School 2.0 in South Africa

I am busy putting the finishing touches to my chapter on how social media tools help us to not to only communicate but become lifelong learners, when I was passed (via my twitter network) a link to a new platform that allows you to create blog communities called blog.mu. I went to investigate it as I am planning to start another one of my blogging drives for teachers. I also immediately bookmarked my “find”  for future reference using my  Diigo button, which also passed it on to my twitter network.

After a quick investigation (after all I have to finish my chapter by Wednesday) I discovered that it was run using a WordPress engine and it reminded me a lot of my Edublog system (A blogging platform for teachers). I twittered this as I thought that it would give people more info on my “find”. As always, my network is listening in the background, and Sue Waters, who has always supported me on Edublogs, asked me if she could give me a live walkthrough (tutorial) on the spot, using Elluminate. Now how is that for on demand learning?

So using Twitter, we quickly organised a time and a place (6 hours time difference) to have an impromptu online workshop about blogging, and the difference between Edublogs Campus and the new tool Blog.mu. So basically, learning has become boundary-less and instantaneous on a global scale in a flat world! And then people still say that Twitter is a silly little hyped tool….Eaash!

So everybody is invited! Sue will be running it in Elluminate on thursday at 2pm South African time (8pm her time: GMT+8)  Mark your calenders and remember to tune in. If you will be joining us from your school, remember to check that you have access and that Elluminate is not blocked by school firewalls.

Here is a quick walk through on how to get in:

• Go to http://bit.ly/Wpwe6
• Enter your name and click on Login
• Tick “Open with Java…”  –> OK
• It will download and install the Elluminate application (Make sure that your school tech support is on standby or test it before the time)
• A security message will ask you if you want to run the application- choose RUN
• A little window will come up asking you about your connection speed
• Thee meeting room will apear with a little helpscreen on how to use the meeting room. But we will be there to guide and help you as well!!!
• You are welcome to log in before the time to give it a spin.

So see you there!!! And spread the news. Don’t forget to twitter it to your networks as well.

As a parent I have been horrified at the level of addiction my children (3 of them) embraced virtual world gaming with. I have had numerous heated arguments about “what these games are doing to their brains”, not to mention the fact that it was turning them into anti-social maniacs. As a teacher I wondered about how we can channel such “addictions” towards learning. Then, after they turned out to be relatively well balanced, happy, socially adapted, achieving young adults, I was forced to re-evaluate virtual gaming as “not such a totally bad thing”. (Okay sure, my incredibly good parenting might also have played a role..;-) )

I tried to make the effort to spend time with them finding out what all of the hype, that is keeping them up weekends, is all about. Apart from the absolutely horrendous use of language, the endless violence, and people screaming and shouting at one another, there existed an incredibly fair team structure where everybody had an important role to play in authentic (though bizarre) virtual circumstances, for which they were valued and got rewarded. They have to think on their feet and work together or get killed (which is maybe one of the reasons girls are not such avid gamers as boys- we do not like being killed).

This made me think that, if we define education as preparing learners for real life, then surely virtual gaming has all the ingredients of a great educational tool ? Sitting there with the kids I definitely felt that they were using higher order thinking skills that left me feeling both intellectually and technologically impaired! I also realised that they were engaging in very involved social relationships based on not only friendships but skills and expertise that make my face to face bring-and-braai relationships look rather boring!

I was recently pointed in the direction of a blog article which really created a WOW moment for me. It was about how teenagers have used mathematical modelling to figure out how to defeat “the bosses” in their virtual online game. A definite must-read: “Videogames are becoming the new hotbed of scientific thinking for kids today….”

So maybe we need to rethink the role collaborative video games can play, before we go all out to protect our children from becoming “screen kids”. Or maybe we need to become even more pro-active and use video gaming as an essential tool to support our teaching efforts in our classrooms?

