Synthetic worlds – real community, real money

Synthetic worlds – real community, real money

Edward Castronova and Mark Bell
Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality will be published shortly by Palgrave Macmillan.

"The membrane is allowing not only economic factors to seep through, but social and cultural ones as well. People all over the world are connecting in new ways through the technology moving from a calculation model to one of communication. Our children will grow up knowing people in Africa, Asia and Europe and see it as the norm. They will lose sight of geographical distance and explore cultures and people my grandfather had no chance of meeting. The new world offers limitless expanses of both digital and analog connection and understanding, and brings the world closer together. New social connections can overcome geography, culture, and sometimes even language. Most companies find a team of 25 unruly on a project, but in WoW guilds take part in raids every night creating a sense of group connection and goal achievement. The identities that form in these communities allow people to explore and play with their own identities. The world might not recognize your leadership skills, but you can learn and mature them in a virtual world and then apply them to the real world. All this can create a close, strong bond of friendship and community."

I think it's about time that the media began to also cite the usefulness of virtual worlds, besides the usual hype and sensationalism (thanks Mark!).

Another article in my own campus newspaper also cites the usefulness of the Second Life virtual world in education.

Is Multitasking More Efficient?

Is Multitasking More Efficient?:

"New scientific studies reveal the hidden costs of multitasking, key findings as technology increasingly tempts people to do more than one thing (and increasingly, more than one complicated thing) at a time. "

"The researchers say their results suggest that executive control involves two distinct, complementary stages: goal shifting ("I want to do this now instead of that") and rule activation ("I'm turning off the rules for that and turning on the rules for this"). Both stages help people unconsciously switch between tasks."

"Rule activation itself takes significant amounts of time, several tenths of a second -- which can add up when people switch back and forth repeatedly between tasks. Thus, multitasking may seem more efficient on the surface, but may actually take more time in the end."

"Understanding executive mental control may help solve "fundamental problems," says Meyer, "associated with the design of equipment and human-computer interfaces for vehicle and aircraft operation, air traffic control, and many other activities in which people must monitor and manipulate the environment through technologically advanced devices.""

This article, and the study that goes with it, seems a bit slanted if you ask me. When I was first told about this piece a sweeping statement was made like: "Oh, kids aren't multitaskers! Ha, ha! They're wasting time... Haven't you seen the new study?" Yet the study only proves that we polychrons are wasting milliseconds... yes, "tenths of a second"... as we switch from task to task. I think the overall assumption or argument that says multitasking wastes time needs more than just milliseconds to convince me.

However, the idea that we can cut out even those few tenths of a second by better understanding our executive controls and innovating our UI now becomes even more appealing to me. I mean... isn't that the idea behind the dashboard widget and the firefox plugin? To bring the functionality of one thing to another and yet keep the same interface?

Lifestream - Classstream?

Google recently bought Jaiku, a micro-moblogging site (that's micro-blogging like twitter + mobile blogging) that also keeps track of when you post to your blog (via an RSS feed) and when you post to your flickr. It also posts a timestamped record of what you listened to on iTunes or Last.fm and what you last bookmarked on Del.icio.us. So they take all that info and put it into a feed or "lifestream."

Now, I teach 2d Foundations and Drawing... which aren't necessarily heavy on computer use (all my students keep blogs, use a textbook wiki, photoshop, that's about it). But I was thinking about how great it would be if I did have a feed, or if we all had access, to a "classroom feed" or Classstream that would work something like this:

10:14pm Allison finished 15 thumbnails for homework
1:42am Anthony posted link to article on Fred Wilson
9:37am Bob posted to blog: Principles of Gestalt
12:00pm Johnny needs feedback on sketch for assignment - visit blog
3:30pm Anthony posts picture from Toledo Museum of Art
and so on...

How could you see this useful in your class? In an online class?

PMOG

Passively Multiplayer or PMOG

The PMOG Research paper

A while back I heard about Justin Hall's idea for a Passively Multiplayer Online Game that would track your web surfing and give you points. An idea based off of the leveling system used in MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games).

It has occurred to me that much of what has been established as regular practice in e-learning could easily be tracked with such "myware" (spyware that consicoulsy tracks the data your computer generates for personal benefit) and later reported to the teacher in terms of stats and points.

Currently, PMOG only tracks the sites you frequent. Passively, you don't have to do anything to "play" but go about your normal online lives. However "quests" can be created so that you may actively choose to explore what others have. Further improvements to the game are in development, such as tracking how often/much you contribute to peer production sites like Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, etc...

Imagine being able to track a student's involvement in class by the number of "quests" they complete... quests that the educator, or better yet, the students create. These quests can be based on research, blogging, editing or gathering information, collaboration, or communication.

