Transcript of the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable: May 9, 2019
Topic: The Horizon Report 2019
Photos by Beth Ghostraven
Transcript edited by Scot Headley
The annual Horizon report started 16 years ago. The idea is that a panel of experts interact (using a Delphi Study format) to forecast short, medium and long term trends involving technology in Higher Education. The Horizon Report was started by the New Media Consortium (which was very active in Second Life in SL’s early days). When the NMC went bankrupt in 2017, the Horizon Report was taken over by EDUCAUSE.. The report ” identifies and describes the higher education trends, challenges, and developments in educational technology likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry. “
NOTECARD:
The report home page is here:
https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/4/2019-horizon-report
The pdf of the report:
https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2019/4/2019horizonreport.pdf
After Sheila has explained this, we can discuss any of the trends that people find particularly interesting: e.g.
- – Do you agree this is a trend?
- – Does it affect you personally as an educator/learner/researcher?
- – How important do you think it is?
- – What can/should we do about it?
These are the trends identified in the 2019 report:
*** I. Key Trends Accelerating Technology Adoption in Higher Education
Short-Term—Driving technology adoption in higher education for the next one to two years
- – Redesigning Learning Spaces
- – Blended Learning Designs
Mid-Term—Driving technology adoption in higher education for the next three to five years
- – Advancing Cultures of Innovation
- – Growing Focus on Measuring Learning
Long-Term—Driving technology adoption in higher education for five or more years
- – Rethinking How Institutions Work
- – Modularized and Disaggregated Degrees
***II.Significant Challenges Impeding Technology Adoption in Higher Education
Solvable—Those that we understand and know how to solve
- – Improving Digital Fluency
- – Increasing Demand for Digital Learning Experience and Instructional Design Expertise
Difficult—Those that we understand but for which solutions are elusive
- – The Evolving Roles of Faculty with Edtech Strategies
- – Bridging the Achievement Gap
Wicked—Those that are complex to even define, much less address
- – Advancing Digital Equity
- – Rethinking the Practice of Teaching
***III.Important Developments in Educational Technology for Higher Education
Time to Adoption: One Year or Less
- – Mobile Learning
- – Analytics Technologies
Time to Adoption: Two to Three Years
- – Mixed Reality
- – Artificial Intelligence
Time to Adoption: Four to Five Years
- – Blockchain
- – Virtual Assistants
They also have 2-page articles reflecting on how past themes have fared, namely: Gaming and Gamification; Augmented and Mixed Reality; Adaptive Learning
****** Highlighted trend (by Sheila) *******
————
Mixed reality
————–
*2019* report identifies this as a “Time to Adoption: Two to Three Years trend”
It gives much the same definition as in 2018 (see next paragraph). In the overview, one of the paragraphs says “MR technologies are well suited for experiential education. Through simulations and 360° video, VR can enable users to visit places they might otherwise not be able to access, such as art museums, archaeology sites, a refugee camp, or Mount Everest, as well as places that are entirely inaccessible, such as on board the Titanic, the Mesozoic, or Mars. VR enables users to do things that are impossible in the physical world, such as manipulate entire environments or navigate inside veins and arteries, or that are dangerous, such as training for firefighters. Through overlays, AR can enable users to interact with things that are invisible in the physical world, such as electromagnetic fields.”
Discussion question: to what extent are these ventures different from virtual worlds experiences?
– The **2018** report identified “Mixed Reality” as a long term trend “the intersection of virtual and physical realities is an emerging environment known as mixed reality (MR), where digital and physical objects coexist. This hybrid space integrates virtual technologies into the real world so that viewers often cannot distinguish where one world begins and the other ends. MR’s virtual aspect comes from the use of devices equipped with 3D viewing technologies that seamlessly layer digital objects onto the real world. Another major MR component is the integration of augmented reality (AR), which layers information over 3D space. A key AR characteristic is its ability to respond to user input, which offers significant potential for learning and assessment; learners can construct new understanding based on interactions with virtual objects that bring underlying data to life. Holographic devices are also being used to create MR environments, as their video displays project 3D images into a physical space.”
—————————
NOTE that the 2007 Horizon reports identified “Virtual Worlds” as a trend.
What it said about Virtual Worlds in the **2007** Report https://library.educause.edu/resources/2007/1/2007-horizon-report
“In the last year, interest in virtual worlds has grown considerably, fueled in no small part by the tremendous press coverage of examples like Second Life. Campuses and businesses have established locations in These worlds, much as they were creating websites a dozen years ago. In the same way that the number and sophistication of websites grew very quickly as more people began to browse, virtual locations will become more common and more mature as the trend continues. Virtual worlds offer flexible spaces for learning and exploration—educational use of these spaces is already underway and growing.”
