Challenger Learning Center South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University Virtual Learning Communities 21 st Century Learning

Virtual Learning Communities (VLC) is based on a professional learning community model that uses a blend of face-to-face and online curriculum to connect teams of educators on a local, state, and global level 2

Through immersion in multimedia, and social networking sites such as Ning, Diigo, Blogs and Wikis, participants learn how to interact online with other members, and with experts from around the globe that are part of the collaborative network. 3

They can share discussions, photos, audio, video, and hypertext links to connect to relevant resources and to solve real world problems. 4

5 E-Learning Online Learning Virtual Education Community Engagement Creativity and Imagination Real World Collaborative Problem Solving

History

MOO MUD A MOO (MUD, object oriented Multi-User Dungeon) is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users (players) are connected at the same time

Sample of a typical MUD interaction.

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Generation Y Perspectives

Because we work here

But truthfully, we tend to work just as much here.

Roughly speaking, Generation Y is defined as

There are over 70 million people in the U.S. belonging to Gen Y

And just like the Baby Boomers, that is aa large group of people that is IMPACTING society

47% and is projected to be 47% of the workforce by % Generation Y is currently 25% of the workforce

But what defines Generation Y?

The Young and The Digital What the Migration to Social-Networked Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future.

Demands instant gratification Impatient if delayed… but highly adaptable. Instant information Attracted to Large Social Movements Wired Expecting (NOW! Not 5 minutes from now) Global Interdependent Quickly bored Mobile Likes mentors multi-tasking empowered

Laptop Clicker Notes Web IM Cell Phone iPod This is what many of us are dealing with

21 st Century Learning What makes learning different now than 10 years ago?

Is the traditional concept of top-down, one-way communications strategy dead ?

27 A Vision of Students Today

CCCCCC limate lient lassroom

Engaged

Actively Constructing Knowledge

Pedagogy Tools Constructionism; think of it as 'learning-by-making‘ Tied to online learning Constructivism; building on prior knowledge

Entertaining Informative Interesting

33 Know What’s Out There

Emmersive Education

The CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment at Rowan University 21 st Century Virtual Reality Learning 35

36 CAVE –Automatic Virtual Environment Lightsaber demo

What does all this have to do with virtual worlds and real learning?

The world is connected today in ways that are shattering traditional communications concepts.

The Google Model 39

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41 Google Sky

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Learning has to be about more than test scores

Is Real learning taking place in virtual and digital environments? digital world you can record everything that happens and this trace becomes your digital footprintdigital footprint

How does this improve LEARNING?

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60 How Does Technology Save Money?

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63 School Bloggers 21 st Century Blogging

EIRC Online Technology Web Moodle Wiki’s H:\Telent21\VLC\web 2.0 links.htm 64

Think of this as a movement, not a specific tool

Be prepared for change

Be prepared for resistance

Fear Misinformation

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn 69

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The Shift/ /ing Landscape

72 John Henry EIRC