Maybe my thinking was flawed...after all shouldn't a virtual experience take me away from my "real life" and expose me to others in a more anonymous way? The premise of the virtual world is that it is a space where people can potentially collaborate, play games, and experience a different life.
I was interested when reading "Envisioning the Educational Possibilities of User-Created Virtual Worlds", to begin thinking about these virtual spaces as a place to "construct learning". I know from my experience in Settler's this semester that every time I played the game I was able to build on my own learning. Antonacci and Modress (2008) mention that, "students engaged in educational games and simulations are interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving". I can readily see those happening when reflecting on my experience in Settlers, but less so this week in SL.
I still felt the same uneasiness going into Second Life that I did when I started Settler's. I had several people come up to me in SL and try to interact. Unfortunately, I spent much of my time this week wrestling with a video card issue that made my whole virtual world, purple. While I was able to get into SL and set up my avatar and do some exploring, not much progress was made. These technical issues are the ones that concern me the most as a tech person, because in using something like this with students, we have to be prepared to encounter and overcome these issues.
In thinking about the potential uses for a virtual presence like Second Life in education, I came across an article that researched how Second Life has been used in the medical profession to help doctors and other professionals learn how to interact with patients and give them a virtual "practice" area to help learn. Wiecha et al (2010) mentions that, "the virtual world offers opportunities for student interaction, intense engagement, scripted immersive experiences, simulations, role-playing, and constructivist learning. The anonymity afforded by the avatar appears to lead to less inhibition and greater interaction." The anonymity can be a good thing/bad thing in education. Students need to be taught the proper way to interact and need support when they come across someone who makes them uncomfortable. I can see clearly how this type of learning could have a place in the educational experience as students get older and are using a virtual world to explore career options, learn hand's-on techniques, and to collaborate on building new knowledge.
References:
Antonacci, D.M. & Modress, N. (2008). Envisioning the Educational Possibilities of User-Created Virtual Worlds. AACE Journal, 16(2), 115-126.
Wiecha, J., Heyden, R., Sternthal, E., & Merialdi, M. (2010). Learning in a virtual world: experience with using second life for medical education. Journal Of Medical Internet Research, 12(1), e1. doi:10.2196/jmir.1337
Hi Michele,
ReplyDeleteUsing SL for the ISTE conference had to be a very interesting experience! While I was exploring SL the first time in my life, I came across an Ed Tech site that was created by a university for their Ed tech students, faculty, but it was open for teachers as well. I was excited to teleport there, but upon arriving I discovered that there was no one there! So I think that maybe some of these virtual worlds host specific events and one must be in that group to know when to attend.
I so all the purple in your avatar and I thought: Michele is truly assuming a second persona in this world!!!! Then I read your post :)
Technical difficulties can keep teachers away from games and simulations. This is one of the the reasons teachers resist integration. I experienced the difficulty of my avatar appearing as a cloud, and I couldn't fix it until I sought help via a Google search.
As for VWs educational value, I agree that as most learning through technology, this fosters constructivism. I would not choose SL for my high school students but one that is specifically created for educational purposes, like WiloStar 3D.