ADDITIONALLY there is a 2 page essay at the back of the 2019 report “Augmented and Mixed Reality: The Why, When, and How of Situating Learning in Authentic Contexts” by Kevin Ashford-Rowe
Interestingly he emphasises that mixed reality is not a new idea “I believe that our first Australians, in creating the concept of the Dreaming or Dreamtime many thousands of years ago, were already augmenting or mixing reality. The Dreaming or Dreamtime is a complex and deeply layered concept that in the simplest of terms attributes a virtual (or unseen) layer to the natural physical landscape, thus augmenting reality to support a range of culturally and historically important knowledge. To me, this is augmented or mixed reality—but of course, the first Australians just didn’t have access to digital technology and instead had to harness the power of the human imagination.”
He sees it as part of authentic learning and says towards the end “in higher education, a closer review of trends or approaches that support the creation of increasingly augmented, mixed, hyper, blended, or virtual environments makes apparent that it is not just the technology that needs to be engaged with but also the educational (or learning) outcomes that it is seeking to achieve.”
Sheila Yoshikawa: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable. We meet on Thursdays at 12 noon SLT for an hour. 8pm In UK, 3pm EST. VWER is a forum to educate and inform the community about issues that are important and relevant to education in virtual worlds. This is a public meeting, so we will be keeping and publishing a transcript. The transcripts can be found at https://vwer.info/ The VWER continues to develop a community of educators from around the world. Please join the VWER group here in SL. If you are on Facebook please join our group there http://www.facebook.com/groups/159154226946/ I am moderating today. The topic for this week’s meeting will be: The Horizon Report 2019. There is a notecard in the box on the table, if you click it, it appears in a folder. It’s the same as the one I sent out with notices on Tuesday. Let’s start as we normally do and introduce ourselves. As usual we will be in text chat for the whole session. So, I teach and research in the Information school, University of sheffield, and I’m lead organiser for VWER. also I think the chat is rather laggy at the moment? or perhaps it’s just me
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): Selby Evans, bogger, Fort Worth
Teaching About Fake News–The EdTech Vlog with Matt Harris, Ed.D.
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/05/2919-edu-libr-teaching-about-fake-news.html
Notes for the entrepreneurial educator.
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/05/2019-vwedu-biz-notes-for.html
MALET showcase: Making and Tinkering – Stop Motion Animation Project: By: Marian Read
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/05/2019-vwedu-malet-showcase-making-and.html
#VWEDU update 5/7/2019 VWBPE Conference Proceedings. Entrepreneurial educators
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/05/vwedu-update-522019-vwedu-initiative.html
Educational resources on the Hypergrid: Educator places, educational places, education support
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/04/2019-vwedu-biz-educational-resources-on.html
The Online Campus needs a library, as did those old campuses with the expensive
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): buildings
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/04/2019-vwedu-biz-online-campus-needs.html
MALET Students Virtual Showcase—poster session or presentation for the new century
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/04/2019-vwedu-malet-students-virtual.html
Funding sources for education. Entrepreneurial educators The #VWEDU initiative
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2019/04/muve-update-4252019-funding-sources-for.html
Marly (marly.milena): Niela Miller ,M.S. Ed/Communications. www.peoplesystemspotential.com , founder of Octagon:Creative Expression and an approach called Symbolic Modeling for teaching and learning in virtual.
Beth Ghostraven: the chat was busy processing Selby’s response :o)
Tori Herbit Landau (tori.landau): I’m a qualified computer based learning educator and I used to volunteer with the Open University UK at their main campus in SL and then at their Deep Think regions.
Tori Herbit Landau (tori.landau): Thanks Thinkerer
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): Thanks Tori
Sheila Yoshikawa: thanks everyone! OK, I will firstly give an introduction to the Horizon Report
Beth Ghostraven: Elli says she’s coming, but will be a little late.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I will use mostly text from the notecard but add a few things, thanks Beth
Marly (marly.milena): Haha, I mis–named my own group…a first! It’s Octagon:Creative EXPLORATION, not Expression!
