On Feb 8, 2019 the EVO Minecraft MOOC temple busting team of Abu Fletcher, Dakotah Redstone, Jane Chien, Mattie Tsai, Michiyo, and Teacher Vance applied logic and geometry (or at least Dak did) to the puzzle of getting into a desert temple by excavating around the side of it and under it, exposing and rendering harmless the TNT that booby-traps the bottom of every unexplored temple, and helping ourselves to what was in the zombie chests.
Dak got the diamond horse armor since he was most deserving and most instrumental in the excavation and had the greatest appreciation for horses in Minecraft as you can hear in the video, here:
Michiyo wanted to make ‘her house’ much nicer, with the help of +Olivetree Lighthouse, so she posted, “I explored the desert area. I have collected cactuses in order to make green things. Then collected some sands to make glasses. If I have some time to continue “my house” building, I may be in the world at around 14:00 UTC on the Feb. 7th or 8th. It would depend on how early I could get back from work. If I were there, I would. If not, next day or time.”
She wasn’t able to make it on Feb 7, but she kept her Feb 8 appointment. Meanwhile, here’s what we did on Feb 7:
Thu Feb 7 EVO Minecraft MOOC moderators Teacher Vance and Dakotah Redstone follow Abufletcher to newly-discovered temple
Michiyo was not able to make it back from work in time, so Dakotah Redstone and Teacher Vance followed Abufletcher to a temple he found buried in a village just north of the one we had all visited last week on our adventure trek. We looked it over but didn’t crack it. We hoped to find others in our community who would want to explore it with us. We posted to our Google+ Community that they could find it on the map just north up the river from our recent trek destination and inside the big grey wall Dak erected around it while we chatting in Discord. I attached this picture:
So when Michiyo appeared next day, apparently Abufletcher, Michiyo’s teacher in Japan, encouraged her to visit the new temple, which is where I met the group when I arrived, having just emerged from a cab at my apartment which had brought me from the bus station in Penang where I had just left a bus that had left Kuala Lumpur 6 hours earlier. I joined Michiyo, Abu Fletcher, Dak, Jane, and Mattie in Minecraft just as they were all about to head down the polished stone road that Dak had created leading over to the Temple Under Town that Abu Fletcher had found the previous day, where we would see if we could unlock its secrets in a systematic manner.
The event was on the 2019 EVO Minecraft MOOC Live Events schedule, which is linked from the sidebar at the #evomc19 landing page at http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/. That link should be working far into the foreseeable future.
The event was organized on the EVOMC Google+ Community, which we’ll hate to loose after March 2019. The event evolved in these two posts, the first from Michiyo, https://plus.google.com/u/0/+VanceStevens/posts/Hp1FEvSXqbf where I had replied the day before, “+Michiyo Toshima joined us today, but not for house building. We went on a temple tour and excavated around the Temple Under Town.”
A most unusual temple!!! Come and help us explore (but not pillage) both the temple and the village on top of it! Dak is busy building a protective wall around the village (immigrants welcome).
OliveTree Lighthouse
Great find 🙂 Sorry I couldn’t join. I was fighting with command blocks and was reading and watching things online trying to get them to work as I wanted.
Vance Stevens
The /warp is templeundervillage. I had to go there to test the /warp, and I found that someone, probably one of the villagers, agitated at the recent interest shown by bothersome explorers from another dimension, placed an iron door over the entrance to the most sacred part of the temple. I guess they make iron doors in the blacksmith shop adjacent to the temple precincts. To open the door, you have to know how to operate the ‘device’. Once inside, the way is, hmmm not exactly clear, but the direction down is (whatever you do, don’t jump down there!)
In another post I invited participants to come help us “loot” this temple but I withdraw that poorly worded invitation and leave the disposal of this one to my esteemed colleague and co-moderator, Abu Fletcher.
If interested in looting a temple I can invite you to another one, if it hasn’t been looted already (I wouldn’t know for sure until I went there and tried to loot it). Sign up for the expedition in the reply area below.
Don Carroll
I’m more interested in how the temple and several village structures seem to have become intertwined. I’d like to see if we can untangle the parts before damaging anything with a “smash and grab” approach. Honestly, after looting a few temples, it all gets to be pretty routine. Often I don’t even bother.
I’ll be in-game at about 14:00 UTC.
Vance Stevens
+Don Carroll Yes, exactly, by “looting” a temple I mean to approach what lays beneath the blue and red tiles in a calm and systematic manner, avoid setting off the TNT, which we know is down there. By working systematically and on arriving safely in the space below, I suggest that we open the lids on the chests that will also be there and peek inside.
I think this is one of those constructive activities that show Minecraft in its most collaborative mode, and reveal to participants how critical language is in the process (for example when Abu Fletcher told me once, in text, DON’T STEP THERE. Step is probably a useful word in English, as is its appearance in a negative imperative.) But more importantly, the instructions to one another as we work toward a common goal are the point of the exercise.
Hope to see you at 1400 UTC if the bus I’m on reaches Penang in time.
If anyone would like to join us in the exploration of this temple and / or others, please click REPLY below.
Don Carroll
Here’s an aerial view of the temple/village (from the dynamic map).
Actually, Vance I would suggest that we entirely leave the “loot” alone. It’s really not interesting. Instead, I’d like to see us work creatively and in unison to “map out” how the temple and village structures are intertwined. For example, can we find minimally invasive ways to get into the main temple structure WITHOUT damaging ANY of the exteriors of any of the village structures?
In fact, anyone who just wants the loot is welcome to get it through a diagonal tunnel (as I have done before on many temples).
Or maybe I should just go in and grab the loot myself now so we can focus on the archeologically interesting aspects of the site. : )
Vance Stevens
+Don Carroll I liked +Dakotah Redstone’s spiral approach, as evident in the video.
The event took place on the EVO Minecraft MOOC 1.12.2 server with voice in Discord
Earlier events
Tue Feb 5 Learning2gether episode 400 – EVO Minecraft MOOC visits East Coast Miners for VSTE Minecraft Monday
On Tuesday, February 5 in Europe and points east of there, but still February 4 in the USA, Kim Harrison a.k.a. K4sons invited EVO (Electronic Village Online) Minecraft MOOC participants to visit VSTE’s Minecraft Monday, a regular monthly event hosted by the Virginia Society for Technology in Education. Dakotah_Redstone and Beth O’Connell helped plan it with her. The VSTE events are held on the first Monday of each month from 8 to 9 PM EST (New York time).
Today they were visiting East Coast Miners, a building guild for under-16s patterned on the work of Jo Kay’s Jokaydia, http://www.jokaydia.com/. East Coast Miners provided a tour of what that the teachers are doing with kids after hours.
After settling into the environment, we started recording at a turtle farm where one of the kids was raising turtles. The new release of Minecraft 1.13.2 contains an underwater environment that spawns corals and a variety of sea creatures, so after swimming with the turtles, we moved to a coral reef where we swam with dolphins and other creatures, and visited an underwater shipwreck. There DarkKnight tossed some treasure maps into the water and you can see on the video where your map shows your location and allows you to use your F3 coordinates to navigate to X-marks-the-spot, where there was buried treasure. We all went there and eventually uncovered a treasure chest full of goodies.
We then lapsed into a reflection of how this might work for learners of a variety of topics, including learning languages. Jane in Taipei related how her son Mattie was interacting with the East Coast Miners and developing his English and problem solving skills.
Here is Jane’s reflection
Thank you, +Kim Harrison for inviting us on the East Coast Miners server. Treasure hunting was a lot of fun! The coral reef and tropical fish are so beautiful! I think that kids can learn far more by collaborating and communicating with players in Minecraft than they can by taking online synchronous language lessons (Online language tutoring/learning has been a trend lately). I see a lot of creativity, problem-solving, and peer-teaching with patience in Minecraft. I was taught by Cats, a teenage east coast miner, how to fly. She gave me lots of tips and feedback to my repeated failing attempts, and with her help, I re-learned how to fly in survival mode in Minecraft!
