Virtual worlds in the classroom: taking the tyranny out of distance

Australian's are generally familiar with the term "tyranny of distance" but many won't realise it was used as the title of a book about Australian history by Geoffrey Blainey

The Tyranny of Distance' is the classic account of how Australia's geographical remoteness has been central to shaping our history and identity--and how it will continue to form our future.


As well as being hailed as a work of enduring scholarship, 'The tyranny of Distance' brings our history to life. Geoffrey Blainey recounts the fascinating story of Australia's development, from Captain Cook's bold voyages and the hardships of the early settlers, through to the challenges we face in the world today.

'This revised and updated edition examines how distance and isolation, while tamed, have always been and will remain vital to Australia's development, even in the twenty-first century 'global village'.

Next week I will be attending the DEHub summit in Sydney.
The focus is Education 2011 to 2021- Global challenges and perspectives of blended and distance learning.
The Symposium panel that I am part of on Wed 16 Feb at 3.25 pm is posing the question: Can virtual worlds take the distance out of education?

My contribution relates to what Education Services Australia has been doing in the Distance Education arena:

ImmersED in Reaction Grid 2009

* Provided an environment for educators to explore virtual worlds.

Two completed activities were 3D Safari (explore educational sims) and Job Interview Roleplay – where teachers and students could take the role of interviewer or job applicant to experience the use of virtual worlds as a role play tool.

* Supported by an edna Group http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=2420

* Video created: Immersive Learning: It’s Game On! Available via the edna Group

MyFuture Australia on Second Life 2011
* Supports delivery of career education materials by myfuture.edu.au

* Aimed at career education practitioners and Australian SL visitors

* http://bit.ly/myfutureSLhelp

Today I have been given an interesting ACER publication: Virtual Worlds. Learning in a changing world by Judy O'Connell and Dean Groom.

It begins: Virtual worlds - shared graphical spaces on the Internet - are an exciting new medium for the 21st century. They are the natural evolution of the digital technologies that are defining the 21st century, just as telephone, radio, film and TV helped to define life in the 20th century.

From the final pages: Virtual worlds challenge educators to re-evaluate teaching methods, curriculum, pedagogy, resources, beliefs, attitudes, environmnets, assessment methods and policies that have been the foundations of learning and teaching environments.

The book (51pp) will be valuable to educators for the descriptions of what virtual worlds can offer and for the selected lists, particularly of virtual world environments, where they can learn more and add online communities to their own personal learning networks. There are compelling arguments for why educators should be dipping their toes in virtual waters.

What is an e-book?

Searching out e-text book initiatives in Australian educational institutions, particularly schools, has led me to the conclusion that in some cases we are not using the same terminology and that there is a wide spectrum of what people mean by the term e-book, depending on where they are coming from.

I like this definition from Wikipedia:
An electronic book (also e-book, ebook, digital book) is a text and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronic version of a printed book," but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices. Personal computers and some cell phones can also be used to read e-books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book (check the link for further information)

What I like about that definition in particular is that it points out that an e-book is usually read on a dedicated device, and I would add to that, that the e-book can be read off-line.
In Australia where good bandwidth is still a pipe dream in some areas, this feature is really important. Anything else assumes that the device will have 3G connectivity rather than wireless.

It appears that some publishers are supplying what they call "e-book versions" of existing text-books on CD for installation onto netbooks or laptops. The cost is basically the same as a print version of the text, and in fact, in some cases they say they are throwing the CD in for "free", as a justification for charging the same.

Another the scenario is the one where the publisher is supplying a pdf of the text to the school at "half-price". They are supplying the school with a limited download (number of copies) of the pdf, and the school has agreed that the pdf will expire at the end of the academic year, and in the following year they will need to pay the same licence fee. Once again it does not seem to me that this is really an e-book. The responsibility for downloading the pdf to the student laptop/netbooks has been thrown on to the school and the netbooks require Adobe software for the e-books to be read.
Another version of this is the publisher supplying the school with a list of codes which enable the download of a pdf to an individual computer.
Where the publisher is supplying the pdfs at "half-price", they will recoup the profit margin on supplying the books over 2 years, and then continue to reap profit in ensuing years.  I can't see any ongoing costs for the publisher unless they are promising to update the e-book on an annual basis.

Here are my calculations:

Scenario 1: continue to buy paper books
The school buys 200 copies of a paper text book at $60 per book - the cost is $12,000
Under normal circumstances these text books will last 4-5 years.
If 4 years, the cost is $3,000
 
Scenario 2: embark on the e-book scheme
Year 1: Buy 200 "digital versions" @ $30 = $6,000
Year 2: Buy 200 "digital versions" @ $30 = $6,000
At the end of this period the school has nothing to show for $12,000, no books to hand on, no stocks on the shelves.
They will continue to pay $6000 a year for the scheme.
At the end of 4 years the cost has been $24,000

The other e-book scenario that is beginning to emerge is the "cloud computing" one where the e-book is supplied online and is never downloaded to the device.
The recipient's "library" is admittedly always available online but again this scenario assumes "always-on" connectivity and good to high bandwidth.

What are your thoughts?

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Use the calendar for more than dates

Calendars can be a great classroom resource and inspiration for research.

The Australian Schools Calendar on edna and this one from New Zealand both alert teachers and students to special days that can be "observed" in the classroom.

Student activities can be as simple as working out how old the person whose birthday is marked on the calendar "is", or looking for websites that are celebrating the day, the month or the year. Many of those sites have an educational focus and special activities for students.

Students will often get a real kick out of finding out who shares their birthday or if any significant events have happened on that calendar date. Once they have located some basic information they can research to find out more and present it to the rest of the class. Extended research could be turned into a powerpoint presentation or an e-book. They could create an online e-book at issuu.com

Another interesting source of information are the Google logos. You have probably noticed these occasionally when you use a Google search. The Google doodlers have become more adventurous over time and the logos more interesting.

For example today, Feb 8, the Google logo celebrates Jules Verne's birthday in 1828. Classroom research might start with how old he would be, but then get on to why we want to remember him. The library might have a copy of one of his books or you might find a movie based on it. If you have e-readers, then the Gutenberg Project may help you out. Around the World in 80 Days is here. You could create an e-book using ereadups.com or simply search Wikipedia or similar to find out what has been named after Jules Verne. Classroom discussion could centre around the role of visionary authors in pointing us to what might be possible.

So why not get started today? Print a calendar or two out. Festoon your classroom or your library with them, and start celebrating!

 

 

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