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Second Life, MTurk, and on-demand education
In a follow-up email conversation with Tim Fahlberg, who's featured in
last Friday's podcast
about math education, we were batting around ideas for getting kids engaged
with online math resources like the ones he creates at mathcasts.org. Here's the wild
idea that struck me.
Imagine a mashup of Second Life, MTurk, and web-based
screensharing. In this world, kids earn Linden dollars for
advancing through sequences of mathcasts and interactive
tests. But to really excel in the game, they'll want to solicit
help from tutors who appear as wise mentors in the game. Tutors also earn
Linden dollars for their effort, and can earn bonuses when their
students perform well.
Tutors and students rendezvous by way of MTurk. Students might
advertise their tutoring needs, or the system -- sensing the need --
might do it for them. During a rendezvous, one or more students and a
tutor share a whiteboard, converse in audiochat, and use a shared
virtual calculator.
Now in truth, though Second Life would be maximally trendy, a
basic web application would be more practical. Likewise, although
tablet PCs would be ideal, something like a Wacom tablet would do
fine. The essential ingredients would be: a pool of students,
another pool of tutors, incentives for both, a mechanism for brokering
supply and demand, and an appropriately equipped shared space in which
to meet.
Where do the incentives come from? Parents. We'd fund this system in a
heartbeat if it were proven to work.
Of course this scheme wouldn't apply only to math education.
Everyone, either in school or on the job, needs on-demand learning at
some point. Screencasts can meet some of that demand. As CJ Rayhill
discussed in our podcast,
for example, she's getting tons of mileage out of Lynda.com. But if you could go
interactive as needed, that would be awesome.
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