Contemporary Learning and Interdisciplinary Research discussion
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Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds
Learning in Virtual Worlds
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Rhonda
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May 25, 2016 06:11AM
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I choose Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds. It was a very close tie between creativity book and virtual worlds. With school and government budgets being constantly scrutinized while curriculum writers strive for better course plans, and applications of learned material, technology will be heavily leveraged across all grades, subjects and potentially nations. I am particularly interested in the relationship between perspective and reality, and this virtual worlds concept will provide a tool to deconstruct that relationship. What did I learn so far that was totally new for me? - Answer: basically everything that Kristin covered during her education technology seminar. It was astonishing all the technology out there, and I’m pretty sure she only scratched the surface. Outside of some video game playing in high school, the virtual world concept is totally new for me.
I am interested in learning more about virtual worlds and how they can be used across multiple disciplines and specifically assisting ENL learners with language acquisition. I am not especially brave nor am I a rebel, but I'm hoping the use of virtual worlds in education is more than a fad that passes like many education initiatives that are not effectively integrated into the curriculum. Perhaps promoting its non-gaming characteristics may make its acceptance more feasible.
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George - if not Virtual Worlds - then maybe robots will provide additional support for language learning?
http://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/blog/uni...
Format for Postings:1. Title of chapter.
2. Brief summary and takeaway.
3. Key quote(s).
4. How the reading applies to future of teaching and learning to the specific subject or population you teach.
5. Respond several times to other postings.
-Chapters 1-5 by June 8th.
-Chapters 6-10 by June 15th.
John and I agreed to the format. Is this o.k. with you Kristen?
I am not positive about the dates. Let us know if this works.
Title of chapter: “Virtual Worlds Enhancing Student Achievement in Higher Education” by Yvonne Masters and Sue GregoryBrief summary and takeaway:
• Purpose:
to determine whether students learning via virtual world environment achieved higher grades on formal assessments than students using traditional asynchronous learning management systems (discussion boards, wikis, blogs)
to determine if a more immersive online community can be developed using virtual worlds to increase engagement
• Participants and Procedures:
2010 and repeated in 2011; 1,662 college students from University of New England in New South Wales, Australia; students chose between Second Life and the Learning Management System only ; 96 chose Second Life and 1,526 chose Leaning Management; data collected across seven subjects (two non-technical)
Final Grades were compared
Students also self-reported regarding perceptions of the impact of Second Life or the Learning management system had on their learning.
• Results and Findings:
Students who chose Second Life over Learning Management had a higher percent receiving “High Distinction” (29.6% to 5.6%) and “Distinction” (54.2% to 36.2%), and a lower number receiving “Credit” (15.6% to 37.7%), “Pass” (0% to 10%) and “Failed/Failed Incomplete” (1% to 10.5%).
From self-reporting 50% reported that Second Life had a “highly significant” impact as opposed to 38% from the Learning Management group.
2011(789 students); when data is aggregated the studies showed similar results.
Findings: “Virtual worlds provide educational platforms where students “attain higher performance grades” (Childs and Withnail, p.17), and Second Life is effective and engaging.
• Limitations:
60% were first year students with no prior GPA.
Did not account for students’ prior academic achievement, motivation or experience with technology and virtual worlds.
Ongoing to study to address these limitations
• Implications for Future Teaching:
For me what would be most intriguing is starting students and exposing them to the possibilities of virtual learning in a face-to-face environment. I teach 5th-8th grade ESL students, so overcoming the technology would be the first step to scaffold towards more independent experiential tasks. I noticed that it initially took five sessions, face-to-face for college students who presumably spoke the same language.
Key quote(s):
• “The students have opportunities, through interaction in and with the virtual environment, to practice teaching skills and apply concepts in a realistic setting that is also risk free” (Childs and Withnail, p.18)
• This is true for the college students practicing teaching without actual students in the room. With actual experiential learning in a virtual reality risk is not entirely eliminated depending upon the immersion of the participant. Is it possible that psychological effects are still felt even though it is not “real”? I am thinking about my students’ interactions and also military training and its potential effects.
Sorry. Too much stuff to read. I am going to shorten to a couple sentence summary and focus on the quote and application.
Title: (Introduction Chapter) Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds: Keeping it Real?Brief Summary: Author of the section, Mark Childs, introduces the two editors (Childs/Withnail) and purpose of the book. Book is a collection of works resulting form a convention called: First Global Conference for Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds, held in Prague, March 2011. Takeaway: Mark Childs, chief editor defines some key terms up front to help set the conditions to read the rest of the book. They are:
Virtual Worlds are “A synchronous and persistent network of people and computer programs (embodied as avatars and agents), facilitated by networked computers, which uses navigable space to engage the user’s belief.” (Childs, viii)
Author further describes the convention’s inability to agree on a common definition of reality…page x.