===Info on East Coast Miners from the website: http://www.eastcoastminers.org/====
The East Coast Miners Minecraft Community is operated by two educators and one geek (engineer) in the hopes to enrich STEAM skills science, technology, engineering, art and math as well as communication and collaboration skills.
How to join the VSTE server?
You need the latest release 1.13.2
connect to server.eastcoastminers.org
We’ll all be sad to see this and so many other fruitful communities disappear from Google+, a real blow to educational collaboration when that happens.
Earlier events
Sun Jan 27 Rose Bard, Dakota Redstone, and Jane Chien host a Building Challenge on the EVO Minecraft 1.12.2 server
Stephen Downes has been teaching a course on eLearning 3.0 since last October, find it at https://el30.mooc.ca/. I have been following the course obliquely up to now but it’s coincided with a long trip I had to make, traveling from Penang where my wife and I ended up in August, to Abu Dhabi in October to dispense with loose ends stemming from winding up our 20 years there, and then go to Doha to visit sons and grandchildren. From Doha, in November, we traveled on to Grand Rapids to visit Bobbi’s mom who was moved into assisted living there. In December we dropped down to Katy, Texas to deal with the house that Bobbi’s mom left. Meanwhile, for two weeks in November, I dropped down to Chile to put in an appearance at WorldCALL 2018, https://learning2gether.net/2018/11/16/vance-stevens-presents-gamifying-teacher-professional-development-through-minecraft-mooc-at-worldcall-2018/
I couldn’t find time to work on Stephen’s course during that time, apart from following its progress in a general sense. But the great thing about Stephen is that he is so open and transparent. He lives it; he models it. He is the epitome of sharing knowledge. He archives what he shares in a way that deliberately teaches it to others. So now that I’m back “home” in Malaysia, it’s not hard to pick up the breadcrumb trail to see where the course has got to before it ends with its final event on December 19.
Since Stephen has laid down a fine trail of breadcrumbs, the course is easy to follow asynchronously. Stephen’s course is shared under this Creative Commons License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. This stipulates that anyone can share these materials as long as we attribute their creator, and do so non commercially. The only caveats are that any alterations made must be noted, and also, the materials must be shared alike. All the foregoing are the case with postings in this blog.
Here are a few things I had figured out before I left for my trip in October.
This is worth looking at because in part 5 Stephen explains where you can find the video archive for the course: https://el30.mooc.ca/course_videos.htm. (I came on that before I discovered that this link is actually the Video link in the right hand sidebar)
There you can see that the course was announced in a post on October 10 and slated to start on October 15. The first reading posted for the course (and listening, the post includes videos) was on Why Data Culture Matters, an article (simplistically speaking) on the pros and cons of sharing data and results of its analysis.
Here Stephen declares this to be “‘Week 0’ and the topic is E-Learning 2 and 2.” He says the course will start officially on October 18. He says, “I hope to be prepared by then (but probably won’t be).” He adds that “I will be incorporating tasks into the course. Don’t worry about falling behind – I’m already behind in incorporating them.” However, he does say that he will be interviewing George Siemens shortly, gives the event page as https://el30.mooc.ca/event/79, and there, sure enough, we can find the video recording.
Stephen has made it pretty clear that he won’t mind if I share it here:
In that recording Stephen says that the course will begin NEXT day with the talk he’s giving on E-Learning 3.0 at the Online Learning Summit. He said in the newsletter that he would not be able to stream the event, that he’d post a recording afterwards, but he says while waiting for George that he will attempt to stream it anyway. All this is classic Stephen, rough edges surrounding a solid gold core.
In their video George Siemens notes that all the energy that accompanied the early days of MOOCs since their first one in 2008 on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge has been followed by 5 years of “wilderness” which is beginning to get interesting again with the recent interest in artificial intelligence, and its implications for human intelligence, and “what it’s left for humans to do.” This gets to the question of what IS uniquely human? George points out that humans have a “reset problem” whereas machines get better with more data and don’t tire. What about creativity? he wonders aloud, foreshadowing one of the topics in Stephen’s course-to-come. It may not be a domain unique to humans anymore. “Beingness” may be “our final domain of human control.” Stephen interjects that if we can learn something, probably a machine can too. But we have “purpose” and “goodness”. George agrees that humans are “being” entities, we are inherently learning entities; “we cannot unlearn.” Computers on the other hand can outlearn us.
These precepts are all elaborated on in brief annotations in the course outline, and more fully developed in the focus of each week, given in the sidebar at: https://el30.mooc.ca/course_outline.htm
So, back to the video, what should we be teaching in our universities when a student has such a disadvantage against machines? This segues into a conversation on connectivism and how much more relevant it has become given how the world has evolved today. Stephen sums it thusly: technology is helping us extend ourselves out into the world. George asks if we should move to a relational / random / exploratory kind of model in our educational systems. Stephen adds that the capacity to choose might be a key element in future learning, our focus of support. George concurs on the developmental aspects – we need a model of the intersection of AI and human intelligence; how they can work together to guide our educational institutions and return us to reflective, contemplative practices.
At this point in the video, George shifts the conversation focus onto Stephen’s projects. Stephen explains how the eLearning 3.0 course will focus his recent work on PLNs, connectivism, and blockchain. In the course he will be recasting old problems such as the problem of fake news, and how to reach a “knowable, trustworthy consensus” where the “bad actors don’t wreck the entire system”. He calls this “the joker problem” wherein “sometimes you just want to see the city burn”. He says that “to get from here to there, wherever there is, this problem has to be solved.” George talks animatedly on how recent events in Turkey, Koshoggi’s murder, were spun by the major players in such a way as to warp reasoned discourse. Two more topics of the upcoming course emerge: the issue isn’t just consensus, but also one of focus. Spinners throw out enough distraction to dispel (thus control) the narrative. That’s the joker effect. George articulates a quote whose source is not quite on the tip of his tongue: “Information abundance consumes attention.”
At the end of the hour, Stephen reveals that he forgot to check the chat. He apologizes but notes that one participant thinks that one strength of his courses are they are so messy. He warns his followers to get ready for more mess, to which George intones, “Making sense of the mess IS the learning, it’s not a distraction from the learning.” Indeed! And this slide wraps up what this all means for education:
Stephen streamed an introduction to his course, the mechanics of it, on Oct 11: https://youtu.be/hoR4VuJOa9g. He reiterates the concepts, how we got from eLearning 1 and 2 to eLearning 3 here https://el30.mooc.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?module=4. But he considers his official launch video to be this one from his Online eLearning Summit presentation Oct 18, e-Learning 3.0 and an outline of the core concepts. He archives this in an event called E-Learning 3.0 – The impact of the Next Wave of Emerging Learning Technologies, here: https://el30.mooc.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?event=77
So, as we can see, I’ve only just started finding out what the course is about. However I want to bring into this post, into one place, what I have been following as the course was in progress. I’m bringing these here from where I’ve been making notes in my Learning2gether wiki and in my last posting here at Learning2gether.net. I’m doing this because I want my notes all in one place, for my future reference, and for yours if you are learning about Stephen’s course through me.
In this tweet, I meant for the next 12 months, not just the rest of the calendar year 2018, which is almost over 🙂
Messy notes from this messy course, taken down as they appeared when Stephen’s newsletters hit my inbox, collated below seemingly at random …
Subscribe to the course feeds – using the feed reader of your choice (here’s a selection) use the course OPML file (here it is) to subscribe to the course feeds. To get a badge you’ll need to show you’ve done this, maybe by writing a blog post). Vance’s note: THIS is the feed you need to follow, https://el30.mooc.ca/course_newsletter.xml
Create a task – using a blog or some other sort of online application, create a task for participants in this course. You can do this any time through to the end of the course, so be sure to specify which course module it applies to (if you are not providing a feed to be harvested, you can email the url to me (I’ll be setting up a ‘task submission form’ soon)
from https://el30.mooc.ca/course_videos.htm Conversation with Ben Werdmuller Nov 08, 2018 video Now working with Unlock, Ben Werdmuller co-founded Elgg and Known, worked on Medium and Latakoo, and invested in innovative media startups to support a stronger democracy at Matter. We talked about blockchain, decentralized applications, indieweb, and how people can have their own online presence. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QM8mAX3cV0
This is a gentle introduction to graph theory. Graphs are data structires in which entities – called ‘nodes’ – are connected to other entitis via some sort of a link – called an ‘edge’. In graph theory there are no limits on what can be connected, nor how they can be connected. Defining graphs in specific ways, however, creates the structures that underlie most of the modern web.
