Social media literacy

Many moons ago, I did my Master's thesis on media literacy in education. It was a pretty unconventional topic at the time, but I was intrigued by the application of critical thinking skills to the analysis of popular media, specifically advertising and news. With the media affecting so much of kids lives, I felt like learning how to find truth in media was just as important to learn as analyzing a Shakespearean sonnet.

Funny, and sad to admit, but the Internet was just not a major media player at the time I did my thesis. I've thought over the last decade or so about how my research might have been different given the paradigm shift in how people get information and entertainment. And in the last couple years, with the emergence of social media, I've really adjusted my thinking even more.

Let's start with a definition of media literacy. There are lots of them, but I like this one from Rick Shepard:

Media literacy is an informed, critical understanding of the mass media. It involves examining the techniques, technologies and institutions involved in media production; being able to critically analyze media messages; and recognizing the role audiences play in making meaning from those messages.
Source: Rick Shepherd, "Why Teach Media Literacy," Teach Magazine, Quadrant Educational Media Services, Toronto, ON, Canada, Oct/Nov 1993.

Check out more definitions and opinions on the Media Awareness Network.

One of the most interesting things about media literacy for me was the "third level" of study: looking at who controlled and filtered the messages conveyed through the media and to what purpose. I'm not typically a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that people always have a purpose, and power corrupts absolutely. Thus the emergence of the "liberal media" and Fox News--news with an underlying purpose of pushing their "agenda."

So how does this relate to social media? And is there such a thing as social media literacy?

Social media, although diverse and much more egalitarian in its source, is still a form of media. No matter the source of content, the principles of media literacy still apply. Questions like: Who is the source? What is their agenda? What perspectives are you not hearing? --are all questions that should be applied to any form of communication in order to truly "get it." Social media may not always have the same goal of mass media in communicating a message to a large, diverse audience, but applying the same analysis principles is essential to understanding the purpose of the messages communicated. In fact, its essential that as new technologies and methods of communication are adopted that we look at how communication is changing, and why.

One of the challenges I had in studying media literacy was that, in the end, what media education hopes to teach is the critical analysis of media messages. What essentially are media messages? Communication. Communication is a much broader scope than just media, so then, is the critical analysis of communication simply "literacy"? The traditional understanding of literacy is simply being able to read. But in order to truly succeed in modern culture, you must be able to do more than just read. You need to be able to "read between the lines," to question, to challenge, to critique. Check out this article about the need for integrating social media literacy into mainstream education.

As social media expands and media changes and evolves, critical thinking skills are a constant.

So, yes, there is such a thing as social media literacy, just as there is media literacy, just as there is literacy. There is simply more of a need for awareness of the importance of critical analysis of all of the forms of communication you are exposed to every day.

The future of learning

After reading this blog post on The Future of the Web, I realized that perhaps I should actually write down the things I've been saying over the course of this year about the future of learning. The end of the year is usually when people start making predictions, and since I'm constantly talking to people about my predictions for what learning will look like in 5, 10, 20 years, I'm ready to put my predictions out there for comments, praise, and ridicule...so here goes. For what they're worth, here are my thoughts on the future of learning...

Within 5 years:
-The majority of the population will have some experience engaging with online content as an avatar
-All Fortune 500 companies will have some implementation of virtual worlds, most likely as a tool for learning and collaboration
-Social networking tools will routinely be used as tools for developing learning communities
-Serious games, simulations, and immersive learning environments will be standard additions to corporate learning curriculum
-Print training modules will no longer be developed and "printed" but will be delivered through interactive and searchable online tools
-Conferences will all incorporate online components, with sessions held virtually and incorporating social media for community building and discussion

Within 10 years:
-The K12 educational system, higher education, and corporate learning will all incorporate virtual worlds as a daily tool integrated into how students and employees learn
-Curriculum will revolve more closely around user-generated content, development of learning communities, and social media
-Knowledge management for enterprise will be dynamic and fluid, facilitated and monitored by the organization but developed and maintained by the learning communities within organizations
-With the capacity to develop experiential learning, performance objectives will usurp learning objectives and ROI (or ROE) will routinely be measured for learning initiatives based on cost savings, revenue generation, decreased turnover, etc.

Within 20 years:
-There will be complete interoperability between the now often divergent learning systems--LMSs, knowledge management, assessment, social media/networks
-People will routinely be immersed in virtual worlds and virtual content online
-People will have an online "identity" which will include an avatar representation that is used to engage with content across the web
-Virtual reality environments will replace 3D immersive environments, allowing for even more experiential learning

I'm sure that I'll be surprised about which of these predictions happen a lot faster than I think, and which of them never materialize. I'm also sure that there will be some amazing breakthrough innovations that I can't imagine that will change the game completely

I'm also pretty sure that I'm going to be really excited to be a hologram someday.

Virtual Worlds News article on Tandem Learning

A little write up on Tandem Learning today in Virtual Worlds News. If you were wondering, I like Second Life more than Jedd does.