Also, a fictitious element has been added that divides players (by the data of course) into a certain archetype of internet personality. See pic at left for more info.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the way the system works (it doesn't actually track how often you blog, post picks, or edit wiki's at this time). But I see great potential here for:

• engaging the student through competition in rank
• identification of study habits (good or bad)
• easily tracking what materials are most attractive vs. beneficial
• and what Hall calls "Literacy for Personal Data Control" or actively tracking one's own digital paper trail
  

As the younger generation continues to dissolve the idea of "privacy", I see this type of software evolving into a 'paying' game, where players are gladly rewarded with currency for completing quests. Many online survey sites already pay (check out opinions2cash.com) and even Google asks to track your web history while you are logged in. By the time we start actively using this in education, our students may already be "playing".

2D Foundations Open Source Textbook

2dFoundations.wetpaint.com

Last year I began to contribute to the open source textbook wiki Intro to Art at the Wiki Books site. The idea of using an open and editable textbook fits neatly into the goal of student engagement that the Polychronic classroom aims to achieve.

For my summer 2007 2D Foundations course at BGSU I have assigned a project in which my students will write the textbook for the course. Using open information from Wikipedia, dictionaries, and in class lectures groups of 2-3 students are assigned a topic page. They must add text, examples, and relevant links.

The exercises and assignments the students complete will also be used to illustrate elements and principles of 2d art at work. Look for more illustrations to be added as the semester rolls on.

When the wiki is complete, the students and I will move the information from our free and open wiki text to the wiki book site where more contributions may be made from the general public. For now, however, our site may only be edited by my students.

How well does this project engage the students? How has interaction with the text, rather than the normal one way transfer of information, changed or modified their learning process? Do different roles (adding text, finding links, adding or creating illustrations) fit different students? These are questions this project aims to answer to determine the role of the wiki, or interactive editable and open textbook, in the classroom.

Realize > Now Adapt

From a presentation on new media and "digital natives" at Penn State:

1. Media and gadgets are ubiquitous parts of everyday life
2. New gadgets allow people to enjoy media, gather information, and carry on communication anywhere and any time.
3. The internet (especially broadband) is at the center of the revolution
4. Multi-tasking becomes a way of life
5. Ordinary citizens have a chance to be publishers, movie makers, artists, song creators, and story tellers
6. Everything will change even more in the coming years


--
As always, I am happy to find that others are subscribing to these realities. The next big step is for teaching bodies in higher education become acclimatized to these facts. How will that change pedagogy?

What I am seeking is a common resolution to the problem of integrated technology for users at all levels of development and deployment of pedagogies that allow for both traditional methods to remain and effective strategies to emerge for a generation with different learning methods.

I say "development" in place of being "native" or "immigrant". Levels of technological integration into one's life may happen at any age, regardless of date of birth or complexity. My toddler has her own digital camera. Her grandfather uses GPS to measure the distance from his golf ball to the green.

Traditional methods must remain for those students (some I have in my classes) who dislike technology or have not yet reached a level of higher integration.

However, pedagogy must adapt and allow for students who have a different way of learning and communicating due to these realities (listed above).

IDEAL Podcast #1 - Interview with Anthony Fontana

Interview with (me) Anthony Fontana, about art, technology, online teaching, and the classroom of the future. Anthony Fontana is an Instructor for the School of Art.

Scroll half way down.

A recent interview I had with the IDEAL Distance Learning Center at Bowling Green State University.

Don't Be Naive, Native, or Immigrant

After attending the FATE, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education conference this last week I returned home with four resounding words in my head: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Marc Prensky's idea (found here) was repeated at many of the session presentations as a standard for what is happening in today's classrooms. However, there were many, including myself, who found these terms to be dated, negative, and off the mark.

Examining Prensky's original paper, you'll find he was speaking the message of the Polychronic Classroom long before I was:
"instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language."
So remember as you read this that, above all, Prensky is on our team.

However, the term "Digital Native" should actually be "Polychronic". In his 2001 paper, he clearly defines a digital native as a polychronic person. Polychrons have been traditionally defined by culture (Asia, Middle East) and are now being defined (or created) by technology. There is no reason though that any American above the age of 30 could not be a Polychron. And this is where Prensky's idea of digital foreigners is wrong.

Likewise, today's students that have never worked with a computer (or much technology) before reaching college, are more likely to be Monochrons; or the same type of personality that Pensky describes as digital immigrant. They have grown up reading, writing, thinking logically, etc...

I suggest we work to change these terms from words like "native" or "immigrant", which carry negative connotations of being foreign, naive, unaware, and not in control, to terms more akin to what they describe: Polychronic or Monochronic.

After all, aren't we all pioneers and conquerors in some way.? Aren't we driving this boat? Sure, some of my students don't know a world other than the new digital millennium but, that does not mean they will understand the iPhone better than I.

A good definition

I have found this article by Harley Hahn that describes the definition of Polychron better than I have.

