TL Infobits - September, 2008
Issue 27
ISSN: 1931-3144
Virtual Worlds in Higher Education Instruction
Games and Learning
Distance Learning Journal Archives Now Online
Carolina Conversations
Recommended Reading
EDITOR'S NOTE: Normally, Infobits does not focus on a single topic or theme, However, the recently-published abundance of papers, reports, and articles on using games or virtual worlds for teaching and learning has prompted me to devote most of this issue to these resources.
VIRTUAL WORLDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTION
"Clearly there is a large and growing group of educators who believe that many good things, many very good things, are connected with virtual worlds. There are also still staunch critics yelling about what is wrong with virtual worlds. With many people engaging in this robust conversation today, it would be a great disservice to both the local and the global community not to have more institutions participating in the discussion."
-- A. J. Kelton, "Virtual Worlds? 'Outlook Good'"
The theme of the September/October 2008 issue of EDUCAUSE Review is learning in virtual worlds. In "Higher Education as Virtual Conversation" Sarah Robbins-Bell explains how "using [virtual worlds] requires a shift in thinking and an adjustment in pedagogical methods that will embrace the community, the fluid identity, and the participation--indeed, the increased conversation--that virtual spaces can provide."
Cynthia M. Calongne ("Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World") draws the experience of teaching nine university courses using Second Life to discuss what is required for success in this teaching environment.
In "Drawing a Roadmap: Barriers and Challenges to Designing the Ideal Virtual World for Higher Education" Chris Johnson provides a "roadmap for designing an 'ideal' virtual world for higher education, pointing decision-makers in a general direction for implementing virtual worlds and noting various barriers along the way."
These and other papers and articles are available online at http://connect.educause.edu/apps/er/index.asp?time=1222867545.
EDUCAUSE Review [ISSN 1527-6619], a bimonthly print magazine that explores developments in information technology and education, is published by EDUCAUSE (http://www.educause.edu/). Articles from current and back issues of EDUCAUSE Review are available on the Web at http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/.
See also:
"B-Schools in Second Life: It's More Than Just Fun and Games; It's the Confluence of Playing, Learning, and Working"
By Vivek Bhatnagar
The Sloan-C View, vol. 7, no. 8, September 2008
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/viewarticle_SL
"The Mean Business of Second Life: Teaching Entrepreneurship, Technology and e-Commerce in Immersive Environments"
By Brian Mennecke, Lesya M. Hassall, and Janea Triplett
Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, vol. 4, no. 3, September 2008
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no3/hassall_0908.htm
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research
http://jvwresearch.org/This new open access, peer-reviewed publication, hosted by the Texas Digital Library consortium (http://jvwresearch.org/) is a "transdisciplinary journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship and welcomes contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect virtual worlds research."
The theme for volume 2, number 1, to be published in March 2009, will be "Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds."
GAMES AND LEARNING
The theme of both Fall 2008 issues of Computers and Composition and Computers and Composition Online is "Reading Games: Composition, Literacy, and Video Gaming" -- "a look at the computer and video gaming industry and its influence on our literacy practices. Articles include a variety of interesting topics, from encouraging reflective gaming/play, to adapting games for writing courses, to writing in World of Warcraft, to collaborative writing in Alternate Reality Games, and more." Although the theme is the same for both publications, there is no overlap in their contents.
Computers and Composition: An International Journal [ISSN: 8755-46150] is a refereed online journal hosted at Ohio State University and "devoted to exploring the use of computers in composition classes, programs, and scholarly projects. It provides teachers and scholars a forum for discussing issues connected to computer use." While all papers are available online only by subscription, your institution may provide access through Elsevier's ScienceDirect eSelect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/); check with your campus library for availability. For more information and to access current and back issues, go to http://computersandcomposition.osu.edu/.
Computers and Composition Online is the companion journal to Computers and Composition. Current and back issues are available at no cost at http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/.
See also:
"Teens, Video Games, and Civics"
By Amanda Lenhart, et al.
