Blogs, Wikis, MMORPGs, and YASNS: Shaking Up Traditional Education6 (Via MI Global Conference 2006.) This session, which I discovered through weblogg-ed because Will Richardson is speaking, looks amazing. This is the first thing I’ve seen that covers my two Ed Tech passions in one program: the read/write web and MMORGPs. I wish I could be there. I wonder what content, if any, will be available after the fact. In any case, it is exciting to see these things getting some traction. :)
Do you need a secret decoder ring to decipher this session’s title? The students and new young workers collectively called “digital natives” certainly don’t. For the millions of children and adults weaned on cell phones, video games and the World Wide Web, digital tools like weblogs (blogs), massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), community-authored websites (wikis) and social networking services (YASNS) are an integral part of their daily lives. The implications of this sea change in how users relate to technology go beyond the “technology as friend, not foe” level. These tools are providing fundamentally new ways for people to connect and learn. This roundtable session brings together a collection of leading researchers and opinion leaders to explain and discuss the new “web-2.0” world that is shaking up the traditional education and corporate-training establishments. Copies of David Weinberger’s book, “The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual,” will be provided to session attendees.