jokaydia.com » virtual classroom project

Notes from the Unconference

jokay Wollongong — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 07:28:12 +0000

A special thanks to all who joined us today for the March Mini-Unconfererence today – especially to our facilitators who all did a stellar job.

Annabel and Konrad gave a great update on the Virtual Classroom Project and how it is developing. I’m really excited to see the careful design of learning activities going on in the project and am really looking forward to watching it continue to evolve.

To stay up to date on the VCP project, keep an eye on the VCP Wiki page, or subscribe to Annabel and Konrad’s blogs.

Annabel also provided a number of usful links you might wish to revisit including:

Our second session, which focussed on Web Video was delivered by Skribe Forti, and was fantastic as well. I particularly liked the videos he selected to demostrate the message – all brilliant in various ways.

You can view Skribe’s resources below, (with cool embedded videos via Slideshare!) and I’ve included links to the videos he shared as well.

Web Video in the Web 2.0 World

View more presentations from skribe. (tags: marketing commercials)

Youtube Links from Skribe’s session:

Schoolbag – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70HZOjPzhzg
Googlers – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmjCtu2L_5A
Still Free – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwU2t3BJtiM
Sticky Note – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1rZqw5bXb4
A Thousand Words – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Z8gW8NBks

Our Unconference finished with a quick excursion to visit Al Lurton’s latest exhibition over at the Kelly Yap Gallery (SLurl) and was lots of fun. Dont miss Al’s Interactive Dome! ;) The exhibition is open till 15 April.

A special thanks also to Stephan Bethune aka Steph Ridgway who volunteered to come along and record the session. Thanks yet again Steph!!! And also to Konrad, marlonj, Henny and Pandora who captured the images I’ve used in the slideshow above!

Our next unconference is coming up on 5th April. Further details available on the jokaydia Wiki! In the meantime, dont forget to enter the photo competition!!

jokaydia Unconferencing in March!

jokay Wollongong — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:37:38 +0000

Yes, that’s right! It’s Mini Unconference time again! The Islands of jokaydia’s Community of Practice will hold our montly Mini Unconference this Sunday 8 March (AEST) and you’re all invited! ;)

We’ve got several fabulous sessions planned, including:

Annabel Recreant and Konrad March will give us an update on their wonderful work on the Virtual Classroom Project. Check out both Annabel’s and Konrad’s posts on the subject and the VCP wiki page for more info.
Launch of the Annual jokaydia Community Photo Comp! Yay! – this is one of my favourite events for the year.
Skribe Forti on Video in a Web 2.0 World. Dont miss this one – Skribe is an Australian expert on machinima and video production for the web and I’m sure will lead a fantastic session.
Visit to Al Lurton’s latest exhibition over at the Kelly Yap Gallery (SLurl) – what a great way to finish up the event!

For more details you can check out the jokadia Unconference Wiki page, and of course all participants are welcome to add additional topics for discussion!

EVENT DETAILS:

AEST TIME: 2pm, Sunday 8 March 09
SL TIME: 7pm, Saturday 7 March 09
Check your local times at Timeanddate.com
Venue: jokaydia Castle! (SLURL)

Please freel free to email joannamkay@gmail.com if you need further details. I hope to see you all at the event!

The Virtual Classroom Project Continues

Konrad Glogowski — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:07:01 +0000

Cross-posted to blog of proximal development.

I am delighted to report that the Virtual Classroom Project that I started last year on the island of jokaydia in Second Life is back in full swing. An Australian educator, Annabel Astbury, has been selected to be Educator-in-Residence on jokaydia until the end of February. Her residency was launched on February 1st at the jokaydia mini Unconference (you can download the audio recording of the sessions here).

Annabel (SL: Annabel Recreant) has been busy creating a very unique project. As a teacher of history, she is interested in creating a virtual learning space where visitors can learn about “settlement / colonisation in the south east of Australia.” Specifically, she is interested in creating a space where students can explore and experience “the impact that colonisation had upon indigenous communities in Australia.”

Annabel wants to create a space where the students can interact with the virtual land, where they experience the life of early settlers:

My idea is that when someone first visited the site they would be faced with a simulation of the Australian bush as it appeared pre settlement. Uncleared. Perhaps with evidence of Indigenous inhabitants. Features of the natural landscape.

