Virtual Classroom Project - Final Reflections

The inaugural phase of the Virtual Classroom Project is coming to a close. The official in-world meet-up to officially conclude Leigh Blackall’s (SL: Leroy Goalpost) residency on jokaydia as our first Educator-in-Residence will take place in the next two weeks. Details will be posted as soon as the date is finalized.

Before we conclude, however, Leigh and I will use voicethread to engage in conversations about his work and his experiences as our Educator-in-Residence. I hope that you will find some time to not only listen to Leigh’s thoughts but also contribute your own questions or comments. Please check back regularly as we intend to keep contributing to the voicethread throughout the final two weeks of Leroy’s residency.

So, if you’ve been following the project or attended our inworld meet-up during jokaydia’s April Festival, please add your thoughts. Leroy and I are looking forward to an engaging discussion.

Click here to listen to our voicethread discussion or use the embedded player below.

May 7, 2008 | Filed Under educator-in-residence, events, virtual classroom project | Leave a Comment 

“An engine for creativity”

The title of this post comes from Claudia L’Amoreaux, a community developer and educator for Linden Lab, who was recently interviewed for an eSchool News article. She states that

Today’s teens are creating their own content, uploading photos to Flickr and videos to YouTube, and in Second Life they’re making their own games and stepping into them–you could call Second Life a participatory game platform.

As I sit down to reflect on our very own Virtual Classroom Project and the work of our first ever Educator-in-Residence Leigh Blackall, I realize that Second Life is indeed a participatory platform. Those of you who attended our Virtual Classroom Project sessions experienced this first-hand. Leigh’s project gave us an opportunity not only to discuss teaching and learning in virtual environments and in real life, but also to experience his prototype by interacting with it as if it were a physical space. The virtual experience of walking around the “classroom” he has designed taught me a lot about designing spaces for learning and provided numerous opportunities to reflect on the art of designing such spaces both in real life and in a virtual environment such as Second Life.

Leigh presenting at the Virtual Classroom Meeting 1
Photo by joannamkay

It’s hardly surprising that Leigh’s work has already inspired one of our jokaydian residents, slammed Aabye (Dean Groom), to think about exploring some aspects of the Virtual Classroom Project on the Teen Grid where he is creating a presence for his high school students. In fact, both he and another inspiring jokaydian, Judy O’Connell (Heyjude Jenns), have started a Ning group to facilitate their efforts in Teen Second Life and encourage discussion among educators about meaningful, collaborative, and project-based approaches to teaching in Second Life.

As I read through their entries in the new Ning community and look at photos of their Teen Grid spaces, my thoughts return to that eSchool News article on gaming, Second Life, and 21st-century skills. I am sure that their work will culminate in a virtual environment and numerous activities that will help their students develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. I am sure that their work will confirm some of the following conclusions about the use of games and virtual worlds in education:

  • Gaming and simulations are highly interactive, allow for instant feedback, immerse students in collaborative environments, and allow for rapid decision-making.
  • Studies of the brain have pointed to data suggesting that repeated exposure to video games reinforces the ability to create mental maps, inductive discovery such as formulating hypotheses, and the ability to focus on several things at once and respond faster to unexpected stimuli.
  • Video games engage students and help foster some of the 21st-century skills, such as problem-solving, which may be more difficult to acquire in a traditional classroom with a textbook.
  • “When you think about the skills that students need when they leave school, like creativity and curiosity … identifying problems and solving them - these are skills that [can be] hard to teach in the traditional face-to-face classroom,” [...] “And a lot of these technologies are being used in the corporate world–IBM is now using games to train its employees, so you see simulations and games emerging outside of K-12 education.

I am looking forward to following the work that Judy and Dean have started in their Ning group. I hope that the Virtual Classroom Project will continue to inspire Second Life educators and explore the potential of Second Life as “an engine for creativity.”

If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts on Second Life and education, please feel free to join the Diigo group I created to collect and reflect on online resources that focus on teaching and learning in virtual environments.

May 4, 2008 | Filed Under community, education, educator-in-residence, jokaydians, virtual classroom project | Leave a Comment 

Finishing touches


I found Leroy and Konrad on the Virtual Classroom space this morning making some final touches and adding things like URL givers and Notecards.

The space is looking brilliant and I’m really looking forward to hearing the guys discuss where this project has taken them, and the strategies and structures they’ve created.

Stay tuned… there’ll be a workshop or event soon.

posted by jokay Wollongong on jokaydia II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

April 29, 2008 | Filed Under bloghud, education, educator-in-residence, jokaydia, news, virtual classroom project | Leave a Comment 

Virtual Classroom Meeting


We’re all ready to go over in the Virtual Classroom space… ready for Leigh and Konrad’s first discussion session for the April Festival. Come and join us!

posted by jokay Wollongong on jokaydia II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

April 19, 2008 | Filed Under bloghud, community, education, educator-in-residence, events, fun, news, virtual classroom project | Leave a Comment 

It’s all happening at the Virtual Classroom space!


