Slide: 1

Some Insights from Einstein, Shank and Hock

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry

The method people naturally employ to acquire knowledge is largely unsupported by traditional classroom practice. The human mind is better equipped to gather information about the world by operating within it than by reading about it, hearing lectures on it, or studying abstract models of it.

Today, it doesn't take much intelligence to realize we are in the midst of a global epidemic of institutional failure. This next decade and maybe the one after that will be the two or three decades that people will look back to over a thousand years and say 'that was the melting pot.

Slide: 2

3Di Web 2.0

Web 2.0 and the 3D internet usher in the age of the Free Range Learner

Web 1.0

Access ParticipateValueProposition

PosterChildren

Find Share Collaborate Co-Create

LearningProgression

Slide: 3

Some Insights from Jay Cross

Getting things done requires good connections, both the human kind and the Internet kind.

Schooling has confused us into thinking that learning was equivalent to pouring content into people’s heads. It’s more practical to think of learning as optimizing our networks.

Slide: 4

Web 2.0: Welcome to the Participatory Read-Write Web

Blogs Wikis Podcasts RSS

CollectiveIntelligence

Peer-to-PeerSocial

NetworkingWeb

Services

Mash UpsTagging

Slide: 5

Virginia Tech Tragedy: Web 2.0 to the Rescue

From blogging to cellphone video, technology has forever changed the way we process and communicate about tragedy — in good ways, and perhaps bad.

Since Monday, there has been a non-stop flood of postings on the popular Facebook student site, on MySpace and LiveJournal, and on personal blogs — expressing everything from grief to anger to confusion.

"What better place to mourn someone than a place that they themselves build to express who they are, and a place where the deceased and his or her friends may have spent a great deal of time interacting?”

Slide: 6

My Second Question to My Fellow Educators

How must we redefine the very notion of education in

a Web 2.0/3Di world?

Slide: 7

Welcome to the Metaverse and MMORPGs

Slide: 8

How familiar are you with massively multiplayer online virtual worlds such as Second Life or World of WarCraft?

Slide: 9

Familiarity Statistics

Source: e-Learning Guild 360 Report – Immersive Learning Simulations. Feb. 2007

All Data: (Industry, Job Level, Company Size, # Learners Impacted)

Slide: 10

Describing Virtual Social Worlds (VSWs)

Second Life, was designed from its inception for a much deeper level of participation. It provides its residents with the equivalent of atoms – small elements of virtual matter called primitives – so

they can build things from scratch The Economist

Second Life is some unholy offspring of the movie The Matrix, the social networking site MySpace.com and the online

marketplace eBay Business Week

Sources: Business Week April 2006, The Economist. Living a Second Life, Sept. 28, 2006

Slide: 11

Describing MMORPGs

Most MMORPGs offer players pre-fabricated or themed fantasy worlds. The Economist

In typical battle scenarios guild members are confronted by multiple enemy agents. In the span of seconds, the risk-analysis, opinions and decisions of the group, or the solitary actions of a

particular guild member will determine the life or death of all members of the group Nick Yee

Sources: The Economist. Living a Second Life, Sept. 28, 2006; Nick Yee, Demographics of MMPRPGs

Slide: 12

VSWs and MMORPGs: Kin But Not Twins!

Sources: The Economist. Living a Second Life, Sept. 28, 2006; Nick Yee, Demographics of MMPRPGs

Unbounded Space

Social Interaction

Communities

User Created Content

Business

VSW MMORPG

Avatar-Mediated

Persistent World

Reputation

Immersive

Interactive

Real-Time Communication

Virtual Economy

Assets

Unbounded Space

Social Interaction

Communities

User Created Content

Business Opportunity

Bound by a Narrative

Defined Roles

NPCs

Rules

Tokens

Ranks and Levels