Virtual Learning Environments

Our objective for this assignment was to to create a richer learning experience for high school students by combining entertainment, games, virtuality and education on an easily accessible browser-based platform. Ultimately, we developed Fractor World to be a collaborative learning hub on the Metaplace platform that exposes students age 13+ to social, political and economic issues and encourages action on their behalf through a confluence of Fractor newsfeeds, games, videos and other multimedia.

As a brief overview of our project, Fractor World is designed for use by high school teachers and their students. Games embedded within the Fractor World learning environment are suitable for age 11+, while the Metaplace platform is navigable for age 13+. Overall, the Fractor World community is a “gamelike” environment that allows educators to aggregate appropriate topics and activist opportunities for students age 11+.

While the site is game-oriented, it is carefully structured and organized based on the topics and activist opportunities Fractor hopes to advertise and encourage. Primary emphasis is placed on learning from playing, and supplemental information is available on both The Playground and The library in the forms of RSS feeds, instructional videos, relevant websites, and articles of interest. As a functional platform, one of our main goals for Fractor World was to create a sense of community and interactivity within Fractor. Interactivity is present through the nature of the 3-D virtual worlds and chat settings, and through the game-like nature of such environments (chat, avatar, world-building, games). Additionally, Fractor World features a rich sampling of RSS feeds, videos, images, and web links, which all make integrating Fractor World into classrooms simple and effective; it’s easily adaptable for the needs of the students and educators, and makes learning more fun and dynamic than only following lesson plans by the textbook.

Fractor World Playground

By design, Fractor World is more interactive than Moodle and Blackboard, although it is a somewhat unconventional LMS platform. For some educators chiefly concerned about storage capacity, Fractor World may be used as a supplementary learning tool and one that is easily embeddable on a class blog or within other LMS platforms like Moodle. See: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10275758-2.html. For educators who wish to use Fractor World as a primary LMS, surveys, quizzes, and lesson plans may be easily incorporated throughout the platform. Additionally, depending on the educator’s abilities, new worlds can represent new lesson plans allowing for easy chronological transition through course curriculum.

As primary administrator of Metaplace/Fractor, educators have the option to tailor RSS feeds, videos, and games for their particular curriculum. Additionally, educators have the authority to serve as content managers, space-designers, and overall administrators of site, bringing creativity into education and tailoring lesson plans as necessary. To facilitate educator’s module building, Fractor should distribute a complete functionality – topic, links, RSS Feeds, and games list – so educators can maximize Fractor World’s potential. Overall, Fractor should consider Fractor World a central hub through which it can partner with teachers and schools to increase awareness, organize fund raisers, and create community outreach programs. Fractor specific newsfeeds, “action” feeds, and games can be used by teachers to promote social action and build enthusiasm for the issues that Fractor identifies as critical problems in need of attention.

Fractor World Library

While we hope that our presentation reflected a relatively polished product, we encountered a number of social/collaborative and technical challenges developing Fractor World. In terms of our social/collaborative challenges, one big factor was geographical separation and time differences. To build a successful project, we all needed to organize and keep each other up to date on goals despite significant time differences. Furthermore, coming to a consensus about project goals and methods proved to be difficult, but ultimately beneficial. Individual ideas, while duly recognized, had to be set aside to allow for a mutually agreed-upon consensus about the overall direction of the project. Also, ensuring all edits and additions to the site remained fluid and consistent with the work of the rest of the group was a priority as we needed the end result to be as cohesive as possible. As such, organizing all of our efforts to create a specific “look” and “feel” for the site, and assigning roles and responsibilities to each member to ensure that every topic was sufficiently covered and no gaps were left in our work were top priorities.

We also had a number of technical challenges as our group members have varying technical training and experience with computers/programming/internet navigation. What’s more, Metaplace itself is a relatively new platform and we experienced a few major issues. One was when Metaplace lost our site for over a day and we had to rebuild everything we had created. Smaller, but equally substancial challenges we faced were: access to well-made, good looking objects that suited our needs, functionality issues when assigning behaviors to objects (Youtube videos didn’t always work, and some external links would cause Metaplace to freeze), and site consistency when inserting objects and organizing our World (objects didn’t always stay where they were supposed to, and landscaping and other terrain building functions were unreliable and hard to work with). Over all the biggest challenge was that we had very specific ideas and goals for the project which needed to be adjusted because team members lacked the technical understanding to accomplish them. In many instances, Metaplace lacked the functionality to allow us to realize many of our ideas, and especially so in relation to game-creation.

Moving forward, we envision many important applications for Fractor World for teachers, students, and the general population. While Fractor World is currently somewhat limited by the ongoing development of its Metaplace platform, we believe Fractor World might be considered for the following uses:

Games: “The Activist”, “The Paper Boy”

Mobile: Josephine’s suggestion of mobile apps/collaborative play on mobile devices.