An impromptu meetup with Leroy, Konrad, Beb, Gnu, HeyJude, Sheila and slammed. I’m sure we’re distracting Leroy - who is preparing for the Virtual classroom project discussions tomorrow…. but we’re having fun! ;)

posted by jokay Wollongong on jokaydia II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

April 18, 2008 | Filed Under bloghud, events, fun, virtual classroom project | Leave a Comment 

Virtual Classroom Project Reflection

Cross-posted to: blog of proximal development

Leigh Blackall’s work on the islands of jokaydia in Second Life is truly inspiring. We’ve had many discussions since he agreed to take part in my Virtual Classroom Project and it’s been fascinating to observe his progress. I envisioned the Virtual Classroom Project as an opportunity to explore alternatives to our traditional notions of teaching, learning, and, specifically, learning space design. I’m pleased that Leigh, the project’s first Educator-in-Residence, has taken up that challenge by sharing a unique and thought-provoking concept. I cannot wait to see the finished project and am looking forward to further discussions with Leigh.

Before I delve into my first reflection on his work, I’d like to encourage you to follow his progress and take part in a virtual workshop that Leigh and I will be hosting this weekend on the islands of jokaydia, the home of the Virtual Classroom Project.

Leigh’s Project - A Brief Introduction

Virtual Classroom Meeting (April 14, 2008)

As soon as Leigh announced his plans for a virtual prototype of a learning space based on the principles of permaculture design I was hooked. I realized that, to Leigh, the Virtual Classroom Project presented an opportunity to address learning as a fundamental part of our daily existence. “Leigh’s ideas,” I wrote in my project notes, “suggest that he wants to explore the process of de-institutionalizing learning. He seems interested in asking why learning cannot be grounded in informal places, places that we take for granted, such as our homes.” But Leigh took this one step further. If our place of residence is to serve as a focal point of learning in our lives, then we need to start asking ourselves some crucial questions about the kinds of places we inhabit and the relationship between those places and the environment. In other words, Leigh believes that the process of de-institutionalizing learning cannot lead to creating places that are as insensitive to the natural world around them as the big institutions that currently dominate our lives and, specifically, education. One could extend this argument and ask “What exactly are children learning in a school that does not have a recycling programme? What are they learning in a building that’s surrounded by concrete?” I think that Leigh’s project effectively addresses both of these questions.

Leigh’s use of permaculture design, defined by Wikipedia as “an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies,” suggests that he is interested in exploring to what extent human beings can be engineers of their own self-sufficient and ecologically-friendly environments. His design revolves around the notion of sustainability and is based on re-using discarded shipping containers because, as he says,

they are readily available for reuse, reasonably cheap, structurally sound, transportable (obviously), durable, and come in remarkably good dimensions for proportioning an efficient living and working space.

But Leigh does not use these containers to re-create the kind of institutional, impersonal teaching/learning space that we’ve all experienced in our lives as both teachers and learners. Instead of building a classroom, a lecture hall, or a place formally designated as a space for teaching and learning, Leigh decided to build a

family house that is large enough to host 15 or so people from time to time, but practical as a family home; that is fully self sufficient in providing for its own energy, water and food needs; that is a system that produces no waste; and that uses building materials and structures that are reused, portable and make minimal impact on the area being occupied.

Leigh’s Project - Key Ideas

In one of his blog posts devoted to the Virtual Classroom Project, Leigh states that he is interested in

efficient use of space and resources; space design that is conducive to inquiry learning and skills training; and [...] every single aspect serving some form of opportunity for learning.

Let’s think about this carefully - “every single aspect serving some form of opportunity for learning.” What this means to me is that Leigh wants his family home to be more than just walls. The physical space here is not designed to be a mere container for teaching and learning. Instead, the space he’s building is a kind of portal where every aspect of its design can lead an inquiring mind to discoveries about sustainability, permaculture design, or the environmentally friendly lifestyle. For example, the solar panels that he’s planning to use and the small wind turbine already in place can lead to an interesting discussion on energy consumption.

Virtual Classroom Meeting (April 14, 2008)

Virtual Classroom Meeting (April 14, 2008)

The shipping containers, the very walls of the house, can lead to a discussion on reusing and recycling.

Virtual Classroom Meeting (April 7, 2008)

The roof of the dwelling and the glass floor panels inside the house can lead to a discussion on the importance of natural light and the need to reduce our dependence on electricity.

Virtual Classroom Meeting (April 14, 2008)

In short, the building itself provides numerous opportunities to discuss our ecological footprint and engage in discussions about the environment and eco-friendly lifestyles. Now, the question is, where would you rather learn about all of this - in a sterile classroom that looks like all the other classrooms around the world, or in a unique family home built upon the principles of permaculture design? Would you rather learn this from a teacher who has to deliver a unit on sustainability or from an individual who is passionate about the environment and whose home and lifestyle attest to his commitment to the environment?