Sheila Yoshikawa: The annual Horizon report started 16 years ago. The Horizon Report was started by the New Media Consortium (which was very active in Second Life in SL’s early days). When the NMC went bankrupt in 2017, the Horizon Report was taken over by EDUCAUSE..;-) Marly
Beth Ghostraven: lol Marly
Sheila Yoshikawa: The Horizon Report has always focused on the use of technology and the most regular reports focus on higher education. The idea is that a panel of experts interact (using a Delphi Study format) to forecast short, medium and long term trends involving technology in Higher Education. There is a list of the experts at the back of the report. The report home page is here https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/4/2019-horizon-report
The pdf of the report
https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2019/4/2019horizonreport.pdf They are mostly North American and mostly for the educational technology side of things, though with a sprinkling of librarians, directors of learning more generally etc.
Beth Ghostraven: Sheila, I’m wondering whether we’ll even be able to discuss this, since you might be the only one here currently in higher ed.
Sheila Yoshikawa: and so it is perhaps unsurprising that e.g. one of the barriers to effective pedagogy with technology doesn’t ever emerge as the educational technologists and their institutional strategy! Well, I introduced it because some of the trends apply to various types of learning.
Beth Ghostraven: it’s definitely interesting.
Sheila Yoshikawa: also I think it is relevant in that, for good or bad, probably bad
Marly (marly.milena): Yes, I think we can take a generic approach….
Sheila Yoshikawa: since higher ed has money
Sheila Yoshikawa: it seems to me that it has a disproportionate influence on how educational technology develops.
Beth Ghostraven: that makes sense. Hi Darke!
Sheila Yoshikawa: so on the one hand people might be interested in what is forecast
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): hi Folks 🙂
Sheila Yoshikawa: on the other hand we can be critical of it and think about implications!
Marly (marly.milena): In the states, there is the perennial divide between colleges. Universities that have enormous endowments and the small liberal arts colleges that struggle always
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): Higher Ed teaches education — It gets a big influence there.
Sheila Yoshikawa: also it has some examples and resources listed which could be useful. I think one good thing about it is that all the sections are short, 2 or 3 pages, so it’s quite useful to get an overview of some talked-about topics. In the UK we have a nonprofit organisation JISC, funded by government.
Marly (marly.milena): I did look at it, noted short, mid and long term objectives.
Sheila Yoshikawa: that does some work to benefit higher and further education in the ed tech way, also of course in the UK almost all universities are public funded. OK, all the trends etc are listed in the notecard so I won’t type them out again!
Beth Ghostraven: I’ll put the notecard contents into the transcript, too, Sheila
Sheila Yoshikawa: So with the good point being made about the extent to which people are (not) currently in higher education (thanks Beth!) I did think I would highlight two of the mini-essays at the back of the report. I thought it was interesting they didn’t get linked up.One of them is by the Australian and about mixed and mixed reality. I put a quote in the notecard “I believe that our first Australians, in creating the concept of the Dreaming or Dreamtime many thousands of years ago, were already augmenting or mixing reality. The Dreaming or Dreamtime is a complex and deeply layered concept that in the simplest of terms attributes a virtual (or unseen) layer to the natural physical landscape, thus augmenting reality to support a range of culturally and historically important knowledge. To me, this is augmented or mixed reality—but of course, the first Australians just didn’t have access to digital technology and instead had to harness the power of the human imagination.”
Marly (marly.milena): Yes, that was interesting but a little confusing.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I thought that was refreshing that he wasn’t repeating the “this is all new” line, at least it is a different take on it, implicitly questioning what “reality” is?
Marly (marly.milena): Also, the Native Americans in the US.
Sheila Yoshikawa: and bringing in imagination. however it didn’t mention virtual worlds, I think (although I think there were proportionally a good number of Australian virtual worlds initiatives, because of their need for distance learning) Then there was another essay on gamification#
Sheila Yoshikawa: by someone else.
Marly (marly.milena): Did anyone here see one of my fav movies of all time called THE LAST WAVE? Aboriginal <knowing>
Sheila Yoshikawa: which essentially seems to say – when gamification was going to be a trend – why did it never get successful – and its because it didn’t scale – so it will never be of general interest
Sheila Yoshikawa: (no, I didn’t Marly)
Marly (marly.milena): Oh, you must! It is amazing with Richard Chamberlain.
Sheila Yoshikawa: and it seemed to me that someone should have made a connection between the gamification aspect and the mixed reality – since if gamification is too complex and expensive to take off, why would mixed reality take off? or contrariwise why shouldn’t gamification have a future. Anyway! I finished my introduction! Wanted to make that point and over to you to discuss the points I made, other points, or whether you think this kind of report is worth looking at/making at all. I do think it has some influence, if only because it has some high level people involved in PRODUCING it.
