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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
The traditional physical classroom has not changed much in the past hundred years. It contains desks and chairs for students, a teacher desk and chair, a board on which to write or project and wall space which is often decorated with appropriate curricular materials. The most important instructional resource in the classroom is the teacher. A skilled teacher manages the space, materials, furnishings, and students to ensure that students are engaged and learning. A virtual learning space has less boundaries and limitations and a skilled teacher is again the most important resource. The teacher must manage the three-dimensional virtual space, guide students to navigate and interact with the environment and provide experiences to ensure that learning takes place.
Often virtual learning spaces are a replica of the traditional, providing a frame of reference for participants and taking advantage of the potential available in a virtual setting with ‘backchannel’ chat and follow-up assignments. Teachers and students understand the traditional role of “sage on the stage” and play the respective roles in the virtual setting, with the added benefits of a virtual setting. Students can be physically in the same room using computers (a lab setting) requiring both real world and a virtual world classroom management strategies or in remote locations which would require more intensive virtual strategies to ensure engagement of students. The teacher must :
Norma Underwood uses both real-life and virtual world classroom management strategies to ensure learning for 5th - 8th grade art students on her sim in Reaction Grid.
Teachers know that differentiating instruction is most effective and that the more involved in the learning a student is, the more that student will learn. Thus knowledge/concept retention from lecture is significantly less than from group discussion and actual practice by doing. As educators we also know that when an individual “teaches” or provides instruction to another they learn it better themselves. Using gaming in a constructivist teaching environment has merit. The theory of constructivist learning comes from the philosophy that people can understand only what they have personally constructed. The nature of constructivism:
Constructivist teachers structure learning experiences that foster the creation of meaning, building lessons around big ideas to foster learning. Virtual worlds used in a way that students can build, collaborate, solve problems, and teach others certainly are aligned with the tenets of constructivist teaching.
According to Gartner information, the World of Work in 10 Years will require a similar set of skills:
The alignment between constructivist learning and skills for the future make teaching in a virtual world an obvious option.
On December 10, the anniversary of John Lennon’s death, an event was held in his memory. This particular event took place in the virtual world at the Second Life Imagine Peace Tower and attended by an international group of avatars. Chat reflected languages from around the globe both in the language used and in the content. Despite the fact that the event was held in the evening SL time, people from the Americas, Europe and Asia attended. No airfare, no hotel stay – we all teleported onto the sim – sat and watched as the lights of the Peace tower went on, listened to the beautiful music, chatted with our global neighbors and then danced for peace.
The Second Life Imagine Peace Tower has a daily lighting schedule – 15 minutes after SL Sundown each day – so if you cannot get to the real one in Iceland, consider a visit on SL. There is a short machinima depicting the event this past week posted on Metacafe.
I joined an international group of “Gridizens” a couple of nights ago to experience a hypergrid. Our Avatars teleported from one grid to another. In this case we teleported from Reaction Grid to Jokaydia. The technical aspects are explained on the Opensim wiki. Hopping from one grid to another – hypergridding – is like linking from one website to another. We do that everyday on the 2D web without really thinking too much about it, and many create those links in wikis, blogs, and in social networking and bookmarking pages. A virtual world is a little more complicated because you have an agent or avatar that is entering the grid. Typically, the user needs to register in each of the worlds and use a different avatar or agent, so the benefit of the hypergrid is that it allows you to use the same avatar in each of these worlds.
Entering the Hypergrid portal on Reaction Grid.
Implications for education and collaboration are significant. Imagine being able to do extend what is now done in a flat environment like Facebook, Google Docs, or Diigo in a 3D environment. A single sign-on, a single username and password, a single inventory repository simplifies entering the Virtual Universe and visiting the worlds within it.
On Jokaydia Grid with a member of the Jokaydia Grid - the tags indicate the Grid of origin for the visiting Avatars
I have been in a cloud – in a trough of disillusionment. As I encourage colleagues and superiors of the potential in using VW for teaching and learning – and actually get some to register and spend some (limited) time in a virtual world, I get the questions “So what is the point?” or “Ok I kinda get it – but is this the best way to…?” Both are valid questions and questions like these require a thoughtful response. Some people get it right away, others need guidance, support and demonstrations. Many need proof – yes metrics. A hunch is great, a description of happy children makes for good feelings but nothing works like data.
