Second Life: Fun with Colleagues

So the UNC TLT conference is over. How does it end? It ended with a dance of course. The first year I was so curious. Why would you want to dress up and and take your avatar to a fake dance? The atmosphere was so much like a party. Everyone was standing around talking in groups or dancing on a dance floor with a disco ball turning in the air. You had your choice of animations, many dances to choose from. Music was playing and everyone was relaxed. I really did feel like I was at a party. This year the theme was the 50′s. I had a blast. It is so much fun to just relax and talk with professionals you have been learning from all week. Great experience and I attended some informative lectures that I will definitely be able to use.

College Student Presentations on Social Communication

I have just listened to 3 students speak on social media, fascinating! Facebook, Twitter and text appear to be the favored method to communicate with Facebook being way in front. Their analysis deternined that when someone uses Facebook it is more personal. They even think they can get closer to politicians through these tools.

Using a Social Media Tool to Join a Professional Organization

Well I will be talking about Second Life and the group I joined. I joined NC Educators in Second Life. It is a huge group who welcomed me with open arms. One of the most interesting things they host is the UNC TLT annual conference. Last year, due to the weak economy UNC Pembrook moved their annual conference to Second Life and it doesn’t cost a dime to attend. It is a great conference. The presenters are educators and technical gurus. It is a great place to hobnob with other professionals in a relaxed environment. The only problem I am having, is it is during work hours. I am so busy at work I can only get on at lunch and at the end of the day. Yesterday, I missed the whole thing! After work I did go and check out all the posters; looked like some great presentations. I also had a ball in the freebie area. Picked up some great clothes, teaching tools and building materials. The web address for the conference is http://conference.unctlt.org/

If you have never been to SL, you should give it a try. You will not see any boring frumpy people. You will see and talk to some of the most interesting avatars (people’s virtual self). Depending where you go generally determines who you meet. Most areas are open so sometimes you do run into an odd egg or someone trying to hook up. You just have to be on your toes, just like real life. I love messing around universities and educational organizations. The IBM island is awesome. NCSU has a cool island. I hardly ever see anyone there though. ISTE  has a wealth of resources and training that you can easily access. So to check these places out, go to WeBiee’s website a use their simple guide to get started. http://sites.google.com/site/ncwebieeproject/

Here is the slur (in world address)l for the UNC TLT conference:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/NC%20WeBIEE%204/211/79/38

You have to set up SL and create an account (get your avatar) to get there.

Welcome ECI 719 by Rebecca Kirstein

Hello,
My Twitter user-name is ep4Becky. My first tweet this year was tonight. I believe ECI 719 will be interactively challenging. How nice! I logged into Second Life and set up my new office with WeBIEE. Check it out:

Stop by and see me. I am Becky Zsun in SL. Hover over or click on the image for SLurl. NC Education (20, 190, 22). WeBIEE has a lot of resources for faculty and teachers. If I am not there check out the island. It is a great group to join.

Learning Objects by Rebecca Kirstein

Learning objects are a great way to build up a collection of leaning modules for and application. In Merrill’s ITT it was shown as a powerful partner to training technicians. The program developed using the learning objects was robust and I would think very effective. For companies that do not have the resources or time to offer in class training, it seems to be a great alternative. I do realize the implementation would need an enormous amount of resources but I still think by having learning objects, it could be built with the basics and then added to as needed or as time and resources permitted. The thought that went into the training stretched to encompass an in-depth understanding by requiring the student to think in many ways about problems and procedures. When I went through training for field service with IBM, I spent 3 months in Atlanta. I lived in Florida at the time. The cost was huge. We had lectures daily, had practicals where we have to find bugs and then make repairs, took written tests and studied material each evening after class. This was repeated weekly until we learned the equipment needed to go into the field. Yes I did learn how to fix computers and peripherals and it was intense. Every week we were on the chopping block. If we did not do well on the test or the practicals we were done, out of a job. IBM could have saved a lot of money with learning objects. The students could have been under a lot less pressure as well.

Cognitive Flexibility Theory by Rebecca Kirstein

I found the project using cognitive flexibility theory interesting. I realized the material provided did not have all the answers. I found myself turning to the web, my earlier research with slaves, my family lore. I am so glad we didn’t have to try to implement this theory. Obviously it takes time to develop a learning unit using this theory. I envision using something like Flash to carry out the theory today. It could be interactive and searchable allowing easy access to material. The problem I saw with the letter implementation was the impossibility to find specific information. You could search on key words for letters but it did not always work as anticipated and you had to read through the letters that matched the keyword to find your information. Also you could not add your own keywords, you were limited a select group of keywords. It would be interesting to see this learning unit implemented with new technology. You should be able to search for phrases within the letters. I know this is easy to say, but I can envision how it could work. Cognitive flexibility theory is self motivation at its best.