The intersection of adult learning principles and virtual worlds

I just posted the following brainstorm in ThinkBalm's Innovation Community. For those of you not a member of that community, I'd love to hear your feedback here! 

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With the introduction of any new technology that can be used for learning, often what we know about how adults learn is thrown out the window because the new technology is "cool" and will "increase motivation." Eventually, though, adult learning theory wins.

Here are a list of proven adult learning principles for e-learning, and how they intersect (or don't) with virtual world technology:


Modality principle: audio narration, not on-screen text, should drive instruction
Virtual worlds are typically driven by visuals and supported by audio or instant messages (text chat). Although chat is text on-screen, it is dynamic in a way that mirrors audio, unlike the static text in e-learning modules or PowerPoint presentations. I would argue that virtual worlds adhere to the modality principle of adult learning.

Redundancy principle: on-screen text should key-point the narration, not provide a transcript
This principle again challenges us to consider the meaning of on-screen text. If we compare text chat to audio narration, then virtual worlds provide little other on-screen text, unless a presentation or text pieces are provided in-world. In these cases, to adhere to the redundancy principle, those print pieces should be focused on key points.

Seductive augmentation principle: don't use extraneous, distracting sound or visuals
This may be the biggest challenge of virtual worlds for learning. Part of the opportunity of virtual worlds are the openness of them. This openness can lead to a variety of distractions that can diminish the effectiveness of learning, making this a very difficult principle to execute in a virtual world.

Personalization principle: use a conversational style
If the seductive augmentation principle is the most difficult to manage in a virtual world, personalization is perhaps the easiest to incorporate. Interactions are by their nature personalized in a virtual world. Obstacles to personalization may include chatbots or artificial intelligence attempts that are awkward or demonstrate inaccuracies.

Practice principle: use interactive learning exercises to foster comprehension and anchor in long-term memory
Virtual worlds provide an opportunity for truly interactive learning exercises that allow users to practice what they learn. Just like a typical e-learning experience these exercises or opportunities for practice must be built into the learning. This is not automatically built into virtual worlds, but it is a principle that has much more creative, immersive possibilities in them.

Spacing principle: interactive learning exercises should be distributed throughout a lesson, and ideally spaced out over time
Similar to the practice principle, the spacing principle is more dependent on the design of the learning experience than on the technology. Virtual worlds allow for application of the spacing principle if the learning experience is designed to incorporate spaced activities.

Response contingent feedback principle: write interactive learning exercise answer feedback that is tailored to a learner's specific answer
Virtual worlds are developed around the concept of live interaction, thus response-contingent feedback would be an assumed part of any learning experience in a virtual world environment. Not only can feedback be response contingent, but it can also take the form of live coaching. This is a clear benefit of virtual worlds for learning over other e-learning methodologies.

Analogical learning principle: use analogies or comparisons to increase comprehension
Although analogies could certainly be designed into virtual world learning experiences, the true benefit of virtual worlds is the ability to allow users hands on experience and immersion in the environment or scenarios that they are learning about. One could argue that the entire virtual world is a mirror of the real world learning environment, and thus analogies are not as necessary...or that the entire virtual world is in some ways an analogy.

Mnemonic principle: use mnemonics to encode learning to long-term memory
The mnemonic principle is based on the assumption that there is some information that just needs to be committed to memory, and the use of mnemonics helps link those concepts to other existing concepts already in memory thus helping to more easily remember new concepts. As with several of the other principles listed here, virtual world learning experiences could certainly include mnemonics if incorporated in the learning experience.

From the above analysis, the biggest risk to the success of virtual world training design is seductive augmentation. Instructional designers working in virtual worlds should be thinking about the benefit/distraction ratio when developing virtual world learning experiences in order to minimize the negative effects of distractors.

In the end, it comes down to good instructional design: virtual world technology allows for new possibilities for practice and immersion, but adult learning theory must be applied in order for learning experiences to be effective.

Virtual worlds, all things considered

Luckily for me, I have a lot of friends who send me research and stories about the use of virtual worlds, some in particular for learning, since my nose has been to the grindstone building one of my own.

Its only fair that I share the wealth and pass along some of the stories I've found most interesting lately (although they've been published over the last few months...it takes me awhile to get caught up).

There's already been a bit of research done on using virtual world technology for medical education, surgical training, etc., but this article talks about the use of virtual worlds for patient education. Given the opportunity to connect with other patients and maintain a certain level of anonymity, I would surmise that very soon, virtual worlds will be one of the most interesting ways that patients receive disease and therapeutic information, in addition to building strong support communities.

MSN recently featured this story about body consciousness and avatars. I spent a lot of time researching and thinking about avatars, especially as the development of our virtual world identities evolve and avatars are our primary means of engagement with others in-world. I still believe avatars are one of the keys to the success of virtual worlds; understanding the psychology of how we identify ourselves in digital medium will reveal important data on how to increase participation and maintain user engagement.

