A presentation from Jesse Stommel (@jessifer), Sean Michael Morris (@slamteacher), and (@adamheid). In MMOGs 3D graphics-rendered avatars construct the player behind the screen, collaborating with others through shared quests and group responsibilities. In Twitter, identity emerges through dialogue, a networked concoction of text, videos, and graphics. Yet, in today’s MOOCs, identity is almost nonexistent, hidden under layers of hypertexts and tucked deep in forums, or worse, as an enrollment number.

1. Massive Learning, Massive Play: Constructing Identity
and Community through Text and Interface
Adam Heidebrink-Bruno (@adamheid)
Sean Michael Morris (@slamteacher)
Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer)
Photo by wvs

2. The interface of any given system is calibrated to favor particular user-engagements.
Photo by Zsolt Halasi

3. Argument By Design:
How MOOC Platforms and MMOG
Interfaces Inform Digital Pedagogies
Adam Heidebrink-Bruno
@adamheid

4. The interface plays a key role in defining our relationship both with the
system and how we identify ourselves within the system.
Photo by ap

5. In any given digital environment, users are required to act according to
its laws.The interface, then, enforces those laws.

6. EdX: Discussion Forums

7. Coursera: Discussion Forums

8. Canvas: Discussion Forums

9. Narrative Play in World of Warcraft
!
Sean Michael Morris (@slamteacher)
Photo by visualpanic

10. Even though my body doesn’t even change positions, even though I’m
still staring at the same screen,World of Warcraft represents a whole
different internet for me.

11. World of Warcraft is a deeply involving social experience, and one that
motivates learners to return again and again to the interface. But it is
also a learning environment.

13. Photo by Celeste
The Twitter-verse asVirtual World: Selves and
Landscapes in the Textual Interface
!
Jesse Stommel (@jessifer)

14. i
Follow Along
bit.ly/twitterworld

23. i
In MMOGs 3D graphics-rendered avatars construct the player behind the
screen, collaborating with others through shared quests and group
responsibilities. In Twitter, identity emerges through dialogue, a networked
concoction of text, videos, and graphics.Yet, in today’s MOOCs, identity is
almost nonexistent, hidden under layers of hypertexts and tucked deep in
forums, or worse, as an enrollment number.

24. Learning is a social experience, and it can and does happen within each of
the communities listed above.The impact of that learning, however, is largely
determined by the user’s ability to identify as a participant within the given
interface.Without that critical moment of self-realization, the user will
remain anonymous and the engagement will become just another blind
interaction and no more self-aware than a simple algorithm.
Photo by Stéfan

25. ThankYou!
Photo by flickr user Dirigentens