News & Views
Virtual personas, a chance to win some money, and a new unconference
By Terry Freedman
Thu, 3 Jul 2008, 06:54

Virtual personas and real money

The virtual personas idea caught my eye, and having investigated it I think it's worth looking at, despite some misgivings. And there's a possibility of winning some money too.

Also, a bunch of people from Mirandanet have caught the unconference bus, but with a bit of a difference.

Virsona is a website worth looking at. The idea is that students can "talk" to a character out of history, such as Karl Marx or Abraham Lincoln, or even a fictional character. Talking consists of typing questions and receiving textual answers. I have to say that the first thing I thought of when I received a press release about this was a program from a good twenty years ago called Eliza. "She" was a psychotherapist, and you typed your problems and she gave you advice in return. It was quite a cleverly-written program because every so often it would say something like "Try saying that differently".

Incidentally, I am both amazed and delighted to discover that Eliza is still alive and well, and living here. I just tried it out, and this will give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

You: I am happy

Eliza: Has your treatment made you happy?

Back to Virsona. In a sense, it is a similar idea, with the important difference that, for future students to be able to learn from these historical or fictional people, someone has to teach the characters what the correct answers are. That's where "the community" comes in: you pose a question and then tell the characters how they should answer it. These answers are then vetted by a team at Virsona.

I think this is where my doubts come in. For a start, I am not sure I trust a process in which anyone can come along and provide their version of the truth for the benefit of future students. I know that happens in textbooks, but at least there the person providing the information is not anonymous. In theory, gross errors will be picked up. Let's hope so, because I think the idea itself is great, and has the potential to engage students in a different kind of way. Let's face it, most students think that the term "ancient history" refers to the time before MySpace was invented, so anything that can get them excited is to be welcomed.

The Virsona website also has lots of lesson plans and ideas for using virtual personas in lessons.

Now, what about that money I mentioned. Here are the details about a competition, open only to residents of the USA. I've taken this straight from the Press Release. I received that about 2 days ago, but I wanted to spend some time investigating the Virsona website before deciding whether to publish the information.

Virsona Launches Talking History Contest for Teachers    
 
Contest to Award $2,500 to Teacher Who Creates Most Life-like Virsona  
Of a Famous Historical or Literary Figure or Event

The teacher who creates the most life-like Virsona will receive a $2,500 cash grant to use for their classroom. Additional cash grants of $1,000 and $500 will be awarded to second and third-place winners, respectively. To enter, go to www.virsona.com/talkinghistory <http://www.virsona.com/talkinghistory> .

To create a Virsona, teachers simply employ the tools available on the Virsona website to add short, one-paragraph, first person descriptions of known memories and documented facts to the Virsona’s life archive. The more information added to a Virsona, the more accurate and interactive conversations with that Virsona will be. Virsonas are powered by the company's innovative, patent-pending artificial intelligence technology, which gives the service its human-like chat capabilities.

The Virsona Talking History Contest runs today, July 1st through August 31st, 2008 and is open to any kindergarten through twelfth-grade teacher in the United States. A panel of five judges will select contest winners based on functionality of the Virsona, the amount of content, and personality injected into the Virsona. They also will perform specific functions on each Virsona to ensure the accuracy of information within the Virsona. To enter and for contest rules, go to www.virsona.com/talkinghistory.

Mirandamod

You may recall that I wrote about a "teachmeet" I attended recently. The next one I'll be attending is at the Institute of Education on the evening of the 10th July. I'm excited about it because I always enjoy seeing Drew Buddy and Theo Kuechel, who will both be there.

Instead of the unconference being a complete free-for-all, the organisers have suggested some themes:

 
• World eCitizens - presentations that involve a 'global dimension' towards helping improve the world
 
• Inspiration - sharing what inspired you, or things that you think can be used to inspire others
 
• 'Classroom' practice - presentations showing how you have applied technology in professional practice in the classroom or workplace
 
• Collaboration - collaborative projects you may have set up or be involved with
 
• Challenges - challenging others to take a role in moving learning forward or the challenges of moving learning forward
 
• Inclusion- addressing how technology may be used to help to bridge the many 'Digital Divides' - e.g technological, cultural, geographical, social and financial
 
• Desert Island Tools- the tools we'd use on a desert island (with high speed Wifi access; of course!)

That list is so broad you could include anything under one of the headings, so you have no excuse not to come along and either present something yourself, or listen to others. These things are always enlightening and entertaining, so it will worth your while I'm sure.

More details from here.

© Terry Freedman Thu, 3 Jul 2008