Derek's Blog

I had an unexpected skype call yesterday with Joe Rigby from MellaniuM, a Toronto-based startup specialising in the development of 3D real-world virtual environments. Joe and his development team have leveraged the Unreal2 engine used in Unreal Tournament game to create this very impressive 3D virtual world - capable of having up to 32 avatars working together in a private virtual world.

MellaniuM works differently from Second Life, in that is it is a Client-Server operation - you need first to download a piece of client software and install it onto your computer, after which all of the processing happens on your desktop, and doesn't rely on this being done across the web. The result is a very impressive, highly detailed 3D virtual environment that you can navigate around with ease, and includes some of the most impressive light-source rendering that I've seen in this sort of thing.

Part of the secret of the very impressive graphics in the environment is that they are rendered directly from Autocad designs to dimension the model to exactly what they are in real life - you can see some examples of this in the video clip.

The other really impressive thing for me was that Joe was able to 'walk' me through the demos of the software using skype - another little innovation that he and his colleagues had worked on.

Already interest is coming from engineering and real estate companies who see potential in these sort of environments for their businesses. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to think of ways in which these environments could be used in education - for virtual field trips, virtual science labs, and virtual classrooms... as we're already seeing happening in places like Second Life, but in this case, in a richer, more graphically detailed environment that "lives" on your own computer.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gone live today, this new project called Skoolaborate which has been developed by staff and pupils at MLC School in NSW, Australia, which they describe as:

Basically a collaborative work with the best ideas from around the globe, specifically targeting the Asia Pacific time zone (China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and other interested Asia Pacific countries). Skoolaborate aims to bring together like minded schools from around the globe so that their students may collaborate and learn from each other through a variety of educational experiences. We hope that Skoolaborate will act as a vehicle that promotes Global Awareness and Understanding.

I've already spoken online tonight with a colleague from a school here in Christchurch who is looking at joining the project!

In their opening post the team announce that they are beginning with a Teen Second Life project - this will be one to watch as it evolves!

I read with interest another post on their site titled "Is Second Life For Real?", most of which is based on what the author's son found after doing a little research based on this question. A quote in this entry caught my eye:

"...What's beginning to catch the attention of IBM and other huge corporations is something potentially far more profound than a new online pastime. It's the ability to use Second Life as a platform for a whole new Net - this one in 3-D and even more social than the original - with huge opportunities to sell products and services."

There's also some interesting discussion on how the line between game and non-game is becoming blurred in the emerging 3-D online world, and how, as a result, we???re looking at new communities, new forms of communication, new areas of socialization...

MMmmm - more to ponder! I'm off for a cuppa to do so.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This new report just out makes for challenging reading. Although based in the US experience, the principles that are discussed are applicable in other contexts.

For those whose interest is in outcomes, the report identifies that the small body of research focused on the effectiveness of K???12 virtual schooling programs supports findings of similar studies on virtual courses in higher education which have found "no significant difference" in student performance in online courses versus traditional face-to-face learning.

But the report goes on to show that in K???12 education, the Internet is enabling deep structural changes. In each case, new organizations are developing alternative management structures, distribution methods, and work models.

The report compares the way that virtual schooling is driving transforming changes in public education with the way Apple's iTunes has changed the music industry.

Where successful, virtual schooling demonstrates that innovative reforms can be readily integrated into the public school system. As a result, it is increasingly important to understand both the innovations that are emerging from online schooling and their potential to leverage reform on a far larger scale in public education.

It has long been my contention that the introduction of online/distance learning options such as what is happening in the NZ video conferencing clusters has the potential to do far more than simply cater for the needs of students in rural schools where some subjects may not be available. This report is certainly worth considering in the NZ context with the numbers of schools that are now participating in the Virtual Learning here. The section on policy recommendations in particular is worth considering in terms of how some of these might be generalised outside the US context.

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Laboratories of Reform: Virtual High Schools and Innovation in Public Education (259K) [download]

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've finally decided to begin my own community in Ning, and have chosen the theme of Virtual Schooling which is an area that I've had a particular interest in since the early 1990s when I worked alongside the CANTAtech cluster. I'm impressed so far with Ning's features and usability - I've easily been able to include the RSS feed from Michael Barbour's Virtual High School Meanderings for instance.

Anyone with an interest in this area is welcome to share their thoughts and experiences! Please pass it on to others who may be interested.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The people at the eLearning Guild have produced yet another great e-book, available free to guild members online, called a handbook on synchronous e-learning.

Anyone who is venturing into the fun-filled world of online teaching using synchronous technologies will find this book a mine of useful information. The main focus of the advice is aimed at users of systems such as Elluminate, WebEx, Centra, Acrobat Connect (formerly Breeze) etc., the advice given is equally applicable to users of traditional video conferencing set ups.

Reading the book took me back to the early days of audio-graphics and video conferencing in NZ when I ran workshops for teachers and we produced pages of notes etc - the contents of this book reflect the same sorts of advice, including;

• designing for the virtual classroom,
  
• preliminary planning
  
• setting up
  
• showtime!
  
• wrap-up and follow-up

The advice itself is very practical, with useful lists of tips and suggestions that could easily be used in any context.

In addition, there's a useful introduction to synchronous e-Learning that provides a comprehensive rationale for why you might choose to tech in this manner. One thing I was pleased to see was reference to the use of an LMS as an adjunct to the synchronous tool (some may argue it's the other way round!) - which reinforces the notion that e-learning is often about choosing combinations of tools rather than focusing on a single modality. to this end there's a useful table comparing the features of synchronous and asynchronous learning included in the introduction.

