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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
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:
In either world, the person doing the communicating is the person doing the learning.
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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
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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
As I attempted to help a newcomer to SL and kept getting the response “I don’t see that.” “Not on my screen”. “Not there” “Don’t have that”, it hit me that teachers who are well-meaning but unprepared reach a level of frustration because their students “Don’t see that”.
The issue here was that I was using the OLD viewer, the viewer I am comfortable with and the newcomer was using the NEW viewer, the viewer available to newcomers to SL. I knew what this new av needed to do and gave very specific instructions. However, the newcomer, trying to follow every step, became increasingly frustrated at being given directions for a view she did not have. Then I became frustrated and the result was a complete lack of progress until I re-logged with the new viewer and figured out where the buttons were and how to find the functions I had been describing. It did take some time, I was out of my comfort level and went back to my old viewer immediately following the “lesson”. I never did find the “stop all animations”.
When a teacher is trying to teach students with a different view on life, a different culture, a different language background, a different perspective, a different comfort level – the same thing happens. The student gets frustrated and the teacher gets frustrated resulting in lack of progress. The solution is that the teacher acquires the necessary knowledge and skill set to be able to help the students being taught. A teacher needs to see what the student sees, even if it is a little uncomfortable at first, in order to effectively support learning.
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.
Prospective and veteran teachers have an opportunity to participate in a teacher preparation/training model using the virtual world of Second Life at West Virginia University. The program at West Virginia University has found it to be particularly useful for math and physics training, an area of concern for schools across the US.
Universities in general seem to have explored VW technology more readily than the K-12 sector, perhaps the safety/security/liability concerns have something to do with it. Their incoming students are over 18, certainly more tech-savvy than their predecessors, and professors are quickly becoming more digitally literate to support the student population they serve. It seems that a pre-requisite for attending college today is a computer. How this translates to the more cautious K-12 sector is still up to policy makers. At the very least, the new teaching force will have a digital comfort and will use the digital environment to enhance their own content knowledge via learning strategies that seem to translate theory into application effectively. The VW teacher preparation can also provide opportunities to learn teaching strategies that do not require digital methods. Role playing in a “traditional classroom setting” can take place more frequently and without disrupting learning in an actual classroom. Prospective teachers can pre-practice with avatars before actually practicing in an actual classroom with real children, thus honing skills and building confidence.
Change is not easy. Although K-12 teachers are currently using VW with their students for standards-based learning and 21st Century skill acquisition, the numbers are comparatively low. Perhaps new teachers coming out of universities that use the technologies will help us to make some changes in the K-12 sector to update and benefit teaching and learning.
In an in-world presentation, Lesley Scopes aka Light Sequent presented ‘Learning Archetypes as tools of Cybergogy: A structure for eTeaching in Second Life‘ to VWBPE 2010. The presentation was worth watching for the information that was presented, but of particular interest was the presentation method. Lesley used 3D world tools to present rather than bringing the more frequently used 2D tool (PowerPoint) into the 3D world. This made the presentation more engaging than presentations I typically attend. The 3D models brought a unique physicality to the presentation that served to interest the audience.
A 3D representation is used to make a point
The presentation took advantage of tools not available in a 2D platform and perhaps demonstrates the evolution of 2D to 3D much like the evolution of overheads to PowerPoint was a few years ago. Using the tools available in virtual worlds requires that the presenter have some skills in the area of building. Light Sequent explained that the 3D items could contain scripts for additional interaction between audience and information 3D graphic. At the very least the presenter should be able to place the correct 3D object in front of the audience at the appropriate time but the actual building of the objects could be built by someone adept at building.
I look forward to using this method of presentation in the future, though I’ll need to label objects carefully so I don’t accidentally place a shoe or a silly gadget in front of my audience.
The topic of safety on the Internet and protecting children from the perils of the Internet, as well as protecting organizations from possible lawsuits, have been coming up more and more frequently. A few years ago I would encounter the “ACCESS DENIED” screen not more than once every couple of months. I would even have participants in a training purposely type in a URL that would produce that same screen, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system keeping children secure and I would also report a site for needed blocking, if I stumbled upon something that was clearly inappropriate. When encountering ‘the screen‘, I would continue with my work and possibly check the source I was looking for after hours from my home computer.
Today I encounter the “ACCESS DENIED” screen several times a day and my colleagues report a similar experience. The firewall is becoming a barrier to research, learning, collaboration and innovation. Now I contact the appropriate department requesting adjustment of the site I am trying to get to and inevitably get the answer that “there is nothing that we can do – the School Board will not allow this site as it is classified as______”. Are there more inappropriate sites than there used to be? Are we blocking more than we used to? Are we screening effectively? Are we effectively teaching the appropriate use of the Internet? Has the firewall become a replacement for teacher monitoring and supervision? Is there a difference between social networking and professional networking? How are social networking and social bookmarking the same/different?
The advent of social networking and virtual worlds used by the working world have caused me to ponder these questions and push back a little at our well-meaning and disciplined “Internet Police”. I wonder if the fear of what students MAY encounter has caused us to prevent encounters that could be useful and educational. Can social networking sites and working in virtual worlds positively impact collaboration and learning?
A government site, http://www.onguardonline.gov/, provides information for parents to know what to look for and to discuss with children regarding safety on the Internet, including social networking and virtual worlds. Could this be curriculum material for educators to use? In an ISTE 2010 address Mario Armstrong referred to school districts blocking of the Internet as the Locked Net Monster. Check out the learning today blog for some ideas on teaching digital safety in a k-12 school setting.
I am not suggesting we unlock the firewall to all that is available, just a more thoughtful approach to what could be useful. An approach that includes academic review, intellectual curiosity and alignment with 21st century skills. The approach would require diligent supervision by teachers and appropriate preparation for use of the tool that has become ubiquitous, except in the classroom. In the meantime I’ll do like the kids – use my smartphone, call a friend or wait until I get home to look it up.
Great to see that education and work with non-profits included in this real convention about the virtual world. There are simultaneous RL and in-world meetings as well as great keynote speakers and SL musicians performing live – in RL. I am hoping to be able to see recordings since Boston is not on my travel list this year.
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