Lots of great info there, Linda.
Noah Wardrip-Frumin has taught WOW etc in a smallish GRAD class, but how
does one
make the movement to 200 undergrads?
I will be having 40 undergrads play FACADE (1.2 gigs, about) as part of the
same class that
will be involved with narrative earlier, for two weeks of the class, but we
have no facility we can
get that students have access to in general that will handle more students
than that and even then
it is 2 students to a computer.
The issues of language, content, etc. are even more complex for undergrads
and when we get to
school-age kids such as Donna is working with......??
Lots of interest in this set of issues. MAdison seems a great place for the
Conf. Too by I can only
deal with such a limited supply of lifetimes!!
mike
On 1/3/07, Linda Polin <linda.polin@pepperdine.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Mike.
>
> Linden Labs (Second Life) gave me a semester free trial for the whole
> class. I eventually just sucked it up and bought an island (very
> expensive, but I run the doctoral program and buried the cost for the
> initial set-up and coaxed the masters degree program into splitting
> the monthlies). Since then, the grad. biz school (not to be outdone
> by Harvard) has decided it wants to look at using Second Life because
> of all the RMT stuff, I think (real money transactions). I asked them
> if they'd pony up so we could buy a bigger island. Membership in SL
> is free, but to build you need land, and land costs money (clever).
> Perhaps we could be more consortium-oriented in our dealings and
> invite other institutions as well. How about an XMCA island? Our
> Masters students recently had Daniel Pink come visit to view the
> projects they had constructed in response to his book, A Whole New
> Mind. My doctoral class had the pleasure of a visit last semester, in
> SL, with MIchele Knoble and Colin Lankshear, as we were finishing up
> their text, New literacies: Changing knowledge and classroom learning.
>
> Because SL can be quite raunchy, and because I'm at an extremely
> conservative institution, I decided to keep the island "off the grid"
> so to speak. You have to be invited there. Students can always roam
> about anywhere in SL they wish, of course. I've only formally taken
> them out to the New Media Consortium site during the wonderful couple
> of weeks of invited speakers and clever activities they sponsored
> last semester.
>
> Now...MMOs...a little different story. WoW (World of Warcraft) is
> $48 start up for an account (think: lab fee), I think, and $16/mo
> roughly (less than the cost of a movie date once a month). I "m not
> above requiring that, but I don't require it, partly because I'm not
> willing to take heat from my institution just yet. I have a subset of
> doctoral students interested in gaming, specifically MMO type games,
> and they have chosen to join me into WoW. We hve been there more than
> a year now. Some were already EVE or Everquest veterans. Of course,
> one of my doc students totally decimated my safe haven when he shared
> in class, the famous YouTube video of the Onyxia wipe (a large group
> effort gone bad) in which the raid master uses the F word about every
> other word. =sigh= Oh well, I"m tenured.
>
> I have been talking with Sasha about jumping a class into Quest
> Atlantis, which Sasha bills as an MMO, but which is an explicitly
> educational framework, as is Whyville. I think that makes it different.
>
> Constance et al have a researcher guild on a PVP WoW server. Doctoral
> students and researchers can join by nomination. There is an
> associated private blog/site that often (not always) is about theory,
> research, and observations about learning in WoW and to some extent
> other games.
>
> In the MacArthur web portal there is a terrific thread of discussion,
> still available I believe, on gaming, led by Katie Salen. It is
> accessible for viewing. I think the discussion has officially closed.
>
> I would direct you to our research blog, but the guild in which my
> students and I play (*not* a researcher guild, mostly JPFs) is in the
> midst of some "guild emo" (drama, emo = emotion) and the language is
> not PG rated as we all reflect on the situation we see going on (yet
> again). Talk about communities and tension...whew...makes the
> butchers, midwives, doctors, and artifical intell workers look civil
> and tame. LOL.
>
> Mike, come to Games, Learning, & Society in Madison in June. It's a
> great high touch conference.
