I enjoyed presenting at the Virginia Ed Tech Leadership Conference today, even if it did mean risking my life to drive to Roanoke in the snow this morning, only to turn around and come back this evening because I don't want to use up all my professional days for the year. It was a medium sized room and the house was packed. Standing room only. Lee Baber, who I only met recently, did a great job co-presenting. The crowd seemed really engaged, too. I only wish we had more time to hear from them. If you were there, please leave a comment and tell me what you remember from the presentation, your overall impression, and any other thoughts you have.
Here are some follow-up thoughts from my presentation.
D'oh!
I realized on the drive home that I kept starting a thought and then not really finishing it, or not making it clear how it related to our topic of "Second Life and 21st Century Skills" (pdf of presentation here). That's what happens when I stray from my notes. So here's a round-up, and what I wish I would have said.
I said: Second Life is the most popular virtual world, but not the only one. I should have added: The Second Life platform is a long way from perfect, and it may not be the standard that gets adopted for virtual worlds, but it's the best out there right now.
I said: Have you ever been stuck solving a problem on a video game? It really hones your problem solving skills. I should have added: We need to find ways to create problems that kids are excited about solving. Second Life can be used for this purpose. What if your science lesson about genetics was framed as a whodunnit murder mystery?
I said: Problem- or project-based learning are good because they assess based on benchmarks and improvement rather than evaluating a knowledge deficit as standardized tests do. I should have added: PBL allows for reaching diverse learners (ELLs, SPED, gifted, etc.) in multiple modalities.
I said: The age of the sage on the stage is past. We need learner-centered classrooms. Maybe we should handicap ourselves as teachers. I should have added: It's too easy to revert to old patterns of teacher-centered lessons. Holding class in SL makes it easier to be student-centered than teacher-centered.
I said: The history of the Internet is from text to graphics to interaction to audio to social networks to video. The Web has changed the face of the Internet so much that most people think they're synonymous. I should have added: SL incorporates all these elements, and adds a sense of immediacy while presenting data using real-world metaphors. It is a logical next step in the development of the Internet.
I said: Second Life is obviously a 21st century learning environment, because it is by nature a product of the 21st century. I should have added: If SL (or something like it) becomes the workplace of the future, getting your students there now puts them ahead of the game.
Further contact:
Lee Baber is working on a website.
I of course have this blog, and you can email me at gxeremio [at] gmail [dot] com or meet me inworld in Second Life - my name is Gxeremio Dimsum.
A challenge:
I was amazed yesterday, which is a too-rare thing. I showed some students the introduction to our presentation, "A school day in SL", and it got them thinking and talking about education reform at an incredible level and with great insight. So my challenge to you is to share that concept with your students and colleagues and see what they say. Here is a VoiceThread version of it. Please feel free to share it and to leave comments.
One more thing:
We were showing some machinima shot within Second Life on a second screen throughout the presentation. Some people thought they saw something inappropriate on one of the videos. To prove that, in fact, the woman was not unclothed, here is the video called Lip Flap for your enjoyment.
No comments:
Post a Comment