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Envisioning the educational possibilities of user-created virtual worlds

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Abstract

Educational games and simulations can engage students in higher-level cognitive thinking, such as interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving. Recent technical advances in multiplayer, user-created virtual worlds have significantly expanded the capabilities of user interaction and development within these simulated worlds. This ability to develop and interact with your own simulated world offers many new and exciting educational possibilities. This article explores the technical capabilities and educational potential of these new worlds. Additionally, it presents and illustrates a model, which uses interaction combinations, to identify course content and topics having educational applications in virtual worlds. The EDUCAUSE National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) has identified games and simulations as an emerging key theme affecting teaching and learning. Virtually all college students have had experience with games. Games represent active, immersive learning environments where users integrate information to solve a problem. Learning in this manner incorporates discovery, analysis, interpretation, and performance as well as physical and mental activity. An increasing number of 116 Association for the Advancement of Computing In Education Journal, 16(2) colleges and universities are exploring the use of games to enhance learning. (EDUCAUSE-NLII, 2004, p. 28) Recent technical advances in massively-multiplayer, user-created virtual worlds, such as Second Life, Active Worlds, and There, have made this technology both affordable and accessible. Additionally, these advances have expanded the capabilities of user interaction and development within these simulated worlds. Unlike most computer games, even multiplayer games, these virtual worlds allows the users to create their own world and interact with it and with other users in it, rather than simply interacting with an existing, preprogrammed world. This ability to develop and interact with your own simulated world offers many new and exciting educational possibilities. With user-created virtual worlds, educators can create their own simulated worlds and have their students learn by exploring, interacting, and reflecting on their experiences in this world. Alternatively, students can actively apply course content and problem solve as they create and interact with their own worlds.

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... She spent a lot of the time making the workers move back and forth in the farm. 4 Before the interview, Carol was allowed to review her gaming proceedings (with the teacher console) for recalling her memory. ...
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Article
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... Role play and simulations both seem to be used fairly widely. Antonacci and Modaress (2008) have designed a virtual medical clinic, but note the "steep learning curve" for students that reduced the time available for learning course material. They also commented that the ability to design the simulations may also be constrained by the age of students, observance of Linden protocols (such as gaining permission to access sites for class use), and the technical requirements. ...
... Life. This is confirmed in other studies from Antonacci and Modaress (2008) and Sanchez (2007). The finding that tutors wanted technical support available to assist them, which might be resisted by administrative staff and managers, should be noted. ...
Article
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... Literature on education shows that the traditional instructional methods can be supplemented or even be replaced by constructivist learning methods when using new technology, such as the upcoming and still evolving e-learning environments and, in the last decades, immersive virtual worlds (Antonacci & Modaress, 2008;Dede, 1995;Dickey, 2005;Educause Learning Initiative, 2006). Eliëns, Feldberg, Konijn, & Compter (2007) describe applying the traditional learning paradigm to virtual worlds as rather naive: for the virtual VU-campus (VU University Amsterdam, 2007), there was no reason to include an outdated paradigm of learning when there might be more appealing alternatives. ...
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... Gamers who play complex games cannot be passive, as active engagement is necessary for success. At the same time, this cognitive activation is a central element of constructivist learning (Antonacci and Modaress, 2008). Li et al. (2013) propose a design framework emphasizing constructionism as the foundation, which prioritizes the principles of construction as the ultimate objective. ...
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... Nevertheless, these open to public MUVEs (e.g. SecondLife) have been criticized since it enables students move out of the educational context, to communicate other people misbehaving, and to interact with malicious content, because it is free and there are also other people around using the same places for different purposes (Pence, 2007;Antonacci & Modaress, 2008;Harris & Rea, 2009). Therefore, for formal education, especially with young age group of students, these 3D places can turn into a threatening place, which is a sufficient reason for people for disuse of MUVEs in education. ...
