[info] [croquet-dev] Intersting Edusim Developments (& Funding)

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Darius Clarke <socinian at gmail.com> -----

From: Darius Clarke <socinian at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:52:21 -0800
To: croquet-dev at duke.edu, rich.lynn.white at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [croquet-dev] Intersting Edusim Developments (& Funding)
Reply-To: croquet-dev at duke.edu, Darius Clarke <socinian at gmail.com>

Hi Rich,

What great news!
___

Here are a few lessons about "educational 3D interactive worlds" and
"learning socially online" which I've found recently.

Cheers,
Darius

    * Gardner Campbell interview by Jon Udell:
      MP3: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3451.html

    Gardner Campbell teaches English literature, film studies,
writing, and -- woven through it all these disciplines -- a new one
that he calls digital imagination. In this conversation with Jon
Udell, he talks about how our emerging uses of the internet enable
educators and students to create fresh approaches to higher education.


    * Arden I: The World of William Shakespeare
      Shakespeare's world in 3D - Free to Download
      Not a real success with students - Some lessons learned:
      http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/11/two-releases-ar.html#more

"    .... In short, lots of Shakespeare. It's also rather boring, as
I've said before. We failed to design a gripping game experience. As
several of our playtesters said, Where are the monsters? -- a good
question to ask of any serious-games initiative....
    No monsters is a big problem for our larger goal, which is to use
virtual worlds to run experiments. No monsters means no fun, no fun
means no people, and no people means no experiment. Back to the
drawing board.... "


    * Clark Aldrich address the issue of properly balancing pedagogy,
simulation, and gaming aspects to make a viable learning 3D
environment.
      MP3 Talk: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail372.html
      Clark's Blog aiming to include a comprehensive list of
attributes and functions about 3D & online interactive learning
environments:
      http://clarkaldrich.blogspot.com/

"          Six criteria are emerging as critical not just to
simulations but to all successful educational experiences. Three are
focused on content, and three on delivery elements. The key criteria
for content are:
          1. Linear content.
          2. Systems of content.
          3. Cyclical content.
          Additional criteria for delivery elements are:
          4. Simulation elements that model reality.
          5. Game elements that provide familiar and entertaining interactions.
          6. Pedagogical (didactic) elements that ensure the students'
time is spent productively.

          As we understand pedagogy (#6) and linear content (#1), we
first mourn that they have become so dominant, but then realize how
powerful they are in concert. It is only through the interelationships
of all six criteria that we begin to get results that can truly
transform people."

Why interactive 3D environments? I believe one answer comes from being
aware of the kind of world we will be injecting our students into as
describe by Paul Hawken. Our world's complexity is becoming more and
more apparent to the public and our young students. Interactive 3D can
be a way of representing and simulating these complex relationships so
that the student has a hope at grapeling with some of the principles
of the problems and the solutions. Dynamic 3D might also by the way
the students can understand the interrelationships between the
organizations which are working on the solutions.

    * Paul Hawken, The New Great Transformation - Humanity's immune system
      MP3 of his talk:
http://beagle.monkeybrains.net/longnow/salt-recordings/salt-020070608-hawken/salt-020070608-hawken-web.mp3
      Video of his talk:
http://fora.tv/2007/06/08/Paul_Hawken_New_Great_Transformation

"          .... His new book, BLESSED UNREST, was inspired by the
countless business cards that earnest environmentalists would hand him
after his lectures all over the world. After a while he had 7,000, and
he wondered, "How many environmental groups are there in the world?"
He began actively building a now-public database, WiserEarth.org,
which includes social justice and indigenous rights organizations
because he found they indivisibly overlap in their values and
activities.

          The database now has 105,000 such organizations. The
still-emerging taxonomy of their "areas of focus" has 414 categories,
amounting to a "curriculum of the 21st century"— Acid Rain, Living
Wages, Tropical Moist Forests, Peacemaking, Democratic Reform,
Sustainable Cities, Environmental Toxicology, Watershed Management,
Human Trafficking, Mountaintop Removal, Pesticides, Climate Change,
Refugees, Women's Safety, Eco-villages, Fair Trade… Extrapolating from
carefully inventoried regions to those yet to be tallied, he estimates
there are over 1,000,000 such organizations in the world, adding up to
the largest and fastest growing Movement in history.

          The phenomenon has been overlooked because it lacks the
customary hallmarks of a movement— no charismatic leaders, no grand
theory or ideology, no "ism," no defining events. The new activist
groups are about dispersing power rather than aggregating power. Their
focus is on ideas rather than ideology— ideologies are clung to, but
ideas can be tried and tossed or improved. The point is to solve
problems, usually from the bottom up. The movement can never be
divided because it is already atomized...."

----- End forwarded message -----
-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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