HBS Virtual Worlds Braingain: Hilary Mason

at Harvard Business School from 3:40-4:00 p.m.

Hilary Mason is an Assistant Professor in New Media and Computer Science at Johnson & Wales University. She led the development of Virtual Morocco in Second LIfe and is examining the radical expansion of learning opportunities availablein virtual environments and best practices for educators (taken from http://courseware.hbs.edu/public/bg/vw/)

She asks, why put students in a regular classroom when we could go places and do things? We can’t go places and do things sometimes because there is no money, no expertise, no access and no time. Maybe it’s simply impossible, like going to another universe or becoming another species, etc. There are limitations of physcial space and technological possibilities.

But what if we could? What if we can explore and create new realities. Its not just Second Life. There are other social networking technologies getting attention like Twitter and Facebook. She states she has a statistic that students who use Facebook more than once a day do better  academically in school than those that don’t. Learning is surrounded by challenge, reflection, collaboration and community. All of this comes together in experiential learning.

One thing they did was build a virtual Morocco:

http://sl.nmc.org/2006/12/14/immersion-in-virtual-morocco/

http://casablanca.life3solutions.com/index.html

They also did Virtual Blast (see slide 21)

Filed under: Educational Technology, General , Virtual Reality Second Life

HBS Virtual Worlds Braingain: Dr. Jonathan Reichental

at the Harvard Business School from 3:20-3:40

Dr. Reichental is the IT Industries and Innovation Director for PricewaterhosueCoopers is discussing how virtual worlds are part of a larger movement towards a societal, ubiquitous virtuality and how this is beginning to impact enterprises and how it may play out in the future (taken from http://courseware.hbs.edu/public/bg/vw/)

He believes there is a “disintegration of the enterprise”: large organizations breaking down into smaller ones with the same goal in mind. The movie business is a good example. Old movie studios used to control everything. The other example is the military. They are using more contractors and third party businesses to serve the same goal as before.

Some of the big trends right now are things like the iPhone. It is the convergence of many different aspects into one device that is highly functional. There are many ways we are tightening the connection between people as we become more disconnected. It is almost counter-intuitive. Virtual Worlds is a big part of this movement.

Challenges:

• Support for consumerization
• Cost of Virtuality Infrastructure
• Employee Freedom
• Increased Risk
• Increased Need for Enterprise Technical Competence

What is in store for the future? Avatar Al (when you leave, it will continue to be you-artificial intelligence), Smart Routing (how does the device recognize you? Or you tell the device all the stuff and it will work it out), Reality Mixing and Multiple Personalities (men who are women, women who are men–why do people do that? He claims he has a statistic where 25 % of men become women in SL, while only 5% of women become men avatars–why? People can be something they are not. You can expand your life and have opportunities not available to you in real life).

Filed under: Educational Technology, General , Virtual Reality Second Life

HBS Virtual Worlds Braingain: Bill Lichtenstein

at Harvard Business School: from 3:00-3:20

Bill Lichtenstein is a former producer for 20/20, World News Tonight and Nightline. He organized the first public radio broadcasts to air live from Second Life, featuring Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne Vega. He will discuss how virtual worlds are a new medium that allow us to convey experiences, rather than just transmit images and information. (taken from http://courseware.hbs.edu/public/bg/vw/)

What if you took these tools and use them for something it wasn’t designed for?

He believes that Second Life is a part of the evolution of media. Media can preserve and transmit information, ideas and emotions over time and space.

Language > printed text > graphic art & sculpture > radio/telephones > motion pictures > television > Internet

There is a disconnect between the actual experience and the media. Second life is the transmission of experience.

“What a man hears, he may doubt, what he sees he may possibly doubt, but what you does, he cannot doubt.” -Seamann Knapp

They built a 16 acre facility with listening rooms where people could listen to their shows. The had a virtual amphitheatre for live performances, offices, conference rooms.

Last year, Kurt Vonnegut gave what is believed to be his last interview in SL:

Mia Farrow talked about Darfur:

For more, see http://www.theinfinitemind.com/

Filed under: Educational Technology, General , Virtual Reality Second Life

HBS Virtual Worlds Braingain: Dr. Philip D. Long

at Harvard Business School, from 2:40-3:00

Dr. Long is from the MIT office of Education and Technology and Chairman of the Board of the New Media Consortium. He is going to describe what is driving the growth of the NMC campus and community, the largest educational presence in Second Life.

 

The NMC has learned many things through their use of second life.

Given their experience over the last year and 3 quarters, all future NMC online events will be conducted in Second Life. Their last conference had activities all hours of the day so that people in other time zones could participate.

They have implemented Private Grids for projects and activities. You can run an entire world on your laptop and then you can move into SL when you are ready.

Over the next six months, they will continue rental services for sims, host more events and develop a new orientation experience for newbies to Second Life.

It is hard to bring new people into Second Life quickly. If you want to do this for a class, for example, its tough. It takes a while to create your avatar. They have to figure out how to move around and navigate. They are looking at how they can help make that easier. There will be a ten min quick and easy orientation to cover the basics, in-depth orientation to skills, orientation into SL culture and orientation into teaching and learning in SL.

It is difficult telling others about virtual worlds. There is a need for good ways to covey what you are doing in SL to people who will never go into it. How can one convey activity on a sim after avatar’s have gone (foot prints? dust? translucent waves?).

