The School Curriculum :: Not a Game Live Event

We attended a presentation by Dr. Kahne about how video games can be incorporated in video games.

Key points that got me thinking were:

1. Can games could become part of the school curriculum if they can be used for a significant educational value?
If yes, then how? There was a little discussion about how educator and game developers can't get along. It seems that game developers, as well as marketing managers, don't really know the right approach to developing educational games. There is a big wall between them. Educators on the other hand, feel like education should not be a "game" or hat students should not have fun doing homework. There was a point brought to our attention that teacher rely on a grade system to evaluate a students' development whereas game developers rely on achievements; as long they reach the next level they should keep going!"
My take? I think as of now, games are still games, there are some that are more educational than others but at the end, they are still games, or have the same game story line, there is end.
The whole game industry relies on selling, meaning that as soon as the new game version comes out, developers are producing the sequel, this has its marketing purpose--to make money. Education on the other hand is a more linear approach rather that the scalable standard game design approach. In conclusion, we should stay away from using the word "game:. Game developers need to take a look at the educational industry and they will, hopefully, find a way to create more education training capsules while at the same time make money.

2. Civic duties?
Dr. Kahn showed us a clip from the video game Halo, and elaborated on the the reason the pitch on the clip was to give the gamer sense of civic duty, help something, the world. My perception is that we can learn every theory, every philosophy, every idea out there, but there is nothing that can replace HUMAN TOUCH, human interaction, the human factor. Someeducational modules/capsules may have great success , but it should not replace LIVE life experience or actually, physically walking on other's people shoes. In other words, I don't entirely agree with the connection of civic duty to be the reason why people would want to learn in a game environment. Or maybe I got Dr.Kahn note entirely wrong.

LM and CMS:
I am a newbie, and the presentation today was very informative. We learn about moddle, drupal and other content management and learning management tools that are open source and available to the public as well as Open Source's terms and conditions. I am looking forward to getting some hand-on experience on developing class curriculum and start creating lesson plans and maybe base my final project on this.

Podcast Remix featuring ITEC classmates

Here is my podcast.
I kept it under three minutes.

See you guys in class.

You know, you look nothing like your avatar

Class was very interesting.
First, we had a light discussion about our reading from last week and this week's "Growing up with Google". We also recorded a mix of what we thought about Dr. Wagner's visit last week. That was fun, I have never done a recording about anything much less in 30-seconds.
With an amateur inspiration about Podcasting, I am looking forward to more multimedia assignments like this. I also learned how to make one.

It's easy; just download AudioCity and boom! you are "DJ Sir Geekalot" all of the sudden. I had the impression that you needed an Ipod in order to create a Podcast, what a misleading verb!

Second Life!
Woh! I was waiting on this presentation for weeks. I had heard of SL but never actually even looked at their site for more info.

So, what is Second Life :
1. Virtual (Social) World
2. Actual people using avatars
3. World is designed and developed by users
4. You can do WHATEVER you want

Second Life and Education?Our presentation was included samples of how SL is being utilized in the classroom and how universities are adapting to this technology. We can only guess where and how we can implement SL in education. Maybe not using SL but maybe educational institutions can develop "virtual universities" for that one only purpose and not depend on the SL franchise.

Aside from the virtual world, our discussion focused on context. Learning and teaching in 21st context is the key to shaping our educational future. As educators we must teach in 21st context because our kids/students are living in the 21st century, a generation that is more open and aware of each others problems and struggles.

We alsowatched a well crafted video “A Vision of Student’s Today” which pretty much summarizes, along with our reading "Growing Up with Google: What it Means to Education", that our young may actually be more confused than we are because they have no guidance on how to use everything that is out there.

Techno Script- not the font, but the technology

This is a short script. I thought it was supposed to be a 30 second summary of Dr. Wagner's presentation that we would narrate into a PODCAST?

"I like Dr. Wagner's presentation. She seemed to have a teaching educational background with a private sector mentality. She is well informed and speculative about both, educational trends and how connectivism along with Web 2.0 are changing or shaping the way we learn. She also seemed concern about how to better utilize the tools of right now than focusing on the future, or in other words, we should embrace what is available now and prepare for the future.

Her website is full of useful insightful blogs about education and technology. I really enjoyed her presentation and look forward to reading her blogs."

Some pondering questions....

How do we prepare students for future technologies?
I would say by having students be more active with today's technologies.

How do we prepare ourselves?
Through reading, peers, playing with new tools that come to light.

How do we decide to stay with sustainable technology?
I really don't know... right now at least.

How is everything that is free (open source) going to help us implement it in educational training?
By using it, retaining what's good and letting go of the ones that have little to offer or that are too far ahead of their time.

What keeps me up at night?
How am I going to be of help to make sure everyone regardless of their location, age (kids, adults, seniors, people with disabilities), social economic status get their hands on these technologies and get better education and become part of the educational caravan? How?