Cased-Based Reasoning: “Narrative Intelligence” by Rebecca Kirstein

Cased based reasoning lends itself well to Computer Science. I used it often to set up a new technique. Students seem to resonate with real world scenarios. At my age, I have a lot of stories related to Computer Science to tell. I was in on many automation beginnings in manufacturing and engineering. My students seem more involved and the lecture more animated if I could relate a story to the lesson plan. Even if I made up a story and put them in the middle of it; they understood better. Kite was a very ambitious project to undertake. I spent a lot of time trying to relate to its development. I plan to take a look at the algorithm when I have a bit more time. Kite would be a useful tool to use when you cannot think of a story to relate to your lesson. It also includes a lesson plan and technology uses to make it worth the effort to investigate.
Narrative intelligence seems like an appropriate expression to describe the use of story-telling to teach students a new topic. Even as I develop and produce videos at Meredith to teach students how to use the technology we provide them, I cannot help trying to use stories to hold their interest and drive my point home. I may have to check out MU’s Kite for inspiration. Stories are important but only if they are relevant and help build on the lesson. If not, students will begin to drift off when you start telling a story. I also see Second Life as a great option for allowing students to rollplay and create stories to show what they have learned and to transfer their knowledge to their fellow students.

MOST Environments for Accelerating Literacy Development by Rebecca Kirstein

As a visual learner myself, I am not surprised with the results of using multimedia to tell a story to at risk students or college students for that matter. I believe the more information students are given, the better are informed they are and therefore can induce an analysis. Much more information is provided in a multimedia presentation than is with words that still hold the audience’s attention. Yes, you can say everything in words that you can in video or using visuals with words but it takes a lot longer. The problem with using video and computer programs to help students develop literacy skills is that it takes time and resources to build up. So many books are readily available. The visual resources must be produced or compiled from creative material. A school administrator whose school district did not use books explained that they gave every student an Apple computer. Teachers worked in teams to find and develop material for their student to learn by. They used video, interactive programs, the web, and many more resources to help students learn. It took a huge team to make sure learning standards were met and a lot of collaboration to make it work. It was and still is very successful. Students report feeling ready and prepared for college. They even expressed a disappointment when attending college classes. They felt like the colleges they were attending were behind and not well developed with their teaching methods. It is a shame that it will take time and lots of effort to move teaching into the 21^st century because student will perform better and become more intelligent. I believe we are on the right track with our multimedia development.

The Jasper Experiment and Anchored Learning by Rebecca Kirstein

When my boys were very small, I did not want them using the computer. I thought it was important that they could read first. Maybe I was wrong. Can children solve math problems without any math skills? It seems like it would be torture for the teacher, having students try to solve problems without the required basic math skills. I would be very interested in seeing this approach through a two-way mirror. I think it would be like pulling teeth. I do think an apprenticeship does work to push students into problem solving as part of a team. This is invaluable experience. I like the anchored approach using Jasper’s video approach. I would prefer students to have the basic required skills before they get into it though. I am not saying they should be totally proficient; they should be exposed and have a general understanding. Don’t drill them on their multiplication tables. Give them a basic understanding and define the technique. Let them discover how to apply the skill. Exposing students to applications is critical in mathematics. If they do not see how to apply it, it seems like a waste of time.  Some math is almost comical when you are first exposed to it. Remember your first exposure to variables? I remember thinking, what is the world. How will we ever use this? It seemed like such a long time until I saw how it could be applied. I love the idea of the Jasper experiment and turning students loose so they can find exactly what the problem is and then let them try to decide the best way to solve it. Great!

Goal Based Scenario by Rebecca Kirstein

Goal-based Scenario seems like an appropriate learning theory for customer service support because the field has so many examples already compiled. Usually, the company requires the support person to complete a form describing the support instance and the resolution. It would be easy to input this into a database. Actually, by providing the support person with a computer and by setting up the database, you could tailor the database to collect most of the information you needed. If there would enough support people, they would be able to add information from an instance.

 For example: Mrs. Smith comes to the help desk with her computer. She states that her wireless internet is not working. The technician greets her and gets all of her basic information, name, how to contact, and problem description. First the technician checks to see if her wireless radio is on. Yes it is. Next the technician checks to see if Mrs. Smith has chosen the correct profile. Yes she did. Finally the technician runs a PC Doctor check on the wireless internet card. He discovers the card is defective. So as you can see the technician should do steps one and two before running the PC Doctor. It is time consuming and the first two checks are much more likely. The doctor program does not check those issues. If the technician inputs all of his efforts into the database, you have a nice scenario to use for a teaching experience. You now have three different ways to resolve this issue; three different examples to specify and guide the student to try. To assure that the student would learn that any of the examples would cause the problem, you would make each one the problem and ask the student to resolve the customer’s complaint. A flowchart would be very helpful in laying this out. Many companies use flowcharts to help their technicians resolve problems.

It would definitely be a big effort to develop and would require constant updating as new products are produced. So I am not convinced it is feasible unless you have a very large company.