Rubrics are an effective way to capture observations and quantify what participants accomplish and the way in which they do so. A simple rubric design may look something like this:
| Communication | Collaboration | Problem Solving | Use of Information | Points |
| Objective: Participants will work together in teams of … to ….. | ||||
| Participant has minimal communication with other participants | Participant works alone | Participant has no unique contribution | Participant includes only known information | 1Points
each |
| Participant uses voice to effectively communicate with peers | Participant demonstrates ability to work with 1 to 2 individuals primarily as a follower | Participant participates in solving problems in a unique way | Participant contributes to information by completing some research | 2points
each |
| Participant uses both text and voice to collaborate with peers | Participant collaborates with peers as a follower as well as a leader | Participant provides unique contributions to solve problems | Participant contributes with both known and newly researched information | 3points
each |
Participants would benefit knowing how well they are doing and the objective in the use of the environment needed to succeed. Success depends on the process. So points are awarded when students
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Always good to triangulate your data – 1. The Gartner Hype Cycle/Wave indicates that “Virtual Assistants & Public Virtual Worlds are nearly through the Trough of Disillusionment, about to enter mainstream in 5-10 years” 2. Recent Grant activity encouraging the use … Continue reading
Facilitating a literature circle takes skill and even the most practiced practitioners sometimes have challenges in encouraging the reticent to speak up. In her article “The Virtual Circle” Stacy Kitsis describes how she used blogging to support student participation and thoughtful reflection. This English teacher describes a number of positive observations including increases in engagement and interaction, completion of homework, and active reading. Ms. Kitsis described how the more reticent students chose to use pseudonyms for their blogs and were ‘not shy’ with their entries.
The success described could be taken a step further by conducting the literature circles in an immersive environment. Positive aspects achieved in blogging could be even more enhanced as students use their avatars to reflect and discuss the selected literature. The discussions could take place in voice or in text, the latter offers an archival benefit.
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Inspiration Island on Second Life is a visual and auditory treat that you will want to return to. Be sure that you have QuickTime loaded onto your computer, have audio and video streaming enabled, your speakers turned up and then … Continue reading
So I tried to check out a couple of educational sites that would give me information about educational use of virtual worlds and this is what I got. I made the mistake of doing this from my workplace, an educational facility.
Virtual Pioneers, a site for collaborating educators, is classified as “dating, computing, social networking” and the URL is blocked by my school district.
Jokadia, a site to document the educational uses of a range of virtual worlds and games was classified as “games, reference material” and is also blocked.
This is what educators deal with daily in an attempt to be innovative and meaningful with the students they teach. The challenge of preparing students with 21st Century skills is daunting enough and made more difficult with the constant battle over what can be accessed.
On June 4, the Online Safety & Technology Working Group sent its 150-page report to Congress. Anne Collier co-chaired the committee and discussed the recommendations at the most recent ISTE Speaker Series on another blocked site, Second Life – I watched it from my home at 8PM. Anne discussed “a more intelligent approach”. She suggested an approach in which children are given opportunities to practice with social media under adult supervision. The participants at the ISTE event were educators from around the world and it was obvious that the ones from the United States were having the biggest struggles with the issue of filtering and blocking. We all agreed that privacy and safety features were essential but that teaching students about good citizenship in an environment where behavior occurs is essential for their futures. According to Ms. Collier the educational systems in Australia and in the United Kingdom promote helping students to use appropriate filters rather than enforcing strict filtering polices as we do in the United States. Teaching children to filter prepares them to deal with Internet safety and appropriate behavior, implementing a strict filtering policy does not.
There are some school districts who are more progressive and forward thinking, less fearful. A high school in New Jersey is taking advantage of social networking and using the technology to help students. A school in Oregon has documented improved student achievement after social networking was embraced. Teachers do get tired of “the fight” and just go back to an old-fashioned way of doing things. My suggestion is to keep doing what you know is right to help our students be prepared for a future we are uncertain of.
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