Research

This week’s post focuses on virtual reality, how it is experienced and used today, and how it might be used in the future. Most people are familiar with virtual reality with respect to gaming and entertainment. However, virtual reality has great potential for use in education, training, and healthcare, and could change the way in which education and training are delivered in the not so distant future.

Virtual reality allows users to experience and interact in computer-generated environments. The experience may be purely visual in nature, or more robust, giving the user a richer experience, including sound and sensation. The experience may be lifelike, or pure fantasy.

In Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education, Boulos, Hetherington, and Wheeler (2007) discuss how Second Life is being applied in medical and health education. Second Life is one of the most popular and recognized virtual reality games available today. Second Life users create avatars, travel to user created destinations, interact with other avatars, and contribute to a unique economy. Second Life also hosts a number of medical and health education projects including Healthinfo Island which houses a library and a breast cancer research center. There are other environments in Second Life that enable the user to experience what symptoms of certain diseases or disorders might be like. Out of curiosity, I visited Second Life to view and experience some of these locations for myself. I witnessed the audio and visual hallucinations that a person with schizophrenia might experience after my avatar donned a schizophrenia badge in Second Life. It was an unsettling experience, to say the least.

Virtual reality is becoming popular with the growth of distance learning, providing an environment for collaboration and encouraging reflection. Boulos et al (2007) point out that the way that avatars move and interact in virtual environments makes learning more synchronous and rapid. Virtual learning environments create a safe place to practice new skills without the risk of harm or injury to others.

Although virtual reality may have had its roots in gaming, its reach is no longer limited to a gaming experience. The United States military has a long history of using simulations for training. The Army uses virtual reality to train soldiers. The adoption of virtual reality allows for training session to be repeated and replicated as needed, with minimal expense of time or money.

Papp (2010), in Virtual worlds and social networking: reaching the millennials, suggests that the adoption of virtual reality and social networking in the classroom creates a collaborative and diverse learning environment. An entire generation of individuals, the millennials, often called digital natives, grew up with technology. These adults are comfortable with technology, consider it a normal and expected part of their lives, and are most likely to be early adopters. They readily incorporate social networking and virtual reality games in their daily lives. The growth of virtual reality and social networking in the future may well rest on this generation.

Responding to demands for greater accessibility and to gain an edge on the competition, both businesses and educational institutions are embracing the use of virtual environments like Second Life. Business organizations use Second Life to hold virtual meetings, conferences, and job interviews. Papp (2010) notes that IBM saved over a quarter million dollars in travel and location expenses by holding a virtual meeting in Second Life. Colleges and universities use Second Life in a variety of ways. Educational institutions may offer virtual campus tours, college fairs, and advising. Other institutions have virtual classrooms on Second Life. Still others have educational kiosks, host guest lecturers or conduct seminars and workshops.

Nursing is a specialized field where virtual reality can be effectively adopted as an educational strategy. Kilmon, Brown, Ghosh, and Mikitiuk (2010), discuss Immersive Virtual Reality Simulations in Nursing Education as a potential educational strategy for nursing student practice. Simulation based training is commonly use in highly technical, dynamic, and high-risk scenarios. The military as well as the aerospace and nuclear power industries use it. Kilmon et al (2010) cite experiential learning theory and deliberative practice to support their support of the use of virtual reality in nursing education. Learners use experimentation and reflection to internalize what they have learned. Such experimentation, which can be so important to learning in that it shows the learner the results of in incorrect response, is unacceptable in a clinical setting where the lives of patients are affected. Learners become more proficient as they deliberately practice skills to achieve desired outcomes. Repeating demonstration of skills with combined with accurate assessment and feedback help learners to improve their skills.

Virtual reality simulations can help prepare individuals for crisis situations such as disaster response, mass injury triage, bomb threats and other such highly charged and dangerous scenarios. Simulations make these scenarios seems real. Performance can be easily monitored and recorded, making it useful for learner assessment. This technology, supplemental to traditional clinical instruction, will help nurses learn the skills they need to perform in clinical settings.

The articles collectively consider thoughtful approaches to the use of virtual reality in education. The technology can be expensive to implement. Collaborative teams comprised of technology professionals along with educators and content experts should work together to develop meaningful educational programs. Scenarios must be realistic and interactions and responses must be authentic. Standards of technology must be established so that quality education is maintained, and best practices need to be identified. Applications should be developed and supported so that this technology can be more widely utilized. The authors all agree that more research is needed in this field, especially in its application in medical and health education.