Neural Networks are types of graphs. In the past I have stated that in order to be a network, a change of state in one entity in a graph must be capable of producing a change of state in another entity. Neural networks are therefore dynamic and interactive graphs. This resource describes a bunch of different neural networks. Different neural networks have different capabilities, and today are playing an increasingly important role in artificial intelligence.
The diagram in this resource descibes some different types of neural networks. Take a look at the specific tasks they perform – neural networks are good at things like classification and recgnition, as well as regression (that is, finding a trend or regulrity in data). I got this image from this page, which has more resourcs on neural networks.
Graphs are important types of data structures. Instead of thinking of things in rows and columns (the way we would in a spreadsheet or a database) we think of things as nodes and edges. This page has a very brief description of a graph data structure and then a long list of things that can be done with graphs – cycling, sortinfg, spanning, searching. This page is meant to explore, not to learn – follow the links, try running some of the code (click on the r’run in IDE button’).
You may have heard of GitHub – the open source software repository that was recently acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion. GitHub is important because it allows authors to release related versions of their software, to incorporate and merge contributions from many authors, and to allow people to create their own version (or ‘fork’) any application. To do this, GitHub is structured as a Directed Acyclic Graph, creating a series of relationships among code libraries.
Today we’ll take a brief look at blockchain. Although presented as a type of currency, blockchain is in essence a graph technology. It creates a record of transactions by chaining them together such that you cannot change or revise one transaction without revising or changing all transactions. Because this is expensive and in some cases impossible, blockchain becomes a permanent record of transactions.
Topics in Distributed Ledger Technology
This is a presentation I gave twice this fall, summarizing some of the major themes in blockchain, describing how it works, surveying a number of applications, and discussing issues related to its use. https://www.downes.ca/presentation/495
This is a good crisp summary that doesn’t shy away from technical detail but steps through the major elements of blockchain technology with clarity and precision. The sections on blockchain components (section 3) and consensus models (section 4) are particularly strong. It even comes with a fun blockchain use case flowchart.
This podcast transcript provides a level-headed overview of blockchain technologies focusing especially on the trade-offs the use of blockchain entails (for example: less efficient databases in exchange for immutability). There’s also a nice table depicting the major use cases for blockchain. And there’s a nice look at the different motivations for employing blockchain.
This is a long (136 page PDF) and detailed report on blockchains in education. The authors work slowly and deliberately in their pursuit of accuracy and clarity, which results in a presentation that will be easily understood by most readers. There is a wealth of examples in the document describing use cases, scenarios and pilot projects, and companies involved in the space.
I found Week 3 (above) of special interest because of its exploration of the implications of blockchain for education.
Nov 14, 2018 Conversation with Maha Bali
Wed Nov 14 2018 21:00:00 GMT+0400 (Arabian Standard Time)
For week 4 of E-Learning 3.0, a conversation with Maha Bali, Associate Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning & Teaching at the American University in Cairo (AUC), on topics related to identity.
Here is more from my notes in my Learning2gether wiki on the latter part of the course, an attempt to keep a catalog of the video presentations I was missing
Wed Nov 21 at 2100 UTC next event in e-Learning 3.0 – Connectivist learning by Stephen Downes
Week 5 of E-Learning 3.0 features Sukaina Walji, Online Education Project Manager, Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town (UCT).
From the archived video listing at https://el30.mooc.ca/course_videos.htm this turned out to be a Conversation with Sukaina Walji and Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams Nov 21, 2018 video
We look at the topics of open educational resources and open practices, consider some of the challenges around reuse of OERs, and discuss the potential of new resource networks (like the distributed web) to address those challenges. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sY6M58v3Pg
Wed Nov 28 at 2100 UTC next event in e-Learning 3.0 – Connectivist learning by Stephen Downes
Nov 28, 2018 Conversation with Viplav Baxi
Wed Nov 28 2018 21:00:00 GMT+0400 (Arabian Standard Time)
Viplav Baxi joins us for week 6 of E-Learning 3.0. He is currently Director – Product and Digital Transformation at Oxford University Press in New Delhi, India.
We’ll talk about resources, recognition and community.
From the video list at https://el30.mooc.ca/course_videos.htm Conversation with Viplav Baxi Nov 28, 2018 video Viplav Baxi joined us for week 6 of E-Learning 3.0. He is currently Director – Product and Digital Transformation at Oxford University Press in New Delhi, India. We talked about resources, the role of MOOCs in education today, his new ‘WhatIfEdu’ project, testing, badges and recognition, and community. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuSaeFStpwc
Mon Dec 5 at 2100 UTC next event in e-Learning 3.0 – Connectivist learning by Stephen Downes
Dec 05, 2018 video Week 7 of E-Learning 3.0 with Pete Forsyth, Editor in Chief of the Signpost, a community newspaper covering Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement., and serves on the Advisory Board of the GLAM-Wiki U.S. Consortium. We talk about how Wikipedia approaches questions like managing fake news, reaching consensus, and managing content. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Urc4EW9hiE
Wed Dec 12 at 2100 UTC next event in e-Learning 3.0 – Connectivist learning by Stephen Downes
Dec 12, 2018 Conversation with Amy Burvall (postponed to Dec 13)
After 25 years in K-12 education, Amy Burvall is currently consulting, creating, and curating in the fields of creativity, visual thinking, and digital literacies. She joins us in week 9 of E-Learning 3.0.
Be creative! Using the medium of your choice, create a representation of your experience of E-Learning 3.0. Then post your creation (or post a link to your creation) on your blog. Here’s a good example of the sort of thing you could create, by Kevin Hodgeson (who apparently also studied mind reading as he completed this Task before it was posted). If you need inspiration, visit the DS106 Assignment Bank and select one of the assignments, and then interpret it in the light of E-Learning 3.0.
Videos
The World Beyond the Word Dec 13, 2018 video Visit this page for both slides and video (the link shows a slide/video from a Seminar, Aug 19, 2012.). In order to manage the deluge of data produced by modern technology, a rapidly changing society, and challenging environmental and economic systems, we need to relearn what we understand as social and scientific literacy. The students of today and the innovators of tomorrow will speak languages we barely recognize today. What are the fundamentals of these new literacies, how do we learn them and teach them, and how do they redefine innovation in the future? In this talk I describe a future in which learning is a creative act and give an overview of the environments and technologies that will be needed to support this learning. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M060w0NLFas
I’ve covered the topic of creativity quite a bit over the years. This is a listing of the posts I’ve written referring to different resoruces on creativity. There’s a lot to pick and choose form.
The following pages represent a comprehensive summary of current research and theory on the sources of innovation and creativity, both in individuals and organizations. Based on the recurring concepts in the existing literature, the paper concludes with some recommendations for how education systems can best foster these attributes in students.
From her web page: “Amy Burvall (amyburvall.com) is a professional dot-connector who helps people think and live more creatively. A 25 year veteran educator, she now freelances as a consultant specializing in creativity and visual thinking.”
Be creative! Using the medium of your choice, create a representation of your experience of E-Learning 3.0. Then post your creation (or post a link to your creation) on your blog.
Here’s a good example of the sort of thing you could create, by Kevin Hodgeson (who apparently also studied mind reading as he completed this Task before it was posted).
If you need inspiration, visit the DS106 Assignment Bank and select one of the assignments, and then interpret it in the light of E-Learning 3.0.
