Nigel Robertson :: Blog

Katharine Berry is getting universal plaudits for the development of a web-based Second Life viewer.  It uses Ajax and can cope with major functions like maps, chat and teleport but is not yet dealing fully with inventory or IM.

What I find interesting is the deluge of interest that has been shown in this development.  Katherine worked this as a project for her and her friends and is running it off her own server (in her bedroom??!)  It has received so many hits that it appears to be crashing daily while Katharine fights a rearguard action to keep it running (or standing up, as she terms it!).  Katherine meanwhile appears to be up to all hours of the night sorting stuff and then going to school the next day!  I seem to remember being able to stay up to any time at all ... but then I had to sleep until anywhere between lunchtime and teatime There clearly is a desire for people to have SL access available more openly - without needing to install a client.  As such, this development makes a great start on that. 

It's both humbling and enervating to discover that the talent to develop this is self developing while coping with school exams.  What will the web / computing look like when Katharine and her like go mainstream?  At a recent meeting, we noted that next year will see the first people coming to university after the www was invented.  People who have grown up much more immersed in computing and web computing than OFs like me.  After the turn of the decade we will have academics coming from this generation teaching generations that have been brought up in a web2 environment.  Can't wait!!

 Wada Tripp (aka Tony O'Driscoll) identifies seven sensibilities in Second Life and shows some examples of learning although other examples just illustrate one of the sensibilities which together can enable learning experiences.

There has been some discussion this past week on the Jiscmail VLE list about Second Life and concerns about the appropriateness of some material or events there for young students.  It's not so much that adult material is there, rather that the boundaries between what is percieved as straightforward, overt learning materials and other material may be blurred.  Add to that the exploratory nature of learning that we might be encouraging and we perhaps need to consider how we manage our use of SL with students.

The current model of online learning is to use closed spaces such as VLEs or even in Web2.0 stuff to restrict write permissions to the class.  In face to face we have a class or lecture room which is generally a closed forum (although sometimes we might like some extras to turn up and make it look busy!)  SL suddenly offers space that isn't closed.  There's nothing wrong with that in itself, however, if we are introducing students to it and requiring them to be there then what responsibility do we have to them?  What will we do if those with addictive personalities claim that they have failed their courses because they were spending 16 hours a day in SL and that one of their tutors was the 'pusher' who started them off?

We must remember that SL is not designed as a learning space but we can utilise it and it's features to enable learning.  We take students into chemistry labs or on fieldtrips where there are objective hazards.  We work to minimise the probability of any hazard occurring to us and our students and so reduce the risk.  We probably need to apply the same principles in SL.  Arguments that risks are only 'virtual' in SL I think are misplaced.  The learning we seek takes place in real life and so therefore will any emotional upset. 

 It would be wrong to take the above as an argument for staying out of SL and other immersive worlds - far from it!  We don't stay out of labs and we don't stay out of the field (although the last few years have seen a great assault on teachers taking kids out into the field in the UK).  We just need awareness of what we are doing and what we are asking others to do.  If we stay out of the lab, out of the field and out of SL we restrict and constrict our opportunities to explore, to discover and to learn.

nigel robertson

Been playing exploring my way round Second Life and currently our small team at work has been showing an interest.  It seems that we will all end up with an account at some point, even if it's just to see what the fuss is about.

Jisc have just finished an online conference - Innovating E-Learning 2007 at which there was a session in and about SL.  We looked at barriers to use and one that came up (and has elsewhere) is the time needed to learn how to manipulate yourself in world - move, chat, navigate, find places, view and did I mention move ...  One of my colleagues fell into some deep water and couldn't get back out!  He had to reboot SL to save himself from a virtual drowning

This may just seem like the ravings of someone too old to be there in the first place but it points up an important fact about using technology in or for learning - if the technology gets in the way, the learning opportunities will be diminished (unless an understanding of the technology is the desired learning outcome or you want to introduce a cognitive load while learning about something else).

 I don't think that SL is too hard to learn (I managed ) but I think that one will have to carefully apply something such as Salmon's 5 stage model to getting people in-world and connected as a cohort before any other learning can happen.