Virtual reality can provide students with synchronous, realistic, educational learning experiences. The experiences are immersive and engaging. Medicine, health, mathematics and science are just some fields where virtual technology is utilized. Members of the military, surgical residents, and firefighters train using this technology. Its use will grow as research demonstrates its effectiveness in education and training.

References

Boulos, M. N. K., Hetherington, L.,  & Wheeler, S. (2007). Second Life: an overview of the potential  of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 24(4), 233-245. doi 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2007.000733.x

Kilmon, Carol A., Brown, Leonard, Ghosh, Sumit, and Mikituik, Artur. (2010). Immersive Virtual Reality Simulations in Nursing Education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 31(5), 314-317.

Papp, Raymond (2010). Virtual worlds and social networking: reaching the millennials. Journal of Technology Research, 2, 1-15.

Theory

Multiple Intelligences Theory

What is intelligence? Is it the ability to understand and use language? Is it demonstrated by skill in mathematics and logic? Intelligence is not a single entity. Multiple Intelligences Theory challenges the traditional definition of intelligence and how it is measured.

The theory of Multiple Intelligences, proposed and defined by Howard Gardner in 1983, suggests that every individual possesses a number of distinct forms of intelligence, and to varying degrees. Gardner is a psychologist and professor of neuroscience at Harvard. His theory was influenced by his early work with gifted and autistic children and with brain injured adults.

The theory defines intelligence in broader ways than intelligence is traditionally measured and defined. It recognizes the impact of culture on intelligences, acknowledging that some cultures value some forms of intelligence more strongly than others. Intelligences change with an individual’s maturity, experience, and education, so they can be learned. Teaching and assessment can be attuned to learners’ strengths. Instructional techniques can focus on learning preferences. Gardner argues that individuals learn best when specific intelligences are activated.

Gardner defined eight primary forms of intelligence: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalistic.

Linguistic intelligence is demonstrated through speaking, writing, reading and listening. Teachers can foster linguistic intelligence by tasking students to journal or write short stories, and then post the writings to a blog or wiki. Students can use electronic dictionaries and encyclopedias, or story creation software. Teachers can use applications like iBooks to create their own books, including pictures, video, and other interactive features, and then share these books with their students.

Musical learners learn best through sounds, rhythms and patterns. Lessons can include writing a song or composing music and presenting it to the class. Students can explore music sharing sites and music generation software. Interactive books with audio elements can foster learning for musical learners. Assignment might include exploring music connected to history or geography lessons.

Logical-mathematical learners are good with numbers, reasoning, and problem solving. These learners can collect, organize and measure data, and conduct experiments and research projects.

Spatial learners learn visually and organize thinking spatially. Lessons incorporating photographs, charts, graphs, diagrams and tables are suited to these learners. Students could create slideshows, three-dimensional projects, or explore and design maps.

Body-Kinesthetic learners learn best through physical activity. Hands on tasks work well with these learners. They learn by moving around and being actively involved. Educators can use dance, plays, skits, and role-playing. Classroom activities, like moving around the room to various stations, or going on field trips, even virtual ones, help these learners learn.

Intrapersonal learners are aware of their own feelings and motivation. They can focus their concentration and set and meet goals, and they are good at working independently.

Interpersonal learners learn best interacting with others. Discussions, collaborative work, and social activities help these learners. They are aware of and sensitive to the feelings and motivation of others. These learners are good at peer group activities. The Flat Stanley Project is one that would benefit these learners.

Naturalistic learners learn through interacting with the environment. Outdoor activities, interactions with plants and animals, help these learners. They see patterns in nature and the world, and adapt to them. Activities for these learners might include field trips, recording the environment using digital cameras, and observing and journaling about these experiences.

Learn more about how educators are promoting Multiple Intelligence Theory in the classroom with multimedia.

Multipleintelligencesandmultimedia from Liz Wernig

Watch this video about the eNota Multiple Intelligences Academy in Gainesville, Georgia. The school’s curriculum is based on Multiple Intelligences Theory. Gardner himself talks about how his theory may be applied in the classroom.



Multiple Intelligence Theory is prompting educators to assess and teach students in ways customized to their intelligences and learning styles. Schools adapting their curriculum to this theory have created culturally and individually sensitive and student-centric learning environments.

References

Cherry, K. (n.d.) Howard Gardner Biography. About.com. Retrieved March 16, 2013 from http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/howard-gardner.htm

Gilman, L. (2001) The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Human Intelligence. Retrieved March 16, 2013 from http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/mitheory.shtml

Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2004). Concept to Classroom: Tapping into Multiple Intelligences. Thirteen Ed Online. Retrieved March 16, 2013 from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/index.html

Johnson, L., and Lamb, A. (2007). Technology and Multiple Intelligences. Eduscapes. Retrieved March 16, 2013 from http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm

Social Media

The Diigo group that I joined this week is Michael M. Grant’s Viral Notebook. Michael M. Grant is a professor at the University of Memphis, focusing on learning environments, graphic and instructional design to support learning, and specific learner characteristics. There are a number of really good posts about education and technology in this group. Dr. Grant also maintains a blog viral-notebook.com and a well-organized wiki that others might find useful.

