eLearning It CoP

Design and Teach Your Course

2012-01-07T07:13:00.001-05:00

Carnegie Mellon provides information for designing and teaching a course here...

Astronomy in Second Life: A User’s Perspective

2012-01-07T06:53:00.002-05:00

While a bit dated, the following information can be a guide to developing a learning environment at virtual worlds for your astronomy class...
Second Life (SL) is a multi-user virtual environment that is not limited to adult social entertainment. SL is also a 3D playground for innovative instructors and education/outreach professionals in the sciences. Astronomy and space science have a presence in SL, but it could be so much more. This paper describes some of the current astronomy themed spaces in SL and briefly discusses future innovations. Review more, click here...

It’s All About Social Media. Or is It?

2012-01-06T13:04:00.001-05:00

Just not for students any more...Collaboration is a valuable learning tool. By enabling a rich collaborative experience, the organization as a whole can benefit from captured intellectual property and a more engaged workforce. Social media can help bridge the gap between people and solutions, building stronger communities and relationships. In this article from the Winter 2012 issue of Training Industry Quarterly e-magazine, we will examine how to build a sustainable and productive social experience to increase satisfaction and retention. Click here to review several articles on the subject...

How the Brain Learns

2012-01-04T09:23:00.000-05:00

Donald Ford, PhD, notes, "We have known since antiquity that the seat of learning is the human brain. But it has only been in the last decade that neuroscience researchers have been able to go inside the brain and observe how learning actually occurs at the molecular level. " Click here to read more...

Learning is not sufficiently valued...

2012-01-04T09:16:00.001-05:00

For centuries, trainers have believed that the classroom is the optimal mechanism for transferring learning. Today's digital revolution is challenging this long-held assumption. To read more, click here...

Key Trends for 2012: New Era of Personal Learning is Transforming the Training Industry

2012-01-04T09:05:00.001-05:00

You may not have noticed, but a new era is quietly dawning on the training industry. It represents a change that is both profound and permanent. For more...click here.

Instructional Design ~ The Foundation

2012-01-02T13:02:00.001-05:00

Robert M. Branch of University of Georgia wrote. "Instructional design is a process for generating strategies devoted almost exclusively to seeking ways to close a performance discrepancy (gap) that is caused by a lack of knowledge and skills. The displayed drawings illustrates a performance gap and the three categories of reasons for such a gap." Read more...

Grids gain 915 regions; InWorldz is busiest...

2012-01-02T10:48:00.003-05:00

Hypergrid Business article writer, Maria Korolov, starts with, "The top 40 OpenSim grids gained 915 new regions since this time last month, bringing the total number of regions on these grids to 21,595, a new record high." Read more...

Games: Improving Education

2011-12-27T03:54:00.002-05:00

Educators increasingly recognize the impact of entertainment software and utilize games as a teaching device in a growing number of classrooms and business settings. In doing so, they are embracing the cultural and technological shifts of the 21st century and expanding the use of a favorite leisure activity, computer and video games, into a critical and still-emerging educational resource. More than just play, entertainment software helps impart knowledge, develop life skills and reinforce positive habits in students of all ages. Read more...

Teaching English in Multiple User Virtual Environments

2011-12-21T13:39:00.004-05:00

Teaching English in Multiple User Virtual Environments

Jerome Bump wrote a 19 point paper on one of the books he reviewed. Earlier in these pages, Myron Tuman’s 'Word Perfect: Literacy in the Computer Age', seems even more prophetic now than in 1992.

Educators touted, "my students chose Second Life, and they loved it. It proved to be a great spot for the sort of semi-ethographic research they're required to do, and they totally enjoyed the environment."

Read his 19 point paper on the subject.

Virtual World Home

2011-12-21T12:42:00.008-05:00

The CoP Instructional Design 4 Educators at Kuwol is now open and home to reference Second Life (SL) activities for all educational disciplines from k-12 and higher learning levels. Please stop by and explore, especially contributions of SL educators.

The above link (SLURL) connects you to our designated Second Life SL location. Must or should have an active account. See below.

All information and student projects shared can be recreated at 181 known Virtual Grids, although, only 84 Grids are actually occupied.

Second Life highlights some of the most fun & noteworthy places to visit. From role-playing, to music, to virtual pets, meetings/conferences, hot spots, tours & chat (IM). An experience for everyone. While many call SL a game (aka, Mind Craft, Call of Duty), it is a Multiple User Virtual Environment(MUVE). The learning curve can be somewhat challenging if new to virtual worlds, but once you understand the way Avatars work, the experience is endless.

As Educators, you will have the opportunity to work with other savvy Educators and Librarians who have been active in immersive and interactive virtual world projects for some time.

If you need an account, it is free.
Second Life account for starters, join here... Second Life Free Account

Once at the SL orientation circle using your viewer...
Click on the above SLURL to Kuwol.

Breaking the Second Life Learning Curve

2010-02-18T13:36:00.001-05:00

Great video below developed by educator Joe Sanchez

Supporting Online Faculty

2010-02-01T08:53:00.001-05:00

Since 2005, the landscape of online teaching and learning has changed as well as the landscape of the academy, and continues to transform before our eyes. These changes are not only a product of technological innovation, but also a result of new and reconceptualized values of higher education, and so we reexamine what changes to faculty role, position and perspectives best support these new values in this study.