I’m posting this on Dec 17-18 and plan to work more on it between now and Dec 19, the date of the last event of the course, Dec 18, 2018 Conversation with Silvia Baldiris and Jutta Treviranus. This talk Dec 19 for me, 1 am in the morning, which is the reason I’ve been missing all the live events since I’ve been back in Penang
Wed Dec 19 2018 01:00:00 GMT+0800 (Singapore Standard Time)
Here is its newsletter information, on Agency: https://el30.mooc.ca/archive/18/12_17_course_newsletter.htm
And the last episode was
Conversation with Silvia Baldiris and Jutta Treviranus
Videos
Conversation with Silvia Baldiris and Jutta Treviranus Dec 18, 2018 video For the last week of Learning 3.0 we had a conversation with Silvia Baldiri, who works with the Fundación Universitaria Tecnológico Comfenalco (Colombia) and Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain), and Jutta Treviranus, Director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) and professor at OCAD University in Toronto. We talked about inclusive design, agency and the Social Justice Repair Kit. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIFG8rpLdYA
Recognize, respect, and design for human uniqueness and variability.
Use inclusive, open & transparent processes, and co-design with people who have a diversity of perspectives, including people that can’t use or have difficulty using the current designs.
Realize that you are designing in a complex adaptive system.
The goal of the Social Justice Repair Kit project is to support youth at risk who have learning differences to re-engage in education through an inclusively designed social justice platform that integrates authentic project-based learning. For youth with identified and unidentified learning differences, the Kit will add inclusive design supports to remove barriers to participation.
These stories serve as a reference to other people who identify themselves in them and who discover in them similarities with their own life story, which in some cases may turn out to be unfavorable, however, in this discovery, possible methods of coping are identified that allow resolving or resignifying adverse situations optimistically.
“We find that when selecting a problem-solving team from a diverse population of intelligent agents, a team of randomly selected agents outperforms a team comprised of the best-performing agents.” See also Problem Solving by Heterogeneous Agents, by the same authors.
However, Stephen announces: One Final Live Conversation
Let’s wrap up the course with an online conversation anyone can join. When? I’ve set a default time but I’d rather set a time by consensus. This page is open for editing. Join in and help decide when to wrap up and celebrate the end of the course.
And with this post I (Vance) have placed all my notes in one place and have set out a possibility of follow up at this blog or at one of my others. Stay tuned …
Earlier events taking place between postings at this blog
Fri Nov 16 – Vance Stevens presents ‘Gamifying Teacher Professional Development through Minecraft MOOC’ at WorldCALL 2018
Mon Nov 19 1700 UTC – Factors Affecting Learner Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds
The EFLIS held its 3rd webinar for this year by Dr. Iryna Kozlova on Factors Affecting Learner Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds
Mon, Nov 19, 2018 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
If you are interested in learning about research in online language learning, particularly 3D Virtual Worlds, then this is a great opportunity for you and we hope to see you online!
Abstract:
Factors Affecting Learner Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds
Dr. Iryna Kozlova
University of Pennsylvania
Learners’ development of collaboration skills has important implications for their language learning (Donato, 2004), fluency development (Huensch & Tracy-Ventura, 2017), and the development of interactional skills (Johnson and Johnson, 2004). When working together towards achieving a common goal, learners use language to mutually construct new knowledge by sharing their own ideas and accepting contributions from other participants (Donato, 2004). 3D virtual worlds (VWs) can provide learners with the opportunities to collaborate through multiple communication channels, which may facilitate language development (Meskill, 2005). Drawing on the results of the study on learner collaboration in 3D VWs (Kozlova, forthcoming) when students used an audio channel to interact with their peers and a text-based channel to make notes on a collaboration board, this presentation discusses the factors affecting learner collaboration. These factors include (1) learners and instructors’ familiarity with 3D VWs, (2) learners’ familiarity with the format of the learning activity, (3) learners’ experience with the spontaneous use of the second language, and (4) instructors’ use of pedagogical techniques that facilitated collaboration. Although this presentation draws on the findings of the research in 3D VWs, implications of the findings to face-to-face classroom will also be discussed.
Presenter’s bio:
Iryna Kozlova, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the TESOL Program, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include the use of second/foreign language spoken discourse in the classroom and in casual conversation, application of technology for second/foreign language teaching and learning, task-based learning, and teacher training. She has taught Applied Linguistics, ESL, and Russian in the United States and internationally.
Mon Nov 19 8 PM EST Data Informatics and Data Visualization in Second Life on VSTE Island
In Virginia students start in elementary school collecting, organizing, and interpreting data in math, science, and technology. The older the student gets the more sophisticated the expectations become in dealing with data. We imagine it’s the same with the students all over the globe.
Data Informatics examines and helps students make sense of data; reading, scanning for trends, and interpreting the data. Data Visualization is a way to take that data and make it easier to understand, more user friendly. Through data visualization we have techniques to make data easier to interpret. In 2D and 3D mediums we can show off data in expressive and meaningful ways. Bluebarker Lowtide (SL), Vasili Giannoutsos (RL) will show us examples of Data Informatics and Data Visualization and give us opportunities to build our own.
Whether you teach students to read and interpret data or you yourself are struggling for meaningful ways to share data you collect, there will be something for you in this session.
Meet us on VSTE Island in Second Life Monday, November 19, at 8 PM EST (5 PM SLT) to learn about Data Informatics and Data Visualization.
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ Download and install the software. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/61/104/22 and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.
Nov 20 Library 2.0 Webinar – Responding to an Active Shooter in the Library – A timely talk but not free
TOPIC: “Responding to an Active Shooter in the Library: Protecting Patrons and Staff From a Rare But Catastrophic Event.”
PRESENTED BY: Dr. Steve Albrecht, author, Library Security: Better Communications, Safer Facilities (ALA, 2015)
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, November 20th, 2018, 4:00 pm US-EST (1-hour presentation + 30 minutes with special guests). Click herefor time zone conversions. The recording of the Webinar will be available immediately following the live broadcast, and available to all who register.
COST: $99/person
A sign of the times, unfortunately
Thu 22 Nov – 24 Nov IATEFL web conference – Finding yourself as a teacher
This year’s web conference is entitled: ‘Finding yourself as a teacher’ and will focus on the needs and challenges of the beginner teacher. While remaining open to all language teaching professionals, the conference is focusing on the early career teacher area. Over three days it will provide different sessions on topics relevant to that area including a look at the different types of language teaching both contextually and thematically, CPD options and how best to make a career out of teaching.
Mon Dec 10 5 VSTE Virtual Environments PLN Meeting 8 PM Eastern Standard Time
When? December 10 5 SLT
Come to VSTE Island in Second Life! Bring something you learned at the last conference to attended to share with the rest of us.
Recent VSTE attendees will share how the sold out conference went!
I have a little app to share that I learned about in a Blues Bar in Second life! You never know where you might learn something cool if you are a lifelong learner!
See you at 5 SLT.
——————
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here:https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ Download and install the software. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this linkhttp://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/61/104/22 and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.
Tue Dec 11 1700 UTC TEIS Webinar Series: Critical Competencies for Online Teaching
Description: The Teacher Educator Interest Section (TEIS) webinar series ends the year with a discussion with Kiran Budhrani, an Instructional Designer on E-Learning from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. The discussion will focus on timely research on online teachers and teaching. The explosive growth in online education at the higher education level, (1.6 million in 2002 to 6.7 million students in 2015), has resulted in the need for more faculty to teach online and has changed the role of the teachers and their teaching practices. The research undertaken by Budhrani and her team involves the perspectives of 8 award winning online instructors on:
the core and emerging roles of online instructors
the key competencies for successful online teaching
The webinar will be in a conversation format moderated by Faridah Pawan, the TEIS Chair Elect-Elect. The webinar is free to all TESOL International Members and everyone else interested in the topic. (See the attached poster for additional information)
On November 16, 2018, Vance Stevens presented ‘Gamifying Teacher Professional Development through Minecraft MOOC’ at WorldCALL 2018
Picture credit: Susan Mirandi
This was my proposal:
Abstract
EVO Minecraft MOOC is an ongoing community of practice of language teaching practitioners which invites newcomers to join in every January / February and then continues throughout the year with a dedicated group of teaching peers who have been interacting online in Minecraft for the past 4 years. This presentation explains how the group was formed, how it functions, and what we have learned about gamifying learning by experiencing it ourselves when playing the game Minecraft with one another. More importantly we reflect continually on how this informs our approach to teaching and learning. This presentation shares our insights and perspectives with our audience and invites them to join us online if they wish to learn more about what gamification feels like as a learning experience.