Social media sites have a great deal of appeal to both young and old. Individuals use social networking sites like Facebook to connect with friends and family, share pictures, play games, and commemorate life events. Individuals use other social networking sites like Twitter to share brief posts, pictures, news stories, and comments about events and news stories. Twitter is becoming an important site for users to advertise their business or promote their blog or website. There are a number of photo and video sharing websites, and social networking sites for practically any interest. Social networks allow individuals to share what is interesting to them.

Social media websites can have tremendous potential for use in the classroom. They allow users to share, collaborate, and create a learning network. Networks allow people to make powerful connections with one another, connections that can enhance learning. Many schools block access to social media websites, and there are security and privacy issues that must be addressed when using social media. Some people and schools view social media as time wasters, so this perception needs to be altered if social media is to be used for educational purposes.

I do spend some time on social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. I use Facebook to check out what kind of posts and pictures my friends are sharing, and sometimes to share pictures, check-ins or posts of my own. On Twitter, I read the posts of those users that I follow. I have many users that I follow organized into lists, by interest, location, or type or user. I have several lists on Twitter, from locals to foodies, celebrities to members of the media. Twitter is a great place to follow breaking news stories. I have to admit that it’s kind of cool if someone influential retweets a tweet that you posted, or acknowledges your response to a post of yours. By the way, did you know that actor Hugh Grant became a father again today? He announced it on Twitter.

There are some benefits to participating on social media sites. You can get a lot of information quickly, read about what other people are interested in, learn new things, and become acquainted with others in virtual ways. There is so much information available, it is easy to get lost in it, and it can be difficult at first to determine what is meaningful and what is not. Like anything else in life, a balance between the virtual world and other interests with people and activities and the real world are important.

Gaming

What do I think about gaming in the classroom?

Gaming in the classroom is not a subject with which I was at all familiar before this week’s readings. Sure, I was familiar with on line gaming, and games on social networking sites, but had not considered gaming for educational purposes very much. Prensky (2007) distinguishes the difference between simulations and games simply. Simulations are about the behavior of things or systems, while gaming is about a fun user experience. As this was the first article I read this week, I would have agreed with that differentiation and not though much more about gaming for education. After reading more about games and simulations, I would have to argue that they are much more than that. Games and simulations definitely have a place in the classroom.

ROAR, The Radford Outdoor Augmented Reality Project, uses GPS receivers on handheld devices to engage students, who adopt different roles, in collaborative games to promote teamwork and problem solving skills. Students also learn science or history content. The Powerhouse Museum Augmented Reality Application allows individuals to use their smartphones to explore Sydney, Australia as it appeared 100 years ago. The layars app can be downloaded for use on a smartphone. I have been unsuccessful so far in customizing the app in order to use it with the coordinates for Sydney, as identified on the website, in order to do some exploration of my own. The Future is Wild uses augmented reality and a user’s own imagination to learn more about animals and the world far into the future. A number of different components allow the user to view and review the materials in a variety of ways. YouTube has a number of The Future is Wild videos available for viewing.

Games offer students a variety of unique opportunities when contrasted with traditional classroom experiences. Games keep individuals engaged. Goals are generally part of the gaming experience. Prensky (2007) mentions the nature of games allowing users to “level-up” to improve and perfect their skills. This encourages users to persist in their practice, with the reward being the ability to move to the next level. Games often require the gamer to adapt and change strategies frequently, and the gamers progress provides them feedback on the decisions or changes they make. Gamers learn from their decisions. They also learn that they can make different decisions and receive feedback pretty quickly on those decisions and whether they succeeded or failed, and they can try again. Games give the gamer a sense of control over their environment. If used for education, games can give students more of a sense of control over their own learning experience.

Augmented reality is used for highly interactive and visual forms of learning. It has a unique ability to respond to human input, and it can be effectively utilized in scenarios where participating in the actual activity is prohibitive. Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, and Haywood, (2011) note the power of augmented reality to allow users to construct their own learning and more easily transfer learning from one context to another. The ability to construct one’s own learning and relate it to prior learning makes the experience more meaningful to the individual.

