Meeting in Second Life

I've been doing a little research for a colleague for a grant they are working on. The idea is to have townhall meetings via SecondLife. Unfortunately, the target audience is FAR from millenials, so I don't really know how it's gonna work out.

Here's an interesting blog post I found which is confirming my fears:

Real Business Meetings in 3D Virtual Worlds Won't Go Mainstream For Many Years, Platform Evangelist Predicts

Real world businesses won't widely use virtual worlds like Second Life to hold meetings for quite some time -- that's the prediction of Erica Driver ofThinkBalm, a consultancy firm which specializes in the use of Second Life and other virtual worlds for business applications. (I wrote about one of their innovative SL applicationsin 2009.) Only last January, Erica predicted that 2013 was the year when mainstream adoption of virtual meetings would take hold. Now, however, as she tells Roland Legrand of Mixed Realities, she considers the 2013 prediction “a little bit aggressive." Since then, as Erica expands on Think Balm's blog, there's been a number of setbacks for enterprise use of virtual worlds: Oracle stopping financing its Project Wonderland virtual work platform, for instance, and "[k]ey roles on Linden Lab’s enterprise team were folded into the broader organization and several folks on the enterprise team have moved on".

more...

I still think Second Life could be awesome for meetings though! Check out this screencast of me wandering around SL looking for meeting rooms:)

Methods for Blended Learning

Margaret Driscoll of IBM write a great article on examples of various methods for blended learning:

Here's the list, see the article for details:

1. Put the assessment online.

2. Follow up with a community of practice.

3. Make reference materials available.

4. Deliver pre-work online.

5. Provide online office hours.

6. Use mentoring/coaching as a tool.

7. Provide job-aids.

8. Access experts.

9. Create a "lifeline".

10. Maximize e-mail and messaging.

I always say that if you teach online the same way you teach face-to-face, then you're not really teaching online. How does your style change when you tech online.

Mac Applications for Educators

Dru Ryan presented this to a group of educators at the LEAGUE conference in Baltimore. There were about 50 MAc enthusiasts in the room and the topic was well received.

Mac Applications for Educators

View more presentations from druryan.

Engagement in Technology

According to a Thompson Netg job security study in 2002, blended learning yielded better results than online learning alone.

They point out:

1. Blended Learning performance was 30% more accurate than e-learning alone



2. Blended learning performance on the real world task was 41 percent faster than e-learning alone



3. Blended learning performance was 159% more accurate than no training



4. E-learning was 99% more accurate than no training

The results of the study say scenario-based exercises are the most effective for face to face and online materials.

For more on Blended Learning, check out the Brandon Hall Report: The Real Story: Blended Learning.