Disruptive Technology of Second Life

Watching the creator of Second Life, Philip Rosedale explain how he came to invent Second Life as a virtual reality world and not as a game gave me new insights into this technology. The fact that people are making money in Second Life leads me to think that it has implications for the business world as well as the educational one.

Dr. David Thornburg tells us in the vodcast Disruptive Technologies(2009) that a disruptive technology obsoletes or replaces another technology, changes how that technology impacts society, and can happen anytime without warning. They are not extensions of old technology, rather they are new and does a better job than the old technology. Dr. Thornburg calls them "wildcards". Second Life fits this description in that it replaces face-to-face interaction. It gives its co-creators a "second chance" to invent themselves into a virtual world of their making.

In the educational arena, Second Life allows virtual campuses, classrooms and conferences.
Second Life seems to be expanding if one listens to Mr. Rosedale. I think that it has a good many years left as a creative technological force. The emerging technology that takes its place will probably show up as Dr. Thornburg's "wildcard" and change our minds about what a virtual world is and does.

The social benefits of Second Life are tremendous in allowing people global access to each other. Breaking down social and cultural barriers to allow economic and educational exchanges is certainly a benefit. While college level participation can be seen in Second Life now, I wonder what its implications are for the K-12 arena. Certainly virtual classrooms for this group is on the horizon and someone somewhere is already formulating a curriculum that will be seen in the not too distant future.

References:

Thornburg,D. (2009) Evolutionary technology Vodcast: In Laureate Education, Inc. Emerging and future technology.

Rosedale, P. (2008) Second Life [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html.


Nuthall.K. (2008) US: a disruptive technology arrives. Retrieved from http://www.universityworldnews.com/articles.php?story=20080117162121373

Second Life as a Disruptive Technology in Education.Retrieved from http://lrodriguezetc.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/second-life-as-a-disruptive-technology-in-education/

Rhymes of History-Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds is an example of a technology that represents a rhyme of history. Virtual worlds allow participants to become involved in a fantasy world via an avatar and interact with other people,places and situations. This idea evolved from listening to the story teller around the campfire. Here the listeners were transported into a world of make-believe by the pictures drawn by the words of the artful story teller. When words included pictures of fanciful tales in masterfully crafted storybooks, readers were transported mentally to interact with other people, places and situations. When motion pictures and television came along to allow viewers to passively participate with other people, places and situations, the idea of starring in one's own show or adventure gave rise to gaming an gaming with an avatar in a virtual world.

The recurring theme of imaginative interaction represented by ever improving technology is a rhyme of history. Since this kind of interaction is evolving, what will the future hold for it? How will we interact with other people, places and situations in the future? The possibilities are limitless and will repeat the concept of interaction with other people, places and situations. Everything from corporate training, online classes, and entertainment can be found in a virtual world for every age level. Everyone can participate via the Internet in whatever kind of virtual world that suits their fancy and as such participates in a rhyme of history.

Virtual Worlds to explore:
Whyville:Where students learn by doing. http://www.whyville.net/smmk/nice

Second Life: The highly customizable site for adults. http://www.secondlife.com/

The Sims: Online version. http://www.thesimsonline.com/

Virtual Worlds Catagorized: http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/index.shtml

Module 2 Blog Posting-Auto-Pilot Auto

Auto-Pilot Auto

Enhances: What does this technology do that is new?

What this technology does that is new is to allow a driver to plot a course and possibly an estimated time of arrival to a destination and let the auto-pilot of the car take him safely to his destination. Possibly using GPS and enhanced roadways, cars would be controlled by autopilots and automated traffic controllers. This would reduce roadway congestion, move traffic along at a safe but rapid speed, and give motorists the freedom to safely phone a friend, work on their computers or take a nap on the way to their destination. This auto-pilot would pay tolls automatically like the open tolling on the Illinois Toll-way and automatically pull into the fueling station when there is a need. The auto-piloted auto would announce the arrival at the destination, park and secure itself while our motorist goes on about his business.

Obsoletes: What does this technology replace?

The technology that the auto piloted auto replaces is the individually driven automobile that now clogs our highways. It would reduce traffic congestion, accidents and road-rage. It would replace motorists listening to the traffic news and trying to decide the best route to take to avoid major congestion and accidents. It would replace uneven traffic lanes and safely pilot the automobiles through traffic lights, signs and pedestrians regardless of weather conditions.

Retrieves/rekindles: What does this technology bring to mind (or retrieve) from the past?

This auto-pilot auto technology brings to mind the drivers of the stage-coaches who drove the horses and coaches with their passengers. It brings to mind the Greyhound bus drivers who told passengers to "leave the driving to us!" It reminds us of the uniformed train conductors of the trains and the auto-pilot on airplanes. All of these modes of transportation allows the passenger to be unconcerned with the logistics of getting to his destination.

