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“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin Change is inevitable and the new year brings the mindset and … Continue reading
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Ironically, while Common Core is causing a shift in pedagogy in traditional face-to-face classrooms, online classrooms are proliferating with the previously used pedagogy. The Common Core movement has veteran teachers rethinking and changing the way they teach. It is not … Continue reading
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The VWBPE MOOC took me into WoW last week. It was a bit of a learning curve, but my Virtual World (SL, RG, Opensim) experience did give me some frame of reference, particularly with basic movement and communication skills. … Continue reading
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There is an exciting, affordable potential for attending classical ballet performances even in light of educational cuts in the arts and curtailed field trips. The creation of this virtual ballet art form does not come without an intense amount of work … Continue reading
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The Virtual Pioneers are hosting the Second Annual History Conference 2012 on Friday, January 20 – Saturday January 21. All educators, particularly those who teach the Social Studies are invited to attend this fun, free event online. You will need to … Continue reading
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The Virtual Pioneers are a group of educators interested in using virtual environments in the teaching of Social Studies, particularly history. The group meets on Sunday evenings at 8:00PM EST at the EduIsland location on Second Life. They are taking … Continue reading
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The use of Virtual Worlds to explore and enhance the literary experience is a useful activity for pre-reading, ongoing as a specific piece is read, and/or as reinforcement after the reading is complete. The value of a virtual world in … Continue reading
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.
Creating films for learning is not new in K-12 education nor has the strategy been limited to magnet programs or exclusive schools that offer high-level technology classes and/or broadcasting. Teachers have used filmmaking as a way to help students learn … Continue reading
Much is discussed on the topic of Social Networking and the potential use of this technology in education. Research indicates that individuals benefit from a social approach to learning. L. Rendell et al. states that “Social learning (learning through observation or interactionwith other individuals) is widespread in nature and is centralto the remarkable success of humanity…” . Immersive environments have gained acceptance in post-secondary education for the past several years. VLearning: Is The Future Of Online Education A 3D Virtual Classroom? describes several studies that determined a positive correlation between the increased interaction among classmates and instructors in virtual classrooms and involvement in the course work and comprehension of material. It states, “… this to be particularly true for students who have a difficult time engaging in face-to-face discussions, but who will ask questions freely and contribute to live debates in a virtual classroom.”
In their book The New Social Learning Bingham and Connor devote a chapter to the topic of social learning in immersive environments, describing the successful uses in multiple corporate training programs. Social learning involves interaction, engagement and mutual exchange and benefit to participants.
The research on the successful use of immersive environments in professional development and post-secondary education are certainly reason to consider exploring these strategies in the K-12 sector.
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