Strategic Use of Virtual Worlds EM825 - Virtual Juror

At my day job I get to be involved with some incredible people and initiatives that inspire me to become more of a "player" in the field of higher education. One such group for which I am involved is the American Association of State Colleges and Universities  (AASCU). Each year, my institution has hosted a conference with AASCU and EDUCAUSE that engage senior leaders about the strategic use of technology for transforming education. It is always fun to recruit students to share their perceptions of campus use of technologies for learning and student support. Enter my own perspective.

July 2011 marks my third quarter as an adult student at Colorado Technical University in the Doctorate of Computer Science Emerging Media Program. Dr. Cynthia Calongne and her trusty assistant, Lyr Lobo,  attracted me to CTU for their work with the New Media Consortium. I am pleased and honored that Dr. Calongne has agreed to be my mentor and dissertation chair.  

This quarter I am taking EM825 Strategic Use of Virtual Worlds with Dr. Andrew Stricker who along with Dr. Calongne won the $25,000 prize awarded by the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge for the Mars Expedition Challenge. A more complimentary team may not exist than these two extraordinary, talented, positive deviants.

EM825 features group projects using a studio design process. Now I am enjoying how to better collaborate with students whose majors differ and are in different states and time zones. Our project focus is on community and civic engagement. A fellow doctoral student at UPenn, Cecilia Orphan, worked for AASCU to create the American Democracy Project to raise awareness and promote the values of engagement. This initiative made a significant impression upon me as it originated from pure will without substantial resources. Celilia's reflections of the project are captured in this blog post.

My group decided to pursue "Virtual Juror" as a project. We have chosen to contrast the legal systems of the USA compared to South Africa, Iran, and India, and specifically the use of jury trials. Just think about that idea. How much do you know about what is legal and what punishments may exist in these countries? Perhaps if we do a good job, when you see the "Jury Summons" in the mail, you will appreciate the opportunity to serve.

Double Dose of IRB and Usability. Payoff? Presentations

Obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for research projects is integral for institutions and researchers to maintain ethical inquiry. For my first class at CTU in the Doctorate of Computer Science (DCS) Program in Emerging Media, October 2010, I had CS820 Usability and Interaction with Dr. Anne Marie Armstrong. A requirement for the course was to perform a usability study.

Performing research in one's workplace is a risk that requires careful consideration. I had been working with staff several years to build a software application called Kogneato that we were trying to launch in tricky budget times. The project was not funded as part of a grant and we were building the application on a shoestring budget. We did not have assistance with technical writing nor documentation.

Since I work at a major university, I had to obtain IRB approval from both CTU and the University of Central Florida in order to involve faculty to test our system. My boss was supportive so I applied for approvals hoping to obtain approvals in time to complete the study by the end of the quarter.

 UCF's Kogneato Casual Gaming System, built with faculty involvement. Designed and developed by UCF's Ian Turgeon, Zach Berry and with the support of Dr. Francisca Yonekura (pictured below).  

My study was approved, the timing worked out, and best of all faculty involved in my test were very responsive to Kogneato. UCF's Psychology Department decided to adopt Kogneato for one of its funded research projects for course redesign addressing online labs, large classes, and the shortage of lab facilities. Their project is described in this article about online labs. Currently, we are seeking support to license Kogneato under an open source license to be able to attract more development in the tool.

Kogneato is not only being used for Psychology at UCF, it is also being used in several online courses and being developed for use in faculty development by my department, the Center for Distributed Learning. My colleague, Dr. Francisca Yonekura and I put in for call for proposals and were accepted to make  a presentation in June at the New Media Consortium's annual conference in Madison, WI.  Fortunately for us, the NMC event is taking place along with the 2011 Games, Learning, and Society Conference for which we were accepted to present as well.

It is not yet clear to me whether I can do my dissertation on the use the Kogneato, but it is possible. My direction seems oriented to the use of serious games in virtual worlds, but it may involve authentic assessment  and adaptive learning.

Last year, Dr, Yonekura and I presented at the annual New Media Conference on the topic of another software application we made at UCF and how it is being used for an accreditation initiative that involved information fluency. We are also seeking to open source that system called, Obojobo.

During the presentation, we did a live demo of the software and shared the slides we made on Prezi.  

We were honored to have in our presentation Christina Engelbart, the daughter of Douglas Engelbart, who is known for inventing the mouse and giving the mother of all demos. Christina now runs the Douglas Engelbart Institute.

I hope to align my doctoral research with my work activities so that inquiry stays real. In CS802 Qualitative Data Analysis, I did a paper on the topics of authentic leadership and competency management systems. Each activity sheds light on possible topics and research designs. Few things are as rewarding as working/studying with dedicated scholars and it is exciting to be able to share findings at national conferences.