Chapter
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... The AIH also describes constructivism, a derivative of cognitive theory, as "a philosophy of learning that holds that learners do not acquire knowledge and skills passively but actively build or construct them based on their experiences" (FAA, 2020a, 3-5). Antonacci and Modress (2008) further the definition by emphasizing the importance of knowledge building through interaction and collaboration as well as using educational games and simulations. These activities encourage higher-level cognitive processes, including analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and problemsolving. ...
... In examining the educational pos- sibilities of user-created virtual worlds, 6 David Antonacci and Nellie Modaress from the University of Kansas Medical Center introduce some of the educational potential of simulations such as SL. The paper includes a reference to their use of SL role play to provide medical students with practice in physician/patient encounters together with a sample video in which they use text chat to simulate the dialogue between the healthcare team and a patient and spouse. ...
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... As a result, fully immersive massively multiplayer virtual worlds have attracted the interest of researchers and educational institutes. In these worlds, learners themselves construct knowledge through interpreting, analyzing, discovering, acting, evaluating and problem solving in an immersive environment, rather than through traditional instruction (Antonacci & Modaress, 2008). In order to be applicable to the constructivist educational model, a virtual world needs at least two essential capabilities: a) telepresence (via avatars) and b) immersion in the virtual world (Dede, 2005). ...
Article
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Περίληψη The paper at hand seeks to investigate whether virtual reality and distance learning tools can be combined in order to effectively support the learning process. This research deviates from related research works which study whether the distance learning tools and / or three-dimensional virtual learning environments can support existing learning communities and complement the traditional lesson in the classroom. Contrary to those studies, this one focuses on open learning communities whose members have the opportunity to meet only online and investigates whether the existence of a 3D environment can be combined smoothly and productively with the already established tools for online learning communities support. Firstly, this paper presents the characteristics of the 3D platform that was used and those of a web-based e-learning platform, and focuses on the points of potential interconnection between them. Secondly, it describes the key points of the e-learning community that was studied and the difficulties experienced during the implementation of the project. Finally, it presents details of the procedure followed for the evaluation of this effort and summarizes the conclusions reached.
... Most gaming tasks are generative and open-ended without prescribed gaming strategies. Gamers engaged in gaming cannot be passive (Antonacci and Modaress 2008). They need to interact (compete, cooperate, or collaborate) with other human gamers or non-player characters (NPCs) inside games (Mason and Moutahir 2006). ...
Chapter
This chapter aims at providing readers with a contextual view on educational use of computer games. Apart from the elaboration on the intrinsic educational traits of games, we introduce two recent initiatives of game-based learning (GBL), namely, “education in games” and “games in education,” and review a number of representative instances among each initiative. Last but not least, we discuss the current challenges of adopting games in education, and the areas worth further research effort so as to gain new insights into the future development of GBL.
... It is important for the learning process that virtual classrooms be inviting and engaging. "Students engaged in educational games and simulations are interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving" [1]. SL is useful because it allows for a level of student creativity, exploration and self-discovery that is controlled by the student and facilitated by the instructor. ...
Conference Paper
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... For example, collaborative role-play strategies can be adopted with the aim of encouraging learners to "lose themselves" in the willing suspension of disbelief as they adopt their role and identify with their avatars (Dickey, 2005). In addition, Antonacci and Modress (2008) discuss the pedagogical benefits of allowing students to collaboratively build and interact with their own simulated worlds and the objects therein. Such user-created virtual worlds can promote the types of creativity and generativity that are characteristic of the Web 2.0 movement (Boulos et al, 2007). ...
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... VWs provide a range of multimedia presentation tools such as video, materials presentation, 3D graphics, synchronous audio and chat communication etc. which are richer than the standardised email, chat and forum based techniques used as part of the traditional E-Learning environments [5]. These environments allow to develop constructive and engaging activities that promote involvement in learning [6]. The ability to bring students and teachers together in the same shared space, facilitates collaboration which is essential in the learning progress [5]. ...