Summary
Electronic Village Online is an annual teacher training event run under the auspices of TESOL CALL-IS. EVO Minecraft MOOC is a 5-week session that has taken place in Minecraft, a wiki, and Google+ Community space each Jan / Feb since 2015. The presenter conceived the idea for EVO Minecraft MOOC as a way that he himself could develop expertise in the game and thereby use it with students. Other teachers were attracted to the concept, including some who had some experience in the game. Participants were attracted to the session for the same reasons — not that their learning paths had been prescribed for them in a neatly pre-set syllabus but that by entering the “game” or session, learning would happen for them in a way that participants would come to understand by experiencing the process that Ito et al (2010) characterize as “hanging out, messing around, and geeking out.”
We have found that Minecraft is capable of reversing the normal student teacher dichotomy whereby teachers traditionally are assumed to know more than their students. We have found through the experience of participants in our EVO session that that participants tend to take charge of their learning by guiding one another in the vagaries of the game.
This presentation explains what teachers (who are learning about the game through the experience of playing it as learners) are learning about designing worlds within the game context that will meet their curriculum objectives and create an engaging and enjoyable experience and task-based environment for learners. But above all, the paper explores how teachers can be made aware of the affordances of Minecraft by creating such spaces for one another and interacting in those spaces. It also serves as an example of how we teachers can use what we have learned through our experience with MOOCs to form communities of practice to reboot our own learning, using the community as curriculum (Cormier, 2008).
Here are the slides:
I converted this into a script for a 5 minute trailer entitled
Learn to engage your students in a gamified classroom through experiencing the participatory culture inherent in Minecraft by interacting with like-minded teaching peers in EVO Minecraft MOOC
Hi, my name is Vance Stevens. I’ve been teaching English to speakers of other languages for over 40 years. My methods have evolved over the years from the behaviorist and cognitive approaches prevalent when I started teaching, through more communicative approaches, teaching through communities of practice, through connectivism, and most recently through gamification.
Minecraft is a game that for the past decade has caught and sustained the attention of teachers wanting to introduce elements of gamification into their classrooms. However, there are two steep hurdles for teachers: (1) First is the complexity and depth of the game itself, and (2) secondly, understanding how students will interact and communicate with each other in Minecraft by engaging in self-directed critical and collaborative learning. I started EVO Minecraft MOOC to address and resolve both these problems.
EVO stands for Electronic Village Online. The actual Electronic Village is physical space that the CALL Interest Section in TESOL established as a fixture at annual TESOL conferences way back last century. In 2001 Electronic Village Online was established as a virtual event taking place each January and February ever since then. EVO consists of a baker’s dozen of sessions on topics proposed by language teachers who develop their proposals into training courses of interest to other teachers. Session moderators work from passion, no one is paid, no one pays, it’s free, and it happens every January-February. Find out more at http://evosessions.pbworks.com
EVO Minecraft MOOC is one of these sessions. We started it in 2015 and it has since become an ongoing community of practice of language teaching practitioners which invites newcomers to join in every January / February and then continues throughout the year with a dedicated group of teaching peers who have been interacting online in Minecraft for coming on 5 years now.
In November 2018 I’m presenting at WorldCALL 2018, in Concepción: Chile, about our work in EVO Minecraft MOOC. The presentation explains how the group was formed, how it functions, and what we have learned about gamifying learning by experiencing it ourselves when playing the game Minecraft with one another. More importantly we reflect continually on how this informs our approach to teaching and learning. This presentation shares our insights and perspectives with our audience and invites them to join us online if they wish to learn more about what gamification feels like as a learning experience.
As EVO Minecraft MOOC prepares to enter its 5th year engaging teachers hands-on with peers in the participatory culture their students will experience when playing the game of Minecraft, this presentation invites you to join us.
Writeup for the WorldCALL 2018 conference proceedings
Presenters have been invited to prepare a 1000 word article describing their presentations. What follows is a version that is almost twice that length, but contains about what I would like to say. I’ll have to cut my submission back substantially, but I am blogging the expanded version here:
1. Introduction
Minecraft is a game that for the past decade has caught and sustained the attention of teachers wanting to introduce elements of gamification into their classrooms (Dikkers, 2015). However, there are two steep hurdles for teachers: the complexity and depth of the game itself, and understanding how students will interact and communicate with each other in Minecraft by engaging in self-directed critical and collaborative learning (Kuhn & Stevens, 2017). EVO Minecraft MOOC was formed to resolve both these problems.
Electronic Village Online (EVO) is an annual professional development event established in 2001 under the auspices of TESOL CALL-IS and has taken place every January / February since then (Hanson-Smith & Bauer-Ramazani, 2004).EVO consists of a baker’s dozen of sessions on topics proposed each year by language teachers who develop their proposals into training courses of interest to other teachers. Moderators hope only to learn by teaching others, and participation is open to anyone free of charge.
EVO Minecraft MOOC is one of these sessions. Since it was started in 2015 it has become an ongoing community of practice (CoP) of language teaching practitioners which invites newcomers to join in every January / February and then uses its server for community development throughout each year. The community explores how teachers can be made aware of the affordances of Minecraft by creating virtual spaces for one another and interacting in those spaces. The core group of moderators have for the most part been returning year after year to sustain their practice of teaching languages and enhancing the professional development of peers through Minecraft. Participants who enjoy playing and learning with us often join the team.
This paper explains what teachers participating in EVO Minecraft MOOC are learning about the game through the experience of playing it as learners, and what they are learning about designing worlds within Minecraft that will meet their curriculum objectives and create an engaging and enjoyable experience and task-based environment for learners.
2. How Minecraft MOOC was formed and how it functions
The author has been teaching English to speakers of other languages for over 40 years. His methods have evolved over the years from the behaviorist and cognitive approaches prevalent when he started teaching (references), through more communicative approaches (references), teaching through communities of practice (references to Wenger, Lave), through connectivism (Downes, Siemens), and most recently through gamification (Gee, references).
The author became interested in Minecraft after hearing other teachers enthusiastically describe in podcasts how they were using the game with students ever since Minecraft was created by Mojang in 2009, but he was thwarted in finding a community of learners actively playing who would accept an adult in their midsts. Eventually he conceived the idea of forming EVO Minecraft MOOC as a way that he himself could develop expertise in the game and thereby use it with students.
The seed took root when the author collaborated at a distance with a Croatian colleague on an article in which she interviewed her 11-year old son on how he had become fluent in English by engaging with other European players in Minecraft, even starting his own YouTube channel (Smolčec, Smolčec, & Stevens, 2014). In conducting the literature search for that article the author discovered other teachers using Minecraft in language learning. When he proposed an EVO session on the topic, he invited Jeff Kuhn and David Dodgson to join the effort, and both accepted. Jeff Kuhn set up our first Minecraft server and other teachers were attracted to the concept, including some who already had considerable experience in the game and were able to help mentor the developing Minecraft literacy of others (Stevens, 2017).
Minecraft MOOC takes place primarily online in Minecraft. In order to attract new participants we renew our proposal each year to become an EVO session and invite people to join us at our Google+ Community (G+C), where we can interact asynchronously. In addition to a syllabus, we also have a wiki at http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/ where we can suggest a structure for the course.
Although we have always had a syllabus, participants are attracted to the session not because their learning paths have been prescribed for them but because by entering the game, learning happens for them in a way that participants come to understand by experiencing the process. Ito et al (2010) characterize the steps in the process gamers go through as “hanging out, messing around, and geeking out,” and this is what happens with people who join us without much knowledge of Minecraft apart from a vague interest in using it with their students. Those who persist eventually become remarkably creative and capable of guiding other teachers, and their students, into adapting the game to their diverse learning goals. Our session applies the community as curriculum model whereby the community negotiates the operative syllabus for the MOOC (Cormier, 2008).