Reverses: What might replace this technology in the future, ot what might it cause to occur?

The technology that might replace the auto-pilot auto in the future could be automated mass transit with individualized and mass teleportation stations. The idea of thinking about or visualizina destination and arriving there instantly via a "port-key" as in Harry Potter could be the result or a derivative of the auto-pilot auto.

References:

Auto pilot for cars.Retrieved from http://www.whynot.net/ideas/3706

Willington, R. (2010) Researches aim for car with autopilot, but would you trust it? Retrieved from http://hothardware.com/News/Researchers-Aim-For-Car-With-AutoPilot-But-Would-You-Trust-It/

Emerging Technology-The Smart Pen

7108 Module 1 Blog Posting

As an elementary student I remember day-dreaming about a magic pencil that would do my homework for me. It would write fluently in my handwriting and get all of my homework correct with little or no effort on my part. So much for childhood musings! This magic pen has shown up in the form of the Pulse SmartPen. This pen is an assistive technology to Special Needs students from sixth grade through the college years. It is used in the lower grades to help students read by their tapping the word and listening to the recording repeat it for them. The SmartPen helps teacher evaluation by capturing every word during an evaluative observation where the mentor must script, categorize and score every section of the lesson against a very specific rubric. It is invaluable that it "gets every word!" Since the evaluation does have a cash value. The SmartPen has helped productivity tremendously.

Problems and Challenges

One challenge that dogs the SmartPen is its price. While the initial price has fallen, it is still pricey. It is a pen and needs special ink cartridges, special paper and can only be loaded onto one computer. While individuals may keep up with their smart pens, teachers issued a number of them for a class must diligently keep up with them. The legal issue of recording someone must also be addressed. Students do not always feel they need to get the speaker's permission before clicking on their SmartPens. So knowing the school's or the professor's policy and following it to the letter is important.

Societal Needs and Benefits

To say that the SmartPen addresses a need, one only needs to ask a college student about their notes from a lecture. They don't need to write every word. They can tap their paper and hear what the professor is saying. They can share their notes, upload them to the computer to read and listen to them at the same time. The business person can keep detailed notes with the same listening capabilities for sharing and reviewing. The special needs student can track the lecture, capture it, upload, review and share it. Instead of taking a laptop to class the student or business person need only take their pen with its special notebook and capture every word. Essentially making a pen instead of the laptop the technology of choice when faced with carrying a heavy book-bag, is a no-brainer.

Making it Better, Avoiding Pitfalls

Keeping up with the SmartPen in a classroom where students often leave or lose pens is going to be a challenge. However, making the SmartPen magnetic so it sticks to its person's body or belongings might prove to be one solution. Another solution is to bring the price down so that the pen is more affordable. The special paper can be printed from a PC but not Mac at this time. Making it Mac-friendly would also make it better. In keeping the pen charged up and ready to write, it needs to be attached to the computer. Making a separate mobile charger would make this technology better. Finally, to assure the best use of the SmartPen for students and business people alike, it would be good to have fingerprint and or voice recognition for the owner to discourage theft.

Resources:

http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/videos.html

http://www.livescribe.com/education/learning.html

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/accessories/livescribe-pulse-smartpen.aspx

http://blogs.sun.com/designatsun/entry/livescribe 1gb pulse smartpen

Module 5 Blog

Module 5 Blog Posting

Motivation for using New Technologies

As the technology coordinator at my school, I have had many opportunities to encourage colleagues to try new technologies. Usually I am the first to have professional development on the new technology, but many of my colleagues seem to see them as something more to do to add to their work loads. Our school staff works in teams with career teachers, mentors and lead teachers. Part of the process requires that teachers share graded student work data, catagorize it and give prescriptions for improvement. It was my idea that the teachers do this on a collaborative wiki to give the team a means to collectively see the student work data, comment on it, and collaboratively categorize it and write targeted prescriptions for improvement. Initially, it seemed like a good idea. Everyone agreed in principle. Then the technology of uploading the documents, actually commenting, catagorizing and writing prescriptions became very difficult, I guess, because there arose many excuses for not doing it. What I thought would be a useful, time-saving process became overwhelming, a reason for avoidance, and fell completely flat. I heard everything from not having time to do it, to not understanding how to upload the document to the wiki, to having "different kids" to simply not wanting to do it.

