The unveiling of the Wii in the Digital Media Commons last Friday added a dimension of hilarity, energy, and friendly competition to a successful Institutional Advancement and TLC sponsored event that was designed to blend learning with play and build community among MIIS staff.
It also raised questions for some: why are we buying toys when we need (you fill in the blank)…?
Here are some things to think about:
(1) Generally, “play” unleashes creativity and enhances learning. To explore this idea, check out Tim Brown’s TED Talk.
(2) Specifically, the Wii controller makes possible a particular kind of activity that invokes our kinesthetic learning ability. There is a great deal of interest in using this new tool to enhance learning in virtual spaces. For example:
Lane Kuhlman, a graduate student at Ohio State, is studying gesture based interaction and its role in educational multimedia. This kind of research could have major implications for the design of simulations for intercultural communication, negotiation, or conflict resolution.
MIT Research Fellow David Stone was featured in a recent Wired article for his work building Wiimote-controlled simulations in Second Life. To the already information-rich experiences available in this virtual world, one can now add the ability to take your hands off the keyboard and speak, gesture, and move naturally through virtual environments ranging from your favorite international city to an exhibition of the latest green building technologies.
The Educause Learning Initiative is encouraging its members to investigate the potential of the Wii. See their white paper, “7 Things You Should Know about Wii.”
Finally, in another TED talk, Johnny Lee demonstrates how he turned $40 Wii controllers into a multitouch display, and into a close approximation of a $2000 interactive whiteboard, increasing access to these technologies for schools and organizations with limited resources.
(3) We would like for MIIS be at the forefront of thinking about how people learn and experimenting with ways to enhance the quality of our education. Our limited resources have, in the past, caused us to bypass many of the technologies that our peer institutions were adopting at great cost. Now we are in a position of competitive advantage, in that we can leapfrog some of the less versatile earlier tools for learning, and focus on tools and strategies that match our pedagogical commitment through Monterey Way 2.0 to immersive learning, high performance thinking, and open architecture.
Agree? Disagree? Join the conversation with your comments!