I have also changed the definition off to the side of this blog to include: "that optimize learning outcomes by providing channels of content transfer most familiar to the student."

Learning Agreements

Individual Learning Plans and Learning Agreements could be the most effective form of assessment in a structure like The Polychronic Classroom.

From the wonderful SLED listserve:

We use an model for assessment that utilises something we call a ‘Learning Agreement’
which is a combination of dissertation and personal development document.

> •      an individual creative approach to study as described in and 
> negotiated through the Learning Agreement.
> •      the demonstration of a consolidated ability to research and 
> produce visual outcomes which reflect the approach to study and 
> which are capable of functioning within the context of graphic arts 
> and design practice.
> •      the demonstration of a developed utilisation of appropriate 
> technical and practical skills in the mediation of ideas and 
> intentions
> •      through the Learning Agreement the demonstration of an 
> informed capacity for self-critical reflection.
> •      through the Learning Agreement the demonstration of the 
> ability to situate the practice within the wider technical, social 
> and cultural contexts of graphic arts and design
> •     the ability to effectively articulate and communicate 
> intentions and outcomes to others within appropriate academic and 
> professional contexts."

Kids IM the darndest things...

A recent article at NYmag.com hits the nail on the head with:

A) what we're up against

B) the headache we don't see coming

or

C) the real reason we became educators!

Comment an answer if you wish. Personally, that sort of article is the reason I believe pedogical practices need prepare for Polychronic learners.

Cognitive Constructivism

How the Polychronic Classroom fits into Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

This online resource, which uses many outdated pre-web 2.0 examples, is a wonderful primer for the idea Polychronic learning. (Examples near bottom of page.)

Blogging for Apples - FATE Conference 2007

I have finished my paper for the 2007 Foundations in Art Theory and Education Conference.

Blogging for Apples

I will be using the blog to do my presentation so... Slide shows will be added soon.
Also, I will record the paper as an mp3 podcast and post it there as well.

RE: Polychrons and Our Classrooms"

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled, Distractions in the Wireless Classroom led to a post on the blog Ed Tech Journeys titled "Polychrons and Our Classrooms" and my response (see comments at the Ed Tech blog link) .

My post on the SLED listserv in its entirety:

K.Becker wrote:
 >Again, the skill of being able to listen to music, surf the
web, IM to
 friends and talk on the phone and do some homework all at the
same time
 does not automatically translate into group presentation skills.
Perhaps
 they are nervous. Perhaps they have not seen the desired
behaviour
 modeled. <
 
 They are not nervous... The correct term is "Polychron".
 Related links here and here.
 Developed from Edward Hall's theory of Polychronic Time here.
 
 The idea of education as Entertainment is now dated. This
generation of students IS the Gamer Generation, the Live Net
Generation... whatever you'd like to call it, it is highly interactive.
At home on their phones and computers and gaming platforms they are
learning new ways to network, collaborate, and research without even
knowing it. MMO's, Xbox, and text messaging (even MySpace now) have
synchronous forms of communication often with high-context relationships
and may require a great deal of multi-tasking.
 
 Replace "entertain the student" with Engage the Student.
 Beck and Wade talk about this in [their book] Got Game.

 Give them strategy guides, clear and achievable goals, a reward
system that appeals to their sense of reputation. Give them passion and
energy and yes, real world application. Entertainment is passive.
Engagment is interactive.
 
 If I've had to change something... it's an expectation that the
"desired" behavior was Monochronic.
 
 I am very interested in anyone doing research in this area. I
work in the Studio Art discipline, which in many ways can be a platform
for new methodology (although consistently uses convergent thinking at
the lower levels).
 I want to know... what does a polychronic classroom look like?
Is it completely digital? With SL, IM, Sype, and Google all open and
working? Is it class that does not have a set time to meet, but rather a
specific set of goals that must be accomplished using a highly networked
collaboration of students with the teacher as 'game master'? Can the
monochron, or normative student, work asynchonously contributing at
regularly scheduled times while the polychron is always interacting but
not always contributing?
 
 Personally I believe myself to be somewhere between these two
ends as I'm sure many of you are. I believe, the key to the polychronic
classroom is a highly motivated individual with an ability for both
modes of operation. Otherwise, we'd have to identify and seperate each
type of student.
 
 And I think they saying goes, "Don't put all your polychrons in
one basket."

Read this and you see how easily technology fits in a lecture… let alone a polychronic classroom.

The Polychronic Classroom

Recently, I have defined the Polychronic Classroom as:
Any combination of web 2.0 applications and modes of communication (both synchronous and asynchronous) with educational course management technologies as well as real and virtual learning environments. Based on Edward Hall's idea of 'Polychronic time' and the idea of 'polychronicity' respectfully.

This blog will be used to:

• Further define the "Polychronic Classroom"
  
• Catalog resources being used in the Polychronic Classroom
  
• Survey the pros and cons of this classroom of the future