If I were to use Keller's ARCS model to motivate my colleagues, my approach would have been different. According to Keller, getting the teachers' attention through media, or a question like "Wouldn't you like to be able to do this collaboratively while sitting in your own homes?" may have aroused their curiosity and garnered their enthusiam for working together without staying after school or coming early. Introducing the wiki by showing them a mock up or example would have been a novel way of getting their attention as well. Showing the team how collaborating on line would be relevant to achieving the goal and making the work load easier for everyone would be my next step. Since this would be an on-going process, using this method would insure that everyone completed the task on time and with a high degree of competence. When bringing the idea to the team, I did sense a lack of confidence in their abilities to learn the process and the sustainability of their interest because of their lack of skill. Giving the team professional development to the extent needed to give them the impetus to learn and become self-motivated to keep learning would be a true task. However, the satisfaction of achieving the goal of using on line collaboration to complete a team project is something I believe would build relationships and afford us all personal satisfaction. Motivating reluctant colleagues is something of an art as well as a science. Sustaining good relationships while pushing them toward something new and unfamiliar must be done with a bit of artistry, humor and skill.

References:

Driscoll, M.P.(2005) Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston:Pearson Education,Inc.

John Keller's Official ARCS Model. Retrieved May 10,2010 from http://www.arcsmodel.com/home.htm

Using John Keller's ARCS model to motivate online learners. Retrieved May 10.2010 from http://onlignment.com/2009/09/using-john-kellers-arcs-model-to-motivate-online-learners/

Module 4 Blog Posting

My network has changed the way I learn by giving me a personal panel of experts upon whom I can rely for availability, expertise and up-to-date knowledge in my field. Being able to access those people in my network also gives me access to the experts in their networks because invariably they will point me in the direction of someone who knows or has more experience than they if they cannot answer my questions. This increases my knowledge base as well as my own network. Knowing "who" Siemens (2006) is most important in building personal networks. Knowing who the experts are and having access to them either directly or indirectly gives me a kind of comfort that I am not left to my own devices about something of which I am unsure. I may look up something, or read about it, but for real "knowing" I want someone with some experience in it who knows and has dealt with it in some form.

The digital tools which best facilitate learning for me are still the Internet, blogs and wikis of those whom I can access in real time and any time. I like on-line demonstrations, and those podcasts that talk you through a process while giving you visuals. Those sandbox tools which allow me to practice before going "live" let me learn a procedure or process at my own pace without everyone seeing and commenting on my errors are the ones that I prefer.

When I have questions, I ask those who, in my opinion, are likely to know. These may be my students, colleagues; former(retired) colleagues, other friends or even my daughter. I may look up information on the Internet or get a "how to" book. I will inquire of my personal classmates both former and current or I may ask the class instructor for clarification if it is a formal class. I keep inquiring until I am satisfied that I am in the know about this elusive topic.

Resources:

Siemens,G. (2006) Knowing Knowledge. Retrieved April 25, 2010 from http://lulu.com/

Stephen's Web, a connectivism blog. Retrieved April 25, 2010 from http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?journal=Connectivism%20Blog

Siemens,G.(2010) Connectivism;networked and social learning. Retrieved April 25,2010 from http://www.connectivism.ca/

Collaboration

Module 3 Blog Posting:



From families to communities, from the school playground to the adult corporation, we humans do have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group” as Rheingold suggests. Working together seems to help us do more than we could alone, be more than we could be alone and have more than we could have alone. The idea of collaborating to achieve a common goal is as old as man and will probably go on into the unforeseeable future. Humans like to have other humans agree with them, disagree with them, but not ignore them. The interaction is what is important. The interaction is what makes one’s idea grow and go in new directions developing as it grows into something that is sometimes bigger, better and more useful than the original idea from a single person. How often have we asked our learning community members to give us feedback about our ideas? How often have we asked colleagues their opinions about our ideas on projects? Even the question, “What do you think about…?” has made the questioner think more deeply about the idea, change a perspective about the idea, and allowed the questioner to see a new point of view that enriches his thinking.
We all have probably had the experience of trying something we were unfamiliar with doing, only to ask a friend about it and to have them show us a better, faster, newer way of getting better results. How does technology facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles? I often think of the story Stone Soup where collaboration and cooperation brought about changes in attitudes as well as hunger status. Technology which allows such collaboration and cooperation can only enhance the human condition making it better for all involved. The very constructivist act of making the soup based on perceived need, lends itself to a sharing of ideas and resources. Technology tools like wikis and blogs and online document editing are just a few of the ways this collaboration takes place now. Who knows where it will lead in the future?

Resources:
Howard Rheingold on Collaboration
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
Stone Soup, Retrieved April 14, 2010 from http://www.extremelinux.info/stonesoup/stonesoup.html

Image from http://www.stonesoupky.org/StoneSoup-book,jpg