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): gamification in education Scholarly articles: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=gamification+in+education&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
Marly (marly.milena): I am pasting a notecard which talks about the role of the teacher in this tech-crazed world. But are we ready for that?
Beth Ghostraven: Hi Elli!
Sheila Yoshikawa: no one else was speaking Marly so that’s fine! Hi Elli, I will pass you the transcript so far and there is a notecard in the box.
Elli Pinion: Hi all! My apologies for being late! TY
Sheila Yoshikawa: Marly just dropped another notecard
Marly (marly.milena): You are welcome to debate….:-)
ROLE OF TEACHER
- Because so much change shakes up the psyche, all teachers (IMHO) should take at least one basic course in counseling psychology
- Provide a values-based learning approach which balances tech learning with human physical interaction pointing out the strengths and challenges of each.
- Make sure that students with fuzzy boundaries and weak identity structures can clearly distinguish between fantasy objects and physical ones. Example: Lack of ability to separate an actor in a role from the actual person.
- Provide equal schooling in the physical world re body language, facial expression, use of space, spontaneous interaction and collaboration on projects. The more tech processes are introduced the more it should be balanced by the physical realities of being made for social interaction/learning with and from each other.
- Do not allow tech processes to take the place of deep thinking, discussion, in-person processes of all sorts. There is a difference in the energy field of a tech environment from a physical gathering place. They can both be useful or create difficulties depending on how they are used, who is present, and what the goals are. Part of the teacher’s job to be well informed re both and able to offer this wisdom and guidance to students.
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): https://digitalpromise.org/2019/05/08/how-instructional-coaching-is-changing-the-culture-in-a-new-york-city-school/
Tori Herbit Landau (tori.landau): Sorry folks, need to go sadly, RL. See you all again soon °͜°
Elli Pinion: Bye, Tori
Sheila Yoshikawa: So Selby dropped links to some articles on gamification – certainly it is still something that gets discussed and researched and indeed used.
Beth Ghostraven: take care Tori
Sheila Yoshikawa: Marly, you are identifying areas that don’t get covered with the Ed Tech focus of the Horizon report.
Beth Ghostraven: I’m trying frantically to catch up on chat, I’ve hardly read any of it yet
Sheila Yoshikawa: in fact really teachers get talked about in terms of deficits I think so that’s interesting.
Marly (marly.milena): That’s the point, Sheila! They don’t get covered and I am just reminding us that this balance needs to be part of any intensive move in a tech direction. I think it is an ethical imperative for teachers of the future.
Elli Pinion: (I’m catching up on chat, as well)
Marly (marly.milena): Is anyone else reading my comments? Oh, good. RSVP when you are done. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Yes, there is a section on The Role of Faculty with Educational Technology that says “Panelists observed that in order for faculty to fully engage in educational technology, training and professional development should be provided to facilitate incorporation of technology. In addition, panelists agreed that adjunct faculty also need to be considered in professional development. “
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): same here with chat unfortunately. students come when i close my door XD
Sheila Yoshikawa: lol sorry more text, but basically it isn’t talking much about human issues and ideas lol Darkejade
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): 🙂
Elli Pinion: lol, Darkejade.
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): its true though lol
Beth Ghostraven: Darke, if you leave it open, do they stay away?
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): no lol
Marly (marly.milena): I am horrified by the idea that we are moving toward a society run by tech, robots, et al and the human flesh and blood element (except for sex- haha) is left behind
Elli Pinion: I agree that instructors need training and practice, ideas….but getting time to learn “one more thing” is often difficult.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I don’t think the horizon report has any solutions for deterring students from coming in lol
Beth Ghostraven: Elli, yes, there’s always some new whizbang thing to get trained on, then it’s something different next year
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): it’s the candy left in a bowl for them on the desk…
Elli Pinion: As for AI, we have a computer generated Math program to help build HE skills in the often challenging Math courses for Freshman….
Elli Pinion: Hahaha, Sheila. That’s true.
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): I posted an article about teacher coaches — to help teachers use technology
Sheila Yoshikawa: Also, it doesn’t identify that “failing to take a critical stance on technological development and market-driven education” could be a barrier to effective education”
Elli Pinion: Oh, candy! I always brought that, but the University quit paying for it. it’s unethical to use taxpayer money for candy, it seems.
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Darkejade ah then – could you move the candy temporarily to a bookstack?
