Second Life Tetrad

To my group members – HELP! It was challenging developing a tetrad for Second Life.  Not being a resident, as Second Life users are known, and finding the notion of having an identity of my own choosing in a fantasy world odd, probably prejudices me. To this uninitiated Second Life seems a poor replacement for rich, real world interactions. But it is challenging to even define what Second Life is. Most think it is a game, but it is not really popular with gaming because of the low quality graphics (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008). The CEO of Linden Labs, creator of Second Life, Rod Humble describes it as a shared creativity tool (Hindman, 2011).

Most frequent users are between 30-60 (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008). Avatars though tend to be 20ish looking. Does it then replace real-world interactions with hipper, slimmer, younger version of yourself?

Some businesses ventured into second life but that interest may be fading or changing approaches (Reuters, 2007). This seems to be true of Second Life residents in general. In 2008 there were over 13 million residents (Schilling, 2008). But in a given week less than half a million logged in, and in a given month over 700 thousand logged in (Schilling, 2008). Even though some educational institutions have ventured in to Second Life, most educators are  not jumping on the band wagon (Ash, 2011).

Enhance:

So what does it enhance? Creative abilities? Our own images/identities? I went with image and social range of possibilities as most people utilize second to hang out and relax with resident friends (Reuters, 2007).

 

Obsolete:

It is unclear to me what it might replace. It is not a new technology. Virtual reality has been around for a while and many other products incorporating virtual reality (gaming and simulators) have higher quality graphics than Second Life (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008). It doesn’t replace video conferencing or phone calls because you don’t see or hear the real person. I went with reality and face-to-face relations and that is a scary thought as Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life, admits (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008).

 

Retrieve/Rekindle:

I find this quarter of the tetrad particularly challenging. A virtual world that you can actually hang out in is new. It has anonymity. Perhaps it recalls masked balls. You go to a party to hang out with people with your identity unknown. But of course that is still in the real world and a mask does not alter other attributes (height, weight, voice, gender, etc.). It is the best I can come up with though.

Reversal:

Facebook has significantly outpaced Second Life as a social networking technology..

Ash, K. (2011, June 15). ‘Second life’ struggles to catch on with educators [Web log message]. Retrieved from: http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/06/15/03secondlife.h04.html

Hindman, B. (2011, June 23). Second life’s CEO Rod Humble talks anniversaries [Web log message]. Retrieved from: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/06/23/second-lifes-ceo-rod-humble-talks-anniversaries

Reuters. (2007, Oct. 12). Companies rethinking ‘second life’ strategies. Retrieved from: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301250,00.html

Schilling, G.B. (2008, May 7). Second life usage demographics [Web log message]. Retrieved from: http://www.bananaverse.com/2008/05/07/second-life-usage-demographics/

TED Conferences, LLC. (2008). Philip Rosedale on second life. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html

Classroom Response Systems

Classroom response systems (CRS) are a technology that has emerged over the last several years. Getting full participation in any class is not possible. Only one student at a time can answer questions. Often louder more extroverted students can dominate a classroom. CRS allows all student to respond to questions or weigh in on a discussion topic.

Early systems were hard-wired into classrooms and allowed for limited response formats. Current models are wireless. Recent CRS models also allow text, numeric, and Likert scale responses, as well as sorting and follow on questions.

CRS has found great popularity in large university lecture courses because of their ability to get everyone participating in a discussion or responding to questions (Judson & Sawada, 2002). This popularity has been most marked in science courses. These courses often employ CRS to engage students in peer instruction (Mazur, 1997).

While this technology has been fully emerged in large university classes for a number of years both research on CRS efficacy and CRS emergence in K-12 education has lagged behind (Penuel, et al, 2007). This is changing as most companies who manufacture interactive whiteboards also manufacture clickers. In recent years, they have been marketing the items in tandem.

Technology-enhanced formative assessment may bring an increase in CRS use in lower grades and across more academic disciplines. Formative assessment is one of the most powerful methodologies available to the classroom teacher (Black & Wiliam, 1998, Bangert-Drowns et al, 1991, Marzano, 2007). Utilizing clickers to administer and track such assessments has gained attention through the work of Beatty and Gerace (2009).

Links:

Derek Bruff's Podcasts:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/teaching-classroom-response/id380541432


Ian Beatty's Blog on Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment. 
http://ianbeatty.com/blog/archives/23

References

Bangert-Drowns, R.L., Kulik, J.A., & Kulik, C.C. (1991). Effects of classroom testing. Journal of Educational Research, 61(2), 213-238.

Beatty, I.D., & Gerace, W.J. (2009). Technology-enhanced formative assessment: A research-based pedagogy for teaching science with classroom response technology. Journal of Science Education and Technology,18, 146-162. doi: 10.1007/s10956-008-9140-4

Black, P, & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5(1), 5-13.

Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Mazur, E. (1997). Peer instruction: A user’s manual. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Penuel, W.R., Boscardin, C.H., Masyn, V.M., Crawford, V.M. (2006). Teaching with student response systems in elementary and secondary education settings: A survey study. Educational Technology Research and Development, 55, 315-346. doi: 10.1007/s11423-006-9023