Key Quote(s):
“Augmentation uses virtual worlds as an extension of physical world interactions.” (Childs, x)
“Immersion…virtual world can stand alone without reference to the physical world activity.” (Childs, x) True immersion requires the user to feel comfortable within the virtual environment. (Childs, xiii)
“…learners vary in their ability, or willingness, to engage in their belief in the virtual world, and that this leads to dissatisfaction with the learning activity.” (Childs, xi)
“The expressiveness of animated interactive 3-D graphics [which] can be used to present abstract or complex concepts that are difficult to comprehend in a textual form.” (Childs xii)
How the reading applies to instructing Military Science: The first thought that comes to mind with respect to working with virtual worlds and the military is the definition of the word real, because it directly relates to accountability. People should be help accountable for their actions, but if the environment is a learning environment, then mistakes should be more tolerable. However, when working in military science, decisions made by military leaders regularly have grave risks associated with them, if a wrong decision is made in a quiz-real world, should that leader still be held accountable for poor judgment?
Title: Virtual Worlds Enhancing Student Learning in Higher Education (Yvonne Masters and Sue Gregory)Brief Summary and take away(s): The chapter outlines four studies that took place the University of New England in Australia between 2008 and 2011. They authors go in depth into two of the studies that included hundreds of students studying several different subjects were voluntarily broken down into two groups, one using Second Life facilitated learning and the others using traditional learning management tools (Blackboard, wikis, chat rooms, blogs). Results indicated the Second Life users had a more effective learning experience than their traditional learning management tool using counterparts.
Key Quote(s):
Online learning to include use of virtual worlds is not new and it is growing exponentially (Masters, 4).
“Second Life is effective and engaging as a learning platform and the grades received by the students suggest that there is no deleterious effect from studying this way. However, it cannot be argued that the virtual world component of the student’ studies was the only factor that assists in the achievement of higher grades compared to the non-Second Life cohort.” (Masters, 17)
“It is also difficult to ascertain whether those students who chose Second Life are among the more motivated students, thus skewing the results.” (Masters, 17)
Some student’s comments who used Second Life included “‘engagement’ and also ‘in-depth learning’. The sense of community is also clear with comments such as ‘part of a virtual community’ and ‘a valuable was to have some ‘face to face’ time.” (Masters 16)
How Reading applies: I think this chapter was intriguing but there needs to be more research to back up what I think the authors are suggesting as “Second Life learning is better than just online, non-virtual world, learning.” First step toward a more comprehensive study is forcing the Second Life users to be second life users. I think the motivation variable to decide to use the virtual world before starting the class definitely impacted the results. For this to apply to military science, I recommend military science instructors do not give their cadets an opportunity to decide. Take several sections teaching the same course and go 100% virtual world for a semester at the least. Do this until there is enough data to make some claims.
“Love It or Hate IT: Students’ Responses to the Experience of Virtual Worlds”Mark Childs and Anna Peachy
Childs and Peachy emphasize the importance of students becoming engaged in experiential learning not only as learners, but actors immersed in the world adding value to the learning. The authors conducted numerous case studies over 12 years and used the data to create a typology of types of resistance that affect student engagement in virtual worlds in an educational setting. The categories of characteristics of students’ reactions identified are positive, need realism, not embodied, virtual is inauthentic, don’t like games in education, and don’t like the culture (Childs and Withnail, 2013, p. 37). Childs and Peachy view opposition to virtual worlds in education as an unacceptable response to be overcome. They convey a bias against and dismiss students’ feelings who do not accept and adapt.
Although they emphasize the need for students to accept the subculture of virtual worlds, they seem insensitive to other cultures and perhaps should use a Feminist or Multicultural lens for their interdisciplinary research. Muslim female students, “were distressed to enter the environment with any of the default Second Life avatars, as none were appropriately dressed according to their religious and cultural requirements” (Childs and Withnail, 2013, p. 36). Another student mentioned an instance where, “a guy comes in with an erection with a big (indicates through a gesture a large erect penis)” (Childs and Withnail, 2013, p. 34). Other perverted, unpleasant, creepy, transgressive behavior was also mention by other students. Childs and Peachey’s response was that students have to have an open mind in order to grow in the world and should not close down after one negative experience (p. 35).
