Thursday, November 29, 2007

R685 Week 14 Reflection

Week 14 Alternate Reality Learning: Massive Gaming, Virtual Reality, and Simulations

This week Intellagirl was amongst our midst. I really did not know who Intellagirl really was but, I must say, she is a very creative and articulate educator that is pushing barriers. I signed up for Second Life and I did not know what to do, or who to talk to. Heck, I did not even want to talk. However, after seeing Intellagirl’s presentation I am starting to rethink Second Life, not as a social site but for education. It made me think about how this could be used in the Coast Guard and if the skills taught in Second Life could transfer to “First Life.” This could be huge in training personnel, especially, in marine safety and security. We are taught to inspect ships, conduct, investigations, respond to pollution. What if the personnel in San Francisco, after the ship hit the Bay Bridge recently, had been through a oil spill of the magnitude, in that spot before in Second Life? I am really starting to think.
I had read Dr. Bonk’s Massive Muti-player Online Gaming in the military article for my Wikibook and it is very interesting.

The second article I read was Galanxhi & Nah’s research on deception in Second Life. They looked into how people can deceive, how they chose there avatars, and anxiety level. The most interesting finding was, using IM brought less anxiety than using an avatar. People were more comfortable being someone or something else.

Lastly, was the article by Kurt Squire. I liked the article but he really “brought” the topic and borderline hostile to Instructional Designers. I agree that instructional design needs a jab but after he had ID down he kept kicking. It really turned me off instead of waking me up, like I think he intended. It is too bad because it was a wonderfully written article using ID terms and concepts to show how gaming fits into IST.

In the tidbit Oishi gives a nice introduction to Second life and its possibilities.

Articles:
Bonk, C. J., & Dennen, V. P. (2005). Massive multiplayer online gaming: A research framework for military education and training. (Technical Report # 2005-1). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense (DUSD/R): Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative. Retrieved September 26, 2006, from http://www.adlnet.gov/downloads/189.cfm

Squire, Kurt (2005, February). Game-based learning: Present and future state of the field. The Masie Center. Retrieved July 4, 2007, from http://www.masieweb.com/research-and-articles/research/game-based-learning.html or http://www.masieweb.com/dmdocuments/Game-Based_Learning.pdf

Galanxhi, Holtjona, & Fui-Hoon Nah, Fiona (2007, September). Deception in cyperspace: A comparison of text-only and avatar-supported medium. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65(9), 770-783. Retrieved August 21, 2007, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WGR-4NKJ0MW-1&_user=10&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=dcac1150950338288c99862e4ff88d26

Tidbit:

Oishi, Lindsay (2007, June 15). Surfing Second Life. From Technology and Learning (TechLearning). Retrieved July 12, 2007, from http://techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196604483

1 comment:

Yichun's BLOG in IST, IUB said...

I agree with you, I am very impressed when she articulated things. I am glad to find someone has the same feeling with me. Lost, lost, and lost! I will feel better to see and converse with you that I know better in a virtual life. Thank you~