#VWEDU Virtual worlds (MUVEs)
professional learning community.
Not something we have to organize. It just is
Suggestions on how to increase communication in the professional learning community of the MUVEs (virtual worlds).
The Empty Classroom
- Professional learning community (PLC) (Wikipedia)
- Scholarly articles for professional learning communities
- Do we have a professional learning community (PLC) in the virtual worlds (MUVEs)?
- Virtual worlds research
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- Like most communities, it formed from propinquity and shared interests.
- I like the Wikipedia description of propinquity:
- "It refers to the physical or psychological proximity between people."
- We virtual worlders understand about psychological proximity.
- We have friends in who live thousands of miles away.
- We educators in virtual worlds collaborate with colleagues on other continents.
- We know them as avatars, colleagues, and friends.
So what do we need to do about it?
- Nothing. But we can seek to expand the advantages:
- Increase intercommunication so as to share what we find out.
- Increase outward communication to share virtual worlds more widely.
- We want to get the word out to the whole education community.
- Use the hashtag #VWEDU to make your reposts easier to find.
Increase communication in the VW educator community
Steps to increase intercommunication: individuals
- Identify major educator groups in virtual worlds, follow and promote them.
- Promote the groups by reposting their posts in your social media.
- Add the hashtag #VWEDU to make your reposts easy to find.
- Be an active member of more than one educator group in virtual worlds.
- In meetings of each group, report on activities in the other groups.
Steps to increase intercommunication: bloggers
- Mark your educational articles with #VWEDU to make them easy to find.
- Search with #VWEDU to find and link to related articles.
- Consider running occasional articles about educator groups.
- Articles about educator groups in virtual worlds build community.
- Consider inviting articles from and about educator groups you are in.
Steps to increase intercommunication: groups
- Invite members of other virtual world educator groups to join your group.
- Consider creating a collaborative blog reporting your activities and plans.
- Create a collaborative blog to market your writing
- Develop a list of associated groups and blogs related to your mission.
- Feature links to your associated groups and blogs where you can.
- Create a collaborative Google calendar carrying upcoming group events.
- Using the Kitely calendar--or any other Google calendar for events
Steps to increase intercommunication: integrators
- Encourage your groups to create an integrated educator calendar.
- That would carry the events of all participating educator groups.
- The calendar would give posting access to 2 members of each participating group.
- Each participating group (and associated bloggers) would promote the calendar
- Encourage your groups to create a joint collaborative blog.
Increase outward communication from the VW educator community
- There are many education innovators active now.
- How will they find out about the potential for education in virtual worlds (MUVEs)?
- Some already have: Education in MUVEs (Google search)
- We have professional educators in academic positions.
- We have bloggers
- We have content experts who could contribute to specific academic subjects.
- There are Scholarly articles on MUVEs.
- Can we better use these resources?
Professional educators in academic positions
- These educators are probably publishing all they can in scholarly journals.
- Publication is a requirement for many academic positions.
- But they may not be getting the word out to a wider audience.
- They have no time nor incentive to write for a wider audience.
- But they could send links to bloggers with educational interests.
- In case a blogger might want to recast the content for the public.
Bloggers
- We can publish articles about virtual worlds and what they offer to educators.
- We can promote those articles to educator sites and groups.
- We can point out important trends in modern education:
- The Maker Movement, Constructionist learning, Challenge-based learning
- And we can point out what virtual worlds offer to these trends.
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- Cybalounge and 3DWebWorldz (Orientation room)
- I will be in both places, so you may need to speak to get my attention.
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- Don't register -- enter as guest.
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