>
> Perhaps we should all get our classes or doc'l students together
> virtually, if not IRL (in real life).
>
> Hope the jargon isn't too thick in this posting. I'm rushing because
> I"m still finishing the syllabus for the class that starts tomorrow.
> =grin=
>
> Linda
>
> ps - the games/literacy class will next occur in Fall '07.
>
>
> On Jan 3, 2007, at 3:27 PM, Mike Cole wrote:
>
> > Linda & Jay--
> >
> > What do you do about teaching using costly mmogs to large classes?
> > Its a practical question we face and I assume others do as well.
> >
> > Donna is using Second Life. Same question!!
> > mike
> >
> > On 1/3/07, Linda Polin <linda.polin@pepperdine.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Funny, last term I had revised a class similarly. (Are you playing in
> >> Terror Nova, Jay?). Anyhow...I would also recommend the last third of
> >> TL Taylor's book, Play Between Worlds.
> >>
> >> On Jan 3, 2007, at 2:51 PM, Jay Lemke wrote:
> >>
> >> >
> >> > I have been away for a while, and too busy to participate much in
> >> > xmca lately, but noticed this message today. You might have a look
> >> > at a draft of a research proposal on my website
> >> > www.umich.edu/~jaylemke/ [click on New Additions to get to the
> >> link]
> >> >
> >> > It proposes comparing learning affordances and their uptake by
> >> > users in commercial computer games and in educational software.
> >> > There are references to several projects currently trying to make
> >> > virtual learning environments in the mold of multiplayer games, and
> >> > there is great promise in a social approach (guilds in online
> >> > gameworlds, studied by Steinkuehler at Wisconsin; Whyville, studied
> >> > by Yasmin Kafai at UCLA, etc.).
> >> >
> >> > I am giving a new course this term on new media literacies,
> >> > identity, and learning. The syllabus and readings should be on my
> >> > website in a week. Of course it's a big subject, from asynchronous
> >> > e-learning, to emergent collective intelligence, to new learning
> >> > environments and media.
> >> >
> >> > Steinkuehler's work in particular shows an apprenticeship model
> >> > (with reciprocal learning by the mentor) as it turns up in an
> >> > online gameworld. It's very zoped-like, and she is exploring CHAT
> >> > as a theoretical model in her wider work.
> >> >
> >> > JAY.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > At 05:14 PM 1/3/2007, you wrote:
> >> >> Why not? Sounds like a good idea to me.
> >> >>
> >> >> Eirik.
> >> >>
> >> >> --------------------
> >> >> > Could virtual learning environments be organized more like
> >> social
> >> >> > virtual environments (my space, you tube, etc)??
> >> >> > Ana
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Eirik Knutsson wrote:
> >> >> >> I agree with Mike here: Judging from my experience as a
> >> >> student, online
> >> >> >> courses enable participation of usually more silent students
> >> >> becoming
> >> >> >> relatively more active and visible.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> I also agree that virtual environments now available offer a
> >> >> lot of new
> >> >> >> and interesting potentials for creating environments were
> >> >> students can
> >> >> >> be
> >> >> >> more active, more individualistic learners.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Who are these "silent students"? If they are contemplative,
> >> >> introvert
> >> >> >> individualists - as opposed to consensus-oriented, extrovert
> >> >> >> "collectivists" - I think there is good reason to believe that
> >> >> they have
> >> >> >> a
> >> >> >> lot to gain from these new virtual learning environments.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Eirik
> >> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> xmca mailing list
> >> >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >> >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Jay Lemke
> >> > Professor
> >> > University of Michigan
> >> > School of Education
> >> > 610 East University
> >> > Ann Arbor, MI 48109
> >> >
> >> > Tel. 734-763-9276
> >> > Email. JayLemke@UMich.edu
> >> > Website. <http://www.umich.edu/~jaylemke%A0>www.umich.edu/~jaylemke
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > xmca mailing list
> >> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> > _______________________________________________
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