The Map is not the Terrain; the Sim is not the City

by Jamais Cascio (November 22, 2004)

SimCity is often seen as more than a game: SimCity, in all of its versions, shows up in classrooms, research papers, and (rumour has it) planning offices around the country. And that has some troubling implications.

I cannot agree more.

Two points were raised.

First by referring to "Playing With Urban Life: How SimCity Influences Planning Culture" by Daniel G. Lobo and Larry Schooler: [my emphasis]

the player operates in “God Mode,” with absolute power to build, demolish, tax, and spend. Unwieldy growth and megalomaniacal, destructive behaviour are the two poles of city operation and the player’s most likely courses of action. Thus the heart of the game is much less a universal vision of city design than it is a reflection of the most extreme tendencies of development in America, found in the few areas in which one person has total control over a large parcel of land

Second point by Jamais in the concluding paragraph: [my emphasis]

Simulation games like SimCity are valuable because they give a peek at the complex relationships between cause and effect in big systems such as cities. They're a chance to play at the edges of complexity, to see "what happens if I do this?" in both an iterated and replicable fashion. They can be wonderfully seductive digital sirens leading to unexpectedly staying up to 3:30 AM. But to be good educational tools, the models have to be transparent and changeable. We should be able to play with the system itself, not just the system's effects.

In other words, the opaqueness of the game is limiting the use of the game in education environment because the issues the learners want to explore and the underlying model of the situation may not reflect the best practise of the field. Remember, games are designed to be entertaining and its primary goal is NOT to reflect real reality.

Another problem is the implicit build-in "game goal". The game is set with a game goal of maximizing the return to the "god" which leads to "Unwieldy growth and megalomaniacal, destructive behaviour". This is not necessarily the best game goal for providing a balanced education.

As I have commented earlier, we should not be looking at existing commercial games and hope to find some useful things from these games to justify using them in classroom or learning situation. Instead, we should focus our energy in learning the engaging characteristics from the game designers in order to produce better educational software which is engaging. Is our field approaching the problem from the wrong end?

Tags: using game in education , game design

The Seven (Eight) Challenges of e-Learning design

by Graham Attwell. See Part 1 and Part 2.

The eight challenges are (See Part 1 for details)

Challenge 1 – basing e-learning on learners own experiences
Challenge 2 – developing a rich and powerful learning environment
Challenge 3 – localizing the programme
Challenge 4 – supporting individual learners
Challenge 5 – developing sustainable and dynamic contents
Challenge 6 – recording, validating and presenting learning
Challenge 7 – developing a community of learners
Challenge 8 – developing programmes capable of flexible modes of delivery

In the second part, Graham answered his challenge. He proposed to use social software (blogs, wiki, tagging) to support a connectivist pedagogy (See Part 2.)

In a more concrete sense, the course would be: (my emphasis.)

Firstly, each student or learner will be given a blog space to record their learning experiences. The blog will also act as a portfolio for their learning (see my earlier blog posts on portfolios), The blogs will support track back and tagging as well as a personal profile.

But of course the learners will need some form of sequenced learning materials as a stimulus for self learning and communication.

That will be provided through an imaginary blog – or rather the real blog of an imaginary learner – herself following a course in self evaluation. Learners will follow the entries of the imaginary learner – Sarah Jones – and will be asked to comment on her experiences and feelings. Their commentary – added as comments on Sarah’s blog will automatically be added ion their own blog – or portfolio.

Well, this is role playing!

However, I would argue that this design has met the "necessary" conditions of a valid design, but lack the "sufficient" conditions to actually make it work.

I don't believe that locking a learner into a room with some books can create any learning. The situation might slightly improve if you let him/her out ONLY IF s/he can answer a few multiple choice questions, but I am doubtful about the retention of the "information" gathered and whether there is any real learning or knowledge growth. (see my distinction between knowledge and information) Collaborative/cooperative learning is the same. A group of learners in a physical room may produce some learning (human is social by nature), but a group of learners on an online asynchronous forum DOES NOT. When time is no longer any pressure, nothing will ever happen.

I would suggest that the design goes to a full role play simulation. Instead of just one "imaginary learner", let develop a scenario with as many roles as needed to cover the stake holder's viewpoints. Give them an "imaginary" social structure, some conflicting views and some supportive views from different "imaginary" friends and foes. Most important of all, throw in a compelling reason to act (see here and here).

Tags: learning design, role play simulation

Invitational Education

Like Tom McHale, I just read about this and in no position to comment.

Invitational Education is a theory of practice that addresses the total educational environment. It is a process for communication caring and appropriate message intended to summon forth the realization of human potential as well for identifying and changing those forces that defeat and destroy potential.

From Birmingham-Southern College: [link]

Invitational Education asserts that every person and everything in and around schools adds to, or subtracts from, the process of being a beneficial presence in the lives of students. Ideally, the factors of people, places, policies, programs and processes should be so intentionally inviting as to create an environment in which every person is cordially summoned to develop intellectually, socially, physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Four basic assumptions within Invitational Education

• RESPECT: People are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly.


• TRUST: Education should be a cooperative, collaborative activity. Process is as important as product.


• OPTIMISM: People possess untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavour.


• INTENTIONALITY: Human potential can best be realized by creating and maintaining places, policies, processes and programs specifically designed to invite development, and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others, personally and professionally (“The Five P’s”).

[Should it be 7 P's?]

As I tried to find a little more about it, it seems that the above is cited in almost every website that has linked to "invitational education" and little more can be found. Can someone enlighten me?

Tags: invitational education

Space

A week ago, I wrote about designing real physical space for future. As I was reading Rob Reynolds' article on The Incredible Shrinking LMS -- Or How Learning Will Travel, my thought ran off after reading his view of "home":

I grew up in Texas, spent some quality time in Latin America, went back to Texas for a time, moved to Oklahoma, and have finally started a new stint in Massachusetts. On the one hand, each of those places came to feel like "home." On the other hand, the part of each of them that is home is less about geography and more about experience and memory. While I have always had a "home base," my real concept of home has been expanding my whole life. When you get right down to it, home for me is Texas/Mexico/Argentina/Oklahoma/Massachusetts and every memory, relationship, and story tied up with those places. And because home is the collection of these things and not the physical surroundings in which I live, I always carry it with me. It may be manifested, to some extent, in my house or apartment, in the places I actually live, but it is definitely a "mobile" reality and always has been.

