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Eloise Pasteur

Holmberg - 0 views

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 10 Nov 08 - Cached
  • Learning in virtual worlds
  • The notion of distance
  • Of the respondents 28 were female and two were male. The youngest respondent was born in 1984 and the oldest respondent was born in 1952. Half of the respondents were born before 1967.
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  • Respondents didn’t feel that using the Second Life client was too difficult. The majority of the respondents answered that moving (73.3 percent) and navigating (66.7 percent) in Second Life was easy or fairly easy. Almost all of the respondents felt that it was easy to take part in Second Life–based lectures and discussions, and that they gained additional information from other students in discussions.
  • Respondents were asked to estimate the usability of Second Life as a learning environment by comparing it to other learning methods. When compared with face–to–face education, the respondents felt that learning in Second Life was somewhat more difficult. Face–to–face education was considered overall as a “better” (versus worse, as literally asked in the survey) form of education. But learning in Second Life was considered to be clearly more fun. Nevertheless, 60 percent of the respondents answered that lectures in Second Life could replace face–to–face lectures. This question raised strong opinions.
  • In addition, 83.3 percent of the respondents thought that the barrier to participate in discussions or to ask a question was lower in Second Life than in face–to–face lectures
  • When compared to Web–based learning platforms, Second Life was not considered to be neither easier nor more difficult. But even in this case, learning in Second Life was considered to be a lot more fun (a response from over half of the respondents). In contrast to the comparison with face–to–face education, Second Life was considered to be a “better” form of education than learning from Web–based learning platforms.
  • One–third of the respondents considered Second Life to be “better” — against 13.3 percent of the respondents that thought Second Life was “worse” — than Web–based learning platforms. The respondents graded a lecture in Second Life to be “better” than webcasting and discussion boards, almost as good as videoconferences, but clearly not as good as face–to–face lectures and meetings.
  • A question about how the students experienced the presence of other students gave very mixed answers. Compared to Web–based learning environments the interaction between the students was thought to be more comfortable by almost 50 percent of respondents. It was considered to enhance interaction and the feeling of presence was stronger. Most of the students (56.6 percent) felt that other students were actually present in the virtual classroom. The respondents said that it was “fun” to meet all of the other students in the same location without having to leave their homes and that the campus–like atmosphere made it feel “real”.
  • Second Life was also considered to be a functional environment for teamwork. Assignments that students resolved in teams were considered to be fun and productive. The respondents felt that their teams produced more than they would have done individually. Students also felt very strongly that they were part of the team (56.7 percent).
  • When the respondents were given a chance to freely express their opinions about their experiences in Second Life, it became apparent that using Second Life in education may even have somewhat surprising positive consequences. One of the respondents wrote that using Second Life in education had brought her closer to her 16–year–old son’s world.
  • Another surprising observation outside the survey was that some of the students used Second Life on their own time to improve their language skills. One of the students told us that she spent a lot of time in the French–speaking areas of Second Life exercising both her written and spoken French. This discovery strengthens our belief of the huge potential that Second Life has for language education, an area certainly requiring further research.
  • In general, Second Life was considered to enhance interaction between students and between the instructor and the students especially when compared to Web–based learning environments.
  • Provided that participating face–to–face education does not require too much traveling and learning outcomes are satisfactory, Second Life does not necessarily provide any significant benefits, at least not when using it only as a platform for lectures and teamwork.
  • When considering distance only as a physical measure of separation, Second Life provides a means to overcome it. The existence of multimodal and non–interfering means of communication and socialization by using chat, instant messages and voice calls in personal and group interaction provides users a wider range of possibilities to communicate than in face–to–face sessions. Of these varied means, each student can select an option one that feels most comfortable, an observation also made by Paquette–Frenette (2006). In this study, all of the students were participating at a distance through Second Life, avoiding problems noted in Paquette–Frenette (2006).
  • The mixed responses to questions about Second Life being comfortable or better than other environments of learning indicate a variety of emotional and cognitive reactions. This study did not give clear answers to the interplay of different distance variables (Nooteboom, 2000; Duval, 2006; Hargreaves, 2001; Garrison, et al., 2000) in Second Life–based learning. However, the results indicate that the feeling of presence and distance is a multidimensional issue that needs further attention in future studies.
  • In comparison to lectures, the benefits of using Second Life in teamwork were more obvious. The physical presence of avatars, the possibility to communicate in real time and the existence of a shared local space explain why Second Life produces a more realistic feel of presence than discussion forums or chat rooms. In a sense, Second Life brings distance education closer to face–to–face education, supporting Jones, et al. (2005). The strong feel of presence noted by respondents and the immersive nature of Second Life seem to do just that.
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    Respondents didn't feel that using the Second Life client was too difficult. The majority of the respondents answered that moving (73.3 percent) and navigating (66.7 percent) in Second Life was easy or fairly easy. Almost all of the respondents felt that it was easy to take part in Second Life-based lectures and discussions, and that they gained additional information from other students in discussions.
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Eloise Pasteur