Conference Paper
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... 255) [15]. Advantages of virtual worlds include: the ability to carry out tasks that could be difficult in the real world, possibilities for continuing and growing social interactions, and adaptability to user needs [16]. Virtual reality interactions are effective approaches to behavior change for both cancer patients and older adults [17,18]. ...
Article
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... In addition, role play is a rather common application for virtual worlds; cf. (Antonacci & Modaress, 2008). ...
Article
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Chapter
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Chapter
The growing experimentation with multi-user virtual environments for educational purposes demands rigorous examination of all aspects of these digital worlds. While their use appears to enhance and expand traditional distance learning, educators acknowledge that barriers to access remain, including a steep learning curve for orienting users to MUVE navigation and functionality. The application of Adams’s Knowledge Development Model for Virtual Learning Environments provides a framework for the design of in-world learning opportunities and activities, many of which tend to mirror pedagogical best-practices in Real Life (RL).
Chapter
This chapter concentrates on e-simulation training programs used as part of workplace learning when socially situated interaction and blended learning are specifically included in the instructional design. In this research project, the responses of more than 750 learners were studied in order to answer the questions: How did the learners experience learning from e-simulation? And what were the structural features of the e-simulation sales training programs that promoted the learning of the participants? The e-simulations were an engaging and fun way of learning, reported the learners, but there were other benefits. The authentic dialogue exercises with socially-situated interaction, both online and face-to-face, improved the learners’ awareness and understanding of various practical ways to handle challenging situations. The results are attributable to the proper opportunity to supplement learning with practice, achieved through the design features of the program. Suggestions are made for the design of future programs.
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Education within Second Life frequently recapitulates the “sage on the stage” as students sit their avatars down in chairs in the virtual world and listen to or read an instructor’s lecture while watching a slideshow. This conceptual article explores alternative active learning techniques supporting independent and collaborative learning within virtual worlds. Within Second Life, educators can utilize a variety of scripted tools and objects as well as techniques of building and terra-forming to create vibrant virtual personal learning environments and learning experiences that are engaging and responsive to individual learners. Issues of embodiment in an avatar are discussed in terms of social presence, and student learning styles are considered as well as approaches to problem-based learning, games, role play, and immersive virtual world environments.
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Virtual worlds for adults (e.g. Second Life), youth (e.g. Habbo) and children (e.g. Whyville) have a great potential for learning and teaching practices for enriching wider public and engendering collective experience and collaboration. Informal learning environments such as virtual worlds offer people various intellectual and sensory activities or »peak« experiences, according to Gogala. Virtual worlds promote social interaction and offer visitors an opportunity for various interactive activities which can sometimes not be realized in real life corporate learning and training which is one of the major concerns for large companies. Adults can explore and learn in a different way and from a different perspective. Virtual worlds represent a new medium that allows people to connect in new virtual ways and offer new challenges in the corporate educational field.
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As a growing number of faculty use constructivist and constructionist approaches to teaching in SL, little research exists on the many ethical considerations and legal implications that affect course development. Following the experiences of the instructor and five students, their 12-week journey is documented through interviews, journals, blogs, weekly course activities, SL class dialogs, and in-world assignments. Additionally, five faculty and staff experts who taught or trained in SL at this university were also interviewed and consulted. Ethical considerations in constructivist and constructionist teaching were time, appearance, skills, scaffolded instruction, playful exploration, vicarious experience, self-directed project development, construction of objects, constructivism and constructionism balance, social networking and collaboration, harassment and griefing, false identities and alternate avatars, chat log sharing, and copyright and trademark violations. Lessons learned included developing scaffolded pedagogical approaches that moved from direct teaching to constructivism and constructionism, and required faculty and student adherence to the SL TOS, Community Standards, and Intellectual Property policy.
