The virtual environment offers students alternative ways of learning concepts. Educators understand that differentiating instruction is important and that we should not limit ourselves to telling and explaining. The information in a lecture or demonstration is magnified when students are given an opportunity to actively engage in an activity that provides a way for students to practice, apply or even play with the new content. A community college professor demonstrates a virtual world activity designed to follow a lecture and provide students a chance to “build a molecule” in virtual space.
Category 21st Century
VWBPE Conference Begins with Authentic Enthusiasm
The Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference began on March 17 with over 200 attendees either on one of the 20 sims, watching on treet tv, and/or following on Twitter.
Botgirl Questi and her alter ego presenting the Keynote Address.
Botgirl Questi and her alter ego delivered the keynote address discussing identity, multiple personality capability and the use of virtual identity for positive change. The session was recorded and can be viewed at Treet TV.
Following the keynote, educators from around the world transported their avatars to multiple venues and grids to learn more about the use of virtual spaces for education. Two more days of expert presentations are scheduled.
A variety of social events including multiple person bicycle rides and music and dancing at an Irish pub are available all 3 days.
The builds, a collaborative effort of many hours, are elaborate and imaginative creations in a Steampunk theme. All 20 sims will be dropping into the pixel sea at the end of the month so teleport over to http://slurl.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Central%202/3/19/42 and fly around while it is still there. Take some photos, capture some video and sit in on a session or two. You may just learn something.
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3 Days (53 hours) of Virtual Education Sharing
The VWBPE (Virtual World Best Practices in Education) Conference will be held in Second Life and other grids on March 17-19. The Conference offers:
- Theoretical and research presentations
- Content-based describing the use of VW for teaching and learning
- Workshops offering technical guidance
- Tours of virtual spaces used for education
- Panel and roundtable discussions
- Tools for both newcomers and experienced virtual world users
- Game and simulation demonstrations
- Poster presentations
- Machinima screening and competition
Experienced virtual world participants will have the opportunity to learn and share with a global community of educators. This is also an opportunity for experienced users to introduce more reticent colleagues to an environment that offers an alternative format for teaching and learning.
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Teaching as a Game Designer
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Teaching as a “performing art” has validity. In the book with that title Seymour Sarason compares teacher preparation to performer preparation, describing that a teacher must practice, be articulate, know the curriculum (script) and engage the audience. We all remember … Continue reading
Telling isn’t Teaching… in any World
A lecture hall filled with students and an instructor lecturing about a topic he/she knows very well does not guarantee learning is taking place, neither in real life nor in the virtual world. Good teaching requires that the students do something in order to meet the objectives of the lesson. Student engagement can range from taking notes and asking questions to discussing and working on an assignment that requires using information and skills. The level of engagement correlates with the learning that takes place. The video below is one created by students at Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood NJ. Students undoubtedly learned more than the significance of Apollo as they interacted, on various levels, to create the video. Additional work from middle school students at this school is posted on their wiki.
Some videos illustrating the concept of changing our teaching paradigm are Ken Robinson’s Changing Education Paradigms and Dr Tae’s Building A New Culture of Teaching And Learning . They are not short videos but definitely worth a watch…. and a share. The men in these two videos describe eloquently how teaching needs to change in order to impact student learning, I suggest teaching in the virtual world should have a level of engagement similar to what they advocate.
Educators who have ventured into the virtual world have some innovation and sense of adventure to begin with – just by their presence. Instruction in the virtual world must mirror that innovation by changing the paradigm, making sure that students (whatever their age) do more than “just sit there”. Getting students to move into groups and perform activities in the real world requires classroom management skills, and an impact on space, time, and sound that could be disruptive if not handled with expertise. The virtual world has these elements but it is easier to move and alter the space, it takes less time, and sound can always be mitigated with individual headphones and microphones. The part that takes some effort is ensuring a student focus. At the lowest level of engagement, the instructor should ask students/participants for feedback and then address the questions. For more intense interaction and more learning the instructor can:
- provide students with instructions to complete a task, either as individuals or in a group
- have students present findings or completed tasks to the group
- have students develop video clips and/or pictures of concepts to be shared on a common site
In either world, the person doing the communicating is the person doing the learning.
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Build a Virtual Biome to Master Science Standards
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Environments in virtual worlds can be realistic or fantastical, each has benefits for students both as visitors and as creators. National and state educational standards require that students can identify, describe and understand the differences in both land and water-related … Continue reading
Sharing Educational Machinima
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Multiple sites exist for sharing video, including Machinima, Wikipedia has an ‘almost’ comprehensive list. Each has benefits and drawbacks, selecting the right one depends on your goal, there are special considerations when the focus is education rather than entertainment, though … Continue reading
Virtual Learning Communities Flourish
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Learning communities (LC) are active in the virtual environment, consisting of like-minded individuals who have a common interest and get together regularly over long periods of time to both share and gain knowledge and skills. Many of the learning communities … Continue reading
It’s a Grid, It’s A Game …. It’s Learning
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When asked to describe virtual worlds to my colleagues I struggle in giving an adequate definition. There is a game quality in virtual worlds, and we know that game based learning is motivating and effective. I run into newcomers “inworld” … Continue reading
Machinima As An Artifact in A Virtual Portfolio
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Assessment is a necessary part of teaching and learning. Although standardized testing is a piece of the evaluation picture, other evaluation strategies add to the data and provide a more comprehensive view of the success of teaching and learning. … Continue reading
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