How the Google generation thinks differently - Times Online - 0 views

    • Eloise Pasteur
       
      Another take on Digital Immigrants v Digital Natives and a term I find I prefer if you're going to distinguish on age - the Google Generation. Although I'm sure our parents and teachers wondered the same about us, does the width of knowledge that is accessible lead to deep learning and the ability to reflect?
  • Rose Luckin, Professor of Learner- Centred Design at the London Knowledge Lab and a visiting professor at the University of Sussex, is working on a study examining the internet's impact on pupils' critical and meta-cognitive skills. “The worrying view coming through is that students are lacking in reflective awareness,” she says. “Technology makes it easy for them to collate information, but not to analyse and understand it. Much of the evidence suggests that what is going on out there is quite superficial.”
  • This year, researchers at University College London reported the results of a five-year study into the “Google Generation”. When they examined the behaviour of those logging on to the websites of journals, e-books and other sources of written information, they found widespread evidence of “skimming activity”. Users viewed no more than three pages before “bouncing out”. This wasn't just the norm for students. “The same has happened to professors and lecturers. Everyone exhibits a bouncing/flicking behaviour, which sees them searching horizontally rather than vertically. Power browsing is the norm.”
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  • The difference, though, is that as a digital immigrant, my mind has baseline skills in concentration, contemplation and knowledge construction. My fear - and the reason why I wrested my son's laptop away from him - is that the acquisition of those skills is being lost in the twitch-speed of our new Web 2.0 world.
  • I can see that that broadens his knowledge, but does it deepen it? “Education has always been about absorbing the facts first and reflecting on them second. Technology is not hampering that, but take away his laptop and you are just setting him up for a rebellion,” Kelly says. “The technology tide is unstoppable.”
  • “Because they have been using digital technology all their lives, our children feel they have authority over it,” says Rose Luckin. “But technology cannot teach them to reflect upon and evaluate the information they are gathering online. For that, the role of teachers and parents remains fundamentally important. You are in the hot seat. They still need you to open that conversation.”
  • NATIVES v IMMIGRANTS Digital natives Like receiving information quickly from multiple media sources. Like parallel processing and multi-tasking. Like processing pictures, sounds and video before text. Like random access to hyperlinked multimedia information. Like to network with others. Like to learn “just in time”. Digital immigrants Like slow and controlled release of information from limited sources. Like singular processing and single or limited tasking. Like processing text before pictures, sounds and video. Like to receive information linearly, logically and sequentially. Like to work independently. Like to learn “just in case”.
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    A discussion of the learning style and depth of learning of the Google Generation, this time from a parent and journalist, but with some interesting quotes from those that study the youngsters
Nancy Noah

Writing creative MBA thesis paper - 0 views

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    MBA thesis writing forms a critical part of the entire MBA program. MBA thesis writing can be the cause of a student's completion or non completion of his or her MBA program. First and foremost, MBA thesis writing is not graded by an ordinary lecturer. Instead, MBA thesis writing papers are supervised by a single lecturer, but it is a panel of lecturers who decide whether or not work by a student is satisfactory or not. Secondly, MBA thesis writing must not just consist of an ordinary topic whose content is not convincing or that does not provide a feasible, valid and reliable solution to a current problem in the MBA thesis writing field. On the contrary, thesis papers writing must contain a topic that is not too shallow or too wide. Instead, an MBA thesis writing paper topic must be within a scope or limit that allows only the use of the most satisfactory content. In the case of a highly narrow thesis statement, the MBA thesis writing papers are too shallow and leave out highly relevant content thereby, making them unsatisfactory and worth the lowest grades the rubric criteria has to offer. Too wide thesis topic, on the other hand, is not the best. Although they allow the student to have too much content to meet the number of pages requirements, much of the content is irrelevant and way overboard of what is being sought. Thirdly, MBA thesis writing papers are not should seek to follow the right format. MBA thesis paper format means seeking to accomplish university specific thesis writing format and academic writing thesis requirements. This format is recommended to make MBA thesis papers from a given university to standout. However, such specifications must not underestimate the value of conventional academic writing standards and requirements. Format will also entail observing academic writing styles as required by the academic field within which the thesis paper falls into. For instance, the format of a thesis paper must observe proper citation and referen
Eloise Pasteur