Chapter
Virtual worlds possess great potentials to support distant collaboration for business teams involved in innovation activities developing solutions for end-users. However, not all users have the technical and programming skills to create custom virtual worlds on the fly that would be suited for their innovation sessions and managing processes within such sessions. Also, it is important that the created virtual world supports such sessions to make users more productive, hence the need to ensure that virtual world characteristics and affordances are used to benefit users rather than impede their effectiveness. This research proposes a responsive templating approach that allows users (facilitators) to generate virtual worlds for collaborative innovation and manage processes within the world, thereby exploring virtual world affordances. We propose that this approach would benefit users enabling easier generation of collaborative innovation spaces and more effective collaboration.
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The potential and new educational perspectives offered by virtual environments are the arguments with which you want to highlight the opportunity, through the experience of the simulation offered by environments such SecondLife®, to organize and expand the involvement and motivation of pupils through active participation. It will be explained, in detail, how to plan a lesson in SecondLife® after having designed and built a learning environment by creating Holodeck, Teleport, Script, and the use of numerous Tools needed to implement a teaching unit.
Book
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Many reports over the last few years have analysed the potential use of games, videogames, 3D environments and virtual reality for educational purposes. Numerous emerging technological devices have also appeared that will play important roles in the development of teaching and learning processes. In the context of these developments, learning rather than teaching becomes the main axis in the organisation of the educational process. This process has now gone beyond the analogue world and face-toface education to enter the digital world, where new learning environments are being produced with ever greater doses of realism. Teaching and Learning in Digital Worlds examines the teaching and learning process in 3D virtual environments from both the theoretical and practical points of view.
Article
Learning how to comprehend while listening to a second language is often considered by learners to be a difficult process that can lead to anxiety when trying to communicate (Graham, 2006; Graham & Macaro, 2008). Computer-mediated communication (CMC) can be used to assist in increasing access to native speakers and opportunities to listen. This study investigates the effectiveness of the use of Second Life and Skype as part of facilitation techniques and the affordances of these online tools for developing listening comprehension. Participants in the study were learning either English or Croatian and were located in Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, Split in Croatia, and Mostar in Bosnia and Hercegovina. A mixed-methods approach was utilised incorporating pre-tests and post-tests (quantitative data) to gain information on the effectiveness of the techniques for developing listening comprehension and in-depth interviews (qualitative data) to gain the participants’ views on the perceived effectiveness of the techniques and the affordances of Second Life or Skype . The results of the study indicate that both techniques resulted in positive gains in the development of listening comprehension. Based on the analysis of the interview data, a more in-depth perspective on the affordances of each online tool was developed, which informed the creation of a new facilitation technique utilising both tools. The study demonstrates how online tools can be used to facilitate interaction between learners and illustrates the need for the selection of online tools for language learning to be based on pedagogy. It is recommended that the selection of tools should be carefully considered in alignment with task aims and the affordances of online tools.
