NMC Campus Observer

NMC Teachers Buzz Mon 19 6pm PDT

Corwin Carillon (aka Nick Noakes) : Mar 20, 2007 08:27pm

Gaming and learning is growing as more and more research is done on the subject and Second Life affords educators a basic gaming engine.

Tonight we had a fun and educational NMC Teachers Buzz with Jeremy Koester (aka Jeremy Braver) leading a discussion on Gaming & Learning in Second Life using a small group math activity to get across the points he was making.

He quickly got the participants to break out into small groups and follow instructions on a notecard. The groups then zoomed off to different sandbox locations around Second Life to build a quick and easy visualization of an abstract math concept. We were given a few to choose from. Our 5-person breakout group ranged greatly in their familiarity with Second Life and yet we functioned well and quickly as a team; despite crashes and lag! We then went back to Learning on the NMC Campus to display our products.

I think we probably learned as much about teamworking in a 3D environment as we did about constructing an abstract math construct in 3D! This was a really fun session and Jeremy has a lot more of these hidden in his fur, so look out for more in the future and join the Gaming and Learning in SL group in-world or the Google group of the same name if you are interested.

Thanks to Jeremy for a great session!

Story filed under: Campus Headlines,Teacher's Buzz,Teaching and Learning

See all stories by Corwin Carillon (aka Nick Noakes)