearners. Florida's virtual studies are counter to logic. I for one would not want to be a student in that classroom. I would revolt!! Ahhh...not to be confused with starting a revolution ( which just might be needed).

I'll withhold judgment on this. What do you think?

I have one thought about this. California has been ahead of WA when it comes to turning out online teacher/instructors for community colleges. I could get the training I am now, at the U of CA (not certain which one) and at U of Utah; but this program on BC is new.

This is my portfolio post for week 5

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_17396167?nclick_check=1 - This is an OpEd piece by David Brooks of the New York Times, which came out this week. "It could be that the nature of technlogical changes is (causing) a shift in values". This is not an opinion about education, but goes to the point about preparing students for the future/present even that assumes technology. Maybe our values are and how we assess things has to evolve, as well.

I truly thought that blog was thought provoking! I absolutely agree about changing values. But, I think that change must come from this generation and what they want for themselves, for their community and for their country. Hopefully they can think that broadly about themselves and the world. I believe they can and do!

Another review on Turkle's "Alone Together."

OMG...how totally eerie. How predictive! Amazing, thanks for sharing that Bruce.

The "cultural rachet effect" was particularly interesting to me. (For grown-ups, learning a new skill is painful, attention-demanding, and slow. Children learn unconsciously and effortlessly. Because of this, each new generation rapidly acquires all the accumulated innovations of the past without even knowing it. ) It becomes the new "normal", so rather than the computer, for example, being something new, its integrated as part of lives. It changes our footprint in the world and, therefore, the world.

This was shared by professor Alec Couros on Twitter this morning.  skim through the comments and see how many people are responding to help this person have a virtual world tour before they pass.  It's certainly interesting to observe. Of course, you never know if this is a truthful post, but it's interesting to see how it is handled by online society.

And an interesting response to it all. https://img.skitch.com/20110306-njsrk6k5wk8kjesmsf87hc8s6.jpg

Hmmm..rather disturbing. I think committing suicide is a violation of everything I value about humanity and life. Yet, I can only imagine some of the horrors this person has gone through and must go through to die. My son made his decision and I can never know if he regretted it at the tender age of 19. I am not certain why some of us have to suffer as this person is. I can not say what my choice would be, if it were me and it easily could be. But I do believ,e if there is a God, somehow there would or should be a purpose to the suffering.

This well written article gives pointers to teachers on how to discourage plagiarism in their classes as well as how to teach students about plagiarism in a positive light before it occurs. Very helpful!

I think this Virtual Salt article does a good job outlining the reasons why students plagiarize. While poor time management and procrastination are major factors, I also think that students are afraid of looking stupid by using their own writing styles - especially with international students. My policy regarding plagiarism now is to "fire a shot across the bow - to make sure that a student understands how serious un-cited work or ideas can be. What follows is an example of an evaluation that I wrote for what I consider to be very good student, who should've known better. It was simple to discover the plagiarized material by putting a suspected plagiarized phrase in quotes and pasting into a Google search box. That approach works very well in my experience. *********** Evaluation note to a student who plagiarized content **************** Your assignment was copied and pasted directly from an online essay called "The Impact of the Information Revolution", written by Kerby Anderson at the following URL: a href="http://www.lifeway.com/" This is plagiarism. I can't emphasize how serious this is. Repeat occurrences can get you kicked out of school and can have a long term impact on your academic record. It also represents a careless and irresponsible attitude towards your work at Bellevue College. On a personal level, I'm also surprised and disappointed, since you've been a good student up to this point in the class. Since this is a 100 level communications class, I'm giving you zero points for this project. If it happens again, I'll fail you from this course, and will also notify the office of the Dean of Student Services, to let them know that there were instances of plagiarism on your part. If you feel that this action is unfair or unreasonable, you may contact XXXXX, Chair of the Communications Department at xxxxx@bellevuecollege.edu.

I found both comments and the presentation an interesting read. Maybe students plagiarize because of the pressures inside the system of education and in the business world. I have never felt the need; but I have felt the need to get good grades. I use to spend three days studying before finals and sometimes without sleep (no drugs) and then crash for 24 hours...sleeping. I did more than most students and worked hard to stay on the Dean's list. By the time I entered my doctoral program it was so cocmpetitive, I started rethinking the reason I had for being there. It was not a pleasant expereience. You had to be a 3.65 or higher just to get into the program and then write a reseach paper and defend it before a committee of three to just get in the door.