A Methodology for Measuring Usability Evaluation Skills Using the Constructivist Theory and the Second Life Virtual World

2010-01-19T17:33:00.002-05:00

The skills of usability analysts are crucial to software success, so mastery of these skills is essential. This study presents a methodology for teaching and measuring usability evaluation skills of graduate students using the constructivist theory, diaries, checklists, and final reports. As part of the study, read more...

Teaching Teachers to Use Blended Learning

2010-01-01T06:56:00.002-05:00

This paper suggests that Blended learning is not simply the addition of ICT into traditional face-to-face subjects. It is about integrating the relative strengths of face-to-face teaching and online learning to provide a range of learning spaces where students can interact and construct knowledge.

Symbolic vs. Connectionist

2009-12-31T20:02:00.003-05:00

Marvin Minsky, in his paper, does not subscribe to extremist views. Instead, he argues that Artificial Intelligence must employ many approaches. Artificial Intelligence is not like circuit theory and electromagnetism. So why is there so much excitement about Neural Networks today, and how is this related to research on Artificial Intelligence and Learning Design?

What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education.

2009-12-04T08:40:00.004-05:00

At the end of 2006, Time magazine’s Person of the Year was ‘You’. On the cover of the magazine, underneath the title of the award, was a picture of a PC with a mirror in place of the screen, reflecting not only the face of the reader, but also the general feeling that 2006 was the year of the Web - a new, improved, 'second version', 'user generated' Web. But how accurate is our perception of so-called 'Web 2.0'?

Adult Learning Model for Virtual World Residents with Disabilities

2009-09-17T22:09:00.003-04:00

This study was shared by Gentle Heron, of Virtual Ability Island, managed by Virtual Ability, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation based in Colorado. This great study presents a clear understanding of target users as key components for developing optimal design for the Island.

PUTTING A SECOND LIFE “METAVERSE” SKIN ON LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

2009-08-19T07:59:00.002-04:00

This paper outlines the advantages and weaknesses of Multi-User Virtual Environments for teaching and explores the possible benefits of integrating them closely with traditional Learning Management
Systems.

The teachers gave their opinions about integrating SL and Learning Management Systems (LMS) (WebCT, Blackboard, Moodle and other LMS) in their classrooms.

Implications of Online Learning for the Conceptual Development and Practice of Distance Education

2009-07-17T19:30:00.005-04:00

The purpose of Randy Garrison's article is to examine the foundational principles and practices of distance education in the context of recent developments in the areas of online learning. The point is made that online learning had its genesis apart from mainstream distance education. As a result, it is argued that distance education has not fully embraced the collaborative potential of online learning. The paper concludes with the question of whether or not the concepts and practices of distance education can be reformulated and aligned to incorporate the potential and possibilities of online learning.

Distance Education in the Digital Age: Common Misconceptions and Challenging Tasks

2009-07-17T19:23:00.003-04:00

Sarah Guri-Rosenblit's article discusses in its first part three common misconceptions related to the operation of distance education providers in the digital age: The tendency to relate to e-learning as the new generation of distance education; the confusion between ends and means of distance education; and the absence of the teacher’s crucial role in the discourse on knowledge construction. The second part of the article examines four challenging tasks for the future development of distance education in the digital age: Bridging over the digital divide; designing cost effective modes of utilizing the new technologies; redesigning the roles of actors in the distributed teaching responsibility within the industrial model of distance education; and creating effective quality assurance mechanisms.

Labor Day

2009-07-09T08:55:00.003-04:00

Virtual Worlds Come Alive at AECT 2008 Convention

2009-06-21T09:00:00.006-04:00

From the pages of TechTrends comes the following excerpts on the first AECT 2008 Virtual World Convention...
Thursday morning, November 6, 2008 began like most days at the AECT Convention with technicians frantically checking equipment, making last minute adjustments; presenters hustling to locate their rooms; and participants maneuvering to find a good vantage point, booting notebooks, and logging on to networks. But this was not just another session.After months of meetings, preparation, and anticipation, it was finally time to unveil the long-awaited venture into the unknown, to “go where no convention has gone before,” well, at least at AECT.

The makers of Second Life, Linden Lab, a San Francisco-based corporation, define their creation as “an online society within a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents, where they can explore, build, socialize and participate in their own economy” (Linden Lab, 2007). SL provides a collaborative, immersive, and open-ended experience where people create and inhabit a virtual world of their own design.

The Horizon Report on Emerging Technology 2008

2009-06-21T08:20:00.003-04:00

The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a five-year qualitative research effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations.

The main sections of the report describe six emerging technologies or practices that will likely enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years.

ROLE PLAYING IN EDUCATION

2009-05-30T11:21:00.003-04:00

A revised paper (2002) by Adam Blatner, M.D. on role playing, a derivative of a sociodrama, is a method for exploring the issues involved in complex social situations. It may be used for the training of professionals or in a classroom for the understanding of literature, history, and even science.