3. Discussion
This section discusses what we have learned about gamifying learning by experiencing gamification ourselves when playing the game Minecraft online with one another. First of all we have penetrated the Minecraft community of learners by becoming learners in Minecraft ourselves, learning hands-on how gamification works and might apply to our own contexts. In so doing, we come to grips with the complexity and depth of the game, understanding through doing it ourselves how students will interact and communicate with each other in Minecraft (in our case using the text chat native to Minecraft as well as Discord, a 3rd-party VOIP app frequently used by gamers, to speak to one another while in-world). Through carrying out our own projects, such as discovering temples, both on land and underwater, and excavating them for their loot, we engage in self-directed, spontaneous learning.
Through experiencing the game ourselves, we see how Minecraft brings essential skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, and language and communication skills to bear on a range of concepts including, architecture, engineering, chemistry, mathematics, coding, history, and the list goes on and on.
This article has already cited one example of students using Minecraft to practice and improve learning a foreign language (Smolčec, Smolčec, & Stevens, 2014). That article cites many other instances, including the work of Jeff Kuhn who used Minecraft to generate ideas for ESL students writing about disaster management, and Dave Dodgson using Minecraft in Turkey in an EFL context (see also their more recent articles: Kuhn, 2015; and Dodgson, 2017).
We have found that Minecraft is capable of reversing the normal student-teacher dichotomy whereby teachers traditionally are assumed to know more than their students. We have found through the experience that participants tend to take charge of their learning by scaffolding one another in the vagaries of the game. We have also seen when, as often happens, teachers bring their children with them into the game, that these kids often become proficient more quickly than their parents, and mentor not only their parents but other adult players as well. Through this we see that a productive strategy of using Minecraft with younger students would be to set up a play space for them, encourage them to set their own goals within the curriculum, and empower them to become the experts, even to the extent of teaching the teacher how to use Minecraft to learn more about their curriculum.
More importantly we reflect continually on how what we learn through our experience collaborating with each other in-world informs our approach to teaching and learning. Our G+C has been an ideal space for sharing our screenshots and videos from in-world, and conversations around all our topics of interest ranging from helping noobies to showing each other our builds and projects. Lately we have discussed there how to replace our G+C when Google drops support for the platform in April, 2019. Meanwhile we are looking into alternatives such as Google Classroom and Moodle. We don’t intend to let what happens with G+C curtail our learning in the 2020 rendition of EVO Minecraft MOOC.
4. Conclusions
In our proposal and session materials, we invite other teachers to join us who consider themselves to be teachers with a gaming problem, gamers with a teaching problem, and teachers of gamers with a learning problem. By this we mean to address teachers who don’t already play games but would like to understand how gamification might work in their teaching contexts; teachers who already play games and would like to adapt what they know to teaching their students, and teachers who see that their students like games, and want to know how they might leverage this by fitting Minecraft into their curriculum. We consider it axiomatic that when asked by skeptics if Minecraft is in the curriculum, the reply is usually that the curriculum is somewhere in Minecraft already. We encourage our peers to join us so that together we can figure out how and where Minecraft can be utilized in anyone’s teaching curriculum.
By the time these proceedings are published, the Minecraft MOOC EVO session for 2019 will have completed its 5th year as a formal session engaging teachers hands-on in the participatory culture their students will experience when playing the game of Minecraft. However, we expect there will be an EVO Minecraft MOOC in 2020, in which case we invite any interested participants to join us. We can be easily found via EVO, http://evosessions.pbworks.com/ or in a Google search on EVO Minecraft MOOC.
Hanson-Smith, E. & Bauer-Ramazani, C. (2004). Professional Development: The Electronic Village Online of the TESOL CALL Interest Section .TESL-EJ 8, 2.(On the Internet) http://tesl-ej.org/ej30/int.html.
Smolčec, M., Smolčec, F. and Stevens, V. (2014). Using Minecraft for Learning English. TESL-EJ 18, 2. Available: pp. 1-15 in http://www.tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej70/int.pdf
“In his presentation, Gamifying teacher professional development through Minecraft MOOC, Vance Stevens explained that over the last 40 years he has taught English through behaviourist and cognitive approaches, then communicative approaches, followed by communities of practice, connectivism (aligned with the original idea of MOOCs as community-driven), and most recently gamification. He indicated that Minecraft has caught the attention of many educators over the last decade; it promotes critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, language and communication, and has been used for architecture, engineering, chemistry, mathematics and coding, in addition to language teaching. Gamification, he said, is about learning not in a top-down format, but by exploring in a bottom-up way. The challenges for teachers are: penetrating Minecraft communities of learners; the complexity and depth of the game; and understanding how students will interact and communicate with each other in Minecraft, and how they will engage in self-directed critical/collaborative learning. The EVO Minecraft MOOC started in 2015 to address and resolve these problems, and newcomers are welcomed every January/February.”
Here are some more photos taken by Susan Mirandi, during the presentation:
Heike Philp tracked presentations at this conference with a series of tweets
Mon Nov 6 0100 UTC Dakota Redstone at VSTE Minecraft Mondays
MINECRAFT MONDAY
Monday, November 5th, EST, we will meet at VSTE Place to work on a neighborhood which Dakotah_Redstone has already begun. Each person may try recreating their own home in the neighborhood. We will meet at 8 PM Eastern.
This week we will look at two resources our members have shared: music creation: within Minecraft using Note Blocks and red stone, and 101 Build Hacks. Both can help us furnish our homes!
You must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95. Download and install the software. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP 69.175.17.26:25565 Our server is protected. If you want to be whitelisted to enter anytime you want to continue building this, or anything else, email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com or kvharris@vbschools.com from an educational email address with your real name and minecraft name.
We are currently using Minecraft version 1.12.2
Thu Nov 8 at 2000 UTC next event in e-Learning 3.0 – Connectivist learning by Stephen Downes
Fri Nov 9-10 Rockcliffe University Consortium Conference – The Future Present
The Rockcliffe University Consortium Conference: The Future Present took place on November 9-10, 2018 at the Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, California
Registration closed Sept 30, 2018 but there is supposed to be virtual participation possible (I don’t see how, and it might not be free, but stay tuned)
On Wed Feb 3 Vance Stevens presented on EVO Minecraft MOOC for participants at the Techno-CLIL EVO MOOC. The talk was titled Vance Stevens on Minecraft and FLT and CLILfor the WizIQ announcement, but Vance called it
This presentation is about a correspondence between two EVO (Electronic Village Online) sessions:
the EVO Minecraft MOOC (EVOMC16) and
Techno-CLIL (content and language integrated) approach to language development
This was the abstract
There is much evidence that Minecraft can enhance language development; for example, the cases discussed in in an article by co-moderators of the EVOMC16 session (Smolčec & Smolčec, 2014). This presentation will suggest to educators interested in adopting the CLIL approach how they might consider Minecraft as a representation of content, and see how language development might derive from interaction in a gamified environment based on that content.
The EVOMC16 session provides an opportunity for educators to understand how this might work for them by having them explore gamification through the experience of being in a game that that looks like Minecraft, but is in fact a place where they can meet other educators learning how their students can benefit from gamified environments. These educators learn through following a model whereby they go to a Google+ community and figure out from there what they have to do to play the game. Eventually they end up in Minecraft in creative mode, and then graduate to coping with survival, as they come to see, by cooperating with other players in the more challenging game environment. The ‘aha’ moment occurs when the players succeed and realize that if what they were trying to teach were placed in such a context, it would not only become more engaging to the learners, but their students would be taking their own learning into their own hands. This can create a powerful learning environment, and educators need to experience it for themselves in order to understand it.
So, we are all learning about gamification here. It’s not so much about Minecraft. Minecraft is the little g game (Gee, 2008), the enabler of our emerging knowledge of gamification. When you enter survival mode you’ll find that you are assisted by others in world. With their help you stay alive and learn. So gamification turns out to be learning through teamwork and mutual support and meeting challenges and achieving your goal, whatever it is. In this game you set your own goals. By achieving your goals in the game light bulbs go off in your head and light your way to some realization of how what you are learning in Minecraft might work to meet your real world challenges.