Chapter
Full-text available
Many reports over the last few years have analysed the potential use of games, videogames, 3D environments and virtual reality for educational purposes. Numerous emerging technological devices have also appeared that will play important roles in the development of teaching and learning processes. In the context of these developments, learning rather than teaching becomes the main axis in the organisation of the educational process. This process has now gone beyond the analogue world and face-to-face education to enter the digital world, where new learning environments are being produced with ever greater doses of realism. Virtual worlds, metaverses and 3D virtual environments are now demonstrating huge potential for educational purposes because they enable analogical environments and processes to be recreated with a high degree of realism and where “physical” and communicative interactions closely approximate the effects of interactions that occur in our real world. Avatars bearing the identities of the users in these worlds take on important roles for the development of training strategies in environments where simulation is fundamental, where all agents of education must always assume the roles to which they are assigned, and where teachers (mainly) are obliged to redefine their professional role while also becoming a learner like their students in the same learning environment. Are users of this virtual world prepared for this challenge? Clearly, it is not enough for the users of these 3D learning environments to be digitally literate: they must also improve their digital competence to a high level. Digital competence has been defined in the principal reports of international organisations such as the OECD and UNESCO as one of the key competences of the 21st century. It is not a competence that is always displayed by students entering higher education, or even by their teachers, but it is one we need to work hard to develop and consolidate. We must accept that students can be characterised as digital learners while bearing in mind, as we have already mentioned, that the strategies needed to develop their education and update their training cannot be formulated from separate perspectives. Moreover, when we talk about teachers and students we are referring to learners in both cases. What we need is therefore to plan the training and development of these learners from the perspective of citizens who are living and developing personally and professionally in a constantly changing digital society in which it is difficult –if not impossible– to predict how quickly the technologies we currently recognise as emerging will continue to grow and how quickly they will be introduced. To meet the challenges posed by these constant changes, we need to appreciate that digital learners do not always begin their university studies having already acquired this competence. We must also recognise that we now need to speak simultaneously of digital and analogue learning environments, not just of analogue ones. These digital learning environments oblige us to speak in terms of “environments” or “spaces” rather than “classrooms”. They remind us that flexibility, change and innovation are necessary conditions for developing a technology whose latest generation is represented by 3D virtual environments, most of which can be accessed from personal computers and even from mobile devices. One of the main didactic and pedagogical challenges educational professionals face is to integrate all these elements into an educational process that takes into account the points of view of both educators and learners. At the same time, our main responsibility is to harness the educational process to develop the cross-disciplinary competences of university students. This book comprises our experiences and main conclusions from the SIMUL@ project [Ref. EDU2008-01479]. It also draws conclusions from the International Seminar on Virtual Environments for the Acquisition of Cross-Disciplinary Competences at University, held as part of that project and partly financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [Ref. EDU2011-15624-E]. Teaching and Learning in Digital Worlds examines the teaching and learning process in 3D virtual environments from both the theoretical and practical points of view. It is divided into four sections. The first section discusses education in the 21st century from the perspective of learners in a digital society and examines the basic competences students need to respond to the personal and professional challenges they are likely to face. It also explores the issue of quality. This essential feature of any e-learning programme should be considered at the planning stage, during the programme, and on completion of the programme when conclusions are drawn from the students’ learning experiences. The second section focuses on the educational and teaching strategies higher education professionals must take into account when developing educational processes in technological environments. Through gamification these environments must enable us to teach cross-disciplinary competences to university students. In such environments, simulation will be our best teaching strategy and evaluation our greatest challenge. The third section explores the use of 3D virtual environments in education in general and in higher education in particular. It analyses the educational potential of immersive environments, the design and development of 3D objects for training environments, and the process for designing and developing training programmes in 3D environments. The fourth section examines the range of experiences we consider to be good practice when applying 3D technological environments to the teaching of competences at secondary and tertiary levels of education both nationally and internationally.
Chapter
The Creative Industries regard the virtual world as a potential aid for fostering creative approaches. The Experimental Learning Framework (ELF) was a 3 year research project that analysed the capacity of Second Life for learning and teaching in project management, aiming to understand virtual learning environments in relation to physical world experience. This chapter focuses on the avatar as an embodiment of a physical person. It analyses avatar design and its workability and avatar awareness, which are discussed within the framework of reflexive methodology. Two research outcomes are presented. Firstly, creative avatar applications resulted in fostering creativity as part of the independent learning process. Secondly, the enduring comparison between physical and virtual worlds as triggered by the avatar-supported analytical thinking skills.
Chapter
User-created virtual worlds are emerging technologies with rapidly growing acceptance in education. Of the various reported educational uses of these virtual worlds, the focus of this chapter is on virtual worlds for constructivist learning activities, because this use has application to many real-life courses and has the potential to transform teaching and learning. To assist educators with recognizing and understanding virtual world learning activities, Antonacci & Modaress (2005, 2008) developed the Interaction-Combinations Integration model. However, this model has not been studied in actual virtualworld learning practice. Using a case study method, this chapter examines the usefulness of this model to organize and describe actual virtual world learning activities, provides additional learning activity examples, and describes what was needed to implement and conduct these learning activities.