Just been hanging out in the Future of Education conference organised by George Siemens.  Leigh Blackall from Otago Poly has just given a very interesting insight into copyright and some of the difficulties with various creative commons licences.  This particularly seems to be the case when they try to use material that has a non-commercial statement.  Mash-ups aren't just happening to software but also to providers so Otago may be working with some commercial companies in the vocational field to provide training and accreditation.  This restricts their ability to use such cc-nc licensed material.

Internally they have been looking at their contribution in relation to their own materials.  Leigh reported that as an institution, it looks like Otago Poly are going to make their materials available with a default CC attribution only licence.

 Out of the side discussion that was going on during Leigh's talk, someone posted a link to A Fair(y) Use Tale on YouTube.  It's a wry look at copyright law using carefully selected 'slices' of Disney cartoons and it makes its point well (although some of the sound needs tweaking slightly for my tired ears!).  I scanned down some of the comments to find a couple complaining that if someone comes up with an idea then it's theirs and no one else should be allowed to use it.  What came to my mind was "It's mine, it's mine, I thought of it first" - which I then remembered was just paraphrasing my six year old

 My other reaction probably relates to the nature of knowledge and creation and having been talking a lot recently about constructivist and socio-constructivist ideas.  What really is an original idea?  Without going into a deep thought mode (or I'll never write anything!) I don't think there is such a thing as an original thought.  All we do is based in our socio-cultural context which is predicated on everything that has gone before.  Actually maybe it's a thought without precedents rather than 'original' that I'm thinking of.  Anyway we are always using thoughts, ideas, concepts, artifacts whatever that have passed throough the minds of others in developing our own 'original' ideas.  Copyright therefore seems like the theft that it claims to protect against.  I think that the argument is more nuanced than this (I'm a pragmatist) but it's a start.

I was lost and now I'm found - well maybe!

I've been conscious that I haven't contributed anything either for myself or to this community for some time.  Not that you've been waiting for a post from me!  Nevertheless, I think that I'm the poorer for not finding the time to be here.  I have popped in every now and again - often to give people a view of Elgg and evangelise the site a bit.  I still think that the participatory and self configurable web currently offers the most to learners - and I still think that learners means everyone.

 

I've changed jobs over the cusp of the year which might be my excuse for not being here. I'm still working in learning technologies with different conditions impacting on what I do.  The focus is still on the learning with the technology still the enabler.  Trying to reduce the admin side of making sure things work and making sure that I get out to work with staff more.  Many are really keen to embrace e-learning and although others are more reticent or suspicious (should that be unsure?), one of my tasks is to make it seem as easy and seamless for them as possible.  This should make it more feasible for them to deliver cogent and useful learning via online media.

Listening to the Beatles 'Helter Skelter' while I write this and thinking that getting to the bottom and going back to the top is apt in the rapid development of e-learning opportunities - such is serendipity! 

A short but interesting article http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss_july2005.html dealing with the reasons why institutions should adopt a 'joined up thinking' approach to the use / implementation of e-learning. Towards the end there is a section on pedagogical approaches for e-learning which is useful.

Need to start somewhere, so this is it! I'm brand new to elgg [although worn out in other places so I'm told ;)] Also new to writing a public blog. Never started before since I could see that I didn't have the time to keep it updated.

My history in online interaction is primarily based in Usenet although that seems to be dying out nowadays with the move to web based forums. Can't claim that I like the move. Newsgroups were always easy to use and navigate whereas a web forum seems to often have low usability unless you can thread and view groups of messages together on the same page. I have seen some good examples but the ones that are replacing the newsgroups that I subscribed to don't seem to have made it yet.

I work in Higher Ed supporting staff and students on a distance learning course. I started discovering eportfolios and their uses at the end of last year and have been making a journey of sorts round various flavours. Spotted Elgg around Xmas and although it wasn't publicly available, the trails looked promising. Taken until now to get registered for an account ... work just seems to get in the way!

I'm really interested in the opportunities to foster a constructivist space, both personal and social. I'm also aware of the difficulties that institutions can have with anything that seems to give students control over how, where and why they learn.

Looking forward to the next step,
Nigel