The forthcoming Pupils’ attitudes towards technology (PATT-1 
conference is being hosted nearby at Glasgow University from the 21st to the 25th of June. More at the conference web pages here.
The seminar programme looks very good - the conference programme will hopefully be equally as good once it is finalised.
This video has been something of a hit with the edublog community. I personally had a somewhat adverse reaction to large parts of it. It is definately focussed at a US audience - so I have to admit that I’m not part of the intended audience, which is one reason for finding it unappealing. Scott McLeod has a call out for comments to help improve the video, so I may as well say why I didn’t like it… though I believe I’m in the minority here.
Other than finding the music too portentious; the facts and factoids generally lacking in any form of context or explanatory text; the different elements of the presentation being dis-jointed - the end message itself is really rather obvious, and surely something that doesn’t require a six minute video. I understand that some people see this video as highlighting the need to introduce social networking technologies into schools - but I fail to see that particular argument being presented anywhere in the video. But 2 million views.
See my commented version on Mojiti - a handy little tool for commenting on videos - here.
A nice interview with Peter Twining (& others involved) of Schome in last weeks Grauniad. Well, other than calling Second Life a game, its pretty well written and spot on. I’m struck by the extent to which Peter’s ideas, and what he is attempting in Second Life just now, parallel some of the ideas behind the much more famous One Laptop Per Child.
Both are really focused on providing an education by leveraging the ability of children to mentor and teach one another. Don’t let Peter’s small scale Second Life project fool you - the aim of Schome is to find ways to replace the current school education model in its entirety!
Children are great learners - though by the time they get to secondary education, many are reluctant learners at school. This is where Schome in particular hopes to make big changes.
I really have no idea how successful either project will be when rolled out to large numbers, but both projects are worth watching.
Just a link for now, as Im tooooo busy for anything else… NASA eEducation Roadmap: Research Challenges in the Design of Massively Multiplayer Games for Education and Training
Cover article in this week’s New Scientist is on multi-tasking. It cites research rounded up in a paper with the snappy title “Capacity limits of information processing in the brain” from volume 9 of the very respected journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Last year they had another piece about the effect of interruptions during work, which I commented on here. This latest piece reinforces my belief that multi-tasking is not as great as its cracked up to be - and provides more hard evidence…
Current issue of eLearn, the ACM electronic e-learning magazine, has two Second Life related articles.
Jay Cross (and co-authors) have a nice article on Virtual Worlds as Tools for Learning. They rightfully emphasise trying to find news ways of supporting learning rather than simply attempting to recreate existing methods in virtual worlds:
The bonanza comes when VWs support learning in ways that current methods cannot, i.e. when the horseless carriage becomes the car and the icebox becomes a refrigerator. At the end of the day, VWs afford more freedom as we think about how to apply it to make learning more engaging and memorable. Much more than training, VWs are what we like to call a Learnscape. They are learning/working ecosystems…
The other article is my own review of last year’s Second Life Education Workshop. Somehow, I got ‘top story’ billing for this - that may be due to being the most recently added story though!
Via Bill Kerr’s blog.
Scratch looks fantastic… an introductory programming environment where programs are built out of clear building blocks, yet which allows students to create almost anything they want. Intended primarily for ages 8-16, it is possible to use with younger children with supervision and help - and as an introduction to programming concepts for university students.
Looks great, though I haven’t played with it yet. Will be passing this on to colleagues…
