December 8th, 2008 by Robin Green
For many children, virtual worlds are their learning system for discovering what social behaviors are appropriate. For this reason, children should be informed about virtual world safety and behavior before playing. Children who navigate these complex virtual learning systems face some real dangers.
Organizations like Every Child Matters work to ensure that each child has the right to play, to be healthy, to stay safe, and to achieve economic well-being. Safety refers to children’s right to be free from maltreatment, neglect, violence and sexual exploitation; safe from accidental injury and death; safe from bullying and discrimination; and safe from crime in and out of school.
Although these are real-world goals, they also apply to the virtual world. Increasingly the distinction between online and offline is a blurred one for young people. However, when children are aided in their use of virtual worlds, they are provided with not only an interactive learning system but a space for creating, communicating, and having fun.
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Coggno.com is a leading provider of world-class LMS platforms.
December 8th, 2008 by Robin Green
Many game worlds are springing up that bind interaction in the virtual world to the purchase of a toy. Webkinz, Funkeys, TyGirls and BarbieGirls are just a few virtual worlds created and run by toy makers. But do children really think of virtual worlds in terms of a consumerist learning system? Aren’t they more interested in having fun, and do they really pay much attention to the advertising inserted into their fantasy worlds?
Many argue that advertising in virtual world learning systems isn’t as big a deal as we may believe. Mark Hanson, director of business development for Lego Universe, claimed that children are very good at identifying the underlying ethic of a virtual world.
For me, Lord Puttnam’s words ring true: “The challenge ahead is this–to ensure that virtual worlds are increasingly places that offer real meaning to their [children's] lives and in the real world to learn from the sense of community and collaboration that’s been experienced in virtual worlds.”
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Coggno.com offers world-class LMS platforms.
December 8th, 2008 by Robin Green
A decade ago, there were just 182 million people using the internet globally. By the end of this month, there will be over 1.5 billion internet users worldwide. With more children using the internet as a learning system and social medium, and with increasingly easy access to social networks and entertainment like virtual worlds, there’s reason to look closely at the systems children are engaging in. Both positive and negative influences multiply along with the world’s increasing access to broadband.
Virtual worlds have the power to offer a skill-building and values-instilling learning system for children. But while virtual worlds have potential to effect positive developments in children, many people argue that right now it generally isn’t doing so.
At the 2007 Virtual Worlds Forum in London, Lord Puttnam expressed his concerns about the negative effects of virtual worlds on children. “Might we not prefer to build worlds that encourage those same values and skills we wish them to exercise in the real world?” Puttnam posed. Many virtual worlds end up providing only a shallow, consumerist learning system for young people.
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December 5th, 2008 by Robin Green
While virtual worlds offer vast potential as a learning system and collaborative space for adults as well as children, they also have a long way to go before that ideal is a reality. Especially for children, virtual worlds continue to offer escapist, fantasy lands that too often miss the opportunity to serve as positive learning systems, and act more like advertising immersion programs.
At a Virtual Worlds Forum held in London in 2007, Oscar-winning filmmaker Lord Puttnam gave the opening keynote speech. He voiced fears that all children will learn from these virtual worlds is that they are first and foremost consumers. Puttnam urged creators to build virtual worlds that help to instill in children the values that societies need. “Are we absolutely sure that this is the very best we can offer young people?” he asked. The potential for virtual worlds to become positive learning systems is there, waiting to be tapped into.
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Coggno.com provides premier online training courses.
December 5th, 2008 by Robin Green
Like gesturing, sketching is also lacking in 3D web learning systems. Sketching could involve actually drawing on a whiteboard or a piece of paper. But in today’s online learning system community, “sketching” often refers to doing calculations on a spreadsheet, editing a document, developing flow charts, or modeling products.
Simulation software like that of the Design Rationale Group at MIT helps users collaborate on the production of a sketch, as well as watch a collaborator’s additions play in real time, like watching a movie. For daily sketchers like engineers, who often use the tedious method of paper and pen sketching, the development of this kind of software is pivotal. In addition, 3D web programs like Second Life and other virtual worlds are making strides toward more comprehensive sketching capabilities.
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Coggno.com provides premier online training.
December 5th, 2008 by Robin Green
Implementing video and audio tools in your LMS-hosted training course is one way to capture your learner’s attention, as well as their trust. Organize chats on your LMS, or implement videos. LMSs like Coggno offer features like video and audio tools, and 3D worlds, including Second Life, are also increasingly audio-based.
In the past, the communication between players on virtual worlds was limited to text. For some people that was the ideal medium of communication, allowing them to take on avatar identities and not break the illusion by adding voice. However, a study by Dmitri Williams, a communications professor at Urbana-Champaign, showed that World of Warcraft players who used test-only chat experienced “drops in trust and happiness” amongst their fellow players, while those who used voice chat did not. The emotional signal of voice and tone is critical in establishing online relationships and trust.
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Coggno.com offers premier online training courses.
December 4th, 2008 by Robin Green
One problem virtual teams may experience involves the very learning system tools that are meant to facilitate group collaboration. Although cutting-edge collaboration and learning system technologies like Web 2.0 tools and even virtual worlds can help virtual teams achieve goals, the introduction of these technologies can also impose time-costing distractions.
The introduction of a real-time conferencing and collaboration tools may sidetrack members from their focus and draw them into a distracting cycle of tool experimentation. Or an interactive virtual world that is meant as a product-creation learning system, training tool or meeting space may take hours for users to get the hang of, and ultimately may not even function efficiently. The development of a solid team base is crucial, greatly overshadowing the importance of the newest, fanciest technology.
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Coggno.com offers premier LMS platforms.
December 4th, 2008 by Robin Green
These days, organizations are practically composed of a vast network of teams to meet all the goals and functions an organization has. An LMS can be not only a helpful way to organize employee training, but service teams can use them to keep track of customers and employee achievements. Service teams are an increasingly international group. They support customers or the internal organization, normally with a service or technical support role, 24/7.
Training for a role in a service team is something an LMS can take care of, with video tools, simulations, and audio tools like those used by Coggno, to create situations dealing with customers. Some LMSs are even multi-lingual, offering a variety of built-in languages to personalize employees’ training experiences.
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