And thank you, Gilly, for inviting us to participate in this project. It sort of feels like these conversations are happening just in the nick of time -- before people get too far down the path of taking what we already do here and putting it there (sit down and watch this video).
Nick's final question about the extent to which our past experiences -- what has become internalized in our patterns as educators -- influences how easily we can make the transition to virtual worlds. It reminded me of a discussion (way back when!) with Michael Power on the Global Educators' Network. Michael felt that synchronous "classrooms" (like HorizonLive, Elluminate, etc) would be the catalyst for increased adoption of online learning among post secondary faculty. He saw these classrooms as a closer match to on-ground and therefore an easier shift. Generally instructors felt that their personalities were revealed more easily in synchronous environments, and they were often frustrated by asynchronous communication because they just plain didn't feel as likeable or as interesting.
Now I'm thinking about this in the context of Second Life -- the leap from on-ground to Second Life. Woah! But the likeable and interesting part....hmmm.
Thanks everyone! And by this I don't mean good-bye. :-) Keep coming back, as Gilly says. We all look forward to the draft!
We picked the shortest month to schedule 2 SCoPE seminars! Our second February discussion is getting started today: Teaching and Learning Centres Revisited: February 18-24, 2008. facilitated by Vivian Neal and Alice Cassidy. We'll be combining the seminar with a live session from the Educational Developers Caucus, moderated by Amy Severson. Hope to see you all there!
WebbedFeat Fapp
SCoPE Coordinator