Thanks for your comments and insight!

Penny

JR

Thanks for being a great stop on the tour. I agree with the comments that SL has issues in terms of bandwidth and access but I think we need to think a little beyond SL and think about other alternatives that will, in the near future, be available.

I agree that eventually this will be accepted technology, in the meantime, educators need be be aware of the technology available and think of how it might be used and then seek opportunities to use the technology. I think when a major browser-based virtual world for learning becomes available, that will be a “killer app” for 3D worlds for learning and will really take off.

I think the immersive nature of these worlds and the ability to collaborate over distance are two of the more powerful affordances of 3D virtual worlds and will, eventually, lead to their wide spread adoption like spellchecker and calculators. Its just too bad we have to go through this process…every time.

As for those video cards, I don’t know how much money you’re talking about. My first thoughts, from the disadvantage of not knowing much about your situation, would be to sink the money into software rather than hardware. The logic is, when the hardware dies, you can still use the software on new hardware, and it will continue to be useful.

Obsolete software, that is software for which new versions have come out, remains more useful over time than obsolete hardware. A case in point: Folks still make heavy use of Office XP, even though Office 2003, then Office 2007, and later this year Office 2010 have all made Office XP technically “obsolete.” Yet, people still install the old XP on new machines and it serves its function well, even though the machines they had when they first bought XP are long gone.

So, that’s my reasoning, and my “input.” Hope that helps.

JR

Oops! I saw the Castle logo and as you say, the tweet from Scott so I made an incorrect assumption. Anyway, I appreciate your response. I am a hardware and infrastructure dunce, so I don’t quite understand the harnessing of students’ phones. But seeing as how they are banned in our classrooms anyway,,,,, >sigh<
If I might ask while I have your attention, I am on a new tech committee which needs to decide how to spend some Microsoft dollars for our school. I will be strongly advocating for machines with a substantial video card because I foresee student work including the use of heavier graphics use and gaming – is this the trend you see and would this be a good argument to make? I work in a district where most of the teachers still don't have clue as to what a wiki is,,,if you get my drift, so it will be a hard sell I think.
Thanks for any input.
Penny

As a tech director for a school district, I’m well aware of bandwidth issues. It always seems that soon after we add another T1 line, another lab goes in, more laptop carts are deployed, and soon we’re maxing out the lines again. So, I feel your pain.

Another issue is that more and more applications are moving to the cloud, so bandwidth figures to be an ongoing issue for quite some time.

I’m at the giant TCEA conference this week, and one item of discussion brought up at Lone Star EduBloggerCon focused on the issues surrounding students bringing their own smart phones to school. Some districts are harnessing the students’ phones, which are essentially handheld computers, and their bandwidth right in the classroom.

It doesn’t solve all the problems, and opens up some others, but in time it may become part of a better solution.

JR