Second Life and eLearning: the quest

Jay Cross walsed me to an corporate blog entry of Tony O'Driscoll. The podcast of Thomas Malone (June 2007) talks about the important shift to more freedom for future workers. Tony O'D is comparing it to the shift towards democracy... well, I dream about more humanised and personal designed workloads, so I am definitely into this change. The only remark I have in looking at MMORPGs as free decision making environments is... the fact that you need to walk the path within the game. The only freedom in the game is limited to those choices that were designed in the game itself.

And an interesting article 'Another Life' of both Jay and Tony in eLearn magazine. With an added bonus to the Second Life - Moodle mash-up: Sloodle.

Sloodle! I will know what to do in my sparetime this vacation.

Because my educational Institute is involved in education with developing countries, Second Life seems far off. On the other hand new technologies get embraced more rapid in these regions once ICT/mobile network kicks in.
To try-out all possibilities I will form a group of 'scouts' within the institute to try out the Second Life environment, make a network and brainstorm about educational possibilities.

second life wiki

reading up on possible implications of second life at the wiki of Jo Kay and Sean FitzGerald.

and found an interesting link at Tony Karrer which send me to a Harvard Law course which uses the Second Life environment.

trying out second life

Second life is used for eLearning purposes... but does it work? What is the outcome? Well, at least I got myself a name, now all I need to do is adjust my avatar.

To get started I enrolled myself in the Gender Square. This landmark was developed by a friend of mine Jewel.

enterprise 2.0 from Helen

A great post about enterprise 2.0 by Helen and picked up by social computing magazine.

Moodling

just reading up on Moodle again, this timeo on Dennis O'Connor's edublog.

reshaping an Institute to become Web2.0 literate? No problem

Moving an Institute of around 350 colleagues and with students that consist of medical professionals from developing countries into the web-era... that is easy. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh. Let me see, the only things that need to be done are:

get some key-people interested,
consider gender and cultural differences,
get peer-2-peer interaction going,
map communities that are already existing and lure them into the virtual world,
get them acquainted with new softwares,
let them enjoy themselves,
build their online awareness and self confidence,
map a learning trajectory so the ones that are interested can get into the social learning software if they want to, but do not want to jump into it alone
...

Somewhere along these lines change is possible, but from time to time, I just look like this:


Luckily I am part of a very creative and innovative team that makes any work look like fun.

10 Open Source Apps

This post says it all: 10 open source applications you can't live without. BTW: I really love audicity.

Unicef proposal almost finished

At ITM we are currently working on an eLearning proposal for Unicef. We have made it to the shortlist. The last preparations of the annex are almost finished so we all keep our fingers crossed.

Red Hot Learning Rocks!

Great news from the gaming front. Red Hot Learning was a finalist in the prestigious Games for Change event in New York. They got a lot of media attention with their Redistricting Game.

Go forth and play!

powerpoint or not, humour or not in eLearning

A reoccuring topic in our institute is whether or not humour is a functional tool in eLearning and whether or not Powerpoints can be used in eLearning.

As a stand-up-edian, I am of course all in favor for humour as a tool to engage the students mind. A classic example in why engaging the student is very important can be found in the movie Ferris Bueller's day off on YouTube.


For those who doubt if humour can add to the learning process:
This example has been used by Donald Clark manager and learning specialist.

Powerpoint discussion: there has been a long discussion on the use of powerpoint in eLearning, the latest in that discussion.
If you want to know more about the discussion on the use of powerpoints.

Written by eLearning specialist Tony Karrer.

knowledge sharepoints

Today I was working with eXe again. While I was working it dawned on me that I could make little meaningful icons. I started using 'do', 'knowledge sharepoint' as symbols in the courses were students were asked to either do something outside the course or share their knowledge.

a learning sponge

There are days that I just feel as if the only thing I am doing is absorbing content and information. But then, if I look at this I can calm myself and reflect on the amount of knowledge that is out there.

netvibes

While reorganising my netvibes.

Must confess the learning curves for using new softwares that link to a personal knowledge environment are getting smaller and smaller.

eXe nice and easy

Working all day long on an eLearning module on PEP for HIV in eXe.

the quest for a Web2.0 graphic organic tool

Browsing the net for web2.0 tools left me with a void: what about my graphic diary - PLE?

since I was a child I make drawings in my diary. Now that I have crossed the digital bridge, I blog, but I just cannot seem to find a tool that enables me to make a graphic evolutionary diary.
You know the Chinese/Ethiopian/Japanese scrolls? (a nice online example) The really long ones that have a book/movie-like feeling because of the big amount of images used. I have diaries just like that on which I added images that build the comic book of my life in one big scroll. But ever since I crossed over to the digital diary - which also mapped my learning progress - my life's scroll has somewhat come to a halt. It would be nice if the images could be linked (easy) but also that I could constantly add drawings to the big wall I already have.

Does any of you know a tool that makes this possible? or would anybody be interested on working on such a tool? or does anybody of you know who would like to work on it? (do you feel a bit of the desperateness of my quest?)

SCoPE seminar on personal learning environments

yesterday a new scope seminar started on personal learning environments.

and an online conference on the future of education started at the University of Manitoba.

all this accessable knowledge... viva Web.

6C Learning Blog: The new RELOAD has arrived

6C Learning Blog: The new RELOAD has arrived

I am going to try this new open source software. Thanx Bert!

screenwriter's bible

In my 20-ies I walked around on some movie sets. This was mainly because my lover at the time was studying to be a director (later to become a multimedia specialist). And lately the past has come back to light an old fire: screen writing.
I just cannot keep myself from reading several books at the same time and I found this one: the screenwriter's bible by David Trottier.

As an eLearning provider I use the screenwriting techniques to enhance the storyboards of the courses I design. Will they ever become eLearning blockbusters?

And the subject is gendered throughout the book. The thing that also immediately got my attention is the way he changes gender in his sentences. He always switches the main character's gender and that makes the book much more genderneutral. I was also really surprised that a leading book just decides on doing this and ... it really works. I found myself much more connected because the male and female subject was used that much in the grammar decisions of the book.

The content of course is also very functional and gives ideas on every page. An inspiring pageturner.

informal learning book

This weekend I rewarded myself: I am reading "Informal learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance" written by Jay Cross.

Page 80 .... more, more I tell ya, I want to read more! ....

easy collaboration on 1 - ONE - document

ok, today I found a solution for something that my colleagues have been harrasing me about for some months now: a software that makes it easy to work on with a lot of people.
coventi pages

I really have to thank Anol of Soul Soup for his great post. Great!

folksonomy

I keep restructuring my folksonomy.... argh!!!

unconferences

Al dan niet gaan naar de blogosphere unconference in Seattle, Washington?


Still thinking about it.... Well... darn, I won't go. Finances. I wish they had a 'I recommend you go!' button.