MEDT 7472

J.B. Campbell
Discussion Post: Virtual Worlds

How was your experience using SL? (the good, the bad and the ugly!)

Let me begin by saying that I would never have tried SecondLife unless it was part of this
grad school course. I do not play video games or computer games and I never really have
which is kind of strange considering I grew up during the video/computer game explosion. In
my house growing up, we had the Commodore 64, an Atari, a Super NES, a SEGA Genesis,
and several different desktops, all of which were used almost exclusively for gaming by my
older brother. Needless to say, I was not familiar with any aspect of SL and I did not find
anything other than movement to be all that user friendly. Selecting an avatar was easy
enough, but changing clothes proved to be a real challenge. My laptop may not be truly fast
enough to run SL to its fullest, and so there were several lags between what I wanted to do
and when my avatar would actually do it, leading to some frustrating moments for me. I did
find it very useful that I could attend a meeting with my professor and classmates by simply
logging on and pasting in an address into the address bar. Im pretty sure that I will not be
using SL beyond this course or other courses, but thats my personal preference, not because
the virtual world doesnt work as a medium for instruction.

Do you think virtual worlds (VW) can be an effective online educational resource?

After reading about Sloodle, I definitely think the groundwork is set for using VW as an
effective online educational resource. Many of the problems I was already wondering about
seem to have a solution using the Sloodle overlay. I also visited the different links to places
to see what was available in an educational type setting, but without a guide, I dont believe
that would be a method I would personally enjoy learning from. There are definitely
interesting exhibits, but I never knew if I had seen everything and the frustration in getting
around the venues put a damper on the learning for me. However, having students from
around the country or even the world in the same VW classroom would certainly be a
worthwhile reason to pursue VW learning. I can imagine some students who normally do not
speak up in a face to face class would suddenly be able to ask questions in an online setting.
With the record feature, students could go back and review comments and lecture notes when
needed, and the online real-time assessment feature is a tool that I would love to use
currently.

How would you incorporate VW in your classes/work/research?

Well, this is where I am having trouble projecting my classroom into a virtual learning
environment. Obviously, students under the age of 18 do not need to be in SL and Im pretty
sure this is a good rule for all but the strictest online VW environments. Even though I would
love to use some of the tools proposed through Sloodle, especially the online testing, this just
isnt going to happen with high school kids. For my own work, I could definitely see teachers
collaborating in a VW space on grants, activities, lessons, etc. with the sharing of ideas. But
Im most excited about the possibilities of being able to attend education/technology
 conferences through SL. A VW conference would be extremely beneficial, since not only
would space in the most interesting sessions no longer be an issue, but any session that you
missed could be reviewed at a later date. In addition, travel expenses would not be an issue as
anyone with internet access could attend.

What are their advantages for educational purposes?

As Ive already talked about, the collection of thoughts from various individuals scattered
around the world is a major advantage to VW classes. The ability to communicate with each
other without having to be in the same room is difficult to reproduce except in a VW format.
For higher ed students, an online classroom means you do not necessarily have to live on
campus or move at all. For all students, an online classroom means you can be in class as
long as you have an internet connection. These are all major advantages to a traditional
classroom.

What are their disadvantages?

The lack of face to face interaction with a professor and/or my students would be a
disadvantage for me. In my own classroom, I have students that are difficult to get to know
even when they are sitting in my room. They could be almost invisible in an online
environment. So far in my grad school experience, I have grown to appreciate the efforts of
my professors who stay in contact with their students every week, but I do not feel like I
know them very well. Even this constant contact is not a replacement for the interaction that
can take place in a classroom. I know for a fact that I would not be as comfortable interacting
in a VW classroom as I would in a regular classroom. I also think from a collaboration
standpoint, there are not as many educators using this medium as a
communication/collaboration tool, so your choices of people to work with would be
diminished if you specifically wanted to use VW for meetings.

What do you think would be the most common barriers to use virtual worlds in the k12
classroom?

My number one concern is SAFETY! Unless there is a way to completely restrict/censor

what students say, do, visit, etc. in an VW environment, there is going to be a problem.
Second, access to high speed internet and sufficient technology is going to be a problem for
many students. How can educators require or expect all students to take part? If some
students cannot take part, are they at a disadvantage to their more technology privileged
peers? Should the school pick up the slack at least in technology (1-to-1 devices)? Even this
doesnt solve the internet access issue. Third, selling parents on the advantages of VW in
addition to traditional classrooms will be a hurdle. I certainly do not mean to imply its not a
battle worth fighting, but it will not be easy.

Discuss one of the following topics regarding virtual worlds: Classroom Collaboration

Here is an idea that I would love to see developed inside a VW if all the previously mentioned
barriers were toppled. Students around the country who are enrolled in a particular class, say
PreCalculus, are given an open-ended contextual problem to solve. This problem will require
them to work together in groups throughout the year, engage in independent research, reach a
consensus of how to tackle the problem within their groups, develop a solution, and prepare a
presentation of their solution in a VW conference. The VW environment would allow these
different student groups from around the country to meet without incurring any travel
expenses. Student groups will be able to work together through recorded online sessions which
will give group members (and teachers) a record or what was said, written, and/or accomplished.
The presentation will give students the opportunity to showcase their solutions and possibly learn
some programming along the way. By having students participate in the VW conference, each
group will have a chance to evaluate the work of lots of other students, and the opportunity to
engage these students in conversations about how they came across their solutions. I truly
believe this would be the highlight of the year for many students. Some of my students currently
participate in Moodys Mega Math Challenge, which is a similar idea but it does not take place
in VW, although it certainly could. Students tackle a mathematical modelling problem that is
completely open-ended, and they have 12 hours to come up with their solutions and submit them
online. If this competition or one like it was held in a VW, I believe many more students would
take interest especially if they had the opportunity to present their findings so others could see
what they had accomplished.