Notes from today's meeting with Peter (Starbucks)

GA Job work

1. Might have to follow up with Margit/Deborah (training). Wait for Peter's response
2. Follow up with Ari on our workshop on the SL workshop on the 8th…
3. Reminder in April: COEDSA (9th), CESA (14th)
4. Have a table out in the College of Ed: week of the 21st (11:30 AM) ( 27th evening 3:30-4:00. Prepare - Flyers for the table/banner/improve signage
5. Advisory board meeting: April 7 (10-11)
6. Revise map - Replace pictures with Second Life screenshots/hut structure for the classrooms. Screenshots of Mark's group's hale. Spoke wheel path around the island. This should be done before I leave.
7. King Kamehameha land markers for navigation/teleport signs/outrigger (similar to RL in Hawaii)
8. Write up -Propose a code of conduct for the island, privileges of where they can build. This should be done before I leave. Email Peter revisions and suggested privileges.
9. Before I leave - Prep work April 8th, temporary router set up with Malia's group (8th) for training
10. After Ari emails the announcement, forward the email announcement regarding training to COEDSA, Siobhan (email Peter
11. Email Yoko about announcement as well.
    

690 tasks

1. Conference proceedings (6-7 pages); separate from journals
2. Journal articles 10-15 journal article (look at which one I want to submit to
3. I need to review academic journals in the edtech field. 3 most recent issues of a journal to get a feel, qualititatve/quanititaivte, k-12 or higher education, in other words, what's their theme/preference?
   
4. Give Peter a 690 update on April 7th (this means work on it before I leave!!!)
   

ETEC 750 Reading - Book Club

Dear blog,

Last week for the Book Club, we read Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology by Allan Collins and Richard Halverson. The book took a positive look at technology through recent education history in America to what it currently is right now. It does address some of the criticisms of technology today, but overall keeps the view of technology in the book to a positive.

Although some of the aspects of the book I did not exactly agree with, I did like the upbeat tone of the book. Many of the higher education writings about technology today focus too much on the negative deterministic driving of technology in our society and not so much on how technology can move us in a positive direction. Another aspect of the book that I did enjoy was the history of technology in our current education system. I am a big history fan, so that part made my day. I learned a lot about the start of our current education system and how it slowly came from parents being the main stakeholders in their children's education to the government creating public schools to ensure that the country's citizens were educated enough to vote.

Overall, though, I believe the two parts of the book that will help me the most with my current research is the section on "Interaction" (pg. 18) and "Games and Simulation" (pg.20). The authors state "Enthusiasts believe that by providing even more sophisticated dynamic interaction, computer-based learning environments are likely to make education much more engaging." This helps with my argument about the future of distance education using more immersive technologies to help their students learn. Also, the authors say "Enthusiasts argue that simulation is the key to letting learners explore new situations." Both need for immersion and simulation is recommended by distance educators, and virtual environments (which I am researching) helps with that. I believe that the use of technology in distance education does affect their learning to a point. I plan to write more about that later.

In conclusion, I enjoyed reading most of the book and found it helpful as well as informative. I plan re-visit the book sometime again and look over the arguments that the authors make. In the end, I found it quite interesting.

Feedback from last night

Dear blog,
Last night I was the guest speaker at Dr. Bail's EDEP 768C class. They were a great class to talk to and I was able to get some nifty feedback. See below...

• MIT press series - Buckingham article on identity (3 types)
• Hours they have been on
• Add age of learners
• Revise #4 - Informal vs. formal learning
• Were they introduced by someone else vs. learned from a tutorial vs. entered SL on their own? Makes a big difference!

Now time to answer emails and get my list taken care of for today!

Aloha,
Rebecca

To do list this week...

1. COE open house movie. highlights - 10 minute video by next time… (before April 1)-Do a Screenflow video of COE island and new signs. Coming soon… Fall 2010), and comparison shot old building versus coming soon new building…
2. Double check with COEDSA . wired projector Internet access, where it's going to be...
3. Send a notice to Nick, we want to try out the jeopardy board for Fall 2010 and for COE open house...
4. Tell Peter whether I can come April 14. Tell CESA, April 14… email Milli
5. Advisory board - Redo the mockup. Incorporate photos into mockup
6. COE SL open house - Speakers - Teaching as a career. why I choose to go into teaching, highlights going through the teaching program at COE, practicum, advice for people considering a career in teaching… Alumna experience perspective (ME), GET FIT, Curtis Ho
7. - Promote: modify notecards. - Marketing: Ask Si and Nick about connections to target audience... Talk to Nick and Stephen about how they found about the UH COE council
   
8. Email Elle back
9. Send Peter email about meeting about 690 and redoing mock up over Spring break
10. Write blog post for readings for ETEC 750 tonight
11. Change dentist appointment date
12. Look at Peter's PPT's
    

Two videos

Here are 2 YouTube videos I want to keep for reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDH-9gt5WJc&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbNMtFXMNWg&feature=related

Ideas for future UH SL events...