References
Gee, J.P. (2008) “Learning and games.” The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning. Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (pp. 21-40). Available: http://ase.tufts.edu/DevTech/courses/readings/Gee_Learning_and_Games_2008.pdf
Smolčec, M & Smolčec, F. (2014). Using Minecraft for Learning English. TESL-EJ 18, 2 (1-15). Available http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej70/int.pdf. Includes an editorial introduction by Vance Stevens.
On Sunday, Jan 31, Vance Stevens was invited to give a presentation for the ICT4ELT EVO session. As they were focusing on contrasting blog and wiki tools that week, the talk was about how Vance sets up and manages Learning2gether using the wiki here,
The discussion was about how blogs and wikis are used in conjunction with one another to sustain Learning2gether all these years, so it was basically about the affordances of each that allow them to work in tandem.
Participants were told to make sure they had Blackboard Launcher installed and
“you can also check this great Tutorial created by Vance https://youtu.be/-Zol7rZb9uo”
Are you looking to be more innovative? Creative? Disruptive? Microsoft’s Hack the Classroom is a free digital event for educators and school leaders designed to give educators insight into the latest trends in education. Come learn from education thought leaders, innovative classroom educators, and students who are changing education by empowering their peers and students to navigate their own learning and teaching practices.
We’re bringing disrupters in education to you to spark a two-way dialogue; hear their story and ask them questions through live Q&A! Bring your questions, connect with peers, and empower your students. Take a step towards transforming your classroom and join us to hear about successful teaching practices that have disrupted the education space to improve student outcomes.
Sat Jan 30 from 9 Am to 9 Pm EST Student Technology Conference
The second annual Student Technology Conference, a free one-day online event bringing together students, educators and innovators from around the world, will be held Saturday, January 30, 2016 from 9 Am to 9 Pm EST. We invite all to attend!
The Student Technology Conference provides an international forum for the presentation, discussion and sharing of educational technology in schools and other academic settings. This conference, by students in grades 6-12 as well as colleges and universities and for all, is committed to:
Fostering a better understanding of how students use technology in education and to engage students, teachers and administrators in a conversation about technology.
Assisting teachers and administrators in understanding how students use technology both in and out of the classroom.
Strengthening the relationship between students, teachers and administrators about technology in the curriculum.
Last year’s conference featured more than twenty general sessions and four keynote addresses from all over the world with over 500 participants!
If you haven’t joined us before, this is an amazing, engaging, collaborative, worldwide event that you will want to be a part of. You can join us for just for one session, or for every session! Even if you miss a session, they are all recorded so you can watch them later!
Attending: You can join us anywhere you have an Internet connection, and theschedule of sessions is published in each of the time zones in the world. Just find your time zone, find the sessions taking place, and click right into the ones you want to join. You can also import the entire calendar (Google) into your own calendar, or add selected sessions to your personal calendar to be sure that you don’t miss them.
Presenting: For those interested in presenting (and we encourage teachers and students around the world to do so, even if for the first time), the call for proposals is now open! The final date to submit a proposal is Saturday, January 23, 2016. Click HERE for more information and to submit your proposal.
Volunteering: One of the best parts of this conference is the incredible volunteer effort to help new (and sometimes seasoned!) presenters. Volunteers gather throughout the whole conference in a special virtual lounge and work to make sure that presenters and attendees are given help whenever they need it. Our volunteers are an elite group of global helpers–come find out why they say being a volunteer moderator is the most fun you can have at the conference. More HERE.
The Community: A significant bonus to attending the Student Technology Conference is joining the conference community of students and educators from around the world.
Great Keynotes: Who better to keynote the Student Technology Conference than students. We have a great set of keynote speakers this year, including the Young Hackers of New York City and Coco Kaleel from veryhappyrobot.com. More keynotes will be announced after the holidays!
Sponsors: We’ve got a devoted and most-appreciated set of sponsors who make this conference possible (and keep it free!). Our special thanks to Marymounyt School of New York, University School of Milwaukee, Westhampton Middle School, Lauriston Girls’ School and others who support our conference. And there’s still time to join this illustrious group and help support our event! Email steve@hargadon.com.
Help Promote the Conference: We can really use your help to share the conference with your colleagues, associates, friends, family (!), and the world.. Show your pride with a presenter, volunteer, sponsor, partner, or advisory board member badge.
Send a Tweet: “#stutechconf2016 is coming! Submit to present or register to attend, all free, all online, 6th year of this great event http://www.studenttechnologyconference.com”
We sure hope you will join us! See you online,
Ana Sophia, Gaby, Eunice, Anne, and Sydney
Conference Co-Coordinators (we’re all students)
2016 Student Technology Conference
On Sunday September 13 1300 UTC Learning2gether met with Lucy Gray and Peggy George to learn about Global Collaboration Day coming up on Sept 17 http://www.globalcollaborationday.org/about.html, a first annual demonstration of global collaboration for educators, encouraging students, teachers, organizations and companies to host virtual events involving technology on September 17, 2015.
The primary goal of this whole-day event is to demonstrate the power of global connectivity in classrooms, schools, universities, and institutions of informal learning and around the world. Global Collaboration Day will introduce others to the tools, resources, projects and programs that are available to educators today. Tag: #globaled15
You can join us in HoAvia its direct link posted here at show time
and posted to Twitter hash tag #learning2gether
If the Hangout is full, listen to the stream and interact with us in the text chat
You can let us know if you want to join the Hangout
We will let you know via the stream when space comes available
When you enter the Hangout
Wear a HEADSET to avoid broadcasting speaker sound back into the Hangout
Switch OFF the stream as it is on a delay and will create an echo for you
Please MUTE YOUR MIC when not actually speaking into it during the HoA
We would like invite you to join Global Collaboration Day, our first annual demonstration of global collaboration for educators. We are encouraging students, teachers, organizations and companies to host virtual events involving technology on September 17, 2015. (And since September 17 takes nearly 48 hours to start and finish across the globe, check out the calendar in your own time zone for all the activities!)
The primary goal of this whole day event is to demonstrate the power of global connectivity in classrooms, schools, universities, and institutions of informal learning and around the world. Global Collaboration Day will introduce others to the tools, resources, projects and programs that are available to educators today. We currently have over 130 schools and organizations representing about 29 different countries; 25 outreach partners have also committed to joining this worldwide event. Approximately 52 events are listed on our site and this list is growing by the day. There is no cost to participate at any level.
Here is how people and organizations can participate:
companies and organizations with large reach can serve as outreach partners and in return, we will post their link and logo on our website
Examples of events that are currently scheduled include a Twitter chat on global learning, an asynchronous Twitter poll on chocolate, a survey on sunlight around the world, and a class live streaming using Periscope. Many organizations are hosting webinars and other activities to introduce educators to tools, resources and programs that will help them connect their classroom to the world. We recommend that activities be simple in scope and have low barriers to entry in order to attract participants. Ideas are listed on our host page. Events can be geared towards any audience including students, teachers, parents, and organization leaders.
Yes! Classroom 2.0 with Steve Hargadon back in 2007 was the beginning for many of us on this wonderful adventure with web 2.0 and connecting with educators from around the world!
which site can’t you open Halima? the main site for Global Collaboration Day? it may be a bandwidth problem since you are also in the Hangout and that takes a lot of bandwidth.
We try to use Chatwing as much as possible given the nature of herding cats, so as to include people in the stream in a conversation they can participate in. However, those in the chat moved their discussion into the Hangout chat (where on my computer, I can’t copy / paste it). But Nellie Deutsch can do that, and she sent me what appears below:
Peggy George
9:29 AM
Hi Nellie! Great to see you!
youcanbookme is an amazing scheduling tool! it’s really easy to use as a presenter!
you can also sign up to help as a volunteer moderator during the Global Education Conference to help moderate Blackboard Collaborate sessions. I love doing that rather than being a presenter.
Robert Wachman
9:41 AM
Sounds interesting.
me
9:41 AM
people find reading challenges
challenging
Halima Ozimova
9:42 AM
I REALLY need Help! BCS Trainers do not know about #Tesol #evo Trainings http://kitoblog.com/
me
9:42 AM
can mess with google hangout
Peggy George
9:42 AM
the K12 Online Conference is a month before the Global Ed Conference It’s from October 19-30 with the kickoff keynote on Oct. 12. http://k12onlineconference.org/
me
9:43 AM
I’d love to be part of that, Peggy.