Geotagging: The user’s ability to click an area in the world and see what non-profit groups exist in that specific region.

For a better view of our project and to see some relevant screenshots, supplemental videos, and game descriptions, please visit: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=0AZ_UMkdL1leRZGdwcXNxN21fNzAyZGI0bTNoZg&hl=en&invite=CLzmqtUE

Critical Foundations for Fractoplace

The response process models the responsiveness, cooperation, and content-relevant communication between the learner and the group. (Chang/Lim) 9The base of our project was created out of the ideas of shared creation and information transfer. Both Fractor and Metaplace are based on the idea of sharing information and relevant action and therefore support a “game” model that allows for exploration, cooperation and communication.

Much social organization no longer fits a group-centric model of society. Work, community, and domesticity have moved from hierarchically arranged, densely knit, bounded groups to social networks. (Hunsinger) Internet communications have given rise to a new tribalization of society, based on interests and on individual concerns, but because humanity is social by nature, individuals gravitate towards others with similar interests in lieu of space and family.

Research has shown that computer-mediated communication supports a range of instrumental, informational, social, and emotional exchanges in work and leisure contexts (e.g., Baym, 1995; 1997; Rice et aI., 1998; Wellman & Gulia, 1999; Quan-Haase & Wellman, 2004; 2005). There is little need to argue that the Internet is both a colossal waster of time and the biggest resource for information ever conceived by mankind. Fractorplace echoes the world of the internet—a user can walk around, see some sights, have a conversation, take in the news, etc. It allows for exploration, gathering of information and a platform to share it. True feedback loops may occur here. …A more complex form of play; the game which is constructed not upon the premise “This is play” but rather around the question “Is this play?” And this type of interaction also has it’s ritual forms… (Bateson)Fractorplace blurs the idea that research and exploration are boring, partially just through the medium, but also through the ways in which students can explore in the world. For example, they can learn about SlowFood through a hot dog stand!

Boundaries between play and production, work and leisure…are increasingly blurring. (Pearce) Metaplace provides an avatar for each user and through that avatar one experiences a secondary life that also is linked to our first lives through our minds’ connections. It looks as though a conversation is a game if a person takes part in it with one set of emotions or ideas—but not a game if his ideas or emotions are different. (Bateson)For students, it is important to blur this line because the work-learn paradigm in education is failing due to information and media saturation.

More Shots of Fractor World Playground

A space of mixed collaborations provides variety in play experience and flexibility in learning. Our findings suggest that lightweight collaborations can be enjoyable and enlightening and need not be negatively valued. (Nardi) Fractorplace provides these abilities to collaborate and to play—with enough customizable flexibility on behalf of the development team to create something worldly. The ability of some communication technologies to support simultaneous feed- back can signal listenership and turn-taking during the learning process. (McLaughlin) The ability to move around in Fractorplace allows for this asynchronous learning model to take root. The teacher and student are on a level playing field, thus allowing for true explorative and project based learning, with enough options to garner the attention of myriad groups.

The response process of asynchronous learning will encourage higher degree of response with media having higher social presence than with media having lower social presence during cross-cultural communication. (Chang/Lim 15) By setting up the form factors in Fractorplace, the Fractor community can help students to be active members in their society in ways that interest them, and it gives them the ability to research what actually interests them!

Polysynchronous environments are defined as virtual spaces that closely approximate real life environments. People..communicating polysynchronously not only talk synchronously (in real time), but also create temporal objects such as mail messages, newsgroup messages, as well as objects that can be experienced by others. This form of virtual reality has potential as a dynamic learning environment. (Robins)The ability to interact with each other, as well as with almost every object in Fractorplace provides a depth and a breadth of experience for the user, teacher and student alike.

E-Iearning has become an integral, valuable, and highly valued component of education, and standard-bearer for state-of-the-art learning and teaching as we advance into the 21 st century. (Harasim)

Hi everyone,

So it seems that our work is finally coming together! I added about 6 slides tonight and made some minor edits on a few others.  I plan to have all my slides completed by tomorrow night so I can spend the remainder of our time making edits and polishing the presentation.  It seems that our initial slides were created using lower-case for all words except for proper nouns with the Courier New font.  I used this formatting for the slides that I created to keep things consistent – does this work for everyone else too? I think it looks kinda cool and jives with the flow of our project, so kudos and thanks to whoever started it.  I’m assuming that we’re just working on the slides that we signed up for, correct?  If any presenters are swamped and need me to post their slides for them I’m happy to do so – just let me know!

Are we all meeting at 8:00 tomorrow?  I think it would be great to touch base before we head into the final stretch.  All in all, we’re on the right track and things are coming together well.  My only question is on videos.  Have we decided who is going to create them?  I can make one if we need another; I’m just a little confused as to who’s doing what in this regard.

