Social Networking, Second Life, & Virtual Reality

             In the Yee, et. al, (2007) article “The Unbearable Likeness of Being Digital: The Persistence of Nonverbal Social Norms in Online Virtual Environments” many concepts of social norms were tested in an massively-multiplayer online role-playing game.  This study sought to determine if “social norms of gender, interpersonal distance (IPD), and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments even though the modality of movement is entirely different” (p. 115).  This study took “snapshots” of avatars interactions in different surroundings (indoor vs. outdoor) in an online multiplayer game to see if the principles that govern human interactions normally (taking turns in conversation, social gaze, distance between interacting people, etc.) applied in the virtual world also.  What this study found through ANOVA comparison was that “the rules that govern our physical bodies in the real world have come to govern our embodied identities in the virtual world” (p. 120). As the researchers hypothesized, IPD was larger with the male-male avatars, and that mutual gaze was inversely correlated with IPD, which supported the Equilibrium Theory (p. 119).  The data also showed that eye gaze regulates conversation even in the digital world (p. 119).

            The question is- why is this study significant? The findings of the study support the use of this sort of technology in testing behavioral science theories, as well as expose people to unique situations that are not possible in the real world.  For educators, this can be applied to instruction in two specific ways. First, with students who are exhibiting disruptive behaviors in the classroom, this type of virtual world may provide them an opportunity to experiences some social exposure in a positive way without constant discipline, especially those children with Autism or the like.  This gives them an opportunity to practice real life behavioral skills. Secondly, this type of environment may work extremely well in preparing students in higher order critical thinking skills. Allowing them a free environment to create their own world with their achievements in the game and virtual relationships can be invaluable to preparing them for real world situations. As this study shows, social norms are consistent in a virtual game often, so in a controlled environment educators can better assist students with real life social lessons as well as things such as budgeting and life planning.  These things require math, economics, and reading, following directions, and comprehension skills in addition to the social development it offers.

            In the Kamel Boulos, et. al, (2007) article, the use of the Second Life interface was studied to determine its educational potential to medical/health librarians and educators (p. 233). This study explored what roles this 3D virtual world can play in health education and literacy at a variety of ages and knowledge levels.  This virtual platform provides people with the opportunity to learn about nutrition in a fun way, listen to heart sounds to identify murmurs, and even explore a 3D eukaryotic cell (p. 235). One of the major capabilities highlighted was the opportunity for people to experience a variety of mental illness, like hallucinations for example, in an effort to educate them about mental illness.  This study also looked at how “avatars may yet play a crucial role in the success or failure of education” (p. 240).  Overall, this article found that Second Life offers many advantages found to the field of education by providing “students with a psychologically safe environment within which they can participate in experiential learning” (p. 240).

            In an educational environment several concepts of Second Life can be applied to the classroom setting to enhance student’s learning.  Especially in higher education- namely health professionals, the applications presented in this article can easily be implemented to help students in medicine/nursing/dentistry to learn disease process, and give them an advanced in depth view of things that previously they have only been able to see in textbooks.  The authors also pointed out how this technology can be used with those people who have physical disabilities that render it difficult to maneuver out of the home.  For general purposes with this population, this platform offers an invaluable social, psychological, and educational experience.  The use of this virtual environment offers an immersive and rich experience for students in all fields of education. 

            In the Lenhart (2009) “Adults and social network websites” article, the author highlights several key ways that people are using social networking sites in their personal and professional lives.  She found that 65% of teens and 35% of adults are using some form of social medial in their lives, and although adults are much less likely than teens, they are still seeing several benefits.  Adults were found to use social media for personal more than professional reasons, but also claimed to use it for gaming purposes.