One thing which resonances very strongly with me is his notion of

the understanding of home evolves naturally from house --> house + relationships and experiences -- > relationships + experiences + memories

Closely related is the notion of social situation. American sociologist Ervin Goffman, in his 1959 volume The Presentation of Self in Everyday life unravels the intricacies of social role-playing: he shows how we play different roles in different social situations, and how we are constantly occupied (both consciously and unconsciously) with impression management. Goffman’s (mainly implicit) characterization of the notion of situation — which plays a pivotal role in his analysis—is spatial in nature. That is, Goffman’s situations - such as the home, the workplace or the city-hall — are thought of as physical locations, delimited by physical boundaries such as walls, floors and ceilings. In Joshua Meyrowitz’s No Sense of Place, he asks why should we think of social situations in these terms? Clearly what is essential to the social aspects of a situation are the flows of information, communication and influence among its human participants, not its physical whereabouts. Admittedly, such things as walls and ceilings do help shape the social on goings that take place within them, but only derivatively so, i.e., by their effects on the above mentioned flows. (We usually take such effects for granted, e.g., as when we rely on the walls of out home to provide us privacy.) Thus Meyrowitz’s conclusion is that social situations are best thought of more abstractly, as information systems.

This is the basis of my interaction spaces design in Fablusi role play simulation. I have argued against rendering of interaction spaces here and here. Space, in a sense, is related to the experience and memories more than the physical setting. Space in role play simulation, and indeed any other type of simulation, is already an abstracted notion. The focus has moved away from the "physical"-aspect of the space into the "experience" and "memory"-aspect of space. I argued that it would be a more engaging (and pedagogically effective) space if the space is augmented by player's imagination rather than graphic designer's creativity and with an information flow control system which resembles the social relationship of the participants in the space. Hence Fablusi iSpaces are implemented with very complex "right" management capability. :-)

Tags: role play simulation design , interaction space

What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story

by John Sutherland

As educator wants to leverage on game's ability to engage players, the game designers are learning to use story and movie script to advance their craft. This article, based on classic story structure put forward by McKee points out that Story is conflict. John continues to dissect a three-act classical story:

• First, there's a protagonist, a hero.


• His or her world is thrown out of order by an inciting incident. (Look at the sabotaged dope deal in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for a good example of this.)


• A gap opens up between the hero and an orderly life.


• The hero tries the normal, conservative action to overcome the gap. It fails. The world pushes back too hard.


• The hero then has to take a risk to overcome the obstacles that are pushing back.


• Then there is a reversal. Something new happens, or the hero learns something she didn't know before, and the world is out of whack again. A second gap has opened up.


• The hero has to take a greater risk to overcome the second gap.


• After overcoming the second gap, there is another reversal, opening a third gap.


• The hero has to take the greatest risk of all to overcome this gap and get to that object of desire, which is usually an orderly life.

Pulling this story structure back to a learning design for a one person simulation, the hero is naturally the learner. In the opening of the simulation, hence, according to this structure, it is important to have an inciting incident which I have been calling it a compelling reason to act. It is also necessary to establish the gap as expressed in the game goal which is the final object of desire. To bridge the game goal and the initial position, the learner needs to engage in various exploration, investigation and "risk-taking" behaviour. This is the learning we try to embed in the simulation. For dramatic story, there is reversal, for learning simulation, the "reversal" is the result of the mastery of the knowledge and skills that is required to reach the game goal.

Simulators, by themselves, are not interesting nor engaging. A flight simulation is just a flight simulator. We may be interested in it initially due to the novelty factor. Once this has been wear off, there is nothing interesting nor engaging about it. However, by adding elements such as engine failure, bad weather conditions and other inciting incidents, the simulator has become part of a game, an engaging game in which you try to overcome the difficulties of landing with only a single engine or in bad weather. During this process, you learn how to fly the plane with a single engine, how to approach the runway in bad weather and so on.

Tags: simulation design

Learning should be hard fun

by Clark N. Quinn.

In this article, Clark pointed out a number of elements which will lead to engaging experience.

Contextualized – the learning should be in a setting where the learners actions make sense. A story, if you will. Learners learn best when it's in a meaningful context.

Clear Goal – the learner should have an end state that they are motivated to achieve. ... Learners are better able to take action when they have an outcome they know they're trying to achieve.

Appropriate challenge – the level of difficulty has to be beyond the learner's capability, but not so far that the learner can't accomplish the task; learning happens best in the space just beyond the learner's capability where, with some effort and support, they can accomplish the task. Learners learn fastest when the challenge is significant but not impossible.

Anchored – the actions that the learner takes have to have a meaningful effect on the outcome. There can't be meaningless actions by the learner after which the story proceeds, but instead there have to be real consequences in the story line of the actions they take.

Relevant – in addition to the actions taken being meaningful to the story, the story and actions have to be meaningful to the learner. We need stories that appeal to their interests and motivations.

Exploratory – the environment has to have a wide variety of possible choices (or at least a perception of same), and the ability to try different things and explore the internal relationships. Learners learn best when they have to make choices and face the consequences of those choices.

Active manipulation – a related facet is having the learners active in exploring those relationships, and operating on the world in ways that are similar to the way you operate in the real world and that reflect the story setting. Learners learn best when there is minimal overhead between their intentions and the actions taken to achieve them.

Appropriate feedback – the feedback from the world has to come in a way that makes sense in the world. They need to know they've acted, even if they don't immediately get to know the final outcomes of their action.

Attention-getting – the action can't be totally deterministic, there needs to be some randomness and probability. Total determinism isn't desirable. Learners learn best when their attention and curiosity is maintained.

I agree mostly with Clark. There are a few points I would like to clarify in light of the experience of designing role play simulation.

1. Game goals and learning objectives are different. Game goals are the objective of the player as a character in the game world (or simulated world). This is related to the game context. The achievement of some or all game goals, however, will depend on the mastery of the learning objectives embedded in the game.

For solo game, game goal will mostly universal for all the players as the player all assume a role in the game as dictated by the game design. For co-operative/collaborative game (such as role play simulation). it is not possible to have the same game goal for all players. In fact, the difference and contradiction of game goals will need to interesting and engaging play.

2. In solo game, exploration is always limited by the build-in "surprises" and hence sometimes need an element of luck. While we know that we don't need 100% consistent response in order to learn, a consistent response, however, will produce more reinforced learning (at least this is the theory of the behaviouristic paradigm). If we do not need randomness to enhance attention or curiosity in a collaborative role play simulation. There are sufficient exploration to occupy players' attention by interaction between different roles.

Invitation to Publish

I have been very critical about experimental studies, e.g. here and here. I don't bother to mention more which pass through my attention daily. [What the heck is the nature of my job?]

I have many huge books on the back bench in my study (which doubles as my office). Many of these I have flipped through only a few pages and never finish. What a waste and what is the use of all these effort?

A & M Publications P/L, hence, is looking for short manuscript (final published book A-5 size of about 100 page) which are intellectually interesting and readable. Due to our limitations, we will only accept proposals in learning, e-learning and related subject domain for the time being. Please contact me off-line.

By the way, we are looking for causal graphic designers and sales executives too. [No need to apply if you don't even bother to find out more about me and how to contact me. :-) ]

Future learning spaces

The July/August 2005 issue of Educause Review (Vol 40 Number 4) features Learning Space Design. The article I enjoyed most is Future of the Learning Space: Breaking Out of the Box.

