I really enjoyed your post. I looked at Seimens and Keegan. An interesting idea in Seimens talk to me was the notion of using personal learning spaces rather than ones provided by the institution. On the one hand, it would teach students about public professionalism and creating professional learning networks, a much overlooked skill. Too often students focus merely on what it takes to pass the course, instead of focusing on what knowledge they can gain and apply. Perhaps encouraging these personal learning spaces would shift their focus. On the other hand, if I am a student, I’m not sure I want to post for the world to see when I’m only just learning the concepts. Students are constantly forming and reforming their ideas and opinions. Perhaps students need the instituational space to practice.
Keegan’s ARG was fascinating to me. I couldn’t stop watching. “Who IS Rufi Franzen?” Like one of the other members commented, was the deception really necessary to engage students in the game? It seems like you could work out a way around that when designing the story. I loved that the students (with some exceptions) and the instructor were fully engaged in the course. It was refreshing to see an instructor so excited about her class. She was just as obsessed with the puzzle as the students, but from a different vantage point. While watching though, some limitations immediately came to mind: 1) Can you replicate this? The game was very specific to this multimedia class…so the experience gained on Twitter, blogs, facebook, etc. all directly related to the class itself. This would not be the case with other courses. 2) Students coming up through the grades would certainly be aware of the use of this ARG, thereby making it ineffective. So, is an ARG a one-time shot?
I too find educational research to be frustrating…well, limited more than frustrating. There are so many variables out of ones control that “scientific” is difficult to achieve.
Megan
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