For the past year or so, I've been meaning to join up with a group exploring the use of multiparticipant virtual worlds for education. This activity gave me the chance to check out one of the best resource sites for this topic - RezEd at .http://rezedhub.ning.com/ . More information regarding my experience is posted on my blog. If you watch my RezEd presentation, please remember to turn on your computer audio - otherwise it won't make much sense... :-)

"The current and future health of America's 21st Century Economy depends directly on how broadly and deeply Americans reach a new level of literacy--'21st Century Literacy'--that includes strong academic skills, thinking, reasoning, teamwork skills, and proficiency in using technology.", says the 21st Century Workforce Commission National Alliance of Business

Another great read and thanks, Ann. Something this article doesn't address is the growing concern about the "digital divide." Not all segments of our society has equal access to the internet. I recently heard a lecture at NSCC addressing this problem. Many outlining districts in urban areas(and rural areas) do not have the infrastructure to receive Wi-Fi. Students is poor neighborhoods (many who don't have computers at home) must go to their local public library to get internet access. Yes, our public school system needs to incorporate more technology "know-how" into their curriculum and instruction, but equally as important, our society needs to take a closer look at what segments of society are presently at a big disadvantage in terms of equal access to technology, both in and out of school. As technology redefines what it means to be "literate," then we also must address equity and accessibility to resources.

Helen, I like your astute comments and observations. The poor in this country may have access to computers in the library and at school, but many of them are homeless and living in cars. Anywhere from 2000-5000 people are homeless in King County and 80% of these people are women with children and suffering from DV incidents. If we go further, I have a friend working in Chimbote, Peru. Most of the people living in the barrios do not even have running water, much less the ability to buy or use computers. I suspect worldwide, you would see extremely large percentages of children without food much less computer access or skills.

The future of computers are not only surface with multi points of movement but holograms or actually virtual picture of the people talking or instructing. You might want to look at what the futurist are saying and predicting. This is what our students will be working with and then some. Nano tech will make it even better with less.

So there's another learning moment. As an instructor, what are our expectations about student access to technology? We used to have to be much more selective about the tools we used. We had to assume the lowest tech skills, and connections. It's not that rigid any more. Also, institutions have different guidelines. Have you seen this page? http://bellevuecollege.edu/distance/skills.asp

Oh I loved the DV telepresence Immersion Room. What a great way to teach in the future. I think touchable holograms is even better! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3seTlvQtIgc&feature=related

This is from last year, but it's got some important considerations in it. You've got to watch it until the end to get the full message, though.

The observation in this video is quite powerful. We have always been motivated by incentives, but the internet and technology has taken this to a new level. Small incentives can become big ones. We've always behaved this way - like coupons for food - a few cents makes a different buying decision. However, his discussion on how egames have become a major financial source for Facebook and the virtual world is replacing the "authentic" world shows how technology is transformational. The point - about how everything we do is being recorded and kept - and will this change how we behave is true.

As an optional resource, a youtube introduction to MOOCs ((Massive, Open Online Courses) is given. As I understand it, MOOCs the "term" basically describing a collaborative "blog" on a topic. The concept is that courses can be offered with everyone who wants to to participate and/or take the course. The above link, I think is a good example of a MOOC and it is on eLearning. Similiar to EDU251 there is content proferred, as well as ways to comments and connect to other relavent websites. You can explore the site, but liked the definition of elearning: Elearning is the use of any type of technology in improving learning. At it's most basic level, it is email...at it's most advanced, it is an online course (or simulation, or virtual reality, or...well, you get the point)

Oh darn, I have to go to work. I will look at this one too.

Wow! Now there is an example of inspiration. Thank you for sharing that video!

Thank you for finding this video which I plan to share with our 2 daughters who are trying to navigate and find their footing in our educational system. I wonder if this project is getting any Federal $ from Arne Duncan. I doubt it which is what often happens with innovative projects -sustainable funding and operations always come up short. It certainly brings home the point that not only do we need to integrate technology into the learning environment, but the entire school/classroom structure, as a learning environment, must change - a major overhaul.

I haven't actually watched the video. During virtual office hours last night, I was demonstrating how I find things people share on Twitter. This was one of the links we followed, so I bookmarked it for us to look at later. I'll take a look when I get a chance. It's an office day for me today, so it might get hectic!

I think I may have shared this before, but it came up during virtual office hours last night, so I posted it here just in case.

In our virtual office hours last night, we talked about what it's like having a guest presenter in an Elluminate session. This is just an example of one who visited our Health IT class. Only 1 student showed, so it's a bit awkward.

I was happy to join a session in Elluminate that Jennifer hosted. It was truly an interesting exerience. Her guests were well versed on the subject matter and it was a bit too short at about an hour.