            As someone interested in higher education, I found this article to be interesting mostly because it focused on adult use of social media where usually research focuses on children & teenage use of social media.  We have explored several reasons why social media and interned based applications are valuable to education at all levels from elementary to higher education, but few articles have looked at how adults are experiencing social media daily.  Because the benefits of adding internet based applications to educational experiences are so overwhelming, it is important to not only teach students but also adult educators how to utilize this technology.  Social media and internet based applications offer students a way to interact with each other and material in a way never before possible.  They trick is getting educators to buy-in and get comfortable with this technology so that they are integrating it into their classrooms.  The Lenhart (2009) article shed some light on how adults are using social media and this is helpful in determining the best way to engage them further in it.  The advantages that technology has to offer to education are invaluable to how students these days want and need to be presented information, it is an educators job to become comfortable with this technology to give students the opportunity to learn and grow in an environment that is becoming largely technology based.

References

Lenhart, A. (2009). Adults and social network websites. PEW Internet &

         American Life Project

Kamel Boulos, M. N., Hetherington, L., & Wheeler, S. (2007). Second life: An
        overview of the potential 3-d virtual worlds in medical and health education.
        Health Information and Libraries Journal, 24, 233-245.
        doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2007.00733

Yee, N., Bailenson, J. N., Urbanek, M., Chang, F., & Merget, D. (2007). The unbearable likeness of being digital: The persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(1), 115-121. doi: 10.1089

Self-Determination Theory

            Everything we accomplish in life takes some form of motivation to do. Whether the motivation is external or internal does not make a huge difference, it just has to be present.  One of the largest challenges in education as a teacher is to find a way to help students develop intrinsic motivation through the use of external factors, such as rewards, grades, and praise.  The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) examines the roles these concepts play, through focusing on “the interplay between the extrinsic forces acting on persons and the intrinsic motives and needs inherent in human nature” (Deci). 

            This theory explores human motivation and personality in cognitive and social development (Deci).  Self-Determination Theory seeks to examine how social factors foster or prohibit intrinsic motivation and therefore affect quality of performance.  The main factors taken into account for this theory are a person’s feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness; it is hypothesized that when a person experiences a high level of these three factors their motivation is high and thus so is the quality of their work.  The opposite also applies- if a person feels that these three abilities are unsupported in a social setting, their intrinsic motivation will be low in that setting.

            The main assumption of SDT is that “people are active organisms, with evolved tendencies toward growing, mastering ambient challenges, and integrating new experiences into a coherent sense of self” that require “ongoing social nutrients and support” (Deci).  This theory is made up of five mini-theories: Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET), Organismic Integration Theory (OIT), Causality Orientations Theory (COT), Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT), and Goal Contents Theory (GCT).  Each of these mini-theories explains a different aspect of how motivation plays an important role in social and psychological contexts (Deci). 

            The Self-Determination Theory plays a large role in present day education which is demonstrated in the current widely adopted grading and evaluation systems used in virtually every school district.  In a social context, being the child with a failing grade can affect a child’s feeling of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which can according to this theory affect the child’s motivation.  There are several ways an internet-based application can be incorporated in the classroom to help student’s motivation by the concepts highlighted in the STD.  The concept of an online badge system is one perfect example of how to utilize an online system to enhance intrinsic motivation and the student’s feeling of achievement.

            In an online badge system, a student gets a “piece” of the badge for each specific activity they complete, and because the activities can be adjusted based on skill level, an educator is able to level the playing field for students through customization features.  This provides motivation to complete learning activities for an external reward (a piece of the badge), and builds feelings of autonomy, competency, and relatedness in students. As children are able to on their own complete activities, they are able to feel that they have the skills to complete other activities.  The badge system is set up based on student profiles, so no other student knows how his or her classmates are doing unless he or she shares with them.

            This platform ties nicely into developing concepts that are key in SDT.  The online badge system presents new challenges to students after they have mastered previous ones and always presents an external reward.  The personal drive to achieve completion of tasks in order to obtain more badges will grow as the student begins to feel more autonomous and capable of doing so, and the environment allows for educator support and minimal social confrontation or discomfort with peers as it moves away from a traditional grading scale.