September 16, 2008
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/263/report_display.aspThe Pew Research Center recently released a report of the "first national survey of its kind finds that virtually all American teens [97% of teens ages 12-17] play computer, console, or cell phone games and that the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement."
"The Civic Potential of Video Games"
By Civic Engagement Research Group at Mills College
September 7, 2008
http://www.civicsurvey.org/White_paper_link_text.pdf"Although it shares some text and findings with the Teens, Games, and Civics report, it provides a more detailed discussion of the relevant research on civics and gaming. In addition, this report discusses the policy and research implications of these findings for those interested in better understanding and promoting civic engagement through video games."
"Literacy through Gaming: The Influence of Videogames on the Writings of High School Freshman Males"
By Immaculee Harushimana
Journal of Literacy and Technology, vol. 9, no. 2, August 2008, pp. 35-56
http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/volume10/harushimana.pdf"While videogames often evoke concerns among parents, politicians, and educators, they pervade the lives of the youth in today's world and constitute a major component of the 'new literacy studies' field. In an era when young generations are digital-friendly and video game savvy, the role of video gaming in children and adolescents' cognitive development must not be overlooked. Educating today's generation of learners requires an understanding of the new digital environment into which they were born."
DISTANCE LEARNING JOURNAL ARCHIVES NOW ONLINE
The complete archives (1986-2008) of The Journal of Distance Education are now online and searchable at http://www.jofde.ca/. Papers in the current issue include:
"Disciplinary Differences in E-learning Instructional Design"
By Glenn Gordon Smith, Ana T. Torres-Ayala, and Allen J. Heindel
"Teacher and Student Behaviors in Face-to-Face and Online Courses: Dealing With Complex Concepts"
By C. E. (Betty) Cragg, Jean Dunning, and Jaqueline Ellis
"The Effect of Peer Collaboration and Collaborative Learning on Self-efficacy and Persistence in a Learner-paced Continuous Intake Model"
By Bruno Poellhuber, Martine Chomienne, Thierry Karsenti
The Journal of Distance Education [ISSN: 1916-6818 (online), ISSN: 0830-0445 (print)] is an "international publication of the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE) [that] aims to promote and encourage Canadian scholarly work in distance education and provide a forum for the dissemination of international scholarship." For more information, contact: British Columbia Institute of Technology, Learning & Teaching Centre, 3700 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby, BC, Canada V5G 3H2; tel: 604-454-2280; fax: 604-431-7267; email: journalofde@gmail.com; Web: http://www.jofde.ca/.
CAROLINA CONVERSATIONS
Carolina Conversations, launched in September 2008, is a series of live interviews with members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community conducted in the virtual world, Second Life. Guests will discuss their work and interests and will also respond to questions from the Second Life audience attending in-world. The next interview will be on October 7, 2008. For more information, to get the SLurl, or to view videos of past conversations, go to http://its.unc.edu/tl/conversations/.
Carolina Conversations is sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill Information Technology Services' Teaching and Learning division, the group that publishes TL Infobits.
Recommended Reading
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to kotlas@email.unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column.
"Is Stupid Making Us Google?"
By James Bowman
The New Atlantis, no. 21, Summer 2008, pp. 75-80
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/is-stupid-making-us-google
"Generally speaking, even those who are most gung-ho about new ways of learning probably tend to cling to a belief that education has, or ought to have, at least something to do with making things lodge in the minds of students--this even though the disparagement of the role of memory in education by professional educators now goes back at least three generations, long before computers were ever thought of as educational tools. That, by the way, should lessen our astonishment, if not our dismay, at the extent to which the educational establishment, instead of viewing these developments with alarm, is adapting its understanding of what education is to the new realities of how the new generation of 'netizens' actually learn (and don't learn) rather than trying to adapt the kids to unchanging standards of scholarship and learning."
Editor's note: The article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" mentioned in Bowman's article was the June 2008 Infobits "Recommended Reading" suggestion (http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/bitjun08.php#7).
