Education@Edunation Session V - Saturday 17th May 1.30am SL Time

April was so busy that it came and went without a chance to organise an Education@Edunation event. However, I am very excited about the next one, which will feature Nick Noakes (Corwin Carillon in SL), who is a very active educator in Second Life.

Corwin will be leading a discussion - Here's how he describes the event:

Come join us for a discussion of self-directed team learning in Second Life where we will share ideas and practices for giving learning teams greater control through inquiry-driven projects.

Because Nick is based in Hong Kong, we've rearranged the time and date. This time it will be on:

• Saturday 17th May at 1.30am SL Time (PDT), which is 8.30 GMT

Come and join us if you can - Space is limited, so please sign up now by visiting the sign-up stands at Edunation III (see photo below).



Hope to see you there!

Education@Edunation - Friday 29th February

Educational Games in Second Life - 29th Feb (12.30-13.30 PST)

Join us for the third monthly session of Education@EduNation on Friday February 29th from 12:30 - 13:30 PST for a special session on educational games in Second Life with Jeremy Koester (Jeremy Braver in SL)

Here's Jeremy's biodata:

I am first of all an educator. My heart is to work with learners in interactive learning environments. I am the Founder and President of Gaming and Learning in Second Life. I consult with educational entities regarding learning and technology. I am currently working on my graduate degree in Instructional Technology at the University of Texas at San Antonio (ant. '08). Gaming and learning is a passionate interest of mine. I regularly present my educational technology findings at large conventions such as SLBPE, SLCC, TCEA and CAMT. I want to be a part in shaping the future of education and how America addresses it's educational needs going into this digital, global environment.

I will be talking about Gaming and Learning in SL as an organization. Participants will learn about what GaLiSL is, what we do, and also get a chance to play a game that Jeremy Braver (Jeremy Koester-RL) designed. The game is called 'Windbag'. It's a whimsical game of social bluffing where everyone has a good laugh and learns at the same time.

Be sure to sign up beforehand at Edunation III

Alternate Reality Games

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging so much is because of the increased time I've been spending in Second Life, but I'm determined to get back to blogging again. More than anything else, I miss it. But blogging is also such a useful tool for sounding out ideas. Which brings me to...

The main project I'm working on in Second Life is in the teen grid and, is looking more like a language learning laboratory for testing out different ideas. Among the experiments we're adding is mystery in the form of an alternate reality game.

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs)

One of the most successful of ARGs was ILoveBees, which was used to promote the XBox game Halo2. A very clever marketing campaign, this game ignited the enthusiasm of a large community on the web, who worked together to solve the cross-media puzzles contained in the game.

There are useful lessons here for educators: For example, Lingualgamers mentions "the levels of teamwork required for the massively social tasks presented in ILoveBees provided one of the most fertile grounds for peer learning possible."

Ligualgamers goes on to suggest that by "studying the learning that takes place in alternate reality games we can gain valuable insights into how to create engaging experiences around web content from other languages and cultures."

to be continued...