With the ubiquitous availability of ICT, information gathering (traditional listening to lectures and taking notes) and information search (library visits) can be done online in quiet comfortable corners. These activities can be done alone or in small group. Today's laptop computers have limited power storage, typically several hours. Most will not last the whole day. Most are not-water proof as well. Hence it would be beneficial to incorporate lots of quiet dry spots with wireless connectivity and power points so that students with wireless notebook can conduct their information-related activities, preferably in real-time with those who prefer to sit in a lecture room/hall.

The greatest value of physical learning spaces is for face to face meetings and work that cannot be done online. Typically, these would involve group activities, experiments and interaction within real situation. The Educause Review covers this aspect very well.

An important aspect of higher education is the induction of the learner into the community of practice of the subject domain. The induction consists of both the formal part (knowledge and practices of the domain) as well as the social connectivity part (knowing who's who in the domain). The learning spaces in a higher education should have appropriate spaces to facilitate the "accidental" meeting of diverse communities, e.g. eating venues, social places and "hang-out areas".

Another interesting topic to explore in terms of the design of learning spaces is the potential and value of creating a physical space which can augment virtual space, or vice versa. As we understand more about the value of experience in the learning process, we can predict that more learning experience will be delivered via simulation/role playing. Courtrooms, office, international conference settings and other "typical" spaces can be useful in bringing some of the virtual simulation into a physical space. How valuable and feasible is that remains to be seen. However, it will never be too early to start investigating.

Tags: design of learning spaces

Is Multiple-Column Online Text Better? It Depends!

The conclusion of this article is misleading due to the flaw design of the experiment. First the conclusion (my emphasis):

The purpose of this study was to examine how multiple columns and text justification impact online reading in terms of reading speed, comprehension, and satisfaction of a narrative passage. Results from this study showed that reading speed was significantly faster for two-column full-justified text than for one-column full-justified text. Post-hoc analyses showed that it was the fastest readers that benefited the most from this format.

So, let's get the situation right first. It is for online reading. Next, the conclusion: two-column full-justified text is significantly faster.

My own experience tells me otherwise. In fact, I hate online presentation with multiple columns.

So, where was the flaw of the experiment design. Look at its sample text.


One-Column Full-Justified Condition

Two-Column Full-Justified Condition


The sample text was short, so short that it can be displayed in one screen, hence the experiment result. We know that if the text is longer, we will then need to scroll down to read the rest of column one. After which, we need to scroll up again to the top to read the second column. I don't see any possibility that such a realistic scenario will produce the same result.

Experiment design! Please don't publish any result if the design was flawed. It is wasting everybody's time.

Tags: example of bad experimental design ,

Knowledge and Information, are they the same?

I have been thinking about this a lot, really a great deal! I don't say I have any answer.

Knowledge* is all the accumulated experience I have since my birth. This is very much which define "me". Some of this knowledge may not be immediately retrievable or may have been lost (hence these will have little utility value); some may better be forgotten, which, unfortunately, I cannot. Of course, most of my knowledge will be called upon when I make any decision in my daily activity.

Information is manifestation of someone's part knowledge. Being an externalisation, information is not necessarily an accurate representation of one's knowledge, nor represents the whole of one's knowledge. However, being externalised, knowledge can be transferred from one place to another and from one time to another and stored externally.

It involves great skills to externalise one's knowledge. Hence, some are greater writer and story teller than others.

[further thinking required: Is factual information a manifestation? For example, the weather man measures and reports the air temperature of the city we live daily. Are these data points his manifestation of his knowledge, given that he does not actually do the measurement himself. He may have just read it off an instrument! There are millions of automatically collected data. Do they represent information as defined as a manifestation?]

The process of "importing" information, among many other activities which may or may not have the same effect, as being part of one's knowledge is called learning.

Social linguists argue that it is the language (natural or symbolic) which forms the building blocks of our mental model (knowledge). Because language is developed (and acquired) socially, we have a common understanding of the language, albeit there may be shades of diferences. Both instructivitic and constructivitic approaches to teaching and learning can produce learning results. Different learning theories deal with different aspects, and with varying degree of emphasis, of the organisation and presentation of information itself (typically the focus of instructional designs) or conditions under which the information "enters" the learner.

Connectivitism deals with an information network and treats both human and databases of information as nodes. Learning is part of a network building process. While this network view of the interconnectedness of information may also be the underlying operative description of our mental process, does an interconnected organisation represent a higher intelligence in which human is the equivalent of a brain cell? Sure, human has been extending our abilities by external means for as long as history can tell. We have been extending our physical strength by external power machinery. Data bank can supplement the potential fuzziness of our memory. By knowing where to get the information to help solve a problem, instead of accessing that information from within, external information network will help us solve more problems better and faster. It does represent a change of the kind of knowledge we would like to be accessible in our operative part. Does that represent a "bigger" or "better" knowledge?

That is my current thinking and I am open to be convinced otherwise.

*I am using the term knowledge very boardly here. At this stage, I am making no attempt to distinguish the more subtle difference between just knowing and wisdom, inspiration or value systems.

Tags: theory , information , knowledge

The Interface Without The Mouse-Click

via Couros Blog

Don’tClickIt.com provides the interesting experience of a click-less interface.

I always have problem using a touch pad. For my laptop, I prefer the old fashioned thumb-push button. The interface presented by this website is both interesting and quite intuitive. You need to enter the site via a mouse click - the last mouse click. Then you can navigate through different part of the site by moving the mouse, but NOT clicking.

Such an interface would be great appeal for touch screen application in addition to studying GUI design.

League of Worlds: The International Conference on Exploring Virtuality

More information is now available for the conference to be held in Melbourne November this year. This is the conference mini website direct link.

This year's theme is Playing and Learning in Virtual Environments. Presenters should challenge participants to take a fresh look at the questions that arise when people meet in virtual territories to play, to learn, and to share. Participation is purposely limited and there will be no concurrent sessions. Instead, participants are encouraged to attend each presentation and integrate their own perspectives and expertise into the conversation.

There are still a bit of time left for submitting a paper to the conference.

The planning committee has a surprise to the participants. I believe this will be a cognitively very challenging, but fun conference to participate.

Teaching Mathematics using origami

I met an old friend (not that she is old, we just have a long acquantance dating back over 20 years) who is teaching mathematics in Melbourne here. She won several teaching awards over the year.

One of the most impressive thing I found is her insight expressed in the following equation:
S=e^t
where S is success, e is effort and t is time.

In plain English, success is the effort in the power time.

Very inspiring.

My recent posts in my other blogs

Here is a list of the post I have written recently that were posted to my other blogs:

Personal Memory Assistant in Learning for 2020

Education is about preparing future citizens. If this is one probable scenario, the big question to me, educationally, is how can we prepare ourselves and our kids for such a world. Estimated time of arrival of this scenario, I would say 2020.