What really fascinates me about Leigh’s prototype is that, in addition to making us think about sustainability and the environment, Leigh also explores the notion of de-institutionalizing or deschooling society. His project revives some of the key ideas of Ivan Illich. During our discussions over the past two weeks, Leigh’s comments about his design led me to re-visit my thoughts on informal education, lifelong learning, and community. Specifically, his ideas and the way he is implementing them remind me of Illich’s notion that institutions tend to dehumanize people and commodify learning. Consider this passage from Ilich’s Deschooling Society:

Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby “schooled” to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is “schooled” to accept service in place of value (Illich, 1973).

In other words, our students tend to think that teaching equals learning. Learning and knowledge are commodified and transform education into a process of consumption rather than exploration. In addition, as Illich argues in Deschooling Society, schools discourage other institutions from assuming educative roles and tend to be places of confinement rather than liberating engagement. De-institutionalization, Illich argues, can take place when we recognize that education “relies on the surprise of the unexpected question which opens new doors for the inquirer and his partner.” This kind of inquiry can take place when the instructor abandons what Illich calls “skill drill” instruction and focuses on helping “matching partners to meet so that learning can take place.” Learners, he continues,

should be able to meet around a problem chosen and defined by their won initiative. Creative, exploratory learning requires peers currently puzzled about the same terms or problems. Large universities make the futile attempt to match them by multiplying their courses, and they generally fail since they are bound to curriculum, course structure, and bureaucratic administration. In schools, including universities, most resources are spent to purchase the time and motivation of a limited number of people to take up predetermined problems in a ritually defined setting. The most radical alternative to school would be a network or service which gave each man the same opportunity to share his current concern with others motivated by the same concern (Illich, 1973).

Leigh’s project reminds me of some of Illich’s alternatives to teaching institutions. Specifically, the family home that he’s building can become a place where those who are “currently puzzled about the same terms or problems” can meet outside of institutional constraints and engage in exploratory learning. It’s a place that supports what Illich referred to as “life of action:”

I believe that a desirable future depends on our deliberately choosing a life of action over a life of consumption, on our engendering a lifestyle which will enable us to be spontaneous, independent, yet related to each other, rather than maintaining a lifestyle which only allows to make and unmake, produce and consume - a style of life which is merely a way station on the road to the depletion and pollution of the environment. The future depends more upon our choice of institutions which support a life of action than on our developing new ideologies and technologies (Illich, 1973).

After numerous conversations with Leigh and after reading his reflections, I see his virtual project as what Illich calls a convivial institution. It’s an institution that, unlike school, is not based on coerced membership. Instead, it encourages human interactions that are based on autonomy, creativity, and exploration. I also see Leigh’s project as a potential learning web and I’m looking forward to discussing this aspect of his work with him over the next two weeks.

If you’re interested in Leigh’s views on learning and would like to explore his prototype (still in progress), please join us this weekend on the islands of jokaydia (Click here for details).

April 18, 2008 | Filed Under educator-in-residence, jokaydia, virtual classroom project | 1 Comment 

Virtual Classroom Project Update

Konrad has created a fantastic video update of the work he and our fabulous Educator-in-Residence Leigh Blackall aka Leroy Goalpost have been doing as part of our Virtual Classroom project.

I’m really enjoying watching the evolution of this project and excited to see where Leigh has taken it. As you’ll see from his posts about the project here and here, he’s exploring some really exciting ideas about both classroom spaces and sustainability and self-sufficient design.

We’re holding two discussion sessions as part of our April Festival on the Islands of jokaydia that will focus on the Virtual Classroom project:

Virtual Classroom Meeting with Konrad March and Leroy Goalpost - Session 1

Virtual Classroom Meeting with Konrad March and Leroy Goalpost - Session 2

April 16, 2008 | Filed Under community, events, jokaydia, news, virtual classroom project | 4 Comments 

Scouting for Resources


I managed to find some groovy enviro resources at the Big Green Switch, a group that offer carbon offsets for both sims and avatars.

Check out http://www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/secondlife.

Hopefully some of these pieces will be useful for the Virtual Classroom project.

posted by jokay Wollongong on Gourdneck using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

April 10, 2008 | Filed Under bloghud, educator-in-residence, interesting places to visit, virtual classroom project | Leave a Comment 

Intrepid Educator-In-Residence


Leroy hard at work.

posted by jokay Wollongong on jokaydia II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

April 10, 2008 | Filed Under bloghud, educator-in-residence, virtual classroom project | Leave a Comment 

Virtual Classroom Project is off and running!


I’m very excited to see the beginings of developments on the Educator-in- Residence space on jokaydia. Great to see Leroy and Konrad have made a start!

posted by jokay Wollongong on jokaydia II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

April 3, 2008 | Filed Under bloghud, educator-in-residence, virtual classroom project | 1 Comment 

Next Page »