Chapter
Full-text available
Virtual worlds for adults (e.g. Second Life), youth (e.g. Habbo) and children (e.g. Whyville) have a great potential for learning and teaching practices for enriching wider public and engendering collective experience and collaboration. Informal learning environments such as educational virtual worlds offer children and adults various intellectual and sensory activities or "crystallized" experiences with reinforcing multiple intelligences, according to Gardner. Virtual worlds promote social interaction and offer visitors an opportunity for various interactive activities which can sometimes not be realized in real life education. Children and adults can explore and learn in a different way and from a different perspective, e.g. with educational games and simulations. Virtual worlds represent a new medium that allows people to connect in new virtual ways and offer new challenges in the educational field.
Article
The purpose of this chapter is two-fold: first, to present an overview of research related to Second Life, one of several Internet-based multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs); and second, to demonstrate that practical applications of MUVEs in education and professional development can be merged with an existing model for learning in virtual learning environments. While the three-dimensional environment of online worlds like Second Life exhibit game-like ambiance, there is serious business going on "in-world" as educators experiment with this technology in increasing numbers. In particular, Second Life is being used as a vehicle for university course delivery, conference sessions, informal meetings, collaborative projects, and creative products. As a result, Second Life (SL) and similar platforms have become the subject of recent research attention from those who seek to understand the current and potential educational value of this online phenomenon. The growing experimentation with multi-user virtual environments for educational purposes demands rigorous examination of all aspects of these digital worlds. While their use appears to enhance and expand traditional distance learning, educators acknowledge that barriers to access remain, including a steep learning curve for orienting users to MUVE navigation and functionality. The application of Adams's Knowledge Development Model for Virtual Learning Environments provides a framework for the design of in-world learning opportunities and activities, many of which tend to mirror pedagogical best-practices in Real Life (RL).
Article
This chapter focuses on investigating participants' presence in Second Life among students in enactive role play. The interest in the study is on the nature of participant interaction and construction of discourse moves which reflect the nature and extent of their presence (identified as 'strong' or 'weak') in the virtual world. The chapter examines the key concept of presence and its association with related concepts of engagement and identity against the sociocultural approach to learning and functional linguistic theory which provide the theoretical underpinnings and frame the research focus of this study. A review of related studies in the field follows after which background information on the context of the study is provided. The method of analysis is explained after which an analysis and a discussion of findings are presented. The chapter closes with highlighting the pertinent pedagogical implications of virtual enactive role play in 3D immersive spaces for learning.
Article
Games and gaming constructs have emerged as a tantalizing and often provocative tool for instructional delivery. Methods and pedagogy for effectively employing games, like quest-based learning, as educational tools are developing. This chapter explores the use of game-based pedagogy for a pre-service teacher education course, as well the development of a quest-based learning management system (3D GameLab) to support the class. The chapter is grounded in design-based research, and discusses four phases of development and theory generation. In each of these phases, the quest-based learning management system, course curriculum, and gamebased pedagogy were subject to the same iterative process to test and generate new theory toward game-based/quest-based learning.