Strangman and Hall (2003) reference research suggesting that students with learning disabilities who used simulations perform better than students with learning disabilities who did not use simulations. This could have significant implications in designing learning strategies for students with learning disabilities. The United States military has used simulations for years as a practical alternative to train their members. Chang (2009) cites military spokespersons claiming that simulations are the “next best thing” to real world training.

Gaming holds real potential for application in education and beyond. Gartner (2011) challenges businesses to take the opportunity for their world to emulate gaming rather than the other way around. The characteristics of games and simulations result in more engagement, and organizations can benefit by having more engaged customers and employees alike. As gaming becomes more prevalent in education, we will see it used more creatively in business and we will see a different education, business and world culture as a result.

References

Chang, Hiro (2009). Simulators always valuable in military training. Retrieved February 9, 2013 from http://www.army.mil/article/19599/

Gartner (2011). Gartner Says By 2015, More Than 50 Percent of Organizations That Manage Innovation Processes Will Gamify Those Processes [Press release].
Retrieved February 9, 2013 from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1629214

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Prensky, M., Sims vs. Games: The Difference Defined. Edutopia, March 9, 2007.
Retrieved February 9, 2013 from http://www.edutopia.org/sims-vs-games

Strangman, N., & Hall, T. (2003). Virtual reality/simulations. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved February 9, 2013 from http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/virtual_simula...

Open Content and Ethics

Open content, the sharing of information as well as instructional practice and experiences, offers many creative alternatives to accessing learning resources in education. The use of open content is appealing as a means to control the increasing costs of printed materials and to address the lack of educational resources in some geographic regions.

Networks promoting open content believe in a philosophy of creating a community of collective understanding, insight, and experience that is shared with others. Open content allows users to modify textbooks to customize, modernize, and combine them with other materials to create a tailored learning resource. The Four R’s of open content address licensing or permission rights and are defined as the ability to reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the materials.

It is important, when using open content, to find useful resources, to assess the quality of the content, and repurpose the materials for learning. Most teachers customize open content resources. The ongoing use of open content may decrease teacher workload in developing coursework and educational materials. Schools are beginning to feel a social responsibility to share content. It is now a mark of a world-class institution to share content, not merely an experimental practice to do so.

Free content is any kind of work or creative content that meets the definition of a free cultural work. Free cultural work has no significant legal restriction on people’s freedom to use or redistribute the work. Free content can be used and studies with users free to apply what is learned from the content. Users can copy and distribute free content and can change and improve the content, distributing the modified work. Free content includes all work that is in the public domain and copyrighted works whose licenses have expired.

Creative Commons is a website that has created an infrastructure for sharing one’s creative work while enabling the user to preserve their identity. It has developed tools to help individuals determine what type of copyright license they want to apply to their creative work. Various types of copyright licenses are available, to permit commercial use or not, to permit derivative work or not, and to share alike or not. These license types can be combined, allowing the individual to refine the level of copyright that they determine is appropriate for their work, and as open or restricted as selected by the individual.

Johnson, Adams and Haywood (2011) identify the Open High School of Utah, as an example of how open content is used today in schools. The school’s mission purports their focus to be on student centered learning using innovative technology while promoting personal responsibility. David Wiley, a professor at Brigham Young University and founder of the Open High School of Utah, has made it his mission to promote lower cost, high quality education. I was fortunate to locate a slideshow presentation of Professor Wiley’s on the cost and use of textbooks in education. The slideshow presentation is available on SlideShare, an online community for sharing presentations.

Flat World Knowledge provides electronic textbooks for open use that launched five years ago as an ambitious start up. In January 2013 Flat World discontinued offering free access to electronic textbooks, citing increasing costs and maintaining that their $19.95 access pass is still a reasonable alternative to the cost of textbooks. Their announcement was met with some critics who accused them of trying to artificially drive down the cost of textbooks and questioning their credibility. What the future holds for Flat World and the availability of free open content remains to be seen, but Flat World has been a trailblazer in open content, and as the demand for accessible, affordable open content increases, there are sure to be competitors entering the marketplace.

The increased use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablet devices has contributed to the increase in the popularity of electronic textbooks. The use of these devices makes the materials easily accessible, portable, and also available on multiple devices. Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, and Haywood, (2011) note that the University of Phoenix requires their faculty to assign electronic texts. As more educational institutions promote their use, increase in the electronic books will grow. Standards for eBooks are still in development, with the current focus on the text itself and not on interactivity.

Johnson et al (2011) suggest tremendous potential for interactive and immersive applications of electronic textbooks. One such example is Alice, an interactive reading application that engages the reader in the storytelling narrative experience. Learn more about Alice and other products developed by IDEO by watching their video The Future of the Book.