References:

Deci, E. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory

Social Media in 500 Words or Less!

Social media is appealing to the young because they can keep up with their friends and know what everyone else is doing, virtually all the time!! Older adults, like my grandparents, are using Facebook and LinkedIn to re-establish connections with friends and co-workers that they have lost track of over the years, with the exception of a Christmas card.  There is a ton of appeal in social media for all ages, it allows people to maintain contact, to admire from a distance, and to engage with people they may have otherwise left touch with. For me, I use Facebook the most, but I have started to also follow more pages than people, currently my favorite is Chris Powell (fitness and lifestyle celebrity) and the Healthy Eating for Life page.  I do follow my friends and my family members who are spread all over the country, but I mostly preview new baby pictures and see what people are up to. The problem is that what you put out there you can’t get back, so it has to be carefully thought out.

In the educational arena, I feel that Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) engage students in self-directed and group based learning that focuses on flexibility and customization (Johnson, Adams, & Haywood, 2011, p. 30).  This technology shifts the approach of teachers to the role of a guide; helping students to develop their learning goals, plans, and tools, instead of the leader, which could be considered a drawback.  This concept allows student to learn at their own pace and in a manner that best suits them, which are two huge advantages.  The 2009 Horizon Report stated that the use of PLE’s and social media in school is severely “hampered by access and filtering policies” and that the restrictions set up to keep poor content out can also block out some of the resources that are useful and engaging to students (Johnson, Levine & Smith, 2009).  Although I think some of these things have been resolved since 2009, the use of PLE’s is nowhere near where it should be. As someone who has always devoured material at an extremely fast pace, I was often bored in school and eventually began to despise going.  PLE’s promote learning at your own pace, which is a benefit for every single student, not just those who take a little while longer to learn or those who learn at a fast pace. 

I really enjoyed the time I spent on the Center for Teaching Quality site, this site was extremely interesting to me as a novice educator and I read through several of the blogs and some of my ideals about teaching that are based on my educational experiences were highlighted!

I joined the diigo group called Health Literacy and Patient Education Resources.  This group highlights an area that as a nurse, I am very interested in.  This group highlighted what I would consider “hot topics” in health literacy and provided me with some very interesting reading!

Reference:

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood, K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report:2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

 

Johnson, L., Levine, A., & Smith, R. (2009). The 2009 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Gaming

What do I think about gaming in the classroom?

I think that education is the most successful when the student buy-in and engage in the learning materials; this helps to facilitate a level of understanding that promotes their abilities to recall and use information later.   Prensky (2007) stated that “games, unlink traditional school study, also offer students be-a-hero goals that encourage players to persist in their efforts,” and that “the newest ‘complex’ games offer scores of hours of challenging problems of great complexity and sophistication—often much harder than schoolwork—that a player typically has to learn many skills to solve.”   The benefits of gaming in the classroom are enormous and although it does take some work on the part of the educator to tie them into the lesson plans as well as evaluation of the message the games are sending, the outcomes are worth the work.  “Research and experience have already shown that games can be applied very effectively in many learning contexts, and that games can engage learners in ways other tools and approaches cannot” (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, & Haywood, 2011, p. 22).   Johnson, et.al, supports that games “enhance skills in decision-making, innovation, and problem-solving” which are huge areas of higher order thinking skill development that are often missing in the standard curriculum due to the fact that they cannot be assessed by or for standardized tests.    Online games also offer the opportunity to develop and engage in research skills, “writing, collaboration, problem-solving, pubic speaking, leadership, digital literacy, and media-making” (2011, p. 23).    When these types of activities are part of the curriculum, they become an integral part of the educational experience and offer a real opportunity for student buy-in into their education. 