Thesis
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The requirements of the current working life are setting new challenges for higher education. It is widely accepted that besides mastering academic knowledge and skills, university graduates should also be provided with diverse generic skills before they begin their careers. However, there seems to be a gap between higher education and the needs of professional life. The findings of this research are designed to help tackle some of those challenges. The objective of this dissertation was to advance theories of learning in drama and roleplay, and to develop teaching methods that further expert knowledge development in higher education, especially in the field of forest economics and marketing. This study also explored learning journals as a tool for reflection and assessment. This multidisciplinary dissertation uses the mixed methods research approach and consists of a summary and three published (or accepted to be published) essays and one submitted manuscript. The qualitative research data were collected from students’ learning journals and a focus group interview, and quantitative data were gathered from two survey questionnaires. Qualitative thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis were applied to the qualitative data. The main quantitative analysis methods included t-tests and ANOVA. This dissertation introduces educational drama and role-play as viable learning and teaching methods in higher education. According to the findings, both methods seem to be able to involve several learning outcomes that are needed in the development of professional expertise. Furthermore, while real workplace placements cannot always be arranged for students, role-play can act as a supplementary learning method alongside work-based learning. It is also concluded that role-play is likely to suit better for enhancing learning that concentrate on a specific topic or a skill, whereas the strength of drama lies in critically evaluating underlying premises and personal stances students have towards a particular topic of learning. The findings of this dissertation also highlight the notion that reflective skills do not develop by themselves, but they should actively be fostered in higher education. Along with forest sciences education, other disciplines can also apply the findings in both higher education and vocational upper-secondary education. In addition, the gained information about promoting expert knowledge and skills through drama and role-play can also be transferred to new contexts, such as working-life personnel training and human resources development. Keywords: expertise, higher education, forest sciences, drama, role-play, learning journals
Article
Full-text available
With their ability to simulate real life and allow users to interact with the virtual environment, Multiuser Virtual Environments (MUVEs) are very useful platforms for education and training. A survey of the related literature shows that MUVEs in education are mainly used only as a supplement of the traditional lesson in the classroom, which is mainly the idea of blended learning. In this work, we go one step beyond and examine whether this blended learning model can be fully implemented online, with MUVEs replacing the face to face interaction. This is ideal for open learning communities, whose members are able to meet only online, and can hardly meet in the same classroom. For an open learning community, we investigate whether the existence of a MUVE can be combined smoothly and productively with the already established tools for online learning communities support and the first user experiences are positive: users prefer to use LMS because of its simplicity and are attracted from the 3D virtual environment and the interactivity it offers.
Article
Full-text available
Nowadays teachers and trainers pay attention to the research and the experimentation of innovative pedagogical tools and approaches, such as simulation and 3D virtual world in order to improve the learning capacity of their students. Sometimes they invest time and financial resources to manage their updating courses, especially about how new technological potentialities can be exploited and integrated into their mainstream teaching methods. Also the use of different learning environments apart from the traditional class can stimulate the learning processes creating more educational opportunities and favoring the development of other approaches, such as collaborative learning. This type of learning approach is represented by a situation where two or more individuals learn or try to learn something together aimed to the building of a common knowledge. Unlike the individual learning, people engage themselves in a collaborative learning process in order to capitalize on each other’s resources and competences. More specifically, the collaborative learning model is based on knowledge that can be constructed within a community in which members interact actively through sharing experiences and assuming asymmetric roles. In other terms, the collaborative learning refers to methodologies and specific environments where the students engage in a common task in which each individual depends on each other and is responsible for the others.
Conference Paper
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The engineering and construction industries require their workforce to undertake complex learning and training activities. Exposing new employees, graduates, or apprentices to these environments could endanger their safety and the safety of those working with them. On site education and training also requires an investment of time from skilled individuals and companies. Problems accessing environments, such as construction sites, heavy plants or chemical manufacturers, are substantially heightened by the need to risk assess and comply with Health and Safety legislation making the traditional “hands on” and “shadowing” approaches to training and education more complicated than in the past. These difficulties are also compounded by changes to the geographical locations (e.g. distance learning, on site) of those studying to join these career paths or progress within them. Therefore, educational institutions and trainers must consider how to deliver this skill based learning for both those with access to academic premises and those learning at a distance. New technologies such as serious games are one of the solutions being explored. This paper undertakes an analysis of safety issues and safety training and learning methods relating to the construction industry. The paper takes its start point from a Health and Safety Executive commissioned report in 2003 (Hide et al, 2003) and questions if sufficient improvements in safety have been achieved within the construction industry since its publication. Then, the paper investigates the development of education and training that meets the necessary reality and complexity of engineering and construction sectors and the ability of serious games to provide timely and accessible training to achieve competency within these sectors.