Aikido for a Sustainable Environment: Our Gift to Planet Earth?

Dr.William Halal in his book, Technology's Promise writes of a forecast describing challenges in transitioning a consumption-oriented, global society to one that manages sustainability for survival (p. 17-30).

Halal references Russell Ackoff (1919-2009), a pioneer of management science, as defining a constellation of interrelated problems like this a mess... (p. 18). It was an honor for me to meet Dr. Ackoff in 2004 at a systems thinking conference held in Philadelphia. His life's work was evident in his peers. The environment was not the primary focus of the venue, rather the focus was on interrelationships whether illustrated in game theory or funding government innovation and research.

The environmental forecasts summarized in Technology's Promise include many that now dominate our news channels thanks to the political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa. The forecasts came from input given from experts contributing to TechCast LLC, a virtual think tank for which Dr. Halal is the CEO.

• Alternative Energy
• Desalination
• Distributed Power
• Genetically Modified Organisms
• Global Warming
• Green Business
• Organic Farming
• Precision Farming

Among the contenders within alternative energy are wind, solar, fission (not fusion), biomass (such as ethanol), conservation, and innovation such as using solar satellites. Halal suggests that the potential for the emerging green industry calls for a Green Manhattan Project.

Considering the advances in nanotechnology and a globally networked society, I wonder if geothermal energy should be the focus of a Green Manhattan Project. Materials are improving and costs are decreasing for production. From an astronomical perspective, I suspect the probability that other galactic societies have mastered geothermal energy is likely.

Dr. Michio Kaku writes about the work of Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev who created a scale of civilizations based on energy management using physics and thermodynamics. For Earth to achieve an upgrade from a class 0 to a class I civilization, we must harness the sustainable energy of the planet including geothermal energy. As Halal suggests, managing the transition to a sustainable environment for our global environment is necessary for survival. In my view, mastering geothermal energy, is necessary for Earth to achieve interplanetary and galactic travel. What is our fortune?

  CC License by Todd Sanders

Ubiquitous Learning Lifestyle

For my innovation assignment, I decided to choose the advancements in broadband access for transforming education. Not only learning, but also work and society itself will be transformed as more and more citizens of our world get access. 

Whether or not I get to make my MMORPG as described in my socio-technical plan to transform education, the evolution of the Internet itself is an inevitable innovation.

Lifelong Learning Platform for Unbounded Talent

Informal and formal learning - Time is Relative

For our futurist prediction, I chose to analyze #5 from the World Future Society's list of top 2011 predictions: the notion that class time as separate from non-class time will vanish. Acquiring the ability to self direct one's learning is of paramount importance. Self-empowerment for many people may be more important. I believe the prediction of boundaries notion to be true and happening rapidly already. Teacher and faculty roles will change to provide mentoring, guidance, validation, and most of all, inspiration.

In as little as 20 years in the US, all formal education will be online available anywhere, anytime, everywhere, all the time. Faculty or teachers who do not use learning technologies will be guilty of educational malpractice. There will still be face to face learning and the need for institutions, but they will serve more as community centers specializing in assessment. Research will also be available in blended formats of virtual and face to face activities. Universities will be cultural, community hubs.

The article asserts that one of the forces upon this prediction is the net generation's use of technology. While true, the variation and ubiquity of learning appliances combined with how those same devices are used for everything we do culturally accelerates the claim.

International accrediting agencies is an intriguing notion. Our country has quite a lot of accreditation agencies and it gets in the way of institutions that serve multiple states. UNESCO's recent open educational resources initiative may be a step in that direction. Global climate change is one force that also will encourage serious gaming to solve real-world problems requiring informal non-class time to participate. I will be one of those CTU grads producing such gaming courseware that spans formal and informal learning to save the planet. Who wants to play?

Questioning Socio-Technical Innovation

The Web 2.0 program I submit for consideration to use in promoting socio-technical innovation is Quora. It is described as an online knowledge market. Quora was publicly released in June 2010 and created by the former CTO of Facebook.

Essentially, it is a platform for subscribing to questions you or others ask. Quora also allows users to vote up and down answers enabling greater veracity of content. It appears to be similar to Wikipedia to submit and edit content in the context of answers rather than information.

When I created an account on Quora the software pulled in my associations from Twitter and Facebook. From that information, topics were suggested allowing me to subscribe to question areas that are of most interest to me.

I like how Quora uses the power of social networking to amplify questions and prognostications about the future using Affinity Theory of whom I trust.

As in all social networking programs, the benefit of use resides in the quality of engagement with others you are willing to open yourself up to in the free exchange of ideas.