Center4Edupunx
Bootstrapping Our Way Across the Curriculum

Edupunk is just a tag … bootstrapping is a life philosophy

Edupunk – this word seems to have been first uttered or posted by Jim Groom in May 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edupunk

Edupunk is really the DIY movement in teaching. Rather than relying on whatever learning management system their school subscribes to and e-paks from the publisher, edupunk educators go out to the blogosphere, the metaverse or into a MMORPG to find what will engage their students. It is an attitude about teaching that involves creativity, whimsy, Web 2.0 and a very limited budget (if you get a budget at all). So you DIY, you bootstrap, you use your strong and weak ties over the Internet to learn what others educators are doing. And most times you come up with something for your students that is engaging, challenging and creative.

It’s about the passion for educating and learning – doesn’t matter what it’s called edupunk, DIY, Web 2.0, bootstrapping or bricolage. You do it heart and soul and it shows.

Edupunk is just a word that seems to work for educators who have been DIYing it, bootstrapping and pushing education and learning to the bleeding edge.

Educators from the ARG Academy and good friend and guildee, Mellody Collier

had the opportunity to present

Introduction to ARGs and Tech Tools

University of Michigan’s 4T Virtual Conference.

While EduPunxers have been involved in creating ARGs, AR simulations and even QR code murder mysteries, it was Mellody who was really able to make ARGs relevant for this K-12 crowd. She managed to describe relevant ways of using ARGs and role-play for learning from K-3 to skeptical teenagers.

The presentation was online over Elluminate ( Blackboards’ Collaborate) and
the discussion was lively with much more audience interaction than you have in a F2F setting.

The comments, questions  and emoticons  were continually flying  in text chat.
The whole conference had a very friendly conversational tone yet real questions were asked and difficult issues were discussed.

The attendees were even offered a rabbit hole and were given an advance invitation to play the ARG currently being designed by the educators of the ARG Academy.

Here’s a copy of the slideshare  ARGs for K-12 and to take a look at the recording to here.

More fun! The Alternate Reality Game Academy at P2PU

Come join EduPunxers at this spin-off of the Virtual Worlds, Games and Education Tour.

We’re doing blended, mixed, augmented and virtual reality at the ARG Academy.

We begin on Monday, May 7th at 6 pm SLT in Second Life http://slurl.com/secondlife/Front%20Range/128/127/33/

And we’ll be using Second Life, Jokaydiagrid, Google + Hangout and any other platform that will work for production of an ARG.

The OOC (Online Open Course) or maybe even MOOC (Modest Online Open Course) starts on May 7 and runs until May 28.

Since this is an open course, your participation in it is also open. Participate as much or as little as you want.While there will be synchronous meetings, there will be enough material to follow along asynchronously. So come join us – quoting one the participants of the last OOC  ”Lurk and Learn!”

Is it possible to do a self-study and actually enjoy the process? I think it may be.

Tonight during the ISTE SIGVE leadership office hours, the discussion of the self- study included talk of  Papert’s “hard fun“, fiero ( the feeling you get when you overcome a challenge) and why we as educators all stayed in Second Life despite it being hard.

We also just started the discussion on what criteria we would to look at. If you would like to comment or collaborate the self-study design document is open for both until May 8th.

So should we go with the obvious – ISTE NETS or maybe include computational learning?

Or should we pull from the new skills for a participatory culture?

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving
Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

Please join the MOOC – the Virtual Worlds, Games and Education Tour
in Second Life on Wednesday April 25^th for “Closing the Loop.”

There will be a wrap-up discussion, a bit of music with DJ Carter Denja
and a preview of some things to come.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/front%20range/62/124/902/

John Carter McKnight – SL: Kaseido Quandry has been teaching and researching virtual worlds. At VWBPE, he presented Space Makes You Bitter.

He gave us a raincheck on a tour of EVE Online. This Saturday, April 14 – he’s taking us into the EVE Online sandbox.

It may be a little scary – but please come join us!

6pm SLT – EveOnline Overview:
Rally Point in Second Life – Front Range

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Front%20Range/128/127/33/

7pm SLT – EveOnline Tour with John Carter McKnight
You will need to download the trial version of EveOnline from https://www.eveonline.com/start/

Looking for some Cognitive Overload or perhaps a bit of  Cognitive Dissonance?

Please join us for Week 4  of the Virtual Worlds, Games & Education MOOC

This week is Leading or maybe even Bleeding Edge Week.

We start with Bev G. McArthur from Human Mosaic Systems on Tuesday.

Then we specifically asked Lyr Lobo ( Dr. Cynthia Calgone) to blow our minds.

Next – think World of Warcraft isn’t educational?

Well…we are doing a discussion on MOOCs, Open Education and Connectivism while we are playing WoW with the Cognitive Dissonance Guild

and to wrap it up – John Carter McKnight is taking us into EveOnline on Saturday.

Here’s the start of the Game Vocabulary that we put up for Week 3 at Virtual Worlds, Games and Education Tour

Feel free to help us out with the list here.  To contribute you will need to register as a participant.

GAMER VOCABULARY

Cheat (noun)- In a Virtual World or a video game, a code (whether secret or published) or a series of movements (whether intentionally programmed, a glitch or coded by the player) that can enhance one’s abilities, unlock hidden easter eggs or unlock otherwise unavailable levels of play or resources. I found a cheat that lets me get to the next level.

