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Monday, November 7, 2011

Virtual Reality and Gaming: The New Direction in Learning?

I must admit that although I think educational games are a great way to learn, I have yet to sit back, relax, and play a few educational games on my iPad.  My kids use it more than I do!  But I am intrigued by virtual reality.  In class, we were presented with QR code, or Quick Response code, that is a two-dimensional matrix barcode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code).  Basically you scan and wallah!  You get a video or a link to a website or promotional video or whatever it may be.  It is actually quite fun!

Check out the QR code for my blog:

qrcode

If you have a QR scanner on your smart phone, it will take you directly to my blog.  Aah, the wonders of technology when you finally understand it!

Second Life is another an online virtual world.  Users can create avatars to use it to interact with one another.  At work, people can hold virtual meetings with one another.  In school, it can be used with students interacting with one another.  In the military, there can be virtual "war rooms" for army personnel to practice. 

Here is a look at a YouTube video explaining Second Life for all you visual learners:



Second Life is collaborative, interactive, global, and a learning tool.  As interesting as it may seem, I do not have much interest in it.  Just my thoughts..

2 comments:

  1. I have a lot of interest in gaming, but little to no interest in Second Life. If I had the time, I would be playing something like World of Warcraft or Skyrim. As it is, I do not have the time for gaming as a graduate student who also works full time. I have seen the educational aspects of Second Life and I am intrigued by what people have done there, but cannot imagine using them unless I had to for a class. As far as educational games go, I'm a Scrabble kind of girl. :-)

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  2. Throughout this course, I was amazed by the fact that as technology is advancing, the number of available educational tools is growing rapidly. Virtual reality and educational gaming is yet another such educational tool.
    While it is clear that often visual effect driven concepts are easier to understand than conventional textbooks, development of educational gaming is taking this aspect to a whole new level.
    While this may indeed make learning truly 'enjoyable', what worries me sometimes is that as such games become more and more popular, it may become more difficult to keep students' attention on the topic rather than on the game!

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