Learning Languages with Open Source Resources and an Open Mind

Of course learning languages can be both fun and challenging. 

Still in Brazil (in my teenage days) I learned English mostly by listening to my favorite artists, translating their music and making up dialogs in my mind while taking a shower or walking down the street… yes, that crazy…

I also used to go on the ICQ website’s “people & chat” (back in the day) to the regional public chats in the UK, USA and other places were English is spoken as a native language. 

Playing free computer games (or cheap ones) like Age of Empires and watching movies also helped a lot.

It takes some effort and creativity to learn a language (and passion and persistence not to forget it).

That’s why I get so excited when I stumble upon posts like this one by Dmitri Popov about learning languages with open source and webtop applications…

ARGs in Learning – Learning in ARGs

In response to Koreen Olbrish’s post about learning that takes place in ARGs:

Here is a good place to find out what ARGs are being played currently. One of the best examples of ARGs I think was the one that warmed players up for the release of The Dark Knight. Just explore the puzzles there, incredible. If I am not mistaken, that ARG was developed by 42Entertainment (the same agency that created the Nine Inch Nails one. Also check out ARGnet for current ARGs.

ARGs are a very interesting resource for instruction, since you can mix the content with the storyline. Deliver puzzles that reveal messages that involve content, for instance…

They can be fairly cheap to do since all technologies needed for the game are right here, for free with Web 2.0:

• Facebook, Ning, for discussions;
• blogs for characters’ updates and direct contact with players,
• wikis for players to interact and exchange clues, etc.
• Youtube for video feeds and trailers.

Even the planning can be done collaboratively (e.g. flowcharting the gameplay via Gliffy with other designers, if geographically disperse)…

Also, VW can be used in the plot or even as the main meet up hub… These are just examples of social media resources that can be utilized in making a cheap and entertaining ARG.

ARGs are very engaging since they mix reality (clues and puzzles with characters that feel real, and player-player interaction)…

A problem on educational ARGs: ARGs tend to rely on having a VERY broad potential audience, say the whole world, and a portion of that population will enter the rabbit hole… well, how can you get 30 players (say you’re creating an ARG for a group of people at a conference) to “buy” the first clue and engage in the game? Maybe 2 of the 70 will actually find the first clue and engage… well, you can manipulate them, sending other clues, clarification, direct messages from game characters until they buy in.. but, the players must have a certain interest to stay in game… and not everyone is a “gamer”…

Just a few thoughts…

I love ARGs and think they have potential… we just need a few more publications with success stories, failures, things to avoid, etc. in EDUCATIONAL situations…, I think…

Take a look at the concept of mARGs (mini ARGs), shorter, with a specific, small audience. People at LAMP have been doing a great job on that .

More references on ARGs:
Alternate reality games, “Experience IT” track, at the ELI 2006 conference

Using Alternate Reality Games to Teach Data Security (a case study)

Alternate Reality Games SIG

Video Games and ARGs: What Can They Learn from Each Other?

Alternate Reality at the Smithsonian

MLearnOpedia

MLearnOpedia has information on erything about Mobile Learning, this new trend for ubiquitous learning! They also have a vast catalogue of resources. Definitely worth checking this website out!

Mr.Dev.Mobi and MobiSiteGalore – is your website compatible with mobile devices?

Some of the great resources highlighted by Judy Brown’s session at DevLearn 08. More to come.

Mr.Dev.Mobi is an excellent tool for checking compatibility of Web-based content on mobile devices. Simply insert your URL where indicated and it will run a comprehensive test and give you some data and tips on making your website more compatible with mobile devices. It even has an emulator for certain devices showing how your website displays on them.

MobiSiteGalore is a great resource for CREATING a website ready for mobile users. Quick and easy template-based solution. Fantastic and easy to use.

