Howard Rheingold Interview

Howard Rheingold Interviewed by Pooky Amsterdam from Pooky Media on Vimeo.

Immersive Internet

Yesterday, I went to a talk given by Dr. Julian Lombardi, Assistant Vice President of Information Technology at Duke University put on by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of Local Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com on the Immersive Internet. Initially, the talk was suppose to be given by Dr. Tony O’Driscoll who is Professor of Practice at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business who co-authored with Dr.Karl Kapp, Professor at Bloomsburg University the book Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration. I have meet both authors and heard them speak a couple of times in Second Life. Dr. O’Driscoll was called away on a family emergency so Dr. Lombardi replaced him.

Dr. Lombardi gave audience member great insight to how the GUI (Graphical User Interface – our computer menus and buttons) has not changed since the beginning of the World Wide Web. His speech was about the formation of the Immersive Internet and how this will change the future of computer interfaces. The one idea that virtual worlds will in the future be connected by peer-to-peer computing, instead of the closed walls they are, intrigued me.

Business customer relationships are now starting to spill over from the Virtual World (VW) to the Real World (RL) much like how intimate relationships are doing the same. Most importantly, he asked audience members how many of their children have joined virtual worlds in the last month. KZero has the statistics on this. Our kids are being exposed to virtual worlds everyday. The Digital Millennial’s will soon be replaced by the Virtual Millennia’s.

I enjoyed Dr. Lombardi’s talk, but having been teaching and learning in Second Life (SL) for the last two years, I have question his statement “Second Life is a place to go to spend time, but not to save time. How can we use these environments to save time/add value?” Maybe I did not understand what he was saying, but I have to question how much time he has spent in Second Life. Virtual meetings, classes and sex are NOT the only thing going on in Second Life. I feel that some of the innovative and creative 3D environments and simulations being created in SL should have been talked about. Second Life and other virtual worlds (there are many) are hard to understand unless you have been in them or at least seen videos. Examples would of been helpful.

Yes, “context is the issue…not avatars” as Dr. Lombardi, stated. The context in Second Life is “physical and virtual”. Second Life is created entirely by people in it. And, they are changing and redefining the world in creative and innovative ways. Instead of just talking about change in education, business and even politics and social issues in the real world — they are changing it. People are developing new models and experimenting with them. New simulations for learning that keep our attention and create emotions are making learning more meaningful. The one important think to remember is there is a real person behind that avatar.

I would like to mention just a few examples:

Education and Libraries
Not only classes and degrees from real universities are being developed, but virtual universities have formed. Teachers are redefining the way we learn though Simulation and Engaged Learning. Teachers are connecting with other teachers though ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) and Discovery Den in Second Life. Librarians are connecting though The Community Virtual Library and The American Library Association. Medical simulation is one the most growing areas for education. Simulations are surgery rooms to psychological health care, which may involve therapy. Want to see Duke’s School of Nursing in Second Life?

New models of learning and teaching are being created. I am part of a learning community – Imagilearning. Dr. John Jamison (Virtual Bacon) has created a Logic System that makes it easy to create branched, decision-based activities and where triggers can create objects and environments. He is also developing a new learning model…Tranceformational Learning.

Business
Read Dr. O’Driscoll’s Book on this. Marc Wizenheim is using Second Life for teaching Negotiation skills. Environments change as you progress though the program, creating a unique and memorable experience. Even CPA’s even have their own island. Visit Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, Duke CE or RTP in Second Life.

Politics and Social change
Unlike the real world, Second Life is international and getting along mostly. Yes, there are a few little squabbles, but you cannot kill anyone in Second Life. 60% of Second Life residents are not from the United States. 41% are women.

Relay for Life in Second Life raised$274,000 real dollars for breast cancer last year. If you go to the Holocaust Museum in Second Life, it will be just as emotional as the real one.

Fashion
Fashion is one of the biggest enterprises in Second Life. Unlike the real world, the laws of gravity do not apply.Fashionists’ have taken creating clothes to a new level including couture. Their fashions are being created in the real world, after being developed in Second Life and visa versa. Did you ever wanted to be a model, but have a height and shape like mine? … You can do it in Second Life.