Open or free content, public domain, copyrights? It can be confusing to know what resources are free to use, and are worth using for learning. Organizations like Creative Commons aim to simplify issues of copyright licensing in the hopes that more creative works and materials will be shared. Sharing of resources is a common thread linking organizations and websites that promote and foster the use of open content. The use of shared and modified free and open content for learning and eBooks will continue to grow. Technology will evolve to support these trends as educators and students alike look to reduce costs, find high quality accessible learning materials, and share and collaborate in new and innovative ways.

References

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood, K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report:

     2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report.

     Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

In the Clouds

I am following three cloud computing sites on Diigo. Quizlet is a free website where users can find or create flashcard sets for study purposes. A wide variety of flashcards are available on the site, and users can easily create and share their own sets of flashcards. Sophia offers a number of resources for students and teachers. Teachers can create tutorials, quizzes, and evaluations, organize them for use by their students, and monitor the progress of their students. The site also offers pathways to challenge gifted students, and provides support and certification for teachers interested in learning more about the concept of flipped classrooms. Student users can join or form study groups, and create and practice tutorials. On Classdojo, teachers can give feedback to students and their families on student behavior and engagement. Reports can be shared with parents and school staff, and teachers can easily record behavior, attendance and engagement with one click of the mouse.

The group that I follow on Diigo is the Apple Group, because I have been a fan of Apple products since I purchased my first Mac over five years ago. I also own a MacBook Pro and a 6th generation iPod nano, which is one of the coolest little devices ever developed.

Tags are keywords or terms assigned to a piece of information. The keywords are descriptive, allowing a user to find the information while browsing or searching the web. A tag cloud is a visual representation of text data, commonly called a word cloud. The choice of font type, size, character and colors make the tag cloud a visually appealing and attractive display of related terms and key words.

The readings for this week list a number of ideas for lessons using word clouds. The suggestions included detailing famous speeches, an analysis of current affairs, listing definitions of vocabulary words, and teaching about bullying. Using word clouds in the classroom are a simple way to engage students, who can easily create their own word clouds on sites like Wordle.

Social bookmarking allows users to add, annotate and share bookmarks of websites. Diigo, the website we explored this week, offers highlighting, screen image capture, and sticky notes for users to organize, arrange and store bookmarks in the user’s library for reference or sharing with others.

Social bookmarking can benefit teaching and learning by allowing users to share knowledge and information, and create a social network for interaction and discussion. Individuals can create their own online personal learning network, connecting with others who share similar interests, and make their network as private sharing it more openly. Personal learning networks permit the individual to tailor their network in ways that help them meet their own learning needs and goals.

Blogging and Twittering

Blogging is one tool that can be effectively used in education. A blog, or web log, is a collection of posts or news stories. One of the advantages of a blog is its interactive nature, in that individuals can comment on blog posts. Bloggers can create a network of blogs by commenting on other blogs and linking back to them, building social relationships with others. Since bloggers tend to write about certain themes or topics, and post on a regular basis, this lends itself to a continual stream of comments and feedback.  Educational blogs can be used to reinforce lessons taught in class. Teachers can create assignments for students to create their own blogs or interact on an established classroom blog to discuss classroom lessons, collaborate on projects with classmates, and reflect on lessons learned outside of the classroom.

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging site. Individuals communicate on Twitter using 140 character tweets to post comments that are read, shared, and commented on by their followers. The power of Twitter is in the strength of one’s social network of followers. Twitter users typically frequently monitor their Twitter streams, and it is easy to read and follow posts on a smart phone or other mobile device.

Educators can use Twitter as a tool for classroom discussion. The conversational nature of Twitter and the tendency for immediate or real time responses lends itself to this type of use, and may even help some more shy classmates actively participate in discussions. Twitter can be used as a collaborative tool, since it is easy to generate discussion and to contribute to a discussion thread. One notable classroom project is the  “Many Voices” assignment, where students contributed, with Twitter posts, so an on-line story. The thread is available on Twitter, was published as a book for purchase and available for download.  This is a great, creative example of what can be accomplished on Twitter for education.

I must admit that I was skeptical of how Twitter could be used in education until I read this week’s module for class. The Twitter account that I set up specifically for my current course follows the Toledo Zoo and the Mud Hens, some local news sources, and media types, because their posts are of interest to me.  My original Twitter account, one that I have had for years, is much different. I do not post to it as much as I used to, but this week’s lesson has given me a renewed interest in posting to that account. That account has over 6000 tweets and 672 followers, many organized into specific areas of interest. Twitter is an excellent vehicle for following breaking news stories and local news, building your own social network, and sharing tidbits with your followers.