Bronack's blog

At first glance, this piece is almost exciting — more faculty using social media than expected?  That’s great! — but the punchline tells a little different story:

There was one point upon which nearly all the respondents, both advocates and skeptics, agreed: “This is a supplement to how I teach,” says Seaman, paraphrasing. “It will never become a primary delivery mechanism.”

This is just more support to suggest that Yet Another Teaching Technology will not change the way we teach until most professors feel that doing so is not a direct challenge to our professional identity.  Until we consider “teaching” to be more than “1 expert telling many novices,” we’ll not see the pedagogical shift in our formal educational spaces that is necessary to utilize fully these emerging social and immersive technologies.

Interesting post.  Regardless of whether or not you think an Appearance Code and/or Code of Conduct is necessary for VW-based, formal organized activity, it is interesting to see some of the choices many early adopters have made:

89% of respondents chose human form in Second Life

44% have some form of name relationship with their avatar

79% have some form of appearance relationship with their avatar

66% of avatars have lost the newbie look within 1 month.

and also what those in the potential early majority think those choices suggest:

Educators should not be dissuaded from the adoption of alternative forms and appearances for their avatar. Appearance, however, does need to be appropriate for the educational context, especially when representing an organisation.

…

The main reason to lose the newbie look is to increase credibility and to display experience.

Clearly, an identity market exists within VWs that mirrors the real world.  VW users choose — and look for — identity markers in ways that both affect and communicate the level of immersiveness, intelligence, and realism available within the VW-based experience.

Digital Natives are immersed in their media — and use this collective, connected immersion to maintain a state of digital attachment to whom and what they want, when and where they want it.  Devices like iPods, laptops, and cell phones provide the platform for Immediates’ distributed presence.

 For the Immediates, social and immersive media offer a collective medium of extended and augmented presence that makes me “more me,” rather than–as Digital Immigrants (“Animatiates”) view it–as a medium that offers a tempered, “low res” representation of me.

That’s why I find this “New Media fasting” movement so fascinating.

For the professors who are assigning these “fasts,” the hope is that, by unplugging them from their digital selves, they will spark a re-connection and renewed awareness of the impact of the devices on each student’s “real” selves.   

Perhaps.  But I think the fasts underestimate an important reality:  Immediates’ sense of self — identity, attachment, efficacy — is not separate from the media each uses to create it; forcing Immediates to strip the media away will hinder, rather than help, each actualize and express his or her “real self” to you and to their peers.

As the story linked above notes, the anxiety of disconnect is overwhelming in a short period of time for many who try the fast.  For some, it may be an issue of self-discipline.  But it is also a result of the unique socialness of individual behavior — and, as a result, identity — that marks the Immediate generation.  They are a widely-connected, uber-present generation; even seemingly simple, short-term disengagements seem unnatural.  As one student noted after a few days of digital fasting:

My Mom thought I died.

Yes, the reality is that Immediates ARE their mediated selves.  A day or two of digital fasting may offer a glimpse of life as folks “used to live it,” but likely won’t encourage many of them to stay disconnected.  Just like a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg rarely sparks an interest in churning one’s own butter, New Media fasts likely will not induce a spike in Scrabble sales … just a bunch of stressed-out kids with overflowing Inboxes.

Funny how these things happen … Had a great conversation in HRD 897 last night about interface design — then, this pops up in my Twitter list today. Perfect timing — and sage advice…

Second Life’s new, more “webby” browser is now out in beta.  First glance suggests it is much improved — from the standpoint of making SL more accessible to newbies.

Of course, if that just means faster and more frequent access to sketch and lag, SLV2 won’t necessarily help increase the userbase… :/

Here’s Scoble’s chat w/Linden Lab’s CEO, in which the current Avatar-in-Chief describes some of the new integrations that may:

Nearly 12,000 K-12 kids in Colorado are choosing to go to school online, rather than attend traditional brick-and-mortar, classr00m-based lectures, according to the CO Dept of Ed annual report. 

Although attrition rates remain high – and performance on standardized assessment lag – the continued double-digit growth combined with flashes of promise have state administrators hopeful. 

Will be interesting to track, and compare to SC’s path …

Actually, I think this blog is a must-follow for new faculty … but I can’t help but chuckle about the fact that a post like this is so … well … necessary.

Q: How many professors does it take to … dress one?

Virtual World Growth is Slowing Down. That’s Not a Bad Thing. – Pixels and Policy.

Virtual worlds are seen as long-term investments, with user bases that remain active for years after launch.

Princeton Review is putting their recent acquisition of Penn Foster to use in a big way — creating an accredited university in partnership with the largest union in the U.S.

The online college would charge about $200 a credit and offer bachelor’s degrees, adding associate and master’s degrees later.

This is a unions-only, cheap, blended education solution that is going head-to-head with traditional educational programs … and I bet they’ll have lots of folks enroll.  Should be interesting to watch …

Great article with an excerpt from newly-published “Fun Inc: Why Games are the 21st Century’s Most Serious Business ”

If we are to understand the 21st century and the generation who will inherit it, it’s crucial that we learn to describe the dynamics of this gaming life: a place that’s not so much about escaping the commitments and interactions that make friendships “real” as about a sophisticated set of satisfactions with their own increasingly urgent reality and challenges.

The concept of gameplay helps make virtual worlds an interesting medium for helping the “me” generation connect with and understand the “mii” one.