One such a virtual world environment totally dedicated to educational goals within the confines of a safe space is Quest Atlantis:

“Quest Atlantis is an international learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children, ages 9-15, in educational tasks. QA combines strategies used in the commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. It allows users to travel to virtual places to perform educational activities (known as Quests), talk with other users and mentors, and build virtual personae. Over the last four years, more than 15,000 children on five continents have participated in the project. Students conduct rich inquiry-based explorations through which they learn particular standards-based content, and at the same time develop pro-social attitudes regarding significant environmental and social issues. Rather than just placing work and play side-by-side, QA strives to make learning fun and to show kids how they can make a difference. We have demonstrated learning gains in science, language arts, and social studies, and students have completed literally thousands of Quests, some of which were assigned by teachers and many of which were chosen by students to complete in their free time. Teachers have also reported increased levels of student engagement and interest in pursuing curricular issues outside of school”

You can learn more about the project at http://QuestAtlantis.Org).

They are currently looking for brave teachers, within the Southern African context, to emerge themselves and their learners in the virtual world learning explorations. So get more information. Go to our wiki for SA schools at http://saschools.wetpaint.com/page/Virtual+worlds+and+education  

The new thumbtribe generation has embraced an innovative way to slay their age old enemy- maths, using their cellphones and the much debated and severely fouled, Mxit!

Mxit has been getting a lot of bad press ever since it became the craze of the teen (and pre-teen) generation with parents and teachers alike, calling for Mxit to be regulated. In the midst of “slut-lists‘ and paedophile phobic verbal attacks on the popular cellular chat-client, Dr Maths is emerging as a ray of hope!

There is no doubt that Mxit is incredibly popular. This free service has grown by word of mouth to over 2000 learners country wide! So Laurie’s Butgereit of the Meraka Institute’s brainwave to use our learner’s favourite tool for teaching and learning, was indeed not only a stroke of genius, but an incredibly brave move in the face of adversity. I, for one, was initially sceptical about whether the learners will allow us to use their favourite tools for something like (…uhmmm) learning maths, but the popularity of this maths helpdesk speaks for itself.

To test the service and to catch up with the latest Mxit-maths “craze” I dialled in on this here lazy Sunday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to found the friendly maths tutors on hand, ever so professional, helpful and oh so knowledgeable. I have it on authority that they are well trained not to just provide answers, but to guide the learners through the meaning making process. The fact that there is also a delay between responses also makes it possible for learners to “give knowledge a try” and most of the time, they get to the answers themselves with just a little nudge from the tutors. The tutors can assist with maths and maths literacy problems and even help out with a bit of science hassles along the way as well. Truely remarkable!

So how does it all work?

First off, you need to install Mxit on your cellphone and/or computer. For more instructions on how to do this….

• Give your cellphone to a member of the thumbtribe (the closest teenager around you) and tell them to set you up (Quickest and easiest method)
• Or you can follow the instructions from the Mxit website
• Add Dr maths as one of your contacts 27799923960 thru 27799923969
• When they come online, you will hear a little sound and there will be a green dot next to their name
• Then go ahead and ask away!
• The Dr Maths team is online after school hours i.e. Mondays to Thursdays 2pm-10pm and Sundays between 11am and 8pm. They are even considering extending the service to Saturdays as well. How amazing!

They also have introduced a maths game which can be played when the team is not online when there are no tutors on. The learners can then compete in different categories, like addition, subtraction, factorials and others, to see who can get then highest score. The champion and the previous champion are notified to defend their title. Positive peer pressure at work!

So bravo to Laurie and her Dr Maths on Mxit team! Let us learn from their enthusiasm for creating authentic learning environments using the oh so dreaded Mxit on cellphones!

A few more articles regarding DR Maths on Mxit:

• Maths is cool when you MXit – South Africa – The Good News
• Using MXit to learn
• Learning and Support using MXit
• MATH ON MXIT: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE (Laurie’s Amesa Paper on her brainchild- a must read!!!)