Personal Memory Assistant in Conversation With My Evil Twin:

Trebla: Brother, remember that businesses are greedy. That won't satisfy they appetite! Then businesses will ask for charging content on per-use basis. Every time the PMA captures any content, the user has to pay for it. Every time the PMA replays the content, the user has to pay for it.

Albert: WHAT! Don't you think that kind of law can be passed?

Trebla: 100%. Big businesses have money. Money get people elected. The law will be made in the interest of the these businesses.

Albert: Trebla, you are so negative! There are a huge movement against digital right, e.g. Electronic Frontier Foundation and open source movement. If we don't want to see the scenario you describe, I need to act now to stop IP limitations on content today.

5 Steps for Turning Your Idea Into a Product in Corporate E-Learning

If we see invention as a business, we need to understand that out of a thousand ideas, only a couple are useful and ever fewer which can become a great product. The patenting process is expensive, very expensive indeed. The upfront cost of patenting has to be balanced against the potential additional revenue which can be generated by the patent. We also need to consider the alternative to NOT to patent. Instead of spending your effort and resources in patent process, what is the additional revenue that you can generate using the effort and resources that you intent to put into the patent process.

Learning and development in corporates
in Corporate E-Learning

If people is so important, spending time to choose the right people to fill a managerial role is linked to the success of the corporate. Providing learning and development for people to build the kind of attributes which can energize people is where learning can focus on.

Tags: other posts

How you SHOULD use blogs in education

Following the "should not", here is the "should way" of using blogs in education by James Farmer. I echo strongly with James words:

Blogs are by no means the answer to everything, they are very strong alternative communication tools but if you want to build quizzes, run polls, have near-synchronous conversation, do listserv-y kind of discussion or strictly manage just about anything then you’ll probably want to look at another tool.

I would also caution the need of a balance between focussing on skills and concrete content. I am not discounting the importance and value of the ability to learn independently, literacy skills, information processing strategies, thinking skills,..... As a general practitioner in the field, we tend to describe learning situation and strategy in a generic term without reference to any content or specific subject matter.

It is true that information is exploding. Sometimes I question the value of the time and effort that I have put in during my years in learning Physics. By now, I don't think I would be able to derive any of those equations which I have spent so much time to understand and memorize. I don't even able to remember the exact spelling of the names of these equations.

However, is that experience totally wasted? Let's use thinking skill as an example. Learning to think is one thing. Applying the thinking skill in solving problems in a complex situation is quite different. Subject matter presents a complex context to exercise the thinking skill. I have forgotten most of the subject matter in Physics, but my basic training means I can tackle complex situation using mathematical skills when I need to.

Coming back to using blog, or for this matter any tool. Not only we should recognise that none of them is the only tool available, such tool should be used in a meaningful way in the context of some subject matter.

Here is another quote from James:

One of the worst things you can do is mandate posting on particular topics with particularly rigid frequency… you’ll over-assess & kill off exactly what blogs are good for: personal expression & exploration.

Within the context of your subject matter, you must create compelling reasons for the learners to create and maintain a blog. Note, mandating posts as assessment is NOT compelling reason in any stretch of imagination! Create and demonstrate a passion in the subject matter, engage and ensure the students themselves are engaged in constructive discussion with the use of blog in the context of your subject matter.

How to start one? Here is a suggestion.

There are many great insights that are counter-intuitive. These can be used as triggering points for heated discussion, via the blog, may be.

Blog is also well suited as a personal log of the learning journey. If you can show yours and some good examples, students can follow.

We don't want to see yet another teenage-blogger writing about fashion or gossip as part of their learning, do we?

Tags: edublog

Response to "Playing to Learn"

Stephen Downes added a good point and linked to another post,how not to use blogs in learning by James Farmer on the issue of adopting a technology into teaching and learning. I am not going to repeat that. Please follow the links...

Stephen also raised another interesting point: making the fun activity as part of homework. That's a sure fun-killer. As soon as games or blog or anything, which a teenager enjoys, have become part of "work", the fun has gone! It has BECOME WORK! The approach will be totally different. There is a reverse psychology here.

Adult is probably different. I was re-introduced into computing due to a "homework" during my Dip. Ed. course. As part of the course, we are asked to numerically solve a second order differential equation using a programmable calculator with only 36 programmable steps. I found that fascinating and spent a whole month's salary on my first programmable device (a programmable calculator). My journey into computing went past the point of no return from then.

Looking back, in that class, we have about 10 other people doing in the same subject. As far as I know, none of them has taken up computing or programming.

I think my experience taught me two things.

1. Do not kill joy by assigning some fun activities as homework. [That's based on my 20 years of teaching. Still applicable???]


2. Introduce fun activity via homework seldom works. [I am the odd man in the group.]

Another comment?

Tags: learning activity , kill fun , how not to

Playing to Learn

Here is another article predicting students are asked to play game as part of their homework assignment.

Whether homework is a necessary part of the formal education is another issue. There is an illusion that we can leverage the engaging power of games, and hope magically there will be transfer of skills learnt from games to real life. Not that it is not possible, but we must be realistic to remind ourselves that games are not designed with learning in mind. Games are designed to engage and kill time. Learning, if any, is only secondary. While educators can select games which have attributes positive towards learning, I would still like to ask if "playing game" is the best use of time of the students. For those who are motivated to learn, playing game may be considered a waste of their time. They can engage in much more direct learning activities which are designed to develop the skills they set out to learn.

The question, to me, is not to use game as a substitute of good design of learning activities. We have a lot to learn from the game designer, how games, some very difficult, engage the players. We should learn from game design. We should not use game as a substitute of good engaging learning activities.

Tags: games , learning activity , design

Virtual Apparatus Framework

In one of the early papers I wrote on this topic (back in 1997):

Why can't an academic producing courseware (online or otherwise) work like a science teacher producing a laboratory demonstration?

By that I meant:

when I design an experiment for my students, I don't need to worry about the design of an apparatus. I go to the laboratory preparation room, look at what kind of apparatus are there that I could use to illustrate the idea I would like to teach, hook the apparatus together, play with them a bit, get some sample data,...

I saw a need to create a technology solution so that teachers, those without sophisticated skill in software technology, to assemble an interactive web page from functional components similar to Physics teacher preparing an experiment set-up. I called that "virtual apparatus framework".

Since I left the University, the original project web-site has disappeared. I recovered an old backup, bought the domain name and put the copy online.

Virtual apparatus framework is based on a component-based software development blueprint. There are three major components in the model:

virtual apparatus - software components

virtual apparatus work bench - the hosting webpage of the components

virtual apparatus connection - mechanism to ensure the software components work in harmony

At that time, the main technologies to create animation/interaction are Java-applet, early flash movie and some active-X objects. The main "glue" for these components to work (or communicate) is via "Live Connect". The technology was in a flux, almost changing monthly.