Art, Music, Theater, Machinima (video), Dance
The innovation and creativity here is amazing. Music is being streamed from the Real Life to Second Life and from Second Life to Real Life. Machinima is now getting recognized in big name film festivals. Have you always wanted to see a Shakespeare play but were afraid to be seen because your friends would not understand? You can go to a play.

Do you love to dance… but have two left feet? Now you can dance in clubs or in a dance group. Art is being created as a new and unique experience for new and old art. Just go to one of Tuna Oddfellow’s balls and music, art, motion and emotion will all be united into one unbelievable experience. Go to AM Radio’s artistic creations and view the world from a different perspective.

Yes, our avatar is our “idealized self”….here we can experiment with being the opposite sex or race or even non-human. And most of us are younger and slimmer than we are in real life. Second Life is helping many and mentally handicap people to experience a more “normal” world.

If you want to learn more and experience my world…. IM me in Second Life.

Sail Wozniak

Pete Seeger’s BP Protest Song

God’s Counting on Me, God’s Counting on You” at a recent fundraiser for oil spill relief.

Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media

“The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, a first-of-its-kind social media center focused on health care, builds on Mayo Clinic’s leadership among health care providers in adopting social media tools, which began with podcasting in 2005. Mayo Clinic has the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube and more than 60,000 “followers” on Twitter, as well as an active Facebook page with well over 20,000 connections. With its News Blog, Podcast Blog and Sharing Mayo Clinic, a blog that enables patients and employees to tell their Mayo Clinic stories, Mayo has been a pioneer in hospital blogging. MayoClinic.com, Mayo’s consumer health information site, also hosts a dozen blogs on topics ranging from Alzheimer’s to The Mayo Clinic Diet.” (http://socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/)

Duke University School of Nursing in Second Life

http://www.distancegraduate.com/distance-education/duke-university-school-of-nursing-in-second-life/

TED – 3D in the Classroom

Len Scrogan is the Director of Instructional Technology for the Boulder Valley School District and teaches our K-12 technology leadership and assessment courses. He was named 2009 Outstanding Technology Administrator of the Year by the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE).

Learning in 3D

Maybe BP will listen to music….

Do we need to “play more” with our kids????

Playreport is a global research project on children, families and play, initiated by IKEA.

Five major takeaways from the PlayReport:

Children overwhelmingly prefer playing with their friends and parents over watching TV.
When children across the world were asked to choose between watching TV or playing with friends or parents, they overwhelmingly choose to play with friends (89%) and parents (73%) with TV a very poor substitute for social interaction at only 11%.

Nearly half of the parents think play should be educational. Children disagree.
Nearly half (45%) of all parents think that play is best when it’s educational. This rises to two thirds of parents in China, Slovakia, Czech Rep, Spain, Hungary, Russia, Poland and Portugal. A further minority at 17% (China, Italy, Russia and US) actually prefer their children to learn things rather than to simply play. 27% think play should always have a purpose. As for the children, 51% actually prefer to play rather than learn.

Parents are too stressed to play.
45% of parents surveyed agree that they feel they don’t have enough time to play with their children. Even when parents do find the time to play, a significant minority feel too distracted by other concerns to enjoy it; 26% agree that they are ‘too stressed to enjoy it’.

A majority of parents want more creativity at home for their children. The question is how?
89% of parents agree that play is important to encourage their child’s imagination and creativity. And almost all, 93% agree that it’s an essential part of the way a child develops. And 71% feel that they should ‘encourage more creativity at home’, but that they don’t know how.

Not all parents want their children to be happy.
72% of parents selected happiness as single most important wish for their children. But what about the other 28%? Well, financial success came second and thoughtfulness of
others a close third.

Read More http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/05/ikeas-playreport-sends-us-a-message-our-kids-want-to-play-with-us/#ixzz0t6oHJmoi

From: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=4354&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=metaverse+virtualworlds&utm_content=news
More at Wired: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/05/ikeas-playreport-sends-us-a-message-our-kids-want-to-play-with-us/

Comparing 2D and 3D Synchronous Learning

This video is from Karl Kapp and Tony O’Driscoll book “Learning in 3D”