In the concluding section “Educators’ Responses to Learners’ Resistance”, Childs and Peachy seem to attribute all resistant responses to the resistance technology and not to culture, religious beliefs or deviant, unacceptable lude behavior that would not be tolerated in a “real” world with rules and laws (p.39), much less an educational setting that respects students’ culture, beliefs and right to safety. The recommendations that educators should “assuage” the anxieties of students, offer a counter point of view, and “place the onus on the students” to identify alternative means to fulfill the learning objectives is astonishing to me. The need for rules and regulations in virtual worlds used in educational settings seems imperative to me even in Higher Education where students are adults.
Question: If the student is “immersed” should he/she be acting or participating?
I would like to make a proposal to perhaps make this more feasible for all. What do you think about shifting to everybody reading the whole book, but each of us writing about selected articles and then the other two can make comments and connections. I don’t know how far you have gotten so I started with third article. Tell me what you think.3-George- Problem-Based Learning in Virtual Worlds: Two Case Studies in User Interface Design
Vosinakis, Koutabasis, Zaharias and Belk
4-John- Lok’tar Ogar! Leadership in the World of Warcraft
Melissa Johnson Farrar
5-Kristen- Higher Education Professional Development on Virtual Worlds through Machinima of SLOODLE (Linking MOODLE with Second Life).
Sue Gregory
6-George- The Courtship Hypothesis and Second Life: Explaining Sexual Behaviour in a Virtual World.
Paul Jerry
7-John- Experience as an Essential Aspect of Teaching and Learning in a Virtual World
Tomas Bouda
8-Kristen- The Virtualolpolis Archipelago: Creatively Interconnecting Work-based Virtual Scenarios
Karen Le Rossingnol
9-George- Virtual Hybridity: Multiracial Identity in Second Life Explored
Dean Anthonu Fabi Gui
10- Everyone- The Furture of Virtual Worlds
Mark Childs
I like the new format George, thanks for sharing. I think this will reduce a lot of redundancy. I'll start reading my assigned chapters above and generally stick with our post layout we agreed with previously. Thanks for sharing your posts as well. I have not gotten around to reading them and posting yet. I will this week. I will try and have my chapters read and responses posted by the end of this coming weekend so we have some time to digest what we've read and can potentially discuss some during class. Have a great evening.
Great. I think it will allow more time for interaction. Thanks. Take care.
Title: Lok’tar Ogar! Leadership in the World of Warcraft; Melissa Johnson Farrar. Brief Summary and take away(s): “Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft are viable platforms for people to practice leadership skills.” (Farrar, 69) With over 12 million people play the game in real-time interaction, there are a plethora of opportunities for people to be leaders and followers of others. The author primarily describes how a raid team leader in World of Warcraft has conducts themselves with real, valuable and potentially employable leadership skills that the general population may not realize. The author presents many cited examples where raid team leaders have to execute leadership skills transferrable to the real world to include: providing the purpose for the guild/team, establish the norms of their raid teams, recruit members, evaluate performance, set systems and schedules, adjudicate raid members problems etc. - all things that have value in a real world, potentially management type job. The skills could even be considered resume material. **almost every single sentence on this section is cited to a different author so I cited the actual authors below from the index. Hope that helps.
Key Quotes:
“Virtual environments are safe platforms for trial and error. The chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate.” (John Seely Brown and Doug Thomas, You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired! (Wired, April 2006) retrieved 9 July 2010.) (Ferrara, 71)
“In games, ordinary rules of social interaction are changed, but that does not mean they are no important or consequential.” (David W. Simkins and Constance Steinkuehler, Critical Ethical Reasoning and Role-Play (Games and Culture, 2008), 338-339.)
“Experiential learning in a simulation is different from the traditional classroom. Students have to learn many different things to be participants. They have to learn their roles, the rules, strageties, relationships, outcomes and the interrelationships omg the components.” (Petranek, Corey, and Black, Three Levels of Learning in Simulations: Participating, Debriefing and Journal Writing, 183.) ( p76)
“During a game a student has not merely to ‘learn’ some informatoin, but has to fit it into a social structure in order to achieve a particular goal…The game supplies the structure for retention and usable information.” (Petranek, Corey, and Black, Three Levels of Learning in Simulations: Participating, Debriefing and Journal Writing, 175.) (p76)
“A transformation raid leader could achieve this result when the individual team member is more concerned with completing the team goal (downing the boss) than the individual goal (aquiring best-in-slot gear for his toon).” (Farrar, 79)
How it applies to military science: I think there are plenty of simulation opportunities for leadership training in a simulated world, however there are two primary concerns I have.
