Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch: Kathy Dryburgh's Guide to SL for Educators

Labels: Kathy Dryburgh, Kathy Schrock, slbestpractices07

Links

6 Comments:

Doug Johnson said...: Kathy,

Your presentation this morning was just outstanding! I could not have enjoyed it more or found it more useful.

I took a couple snaps and wrote it up at:
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2007/5/25/kudos-to-dryburgh-and-tulip.html

Thanks for doing this for all of us who are trying to get their minds around SL! You are incredible.

Doug; 6:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Wonderful resources for educators - thanks so much!

BTW - I came across this parody of Second Life and thought you might appreciate it.; 9:13 AM
Katie Neville said...: I am a newbie at Second Life and so glad to have this resource. Thanks.; 8:00 AM
Eric Miner said...: Thanks for this resource!

As a relatively new teacher with a long personal history in Information Technology, I am very excited about the prospects of teaching in Second Life. I started teaching Computer Science (CS) courses a year ago at a career college after retiring from a large computer company and completing an M.S. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology. I find many of my incoming CS students have very little conceptual understanding about how computers and computer networking hardware and software work. Some have absolutely no idea of what computer programs look like nor how they interact with computing hardware. When I saw SL for the first time I recognized instantly its potential for helping these kinds of students better understand what is happening inside a computer.

In a recent interview in theory.isthereason (2006), Milosun Czervik spoke of his reservations about education “toolkits” created for teachers new to SL. Milosun said most education tools he saw in SL were merely mechanisms to support teacher-centered instruction – the “sage on the stage” – that was prevalent in real world teaching. He felt the real power of SL was its ability to enable constructivist learning in which learners went through experiences that helped them build understanding of new information. To be valid as a learning environment, Milosun said, SL needed to provide something that real life could not.

I agree wholeheartedly with this feeling. While I believe SL can provide value just by enabling learners to meet interactively in cases where real life constraints make it difficult (i.e. when they reside thousands of miles apart), I saw the real power of SL in its enablement of simulations. I can, for example, build simulations that allow my CS students to watch bits flowing from a CPU to a Memory Controller and thence to a hard drive. That kind of portrayal of physical phenomena, viewable from three dimensions and able to be replayed by students at their leisure, is what will start my own teaching toward a new level of quality.

Eric Miner

References:

Theoryisthereason (2006). Interview with Milosun: How NOT to teach in Second Life. Retrieved September 12, 2007 from: http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=1363; 12:53 PM
Bjorn Freenote said...: As I work to understand how Second Life (SL) can help me address teaching challenges, I find application for principles from my Industrial & Organizational Psychology studies. When analyzing a business problem to create a solution, it is crucial to understand components of that problem in three dimensions – people, process, and tools. The analyst must learn about the needs and practices of the people involved, model the process (the sequence of actions and decisions) those people follow, and review the tools they use in executing the process. Effective business solutions include all three components. Good people inhabit organizations and most try to do the best they can. Good processes enable good people. Good tools enable good processes.

I need help both from and in SL. As a tool, SL can help me overcome real-world challenges such as how to bring students together despite physical and temporal separation. Getting help from SL is easy. Once in the SL environment, however, I need to give my students effective learning experiences. I need to understand my students’ needs, I need to use teaching processes that enable my students, and I need to choose teaching tools that enable my processes. Thus far I have found hundreds of SL teaching tools, and there are plenty of people who want to learn things. What seems hard to find is good advice around SL teaching processes. There is a big, foggy gap between the plethora of teaching tools and the plethora of people hungry to learn.

Real life (RL) teaching processes are constrained by physical limitations SL obviates. What teaching processes use SL’s flexibility to best advantage? What student needs are best served by each process? Which tools best enable each process?

What I need is a matrix with common teaching challenges as its column headings and people, processes, and tools as its row labels. I need to summarize students’ needs in the People cells, place SL-enabled processes (methodologies, modalities, etc.) founded in sound Educational Psychology theory in the Process cells, and, in my Tools cells, link the best SL tools to those processes they will most powerfully enable.

When I can do this I will have a Best Practices Map I can use on a daily basis to improve the educational experiences I offer my students.; 5:32 PM
web design India said...: your post is helpful and informative; 6:14 AM

<< Home

Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch

Friday, May 25, 2007

Kathy Dryburgh's Guide to SL for Educators

6 Comments:

About Me

Previous Posts

Links

Subscribe to my feed!

Get new stuff via email!