Great for those developing mobile learning materials or those who want their instructional materials to be accessed anytime, anywhere…

World of Warcraft and Language Learning – a blog post

Interesting post about MMORPGs and language learning. There is no doubt that the social atmosphere of such games as World of Warcraft (referred to in the post above) offer a great opportunity for interaction with people from all kinds of linguistic and cultural backgrounds in a meaningful way, collaborating around a common goal where language is learned informally and the actual gameplay takes the stage, taking the pressure away from the language barriers themselves…

Learner vs Participant

The term learner bears a sense of a passive individual that is merely a receptacle for Instruction and information. In light of this assumption, one would presume that another word or another view of the “learning as a process” to take place. Most everyone has some to contribute to this process and, aside from situations in which individuals need instruction for imediate information, for more long-term knowledge retention learning needs to be views not only as a process but as a participatory process. Even if an individual will go through “instruction” alone, ideally, the learning process starts then and continues as this individual partakes in conversations, formal and informal situations in which that knowledge is applied, learners new nuances to that information from others, funds new applications for that information as s/he collaborated with other “learners” (please read all you can about Constructivist epistemology and some applied theories such as social learning).
Therfore, if learning is an ongoing participatory process, maybe those in the field of Education should see the learners as “participants” in learning constantly together. Not that this is a call for a different word, bit for the view that consructivists have had for a while and that now social media makes it easier to achieve by creating participatory environments.

Twitter Tags

I have just found out how useful Twitter tags can be. I have for a while been a skeptic of the use of microblogging for Education and in general, for that matter, Although I am a believer in many aspects of social media (Web 2.0) and that it can in fact provide tools for the creation of authentic and collaborative learning environments and opportunities, the use of Twitter for irrelevant content such as “I am going shopping now” or “I need a new haircut” never impressed me. 

Many might already know that there has been a gas outage in the Atlanta area for a couple of weeks now. With my car’s tank almost empty I decided to Google “find gas Atlanta” (without quotation marks) and was surprised to find this link with search results to the #atlgas Twitter tag. It impressed me that people are using Twitter for effective sharing of useful information besides trivial status updates, forming a network of like interests. I simply added the name of my city after the tag and found a few local gas stations that had just gotten a fresh supply of gas. I immediately used Twitteriffic on my iPhone to send people an update with the Google map of the location that had gas.

I would like to ask my colleagues that read my blog to help me catalog tags that are being used on Twitter for topics such as Instructional Technology, Instructional Design, Instructional Design and Technology (IDT), learning 2.0, social media and learning, virtual worlds in education, virtual worlds in general, etc.

Please reply to this thread as we might find some interesting information like I did today.

List of Buzzwords in the Classroom

I always rant on and on about buzzwords in Education and how many people just use meaningless words brought to them by a fad or they try to create it themselves.

I came across this interesting, funny list of those true definitions of some buzzwords specifically for those educators that work in the classroom setting: http://www.illinoisloop.org/buzzwords.html

Grokit, Social Learning Game

Grockit is definitely mixing traditional social networking with the power of Massively Multiplayer Online gaming (MMO). 

Learners study for tests such as GMAT in a live, competitive and collaborative environment as they earn and give points for good performance that are collected as they move to different levels of “expertise” in the community.

Players can invite friends and play synchronously. They can discuss questions and answers as they play live in a chat window as they eliminate wrong answers. They can also see why right answers are right and why the wrong answers were wrong. 

The website was covered on TechCrunch50 this week.

A NetGener Workforce – Understanding How They Learn and What They Expect

I recently had the joy of participating of the Learning Innovation Network conference initiated by the Human Capital Institute which had its first gathering hosted by Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara, CA.

A few week ago, Jeanne Meister invited me to speak again, this time during a Webcast the HCI was promoting. It was, again, an amazing experience and in this dynamic world it has immediately generated networking opportunities with some new contacts. If you knew me personally you’d know I’m all about people, networking, socializing. Typical netgener. One of my points with the whole information dump was that I believe that the research around netgeners might be true as far as habits, ways of thinking, wys of receiving/processing/sharing information being different now than a few decades ago, and people born around the 1980’s have had better chance for exposure to this mass media technology and an ever-growing amount of information, it is more of a matter of ATTITUDE and opportunity to be around all the information (technlogy) and having a positive mindset about it than it is a matter of age.

Here is a link to Joy Kosta’s (our host) blog summarizing the webcast.

Here is Jeanne Meister’s blog.