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A Year of Possibilities!
"If not now, when?"
As I read that question restated in Richard Bandler's Guide to Trance-Formation it made me stop. Sure, I've heard that statement before, but for some reason as I scanned across the words this time they jumped out at me. They seemed to sum-up much of the thinking that has been running through my brain over the past months, or maybe years.
Those who know me know that I have spent many years working with people trying to cope with changes taking place in their lives. For the past twenty years, that work has primarily been with educators and business people who are trying to understand and adapt to the changes taking place because of the cultural issues surrounding the pace of technology growth, the flattened world and the reality of "game-thought" in our learners, employees and others. During this time, I have led national and international educational programs, worked with businesses around the world, and have earned my PhD through my research in the use of virtual worlds as platforms for cultural change.
Through all of this, I've had lots of ideas of things I "ought to do", or "ought to write", or "ought to create". But while those thoughts emerged, I found myself not acting on them. It wasn't because of fear, or lack of conviction, but from something very real in this new culture. I was spending all of my time learning new "stuff", trying to keep up with the changes taking place...observing and reporting on what was happening rather than putting my experience and expertise to work and "doing", "writing" and "creating". I'll do that someday.
"If now now, when?"
As I saw those words, my synapses sparked and create a new connection in there somewhere. As the idea grew, it gave itself a name: The Year of Possibilities. It began to haunt my unconscious and finally my conscious thoughts with the question: "What might happen if you spent a year and really just saw what you could do, write and create?"
As I thought back over the past year, I was rather surprised by the amount of time I had spent responding to the same questions we have been answering for a very long time. "Is distance learning as good?" "Can games be used for education?" "Are virtual worlds on the way out?" The list was frighteningly long. We have responded to these questions over and over, yet they continue to be asked...which seems to mean we really haven't answered them.
In the past month, I have read more than three dozen blogs from educational and business leaders predicting the tragic end of something or other, or telling me what was wrong with yet another currently popular technology or practice. It has become very easy to criticize and negate things, and apparently it is also a very popular thing to do. But it is much more difficult to create things...rather than observing and critiquing something from the balcony, getting down on the floor and realizing something that did not exist before. I've grown weary of sitting in the audience.
I have ideas. They come from years of working with outstanding people in education, in professional game design, in corporate training, in technology, in virtual worlds, in brain research and psychology. I've decided that it is time to see if these mashed-up ideas really have anything to them. So I am announcing 2010 as the ImagiLearning "Year of Possibilities!"
There are some basic ground rules. Rule one is that I'm not spending time worrying about the nay-sayers this year. If people want to keep asking those same old questions over and over, that's fine...I feel no responsibility to respond again. Yes, distance learning works. Yes, using game concepts can be amazing learning experiences, and I don't know if virtual worlds are on the way out. I just know that they are powerful learning platforms for today. Those questions have been answered. Move on.
Rule two is that I'm not interested in spending a lot of time with drama or negativism. The focus is on possibilities, not fears. No, we will not be stupid and ignore real risks, but hey...its time to move forward.
Rule three is that we will produce. We will create an energy that fuels us, and work with partners who share our vision to create a synergy that will carry us beyond what we could do individually. There are no silos, just a shared vision for uncovering possibilities.
Rule four is...there is no rule number four. Only three rules. Very simple. No more worrying about the past, no more drama or negativism, and partnering to create new possibilities. That's it...The Year of Possibilities.
I've spent the past week updating my dream list, and now it is time to jump in with both feet and go to work. I'll use our website and this blog to let you know how it's going. If you share the vision, and are interested in getting down to work as well, drop me a note. It is going to be a year filled with revisioning learning, training, games, virtual worlds, business...many things. It is a Year of Possibilities!
Packing More Than Christmas Gifts
I ran across another blog post yesterday that was attempting to pronounce whether Second Life, and virtual worlds in general, were "ready for business". It's the same article I've read in other blogs...just a few words changed and a slightly different example used to prove the case.
This particular post stressed that since Second Life, the current leader in virtual worlds, only has between 60,000 and 80,000 residents in-world at any one time, it does not have serious value for a business to explore....it's just not worth the investment. This gets added to the list of the "steep learning curve", the "high technical requirements", the "looks like a game" philosophy, and several other arguments.
The writer of yesterday's blog announced that virtual worlds "are just not ready", and businesses should save their energy (and resources) and wait until v-worlds become something different...in this case, bigger.
We have the same blogs being posted about education...most commonly with the same conclusion: v-worlds are not ready for serious "education". The problem I see with each of these arguments is that they tend to generalize about "business" and "education". Are virtual worlds ready for "business", implies that there is one thing...called "business"...that v-worlds might serve. The same assumption seems to be made about "education". From my experience, both "business" and "education" are actually made up of a whole pile of different things...with very different wants and needs.
The fact is, there are some really outstanding and highly successful business ventures taking place in the virtual environments right now. One very simple example is Mark Jankowski and his Virtual Training Partners island. Mark has taken his real-world business of negotiations training and kicked it up about 5 notches by using the strengths of the virtual environment. This program is still new, but I guarantee you are going to be hearing a lot more about it soon.
The question is not if virtual worlds are "ready for business". The question is "What can virtual worlds do for my business that can't be done somewhere else?" Mark can give you a dozen or so answers for his business, and there are hundreds of others with their own lists. Edinboro University in Pennsylvania is creating their list right now, as they are exploring the potential of Second Life for their instructional uses, business uses, and social uses.
