In Kitely Education

Using virtual worlds for education
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Michael Timeless
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In Kitely Education

Post by Michael Timeless »

I brought this topic up in today's meeting. I did not want to reinvent the wheel if there was already a process in place. There isn't. So....

One of the first things I learned in Second Life was that we work in the world of meters. For someone who grew up with feet and inches it was a startling discovery.
It was also a discovery that would lead me to a wide variety of classes in Second Life. Classes on basic building, classes on jewelry creation, classes on griefing, land management, clubbing, blender, photoshop and a myriad of other topics. A medical degree takes 4 years of college, 4 of medical school and at least 4 years of residency – Virtual world learning can be almost as long. I know after 15 years I still don’t have all the answers.

If we want Kitely and OpenSim to grow it will need an education makeover for new users. I’d like to open a discussion on what topics, staffing and other needs such an education process will need to not only work but thrive here in Kitely. This is your metaverse what does it need to work?

Mike T
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Selby Evans »

Michael Timeless wrote:
Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:43 pm
I brought this topic up in today's meeting. I did not want to reinvent the wheel if there was already a process in place. There isn't. So....

One of the first things I learned in Second Life was that we work in the world of meters. For someone who grew up with feet and inches it was a startling discovery.
It was also a discovery that would lead me to a wide variety of classes in Second Life. Classes on basic building, classes on jewelry creation, classes on griefing, land management, clubbing, blender, photoshop and a myriad of other topics. A medical degree takes 4 years of college, 4 of medical school and at least 4 years of residency – Virtual world learning can be almost as long. I know after 15 years I still don’t have all the answers.

If we want Kitely and OpenSim to grow it will need an education makeover for new users. I’d like to open a discussion on what topics, staffing and other needs such an education process will need to not only work but thrive here in Kitely. This is your metaverse what does it need to work?

Mike T
Here is my suggested collection of topics (updated in 2016)
Newcomer help in virtual worlds
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com ... -2012.html

I don't think we should limit our thinking to "classes." We are in a programmable virtual world where we can set up things to support self-guided learning. And adult learning can certainly use the assumption that adults can read. I am generally unwilling to lecture on something I have adequately covered in a blog article. When people ask me questions that I think are adequately answered in one of my articles, I simply give them the link. I am willing to write additional instructional articles if I have additional questions but I am probably not willing to spend time repeating aloud what I have already written.
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Michael Timeless »

Selby
Sorry for the novel you are about to receive, but, I'm going to have to disagree a bit on this one. I'm going to prefix this by saying I collect books and even my virtual house has a library.
However, reading is almost a lost art (my Kindle bill might disagree). People skim, they skip, they rush to the ending without getting the context. This frustrates many, not all, of them. The other problem is misinterpretation. An author has a clear, precise image in his/her head of what they are trying to say. The reader may not have the same references and goes off track. People learn very differently. Some, as you said, can read it once, understand it and are done. Some need more of a hand's on approach to learning. Working for an airline I see it everyday when we teach compliance issues. Put someone in front of a computer for 7-8 hours and they tune out, make the class interactive and they engage more - not always, but often enough that we now train our instructors in "platform skills," and "Storytelling," to make the instruction relevant to the student's world.

It will be time consuming and as Ilan pointed out to me, Sunday the last time the problem was getting "volunteers" to actually do it. This is fun/relaxation for many people and teaching is hard work. One of the classes I teach in RL takes more preparation time than the actual class. I think the preparation time here will be the critical difference. Perhaps, both methods can be used, setting up one segment of the "school" as blended learning with easy to find links to written articles and an instructor led portion for those people who feel the need to be more hand's on training. Some people prefer Google to the library.