Along the lines of gaming for education, there are also virtual reality and computer simulations also emerging as educational tools. Computer simulations and virtual reality offer something to students that have never been imagined before: the ability to have “hands-on” experiences with concepts and models.  These technologies offer the ability to get up-close and personal with objects that they can’t in real life such as historical figures, foreign lands, and things as simple as atoms, molecules, and bacteria for learning.   Augmented reality is an amazing technology that allows for visual and interactive learning.  It is an active technology that allows for learning and assessment and engages students in virtual interactions that bring objects too large or too small to a scale that can be manipulated in the student’s personal space (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, & Haywood, 2011, p. 17).  This technology can be used in many areas of education, including chemistry, geography, and history. 

Several websites offer a variety of educational games that would be really excellent curriculum additions.    Knowledge Adventure offered several unique opportunities to engage students in learning activities.  “Bouncing Letters” was one of my favorites, it engages student in vocab/spelling practice as well as critical thinking and strategy.  This game is set up so that players can make word combinations using the letters the game provides, so it would be hard to use it on a specific vocab lesson because it doesn’t let the player choose which letters to use, but it does get the player to form words and use strategy to beat the levels.   “Math Man” is another pretty awesome game that is similar to old school Pac Man that engages students in math skill development.  The player eats a “?” and then has to eat the ghost that solves the question.  It is again a game that engages the player in strategy to eat the “?” first and then only eat the right ghost.    This site offers a variety of games in a variety of genre’s appropriate for elementary school aged students.  Some are better done than others, but the majority is educationally based.   One of my favorite simulation sites was the 3rd World Farmer game. It was so simple, but taught such an important lesson on economics, strategy, budgeting, and real life issues that I could literally not stop playing it. The graphic and interface itself could use some upgrades, but it provides such amazing lessons in a simple way.  Another worth mentioning is the Game Classroom  site. This site has a variety of resources for grades K-6 that are educational and engaging, but that aren’t what I think of as “games” in the traditional sense; however, still beneficial. 

References:

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Prensky, M. (2007). Sims vs. games: The difference defined. Edutopia: What works in education, Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/sims-vs-games

Open Content and Ethics

            The way that information is disseminated at will without verification through the use of the internet is enough to give any good educator a second thought before incorporating this material into their classroom environment.  Another part of the dilemma with utilizing internet resources in the classroom is the copyright/infringement issue that can occur.  In today’s society, there are so many new technologies that are engaging people in information sharing for not only social but also educational materials- with the ability to protect their information and the safety to use the information they are “borrowing.”  Open content is one of the new “hot topics” in education, the concept of sharable materials on the web for educator use for FREE is one way to reduce teacher workload and in turn hopefully also teacher burnout (Johnson, Adams, & Haywood, 2011, p. 23).  “The movement toward open content reflects a growing shift in the way academics in many parts of the world are conceptualizing education to a view that is more about the process of learning than the information conveyed in their courses.  Information is everywhere; the challenge is to make effective use of it” (Johnson, Adams, & Haywood, 2011, p. 22).   Content is available for many subjects and at various levels, kindergarten-college.

An excellent website that addresses one of the main issues with open content (copyright) is Creative Commons.  Creative Commons offers an excellent resource for people to “share, use, and even build upon a work you’ve created” under the security of a Creative Commons license that allows you to modify the work to suit your needs.  This website protects the research, education, and culture that are on the web though a set of copyright licenses and tools that work alongside with traditional copyright laws.   Many well-known websites such as Google, Public Library of Science, and Wikipedia utilize Creative Commons licenses to help protect their work.

I played around with the open content site Connexions and examined the Human Anatomy and Physiology resources.  I was amazed to see that it was materials designed for two-semester anatomy and physiology course, and available free online! The table and print versions were available for a low cost also.  I spent some time “flipping” through the chapters and interactions, I am amazed by not only the credentials on the list of contributors but by the book layout, content, and activities.  