Some folks like to wrap things like virtual worlds in nice little boxes, wrap them all up with neat little bows so they look nice and are easy to describe. But many are finding that virtual worlds are much more productive outside the box, and can provide a wide range of very powerful resources right now.
And did I mention that Mark, and Edinboro, started their work in SL as a part of our Virtual Learning Experience programs? Just thought I throw that in....
Second Life is un-boxed, and ready to go right now. How can we help you find out what it can do for you?
Asking the Best Questions About Online Learning
Greetings from Dallas, Texas. We are in town to present a session at the Zero to Three National Institute, attended by organizations focusing on supporting families of children from birth to age three. Many of these groups provide training for home visitors, nurses, teachers, Doulas and others, folks providing direct care to children...many of whom are at risk. Others here are publishers and creators of resources and tools designed to support that same work.
Many of these groups are now looking at how to transition their training from the tradtional face-to-face format to an effective online format. Rising costs and decreasing financial support, and increasingly busy schedules for family support workers, are two of the critical reasons for this change. While the interest is very real, many of these organizations have built their business model on "relationship based" activities, and have minimal familiarity with technology and the real issues of online learning.
That's why ImagiLearning is at the conference.
We're here to talk about what we consider to be the most important questions any organization should address as they consider moving online. Contrary to the approach we have seen followed so many times in the past, the most important questions we believe need to be asked are not related to technology. Yes, tech is a major piece of online learning, but from our experience the issues that create the most difficulties for online learning programs are NOT technology-related.
In our experience of designing, developing, directing online programs, as well as being both a teacher and learner online, the issues that more commonly create problems are related to the culture of the organization itself. Organizational assumptions, priorities and policies are more likely to limit the effectiveness of online learning than tech issues...which are more tangible and clear. Implementing online learning calls for changes to traditional practices and policies, many of which can be extremely difficult to change. An organization can avoid delays and a great deal of tension if they talk about those changes before they are dealing with them in the midst of deadlines.
Just a few of the seemingly minor questions we believe can make a huge difference later include:
Who approves the design of an online course?
Who will approve courses before they are allowed to go online?
Who will prepare the actual content of a course?
How will you prepare subject matter experts to help create courses?
How will you prepare your traditional trainers to teach online?
How will your traditional trainers balance their workload between training and helping develop online course content?
How will you help your tradtional trainers get beyond worrying if online training will cost them their jobs?
What will you do when online course development needs are at odds with a standing IT or marketing policy?
We have seen otherwise very hopeful and healthy online programs fall into serious disarray because of any one or two of these issues. Our entire list of questions covers much more turf, and will soon be available in our own online training course here on our site. This is the basis of our work with organizations in transition, helping them develop a complete strategy for successful implementation of online learning within their training program.
Ask the questions now...avoid the hassles later.
To All of Our ImagiLearning Friends and Family
I would like to wish a very "Happy and Restful Thanksgiving" to our many friends we have met through our work in Second Life and our other real and virtual world activities!
One of the most rewarding experiences of this work has been the growth of global connections we have made. From our range of real and virtual programs, our community participants come from more than 20 other countries around the world.
As we in the U.S. celebrate our Thanksgiving day, I realize that this is unique to our country. However, I also realize that every one of our partner countries has occasions on which they take time to reflect on their conditions, and pause to give thanks for those things that are meaningful in their particular culture.
While those days may have very different names, and even more different traditions and activities, the human compassion and connections are common to all of us. One of the things for which I am grateful is the technology of Second Life, which has provided the platform that has shrunk the globe for those of us in ImagiLearning, Inc.
Where ever you may be, whatever traditions you honor and cherish, please accept our best wishes, and know that we are thankful that you are a part of our ImagiLearning Community!
John
Welcome to the ImagiLearning Blog
We are currently in the process of finishing the build of our new site. We are excited about the many new changes taking place at ImagiLearning, Inc. and look forward to using this site, and this blog, to share that excitement with you.
A New Site: A New Focus
Welcome to our new website for the growing ImagiLearning Community!
What you see today is just the beginning of a new digital presence for ImagiLearning, Inc., with this site serving as the hub of a range of resources and activities in the real and virtual environments so directly impacting the changes taking place around us.
Along with some continuing changes you will see to the overall appearance of the site, you will soon see the addition of some new very key resources. One addition about to appear is the ability to subscribe to an ongoing collection of newsletters and other research-based updates emerging from our work and practice. These will focus on both real and virtual world topics, and our hope is that they will spark some meaningful conversation and not a small number of creative ideas.
We will also soon be offering our growing collection of research articles and "think pieces", maybe you call them White Papers. Again, our goal is to help fuel the discussions and activities that have been so meaningful to us and have taught us so much.
Along with our new website here, we are also expanding our presence in a number of social networks and communities, developing a collection of (what we think are exciting) new video resources, and are further expanding our activities inside of Second Life...the latest of which is our ImagiLearning Dissertation Community that you can read more about here on the site.
We are excited about our new site...but even more excited about the full changes that are taking place in our company. If we can share that excitment with you, please give us a shout. But a minimum, stop back by every few days and see how things are coming along.
ImagiLearning....creating the future of learning, one definition at at time.
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