Quick story. When I joined Second Life I was very enthusiastic and read as much as I could find - which wasn't much at the time. I finally took the plunge and purchased some land not really knowing the difference between "mainland" and "islands." That first weekend I got a parcel next to a lake, built a house, created some scenery and was pretty proud of my achievement. When I finished Sunday night it was perfect. When I returned on Monday, the land had a brothel next door, the lake was gone and when I said something to the people next door I got orbited by the griefers. I had never read about any of this. Luckily, for me I found a mentor, who walked me through the silliness of SL, showed me some tips and tricks for building and didn't make fun of my flat box houses when I was building homes the size of aircraft carriers. Second Life is now a bitter sweet memory but some of that education lives on, I can't remember what the book said, but I've never forgotten my mentor Charlene Trudeau of Skybeam Estates, who put herself out there for every noob that came along. Just a thought, maybe overly passionate. ;)

There will always be readers. Some before plunging in, some after, and some only on pain of death.
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Chris Namaste »

=)
yes i hear u both and uboth are 'right' (imho)
i cld teach basic building and basic making clothing (layers), my probl is my health (and typing is toohard etc)
what were good classes to me & how i wld do it myself is 'students receive the class in a short note - or via open chat' and after each topic-each step, there is talking-sharing-questions-answers and finding solutions for helping out to every question
indeed, pple read very little, so a middleway 'wld be this way' (for me anyway) =)
it was great to read your contribution shelby & michael, really
kind regards,chris
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Selby Evans »

Reading is not the only alternative to classes. For example:

Videos are widely used for tutorials. Posted on YouTube, they offer on-demand presentations to an unlimited number of users. They can be as much like a class as needed, except that they do not afford the opportunity to ask questions. A Q&A session by a skilled volunteer could meet that need and afford an opportunity to make a supplementary video covering questions arising from the tutorial.

Workshops can be combined with a Q&A session if people can stay for an extended period of time. In the workshop model, people study a capability in whatever way suits them. The workshop then challenges them to demonstrate that capability. If they run into a problem, they are first to ask others in the workshop for help. A skilled volunteer should be available on call for problems the workshop participants cannot answer.
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Michael Timeless »

Selby
I think you and Chris are on the right track. Simple reading alone is not the answer it is the interaction that in my former profession we called, "Winning hearts and minds."
I think the videos would be the most important part, followed up by the facilitation piece, followed up by changing the videos as needed. The framework needs to be user friendly as the simplest level possible.
Chris one of the things I teach (RL), is disability awareness, which is one of the things that made SL attractive for many of my friends who have disabilities. Phil was wrong in his statements about SL users. Many come into the virtual worlds to do things they can no longer do in the real worlds. For a while we were trying to setup sims in SL to have interaction between the soldiers overseas and music groups. We also had a few veterans who suffered from PTSD who came in world because it was a less threatening (in most cases) environment, so, a friendly voice explaining things on occasion would be wonderful - something like a clinic visit, we could have the people see videos, look at the written explanations and then have someone explain or handle questions. We could even have them submit the questions and see if anyone else submits answers and then chose the best among them to explain.

Today is another travel day so I'm probably rambling at 2am here in Cincinnati munching on cold pizza and counting the days until I retire. Retirement is one of those things I'm looking forward to in terms of virtual worlds. It will give me time to go back to school myself and learn more. The University of North Carolina has an Art and Graphics Animation course that I'm looking forward to taking once retirement begins.
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Selby Evans »

An example of newcomer instruction for virtual worlds:
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com ... -2012.html

NEW: Skills analysis for new people in virtual worlds
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com ... eople.html

For disabilities:
https://virtualability.org/

Virtual ability YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCecFbq ... aEohz8HIhQ

Recent video by Draxtor:
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com ... rtual.html

Articles on my blog about Therapy
https://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com ... el/THERAPY
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Michael Timeless »

These are amazing. I want to see all of them before I say more. Thank you so much.

Mike T
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Re: In Kitely Education

Post by Robert Stanley »

Thank you for all the info. As someone on disability, Michael.. you are correct! Phil was wrong. Because of my disability I also have agoraphobia. I am lucky to not be in a wheelchair, but a cane is very necessary for me, along with ease of access to sitting down frequently. I suffer from physical and mental disability issues. Virtual worlds is how I get to "be normal". Who needs a cane when you can fly, right? I read your blogs, Selby. You are a huge asses-st to OpenSim. Michael, in the short time I have known you I have been really impressed with your mannerism and friendliness. Chris, You are always encouraging on Google+ and talented at clothes making. That is what makes virtual worlds so awesome. We are all different, all bring our own experiences and possibly issues.. but we can run here. Design here. Go to clubs here. I even got to go to a fair in OpenSim.. something I have been unable to do for 15 years.

I hope you all keep collaborating. I can't wait to see the final result.

Peace!
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