See you  tomorrow!

We have some excellent ideas in our outline to answer the second question:
How does your project leverage and create a richer learning experience for your specific target population?

Considering the time constraints for our project and the importance of contributing sufficient detail to each bullet, I think we should begin focusing on how we can begin translating our ideas into a media presentation.  How will we organize our efforts? Perhaps we should begin signing up to address the topics that need coverage.  We can always have multiple submissions for each topic, but it’s important that all the topics are covered by at least one person.  I’ll sign up tonight for the ones I want to work on.  Also, I think we’ll need one person who is good at compiling slides, videos, and content to tie together our various efforts into one cohesive presentation.  Obviously that is a big job, so that could just be someone’s sole role in the final project.  I’d say that we should divy up this responsibility, but unfortunately I think it’s a one person job.  Do you guys agree?  I guess a big question is - who wants to be the person to compile our individual efforts into one fluid presentation?  Does anyone have a lot of experience with this?  Once it’s all put together, I think the process is that we’re supposed to submit it to Josephine in a Quicktime format.

Does anyone have anything process related to add or change?

I just want to say again how much of a pleasure it has been to work with all of you on the project.  This group is by far the most responsive, fun, and intelligent I’ve ever had the opportunity to do work with.  Thanks again!

 I thought this was an interesting article for a librarians perspective on VLE.

Library Journal article

I thought I’d post this link if anyone wants to join in a conversation on Seesmic about how we engage students online. I have had a couple of responses from people not related to our class which I find really neat. I have also posted the actual video conversation in the comment section on my post about Moodle vs. Wiki.

olysha

seesmic conversation

Moodle: First Impressions

Moodle has a nicely structured platform and has my vote over Blackboard.  In the Film Studies demo, I appreciated the emphasis on lesson sequence and the capacity to break each lesson/class into a separate page.  The use of modules- particularly, quizzes and surveys -also helped to streamline the discussion process.  [Note: I appreciate the freedom blogs give everyone to expound on their views and arguments, but having a limit imposed on initiating forum threads can go a long way towards focusing the class when dozens or more are participating.  The Moodle discussion topic we are currently having is a perfect example –four or five of us have started separate threads on the same topic.]  Additionally, the ability to customize language settings is also critical as the New School and others try to push beyond the American-centric classroom.  Finally, like Nag, I agree that Moodle’s ability to suit industry and government as much as academia is imperative.  In my own work environment, my boss consistently pushes our in-house online strategy team to attend digital tech and social media conferences; it would be nice if we could participate in post-conference classes with the speakers (many who are already in academia).

All these benefits aside, Moodle’s aesthetic experience proved a huge drawback.  Personally, I would rather log into an LMS with Ning-like aesthetics, profile markers, homepage videos, etc.  Hopefully, a Moodle redesign is under consideration?   Even if a redesign is not in the cards, Moodle does seem to have an impressive list of registered sites.  I noticed two well-known U.S. high schools – Culver Academy and Brooklyn Tech – are using Moodle as well as the 1st infantry division to train new troops. My old high school in New Jersey is reportedly running on StudyWiz Spark (see demo).  I’m not sure if anyone else used StudyWiz or another LMS at their respective high schools – it is a new venture for my own.  We didn’t have cell phones let alone school email accounts when I was student (10 years ago).
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To answer Katharine’s question (below) about Moodle: I would argue that if students are not appreciating the benefits of Moodle it is because Moodle like the LMSes mentioned above do not target students where they already are (i.e. established social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Twitter).  As we wrap up our analysis for the semester, I am concerned that we are creating too many platforms that compete for students’ attention.  We need to start integrating the LMS or VLE model into existing platforms so that we can give students interactions that are meaningful, personal and consistent with their daily behavior as digital natives.  As noted on its website, StudyWiz prides itself on being able to seamlessly integrate with the iPod.  My response:  so what?  iPod interoperability is old news when teens today are using all-in-one iPhones that provide seamless access to not only their favorite music but Facebook, YouTube, Tweetdeck, etc.
In his analysis, Siemens argues that the “management” aspect of LMS’ creates a problem: “The underlying assumption is that if we just expose students to the content, learning will happen.”  He goes on to write that “our real-life manner of learning is at odds with the design and implementations of most LMS’” and that “most LMS platforms are attempting to shape the future of learning to fit into the structure of their systems, even though most learning today is informal and connectionist in nature.”
Informal and connectionist are key.
A few weeks ago WIRED ran a feature on the Great Wall of Facebook (I just reposted it on del.icio.us and Twitter).  The article largely addresses Google’s approach to information sourcing and the competing vision of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  Per Wired: “Zuckerberg envisions a more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline. In Zuckerberg’s vision, users will query this “social graph” to find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire—rather than tapping the cold mathematics of a Google search. It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center.”