Another application of technology that is becoming more widespread in the classroom is the development of electronic books.  “Electronic books have the potential to transform the way we interact with reading material of all kinds, from popular title to scholarly works” (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine & Haywood, 2011, p. 8).  Electronic books are just what they sound like: books that instead of paper are read on the computer, tablet, e-reader, or smartphone, which not only saves space in the book bag but enhances convenience.  Early obstacles in the way of widespread adoption, especially in academic institutions include: “scarcity of academic titles, lack of necessary features in electronic readers to support scholarly work, a restrictive publishing model, and digital rights management issues” (2011, p. 9), but have been minimalized or diminished over time.  Electronic books are now able to incorporate graphs, figures, illustrations, vides, and interactive elements; as well as, offer the capability to annotate, comment, and link with the touch of a button or finger swipe (2011, p. 9).  The copyright issues and formatting problems that troubled this concept early on in the game have seemed to have resolved and e-books are being more widely used in all arena’s, simply because they offer more in the way of learning than traditional print books do.  Everything (interactive activities, assignments, graphs, etc.) being in one place truly mainstreams and organizes the teaching and learning.   To me as a student and avid reader, the capabilities of electronic books have way surpassed what I could ever imagine with my printed textbook, saves my back too from that heavy book bag!!

 

References:

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood, K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

 

"In the Clouds"

This week exploration of cloud computing, tagging, and social bookmarking was very interesting and interactive. For someone who is very active in technology, I was really surprised about how many new things are available that could be so easily implemented within the classroom. 

Cloud Computing Sites:

Nanoogo[beta] is the first cloud computing site that I explored.  It is set up for two distinct populations: teachers and parents with activities designed for in the classroom and in the home.  This website “is an online platform used by kids to write stories, create original artwork, and express their unique talents” (Nangoo.com); and is completely free to sign up.  This site engages students in collaborative work to create presentations, newsletters, research papers, and even subject specific projects.    This site offers an amazing opportunity to incorporate technology as well as collaboration and enhance critical thinking and creativity skills.  What I liked the best about this website was the separation of classroom and home activities.  The designers really gave parents an opportunity to enhance their children’s educational experiences by featuring a peer rewarding system as well as a parent monitoring system where the parents can interact with words of encouragement. 

The second site, Memrise, was very unique and interesting with a lot to offer.  This site has so many different topics set up an online learning environment format that I can’t even tell you how many there are.  The topics range from math and science, to foreign language, entertainment, and professional & careers and everything in between; each is set up with an interactive activity that allows for knowledge acquirement and learning.  I spent some time on the German Vocabulary activity as German was my minor in College, and I can tell you the interface as it is designed to promote learning through a variety of well-studied and respected methods.  This site offers the opportunity for self-directed learning and for students to actually learn the material at their pace and in a fun manner.  I would highly recommend the use of this site in a variety of ways.

Finally, I examined OpenStudy, a site designed to a collaborative environment that connects students with other students in a way that is similar to traditional tutoring with a twist.  This provides a forum for questions and answers, in a huge variety of subjects and grade levels.  Instead of providing answers, the goal is for those who know the answer to guide those seeking help to it.  This system offers medals for achievements  which helps to keep users engaged.  Each group has at least one moderator, (in reality usually several), that helps to ensure that the groups are running smoothly and the environment is conducive to learning.  This was my least favorite of the three, but I can still see the benefits; especially because of the 24/7 availability of students to go online search through questions that have been asked and post their own. 

