Garden space

"The syllabus becomes a garden space, a context setting within which learning can happen and the curriculum is the things that grows there." Cormier So, #5DL has become my "garden space" and the stuff I'm aggregating now (ARRF) are the seeds that I hope will grow here. I think it maybe started (together with the ATC stuff) when I first saw fov2go out of USC's Institute for the Creative Arts; that's probably really where it began. I'm at home. I run the app on my iPhone 4 which rests in a viewer by Hasbro. I navigate this 90s-feel multimedia space in a way that I can see could be compelling. Friends and family experiencing it for the first time express wonder, and some confusion; need prompts. Soon become bored and put it down. Oculus Rift is taking off, and we're all watching that space like meerkats. That's sort of February through to June 2014.

Five dimensional learning

I've dubbed it #5DL, at least I think it's me... I haven't seen it anywhere else. It started with the ATC stuff. ATCs (air traffic controllers) operate in a four dimensional space of three dimensions (x+y+z) plus time (t). So I thought they should be learning in that space too. But then there's one more dimension... the meta layer. That provides the learner with orientation (where am I in this course?) timely feedback (how am I doing?) and a recommender system (what should I do next?). So that's the five dimensional learning model. The idea is that the meta layer should fly away when not wanted leaving the 4D environment in full screen mode. A button or a gesture recall the meta layer when needed. It's all built in html5, css3, and javascript... so no plugins.

Interactive avionics

It's like not a fully blown flight simulator; nowhere near. But it's animated instruments that respond to certain situations, scenarios. Not simulations exactly, but discrete moments or components that could finally, one day, be built into a simulation. One step at a time; it would be the start of a big project. Well it is the start of a big project. Shoot for the stars. Anyway, bye bye Flash. Hello html5, css3, javascript  in the creation of discrete interactive avionics and the question of whether they can run inside epub3.

On-boarding

Tan, Steinbach and Kumar (p.231) note that arm length and reading ability are strongly correlated. When you fix the age the correlation evaporates. I'm trying to find the confounding factor in this one: Failure to post a profile photograph or avatar is strongly correlated with failure to complete an online course. I think if I could make only one change to courses I work on, it would be to extend the on-boarding component. I like: mihi-mihi; team-building; practice assignments; assessment simulations; and real life face to face beach parties.

Extrinsic motivation

Worrying about gamification again, and remembering Knowles on motivation: "Adults respond better to internal versus external motivators." Looking at Kevin Werbach's framework there's a lot I can take from it and repurpose. How can I say that Boss Fights (against the clock multichoice tests), Collections (toolkits), Combat (simulations), Levels, Quests, and Teams are not useful components in course design? There's also the nagging question; is extrinsic motivation actually unethical?

Analog missions

Looking at simulations. Got this fear of didactic approaches, prefer serious gameplay. Very interested in NASA NEEMO. Realise we can't all do simulation to that extent, but the principle is still there; analog missions. More interesting, more demanding, and more productive than class.