Education and the Internet - The Things to Come

Dr. Ellen Wagner presented her knowledge to class today. Opposed to Dr. Bonk last week, Dr. Wagner main concern is how we make the most out of what we have (Web 2.0 tools). Her way of taking on the class was less business-like and more of a instructional role by asking the class questions and concerns about the way we see and understand 1) web 2.0 and 2) present and future roles. Among the many subjects we discussed the following are the ones that grabbed my attention the most.

Web 2.0 Green Tech?
There was some discussion with the question about whether Web 2.0 was a green technology. In reality Web 2.0 was not meant or designed to be a green technology. For example, solar panels were designed as a green technology for energy conservation. They were and still are designed for that purpose. Whereas Web 2.0 is more of a continuous implementation of the ever changing online Internet experience. In fact this technology, the Internet, has created/contributed more waste, or e-waste.

Web 2.0 may reduce the number of prints-- reducing the number of trees needed to make paper, but it increases energy consumption and e-waste. Research by Harvard school shows that it takes as much energy to do a search in Google as it takes to boil a cup of water. Imagine how many times you do a search in one day, how many people? Google came out with a response on this subject. There are viable venues to combat such immense energy consumption and some seem very far in the future, but all we can hope is that at some point "Web x.0" becomes "eWeb."

Business to Education dilemma
One of the reasons I decided to get my Master in Instructional Technology was my desire to teach and to help: 1) kids/adults without the necessary tools (computer, Internet, phone, etc.) whether in poor cities in the US or anywhere in the world. 2) help people like who have that desire to improve and help reduce the gap between the have and the have nots. And this is where I come to the dilemma. How will my transition from the business/corporate world shape me as an instructor to the public sector? Dr. Wagner talked about her experience and how hard it is to push technology that could be use in education but fails to make money. Web 3.0 simulation? I don't see itDr. Warner asked the class what we thought about

Web 3.0 what will it look like?
Web 4.0? There were a interesting ideas, but I started thinking about how our society is all about "us", personality, what many may coin as "Narcissist". And we are, in general. I think Web 3.0 will be based on this modern social trait, we want to be different, customization. Thus, giving birth to cognitive search intelligence from a platform stance. We should be seeing a change in browsers and software and uniform cross-platforms compatibility.

Free Puppy vs Free Beer
This example was probably the best way to describe what I have always thought about all these "free" tools available to educators right now. My questions has always been when are they going to start charging people to use these tools? why are they free? and how much more improvement is there once fees start to roll in? Web tools like SlideShare, VoiceThread, etc ., are cool, but what exactly is their business direction? How will they survive and make sure they stay in business so that educator don't have to run from free services to free services?

1 Minute Presentation

Here is my 1 minute presentation. I would have added audio if I have had more time to make it better. I think SlideShare is a very cool tool. I wonder when and at what point all the free tools available will ever change. Will it always remain free to people? How are these venture companies planning their productive future as a competition?

ENJOY!!!

The Ed Revolution

View more presentations from Jonathan Delgado. (tags: dr bonk)

One for all and all for one: the world according to Dr. Bonk.

Class reflection; Feb-26-09

Our main activity was watching an online (live feed) presentation of Dr. Bunk on his studies and views of the current technology of social learning though Web 2.0. Some of his points were Media Sharing and common interaction among peers in which by sharing sources (on-line) WE ALL LEARN.

One of his main attention grabber phrase was his self made acronym W-E-A-L-L-L-E-A-R-N.
His presentation went on how things have changed from our grandparents/parents way of learning to ours and how technology is enabling access to speak, indulge and show the world our knowledge, our resources to all those with access.

Dr. Bonk's introduction to his "The World is Flat" presentation placed me back in my Latin American studies in undergraduate school. How significant changes over a short period of time can re-route the course of history. Defying moments driving by people seeking power and/or overthrowing power can resolve the enigma of how close, yet how far we are from understanding and learning from each other. Today in education and Web 2.0, our self determination of seeking for wisdom and the reforming impact on the many projects for OpenSourcessness vying for a better, more constructed way of information knowledge base, will open our participation and anticipation of the way we will learn in the future, or at least what we envision.

There were three points that grabbed my attention and what Dr. Bonk calls the "The Triple Learning Technology."

Pipes: the ability of tools and how it is set up.
Pages: What's out there? The availability of free educational content and resources, (OER) OPEN EDUCATIONAL SOURCES.
Participatory Learning Culture: A cultural move towards an open access and collaboration and global sharing.

One last note I would like to mention is the accessibility of these resources. With people having access to the open world/blended technologies through their phones, mobile devices and computers at home and work, will there be a divide between those use it to get what they need and those who put an input to the web of learning? Will we all be contributors or will we all be information gatherers. Something we know for sure is: the world is open and that way-- WE ALL LEARN.