Easter Eggs (noun)- Easter Eggs are hidden links or files coded into software or websites.
In the end, they are useless gags that programmers include for fun.

Gank ( verb) – to be killed especially repeatedly killed by a higher level playe.

Griefing (noun) – Behavior on the part of the player that is meant to gain attention, aggravate and harass other players. Griefers in games are similar to hecklers in live performances.

Leeroy or Leeroy Jenkins- Long story but funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU ( digital native & adult language).

l33t or leet or 1337 (adjective) – derived from the word elite, showing a high skill level in games or computer coding. Leet is the opposite of lame or unskilled.

Leetspeak (noun) – alphabet used on the internet for English derived from the word elite. Originally used by the hacker culture now used by the gaming culture.

Machinima (noun)- Portmanteau of machine cinema, the rendering of computer-generated imagery using low-end (real time) 3D engines such as those found in video games.

MMORPG (noun)- Massively Multiplayer Online,Role-Playing Game. Games where many players log into a persistent game world and play the game together.

Ninja (verb) – to take loot that someone else earned.

n00b (noun)- Someone who is new to a game and is still learning it. Also called noob and newb.

Owned (verb)- Totally annihilated. Used to basically say “I won you lost.” Pwned- same as “owned” this term was influenced because of a typo in a game and has been used ever since.

Toon, Avatar , or Main (noun)- Refers to your in-game or online representation. May be used interchangeably with toon, alt, or character.   Your Main is your main character and Alt is your secondary character/s (your alter ego).

Twink (verb  and also a noun) – outfitting a new character with gear or resources not normally available to a low level player.

w00t (interjection) The origin of this term is essentially unknown, but it essentially means “hooray!”Suggestions for its origin are as an acronym for “We Own the Other Team and a portmanteau of “Wow loot!” Meriam-Webster named it 2007 word of the year for its open online dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/07words.htm

EduPunxers will be facilitating the next 2 weeks
in P2P U ‘s “A Virtual Worlds, Games and Education” Tour
http://p2pu.org/en/groups/a-virtual-worlds-games-and-education-tour/

This week will be mapped to the ISTE NETS for Teachers

Week 3 World of Warcraft

Monday April 2
Rally Point in Second Life – Front Range

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Front%20Range/128/127/33/

Time – 530 pm  ( 630 PM MST)and then into World of Warcraft for 630 pm SLT ( 730 PM MST)

US Server, Sisters of Elune (RP) Realm
Troll/Orc Starting Area
Time – 630 pm SLT ( 730 PM MST)

Tuesday April 3
Rally Point in Second Life – Front Range

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Front%20Range/128/127/33/

Time – 530 pm and then into World of Warcraft for 6 pm SLT

US Server, Sisters of Elune (RP) Realm
Orgrimmar Auction House
Time – 6 pm SLT

Wednesday April 4
US Server, Sisters of Elune (RP) Realm
Dwarf Starting Area
Time – 6 pm SLT

Thursday April 5
World of Warcraft for 5 pm SLT

US Server, Sisters of Elune (RP) Realm
Alliance Side
Stormwind City
Pig and Whistle Tavern Meetup
with Cognitive Dissonance and 3D Games Lab participants

Saturday April 7 & Sunday April 8

Cohort Runs and Mentoring  – TBA

Sunday April 8

World of Warcraft for Noon SLT

US Server, Sisters of Elune (RP) Realm
Alliance Side
Stormwind City
Pig and Whistle Tavern Meetup
with Cognitive Dissonance and 3D Games Lab participants



VWBPE MOOC ( Massive Open Online Course) or OOC (just Open Online Course) is now live!

This is a 4 week open course following the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference. It is meant as time to reflect on what you learned and get into a deeper discussion than a 3 day conference allows.

Everyone is welcome, attendance at the conference is not a requirement to participate.

The course’s official title is ” A Virtual Worlds, Games and Education Tour” and is located at http://bit.ly/virtualmooc

It is on P2P U, so to be a participant you will need to make a P2P account. Under Tasks ( kind of like the P2P version of Module)

We do have a task entitled “Reflection on the VWBPE Conference” that was designed to reflect on what you learned or experienced at the conference. http://bit.ly/GzBuOA

The schedule for the course is:

Week 1 – Virtual Worlds Exploration and Tours

Week 2 – Machinima

Week 3 – World of Warcraft

Week 4 – Bleeding Edge

We are still surveying for ideas for Week 4 – Bleeding edge http://bit.ly/ABjNpw

This is a totally open course – so it’s okay to come in on Wednesday or Friday, perfectly fine to pick and choose weeks based on your interests and to also come in only to lurk.

Last Year’s Opening Keynote!

Well kind of….

Botgirl Quest’s Human alt – fourworlds ra will do our pre-awards show at 3 pm SLT at Central Auditorium

“The Art of Micro-Story from Tweet to Machinima” will explore some of the innovative ways ultra-short form mediums are being used for storytelling and creative expression, including:

• Head Injury Theater – Slice of life tweets from a woman caring for two teen daughters, a sister with cancer and a mother with a head injury

• The Virtual Court Jester – Razor sharp parody echoing emerging virtual world news

• Deep Tweets – A machinima series based on social network posts

• 100 Word Stories – A weekly challenge inspiring written word, voice performance, comics and videos

• Micro-Rants – A series of thematic social network posts published over the course of a day

Here’s the teaser video – Micro-Story  http://vimeo.com/38301905