The main reason I want to revisit this topic is that I see a more stable environment today. IE6 has been around for years. Firefox is gaining a lot of momentum. The DOM is now well defined. Javascript is the de facto lingua of the web. CSS is widely accepted. Techniques such as unobtrusive javascript is becoming common accepted practice. There is now much better chance to create re-usable component in a sub-page level for us to build better web pages. Any thoughts?

Tags: courseware development , virtual apparatus framework , sub-page component assembly

Ten Tips for New Trainers/Teachers

"Ten Tips for New Trainers/Teachers" is a post which we should print out, pin up and make sure that we can read it from our seat. These eleven things to know and ten tips (in fact, there are twelve things to know and eleven tips) summarize the latest thinking and practice in teaching and learning and they are all good advice.

I went into teaching about 30 years ago immediately after I graduated from my Science Bachelor degree. At that time, teaching was viewed as a transmission of knowledge, at least to me at that time. Kathy Sierra correctly pointed out that "because you've been a student, you can teach well" is devaluing the art of teaching and is a completely ridiculous idea. Unfortunately, the e-learning industry is still very much driven by this concept of learning today. Content is still king.

Just-in-time has nothing to do with learning. Just-in-time delivery of content is about job-support, providing information for someone to accomplish a task or a problem. Repeat after me: Just-in-time has nothing to do with learning.

I never learnt anything just-in-time. When I have a problem at hand, I need to solve the problem and I find a solution for it. How many times you found yourself in the same situation? How many times you go back and consult the same information which you used to solve the same problem not too long ago? Many, right?

When a piece of information is delivered to me to meet a task at hand, my focus is on solving the problem or completing the task. There is NO TIME to learn. Once the task is completed, I felt relieved and I forgot whatever that solved the problem AND move on to the next time.

After solving a task at hand, I can learn only if I have time to reflect, organise my "learning", and convert the experience into my repertoire for the next use.

So, next time when there is a group of people who have allocated a slot of time for learning. I will follow these tips AND will also leave some time for them to convert the learning experience into learning.

Tags: learning experience, conversion to learning

Slowdown of Activity in Australia

Thank you to Stephen Downes for mentioning that I have not been writing a lot lately. Please be reassured that I am not leaving e-learning. Starting a new magazine, keeping up the development work of Fablusi and all the other things I have been doing really is not easy. So Random Walk in E-learning took a random walk.

I am now at University of Wollongong working on an existing project. During discussion, Christine Brown mentioned about how important rewards are. I recalled one of my teachers when I was in secondary school.

At that time, Mr. Chow has already retired. He came back to teach only because he loved the job and loved the kids. He taught us Biology. Here is one of the "unique" things that is still very vivid in my memory.

We used to have tests. Whoever has the highest score was entitled to a special treat. Very special indeed. The highest scorer has the right to take off his cap and stroke his bold head three times and three times only.

Thinking back, it was nothing special about stroking an old man's bold head. But that was the "currency" at the time. We worked so hard just to have that three seconds of honour.

Once, a naughty boy took off his hat suddenly and touched his head. Ohhh! That was a terminal crime. He got so angry that nobody would dare to try again. However, if you got the highest score, you still could do that and he was smiling and was enjoying the touch as well.

I don't and did not know how that currency was started. But it was just such a memorable experience that I was telling Christine all about this yesterday and I felt I was back at my teenage.

Tags: memorable experience , reward currency

Proposal: Chat and Discussion Interchange Datamodel

via Stephen Downes' OLDaily, I am pointed to this interesting proposal. This is a very good first step towards a data model for inter-operability between discussion forums and chat applications. Here are a few comments:

• I don't understand why it is necessary to define the term "entity". As a vendor-neutral data model, we should not be concerned with implementations. The addition of "entity" does not contribute any additional useful concept in the data model.


• The proposal has identified "role" as an important concept to be captured by the data model. However, this has not been further linked to the concepts of "rights". Typically discussion forums, list servers included, have moderator or administrative roles. [Administrative role needs not be captured in this data model if this role is solely concerned with the assignment of rights of participations.] Moderator typically have rights such as blocking participant's expression (using the term as proposed which is the same as message). Other typical rights include read-only participation for some participants.


• Two typical features in many implementations which have not been captured by the data model are:
  
  
  • channel - e.g. in chat, many implementations allow "whisper" between participants
  
  
  • threading in discussion forum.

Tags: standards , data model

Rich Text Editors

Prompted by Jon Udell's last two days weblogs on Innovative rich editors and local datastores and Life in a TEXTAREA, I like to point out a wonderful cross browser pure HTML and Javascript implementation of a rich text editor by Kevin Roth.

Kevin is kind enough to make his implementation open source. It also supports multiple rich text editing area on the same page.

It does have a bug: If you have a html source with an image loaded into Kevin's rich text editor, the document will not be editable. You can still view the document in its full rich format.

Tags: richTextEditor openSource

AusWeb 05 - 1

It has been a while since my last post. Usual excuses....

I just came back from AusWeb05 conference, tons of work needed my attention. However, I still want to write this post now. One of keynotes at AusWeb is Brad Kasell (Asia Pacific Engagement Manager, IBM's jStart Program) on "Emerging Technologies and the Web: Finding a Balance Between Possibility and Reality". Among all the great ideas, he talked about Web 1.0 (the publishing web), Web 2.0 (the interactive web) and Web 3.0 (the programmable web).

Here is my view on programmable web. Using an OO paradigm, any website can be viewed as an software object. For, the static websites (publishing web), the interface is the URL. A call to this interface will return the information (as a web page).

The technical community has been developing the web service interfaces for quite some time (many major web sites also publish their API too). The "glue" for making a number of web services to work together is, of course, XML-based HTTP communication. The result of any web service call is usually returned as XML-coded information for further processing by the calling object. These have proved to be too heavy for some application, hence the AJAX and other similar technique. (In Fablusi, I used a variation of AJAX, but instead of using XML, I used JSON).

What about those interactive web sites which do not support web services?

The answer is YubNub. This is a blending of "social networking" and "command line" for the programmable web.

To explain what is a command line for web, let use the following command as an example.

xe -amount 100 -from USD -to EUR

xe is the command for finding the currency equivalent between two currencies. Those in orange are parameters. So the last command will find you the amount of EUR for 100 USD.

How can I find the command I want? YubNub.org has list of commands.

Where do I type the command? Go to YubNub.org website. Or more importantly, you can install it on your browser, desktop, as bookmarklet, an application for window, .... the list go on.

So, you may ask, this is just another application, why I said it is the glue for programmable web?

Any command, as you may know, is the short hand for a number of lines of codes conveniently grouped together as a subroutine, a function or a batch file of commands. Someone somewhere must have provided the programming in order to make the command does what it supposes to do. It just happens that web command line passes the command to some website which will "execute" your command and return the result to you. Cool!