Drawing a Roadmap: Barriers and Challenges to Designing the Ideal Virtual World for Hig... - 0 views

  • So why should higher education be concerned about virtual worlds for those under eighteen? There are several reasons.
  • First, an increasing number of colleges and universities are enrolling students who are younger than eighteen.
  • Second, allowing interaction between high school and postsecondary students increases the potential for mentoring and outreach. As institutions become more competitive, many are trying to attract high school students earlier, sometimes starting when they are freshmen.
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  • Third, a secure multi-age virtual world would provide educators with a rich environment in which to study instructional practices.
  • Individuals using computer resources belonging to The University of Arizona must act in a responsible manner, in compliance with law and University policies, and with respect for the rights of others using a shared resource. The right of free expression and academic inquiry is tempered by the rights of others to privacy, freedom from intimidation or harassment, protection of intellectual property, ownership of data, and security of information.” Although this policy seems fairly straightforward, the ten “Acceptable Use Guidelines” meant to clarify this policy instead introduce confusion. For example, Guideline 3, which instructs the computer user to “clearly and accurately identify one's self in electronic communications,” adds: “Do not forge or misrepresent one's identity. Concealing or masking the identity of electronic communications such as altering the source of an email message by making it appear as if the message was sent by someone else is a violation of this policy.”14 So a student knows that altering the sender of an e-mail is against policy, but what about creating an avatar? And what about the faculty member who asks students to create an avatar with a totally fictitious name? Are the faculty member and the students in violation of this policy?
  • an instructional technologist at the University of Arizona,was supporting the implementation of Second Life in a General Education class. She was concerned about the interesting style of dress, or lack thereof, that is often seen in Second Life and felt she needed to develop a dress code for the virtual class.15 But when the vice-provost for instruction and I were discussing the process for modifying the current dress code of the university, we discovered that the university does not even have a dress code for everyday life.16
  • For example, at the University of Arizona, faculty have expressed frustration because they cannot learn how to sit down in virtual worlds or because they cannot figure out how to correctly set the hair on their avatar. Because of these frustrations, they tend not to invest the time needed to explore the world as an instructional resource. However, as the NMC’s Levine has pointed out: “In our first life, it generally takes us maybe eighteen years . . . to get to be fully functional adults. It’s an evolutionary process. A virtual world that had a short learning curve would be something not very interesting. So I think an ideal virtual world needs some of that complexity.”17 The challenge thus becomes how to select a virtual world that has the necessary complexity to keep users engaged while developing strategies and structures to support them as they learn.
  • Even more important is that if an institution wants to implement a virtual world of any type, it needs to convince faculty that the early adopters are, in fact, not all mad and that the tool does have value. Instruction may just be in a form with which the faculty is unfamiliar. Therefore the institution must begin by offering faculty, staff, and students the time and support to perform simple tasks like learning how to navigate the environment. Faculty must then be assisted in visualizing something outside of their understanding of what it means to be a teacher.
  • Perhaps as important as setting goals and providing resources is developing realistic assessments of the project’s success. For example, in a virtual world such as Second Life, what are the metrics that will be used to determine the institution’s return on investment?
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    A thoughtful analysis of the education institution's barriers to engaging in Second Life or other virtual worlds.
milesmorales

Homeschooling Tips That Will Really Help You Out - 0 views

Kids in public schools face many hurdles today, the bulk of which we never had to deal with when we were young. The best way to help your kids avoid these pitfalls is to homeschool them, and the he...

