A. I am your friend. I don’t work in education. You are talking to me about the idea that we all learn from each other, in all kinds of contexts, and that this can often be richer than more formal classroom based learning. I am sceptical. Tell me about an informal learning experience you have had online in which collaboration was involved, show me a concrete example to help me to see what you mean.
Creative Writing and Mandarin Chinese informal learning: skills exchange.
An informal situation where I collaborated on line was after a friend of my daughter’s came to stay from America. They were learning Chinese and I also wanted to learn. Before my class started I spent time each day on instant messenger with the friend who had gone to China for a year, learning a little each day through basic conversation. I was also learning from some on line resources and I would try them out through Instant Messaging. My duaghter’s friend was very patient correcting me and giving me more to learn. We then started sending emails in Chinese. I spent a lot of time with a dictionary because they were much further ahead than me.
When they broke their ankle and were stuck in the university for a half term and needed distraction beyond learning Chinese, I played some spontaneity games via Instant Messaging ,which allows one person, in this case myself to lead the other through a creative story writing exercise.
This exercise is based on the improvisation work of Keith Johnstone, but normally done orally rather in written from, but it allows hours to pass by in creating a story. Instant Messaging really lends itself to this. One person asks open ended questions which takes the other person on an adventure, almost entirely led by their own imagination . The skill of the leader is to free up the imagination. “You are in a darkened room how many doors are there and what do they look like? Which door do you go up to and listen at? What can you hear….open the door a crack what can you see….you slip into the space…etc etc..”
B. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?
I am currently developing a teen SL island with a production company as a virtual summer school for collaborative creative projects. The reason for starting this is to try to combat the difficulties of gifted and talented learners together from across the county.
I have been exploring different ways that you can bring learners together, which started with some Honeycomb software which enable learners to share and comment on each other’s work on line. We currently have a project with three schools in year 7 after a pilot project with KS1 learners. The year 7’s are using the game Myst as a stimulus for creative writing.
The Honeycomb software allows the students to go home and continue their school work if they want to , show their parents and the assessment for learning comments of their teachers.
C. Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organization? Do you think your organization is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this.
I have been asked to come to the LA IT conference to talk about the work we are pioneering particularly the Teen SL project. I consider this to be an indicator that I must be pioneering as I advise in the filed of Gifted and Talented Education. But I am also involved in the National training of practitioners teaching on the new Creative and Media Diploma and I can see immediate links. I consider staying ahead with technology and virtual worlds as essential if I am to represent The Creative and Media Industry.
I have always tried to be at the forefront in school as a teacher in terms of technology developing websites with the whole year’s schemes of work for non-specialists and revision websites for learners in my subject Drama, where such things did not exist. I was using projection in performance work 30 years ago at university, before digital projectors existed and computers filled whole rooms. This has been inspired by my husband who has had endless patience helping me when I can’t make things do what I want them to! I did however lock myself in a room for a few days and I asked him not to come even if I screamed for help in my determination to learn Frontpage all by myself nearly 10 years ago.
Working for an LA creates constant frustration with the filtering of all the resources I need such as Youtube, SL, Teen SL, Hotmail, Facebook, Instant Messaging and so on. I have to work on my own equipment most of the time in the pioneering work. However many advisers are aware that we need these tools at the very least to access the world of the young people we teach.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Reflections and Self Diagnosis
A. I am your friend. I don’t work in education. You are talking to me about the idea that we all learn from each other, in all kinds of contexts, and that this can often be richer than more formal classroom based learning. I am sceptical. Tell me about an informal learning experience you have had online in which collaboration was involved, show me a concrete example to help me to see what you mean.
Creative Writing and Mandarin Chinese informal learning: skills exchange.
An informal situation where I collaborated on line was after a friend of my daughter’s came to stay from America. They were learning Chinese and I also wanted to learn. Before my class started I spent time each day on instant messenger with the friend who had gone to China for a year, learning a little each day through basic conversation. I was also learning from some on line resources and I would try them out through Instant Messaging. My duaghter’s friend was very patient correcting me and giving me more to learn. We then started sending emails in Chinese. I spent a lot of time with a dictionary because they were much further ahead than me.
When they broke their ankle and were stuck in the university for a half term and needed distraction beyond learning Chinese, I played some spontaneity games via Instant Messaging ,which allows one person, in this case myself to lead the other through a creative story writing exercise.
This exercise is based on the improvisation work of Keith Johnstone, but normally done orally rather in written from, but it allows hours to pass by in creating a story. Instant Messaging really lends itself to this. One person asks open ended questions which takes the other person on an adventure, almost entirely led by their own imagination . The skill of the leader is to free up the imagination. “You are in a darkened room how many doors are there and what do they look like? Which door do you go up to and listen at? What can you hear….open the door a crack what can you see….you slip into the space…etc etc..”
B. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?
