{"id":137,"date":"2026-09-03T19:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/?p=137"},"modified":"2026-09-03T20:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T03:00:10","slug":"a-call-for-imagination-and-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/a-call-for-imagination-and-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Call for Imagination and Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Weller (2020) established that retrospectively, Second Life and Virtual Worlds were largely unsuccessful in the grand terrain of ed tech. He saw Second Life as ill-fated due to \u201ca lack of imagination\u201d providing an important lesson for contemporary learning environments (Weller, 2020, Chapter 14, para. 3). While some absurdity was incorporated into the worlds of Second Life through character and place, information delivered in the virtual classrooms took a typical, authoritarian approach often seen in post-secondary environments (Weller, 2020). Frick echoed Weller, questioning, \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of this virtual world if you are just going to replicate a lecture? What we really need to replicate are the things we can\u2019t do in the real world\u201d (Pasquini, 2021, 18:48). The relevance of this notion is that <strong>imagination and creativity<\/strong> should be employed to envisage other ways of learning and being that open opportunities not possible within non-digital contexts. Educational tools should be selected based on this larger aim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Key themes of Weller\u2019s (2020) account of 2005 are the democratization of broadcasting using video and video sharing sites, along with society\u2019s increased engagement in sharing and building cultural knowledge. In my experience within the context of an elementary classroom, video plays an integral role within a typical day. The contradiction that I see with Weller\u2019s interpretation versus contemporary classrooms is that while the technology and capabilities exist for creative use of video, many classrooms use it more passively than outlined, primarily as a means of knowledge transmission rather than knowledge construction. The affordances offered by the technology versus how they are being utilized within contemporary classrooms is an important contradiction to highlight. The question remains, how might we leverage the diverse possibilities of an essential technology, like video, into contemporary learning spaces? Just as what was missing in the case study of Second Life, perhaps the answer lies in greater <strong>imagination and creativity<\/strong> on the part of educators?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Pasquini, L. (Host). (2021, February 12).&nbsp;<em>Between the chapters: Second Life &amp; virtual worlds<\/em>&nbsp;[Audio podcast episode]. In&nbsp;<em>25 years of ed tech: The serialized audio version<\/em>. Athabasca University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Weller, M. (2020).&nbsp;<em>25 years of ed tech<\/em>&nbsp;[eBook]. Athabasca University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weller (2020) established that retrospectively, Second Life and Virtual Worlds were largely unsuccessful in the grand terrain of ed tech. He saw Second Life as ill-fated due to \u201ca lack of imagination\u201d providing an important lesson for contemporary learning environments (Weller, 2020, Chapter 14, para. 3). While some absurdity was incorporated into the worlds of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":348,"featured_media":142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lrnt523","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru328\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}