Overall, another excellent publication from the eLearning Guild containing ideas and advice that is applicable across all areas - business, tertiary, schools etc.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I've just been reading through some of the articles and papers that are a part of special issue of The High School Journal (December 1995/January 1996) that was developed on the Horizon site.
They can be found within the Projects page of the Horizon Site, under the heading Essays on The Future of Secondary Education.

There are some great reads here from authors including James Morrison and Andy Garvin who frequently appear on readings lists and links associated with the areas of education that I'm intertested in.

Three of the essays have particuarly taken my attention, the first being The Inquiry School: A Sketch of a High School for the Next Generation by David Marshak from Seattle University. This was of particular interest in terms of discussions we've been having in my workplace about the need to develop a disposition of Inquiry in students to prepare them for their future. Marshak bases his essay on the assertion that secondary schools are caught in a struggle between, on the one hand, a push for common standards for all students, and on the other, developing programmes that reflect the needs of learners in authentic ways. His solution is an Inquiry School:
a model for a high school that could bridge the polarity between these two perspectives and result in high school graduates who are both competent and knowledgeable according to a set of common standards and skilled, thoughtful, and lively self-directed learners.
In the essay Marshak outlines the six guiding principles for such a school, and even gets down to the detail of describing how the programme would operate, which includes two dimensions - a group programme and a mentor programme.

The second essay that caught my eye is titled Students as Producers: Using the World Wide Web as Publishing House by Richard Smyth from Hamline University. Smyth focuses on two cases to illustrate how teachers can assign collaborative writing assignments incorporating hypertextual principles of composition that require students to prepare texts to publish on the Web. There's an interesting quote towards the end of the essay where the author refers to...

Ben Shneiderman (1992) calls for both "engagement," which he defines as "interaction with people" (p. 18), and "construction," which occurs when "students create a product from their collaboration" (p. 20). reference included in the essay

A third article of interest is New Possibilities for Teaching Diverse Populations in Tomorrow's High School by Laurence R. Marcus and Theodore Johnson from Rowan College of New Jersey. This one has particular relevance in NZ where the focus on Diverse Learners is a key part of the Ministry of Education's Schooling Strategy. Marcus and Johnson suggests that the effective use of instructional technology, along with the reconceptualization of the role of the teacher, can help students to achieve their potentials within heterogeneous settings in the high school of the future.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Article in a recent edition of Wyoming's StarTribune.net titled Virtual School Hits Obstacles tells of the efforts of a local school district to open a 'virtual elementary school'.

It's an intriquing tale involving a commercial company who have developed the curriculum materials, the district that is promoting the use and the department of education who are opposing it. There is the predictable tug-of-war over students, with the district claiming they're targetting home schoolers, and the department saying they can't support the "poaching" of students from other districts.

Within the article itself however, two quotes made me think about where we're at in NZ in the development of virtual schooling:

Defending the intention of the virtual school, a local principal is quoted as saying:

"We felt there was a real large number of students, whether they were home-school based or students in families that had mobility issues, that needed to have a consistent and high-quality education, and we wanted to provide that for them."

This sounds a very plausible reason for starting such a school - similar focus on quality and opportunity that underpins the intentions of the efforts here in NZ. My comment would be, while these are laudable goals, the next move must surely be to provide evidence to support the "feelings" that are expressed here. For the promise of virtual schooling to be realised we've got to move past what we think is a good idea and begin gathering hard data to support the notion that students are receiving a better education and better educational opportunities as a result.

And on the matter of supporting the virtual school into the future, an official from the department is quoted as saying:

"For the school to continue in future years, the Legislature will have to pass a law allowing the Department of Education to fund virtual schools, and the department will have to write rules on how these schools are to be run."

Here's the real rub - the "rules" that govern how our existing (face to face) schools operate were developed in an era before virtual schooling was even conceived of. In New Zealand the regulations around how schools receive funding for students, and how staffing entitlements are worked out are all premised on the notion of schools as physical places of instruction, with students in classes taking courses in full year programmes etc. In my experience, any attempts so far to change or adapt these "rules" have been reactive, and approach virtual learning as problematic, rather than taking a more 'green fields' approach that truly tries to align a new set of 'rules' that will encourage and support the aspirations of virtual schooling as articulated in the previous quote. Let's hope that is the approach they'll take in Wyoming?

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Interesting article in the News Tribune.com today titled "Virtual instruction, real learning" providing a 'good news' story about the impact of online learning opportunities for school age students in the US.

The article reports on the small, but growing trend among students in Washington State public schools - . The number of students studying online and receiving course credit from public schools has more than tripled over the past five years. Some interesting examples to illustrate this, plus a useful list of characteristics of successful learners in an online environment at the end.

This supports the view I have of what is happening in New Zealand. I've recently been collating some information from two of the video conferencing clusters, OtagoNet and Cantatech , to explore how well these clusters have performed in terms of the retention and achievement of students learning in this environment.

Initial analysis of the data reveals that schools in each of these clusters are seeing a 30% improvement in the retention of students at the senior level of the school over the academic year. In addition, achievement rates are between 68% - 78% of the total number of achievement standards that are available in the courses offered.

For a more complete picture of the extent of involvement in clusters such as these in NZ check out the Virtual Learning Network website which brokers courses between and among the clusters.

The Tribune article also refers to the benefits of online learning for those who are unable to participate in regular schooling for a variety of reasons (health, beliefs, phobias, transience etc.) Again, similar experiences exist in NZ, with innovative online programmes such as LearnNow involving students from around the world in thematic, collaborative projects that are mentored and assessed by a teacher. In addition to being used by a number of individuals who are unable to attend school, the LearnNow programme is also being used within a number of schools to provide an enrichment/extension programme for more able students.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)