Visitors may have read documents in class (hence the working with not around) or read some of the documents provided in another part of the space regarding elements of Frontier life such as the process of settling on a new land, difficulties faced, the ways these were solved (if at all) etc.

Once armed with some of this foreknowledge, visitors would be invited to clear the land themselves taking into account the topography, geography and physical elements of the landscape. Provided with a ‘box’ visitors would be invited to build their own hut, or settlement.

What I like about her project is that Annabel wants her virtual learning space to be a place where the visitors can build and create, not just view, watch, or listen to whatever has been prepared for them. She wants the visitors to not just read about early settlers in Australia but also to interact with the virtual landscape, to make it their own and, in the process, learn about issues faced by settlers. This idea emerged from some very critical questions about the educational potential of Second Life:

[...] I think I became a little disengaged at the end of last year with Second Life … because I had reached a ‘now what?’ stage. Having been part of the community of learners on the Islands of Jokaydia was great, but personally I felt I had plateaued in what I could offer or do. More than that I think I started to find it difficult to see the other uses of Second Life other than that main one of being connected to a network of great teachers.

[...] what I began to obsess over was this: if anyone came to my plot .. why would they? Why would they come into Second Life merely to click on a few urls that would take them to the internet? To me, that wasn;t a good use of the platform.

To me, the problem Annabel describes here has always been a major weakness of how Second Life is used in education. It is often a place where artifacts are built for visitors and where mere reproductions of real-life lecture halls are quite common. Annabel wants to use Second Life as a place where students can build their own understanding while (virtually) building a homestead and clearing the land. She wants to engage visitors by providing them with primary and secondary sources that will then enable them to make well-informed decisions as virtual settlers. Her virtual classroom will never really be finished – it will be more of an empty canvas where visitors can construct their vision of early settler life.

Annabel envisions this project as an opportunity to show other educators how students can be encouraged to use virtual environments such as Second Life to build their own understanding of history so that it becomes visible to anyone who visits the virtual space. This is not going to be just about building a virtual space where students can click on some URLs and read secondary sources. Annabel wants to develop a virtual resource to engage students in Historical Thinking by providing them with resources they can consult and artifacts they can use to build their own understanding of history. It’s almost like creating a virtual world wiki where instead of being confronted with a carefully designed space, a student is given access to a variety of resources and tools to build that space and, in the process, demonstrate his or her understanding of the material. The wonderful part about this is that this process will make learning visible in 3D. A student who builds with the resources provided in this virtual space and by using her own understanding of the time period will create an artifact that other learners can explore, interact with, and also rebuild or redesign.

I hope that you will follow Annabel’s work by reading her blog, checking out the Virtual Classroom Project Flickr group, and exploring her work inworld.

Virtual Classroom Project – Final Reflections

Konrad Glogowski — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:06:18 +0000

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.

“An engine for creativity”

Konrad Glogowski — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:17:27 +0000

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.

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.

Finishing touches

jokay Wollongong — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:12:25 +0000

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]

Virtual Classroom Meeting

jokay Wollongong — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:20:21 +0000

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]

It’s all happening at the Virtual Classroom space!

jokay Wollongong — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:35:59 +0000

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]

Virtual Classroom Project Reflection

Konrad Glogowski — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:22:19 +0000

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

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.

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

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.

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).

Virtual Classroom Project Update

jokay Wollongong — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:12:44 +0000

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

When: Saturday 19th April, 9:30am AEST
(Fri 18th April, 4:30pm SL/PDT Time. Check your local time here!)

Where: Educator-in-residence Space on the Islands of jokaydia (SLurl)

What: Meetup with Virtual Classroom Project Coordinator Konrad March and our first Educator-in-Residence Leroy Goalpost to discuss what they’ve been up to since the project launched a few weeks ago.

Who: All jokaydia residents and visitors are welcome.

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

When: Sunday 20th April, 9:30am AEST
(Sat 19th April, 4:30pm SL/PDT Time. Check your local time here!)

Where: Educator-in-residence Space on the Islands of jokaydia (SLurl)

What: Meetup with Virtual Classroom Project Coordinator Konrad March and our first Educator-in-Residence Leroy Goalpost to discuss what they’ve been up to since the project launched a few weeks ago.

Who: All jokaydia residents and visitors are welcome.