I’m not a huge fan of Zuckerberg (Andreesen and Bianchini’s Ning has more dynamic potential), but I believe he has the right vision- and one that can be adapted for educational purposes.  When I was in high school, most of the facts and theories I learned in the classroom didn’t take on meaning until later in the day:  during conversations with peers or dinner table chatter with my siblings and parents.  I think the same goes for today’s high school students only they now have virtual social networks for feedback and analysis at their disposal.  Facebook would do its “student” members well if it launched classroom networks (much like a Ning network) where teachers could customize modules (like Moodle) and updates on assignments, readings, quizzes, etc. appeared in profile newsfeeds or sidebars.  From there, students could share materials with friends in their broader networks – and “learning” could actually go viral.

I’m being idealistic, and I can already hear the legions screaming that they don’t want to friend teachers on Facebook.  But I refuse to buy the argument that integrating a VLE into Facebook, Ning or any other social network would dumb down learning for students.  Privacy settings are available.  And if anything, such interoperability would elevate the debate and dialogue currently taking place among digital natives on those platforms.

I think that ease of navigation with an LMS or VLE, like Moodle is only half the battle when it comes to engaging students online.  When the face-to-face interaction of an actual classroom is removed it is extremely difficult to stay maintain the sense of connection in the virtual.  I find personally, while working in VLE’s, it can become extremely difficult to manage all of the requirements and expectations of the class. I find that I check the syllabus several times a week to confirm that I have not missed any assignments or let anything slip through the cracks. This is where I think a website like Moodle is effective, in that it centralizes all of the learning materials and allows for greater ease of navigation.

I think its possible to be comfortable with the medium of computers and online games but still be hesitant when it comes to an online learning environment, mainly because they are still so new.  In addition many of the VLE’s fail to actually engage the student in the material, confusing that with basic levels of interactivity.  Just because we are reading the material and participating in a basic level discussion about it does not mean we are being engaged or challenged as learners.  This is where I feel a system like blackboard fails due to the fact that its very one dimensional and where it seems like sites like Moodle might be able to expand upon.  However, I think George Siemens in his article Learning Management Systems: The wrong place to start learning puts it best when he says “The more feature-rich an individual tool becomes, the more it loses its usefulness to the average user.” Couldn’t agree more.  Sometimes all of the bells and whistles do nothing more but create an obstacle between the student and the program.

Another problem, which one of the other posts spoke to, was the social nature involved with learning.  So much of what we learn is through the interaction with other students and I feel that sometimes VLE’s can make the student feel very isolated. This can be combated with sites such as seismic and twitter which helps to remind the student that they are not alone.  For me this semester, the use of Twitter has been extremely helpful with putting a face and personality behind the blog discussions.

I wanted to post this link since it is very significant to the future of eTextbooks in the US.

http://dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=140&subid=292&contentid=255033

and the press release:

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=85&subid=108&contentid=255034

I think that it is very important to see people begin to produce and collaborate in virtual environments because otherwise participants end up just using the options provided by the software or the network and they can not work productively and creatively because of the limitations of the virtual platform just like in Metaplace or SL. We have to create our own game that works with the notions of social constructivist education approach where the users of the virtual environment including the instructors and the students work collaboratively and creatively with each other and learn from each other by facilitating imaginative and creative art projects.
In many ways what we do in metaplace is very much like playing exquisite corps and the wiki and blogs are very much that way as well. We all contribute to the virtual space, network or platform and form a literal, visual and audio environment where participants learn by doing research and by working with each other. It is the same in equisite corps. People can share and learn more from this creative process than you might imagine. The concepts of our project assignment which are games, news and activism fit very well with the idea of exquisite corps and also the written version of the game as well where people write a  piece of literature like a poem, story or book collectively. That is why I thought that it would be good game structure for our project purposes.
We can also introduce another game where we would teach about what we as individuals in the virtual  platform know the most about or we can share our knowledge on a specific subject so the virtual environment we are participating in would become an educational environment where people can learn about different subjects and that is absolutely the basis of activism.
For example I would teach about art and film and each person would teach about whatever they are most knowledgeable about or what they are interested in.
One more idea for an educational game is presenting an image and the one who looks at it responds with a word or a sentence so by exchanging images and writing about the images we can create a virtual reflective learning environment or a blog.
As I was reading about teaching and learning, especially about distance learning it became clear to me that entertainment and fun are supposed to be a part of the learning process just like in the example of the Sesame Street series. By incorporating creativity and imagination into our virtual presence and virtual learning environment I think we can maximize the level of educational quality and keep the attention of the participants without making the experience boring which means that the interaction and the visual elements that are exchanged would contribute to the over all social, collective, collaborative and constructivist learning experience in our creative educational environment.