And even more cool, you can create your own command.

And even more more cool, a spontaneous community has found around this and the community is growing fast. Go to the group if you like and feel for yourself.

Imagining the World: The Case for Non-Rendered Virtuality - the Role Play Simulation Model

This paper, which I posted earlier, has a permanent home now. The presentation is not ready yet. Comment welcome.

Tags: rolePlaySimulation pedagogy

eLearning Magazine

The eLearning Magazine will be sent to the printer in about 2 weeks and should be available by the end of June. For those who like to subscribe, please visit the web site's subscription page http://www.elearningmagazine.com/corporate/subscription.php to take advantage of the pre-publication special rate. The payment is handled via Paypal. Please note the difference in rate for Australia and the rest of the world. This is due to the cost of postage.

For the advertisers, if you can support us, please take advantage of the current 30% discount off the rate. We desperately need your support. Please contact our sales representative, Sandy Warren. Her email address is sandy dot warren at elearningmagazine dot com. We shall scale down the distribution and the size of the volume for the first issue. The tentative table of content is at the end of the post.

We have adopted a modified license for all the articles. All articles will be available on the web under a restricted creative common license two months (or when the next issue is published whichever is earlier) after the publication. The online version will be supported by context sensitive advertisement or sponsorship.

Table of Content of the first issue of eLearning magazine

Editorial
What is the Future of e-learning?

Feature Articles
Web-based Search and Resource
Taxonomy or Folksonomy?
Access For All: Adaptability of Digital Resources and Services

Interview
CEO of HarvestRoad – an Australian Success Story

eLearning Business Review
Don't Waste your Talent, One Resignation at a Time

Standards Circle
Dummy Guide to Metadata
Who is doing what in Metadata?

In & Between
Edublogs are go!

Chalkface
What is Learning?

News and Conferences
Glossary Part 1 of 3
Freebies
eLearning Rant

Tags: eLearningMagazine printed magazine

Draft Craft Manifesto

by Ulla-Maaria Mutanen via BoingBoing

As noted, the author is interested "what is driving the increasing popularity of crafting" and listed her finding in the 12 points in the Manifesto.

I am yet to do something similar about why students find it interesting, engaging and absorbing to learn via role play simulation. I have been looking at "gameness" and try to find characteristics of games which may drive learning motivation and effectiveness. So far, my conclusion is still the "genuine ability to make choice and face the consequence of the choice made" [see earlier post] is the greatest factors for players in role play simulation.

Tags: rolePlaySimulation game motivation

What is Learning?

An upcoming article for the eLearning magazine. This is a draft only.

Data is individual statement. Data is the kind of thing we found using the search engines. Data is external to my being. Information is a network of coherent data. It may be stored externally (e.g. I can search for some information on the web) or memorized. Information may include procedural know-how or my favourite recipes. For example, September 13 is just a piece of data. I also know that my wife was born on September 13. These two pieces of data connected to become an information, “my wife’s birthday”. Again, “Albert’s wife was born on September 13” is also a piece of data, an irrelevant piece of data to most of you.

Let’s say we have agreed that “Albert’s wife was born on September 13” is an important knowledge that all readers of eLearning magazine needs to master. What does this mean?

There are several assumptions made. We have agreed, implicitly without further negotiations, that time is divided into intervals called “years” and there are 12 months in a year. One of the months is called September and 13 is the thirteenth day of that month. We also have a common understanding of “wife”. Somewhere, some time ago and somehow, we have come to a common understanding of the concept of “wife”, so without seeking explicit clarification, you may have correctly assumed that my wife is a female human being.

The key words in the last paragraph are “knowledge” and “understanding”. Knowledge is an understanding of a network of information. This understanding is community based. It may have been explicitly negotiated or implicitly “learnt”. Understanding is anchored on information and language. Without them, there is no common ground to build a community of practice who shares the understanding. Every single word is the result of some common understanding. Words may be ambiguous, but overall, any effective communication and building of common understanding depend on mutually agreed meanings to the words.

Understanding is part of our being. Understanding of a body of knowledge is coherent within a larger framework within each individual self.

Unlike information, knowledge and understanding cannot be externalized. When externalized, knowledge becomes information. Its utility depends on the understanding of the words making up the information. When meaning and sense can be made out of the information, the individual who makes such meaning and sense acquired the knowledge related to that information. In other words, when information is interpreted basing on all our previous knowledge and our language, the information becomes part of our knowledge.

What is “know-how”, e.g. the procedure to fill up the tank of our car? Is it knowledge or a piece of information? In a written form, it is information. But if I know what it means and can follow the procedure to achieve the objective of making my car move again after running a long distance, it become a knowledge, a knowledge to me alone.

So, what is my definition of learning? To me, learning is the process that builds understanding and coherent network of knowledge. This process occurs within me. You cannot stop me learn, nor make me learn. You can present me with information. You can introduce me to a community of practice. You can show me how to do thing. It is me who learns.

I had been helping people to learning. I was a Physics teacher for nearly 20 years. I presented information to my students. Some might be sitting closer to me, others not so. They could all hear me and see my writing on the board. But some obviously “picking” up the concepts much better than others. Why? If teaching is equal to presentation of information, all my students should have exactly the same performance! Teaching is obviously not just presenting information. Teaching is the act of helping others to learn. We can motivate the learners so that they are more ready to. We can present the information in some sequence so that the information can be integrated and understood more easily, at least to a broader group of learners.

Education is the business of providing learning. Training is a special case of education. The kind of learning that is occupationally oriented, with specific outcome which trainees would be able to demonstrate.

What is e-learning? E-learning is learning at which technology has played a role. At eLearning Magazine, we look at the technologies that purport to support learning. We reports on good practices that individuals, companies and communities learn and learn better. Future articles in this column will describe different “art forms” of teaching. We hope that you may pick up some tips. Other sections in this magazine cover important aspects of the business of providing learning (i.e. education and training. We also cover “informal” learning, how technology may help us develop ourselves.

Side Notes:
Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein argued against “private language”. Basically, there is not any language which is used by only one individual. Language is always negotiated to create a common understanding within a group which James Paul Gee called “Semiotic Domains”. Here we are using “community of practice” in a general and less vigorous way. See Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (Macmillan, 1958) and James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Macmillan, 2003)

Tags: learning

ps Please also see a new post in Conversation With My Evil Twin on Apple's Colossal Disappointment

Multiple default homepage in FireFox

The link is in Chinese. If you can read it, go ahead.

Otherwise, read on.

To have Firefox opens multiple default home pages in different tabs, put multiple URLs into the Tools|Option|General|Home Page. Separate each URL using a pipe character "|".

Alternately, open your homepages in different tags. Go to Tools|Option|General|Home Page, just click [Use Current Page].

Tags: Firefox multipleHomepage

Netscape 8 bugs

Once the biggest name in web browser, Netscape released version 8, but according to TechWorld, over 40 bugs were discovered within hours of its release.