What if the future isn't really virtual, just augmented? Augmented reality has been much discussed recently; check out this game to see how merging the real and digital can make for some extremely innovative ways of interacting with others, and the world. I particularly like the idea of augmented reality in allowing for competition and game play. Maybe augmented reality experiences will be the catalyst to bring virtual worlds more mainstream?

Finally, love this talk by Jane McGonigal. If you don't have time to check it out, I want to draw particular attention to the four points that she identifies as keys to engagement:

1. satisfying work to do
2. the experience of being good at something
3. time spent with people we like
4. the chance to be part of something bigger

She makes note of how World of Warcraft addresses these points--interesting that no matter what world you're in, these are probably the things that matter most to keep you engaged.

Defining virtual worlds, simulations, serious games...

So I'm back from London and the Visual Web convention. I feel like there are a ton of things to write and reflect about, and I'll try to catch up over the next few days. Things are moving so quickly now, I think its becoming more difficult to keep up.

One of my key takeaways from the conference was quite simply that no one has settled on how to define virtual worlds, serious games, simulations, and gaming as separate entities. Well, that's not completely true--it was pretty well accepted that we weren't talking too much about gaming for entertainment, but actually, that was a big part of the first day. It's really mushy--what's the definition of a virtual world? how is a simulation different? what's the difference between a serious game and e-learning, or for that matter, a serious game and a simulation?

Far be it from me to think I can clear up the muddle, but I'm going to try to do it anyway. For me, for the rest of the Tandemites, and for the industry in general, I feel like we need to get our definitions and stories straight. So here goes...

E-Learning

Definition:
Any learning experience delivered via technology can be considered e-learning. I would propose that e-learning is the umbrella under which any of the learning experiences listed above could fall. Traditionally, however, e-learning is thought of as online tutorials delivered to individuals and structured similarly to print tutorials with the added benefit of optionally including multimedia.

Usefulness for Learning:

E-learning is useful in its portableness, scheduling flexibility, and opportunities to include rich multimedia experiences. User data can be tracked and assessments can be scored and recorded automatically.

Virtual World

Definition:

An online virtual "space" where participants can engage in a variety of activities in an unguided and unmonitored manner. A participant's presence is signified by the presence of their avatar, which is the virtual representation of themselves in the environment. Interactions can be first, second, or third person perspective.

Usefulness for Learning:

Virtual Worlds are perhap best at providing an opportunity for real-time communication. Learning activities such as group events, one-on-one coaching, and guided real-time debriefs or small group chats are probably best-suited for the virtual world environment.

Simulation

Definition:

Simulation can be defined as an immersive learning experience, providing real feedback, both immediate and over time, to decisions that the user makes. The perspective of the user is typically first person, although there may be opportunities to be a "fly on the wall" as a mechanism of providing feedback.

Usefulness for Learning:

Simulation was designed to provide a risk-free environment for complex decision-making. Model-based simulation, like a flight simulator or a financial simulation, can demonstrate how minute decisions can have immediate and long-term consequences. For scenario-based or soft skill simulations, interpersonal interactions are "scored" to provide feedback in the style of employee or client satisfaction. For any type of simulation, answers are not typically "right" or "wrong" but instead must be considered in context of the decision-making environment. Behavior change has been shown to increase in learners participating in simulations because they better understand the complexity and consequences of decisions.

Serious Games

Definition:
A Serious Game is a game developed to address a serious topic and with the goal of teaching the player something. Like simulations, there is scoring and some measure of success. Unlike simulations, serious games need not provide realistic immediate or long-term consequences for decision-making. Serious games may best address their learning objectives by exagerrating outcomes to make a point, or by taking a serious topic such as combat missions, and improve strategic decision-making by removing players from some of the realism.

Usefulness for Learning:

In contrast to simulations that try to add realistic complexity to situational decision-making, serious games focus learners on a single or just a few skills to be improved. This can be particularly useful for improving specific skill sets in a way that motivates the learner to participate in the learning activity. Also, serious games do typically simulate the real world environment. In this way, serious games allow for the type of application of skills that is also seen in simulation training.

Games

Definition:

This may go without saying, but for the sake of comparison, games are an entertainment experience for players, without an explicit goal of learning.

Usefulness for Learning:
Since there is no stated learning objective for games, the usefulness of them for learning is more in the subversive goals that can be accomplished. Players can often "learn" more about important topics, or learn skills, while they think they are just "playing." As such, games can be a powerful learning tool if used correctly for those purposes.

Obviously, these definitions are simplified and could certainly be expanded on to be more comprehensive. But there needs to be a place to start. Without a shared understanding of the definitions of these different learning experiences, it is almost impossible to have a meaning dialogue about their pros and cons, and their most valuable uses. I for one am ready to start having these conversations. Let's hear your ideas around the definitions and then let's get started.