Elli Pinion: lol, Sheila
Sheila Yoshikawa: Don’t think “value of edible incentives” is mentioned in the report either!
Beth Ghostraven empties Darke’s candy into her pocket
Elli Pinion: I didn’t see that, either!
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): ha, maybe then they will go look at books that are in-print 🙂
Sheila Yoshikawa: candy still has an advantage over digital badges, I think
Marly (marly.milena): Sigh
Elli Pinion: You need both?
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): yes it appeases the soul at least
Beth Ghostraven: Marly, you know this is herding cats, right?
Marly (marly.milena): I have another notecard about how we operate as a group and its possible relationship to the Horizon Report. Would anyone read it if I pasted it?
Marly (marly.milena): Still waiting for more comments about the points I was making in the other one LOL
Sheila Yoshikawa: that is a semi-serious point, linking a bit to Marly’s text – I think the report would be better if it was looking at education and the people in it a bit more holistically – as physical/emotional beings, at some point
Elli Pinion: Of course.
Darkejade Tempest (darkejade): yes please Marly.
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): I would not have wanted candy or digital badges — I would have wanted days off from school.
Elli Pinion: I agree….it’s better, but always been a bit that way.
Elli Pinion: Ahh….time is golden, for sure.
Elli Pinion: But sub plans (now with my K12 hat on) make being out just more work.
Marly (marly.milena): We get together week after week to have discussions about virtual education. What we do not do, for the most part, is experiment together in designing spaces, use the technology creatively for exploring ideas etc, , provide opportunities to witness each other’s teaching experiments with students here and the opportunity to give and receive feedback, try new types of tech or other interventions with each other in preparation for trying them with students, practice ways to approach institutional powers-that-be to discuss possibilities for tech innovation in learning environments which would be desirable for you.
I did a workshop. A few others have engaged us with field trips. But I have not seen us embrace this kind of experiential learning as a value for this group.
Elli Pinion: Perhaps you mean students, though, Selby.
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): I mean when I was a student
Elli Pinion: Yes, that is exactly what I wanted, as well! as a student. Good point, Marly!
Marly (marly.milena): Whew! Thanks for responding, Elli!
Elli Pinion: My research was with K-12 teachers and online PD, and the strength was them getting to share their DAILY experiences of trying the things they were learning with their peers.
Elli Pinion: Creating together, getting to see what we are doing….all very helpful in making us all better.
Sheila Yoshikawa: So, I think we have moved on from the Horizon Report and Marly has put in a proposal for changing the format of what VWER does to some extent
Elli Pinion: and helping us use ideas. Oops, didn’t mean to get us off topic. Perhaps next meeting?
Sheila Yoshikawa: No worries Elli, I think we were creatively dancing around the topic
Elli Pinion: 🙂
Beth Ghostraven: Marly, I think doing more experiential things would be great! I don’t know where to find people to do them though
Marly (marly.milena): But I can relate it to the report—if we are educators who are serious about the future of technology in the learning process, then why not actually experiment with each other with it?
Elli Pinion: Well, I certainly believe you want to look at what the research is saying and do more than read it.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I think that one thing we need to stick to is that the majority of sessions are in text chat or transcribed simultaneously as there is still a demand for that, from feedback we’ve got, but fewer places where that’s the mode, also the focus on discussion and exchange of ideas and the experiential aspect could come into that i think.
Marly (marly.milena): But that doesn’t have to be the case. I did my session with voice and we transcribed at the same time. We could also film some sessions!
Sheila Yoshikawa: but as Beth says it’s finding the people willing to lead, and having the variety of approaches.
Beth Ghostraven: Marly, transcribing voice for a transcript of an experiential session is not practical, IMHO.
Beth Ghostraven: doing a video recording might work
Marly (marly.milena): Selby and I have volunteered in the past. I did a workshop recently. I think people enjoyed it.
Elli Pinion: Usually the Horizon Report has a few things that are easy to try, and some things that are more to think about and some things that help you know what might be coming but the technology is often unattainable for most.
Marly (marly.milena): I could get one of my helpers to film
Sheila Yoshikawa: Yes, and it is then finding people willing to lead sessions on different experiences.
Sheila Yoshikawa: for example I don’t know whether Ted, Elli or Darke you have anything you would like to work with in an experiential way, just to pick on people here who haven’t led sessions before!
Sheila Yoshikawa: I realise the answer may be – no I don’t want to
Elli Pinion: I love the opportunity to hear what is new and hear your thoughts about it. Peer discussion is very helpful for me. Perhaps special followup sessions for trying things?
