Sunday, May 22, 2011

MAC Week 3 - Free Choice: Pushing the Envelope

Now that most of my ARP work is finished, I have already contacted a few other instructors and have setup a Second Life round table on the 26th to see if I can get more instructors interested in learning how to incorporate the virtual world into their curriculum to help bring about more engagement for their students.  This is just one way that I am wanting to show that using this virtual environment can indeed bring more engagement and creativity for the students. I do not know why so many tend to be resistant to at least attempting this really.  Full Sail is supposed to be a cutting edge technology school so why are we still afraid to really plunge into this type of technology and see exactly what it has to offer? Is it because some instructors don't want to take the time to learn how to use it?  Is it because they haven't really spent a good enough time delving into it perhaps?  This is why I pushed for this round table Continuing Education time, so I can speak to the instructors and help them learn more about the many different aspects to Second Life and perhaps brainstorm with them to come up with different ways to use Second Life to fit in with their courses.

It is all about engaging the students, getting them motivated, to want to learn, especially in the online educational environment.  Here is a tool that could help in that aspect, but as of yet I have only seen a few dabble in it and have not really pushed the envelope in using it. This is what I want to challenge others in. If they want to give their students a more engaging educational experience, get out of that comfort zone, push that envelope, dive into this technology and see what it can really do. Quit dwelling on the negatives and keep an open mind about it, this is what we were taught how to look at things after all. Think outside that box...Push that envelope...

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