Summary: Cloud Computing, tags, and social bookmarking are all very interesting topics that I have had some experience with.  First, cloud computing is such an awesome feature to use with higher education especially, and I love that I am able to work with my students even when we are not in the same state to get things accomplished on research projects and other various tasks.   Johnson, Adams, and Haywood (2011), stated that  “the reason cloud computing is so relevant in the near-term horizon is that is has opened doors for more flexibility, more space, more collaboration, and ultimately, more creative uses of Internet resources for educators to incorporate in their classrooms” (p.12), which is so true.  The collaboration and creativity that comes from these online sources is amazing and truly helps students to engage in and develop higher order thinking skills.  I found the diigo social bookmarking to be a very interesting and awesome tool. I really, really love the functionality of it and its capabilities.  Being able to bookmark, screen shot, annotate and then open the same document on my iPad to take with me on the go makes my life so much easier!   Many of us from the early Facebook days think of tagging in terms of “who’s in the picture” or “who are you with when…” but the broader definition is “labelling and tagging are carried out to perform functions such as aiding in classification, marking ownership, noting boundaries, and indicating online identity” (Tag, metadata, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_%28metadata%29).     #Hashtag is gotten very popular on sites like Instagram and Twitter, but is not limited to social contexts.  Labels and tags are becoming more popular in a lot of other sites, such as Gmail and iTunes; and tag clouds are the hot new thing.  In education tags clouds can be used for personal narratives, classroom polls, compare and contrast, student profiles,  and vocabulary.  This concept helps students to identify the keywords and gives them an opportunity to construct the “story.”  All of the technologies discussed this week are great additions to the educational field and allow for easy implementation and monitoring. 

Diigo: The diigo group that I decided to follow was “Education Research.”  Upon exploration, this group provided good resources on a variety of topics in education and people’s current research, research that they have read, and future research.  This made the information easily accessible and will help to keep me updated on the current “hot topics” and research.  This was a no-brainer choice for me!

 

References

 

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood, K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011

         K-12 Edition.  Austin, Texas, The New Media Consortium

Tag (metadata). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_%28metadata%29

Tag Cloud Site: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/embracing-messy-learning-joshua-block

 

Blogging & Twittering

As someone who always been big into technology and the unlimited capabilities that is provides, I find blogging to be one of my most favorite concepts- especially for education. The countless opportunities offered to student and educators through blogging is unheard of prior to the development of this concept; students and educators are able to communicate with experts and experience a more well-rounded education through the broader worldview offered by blogging.   “The combination of social interaction and meeting an expert in a subject provides avenues for deep learning,” and for years school systems have been utilizing field trips for this type of interactive learning (Johnson, Levine, Smith, & Smythe, 2009).  In the face of budgetary issues, field trips have become fewer and far between, but alas technology can fill this gap, especially the use of blogs.  As experts many more experts are blogging these days, it is much easier for students to interact with them; reading their blogs and commenting, watching podcasts or other audio/video clips that are relevant to the topic.  Blogging does not only benefit students, it is also a way for educators to share their knowledge, solicit ideas from other educators, and discuss current hot topics with their peers and colleagues (Hargadon, 2009, p. 2).   

The concept of Twittering is something I never truly bought into, but now really see the interest and potential of it.  I can see the benefits of being able to share a link to a research study, communicate important messages to parents, and connect with mentors quickly and easily.  Other benefits include that Twitter is pretty user friendly, and could be easily used as a way for students to communicate with teachers, each other, and people around the world, which offers another way to enhance well-rounded education (Rosenthal Tolisano, 2011).   One of the best ideas I have seen in the literature in support of the use of Twitter is the concept of facilitating a discussion by posing a question; the limited characters keeps it short, sweet, and to the point, so it would be an asset in facilitating a direct discussion.  After reading the articles and watching the lectures, Twittering is something that I will explore more, and because a lot of my students are already using it, it would be a simple communication tool to implement for them.  On my Twitter, I decided to follow the Toledo Blade because I really enjoy keeping up with the latest news stories and I like the short descriptions with links to the longer story. It makes it very convenient to read what I want to read and bypass what I do not.

 

References

Hargadon, St. (2009).  Educational networking: The important role web 2.0 will play in education. http://audio.edtechlive.com/lc/EducationalSocialNetworkingWhitepaper.pdf

Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., and Smythe, T. (2009). The 2009 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Rosenthal Tolisano, Silvia (2011). Twitter in the K-8 classroom  Globally Connected Learning. http://www.scribd.com/doc/63331406/Twitter-in-K-8-Classroom-Globally-Connected-Learning