started by milesmorales on 19 Aug 14 no follow-up yet
Owen Avery

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James OReilly

Second Life - The Long Goodbye « That'SLife - 18 views

shared by James OReilly on 05 Sep 10 - Cached
amazonecho liked it
  • There comes a time when you have to admit you were wrong, or perhaps misguided, or simply that you were a little bit ‘out of time’, or perhaps – better said – that somebody let you down and maybe it wasn’t your fault. And this is one of those times, because it’s goodbye to Second Life for me, at least in its current incarnation – in terms of teaching and training – and I’d like to try and explain why…
  • the reason I did all this is not because I was convinced that SL was the future of education, but rather that I thought it was the future of the web (not SL, you’ll understand, more the notion of 3D)
  • here was still one thing that didn’t change – it was cripplingly difficult to get started with SL for the casual visitor (unlike, say, Skype or Adobe Connect) and the ‘first hour experience’ was terrible.
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  • you get a system which doesn’t lend itself to much use over and above the committed
  • On a scale of 1-100 I’d put SL at the 100 end of the scale in terms of people being willing to invest the time and effort…
  • The period in which I found myself having less time to invest in SL also coincided with the new viewer which brought HTML on a prim to SL and made a lot of tools (mine included) largely redundant. And I’m very happy about that – media is now much easier to use in SL, as is any web content, and this has changed the lives of many educators who now don’t have to fudge solutions in-world.
  • Of all the improvements (the changes to the forums, the blogs, the bloody shopping site and all the rest) why is it that the overall experience isn´t really that much better than it was two years ago?
  • I can’t help thinking I get more out of blogs and Twitter (in terms of professional development), and more out of other social platforms (and I’d include Elluminate and Adobe Connect in there too) than I can see myself getting out of SL these days.
  • “Second Life: Overcoming the Entry Barriers in Hogher and Further Education”
  • Looking back at that chapter now I can’t see a great deal of change, and those entry barriers are, at best, a real detractor in terms of getting educators in, but – at worst – they are very good reasons not to even start.
  • SL is too  demanding and too unreliable for most educators. It pains me to say this, but I just don’t think it’s improved enough, or become easy enough for most people to bother. There are better ways of doing most things you can do in SL in terms of education, and – almost five years down the line – as far as I’m concerend SL hasn’t delivered enough to make it worthwhile.
  • I still think the future of web interactions is 3D, and I still think avatars are a grand idea, and I still love the concept of a vast space to be wandered and enjoyed… but I have to conclude that in pure terms of investment (time and money) SL doesn’t make much sense, at least for most educators.
  • I think mobile has come on in leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, and the possibilities are very exciting. Plus, you don’t need high-end equipment and shedloads of patience with mobile, most of the time.
Irfan Alam

Why learns Quran Recitating is important for Muslim ? - 0 views

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    Quran is a guide line for all humanity. It shows the right path and explains that how we have to spend our lives in this world. For this every Muslim must learn Quran, so that he may understand Allah's message. Learning Quran is a mandatory practice for all Muslims as it is counted as their ardent religious practice. The holy book Quran is not only known for its religious significance, it is strongly believed that the inscriptions mentioned in the book are the words of Allah and following these inscriptions, a true Muslim can upgrade, purify, and dedicate his life for a spiritual betterment.
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    Quran is a guide line for all humanity. It shows the right path and explains that how we have to spend our lives in this world. For this every Muslim must learn Quran, so that he may understand Allah's message. Learning Quran is a mandatory practice for all Muslims as it is counted as their ardent religious practice. The holy book Quran is not only known for its religious significance, it is strongly believed that the inscriptions mentioned in the book are the words of Allah and following these inscriptions, a true Muslim can upgrade, purify, and dedicate his life for a spiritual betterment.
Irfan Alam

Learn Quran Online: 3 Efficient Ways to Learn It by Heart - 0 views

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    Quran is the holy book in Islam religion and it is believed universally that Quran is the blessing of Allah (The Almighty). His blessings are transcribed here in the form of verse. Muslims read this holy book as an emblem of their submission to their religion and to express the respect toward the code of life as described in Quran. Not only Quran helps an individual to be a better person by mind, many of the dictums expressed in Quran have been proven as scientific that make us aware about the divine power of this holy book. It is strongly believed that reading Quran by heart helps a human being to be a better individual by thought, action, and spiritual level of mind. But how it is possible to learn Quran by heart? It is possible even if you do not have any teacher at your home. In these cases you can learn Quran online with the help of some quality virtual resources.
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    Quran is the holy book in Islam religion and it is believed universally that Quran is the blessing of Allah (The Almighty). His blessings are transcribed here in the form of verse. Muslims read this holy book as an emblem of their submission to their religion and to express the respect toward the code of life as described in Quran. Not only Quran helps an individual to be a better person by mind, many of the dictums expressed in Quran have been proven as scientific that make us aware about the divine power of this holy book. It is strongly believed that reading Quran by heart helps a human being to be a better individual by thought, action, and spiritual level of mind. But how it is possible to learn Quran by heart? It is possible even if you do not have any teacher at your home. In these cases you can learn Quran online with the help of some quality virtual resources.
usasmmcity