Chapter
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http://llibres.urv.cat/index.php/purv/catalog/book/155
Article
Education within Second Life frequently recapitulates the “sage on the stage” as students sit their avatars down in chairs in the virtual world and listen to or read an instructor’s lecture while watching a slideshow. This conceptual article explores alternative active learning techniques supporting independent and collaborative learning within virtual worlds. Within Second Life, educators can utilize a variety of scripted tools and objects as well as techniques of building and terra-forming to create vibrant virtual personal learning environments and learning experiences that are engaging and responsive to individual learners. Issues of embodiment in an avatar are discussed in terms of social presence, and student learning styles are considered as well as approaches to problem-based learning, games, role play, and immersive virtual world environments.
Article
Full-text available
As a growing number of faculty use constructivist and constructionist approaches to teaching in SL, little research exists on the many ethical considerations and legal implications that affect course development. Following the experiences of the instructor and five students, their 12-week journey is documented through interviews, journals, blogs, weekly course activities, SL class dialogs, and in-world assignments. Additionally, five faculty and staff experts who taught or trained in SL at this university were also interviewed and consulted. Ethical considerations in constructivist and constructionist teaching were time, appearance, skills, scaffolded instruction, playful exploration, vicarious experience, self-directed project development, construction of objects, constructivism and constructionism balance, social networking and collaboration, harassment and griefing, false identities and alternate avatars, chat log sharing, and copyright and trademark violations. Lessons learned included developing scaffolded pedagogical approaches that moved from direct teaching to constructivism and constructionism, and required faculty and student adherence to the SL TOS, Community Standards, and Intellectual Property policy.
Article
Second Life (SL) is an emerging technology in higher education. Academics are showing strong interest in it, but so far have more imaginative ideas about using it than experience of actual practice. This paper reports on a pilot study of using SL with six undergraduate students studying Digital Photography in October 2008 at the London South Bank University. The students took part in a group activity in SL that involved creating and manipulating virtual cubes, taking digital photos of avatars, putting these images onto the cubes and telling a story about them. The researchers used qualitative methods, namely personal interviews and a focus group. The findings illustrate benefits of SL for the subject of Digital Photography, particularly with regard to engaging students with active learning, gaining publicity for students as photographers and extending research into subcultures. The study demonstrates how SL can be used as a virtual space to create collaborative learning opportunities that might not be easy to generate in real life. It also examines the issue of user identity through avatars and its impact on group discussion. The paper showcases an example of SL being used for media and art education and offers insights into how this practice might be expanded and transferred to other disciplines and contexts in higher education.
Second life develops education following. eSchool News
  • J Appel
Appel, J. (2006). Second life develops education following. eSchool News. Retrieved December 5, 2006, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/ showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6713
Second life: The educational possibilities of a massively multiplayer virtual world (MMVW) Paper presented at the EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference
  • D M Antonacci
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Antonacci, D.M., & Modaress, N. (2005, February). Second life: The educational possibilities of a massively multiplayer virtual world (MMVW). Paper presented at the EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference, Austin, TX. Retrieved December 5, 2006, from http:// www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=SWR0552
New learning ecosystems: NLII 2004 annual review
EDUCAUSE-NLII. (2004). New learning ecosystems: NLII 2004 annual review. Washington, DC: EDUCAUSE. Retrieved December 5, 2006, from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/nli0405.pdf.
Research ethics in second life from http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=062 Second Life [Computer software]
  • Linden Lab
Linden Lab. (2006). Research ethics in second life. Retrieved December 7, 2006, from http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=062 Second Life [Computer software]. (2006). San Francisco, CA: Linden Lab. Retrieved December 10, 2006, from http://www.secondlife.com There [Computer software]. (2006). Silicon Valley, CA: Makena Technologies. Retrieved December 10, 2006, from http://www.there.com