I am currently developing a teen SL island with a production company as a virtual summer school for collaborative creative projects. The reason for starting this is to try to combat the difficulties of gifted and talented learners together from across the county.
I have been exploring different ways that you can bring learners together, which started with some Honeycomb software which enable learners to share and comment on each other’s work on line. We currently have a project with three schools in year 7 after a pilot project with KS1 learners. The year 7’s are using the game Myst as a stimulus for creative writing.
The Honeycomb software allows the students to go home and continue their school work if they want to , show their parents and the assessment for learning comments of their teachers.
C. Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organization? Do you think your organization is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this.
I have been asked to come to the LA IT conference to talk about the work we are pioneering particularly the Teen SL project. I consider this to be an indicator that I must be pioneering as I advise in the filed of Gifted and Talented Education. But I am also involved in the National training of practitioners teaching on the new Creative and Media Diploma and I can see immediate links. I consider staying ahead with technology and virtual worlds as essential if I am to represent The Creative and Media Industry.
I have always tried to be at the forefront in school as a teacher in terms of technology developing websites with the whole year’s schemes of work for non-specialists and revision websites for learners in my subject Drama, where such things did not exist. I was using projection in performance work 30 years ago at university, before digital projectors existed and computers filled whole rooms. This has been inspired by my husband who has had endless patience helping me when I can’t make things do what I want them to! I did however lock myself in a room for a few days and I asked him not to come even if I screamed for help in my determination to learn Frontpage all by myself nearly 10 years ago.
Working for an LA creates constant frustration with the filtering of all the resources I need such as Youtube, SL, Teen SL, Hotmail, Facebook, Instant Messaging and so on. I have to work on my own equipment most of the time in the pioneering work. However many advisers are aware that we need these tools at the very least to access the world of the young people we teach.
Creative Writing and Mandarin Chinese informal learning: skills exchange.
An informal situation where I collaborated on line was after a friend of my daughter’s came to stay from America. They were learning Chinese and I also wanted to learn. Before my class started I spent time each day on instant messenger with the friend who had gone to China for a year, learning a little each day through basic conversation. I was also learning from some on line resources and I would try them out through Instant Messaging. My duaghter’s friend was very patient correcting me and giving me more to learn. We then started sending emails in Chinese. I spent a lot of time with a dictionary because they were much further ahead than me.
When they broke their ankle and were stuck in the university for a half term and needed distraction beyond learning Chinese, I played some spontaneity games via Instant Messaging ,which allows one person, in this case myself to lead the other through a creative story writing exercise.
This exercise is based on the improvisation work of Keith Johnstone, but normally done orally rather in written from, but it allows hours to pass by in creating a story. Instant Messaging really lends itself to this. One person asks open ended questions which takes the other person on an adventure, almost entirely led by their own imagination . The skill of the leader is to free up the imagination. “You are in a darkened room how many doors are there and what do they look like? Which door do you go up to and listen at? What can you hear….open the door a crack what can you see….you slip into the space…etc etc..”
B. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?
I am currently developing a teen SL island with a production company as a virtual summer school for collaborative creative projects. The reason for starting this is to try to combat the difficulties of gifted and talented learners together from across the county.
I have been exploring different ways that you can bring learners together, which started with some Honeycomb software which enable learners to share and comment on each other’s work on line. We currently have a project with three schools in year 7 after a pilot project with KS1 learners. The year 7’s are using the game Myst as a stimulus for creative writing.
The Honeycomb software allows the students to go home and continue their school work if they want to , show their parents and the assessment for learning comments of their teachers.
C. Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organization? Do you think your organization is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this.
I have been asked to come to the LA IT conference to talk about the work we are pioneering particularly the Teen SL project. I consider this to be an indicator that I must be pioneering as I advise in the filed of Gifted and Talented Education. But I am also involved in the National training of practitioners teaching on the new Creative and Media Diploma and I can see immediate links. I consider staying ahead with technology and virtual worlds as essential if I am to represent The Creative and Media Industry.
I have always tried to be at the forefront in school as a teacher in terms of technology developing websites with the whole year’s schemes of work for non-specialists and revision websites for learners in my subject Drama, where such things did not exist. I was using projection in performance work 30 years ago at university, before digital projectors existed and computers filled whole rooms. This has been inspired by my husband who has had endless patience helping me when I can’t make things do what I want them to! I did however lock myself in a room for a few days and I asked him not to come even if I screamed for help in my determination to learn Frontpage all by myself nearly 10 years ago.
Working for an LA creates constant frustration with the filtering of all the resources I need such as Youtube, SL, Teen SL, Hotmail, Facebook, Instant Messaging and so on. I have to work on my own equipment most of the time in the pioneering work. However many advisers are aware that we need these tools at the very least to access the world of the young people we teach.
