Chemistry for the YouTube Generation
Posted by Peter | Filed under Education, University, Websites
OK, I know I’m guilty of the horrible generalisation of calling anything technology-related a “generation”… but it seemed like a good name for this entry. I’ll be brief! If you’ve never seen it before, I strongly recommend checking out the Periodic Table of Videos, starring some of the lovely folks from the University of Nottingham. It’s a series of videos, with one for each element in the periodic table, some short, some long.
It’s a wonderful endeavour, making lots of interesting chemistry facts available to folks like me who sometimes watch far too many videos online! Thanks Nottingham Uni dudes… great work! 
Studying Games Development
Posted by Peter | Filed under Education, Games, University
The LA Times is running an article about studying computer/video games development at university-level. It is certainly impressive to see how many institutions are taking up this area, but in line with the quote from an EA employee, as well as many users on Slashdot, I am dubious about the wisdom of quite such enthusiastic uptake.
As was the case with many folks on the Computer Games Technology degree I studied, it seems that too many of the wrong kinds of folks are being attracted to the courses: people who like playing games (which admittedly is an important attribute), but are either unable to develop the necessary skills, or simply can’t be bothered doing the work. In part, I think the problem is people who come straight from high school into university — they are used to being spoon-fed all their education, and have never experienced a significant workload. University and the real-world are full-time endeavours, children… get used to it!
I am certainly all in favour of Higher Education, but only where appropriate. Students undertaking a course where they are likely to fail or drop-out is waste of time, effort, and money for all concerned. Furthermore, unless they manage to change to a different (more suitable) degree, it gives them a pretty bad start for any kind of career.
Virtual Theatre Studies
Posted by Peter | Filed under Education, Second Life, University
OK, so it’s not really a course in virtual theatre studies… but it’s pretty close: students at Kent State University are putting on a virtual play (in Second Life ®) as part of their final exam.
I know from my own experience in music and theatre that creativity often flourishes when your options are constrained. For example, one of my favourite exercises when I studied drama in high school was taking a short section of script, and acting it out in 2 or 3 different ways — we had to utilise techniques other than dialogue to convey differences of meaning. I should imagine that something similar is true of acting in Second Life — one must learn to focus on what is possible, and squeeze every drop of dramatic potential out of it.
In this case, there is great flexibility with costume, since you can make them look pretty much however you like. However, programming animations must be quite a laborious task, requiring careful thought and planning (you’d need to be very careful to keep everything in sequence!). The article doesn’t mention whether the dialogue is delivered by text or voice.
I love to see this kind of thing happening… it’s a genuine challenge for the students, and promotes great innovation. It also benefits the SL community as a whole.
Putting educational technology where it belongs
Posted by Peter | Filed under Education, Second Life, Sloodle, Software, University
The Deccan Herald carries a positive article about the use of technology in education. It is sometimes surprising to think, as can be read in the article, that the concept is comparatively young (at least in relation to widespread usage across the curriculum). Despite many well-intentioned failures of innovation, there is still a drive to further use the technological advancements of the modern day to improve education.
It is easy to make broad-based generalisations and expectant assumptions which turn out to be wrong. Certainly the ubiquity of computing these days demands that solid literacy skills are taught — I have often heard it noted by University lecturers that the seemingly most ‘literate’ computer users can turn out to be the least competent at common tasks, such as using styles and document outlines when preparing a report in MS Word. However, using technology in education ‘just because we can’ is likely to be a doomed course from the outset.
If I had lots of money, I wouldn’t go out and buy the fastest car just because I could afford it; I would obviously look for aesthetic quality, but (being a programmer) I value functionality higher. The same should be done with technology in education: just because we can financially afford the flashiest looking new bit of software that comes out doesn’t necessarily mean it will benefit the process.
A prime example is the educators I see from time to time who jump into Second Life, without really considering their goal in using it. As a wholehearted contributor to the Sloodle project, I definitely believe in the potential of the platform for education… but potential does not equal results. Educators and institutions can spend large amounts of time, effort and money, investing into it, and get pretty much nothing out but a deserted sim and a handful of lukewarm students who wouldn’t use SL outside class time even if you pay them (as many educators do… in L$!).
As Sarah Robbins discussed in her keynote session at SLCC08, you need to deliver what you promise, so you need to promise realistically! Doing ‘real life’ stuff in Second Life is effectively a waste of time, which is probably why early concepts for the Sloodle project were abandoned (such as re-creating a Moodle course page exactly 3d). We need innovative thinking and radical change… but we need to do it gently sometimes too.
Going back to the original Deccan Herald article above, I was very pleased to see the mentions of “networking” and “collaboration”. These are what it’s all about, just as with the schome project (”not school not home”) running on TeenSL, which brings teenage students together to function and operate effectively as peers with those who would (in any conventional setting) be the ‘teachers’.
Undoubtedly, formal education and qualification still needs a great degree of guidance and support, so I do not forsee the student-teacher relationship ever going away completely. However, among the greatest strengths I see in these collaborative, social, “constructivist” approaches are these: learning how to learn, and learning how to enjoy it!
