http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V68N1/inrev15.html
How can academic libraries best help students sort through the growing thicket of online information? By Stanley Wilder
The premise of information literacy is that the supply of information has become overwhelming, and that students need a rigorous program of instruction in research or library-use skills, provided wholly or in part by librarians.
The idea behind information literacy is that our typical freshman is drowning in information, when in fact Google provides her with material she finds good enough, and does so instantaneously. Information literacy assumes that she accepts unquestioningly the information she finds on the Internet, when we know from research that she is a skeptic who filters her results to the best of her ability. Information literacy tells us that she cannot recognize when she needs information, nor can she find, analyze, or use it, when she demonstrably does all of those things perfectly well, albeit at a relatively unsophisticated level.
Simply put, information literacy perceives a problem that does not exist. Furthermore, it misses the real threat of the Internet altogether—which is that it is now sufficiently simple and powerful that students can graduate without ever using the library. That is unfortunate because, for all its strengths, the Internet cannot give students the high-quality scholarly information that is available only through subscription, license, or purchase.
As Roy Tennant noted in the January 1, 2001, Library Journal, “only librarians like to search; everyone else likes to find.” Any educational philosophy is doomed to failure if it views students as information seekers in need of information-seeking training.
Information literacy is also harmful because it encourages librarians to teach ways to deal with the complexity of information retrieval, rather than to try to reduce that complexity.
“The library is a place where readers come to write, and writers come to read.” Dow casts students not as information seekers, but as apprentices engaged in a continuous cycle of reading and writing.
Librarians should use their expertise to deepen students’ understanding of the disciplines they study. My note: ant that’s why LRS needs area specialists, not traditional librarians.
The library must also do a better job of reaching more students, more often. Librarians need to use their expertise to make the library’s online presence approach the simplicity and power of the Internet.
http://projectinfolit.org/
about early adults and their research habits
by Kevin Smith, M.L.S., J.D., Lisa A. Macklin, J.D.,M.L.S., Anne Gilliland, JD, MLS
thread Wk 1 – T2: Copyright: Shortened or Lengthened? – PART 1
Follow the money” was mentioned as a way to understand the concept of copyright and copyright law
Copyright lengths should be shortened. Term lengths like these rarely benefit actual people. They benefit corporations, be it publishers or things like Disney.
Karen Lightner: I can see the usefulness of bringing the US into line with the Berne Convention, so that we are in line with other nations’ laws. But the additional 20 years we have added for individuals and the incredibly long period for corporations goes against, I believe, what the founding fathers intended when they specified for a limited time.
Edwin A Quist: There are collections of so-called production music issued with licenses to be used for educational videos. We have at least two sets of these in our music library (in various styles: rock ,classical, world, electronic, etc.) — but don’t expect great art! Also WikiMedia Commons has some CC licensed music.
Brad Whitehead: I have no quarrel with protecting corporate trademarks — Disney characters or Nike swooshes, etc. — but maintaining monopolies on creative works for such extended periods primarily enriches publishers with no benefit to the creators.
Nicholas Theo: There are definitely works created where it can be next to impossible to find the owner, or their descendant 20 years after the creation of the work. I have also witnessed when you do track these people down that they want an exorbitant sum of money for permission to use their creation even when there has been absolutely no interest in it. In the end no deal is made. On the other hand I work with two small non profit organizations whose body of work is of value. The material is actively used, and the body of work is a core asset for the organization. What happens to each organization once the copyrights expire? One organization faces this reality in 2015. The Internet permits an environment where decades of work may be used, and in some instances in ways the original material was never intended to be used. For instance, written passages can be misquoted and there will no longer be a legal mechanism to halt this practice.
Karen Case: I would be curious to know if the Youtube video with Mozart would have been removed if the link was made private.
Susan Martel: I think about The Hobbit which was published in 1937. The author, Tolkien, died in 1973, and I remember his books being popular in the seventies and the eighties. It was fairly recently that movies were made based on his books. It seems fair (and I hope that it is the case) that he left a great legacy behind to his family so that they could continue to receive income from his work. If Tolkien’s works were in the public domain by the time the movies were made, it is just an easy way for those working in the movie industry to become even wealthier without having to pay anything to the author or his beneficiaries. Not all works have the kind of potential that Tolkien’s did, but without a crystal ball to predict the future it may be difficult to predict accurately what works will have continued success for generations and which will just be a flash in the pan.
Charles N. Norton: There is something called “Good Faith” effort that many archives hold to that tends to be the “standard” when trying to use copyrighted material for educational use, but it really only applies when you know who the copyright holder is and for whatever reason they simply do not respond to your requests. It does not remove the authors rights and, in fact, many times one does end up having to remove shared material after the fact because the copyright holders finally does get around to denying permission.
Lesli Moore: I’m glad to see some discussion about Open Access to works. Perhaps instead of shortening the term, creators can circumvent the terms by offering open access using Creative Commons.
Jef Gielen: There are pros and cons. Do we find it reasonable that heirs take benefit from a work they did not contribute to at all ? To me, this is not evident. On the other hand, the copyright can be in hand of foundations trying to continue the work of an author – e.g. by means of scholarships. That’s another story ..
Resources:
Here is a complete list of all the suggested readings for the Copyright for Educations and Librarians Course. Click here for a downloadable PDF version of the Suggested Readings that contains the full URL links.
Week 1
- The Copyright Law of the United States, Title 17 of the U.S. Code. Please scan the section headings to gain a general idea of the structure of the law.
- United States Copyright Office website, at http://copyright.gov/. Please read circular #1, “ Copyright Basics.”
- James Boyle, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. PDF book version. Please read Chapter One, “Why Intellectual Property?”
- Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson & Andrew Kenyon, Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization (Cornell University Library, 2009). Please read chapters 1 & 2.
- Kevin Smith & Lisa Macklin, Handout on “A Framework for Analyzing any Copyright Problem.”
Week 2
- The Copyright Law of the United States, Title 17 of the U.S. Code. Please read sections 101 through 106 and section 109.
- United States Copyright Office website, at http://copyright.gov/. Please read circulars 9 (“Work Made for Hire under the 1976 Copyright Act“) and 21 (“Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarian”).
- Peter Hirtle, “Copyright and the Public Domain in the United States,” online chart.
- Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson & Andrew Kenyon, Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization (Cornell University Library, 2009). Please read chapters 3 & 4.
- “Copyright Law & Public Domain,” a series of short essays from NOLO, Law for All, at.
Week 3
- The Copyright Law of the United States, Title 17 of the U.S. Code. Available at http://www.copyright.gov/title17/. Please read sections 108 and 110.
- Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson & Andrew Kenyon, Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization (Cornell University Library, 2009). Please read chapter 6.
- Peggy Hoon, “The Original TEACH Act Toolkit.”
- Creative Commons website at . Please read the “Choose a license” page and “About the Licenses“.
- Copyright and Fair Use, Stanford University Libraries, “The Basics of Getting Permission” athttp://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/introduction/getting-permission/.
- “Permissions,” Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University Libraries.
- David R. Hansen, Copyright Reform Principles for Libraries, Archives, and Other Memory Institutions, 29 Berkeley Tech. L.J. (forthcoming 2014).
Samples:
OPTIONAL – Resources on music copyright:
Sources for examples:
For the history behind the controversy over “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” listen to these three YouTube videos:
Week 4
The Teacher’s Guide To Twitter
http://www.edudemic.com/guides/guide-to-twitter/
Create, Don’t Just Consume
Connect and Network
Share Your Resources
Guide To Education-Oriented Twitter Hashtags
http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/education-twitter-hashtags-730×1805.jpg
Getting Connected
With these tips and tools, you’ll be able to get connected with the people that matter most to you on Twitter.
- Follow experts: Get useful information from other experts in your field.
- Twitterholic: With Twitterholic, you’ll be able to find the most popular users on Twitter.
- Make friends with your competition: It may seem counterintuitive, but connecting with your competition can help keep you in the know and well networked.
- Twitter Fan Wiki: Find a directory and more in this wiki.
- Don’t follow too many new people at once: Follow too many people without reciprocation, and you’ll come off as a spammer.
- TwitterPacks: Check out this tool to locate people according to their interest group.
- WeFollow: Find people by industry or hobby using WeFollow.
- Follow back: When you discover new followers, be sure to follow them back if they are interesting or offer value to you.
- Keep your follow ratio balanced: Follow too many people without being followed back, and you will seem spammy, but if you have lots of followers that you don’t follow back, you’ll come off as snobby.
- Localtweeps: You can use this tool to filter tweets by zip code.
- Participate in Twitter events: Be a part of #followfriday, #musicmonday, and similar events to be a part of the community.
- Geofollow: Search for others in your location with this site.
- Twitterel: With Twitterel, you can find users with common interests.
- Twinfluence: Use Twinfluence to discover users with good reach, velocity, and social capital.
- Twellow: Use Twellow to find Twitter users based on category.
- Twitter Snipe: Twitter Snipe will auto follow users based on your niche.
- Talk to people about their interests: Show that you’re human by discussing things that are important to others.
- Follow your followers’ followers: Check out the follow lists of people you find interesting and connect with them.
- Be patient: Amassing Twitter followers doesn’t happen overnight. Be patient, and you’ll build a group of valuable followers.
Search
Put Twitter’s massive amounts of information to work by using these search tips and tools.
- Twitority: This search engine offers results based on Twitter users with authority.
- TwitterLocal: Search for tweets around a specific area with the help of this tool.
- Use keyword tricks: Take advantage of the advanced search option on Twitter.
- Use quotation marks: If you’re looking for a specific term, put it in quotation marks to get better results.
- Twithority: With Twithority, you’ll find Twitter search results with authority.
- Use hashtags: If you come across a useful hashtag, click on it to see what else you’ll find.
- Subscribe: Keep up with useful keywords and hashtags by setting up an RSS subscription for them.
- Pay attention to trends: Stay on top of the latest in your field by seeking out and participating in trending topics. For instance, students enrolled in political science degree programs may want to follow trending topics related to upcoming local and state elections.
- Retweetist: Retweetist shares popular trends, topics, and people using retweets on Twitter.
- Tweet Volume: With this tool, you can find out if your keywords are popular on Twitter or not.
- Tweetmeme: Check out Tweetmeme to learn about retweeting stats for articles on Twitter.
- Twitt(url)y: Find out about hot news with this tool that sorts URLs by how frequently they are mentioned in tweets.
- Twackle: With this aggregator, you’ll be able to find news and more in a single destination.
- Twitter Sniffer for Brands: Twitter Sniffer makes it easy for you to keep track of conversations about you on Twitter.
- Twuoted: Find popular quotes with this site that follows the #quote hashtag.
- Tweet Scan: Follow Twitter conversations by keyword and category using Tweet Scan.
- Monitter: Stay on top of 3 keywords at once with this keyword search tool.
- Pay attention to timing: Monitor the most popular hours for your Twitter followers, then concentrate your most important messages in those hours for more effective tweeting.
Organization
With these tips and tools, you can keep all of your information on Twitter well organized.
- Use a tool to manage Twitter: Don’t let your research get lost-use a tool to organize everything.
- Tweetdeck: Make use of this tool to organize tweets from various groups into easy to manage categories.
- Don’t try to read everything: You will be on Twitter all day and all night if you try to read every single tweet from your followers-just drop in when you can.
- My Tweeple: This tool will help you organize the people you’re following.
- Tweetree: See your Twitter stream in a tree with organized conversations using Tweetree.
- Make good use of alert tools: Make sure you’re not missing good conversations by setting up alerts that will tell you when friends and other Twitter users discuss keywords you’re interested in.
- Tweet Clouds: Analyze your keyword usage with this tool.
- Twitterator: Monitor groups of people while staying organized with the help of this script.
Authority Building
Follow these tips and use these tools in order to establish yourself as an authority in your field.
- Own your brand: Even if you don’t want to use your real name on Twitter, at least claim it so that no one else can use it against you.
- Be retweetable: Share tweets that others will want to retweet.
- Use popular tweets as blog posts: If you share a site or bit of information that turns out to be very popular, use it as a jumping off point for a blog post.
- Use your real name as your Twitter name: Be more personal and authoritative by using your real name.
- Respond: Don’t just sit in your ivory tower-talk back to the people who want to engage with you.
- Share your credentials: Let people know why you’re an expert in your field.
- Shake things up: Offer a good variety in your stream of links, blog posts, retweets, responses, and questions.
- Just don’t spam: Don’t do it-no one likes it, and it won’t be tolerated.
- Share information: Gain a reputation as an expert by sharing helpful links, resources, and more.
- Be sincere: Be honest and considerate in your tweets and replies.
- Find out authoritative keywords: See which keywords the authorities in your niche are using.
- Discuss what’s hot: Share your opinions and resources on what’s currently moving on Twitter.
- Don’t go crazy with links: Avoid using your Twitter account just to post links to your blog.
- Point out interesting information: Don’t just talk about yourself, discuss what’s happening in your field.
- Follow authorative accounts: Populate your Twitter neighborhood with people who have authority.
- Promote your Twitter URL: Share your Twitter name on your email, blog, Facebook, and other locations online so people can find you.
- Slow down: Don’t clog up your followers’ Twitter screens-keep your Tweets relevant and interesting, not inane and constant.
- Don’t always talk about yourself: Talk about more than just your own agenda.
- Be helpful: Spread goodwill by answering questions, introducing others, and offering recommendations.
- Reply to others: Get involved with the people you follow and engage in the Twitter conversation with replies.
- Show your personality: Show off the person behind the brand on Twitter.
- Use keywords: Use keywords that are important to your field to attract followers.
Getting Value
Follow these tips to make sure you’re getting value out of your Twitter experience.
- Networking: Meet offline with others in your field to get great value out of Twitter.
- Be useful: Give advice, resources, and more.
- Fill out your bio: Make sure people know where to go to find more information about you.
- Use Twitter on your blog: Keep your blog updated up to the minute with Twitter.
- Stop abuse in its tracks: Use Twitter to find out who is badmouthing you, and use action to stop it.
- Connect with complementary businesses: Find value in Twitter by getting connected with others that can support your business or niche.
- Enjoy ambient knowledge: With Twitter, you’ll be able to stay on top of news in your field around the clock.
- Listen: Just listen, and you’ll find interesting and useful information.
- Promote events: Use Twitter to promote live and virtual events like seminars, sales, and more.
- Ask for help: Get instant feedback by asking for help on Twitter.
- Meet your customers: Use Twitter as a way to interact with your customers, whether through the service or in real life.
- Listen to your critics: Find out what people are saying about you, then respond to it and act on it.
How To Connect With Students On Twitter
- Don’t require that students follow your account.
- Commit to posting at regular intervals.
- Vary the time of day of the posts.
- Post links to content that is user friendly.
- Know your audience’s interests.
- Don’t just retweet, generate original links.
- Suggest people, organizations or magazines to follow.
- Be personal.
- … yet avoid the overly personal comments.
Twitter Rules Every Teacher Should Know
Rule #3
If you’re adding the Twitter logo to some marketing materials, here’s how to properly format it all. Same goes if you’re just adding in the Twitter Bird to other materials. Useful to know.
Rule #4
Always capitalize the T in Twitter and Tweet. Seriously. That’s a little-known rule that basically everyone doesn’t follow but it’s worth trying to remember!
A Useful Twitter Cheat Sheet
Twitter Tips For Students and Teachers
See Also: A Visual Guide To Twitter For Beginners
- Actually complete your bio. You’ll get more mileage out of your Twitter account if you actually create a profile that says something about you, offering potential followers information about your interests, professional or otherwise.
- Learn the basics. Learn the basic terminology for Twitter and the major functions it can perform by doing a little reading on helpful social media blogs beforehand. You’ll thank yourself later.
- Get some style. Before you send out your first tweet, decide what kind of tweeter you want to be. The London School of Economics and Political Science offers up three major styles here so you can learn more about the subject.
- Learn from others. One of the best ways to learn how to use Twitter is to spend some time seeing how others have set up and been using their accounts. Luckily, there are tons of other academics on Twitter to learn from.
- Don’t be mean. The Internet is full of people who are all too happy to say some pretty harsh things, but just because they’re incredibly tactless doesn’t mean you have to be. Never say anything on Twitter you wouldn’t want people to find out about, or wouldn’t say in any other situation. If people are hassling you, ignore them and move on.
- Announce that you’ll be joining a hashtag chat or conference. If you’re going to be tweeting more than usual, let your followers know in advance so they can choose to tune out if they’re not interested in your live tweeting or chatting.
- Actually respond in a reasonable amount of time. If someone asks you a question or directs a tweet your way, respond as soon as you can, just like with email or any other digital communication, especially if you’re using Twitter in your courses.
- Be gracious and say thank you. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way on Twitter. If someone helps you out or shares your research, don’t forget to say thanks.
- Make mistakes. No one is perfect, and if you’re new to Twitter you’re probably going to have a few gaffes along the way as you learn the ropes. That’s OK! Don’t let it slow your enthusiasm for using the social site.
- Start your own hashtag chat. Twitter chats have exploded in popularity in recent months, so get in on the trend while the getting’s good. Start your own chat on an academic topic, or chime in on other bigger existing chats for a chance to network.
- Find and use some hashtags. You’ll make it easier for others to find your tweets if you add a few relevant hashtags here and there.
- Do ‘Follow Friday’. Every Friday, Twitter explodes with suggestions on who to follow. Offer up your own and you may just end up in someone else’s suggestions.
- Share the stuff you’re reading. Reading a story on a site like Edudemic? Found an amazing article in pop-science about your research field? Share it! If it’s interesting, it’ll probably get retweeted and passed around, and you might just interest a student or two to boot.
- Reach out and connect with someone. Not everyone you connect with on Twitter has to be in your field or even in academia. In fact, you might enrich your research and your professional life by reaching out to other fields and professions.
- Do some backchannel talks. Whether you have students post to Twitter during class or ask them to share comments during a presentation, these backchannel talks can help facilitate conversation and provide a record of a shared learning experience.
- Create your own classroom hashtag. One way to keep classroom tweets organized is by having a shared hashtag that all students use. Just make sure no one else is using it!
- Connect Twitter to Moodle or Blackboard. You can help push students to interact using Twitter by adding a Twitter widget to your Blackboard or Moodle site for the class. Follow the instructions here to get started.
- Don’t mandate your students follow you on Twitter. Don’t force students to follow you on Twitter unless it’s part of the course. Let them decide to follow or not.
- Be happy (see #5 above). You don’t have to be super serious on Twitter to earn students’ respect. In fact, loosening up could just help improve your rapport with your students.
- Live-tweet a conference or event (see #6). Share your conference-going experience by tweeting updates about it throughout the day to your followers.
- Share some of your lesson plans. Educators and academics can come together to share and collaborate on lesson plans quite easily using Twitter.
- Collaborate with other teachers / parents / students. If you find you have similar interests with another academic, use Twitter to work together on research ideas, classroom solutions, and other topics.
- Collaborate with other classrooms in your school, district, or another country.Why work alone when you can connect with other college classrooms? That’s just what many college classes are doing these days.
- Host reading discussions. Holding a reading discussion over Twitter gives everyone a chance to chime in, even shy students who might not otherwise speak up.
- Actually use Twitter for writing assignments. Want to teach your students the art of brevity? Assign them poetry or prose to be written on Twitter.
The Teacher’s Guide To Twitter Hashtags
Are you looking to figure out exactly which Twitter hashtag is the right one to follow? There’s no shortage of options and it can feel overwhelming. Sure, there’s the popular #edchat and #edtech hashtags most of us follow. But what about the more focused tags that you’re missing out on?
| #elearn |
I’d suggest using this rather than the longer #elearning |
| #flipchat |
chat platform for flipped classroom educators. See here. |
| #flipclass |
platform for those interested in the flipped classroom. |
| #flippedclassroom |
Obsolete. Use the shorter #flipclass. All about the flipped classroom |
| #gbl |
game-based learning |
| #globalclassroom |
Good for finding global collaboration / connections, sharing #globaled practice. Official chats run monthly over 3 days. Click here for schedule |
| #ipadchat |
name speaks for itself. See here. |
From: Miltenoff, Plamen
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 4:09 PM
To: ‘technology@lists.mnscu.edu’; ‘edgamesandsims@lists.mnscu.edu’
Cc: Oyedele, Adesegun
Subject: virtual worlds and simulations
Good afternoon
Apologies for any cross posting…
Following a request from fellow faculty at SCSU, I am interested in learning more about any possibilities for using virtual worlds and simulations opportunities [in the MnSCU system] for teaching and learning purposes.
The last I remember was a rather messy divorce between academia and Second Life (the latter accusing an educational institution of harboring SL hackers). Around that time, MnSCU dropped their SL support.
Does anybody have an idea where faculty can get low-cost if not free access to virtual worlds? Any alternatives for other simulation exercises?
Any info/feedback will be deeply appreciated.
Plamen
After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds. February 14, 2010
—–Original Message—–
From: Weber, James E.
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 5:41 PM
To: Miltenoff, Plamen Subject: RE: virtual worlds and simulations
Hi Plamen:
I don’t use virtual worlds, but I do use a couple of simulations…
I use http://www.glo-bus.com/ extensively in my strategy class. It is a primary integrating mechanism for this capstone class.
I also use http://erpsim.hec.ca/en because it uses and illustrates SAP and process management.
http://www.goventure.net/ is one I have been looking into. Seems more flexible…
Best,
Jim
From: brock.dubbels@gmail.com [mailto:brock.dubbels@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Brock Dubbels
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 4:29 PM
To: Oyedele, Adesegun
Cc: Miltenoff, Plamen; Gaming and Simulations
Subject: Re: virtual worlds and simulations
That is fairly general
what constitutes programming skill is not just coding, but learning icon-driven actions and logic in a menu
for example, Sketch Up is free. You still have to learn how to use the interface.
there is drag and drop game software, but this is not necessarily a share simulation
From: Kalyvaki, Maria [mailto:Maria.Kalyvaki2@smsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 4:26 PM
To: Miltenoff, Plamen
Subject: RE: virtual worlds and simulations
Hi,
I received this email today and I am happy that someone is interested on Second Life. The second life platform and some other virtual worlds are free to use. Depends what are your expectations there that may increase the cost of using the virtual world. I am using some of those virtual worlds and my previous school Texas Tech University was using SL for a course.
Let me know how could I help you with the virtual worlds.
With appreciation,
Maria
From: Jane McKinley [mailto:Jane.McKinley@riverland.edu]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 11:09 AM
To: Miltenoff, Plamen
Cc: Jone Tiffany; Pamm Tranby; Dan Harber
Subject: Virtual worlds
Hi Plamen,
To introduce myself I am the coordinator/ specialist for our real life allied health simulation center at Riverland Community College. Dan Harber passed your message on to me. I have been actively working in SL since 2008. My goal in SL was to do simulation for nursing education. I remember when MnSCU had the island. I tried contacting the lead person at St. Paul College about building a hospital on the island for nursing that would be open to all MN programs, but never could get a response back.
Yes, SL did take the education fees away for a while but they are now back. Second Life is free in of itself, it is finding islands with educational simulations that takes time to explore, but many are free and open to the public. I do have a list of islands that may be of interest to you. They are all health related, but there are science islands such as Genome Island. Matter of fact there is a talk that will be out there tonight about how to do research and conduct fair experiments at 7:00 our time.
I have been lucky to find someone with the same goals as I have. Her name is Jone Tiffany. She is a professor at Bethel University in the nursing program. In the last 4 years we have built an island for nursing education. This consists of a hospital, clinic, office building, classrooms and a library. We also built a simulation center. (Although I accidently removed the floor and some walls in it. Our builder is getting it back together.) There is such a shortage of real mental health and public health sites that a second island is being purchased to meet this request. On that island we are going to build an inner city, urban and rural communities. This will be geared towards meeting those requests. Our law enforcement program at Riverland has voiced an interest in SL with being able to set up virtual crime scenes which could be staged anywhere on the two islands. With the catastrophic natural events and terrorist activities that have occurred recently we will replicate these same communities on the other side of the island only it will be the aftermath of a hurricane and tornado, or flooding. On the other side we could stage the aftermath of a bombing such as what happened in Boston. Victims could transported to the hospital ED. Law enforcement could do an investigation.
We have also been working with the University of Wisconsin, Osh Kosh. They have a plane crash simulation and what we call a grunge house that students go into to see what the living conditions are like for those who live in poverty and what could be done about it.
Since I am not faculty I cannot take our students out to SL, but Jone has had well over 100 of her students in there doing various assignments. She is taking more out this semester. They have done such things as family health assessments and diabetes assessment and have to create a plan of care. She has done lectures out there. So the students come out with their avatars and sit in a classroom. This is a way distant learning can be done but yet be engaged with the students. The beauty of SL is that you can be creative. Since the island is called Nightingale Isle, some of the builds are designed with that theme in mind. Such as the classrooms, they are tiered up a mountain and look like the remains of a bombed out church from the Crimean War, it is one of our favorite spots. We also have an area open on the island for support groups to meet. About 5 years ago Riverland did do a congestive heart failure simulation with another hospital in SL. That faculty person unfortunately has left so we have not been able to continue it, but the students loved it. We did the same scenario with Jones students in the sim center we have and again the students loved it.
The island is private but anyone is welcome to use it. We do this so that we know and can control who is on the island. All that is needed is to let Jone or I know who you are, where are you from (institution), and what is your avatar name. We will friend you in SL and invite you to join the group, then you have access to the island. Both Jone and I are always eager to share what all goes on out there (as you can tell by this e-mail). There is so much potential of what can be done. We have been lucky to be able to hire the builder who builds for the Mayo Clinic. Their islands are next to ours. She replicated the Gonda Building including the million dollar plus chandeliers.
I can send you the list of the health care related islands, there are about 40 of them. I also copied Jone, she can give you more information on what goes into owning an island. We have had our ups and downs with this endeavor but believe in it so much that we have persevered and have a beautiful island to show for it.
Let me if you want to talk more.
Jane (aka Tessa Finesmith-avatar name)
Jane McKinley, RN
College Lab Specialist -Riverland Center for Simulation Learning
Riverland Community College
Austin, MN 55912
jane.mckinley@riverland.edu
507-433-0551 (office)
From: Jeremy Nienow [mailto:JNienow@inverhills.mnscu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 10:11 AM
To: Miltenoff, Plamen
Cc: Sue Dion
Subject: Teaching in virtual worlds
Hello,
A friend here at IHCC sent me your request for information on teaching in low-cost virtual environments.
I like to think of myself on the cusp of gamification and I have a strong background in gaming in general (being a white male in my 30s).
Anyway – almost every MMORPG (Massive Multi-online role playing game) today is set up on a Free to Play platform for its inhabitance.
There are maybe a dozen of these out there right now from Dungeon and Dragons online, to Tera, to Neverwinter Nights…etc.
Its free to download, no subscription fee (like there used to be) and its free to play – how they get the money is they make game items and cool aspects of the game cost money…people pay for the privilege of leveling faster.
So – you could easily have all your students download the game (provided they all have a suitable system and internet access), make an avatar, start in the same place – and teach right from there.
I have thought of doing this for an all online class before, but wanted to wait till I was tenured.
Best,
Jeremy L. Nienow, PhD., RPA
Anthropology Faculty
Inver Hills Community College
P.S. Landon Pirius (sp?) who was once at IHCC and now I believe is at North Hennepin maybe… wrote his PhD on teaching in online environments and used World of Warcraft.
From: Gary Abernethy [mailto:Gary.Abernethy@minneapolis.edu]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 8:46 AM
To: Miltenoff, Plamen
Subject: Re: [technology] virtual worlds and simulations
Plamen,
The below are current options I am aware of for VW and SIM . You may also want to take a look at Kuda, in Google code, I worked at SRI when we developed this tool. I am interested in collaboration in this area.
Hope the info helps
https://www.activeworlds.com/index.html
http://www.opencobalt.org/
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://metaverse.sourceforge.net/
http://stable.kuda.googlecode.com
Gary Abernethy
Director of eLearning
Academic Affairs
Minneapolis Community and Technical College | 1501 Hennepin Avenue S. | Minneapolis, MN 55403
Phone 612-200-5579
Gary.Abernethy@minneapolis.edu | http://www.minneapolis.edu
From: John OBrien [mailto:John.OBrien@so.mnscu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 11:37 PM
To: Miltenoff, Plamen
Subject: RE: virtual worlds and simulations
I doubt this is so helpful, but maybe: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SLED
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/spiegel-interview-with-umberto-eco-we-like-lists-because-we-don-t-want-to-die-a-659577-2.html
SPIEGEL: But you also said that lists can establish order. So, do both order and anarchy apply? That would make the Internet, and the lists that the search engine Google creates, prefect for you.
Eco: Yes, in the case of Google, both things do converge. Google makes a list, but the minute I look at my Google-generated list, it has already changed. These lists can be dangerous — not for old people like me, who have acquired their knowledge in another way, but for young people, for whom Google is a tragedy. Schools ought to teach the high art of how to be discriminating.
SPIEGEL: Are you saying that teachers should instruct students on the difference between good and bad? If so, how should they do that?
Eco: Education should return to the way it was in the workshops of the Renaissance. There, the masters may not necessarily have been able to explain to their students why a painting was good in theoretical terms, but they did so in more practical ways. Look, this is what your finger can look like, and this is what it has to look like. Look, this is a good mixing of colors. The same approach should be used in school when dealing with the Internet. The teacher should say: “Choose any old subject, whether it be German history or the life of ants. Search 25 different Web pages and, by comparing them, try to figure out which one has good information.” If 10 pages describe the same thing, it can be a sign that the information printed there is correct. But it can also be a sign that some sites merely copied the others’ mistakes.
SPIEGEL: You yourself are more likely to work with books, and you have a library of 30,000 volumes. It probably doesn’t work without a list or catalogue.
Eco: I’m afraid that, by now, it might actually be 50,000 books. When my secretary wanted to catalogue them, I asked her not to. My interests change constantly, and so does my library. By the way, if you constantly change your interests, your library will constantly be saying something different about you. Besides, even without a catalogue, I’m forced to remember my books. I have a hallway for literature that’s 70 meters long. I walk through it several times a day, and I feel good when I do. Culture isn’t knowing when Napoleon died. Culture means knowing how I can find out in two minutes. Of course, nowadays I can find this kind of information on the Internet in no time. But, as I said, you never know with the Internet.
