Learning Lore

Microsoft Whacks the Wii: A First Look – TIME

So I stumbled into this article and after reading about the new project for the Xbox. I had a couple of opposing reactions.  The first (predictably as I’m a guy who likes tech toys) was wow…now I need to get one of these.  Followed by the reaction of holy sh** how much further to the full virtual immersive experience?

The gaming industry is leapfrogging ahead providing us with a growing realism in the virtual world.  Now we don’t need a controller, we become the controller.  Sure it makes for an immersive experience, but take it further.  Partner this type of intuitive controls with a virtual world.  I’m now no longer holding a button to fly in Second life, my physical actions allow my character to fly.  If people were getting addicted to games and virtual worlds before, we haven’t seen anything yet.

And now I’m struck with an aweful realization as I’m struggling to set up an online Athletic Training course in Moodle.  Sure, we are offering student athletes in BC access to some cutting edge technology and knowledge in regards to training (See Fact-canada.com), but how can I provide them with the kind of immersive experience that is possible with the ever progressing gaming technology?
I’m focussing on creating a community of athletes so that the students can learn from and with each other, but wow…could you imagine the kind of course that you could develop when the students’ bodies are the controllers?  In our case the potential for virtual training practically mocks the moodle environment to the trashbin.

Okay,…maybe not so drastic, but I can’t help but feel that public education is falling behind, perhaps it already fell behind and got run over by the corporate technological hoard.  They just haven’t told us yet.  I have seen a desire in BC for education to become more privatized, to see industry play a bigger role.  Once microsoft decides that education is a place to grab some more cash, how are we going to compete?  Of course, microsoft could provide some rich interactive experiences for students (which would be a big plus in our DL environment), but the idea of corporate education scares the bejeezus out of me.

So, my sci-fi loving side of me can envision some great places this technology can take us (and some pretty iffy moral conundrums as well), while my public educator sides quivers with concern.  Will they at least let us know when the ministry of education becomes a subsidary of Microsoft?

Education 21 century skills, digital natives, elearning, FACT, microsoft, moodle, privatization, second life, virtual world

Okay, so I have to toss this up here as my digital native rant led me here.

Marc Prensky put together a list of essential 21st century skills and they don’t all revolve around technology, but technology will be a valuable tool to use within this broader skill set.

I’d have to agree:-)

Education 21 century skills, critical thinking, digital natives

I’ll not say much on this one, but I’ll be adding it to my list of files that I’m compiling for ideas that students need to be exposed to.
Facebook Can Get You Fired, Dumped, And Yes, Evicted

I find it interesting that the Stan Schroeder points out “These folks should not have trashed this lady’s house, of course, but posting photos of it for everyone to see is obviously not a very smart thing to do, akin to slapping them onto a wall on the street.”

Seems to me that the fact that the house was trashed and that the renters fled before getting evicted is downplayed because really they should have understood how to better use facebook.  I want to rant a little about misguided social norms, but instead I’ll simply say that this simple proves my point about the digital natives.

Simply put being born into an era in which technology is omnipresent does not grant kids a superhuman abilty to use technology effectively.  Sure some kids can text faster than I can talk, but if they can’t understand how to apply those techie skills beyond  figuring out where the next pit party is, or don’t yet understand that what you put out on the Internet is actually accessible by everyone then those skills become rather meaningless.
Only when you harness the skills that some of those digital natives possess to some critical thinking will you see effective technology use.  And as we’ve been working for years trying to get students to become more critical consumers and producers of information it seems unlikely that technology alone will affect some grand transformation (except possibly negatively).

So…some digital natives were evicted because of their postings on facebook.  My question for the digital immigrants is… Would you have made the same mistake?

I’m guessing no.

Education Add new tag, critical thinking, digital immigrants, digital natives, facebook