One of the most important bug which may affect my work is the rendering of xml. While it nice to be able to choose between Gecko or IE rendering engine using a little icon at the left of the status bar, it also makes IE's XML rendering returns a blank screen, not only within Netscape 8's own IE mode, but the IE itself. The current work around suggested is to uninstall Netscape 8 AND remove an entry in the registry. (see MSDN blog entry)

As noted earlier, Fablusi is heavily dependent on client-side processing. I have chosen to use a JSON-like protocol between the server and client. I would have chosen to use xml. If it were the case, Fablusi would have been broken under Netscape 8 and would have caused it to break when using IE after its installation.

I was composing this post using IE 6 (after verifying the bug reported above). However, just before I post, I right-clicked to do a spelling check. To my greatest horror, no spell checking was available.

I now realise how useful all the extensions in Firefox have been. This post is now copy and pasted into a firefox browser ... (I am happy ever after).

By the way, I have installed a GreaseMonkey "Technorati Tags for Bloggers" which allows me easily add the tags to this post.

Tags: browser bugs

Personal learning

Have come to appreciate the role, value and importance of social learning, situated learning, learning in community and culture. That more is learned on the playing fields and in discourse with peers than from the sage on the stage. Even in very structured training situations, it is the break time conversation, the second-hand explanation from a colleague that situates the new concept, validates its importance and sanctions its legitimacy.

The post itself is a good read. I won't be able to express any better than Denham Grey.

I just want to pick up one point of this wonderful post. I don't understand what Denham means by second-hand explanation and I failed to find further explanation.

I have written about different types of experiences. Briefly, first person experience is experience that one has lived through. I also include simulated experience as first person experience. Second person experience is the experience you gain as a vicarious observer of an event. Third person experience are the stories that we hear from a story teller telling another person's experience. (Here I use the word experience and story almost interchangeably). When we were young, we generally learn via first or second person experience. However, formal education mainly concentrates on providing third person experience. Even the so-called experiments in science classes were more like verification of the theory we have learnt in class than real discovery of the theory itself.

In structured training session, during break time, I seldom see people explaining what has been told again to another participant. (I.e. I don't see second-hand explanation happening). However, there were many ocassion that we exchange our previous first/second person experience to validate or question the material put before us during the training. Such validations ARE not second-hand explanation. This also happens a lot in face to face conferences.

I suppose "blogging" is a good way of taking that face to face validating story telling into an online situation. While I am writing this post, reflecting on the ideas, I AM LEARNING.

You, as my reader, may or may not learn anything. It depends on whether these words will cause you to link this concept to your previous experience, or cause discomfort. Both cognitive resonance and cognitive dissonance may trigger learning. However, whether you learn anything depends on whether you are willing to reflect on this, and "file" this concept somewhere you can access later when you need it.

Tags: experience learning taxonomy

p.s. see my other new posts: Alternate Business Plan needed for Higher Education and Corporate e-learning trend written today.

Digital Divide, an update

My first post about digital divide pointed out that I did not believe there would ever be a satisfactory solution to equality in terms of digital access to information and resources.

Although theoretically, digital information can be reproduced at marginally zero cost, the access to these bits and bytes still depends on physical equipment which must be produced at a cost with a finite production capacity. Hence my argument was that there will always be differences in different stages of availability at different communities.

Chasing the Dragon's Tale has a post asking what "If computers become inexpensive, really inexpensive..." and raises the issue of power even if computers are in the price range (about AUD400) of current mobile phones.

I did a bit of search on the average power consumption of PC and would happy to settle at 220W (150W for the desktop computer + 70W for the monitor). The cost of providing such power to remote area using alternate energy source (say solar panel) would be around AUD2000 (using 4 1000 x 4000 mm panel with an output of 60W each would cost around AUD500 in Australia). This is still far from within the range of most under-developed countries. Although solar panel have a service life of 20 years, it is still a significant investment. If such money were available, there would be other competing needs for the scarce electrical power resource in the remote areas.

Another important point about digital divide is the assumption of ubiquity of the communication network. Yes, once an optical fibre is laid, the cost of communication is almost next to nothing. Yet, the initial infra-structure investment is huge and demanding. Again, if any fund is available, there would be competing needs for the fund for other more urgent infra-structure expenses, e.g. fresh water supply (although there is an exciting Australian invention which may help solve this problem in remote villages) or medical services.

While I like to see more equality in terms of providing digital access to communities, I don't see any chance of getting any better in a long time.

Tags: digital divide

Two of my recent posts

Please see
Dissected lies of a Canadian recording industry shill

and

Setting limits on the number of posts by students in discussion forum

Imagining the World: The Case for Non-Rendered Virtuality - the Role Play Simulation Model

This is a paper that I am going to present in AusWeb05 (co-authored with Roni Linser). Comment welcome.

Both role-play simulations and Virtual Worlds as pedagogy have now been around for some time and are both considered to be highly effective in creating effective and memorable experiences for learners. But whereas the rendered gaming model of virtual worlds seems to have captured the imagination of trainers, educators and researchers, the role-play model seems to have languished somewhat. This paper explores some of the pedagogic and psychological issues for learning associated with the rendering or non-rendering of virtual worlds. We argue that while rendered environments can contribute to learning, they are often too shallow for purposes such as fostering strategic thinking and problem solving. In such cases, non-rendered virtual worlds may be better in using and fostering the required imaginative capacities of learners.

League of Worlds: The International Conference on Exploring Virtuality

League of Worlds: The International Conference on Exploring Virtuality

2nd Annual Conference on Online Simulations, Role-Playing, and Virtual Worlds
November 14 – 18, 2005
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Call for Papers

ABOUT THE LEAGUE OF WORLDS

The League of Worlds annual conference brings together people engaged in the creation of virtual worlds and real-time simulations for educational, artistic and creative purposes. Our mission is
(1) to stimulate and disseminate research and analysis regarding the theoretical, technical and curricular developments in; and
(2) to contribute towards the development of coherent frameworks for the advancement, application and assessment of creative, educational, and social uses of role-playing, simulations and virtual worlds.

Our primary areas of interest include:
a. theoretical analysis
b. the development of practical applications
c. the documentation of framework projects and case studies

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The League of Worlds symposium is a paperless conference. Works and contributions will be distributed electronically and notices will be posted on a web-based conference discussion board. This year's theme is: "Playing and Learning in Virtual Environments." Presenters should challenge participants to take a fresh look at the questions that arise when people meet in virtual territories to play, to learn, and to share. Participation is purposely limited and there will be no concurrent sessions. Instead, participants are encouraged to attend each presentation and integrate their own perspectives and expertise into the conversation.

