A Digital Classroom

Learning styles do matter

If I am devising a resource-based learning to go on second life so thousands of learners can access the information. It may be reasonable to produce different versions for all learning styles. But this is a real world, and real time. Learning styles theory is an academic luxury, students not only have rights but also reponsibilities. You can't tune in to all of them, so they have to tune in to you. Paying attention to learning styles may be doing the students a disservice. They will benefit more from adapting and becoming versatile and be able to respond to different learning styles.

http://deoracle.org/online-pedagogy/emerging-technologies

http://doceo.co.uk/heterodoxy/styles

Second life is it an educational tool

Wagner and Rachael (2009) report on a pilot study testing the usefulness of Second life as an Active learning environment. These authors say it appears to be particularly amenable to Active learning, where learners are not simply observing, but plan, implement, observe and draw conclusions from their actions. Within the 3D environments, learners can complete real-world tasks where failure costs little but success can be rewarding. In this example the students were avid users of social software but few had ventured into SL for social interaction. So the authors warn that is takes considerable effort to develop meaningful structures and activities in a virtual world and there are factors that limit the experience, such as student frustration with platform stability. However, overall, the authors conclude that virtual worlds like SL provide rich environment for learning and exploration that engages students' imagination and draws their interest and leads to positive learning experiences.

http://www.informaworld.com/

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/postgrade/ryan

http://pedagogyofthecompressed.blogspot.com

Second life is it a game

Technically speaking, by most modern defination of the word game, it is not. It has no overall objectives, does not have a begining or ending and it is not designed to foster competition . Yet it looks like a game and is often assumed to be one, especially by those who have never been inworld.

Connectivism Theory

Connectivism theory presents a model of learning that acknowledges the rapid change of Technology where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized. The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism theory provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.

Connectivism theory fit nicely together with the thesis of virtual 3-D learning environments being supportive of communication, community and sharing. Communication is an aspect of effective teamwork, while another important aspect of teamwork that is essential in education is "how" members interact with each other or develop connections that form a community of practice.

http://www.elearnspace.org/Article/connectivism.

LEARNING THEORIES

After researching about the three broad learning theories behaviorism, cognitive and constructivism which were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology. I started looking at constructivist theory which states that learning is an active process of creating meaning from different experiences. In other words, students will learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with the teacher as a guide to help along the way.

I paid particular attention on Vygotsky theory which is one of the foundations of constuctivism. According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Initially children develop these tools to serve solely as social functions, ways to communicate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.

www.learning-therioes.com

Pedagogy before Technology

Far from creating pedagogy, we should be in a business of locating the new technologies within the proven practices and models of teaching. There is nothing new about technologies for learning. The second life for example is just the latest outcomes of human ingenuity that we have at our disposal. Like previous innovations, it can be assimilated to pedagogical practice without altering the fundamental truths about how people learn.

Pedagogy needs to be rethought again?

This is a particularly urgent question in relationship to the new digital technologies, because teachers who are excited about these technologies are often accused of using them regardless of whether or not they are pedagogically effective.

References:

www.oaklandcc.edu/assement/terminology assessed on 19 December.

Marc Prensky, "Digital Game-Based learning" 2001, paragon house , USA.

Low carbon restaurant Otarian arrives in London

A restaurant is claiming to be the first in the world to carbon footprint everything it serves. Otarian is a concepts based around vegetarianism and it says that swapping a meat based lunch for an Otarian carbon saving cambo meal, could save 2.3kg of carbon, which is equivalent to the carbon emission of 4 central London black journeys.

Carbon reduction company sustain measured the carbon footprint of each menu item for the restaurant, which then appears alongside the footprint of a comparable meat dish. The aim is to encourage customers to think about the impact of their food choices on the planet and understand the environmental benefits of reducing meat consumption. Items that represent the biggest carbon savings are actively promoted to customers. Thought about the Prince of Wales Pub because it serves food..... then again it's a big project.

Object design change

I have decided to change the design of my interactive object so that the button can be viewed at different angle and also someone can easily spot them. Instead of creating the buttons at the front I have decide to creat the buttons on the sides with a hoover text distinguishing the buttons.

References

http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llSetTexture

www.hefce.ac.uk

www.interloc.org.uk

www.rlo.cetl.ac.uk

www.twsos.com/energy rating.html

www.earthwhile.co.uk/home insulation

Carbondioxide Emission

In 1960’s “Richard Backminster Fuller” used to ask his audience of engineers “How much does your building weigh” His interest was in efficient designs that used less natural resources no nobody could ever answer his question. In the 1980’s in the wake of the 1981 OPEC oil embargo, another famous American engineer, Fed Dublin asked his audience of architects and engineers “How will your building perform if it has to run on half as much energy as you expect it to need. There is an established link between man made emission from burning fossil fuels and climate change. The 21 century question is how much carbon dioxide does your building emits.

SL object on top of roof

I was thinking where to create the interactive object. I have decided to create the interactive object as shown above on top of the roof of the pub because the roof of buildings are not so significant to SL London users as the street levels front. The interactive object will show the emission of carbon dioxide before and after insulating the pub. The interactive object will have four buttons as shown. The buttons will be 1) double glazing 2) wall cavity 3) loft insulation 4) using energy efficient appliances. If you press the buttons each will show how much carbondioxide could be reduced.

E Learning

Virtually Linked has developed a model within Second Life (SL) of part of the centre of London. Many aspects of this model are extremely faithful to real life London. Buildings have been reproduced which not only look like their real life counterparts but also contain internal structures such as stairs, lifts doors and rooms. This opens up opportunities to use this model for simulating London based environmental situations, real and hypothetical.

More accurate models could probably be produced and may already exist using different modeling systems however, Virtually Linked have already created a model and the nature of Second Life means that this model is very easy to access by the public. In fact members of the public already visit it every day. For no cost members of the public (using their avatar) can walk around the model or even be taken on conducted tours. This makes this particular model unique and extremely powerful for a project enabling very public access and a high level of public involvement and engagement. Not only can Londoners access the model directly, so can anyone with a reasonable computer and Internet access from anywhere in the world.