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Therese Langevin Frech
- Female
- Astoria, OR
- United States
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Profile Information
- What are your current professional responsibilities?
- I'm in transition, leaving a caseworker job with Child Welfare, and learning as much as I can about Second Life, XHTML, videogame design, and open source graphics and audio programs. i want to teach online. I want to learn online. I want to get credit for what I know and can do without jumping through academic hoops.
- Do you have a personal Web site? If so, what is the URL?
- http://www.myspace.com/treeefmusic/
- What is the site you have been to lately that captivated you? If so, what is the URL?
- http://Second Life and Scratch at MIT
- Why are you interested in joining Innovate-Ideagora?
- I'm convinced that we have the tools to completely change learning. I want to find people who are thinking about using virtual worlds, especially video games, to educate children with developmental disabilities.
My personal interest relates to my 17 year old son, who scores in the low 60's on IQ tests. He was finally motivated to learn to read so he could follow game dialog and walkthrough guides.
He is able to google cheat codes for specific aspects of specific games played on a specific platform, sort through the hits, find the best cheat code, copy it down (typically a long sequence of symbols) and successfully enter it to modify the game he is playing. He spends as much time clicking through menus and varying the parameters that set up the game as he spends actually playing.
Academically, he's entering the transition to work stage of a life skills curriculum. He budgets money to purchase games and game platform systems, calls game stores to ask about used systems, and has established a relationship with an independent game store where he gets advice and good deals. There is no other aspect of his life where he demonstrates anything like the level of competency he has around video games. I know this is something really important.
The world does not need another DD paper shredder or office cleaner. I am trying to give him the resources he needs to go as far as he can toward his clearly stated and long established goal of working to design video games. His behavior has always been the biggest barrier to his ability to learn productively in a classroom. If he were able to work in a participatory online environment, his behavior would not be an issue. He stays focused for hours with a game controller in his hands.
Who is studying digital strategies for special education?
- What do you think are the most pressing issues/challenges in using technology to enhance the educational process?
- Overcoming resistance to a new paradigm.
Access for everyone regardless of socioeconomic status.
Children have to work around the educational process to become digital natives.
As fundamentalist religious hierarchies can only maintain their stranglehold when people are kept ignorant and isolated, they will try very hard to frighten people and prevent access to the new tools.
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Comment Wall (1 comment)
- At 1:59pm on August 9, 2009,
James Morrison said… - Ms. Frech, what a compelling profile! When I read it, I sent Marc Prensky and Clark Aldrich the URL, suggesting that they may want quote from your profile in one of their future speeches or publications.
We look forward to your participation in Innovate-Ideagora.
Best.
Jim
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