1. Instead of dancing, how about a coffee hour where they have to introduce themselves to someone they don't know, and talk about their research or studies.

2....

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education

From UH Virtual Education

Today I went to one of the sessions at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education online conference. There were so many sessions to choose from. Many of the ones I wanted to go to were overfilled. I ended up going to the "A Case Study of Using Second Life Simulation to Enrich Nursing Curriculum: Best Practices" session, which was quite interesting as well, even though I am not in nursing.

After going to the VWBPE I am thoroughly convinced that Second Life is no where near "down the tubes" like everyone in the media is saying. Although businesses have pulled out of it, educators and educational organizations are still inworld and using Second Life for a variety of classes, networking, and professional development. I think it is going to be here to stay but is evolving into something different than what it was a few years ago.

It's too bad that the UH Second Life St. Patrick's Day party overlaps with the VWBPE event, but oh well, you can only do so much. I forgot that the VWBPE was on the same day. I'm sure we can still get enough people to come to Diane's presentation. Just will have to advertise aggressively right before the presentation.

8 days later...

Dear blog,
I seem to be writing less and less in here, but I am sure that will change once I start getting more feedback for my dissertation proposal. Speaking of my proposal, yesterday, I actually got my margins and headings down for the chapters. Hooray! I've been putting that off for so long. And then this morning I worked on revising the draft by moving a few things around. Surprisingly, Ellen got back to me in regards to feedback rather quickly. Looks like I only have to do a few more things for Chapter 1 before I'm almost done. Hooray!

As for today for my job, I went with my boss Dr. Peter Leong to the Hawaiian School of Knowledge to get inspiration for the possible design of the new College of Education virtual campus in Second Life. We were fortunate to have Rochelle Pi'ilani Ka'aloa give us a tour of the school. We especially liked the open air atmosphere the school provided through the architecture of the buildings. A lot of the artwork around the school was provided by former students who had gone on to become artists. The school really had a great cultural "sense of place." One of the main parts of the school was the Lo'i or taro patch. It had many spaces where students and faculty could meet in the open. It also had Wii-Fi which was a plus :) I'll try to include some pictures here, once I get them into my computer. We are hoping to design the island similar to the Hawaiian School of Knowledge in addition to the College of Education.



The next step in this project is to look up the Punalulu Virtual Lo'i and check out their site for further inspiration. Then, I have to contact COEDSA, CESA, and Get FIT to ask if they want Peter and I to do a presentation of the virtual campus or if they want to collaborate with us on the virtual campus before we create it.

This afternoon I was going to work on my survey questions for the article I was writing, but Peter said that we should take a break this week since we worked so hard getting the article in last week.

Tonight, I'm going to meet with Ellen and my dissertation support group. Hopefully we can help each other out tonight. I'm looking forward to it!

Aloha,
Rebecca

Meeting with Peter today

Hi Everyone,

Today, I met with my adviser one more time before I submit my article to AECT. I really am surprised at how quick he actually reviewed and critiqued my article. I emailed it to him at midnight and he had it reviewed by 7 AM in the morning. Here are some of the suggestions he made.

1. Change the title. It's now Identity and the Education Community in Multi-user Virtual Environments.
2. I need to email 2 different types of abstracts to him. The short 75 word one and the 1,000 word one, that I will eventually submit to AECT. When I actually do register for AECT, I need to choose the AECT/SL special interest group as the category.
3. Change the opening header to "Introduction." Change a few words within that particular paragraph. At the end of that paragraph, add information from Sam's case study. (If I cannot find the case study, email Peter). Include information about other classes taught at the University of Hawaii such as Barbara's class, Diane Nahl's class, and the other psychology professor he mentioned.
4. Change the second section's title. Call it "Problem/Need for study."
5. Take out the entire next section called ETEC 649.
   
6. Call the next section Methodology.
7. The next section after that would be called Analysis and Findings.
8. In this section, put in quotes that states how I came to this particular conclusion.
9. Include statements from the Diehl and Prins study about general Second Life users.
10. Label the next section Conclusion and Implications.
11. See other comments for details

I need to get all of this into Peter by tomorrow. I cancelled my massage. Have to get at it later during the week. Hopefully, I'll have enough time to complete my readings by then for tomorrow's class. Oh, and download the pictures from Faye. And NO meeting on Thursday with Peter.

Aloha,
Rebecca

P.S. - At a later time and date, rearrange your survey questions into a graph, match them up to your research questions and then change them accordingly. Consider possibly turning them into Likert scale questions. However, that would make your study a mixed method study. Not sure if I want to do that.