First Steps in 2nd Life
First experience of SL
I am on my second avatar as I have been exploring in preparation for developing an island for Gifted and Talented children in Teen 2nd Life before I heard of Muvenation: so I am reflecting on that experience.
Exploring 2nd Life has been obsessive for me in a way I would never have imagined.
The obsessive phase has been an excellent way to shed a few pounds before Christmas as I kept forgetting to eat, almost moving into the digital world where food is not necessary and also I suppose living off my nerves meeting new people and learning from them.
I compared it with learning on line poker when I moved from playing a machine to playing real people on line. Players with aliases left comments and made remarks during the games and whom I ignored to start with until I got some confidence and started winning. I was constantly nervous but realised this was great way to combat fear of failure, through an anonymous avatar. Fear of failure has plagued me as a high achiever and now I ma working with gifted and talented children to help them overcome potential risk aversion, hence my interest in 2nd life avatars.
I have not yet bonded with Amorphia, my alternate, as I relate to my first avatar who went through the first days and has been in 2nd Life daily. However I did experiment with turning my first avatar into a hideous dragon-fly occasionally to see the reactions of others. Interestingly I met the most interesting avatar and RL person behind it, on speaking to an avatar in the form of "Pedestrian man" his interpretation of the road signs, and on another occasion, he turned into a giant origami style star. He was new like me and interested in the creative side of SL and became my first friend. I have been learning and practicing my language skills in SL and have enjoyed this aspect erring of enormously, with dictionaries and notebooks, adding Dutch and Finnish to my smattering of languages. I am still amazed at the quality of English spoken in SL and one Dutch person told me about how he had learned a lot of his English through conversations in SL.
I was also struck how helpful people were from the Help island mentors to people I met. There is much complimenting of people on choice of avatar, garment, or hair etc and I began a collection of sparkly effects enjoying the magic of SL. I was approached early by someone asking me if I was an alt because they thought I looked so individual so quickly which I deemed to be a real compliment.
Interestingly as time goes on I have used SL for IMing friends running several conversations at a time discussing real life hobbies and real life experiences. It is interesting how simple role playing which is fun in the get to know you phase soon moves into more personal conversations although I gave away no real identifying information. “Pedestrian man” has now moved into my facebook as the only person I have allowed to make that transition. There were so many interesting pieces of information I was able to verify from numerous conversations that I had no doubt that he was genuinely who he described himself to be, and so far away geographically there was no chance he would arrive on my RL doorstep, if he could find out where it was.
I am on my second avatar as I have been exploring in preparation for developing an island for Gifted and Talented children in Teen 2nd Life before I heard of Muvenation: so I am reflecting on that experience.
Exploring 2nd Life has been obsessive for me in a way I would never have imagined.
The obsessive phase has been an excellent way to shed a few pounds before Christmas as I kept forgetting to eat, almost moving into the digital world where food is not necessary and also I suppose living off my nerves meeting new people and learning from them.
I compared it with learning on line poker when I moved from playing a machine to playing real people on line. Players with aliases left comments and made remarks during the games and whom I ignored to start with until I got some confidence and started winning. I was constantly nervous but realised this was great way to combat fear of failure, through an anonymous avatar. Fear of failure has plagued me as a high achiever and now I ma working with gifted and talented children to help them overcome potential risk aversion, hence my interest in 2nd life avatars.
I have not yet bonded with Amorphia, my alternate, as I relate to my first avatar who went through the first days and has been in 2nd Life daily. However I did experiment with turning my first avatar into a hideous dragon-fly occasionally to see the reactions of others. Interestingly I met the most interesting avatar and RL person behind it, on speaking to an avatar in the form of "Pedestrian man" his interpretation of the road signs, and on another occasion, he turned into a giant origami style star. He was new like me and interested in the creative side of SL and became my first friend. I have been learning and practicing my language skills in SL and have enjoyed this aspect erring of enormously, with dictionaries and notebooks, adding Dutch and Finnish to my smattering of languages. I am still amazed at the quality of English spoken in SL and one Dutch person told me about how he had learned a lot of his English through conversations in SL.
I was also struck how helpful people were from the Help island mentors to people I met. There is much complimenting of people on choice of avatar, garment, or hair etc and I began a collection of sparkly effects enjoying the magic of SL. I was approached early by someone asking me if I was an alt because they thought I looked so individual so quickly which I deemed to be a real compliment.
Interestingly as time goes on I have used SL for IMing friends running several conversations at a time discussing real life hobbies and real life experiences. It is interesting how simple role playing which is fun in the get to know you phase soon moves into more personal conversations although I gave away no real identifying information. “Pedestrian man” has now moved into my facebook as the only person I have allowed to make that transition. There were so many interesting pieces of information I was able to verify from numerous conversations that I had no doubt that he was genuinely who he described himself to be, and so far away geographically there was no chance he would arrive on my RL doorstep, if he could find out where it was.
Saturday, 29 November 2008
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