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Eloise Pasteur

Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE CONNECT - 0 views

  • With very little time and a lot of content to cover, one way to accomplish this change is to use game-based metaphors that capture students’ interest. But there is no need to actually create a game to leverage the concept of game-play for class activities. After all, class activities come with goals, feedback, rewards, and recognition, and these translate well in this visual, exploratory environment. The virtual world looks like a game setting and is one in which instructors can guide, observe, and provide feedback and rewards for class activities.
  • Students worry that the class structure will be poorly defined and managed. A well-structured course includes a syllabus that defines the course objectives, learning objectives, goals, measurements, a schedule of activities and assignments, and rubrics for assessment. Virtual world courses add information on how projects will be delivered, how class discussions will be evaluated, and how students can benefit from feedback to improve the quality of their work throughout the course. Other benefits include discovering new ways to study, discuss, create, and express the course subject under the supervision and support of the instructor. In virtual worlds, the instructor’s role shifts from being the “sage on the stage” to being the domain expert—the authority who stimulates and supervises exploration while providing structure, guidance, feedback, and assessment. Demystifying complexity is not an easy task!
  • Exams or assessments of competency shift to projects and solutions to problems that are expressed in context, offering new ways to visualize, experience, and assess the solutions. This method does not replace traditional methods of evaluation, but it does offers additional ways of assessing what students know and can apply. For example, CS 382, a software design class at Colorado Technical University (CTU), created a 3D game maze and populated it with traps, sensors, flags, a scoreboard, treasures, and other game features and then played the game on the last night of class. The goal of the class was to learn to model a variety of software designs using drawings in a design specification. The students exceeded the class requirements: they designed, prototyped, and tested their designs. They discovered a minor flaw, and one student fixed the problem while the class tested it during the next run of the game. These students were so immersed in the learning experience that they did not realize they had accomplished the goals of several classes in a single term. Virtual environments are stimulating, creative landscapes. When virtual worlds are populated with the right mix of content and discovery, students remain long after class ends.
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  • Finally, as students become active participants in virtual world classes, the student who is on “cruise control” is at risk. Students shift from being passive listeners to engaging in group interaction and activities and demonstrating that they understand the course content via the completion of projects, papers, labs, and case studies. Many classes that include case studies use role-play, putting learners in roles and contexts in which they explore the content and make decisions based on the forces and constraints placed on them. One example of a class role-play is shown in Figure 2, which depicts Ramapo’s immersive literature activity in which Suffern Middle School students enact the courtroom scene from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. The students’ exploration of the content benefits from this social learning environment.
  • In their “lessons learned” papers, the students noted that the virtual world classes enhanced their learning experience and their perceptions of self and gave them new skills to demonstrate their mastery of the course content. The sense of presence and the customization of their avatars were high on their list of priorities for learning and participating in virtual world classes.
  • Classes in virtual worlds offer opportunities for visualization, simulation, enhanced social networks, and shared learning experiences. Some people learn best by listening to the course content, others by seeing and visualizing the content in context, and the rest by using a hands-on approach to demonstrate course competencies. In virtual worlds, we can leverage a mix of content and activity to support all learners: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Virtual worlds support these different learning styles and give students opportunities to explore, discover, and express their understanding of the subject. Naturally, the tool’s capabilities do not guarantee a great learning experience. The success of a course depends on effective course design, delivery, and assessment. Course designers, instructors, and IT professionals are challenged to create stimulating content, deliver it reliably, and ensure a stable virtual world learning environment. Do the benefits outweigh the risks associated with venturing into a virtual world educational platform? For me, the virtual world is my preferred learning and teaching environment. And I am not alone. Over 400 universities and 4,500 educators participate on the Second Life Educators List (SLED).1 All of us are studying how to leverage the benefits of learning in a virtual world in order to assist our students in today’s educational frontiers.
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    Reflections from someone who has taught several courses in Second Life about the teaching experience.
Eloise Pasteur

