Hi Cindy et al
Size doesn't matter. Better to have one good quality thread than a whole internet full of nonsense.
Thanks for the Diagram Derek - Love those as well. I appreciate a small amount of well presented information. Info-logue is a an excellent name for an online discussion. Meaningful discussions for the most part happen offline - on skype, in the park or at the water cooler. Like most people I can talk much faster than I can type and convey much more.
What I like about online discussions is they provide a convenient opportunity to get together. They are not as serious and intimidating as responding to a widely sent email. What is important is not what is said but having the opportunity to have an exchange with a group of individuals - which may lead to something later on. Don't have any stats but I think the more offline discussions and exchanges your software allows via private messaging and voice the better the public discussions will be.
What do you think a successful online dialogue should be like?
Meeting of people who already "know" each other or have a propensity to want to meet in the future. An online asynchronous dialogue is not an end in itself but a supplement to other conversations held in different mediums, voice, email, messaging and F2F.
It is a shame that our posts are archived for posterity because online discussions shouldn't be taken too seriously - It's the internet for goodness sake.
During our Scope Seminar last month we found it was difficult to keep the momentum going for three weeks. Because our topic was so wide it provided less of an opportunity for participants to get deep value out of the discussions. Bits of the best is the better way to go.
Therese Weel
Posts made by Therese Weel
It's done!
Attached is the summary of our discussions for the past three weeks.
While pulling the summary together I was in awe of just how much ground we covered in the past three weeks and the insight that has been generously shared from this peer group. We had some challenges, absorbing and navigating the scope of this topic as well as some technology issues as we experienced virtual worlds first hand. This is a good thing, since we experienced what the average person faces when using these tools. I`m glad we had so many working teachers and parents in this group who were able to speak realistically about the value they have found and placed it in perspective given their work in child development and the educational system.
I say farewell but not goodbye as I`m sure I will bump into many of you again at upcoming scope conferences. Thank you to all for your participation and a special thank you to Tia and Sylvia for making this experience a positive one.
Attached is the summary of our discussions for the past three weeks.
While pulling the summary together I was in awe of just how much ground we covered in the past three weeks and the insight that has been generously shared from this peer group. We had some challenges, absorbing and navigating the scope of this topic as well as some technology issues as we experienced virtual worlds first hand. This is a good thing, since we experienced what the average person faces when using these tools. I`m glad we had so many working teachers and parents in this group who were able to speak realistically about the value they have found and placed it in perspective given their work in child development and the educational system.
I say farewell but not goodbye as I`m sure I will bump into many of you again at upcoming scope conferences. Thank you to all for your participation and a special thank you to Tia and Sylvia for making this experience a positive one.
I'll leave you with one more bit of info. On Friday I heard about a conference offered by the TLT group.
Exploring Educational Potential of Second Life - Online Virtual World
Ilene Frank and Drew Smith, University of South Florida; Steve Gilbert, TLT Group
They have an awesome flash presentation here:
http://www.c21te.usf.edu/materials/edusl/player.html
The archive of a previous friday live presentation and a 1.5 hr recording from March 2007 is here:
http://www.tltgroup.org/OLI/20070323SecondLife.htm
http://www.c21te.usf.edu/materials/edusl/player.html
And an link which I highly recommend bookmarking is the Second Life Annotated Bibliography on the educational value of Second life by Mark Pepper.
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib
Hmmm,
It's quiet out there. No worries. I suspect we are all busy.
Some brilliant comments have been made throughout the forum this month.
I'll add snippets of our conversation to the summary and sent it to the participants later in the week.
T
It's quiet out there. No worries. I suspect we are all busy.
Some brilliant comments have been made throughout the forum this month.
I'll add snippets of our conversation to the summary and sent it to the participants later in the week.
T
As we wind down the whirlwind these past few weeks have been.
Let take some time to reflect on and share the new insights we have gained by participating in this discussion.
I have many.. I will share a few of them now.
First of all I really appreciate the insight offered by teachers and parents on their real world experiences. And also the presentation by Dr. Samia Khan which gave voice to these concerns.
Secondy, being a geek, I changed my definition of a serious game to include a physical game and a game that transverses the boundary between the virtual and the physical. Conversational games, playground games and virtual science labs get me thinking about how we can better ground the lessons learned.
I am posting the first draft of the PDF summary for this session. I still have some work to do however I wanted to post it early as we wind down the discussions. The PDF summary has a space for reflections on what we learned during our time here.
What did you learn this month.
Let take some time to reflect on and share the new insights we have gained by participating in this discussion.
I have many.. I will share a few of them now.
First of all I really appreciate the insight offered by teachers and parents on their real world experiences. And also the presentation by Dr. Samia Khan which gave voice to these concerns.
Secondy, being a geek, I changed my definition of a serious game to include a physical game and a game that transverses the boundary between the virtual and the physical. Conversational games, playground games and virtual science labs get me thinking about how we can better ground the lessons learned.
I am posting the first draft of the PDF summary for this session. I still have some work to do however I wanted to post it early as we wind down the discussions. The PDF summary has a space for reflections on what we learned during our time here.
What did you learn this month.
Just want to share an experience I had lately.
Thomas has added the dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility and carbon footprinting to industry Player to raise awareness about how business impacts our environment. Needless to say I am very excited about the direction industry player is moving in. Thomas, a German fellow who now lives in Brazil, started this game as a university project and has been nursing it along beside his regular job for years.
I went to an event last week with people I worked with 15 years ago who now work for a very large gaming company. I screwed up my courage and gave them the three minute pitch for IP. Building a vision of a game that could remind us to be socially responsible, green and aware of the role of business in society.
The response was not what I expected. Thankfully these guys were honest, candid and told me that they were in business to make money, not games. They sell whatever people will buy and people seem to like addictive games with showy graphics. Arrgh!
http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html?page=46
Ah well I'm over it now Seems there are plenty of people who are fed up with companies who put profits first and people last. Just as the open source movement has us rethinking software development. I look forward to the day when the game industry will evolve into peer developed learning tools that benefit everyone.
Thomas has added the dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility and carbon footprinting to industry Player to raise awareness about how business impacts our environment. Needless to say I am very excited about the direction industry player is moving in. Thomas, a German fellow who now lives in Brazil, started this game as a university project and has been nursing it along beside his regular job for years.
I went to an event last week with people I worked with 15 years ago who now work for a very large gaming company. I screwed up my courage and gave them the three minute pitch for IP. Building a vision of a game that could remind us to be socially responsible, green and aware of the role of business in society.
The response was not what I expected. Thankfully these guys were honest, candid and told me that they were in business to make money, not games. They sell whatever people will buy and people seem to like addictive games with showy graphics. Arrgh!
http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html?page=46
Ah well I'm over it now Seems there are plenty of people who are fed up with companies who put profits first and people last. Just as the open source movement has us rethinking software development. I look forward to the day when the game industry will evolve into peer developed learning tools that benefit everyone.