Examples of Educators Living the Ludic Life

This post was created to allow those using Second Life for learning to post brief examples of how their program designs demonstrate the educational potential of living la vida ludic.

I will review this thread to look for examples to use before presenting my keynote on the topic at the SLCC 2008 conference, but will keep it open if there is interest for those who'd like to post afterwards. Please include media with your examples, as we all know powerpoints go down better with more than just text. Thank you in advance for your contribution.

Tags: ludiclife, secondlife, slcc, sledcc, theludiclife

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeremy Koester on August 16, 2008 at 11:07pm

Hey Barry, I love your topic and would love to help out as much as I can. As you are aware, I'm involved in many different learning 'game' apps in SL. Maybe we can get a simple custom social game together for your talk? I'm always coming up with new ideas and would love to help how I can.
Jeremy

Permalink Reply by Scott Merrick on August 17, 2008 at 12:48pm

I'd second Jere's notion. I've been collaborating at the peripheries of his SL activities for more than a year now, and I'd say any input he can have with you would benefit your efforts. Thanks for the group invite and I'll be enjoying monitoring discussions. My SL blog, Oh! Virtual Learning, might provide some resources for your work as well.

Cheers!

Permalink Reply by Barry Joseph on August 24, 2008 at 8:19pm

Thanks Scott. And already following up with Jeremy.

Permalink Reply by Jonathon Richter / Wainbrave Bernal on August 17, 2008 at 4:17pm

I would offer The Salamander Project typology of Learner Engagement as lenses through which educators, including myself, may design experiences for their "students" - depending on what the objectives are and the kinds of interaction and engagement that they wish to elicit - from - http://eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Experiential..............learners are immersed in the recreation of an experience or phenomenon.

Role play.................Second Life builds intended (or useful) for taking on a particular role for educational and/or entertainment purposes

Diagnostic................builds that engage the learner by asking questions that ascertain their knowledge through quizzes, prompts, or other assessment methods

Problem-solving...........Second Life builds with the intention that the learner solve a problem or some kind

Demonstration.............Demonstrations and presentations of information - as in museums, galleries, presentations, etc.

Collaborative.............Second Life locales and activities that demand and/or encourage a certain level of cooperation and collaboration

Constructive..............Second Life learning locations and activities that engage the learner in creating objects and building things, themselves

Skill Building............Second Life learning locations that focus on the development of skills (real world or Second Life)

Permalink Reply by Barry Joseph on August 24, 2008 at 8:20pm

Jonathon, Thank you for sharing the lens you use. I would like to hear from you and others how the lens of The Ludic Life holds-up when viewing your own work.

Permalink Reply by Jeremy Koester on August 28, 2008 at 7:18am

Hey Barry,
I have found that in my own development and use of games for learning that the traditional method of utilizing pure instructional design methods for creating games is not always the most effective. I have seen much more powerful learning happening incidentally, where as an educator I seized the learning moment that I recognized in a game's discourse rather than assessing a predicted learning outcome. This has become quite a challenge not only for creating meaningful learning through games, but also for speaking to their validity as a learning medium.

Lately, as a game designer, I've been focusing my efforts on social games where participants have very loose and general objectives. From there, as a facilitator, I am focusing on their experiences, views and perspectives to not only reflect on, but to use as a basis for extending learning conversations. This is very based upon Steinkuehler's work on discourse, literacy and leadership through MMORPGs.

Again, as an instructional designer, this becomes very difficult as the learning outcomes are poorly defined at the onset and even more difficult to truly quantify as a measure of validity or success. This to me is why research in gaming for learning that is quantitative is so difficult to find valid.

Hope this doesn't muddy your waters even more,
Jeremy