BCS?
Halima Ozimova
9:44 AM
Peggy cannot open Your site! How to E-mail to You?
Peggy George
9:45 AM
There are many opportunities to volunteer for the K12 Online Conference either as a presenter or helper. There is an Organizer team and a number of different committees.
me
9:45 AM
Who cannot open what site, Halima
Halima Ozimova
9:45 AM
Dr Nellie! Peggy’s site
Robert Wachman
9:45 AM
Age 12?
Peggy George
9:45 AM
Everything is pretty much in place for this year for K12 Online but watch for the volunteer webinar next year to see how to get involved.
me
9:46 AM
I’m available this year. I have no idea about next year.
Peggy George
9:46 AM
I don’t know what BCS is
which site are you having trouble getting into Halima?
Robert Wachman
9:47 AM
Thanks, Lucy!
Peggy George
9:48 AM
Nellie is definitely a connected educator leader around the world!!
it’s one educator at a time and a very slow process.
Peggy George
9:49 AM
My weekly webinars that I host on Classroom 2.0 LIVE often have 8-10 people each week from other countries!
me
9:50 AM
but Peggy, how many turn up in total?
Thank you, Peggy
Peggy George
9:50 AM
Halima, that is my “About.me” page. Is that the link that won’t open for you?
Nellie, each week we meet on Saturdays and often have between 30-50 people. We record everything so many people also watch recordings if they can’t make it on Saturdays.
me
9:51 AM
That’s great, Peggy.
less on webinars
Halima Ozimova
9:52 AM
Peggy I am reading Your site
Peggy George
9:52 AM
Is this the link that won’t open for you? It’s working for me so maybe it’s just a bandwidth issue for you. https://about.me/peggy_george
I often go back to watch recordings from previous years!
I also love to be able to invite presenters to come and do their presentations for us on Classroom 2.0 LIVE if I think it is something our participants might really find valuable.
I have found some outstanding presenters in the Global Ed Conference
me
9:54 AM
Lucy, where are getting funding? I self-fun and it’s getting hard.
fund
Halima Ozimova
9:54 AM
Dr.Nellie! A GOOD QUESTION!!!
me
9:55 AM
Steve does that, Vance
Peggy George
9:55 AM
Steve hosts a LOT of virtual conferences each year!!!
there is almost one every month of the year!
Robert Wachman
9:56 AM
Is Global Ed site mobile-friendly? Can I access on my iPad?
Peggy George
9:56 AM
he sends out weekly emails to anyone who signs up for the Learning Revolution (free) to announce upcoming activities
yes it is Robert (website). Are you referring to Blackboard Collaborate or the website?
Robert Wachman
9:57 AM
website…for archived material.
Thinking I’d like to listen to sessions while doing the dishes, etc.
Robert, I think you can view the recordings from the archives if they are mp4 video recordings. If they are blackboard collaborate recordings you would need the app to view them
great Nellie! yes the calendar link is on the home page for Learning Revolution
Robert Wachman
10:02 AM
I’ve got a laptop I can use, too. but I usually have my iPad in the kitchen, just easiest.
Peggy George
10:03 AM
you can watch the blackboard collaborate recordings on an ipad using the app
me
10:03 AM
Where do we add to the calendar?
Peggy George
10:03 AM
fortunately we don’t have to understand how Google Calendar works (behind the scenes) to make it work. It just works!
me
10:03 AM
I have my calendar called Integrating Technology
Robert Wachman
10:04 AM
Susan Gaer has given online workshops on Google Calendar, Vance.
Vance Stevens
10:04 AM
there’s a suggestion Robert, L2g session lead!
How can I copy the chat here, it isn’t copyable in my browser
Peggy George
10:05 AM
Nellie are you a partner with the Learning Revolution? You could share your calendar with them too.
Not sure, Peggy. I know Steve asked me to be a sponsor, but I self fund what `I do
Halima Ozimova joined group chat.
Peggy George
10:07 AM
it’s really easy to pick sessions to moderate for the Global Ed Conference
everyone helps each other out!
there is no charge to be a partner Nellie. Sponsors provide financial support.
Robert Wachman
10:08 AM
What’s the timeline for volunteer/moderators?
When do people need to start getting involved? Orientation?
Peggy George
10:08 AM
it’s throughout the entire conference Robert
Delphine Chiao
10:08 AM
thank you, Nellie. I got it into my calendar.
Peggy George
10:09 AM
they even provide training on a recording on how to moderate blackboard collaborate
me
10:09 AM
Thank you, Delphine.
Robert Wachman
10:09 AM
I’ll be in Nepal in Oct.
Vance Stevens
10:09 AM
cool
Peggy George
10:09 AM
Nikki is a huge help for people who want to learn how to moderate and she’ll meet you in a room to provide individualized help
me
10:09 AM
I know do webinars on BB, Adobe Connect, Zoom and WizIQ
Robert Wachman
10:09 AM
I’ll be back home about Nov. 7.
me
10:10 AM
know = now
have a great time, Robert
thank you, Lucy
Robert Wachman
10:10 AM
Thanks, Nellie.
Peggy George
10:11 AM
It has been really great to hear you describe the Global Collaborate Day and the conference Lucy!!! Really informative and now we’ll be able to share the recording link with other people who couldn’t join us.
me
10:11 AM
I’ll see you in Baltimore, Robert
Peggy George
10:11 AM
seeing and hearing you great Robert!
Delphine Chiao
10:12 AM
a wonderful time to listen your sharing. thank you for all sharing.
would you put that in Chatwing? I can’t copy from here
Delphine Chiao left group chat.
Peggy George
10:15 AM
so many fantastic opportunities for us to connect with each other for professional learning!
thank you Robert!!!
me
10:15 AM
thank you
great chat
Lucy Gray
10:15 AM
Thanks everyone!
See you online next week and in November!
Ah
Peggy George
10:15 AM
Thanks everyone for joining us! Have a great weekend! (what’s left of it)
Halima Ozimova
10:15 AM
Thank YOU!
Peggy George
10:16 AM
I get some of my best geography lessons from Vance!
I’ve been going to ISTE every year since 2005!
Robert Wachman
10:16 AM
Thanks, Everyone. I’ll definitely check out events o the 17th and sign up to be a volunteer in Nov.
Peggy George
10:16 AM
Bye everyone!
Robert Wachman
10:17 AM
Will keep a journal and take lots of photos to share in Nepal.
Peggy George
10:17 AM
thanks for your willingness to volunteer Robert!!
Robert Wachman
10:17 AM
Glad to help out; sounds like a great way for a mostly retired educator to be involved.
Lucy Gray
10:18 AM
Yes
me
10:18 AM
you get invited to visit places
Halima Ozimova
10:18 AM
DESPITE FEELING MYSELF LIKE among GURUS i nevertheless try too!
Robert Wachman
10:19 AM
Thanks. I
I”m going to say good night (10 p.m. here) and see if I can listen to a Global Ed session while doing the dishes!
Halima Ozimova
10:19 AM
May I say THANK you!!!
me
10:20 AM
smart phone make things easier
Great to see you, Halima
Peggy George
10:20 AM
the video part of virtual conferences is so valuable because we can see places and people we would never be able to meet face to face!
me
10:20 AM
so true, Peggy
Peggy George
10:20 AM
love being able to see classrooms around the world in these virtual conferences!
me
10:20 AM
have you tried Zoom.us?
Lucy Gray
10:21 AM
Also WhatsApp
Peggy has a new favorite tool
Peggy George
10:22 AM
yes my new favorite tool is Blab!!! awesome for interviews and conversations! much easier to use than hangouts and better quality. Many people can come in and out of the conversations
Diving into the archives of sites like Classroom2.0, Webheads, and my own sites offers great value, but we’ve not figured effective ways to encourage and facilitate that.
In this tweet, I meant for the next 12 months, not just the rest of the calendar year 2018, which is almost over 🙂
Picture credit: Susan Mirandi
Learning2gether 