Marly (marly.milena): If we were doing more experiential, especially process-oriented meetings sometimes, I would be willing to facilitate. Is Kali ever coming back? She could certainly do one
Sheila Yoshikawa: which is fine
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): We could do project-based — with the project being to produce a 5 min video of the conclusions in the discussion.
Elli Pinion: Video is great, but it still isn’t accessible for some.
Marly (marly.milena): I also notice (as, no doubt, have you) that we have many fewer people attending these gatherings than we have had in the past.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Yes Marly, this is true
Marly (marly.milena): Maybe we need to take a look at why there aren;t more educators joining us. SL is full of them!
Elli Pinion: Hmmm…. were the more attended sessions more hands on?
Sheila Yoshikawa: Camie had a great idea for having one VWER session a month in opensim, but then unfortunately she had a major computer problem and hasn’t been able to lead on that
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): There are other meetings on education — and in OpenSim
Sheila Yoshikawa: the most attended sessions are actually presentations and panels!
Beth Ghostraven: I have to speak up for myself as a deaf person with auditory processing difficulties–I need text chat, and if we move away from that, I probably will find myself moving away from this group.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Ones with people that are more well known or specific projects, those attract most.
Marly (marly.milena): Beth, I think it is a matter of both-and, not either-or.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Thank you Beth that is a useful reminder
Elli Pinion: That makes sense, Sheila. (well know/specific projects)
Sheila Yoshikawa: What we COULD do is have more of a rota
Marly (marly.milena): Currently, we do not have enough of an attendance base to do much with these ideas, so maybe we need to pay attention to that first.
Beth Ghostraven: I’ve tried to insist on that with the ISTE VEN Focus Sessions, and it’s very difficult to get transcribers who will volunteer.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Already we have open forum once a month
Sheila Yoshikawa: if we also aimed to go back to having an interview or presentation once a month.
Sheila Yoshikawa: and then perhaps a more experiential thing once a month.
Beth Ghostraven: I get frustrated with it, because SL is ideal for experiential learning.
Marly (marly.milena): or workshop! Yes Beth!
Sheila Yoshikawa: however it does rely on people helping us to identify people to lead/be interviewed etc.
Marly (marly.milena): It is nuts to be in an experiential environment and limit ourselves to blah blah blah.
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Beth I’m aware that the problem with voice/chat sessions is that the tendency is for the people in voice to gallop on and then sometimes dominate the conversation
Sheila Yoshikawa: But @Marly there are other groups – like yours – that are doing experiential things.
Beth Ghostraven: Sheila, yes, and some people who prefer voice are not accustomed to keeping an eye on chat at the same time.
Sheila Yoshikawa: so it is also thinking – if the focus and point of VWER isn’t clear we might lose the plot altogether.
Marly (marly.milena): I stay in this group mainly because I like the people in it but the truth is that I do not feel engaged with a lot of the more technical conversations
Elli Pinion: I think it’s easier to be inclusive with text chat in SL. If it’s voice, I will not interrupt with my ideas.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Sorry folks, this has become a rather inward-looking chat.
Beth Ghostraven: I think VWER is best as a roundtable discussion; that’s our original purpose, just my 2 cents worth :o)
Sheila Yoshikawa: but it is useful to us as well since we have to schedule ahead, and at the moment there isn’t much already fixed!
Marly (marly.milena): However @ Sheila, the meta is the way we use and imagine using technology!
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): We could make better use of the Facebook page — post there more.
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Marly however some people are MORE engaged by the technical discussions, I think we do aim to have variety.
Marly (marly.milena): The experiential is sadly under-represented!
Sheila Yoshikawa: OK – Beth and I will go away and punt round some ideas with Kali and Shailey! Shailey hasn’t been able to attend much because of very valid family reasons
Marly (marly.milena): I learn by doing, experimenting, exchanging feedback, etc.
Beth Ghostraven: I think Camie will be able to return soon, at least I hope so
Elli Pinion: I understand the concern with just talking, but I loved the questions Sheila had in the notecard and she had outlined the ideas that came from the HR. They would have really helped me think about how I can use this information for my, or my peers, teaching.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Right! Lots for the VWER team to think about
Marly (marly.milena): Yes, thanks, Sheila for your preparation on this.
Sheila Yoshikawa: and if any of you have ideas for – discussions, active sessions or people you’d like to see interviewed here at VWER please please let me know 😉
VWER Meeting Transcripts by Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://vwer.info.
VWER - Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable 