Collaborating With The Best People In The World!

In this blog post I will be talking about the impossibly large and daunting final project that Dr. Peter recently assigned. As someone very new to virtual worlds- I had never previously used SL or MC- I am still very uncomfortable using let along trying to facilitate learner outcomes in a virtual world. Fortunately, I was approached by Sarah Espinoza and Nancy Ooki to be in their group. I was very impressed by both of their MC builds but, at the same time, felt a little apprehensive. What did I have to offer this team of confident builders?

Adding to my discomfort was the trove of exemplary previous projects that prior 652D students had completed. Looking through the Hawaiian Navigation unit I was intimidated by its ambitious scope and detail, that still managed to remain engaging and true to Hawaiian culture. Other units were equally impressive (and intimidating!). What would we do and how could we hope to even come close to these impressive projects?

At our first meeting, Nancy, Sarah, and I quickly agreed that we would like to do something STEM related. Going a step further, we liked the idea of STEAM because it incorporates the arts and design as an integral part of the learning process. We also liked the idea of creating a place where new teachers, unfamiliar with how to implement STEAM, could collaborate and learn together to create usable units that they could then store in a virtual repository. It would be, simultaneously, an immersive learning and collaboration space and repository that would improve over time as users added to the environment. Searching through our memories, we remembered Thornburg's "Campfires In Cyberspace: Primeval Metaphors For Learning." Campfires in cyberspace would make for the perfect metaphor to make the virtual world immersive and useful. We decided right away that we would try to create an atmospheric world that mimicked the campfire, the watering hole, the cave, and life.

I was pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly and frictionlessly we were able to begin collaborating. Sarah and Nancy immediately began (like Lords of the Universe) to create the campfires world. I began working on the design document. When you work with good people who know how to collaborate and are professionals, the work is a delight! Nancy and Sarah made this experience a truly great learning experience and a more pleasant one for this reluctant OS traveller. Hats off to them and thanks!