Presentation Categories
The League of Worlds conference is designed to support sharing and meaningful reflection. Presentations should allow participants the opportunity to share experiences, to demonstrate technologies, and to think critically. To facilitate these activities, the conference review committee is interested particularly in the following types of activities:
• Posters/Demonstrations
• Panels
• Roundtables
• Symposia
• Tutorials
• Workshops

All accepted papers and demonstration descriptions will be posted online by September 2005 so participants may read them before attending LoW2 (see below for deadlines). Presenters should plan for between 1-2 hours for their sessions.

Proceedings

Conference proceedings are peer-reviewed and will be published on the conference website. The proceedings will contain all accepted papers, a list of attendees, and the conference program. Papers should be between 2500-5000 words (4-8 pages). All others should be between 1250- 3500 words (2-5 pages).

Important Dates
Abstract June 1, 2005
Draft August 1, 2005
Final version September 1, 2005

Proposals
Please submit the following by June 1, 2005:
1. A title and an 80-100 word abstract/description
2. A presentation format (e.g., panel, demonstration, symposium, etc.).

Notification of acceptance will be made by JUNE 30, 2005. Accepted presentations will be required to submit the following by August 1, 2005:
1. A draft of the paper or a detailed description of the demonstration.
2. Pertinent information about the presenter(s) including:
a. Names of lead presenter and co-presenters, if applicable
b. Contact information for each
c. Affiliated institution(s)
d. Job Title(s)
e. Experience with virtual worlds, simulations, and/or role playing technology

To be included in the final program and conference proceedings, please submit the following by September 1, 2005:
1. The complete paper or demonstration description
2. Registration and full payment.
3. An indication of any special requirements related to diets, equipment, or other pertinent needs
Submit all proposals in Word, RTF, or HTML format to:
Dr. Stephen Bronack, Ph.D. at bronacksc _at_ appstate dot edu
FOR CONFERENCE INFORMATION, please contact:
Mr. Roni Linser
Director, 2005 LoW Conference
E-mail: roni _at_ leagueofworlds dot com OR simplay dot net _at gmail dot com
Website: http://www.leagueofworlds.com

Reuse, Standardisation and Calcification

As we embark on the development of something, anything in fact, we no doubt will find ourselves in situations where we are reusing part of previous work we have done. Programmer uses the technical term "function" to encapsulate a block of code which is used in several occasions (reuse). Later, of course, we have methodologies such as object-oriented development etc. This post is not about such technical details.

When we write our lesson plans (is there anyone still doing this?, ok, assume we do), we found ourselves repeating several patterns which we are comfortable with. May be it looks like "revision of previous lesson, introduction of new idea, details, examples, more details, more examples....". Again this is a re-use, a reuse of the pattern.

The conversation style I am using in Conversation With My Evil Twin has a template behind it. I always have a "background" section and a boilerplate passage "Once upon a time, on a sunny evening ...."

When a team starts to work collaboratively on a project, we begin to introduce guidelines, rules etc in order to make the reuse more efficient, ie minimise the re-invention of wheels. (Ok, the guidelines and rules are also introduced for other reasons too, but here we focus on those guidelines and rules which are related to re-use). When the team is small and close, these guidelines and rules are negotiated and formed informally. As the collaboration team grows, with more members from more diverse background joining the team, this process of articulating the guidelines and rules starts to have a life of its own. This is called the standardisation process. As long as this process is driven by the active users (members of the collaboration teams who actually use the guidelines and rules in their daily work), these guidelines and rules are fluid, changing as needs arise and continuously re-negotiated. However, when the process is taken over by "managers", this is then driven by a completely different set of motives and agenda. "Political" considerations become more and more important. These start to surface and enforced: "stability of standards", conformance and examples where organizations attempt to 'refocus' anyone who is perceived as doing any innovative work 'out of the box' because this is perceived as either 'non corporate', 'off message' or just plain inefficient (Derek Morrison, World's largest deployment of Moodle? (part 2)) James Gosling call this calcification in an 1990 online article (http://www.java.sun.com/people/jag/StandardsPhases/index.html) which is no longer available online.

Once certain "standards" are recognised as important and strategic by the upper management, the power of negotiating, modifying, extending etc of these standards are taken away from the actual users. Actual users are typically disconnected from the standard process (may be the users of standards are not interested in the political battles of setting standards, or they are deem as not representative enough from the organisation's point of view that their representation are replaced by more "senior" members who have no hand-on experience of the "product" they are trying to standardise.)

I will stop here and let you imagine what will happen next ...

Does this sound familiar to you? I hope not.

Postscript to "The Psychology of Games"

By Thomas Nocera, registration needed to read the article.

In an earlier post, I reported on the "gameness" and concluded that these "gameness" elements are equally applicable in the design of learning activities. Thomas further points to a number of theories that

astute game developers can benefit from mastering

What Thomas is referring is "interpersonal communication". As he puts it,

The theoretical knowledge of what keeps humans engaged in relationships is important. Relationships are fundamentally dyads - where 2 people are engaged in 2 way communications in an ongoing, satisfactory, even if not completely pleasurable way. Understanding the motivating reasons why we remain in communication with each other is an essential component of game developer knowledge.

Two theories are highlighted:

"the exchange theory". As it applies to interpersonal communications: people will stay in relationships (or, communicating with each other, or playing a game)as long as their individual perception is that they are getting more out of it (the relationship, or the game) than they are putting into it.

The other is his own called Nocera's Law: Everything communicates!

When I was theoretising the underlying design of Fablusi, the role play simulation platform, I stated that human interactions are communicative events. The whole Fablusi platform is about modelling different types of human communications and relationships. I called Fablusi as a glorified conferencing system. Instead of providing choices for players to choose (and response), Fablusi enables *real* human players to exchange free form text behind of masks of persona as designed by the simulation designers, hence enabling the players to step in the shoes of another stakeholder.

After reading the response to Postscript to "The Psychology of Games", I am now more convinced that a good learning activity should encourage learners to express freely and receive authentic response to the expressions. Isn't Laurillard's conversation theory based on the same premise? However, what about extending the conversation partner beyond a student-teacher dialogue to include peer conversation?

Two of my latest posts are out now

Chain Letters from the Boss - cont'd in Corporate E-Learning

Bill Gate's Solution to American High Schools being obsolete in Learning for 2020

Comments welcome.

Chain Letters from the Boss

I have written a post about a typical corporate scenario in my Corporate e-learning blog.

I am at a loss as to how to handle the onslaught of junk email that is routinely sent internally throughout my company by fellow employees including the executive staff and mostly the CFO, my boss.

This morning I received yet another "John 3:16, Jesus Loves You, forward this to ten people" chain letter email with the animated graphics and all that crap.

I think I have a better solution:

From a corporate learning point of view, is there a lesson that we can learn? If there is any HR people reading my post, you should think about the consequence this may have.

Any better solution? I think there is at least one. I will reveal that tomorrow.

Visit Corporate e-learning blog tomorrow to find out. Meanwhile, what do you think?