Virtual Worlds Coming of Age: Guest post by Judy (Hey, Jude) O'Connell
Monday, October 19, 2009 at 06:48AM While I was playing with my grandsons all weekend, my Ozzie colleague Judy O'Connell who writes the prestigious Hey Jude blog was busy putting her thoughts together about virtual worlds. Our Australian friends have long been leaders in online learning, so Judy knows where of she speaks. Thanks, Judy, for the infomative post!
Virtual Worlds Coming of Age – with help from ‘downunder’
Virtual worlds are providing new environments for learning, with new interfaces and new options of choice for schools. This shift represents a recognition of the value of experiential spaces, where learners have rich, embodied, collaborative and cooperative interactions and where they think with complex tools and resources in the service of complex problem-solving (Gee, 2003; Squire, 2003). The idea of 'serious games' is fast converging with educational virtual worlds with more organisations and schools exploring the benefits of game play within immersive experiences - to learn and assess learning.
The key in virtual worlds is matching the promise of technology with the creative minds of educators and their students. Virtual worlds can be interdisciplinary, provide authentic cultural, historical or scientific experiences, and offer systems of teaching that point the way to a new way of learning – one that is immersive, interactive and virtual (Hutchison, 2009). Planning a new curriculum that incorporates virtual worlds requires a re-evaluation of our technology strategy, and a re-alignment of our school library services. No doubt, whatever we do needs innovation and careful planning for a successful integration into the curriculum.
If you are actually wondering what all the possibilities might be, take a look at this short review from Education.Au
Immersive Learning: It’s Game On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARf8VMYRQy0
But how do you find out what the options are or stay in touch with developments?
Australians are generally an innovative bunch, and so it’s easy for me to find the inspiration I need ‘downunder’ – and would like to share some of this with the readers here.
Visit the blog of Jo Kay , and delve into her newly created Virtual Worlds in Education Wiki! She has established this wiki to document the educational uses of a range of virtual worlds as part of her work as facilitator of the Islands of jokaydia Community of Practice.
Australia's Second Classroom Ning also provides an online community of practice for educators who wish to share how they use immersive media with and myself (co-founders of this Ning), are particularly keen to support developments in virtual worlds areas after the conclusion of some research we’ll undertake at the Macquarie University sim at ReactionGrid. The SecondClassroom duo set out to explore ReactionGrid , and have learnt so much more about the potential of Open Simulator to provide the learning experiences we have been looking for. The next year is going to result in some amazing developments for schools – and timely too as demonstrated by Steve Collis in his 5 year plan for virtual worlds in education. See, anything is possible!
My favourite resource for keeping in touch with global virtual worlds developments is Australia's own Metaverse Journal which provides news, projects, and events for virtual worlds across industry and other sectors around the world. Here you’ll find a clear indication that education cannot ignore the transition and transformation that is taking place in computer-based and online learning environments. I suggest that you plug this excellent online resource straight into your RSS reader.
Go on – get into virtual worlds today! Explore how a virtual world’s 3D environment might fit within existing learning programs and teaching strategies, and what changes might need to occur?
(Gee & Levine, 2009 p. 50)
When teachers use meaningful digital media for learning their role changes. They become designers of and resources for their students’ learning – such as video games or Web quests – they become mentors and guides, offering feedback and formative assessment that fuel students’ self-initiated learning”
Some key steps in your planning phase might include:
- Understanding the basics in order to explore your choices and options
- Collecting best practices relevant to your school’s setting, and where possible, observing a class or group of students in action.
- Trying out virtual learning environments is to better understand how to boost student engagement, and create a new option for lesson delivery.
- Planning curriculum changes, remembering to make it different to the existing curriculum.
- Determining the best ways to manage teacher support and development.
- Determining the implications for your literacy and information literacy programs.
- Working out the role that the teacher librarian and the school library can/will take in this new learning landscape.
- Making it fun and make it count.
References
Gee, James Paul 2003. What video games have to teach us about learning, New York: Palgrave.
Gee, James Paul, & Levine, Michael H 2009. ‘Welcome to our virtual worlds’, Educational Leadership vol. 66, no. 6, pp. 48-52.
Hutchison, David 2009. ‘Video games: Ideas for teaching and library media links’, School Library Media Activities Monthly 25, no. 7, pp. 56-58.
Squire, K. 2003. ‘Video games in education’, International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming, vol. 2, no.1.
Judy O'Connell <http://heyjude.wordpress.com>
Image at left created by <http://www.photo505.com/>
Reader Comments (3)
The only problem I have with yirtual learning is the fear that children will end up spending more and more time in front of a computer, or a screen in general. I think it is a really good way of educating as for some reason young people connect with virtual reality but it does seem a bit odd to me. Also, would they not lose out on natural human to human interaction?
Do you thrive on personal attention? If you enjoy listening to teachers and other students, the more visual style required for online learning may not work for you.
If eye contact with the teacher and with other students is necessary in order for you to keep your focus, virtual learning a regular classroom may be the better choice for you. Or, try an online class that is not a critical one for you and see whether you adapt well to the online learning environment.
Hi Oli,
You've stated a valid concern shared by many of us. Have you read Fools Gold and TechTonic by the Alliance for Childhood?
Doug