Net Gen Nonsense: More Mythbusting Evidence - 0 views

  • Two British researchers have just completed a study of undergraduate students that found "many young students are far from being the epitomic global, connected, socially-networked technologically-fluent digital native who has little patience for passive and linear forms of learning."
  • Instead, the study found that students use a limited range of technologies for both formal and informal learning and that there is a "very low level of use and familiarity with collaborative knowledge creation tools such as wikis, virtual worlds, personal web publishing, and other emergent social technologies."
  • The study included a questionnaire survey of 160 students, followed up by in-depth interviews with 8 students and 8 staff members at both institutions. The findings show that many young students are far from being the epitomic global, connected, socially-networked technologically-fluent digital native who has little patience for passive and linear forms of learning. Students use a limited range of technologies for formal and informal learning. These are mainly established ICTs - institutional VLE, Google and Wikipedia and mobile phones. Students make limited, recreational use of social technologies such as media sharing tools and social networking. Findings point to a very low level of use and familiarity with collaborative knowledge creation tools such as wikis, virtual worlds, personal web publishing, and other emergent social technologies.
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  • The study did not find evidence to support the claims regarding students adopting radically different patterns of knowledge creation and sharing suggested by some previous studies. This study reveals that students’ attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by the approaches adopted by their lecturers. Far from demanding lecturers change their practice, students appear to conform to fairly traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of technology tools that deliver content. In fact their expectations were that they would be “taught” in traditional ways – even though many of these students were engaged in courses that are viewed by these Universities as adopting innovative approaches to technology-enhanced learning.
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    The myth of the google generation and how they learn
Eloise Pasteur

Dusan Writer's Metaverse » Findings Published about Virtual Learning in Seco... - 0 views

  • Second Life and other virtual worlds can never fully replace in-class learning, but that virtual learning is reshaping what happens in the classroom and will be a valuable add-on learning tool in the future.
  • There are benefits in face–to–face education and in real physical presence that are difficult to achieve in other learning environments.
  • Education in Second Life is closer to face–to–face education than traditional methods in distance education that are based on asynchronous communication and two–dimensional media. Second Life provides options for multi-modality in communication (voice, chat, gestures, space) that make learning fun — always a desired outcome.
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  • the concept of interreality - the integration of physical and virtual worlds - is ‘an advantage in distance education, if it can bring distance education closer to face-to-face education.’
  • It is also worth noting that of the 30 students that participated, only a few had difficulty navigating through Second Life and most felt that it was superior to other Web-based learning environments.
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    Quick summary of a paper about teaching IRL.
Eloise Pasteur

University Affairs- Studies in Second Life - 0 views

  • “I thought, ‘Gosh, this is amazing! You can teach classes in it’,” he recalls. The first time he taught a course registered in Second Life, Professor Washburn, a.k.a. Duncan Innis, led a 15-week, one-hour lecture to 25 students in the island’s amphitheatre.
  • There is no audio, just words flashing on screen like an MSN chat session. The discussion veers from “fluff journalism” to magazine branding. Nobody raises their hand to voice an opinion; an avatar makes a typing motion in the air if it wants to comment. Professor Washburn and his students often interrupt each other, since you can type whenever you want.
  • The learning curve that comes with Second Life is a drawback mentioned by all professors, online communications personnel and students, and this is one factor that makes some universities reluctant to use the program. Jason Toal, who works at SFU as an experience designer, spearheads most of the university’s projects in Second Life. “If you’re going to use Second Life for your course, you need to spend at least the first couple of classes teaching your students how to use it,” he says. “You have to walk them through what it’s all about, how to hook it on your computer.”
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  • In an instant messaging conversation during Robert Washburn’s journalism lecture at Loyalist, Urqhart, whose real name is Tyson Jewell, reveals his frustrations with Second Life. He says the heavy computer requirements can be a hassle for students who can’t afford sophisticated video cards or a faster Internet connection. Because of this, some students have to come to school anyway to use a computer inside a lab or a library to attend their Second Life classes. There are various other technical problems, such as the glitch in the program that caused Mr. Jewell’s classmate to be locked out of his account. And, ironically, Second Life battles against the one thing that has propelled its popularity: the rapid advances in technology.
  • Finally, everyone who was interviewed for this article agrees that virtual worlds like Second Life won’t completely overtake normal classroom settings. However, they do believe that three-dimensional online classes and assignments will become a staple in Canadian education – and that’s for real.
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    Overview of Canadian HE in Second Life
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