So now we’re proposing sessions. One interesting thing was someone suggested a discussion on the ethics of using IRC backchannels during a conferencing session. I do have to say that it’s slightly weird to be hearing reports of what’s happening in the backchannel (I’m not using it myself at the moment).
Some other very cool suggestions: the portability of reputation capital across virtual spaces, designing virtual worlds to enhance possibilities for spectatorship and spectacle, and looking at emergent evolution of markets. We also had a good discussion of sovereignty and player self-governance.
Afterwards, I also had a great conversation with Howard Rheingold about the use of technology in instruction: as always, he’s thinking miles ahead of the worlds I normally operate in. One thing I think would be cool is if there were easy-to-use real-time polls or quizzes you could use in a wireless classroom that let you know whether or not the students really understood a key concept you were trying to teach, to get instant and anonymous feedback. (Students generally don’t like to volunteer that they don’t understand a concept, for obvious reasons.)
Tim, I’m so jealous that you’re at this conference. I read your first post about the lack of overlap between your usual professional circle and this one. I am one of those people trying to drag folks into this one all the time. Picture a Venn Diagram with two overlapping circles. I’m in that fish-shaped section of the overlap, running back and forth. Kind of crazy, but fun.
Anyway, I wanted to comment that there are some easy-to-use real-time polls and lots of ways to implement them.
Ditto to Laura’s jealousy. Re: Real time polls, the big science and math classes at my university have gotten into clickers in a big way. I don’t have any big lectures myself yet, but I’m pondering how they would or would not be useful in a history or other humanities type lecture.