Lessons learned. It is 100% user built. It is inherently creative. It is inherently social.

http://web.mit.edu/longpd/www/longpd.htm

Filed under: Educational Technology, General , Virtual Reality Second Life

HBS Virtual Worlds Braingain: Keynote – John Lester

at Harvard Business School 9/27/07: 2 p.m-2:40 p.m.

I am at a workshop today at HBS that is exploring “the ways in which the metaverse is influencing, and can influence, business and eduation” (taken from http://courseware.hbs.edu/public/bg/vw/)

John Lester is the Keynote today.

He is Linden Lab’s Boston Operations Director and Academic Program Manager. They have offices world-wide at Linden Lab. They use second life as their central office to have meetings and organize events. There are real people behind each avatar–whether they are a purple dragon or a “regular person”. Second life is a unique online world, that is not a game. It is a platform that is focused on creating tools. All the content that is created is owned by the residents.

People + Tools + Shared Spaces = Metaverse

Incerased Peceptual Immersion leads to Increased Emotional Bandwidth

Leveraging second life for education includes spatialization and attenuation. It also has the ability to create scultpted primitives. You can create complex and organic shapes. Shared spaces can be created based on reality. For example, Vassar College has recreated the Sistine Chapel in second life. Shared spaces can be created based on imagination. For example “Straylight” island was created using Sculpted Primitives.

The concept of a Metaverse leverages 5 things really well

1. navigate a 3d environment
2. communicate and collaborate with other people, creating communities
3. learn through shared experiences
4. use tools (our minds were made for mergers)
5. take partial data and create something whole (tiger in the grass)

The above thoughts are those of John Lester. If you want to know more, please visit: www.pathfinderlinden.com

Filed under: Educational Technology, General , Virtual Reality Second Life

Discussing Educational Technology in Distance Education

I am not sure how long this video will remain available, but I gave a short talk last week to incoming teaching fellows at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education. I discussed some of the ways I had integrated educational technology in the courses I helped instruct over the past six years. You can view this talk by selecting hour 3 at this website. Enjoy!

Filed under: General

Tax Professor’s Blog on Belichick’s fine: A snapshot of what is possible in the future?

As my base is in Boston, I found this blogging event very intriguing, but not for the reasons you might think. I am actually not originally from Boston, so the Patriots are not my favorite football team. What I found really fascinating was how professors from all over the country used a blog to collaborate and give their opinions on a current issue in their field. I think this is an excellent example of how law professors could use blogs in their instruction. Elizabeth Warren has discovered this and uses a blog to connect her students to current, real-life events that are occurring within the subject matter she instructs (i.e., bankruptcy). An interesting suggestion would be to create school-sanctioned social-networking webspace in specific areas of law where professors and students from different schools could discuss and debate current issues like this. What I am picturing is kind of like combining facebook and the networks, groups and wall technology available there into a forum like xoxohth (without the controversy and anonymous posting). An even better idea would be to somehow tie this collaboration into the course management systems available within each school. It would be like having cross-listed courses, but between law schools instead of between schools within the same university. I know this is impossible because everyone uses different systems, but with the development of Sakai and open source courseware, it might be a possibility for the future!

Filed under: Educational Technology, Instructional Technology, Legal Education

A Model for a Student Technology Assistant Program (STAP) in Higher Education

I am finally ready to bind and hand in my thesis for the ALM in Educational Technologies at Harvard after a year and a half of research and writing. Please read the abstract for a summary of the paper. If you are interested in reading the paper, please contact me.

I owe thanks to pretty much just about everyone I know at this point. Specifically, I extend tremendous gratitude towards Ken Martin, Ed.M, for being a wonder field adviser for my research and Dr. Ilona Holland for her amazing academic advisement. In addition, Dr. Catalina Laserna was always positive and supportive throughout my quest for the ALM in Educational Technologies program at Harvard. Paul Bergen and the ICG staff were amazingly accommodating during my research and I can’t thank them enough. Daniel Jamous was especially helpful, and I thank him for his help during the summer of 2006. My friends and family were so supportive throughout the last year. I truly appreciate their patience while I wrote this paper and look forward to having more free time to spend with them!

Filed under: General

Introduction to Educational Technologies

Just thought I would plug the course I am T.F.ing this fall. If you live in the Boston area and are scratching your head thinking about a class you could take this fall, look no further! The class, Introduction to Educational Technologies, is taught by Stacie Cassat Green and is offered through Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education in the ALM in Ed. Tech. Program. The first class is Sept. 29th and runs from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. every other Saturday in Harvard Square at 53A Church Street, Room 202. The course website should be up in a week or so. In the meantime, here is the course description:

“How can computers best support classroom instruction? This course demystifies computers and networks by giving participants hands-on experience with several software packages and the Internet. Participants create pamphlets, spreadsheets, and web-based portfolios, and participate in an online community, all with the goal of enhancing classroom teaching and learning. Participants look at the best practices of technology use and then develop technology-rich lesson plans in their own fields. While this course is geared toward K-12 education, students interested in adult education and training may adapt the assignments to meet their needs. (4 credits)”

If you would like to Register, please visit the Harvard DCE website.

Filed under: General

Pangea Day May 10, 2008

This isn’t directly tied to Educational Technology, however, I think the concept is an interesting one. Next year TED will be holding a conference that asks can film bring the world together? Traditionally, people have consumed the news that media outlets provide, but in the age of youtube, that model is changing. It might be a fascinating experiment to explore in the classroom as well…

Filed under: General