Virtual Worlds

Dr. Jones validated what we all have learned. Digital technology and games excite the brain! According to him, it seems as though gaming is safe enough if we keep the children off of games and TV at night. Kids need their sleep to remember their studies, and I am sure that is true. His studies pose some evidence of gaming addiction, but addiction is not prevalent in the digital realm, rather it is a sidebar. That is good news for those of us who have fallen in love with gaming. I was very interested in the science of educational gaming, and I believe that there was something to the hunter instinct with relation to gaming. We need to begin a discussion of how gaming works in relation to uncertain reward and dopamine release. The video explains why my son can pay attention to games but not his classroom studies without ADHD meds. it is interesting to think that gaming could potentially change the way we deal with ADHD. I found it disturbing that we humans have a change in brain pattern when our competitors fail, but not when they achieve. Must be why reality TV is so big now. ; )
 
Dr. Bavelier's video was eye-opening. It is interesting that gamers solve conflict faster and have ability to track more objects within their space. I have heard that gaming helps to develop attention skills before, but I didn't know that it improves one's ability to switch tasks efficiently. I also found it interesting that multimedia tasking and multi-tasking are not the same, and different games have different effects on the brain. I like her comparison of broccoli and chocolate with respect to action gaming. I have also felt that it has some good and bad impacts, and think we need to learn more if we want to use it for education.
 
Luminosity was great, but I'm afraid I didn't do well on it. Luminosity takes the knowledge of neuroplasticity to a new level by providing games that work the brain harder to build plasticity and grow new synapses. I thought it was interesting to read that taxi driver’s brains changed when they had to learn "The Knowledge" for their tests. Dr. Jones made it clear that video games do change the brain in a relatively short amount of playing time. Playing a game like luminosity seems to be a better solution than Sudoku or crossword puzzles because of how quickly the brain will change and perform better, as Dr. Jones pointed out. I imagine after you have played for a while, you get used to the reward system and it isn't as effective. I wonder if using luminosity would help ADHD children. It seems that if educational gaming was set up to keep student attention through each quarter and phase of learning, it would possibly be different enough to be rewarding and interesting. As a past 3D tech and trainer, it is a very interesting prospect! Finally, if we approach assessment by utilizing gaming, it would be much easier for teachers to track and report progress, plus we could use the data we collect to substantiate the learning techniques we use.
 
VR games like CP invoke spatial thinking in 3D, and fire neurons in the brain that aren't normally used. This enables students to think not just in the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) 2D dimensions, but also in the Z (depth) or 3rd dimension. The article "improving spatial ability using a Web-based Virtual Environment discussed some interesting facts about the learning timeframe for spatial thinking and that boys were better at it than girls. So my idea of teaching students 3D design at an early age is accurate. Why is this? I think it's a matter of gender bias in teaching young children and it needs to change. Learning in a WVE like CP is a great way to start. What we experienced in Cloud Party (CP) when we initially began to build for this project were depth perception challenges in our brain because most of us haven't utilized those thought processes before. I do disagree that older folks will not learn spatial relationships easily because ALL of my learning occured after the age of 30.
 
I like 3D for everything! I think it would be fun to mashup Google Earth (GE) and a 3D world like CP. It would be really interesting to navigate the entire planet as an avatar too! I believe it is nearly possible to do that now since GE has mapped the elevation of much of the planet (and the moon). I fantasize that our avatars could possibly dig for mummies in Egypt, go diving in the Great Barrier Reef or walk around the Louvre and downtown Paris.
 
Since we can't use VR quite like that yet, I can see a great use for it right now as it stands. I like the idea of people meeting with each other in real time and in one place to get the feeling of connection. I also think that it was neat for us to use our avatars to see how we were building while we were doing it. I can see a practical use for VR as a architect, since it would allow a client to walk around a building and move inside and out to inspect it. There is a program type called BIM (Building Information Management) that allows designers to build in 3D so they can see building conflicts before breaking ground, which saves money. By including the functionality of avatars, architectural firms could hold meetings in and around the actual building model and point out changes. Weather would be good to check strength in materials. This would be really handy for international projects and collaboration for clients, as well as designers.
 
I also have searched for a VR program that students can use to work out problems such as geometry, specifically area and speed. If the scale were set up right and could be utilized, students could build their own shapes and better learn about the mechanics of geometry. This is important to engineering, and I have noticed many students do not know the difference between radius and diameter, which is very basic. it also will help them commit knowledge to long-term memory, which I am guessing is the problem my students have. We all learn the difference between the two, Rad and Dia, in middle school but can forget quickly.
 
The 2007 Horizon Report we reviewed last week was very accurate in their anticipation of user-created content, social networking and virtual worlds. As it turns out students are using these technologies both at school and at home, and they spend most of their time on them. Now in 2013, we see the positive and negative effects of VR and social networking, and I think we can design very good online instruction because we know what does and doesn’t work. Utilizing community networks is a great way to share knowledge and reinforce learning. As students collaborate online, they begin to rely on each other and utilize good teamwork strategies.

In the reading from last week one point stands out that we discussed during our meeting at Dr. Lambert's VR home this week, and that is the idea of blending VR and F2F instruction. the article about using Second Life for educational gaming covered that approach. Dr. Young, et al summized, "one group was allowed to participate in both online and traditional classroom sections, which out performed both groups. For this study, a combination of the two technologies was more effective than using either technology alone". It appears that we are not the only grad students who believe this approach to be most effective. I think that for some reason we as humans want to put a face to the communication we receive from other people. It validates our learning for some reason and I think it provides safety. By the term safety, I mean a conflict-free learning environment. Dr. Lambert also brought up halographic gaming in education. I think it will become a leading technology when it becomes more available in the US.

This class has taught me a lot about new tech and gaming. I thought I knew a lot about these topics, but now I know that I have a lot more to learn. I am having fun in the process; McGonigal is quite right about that!

 

Sources:

 

Young, W., Franklin, T., Cooper, T., Carroll, S. & Liu, C. (2012). Game-based Learning Aids in Second Life. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 23(1), 57-80. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.