1. Using a simulation for combat training can’t be an frivolous endeavor. The instructor or the moderator needs to clearly set the tone of the training (not “game”) and state the rules for the simulation and strictly enforce those rules. There are many very popular, combat simulation games on the main stream market that Soldiers play for pleasure, however training for real combat is far different than training for fun…there is no re-spawn. Making a decision based off of a “penalty” of dying in a simulated world rather than the permanent, irreversible, catastrophe of actually losing a Soldier your decision is a disparage that needs to be highlighted up front.
2. Simulated training can not accurately ever reflect true, face to face combat leadership. It is similar to the question, should unmanned pilots receive valor awards? The physical tax, sleep deprivation, exhaustion, hunger, and raw emotions that come with true face to face leadership cannot be replicated in a simulation. That does not mean the simulation has no value, there are many good repetitions a learning leader can receive by practicing leadership in a simulation, but I do not think they can be “certified” as a leader ready for combat with only digital leadership experience.
Title: “Problem Based Learning in Virtual Worlds: Two Case Studies in User Interface Design”Vosinakis, Koutabasis, Zaharias and Belk
Vosinakis, Koutabasis, Zaharias and Belk conducted two studies to examine the suitability of the virtual world as a platform for Problem-based Learning (PBL) for pedagogy to develop self-directed learning and student collaboration based on constructivist theory. The first study of 10 higher education students with considerable experience in interface design consisted of an abstract work plan that the students had to implement through computer supported collaboration. Vosinakis et al. used qualitative and quantitative methods to monitor student behavior, analyze dialogue and student self-reporting through a questionnaire and follow-up discussion, and to analyze data from tutor’s evaluation of the outcome of the activity (Childs and Withnail, p. 54). The second study was designed modeling the first and the results for both were similar.
Vosinakis et al. found that virtual worlds do have potential for constructivist learning environments if, “learning environments and designed as authentic problems, students are engaged on co-creation activities, and related tools are provided within the virtual worlds” (Childs and Withnail, p. 62). They also found that virtual worlds, “lack the usability and robustness of more traditional computer-supported approaches, such as Web, and a lot of time and effort has to be invested to properly prepare and support the learning environment throughout the course” (Childs and Withnail, p. 54). The ability of remote users to participate and for each member to monitor activities as they were occurring, however, make virtual worlds useful tools to enhance engagement, creativity and collaboration. Vosinakis et al. concluded that virtual worlds were “still not mature enough as learning environments” (Childs and Withnail, p. 62). Considering that they were working with higher-education students would make me hesitant to consider virtual worlds for 5th to 8th graders if things have not matured since the study.
One question I always ask when reading this type of “compilation of articles” book is why they are not required to say when the research and first publication was created. Particularly when discussing digital technology and the virtual world that changes daily, time is very important. This study was presented at a conference in 2011 which means the research was done earlier. Problems the students faced were technological difficulties and the lack of tools interfaced with their desktop applications. Has that changed since 2011?
Mod
“The Courtship Hypothesis and Second Life: in a Virtual World Explaining Sexual Behaviour in a Virtual World”Paul Jerry
Jerry presents the Courtship Hypothesis and Courtship Theory to explain deviant sexual behavior in the virtual world by human males. He examines “courtship disorders” from a psychological point of view and attributes inappropriate sexualisation of virtual interaction beyond that in the “real” world to anonymity and degrees of immersion. According to Jerry, a dissociation occurs of “both being and not being a person when using an avatar” (Child and Whithnail, 2014, p. 115). A participant-observation methodology in Second Life was used followed by inductive method reasoning. Bodiness, reflexivity and time were identified as three features of “self” in the creation of identity (Child and Whithnail, 2014, p. 115). From Courtship Theory, Jerry also identifies four phases of courtship: finding a potential partner, an affiliative phase, a tactile phase and finally sexual intercourse (Child and Whithnail, 2014, p. 115). When looking at deviance, the depth of immersion and reflexivity should be examined when a person is also an avatar who is also playing a role. Time in the virtual world also was shortened. Male participants frequently skipped phases of courtship and went straight to intercourse or just stopped participating.
Educators should consider not only the usefulness of virtual tools, but also the social implications of the virtual world. Discussing and explaining social norm becomes necessary considering, “the disconnection of identity, the one click access to anything, and the notion that individuals acting from a paraphilic stance seek the instant conversion from any given courtship phase to orgasm” (Child and Whithnail, 2014, p. 125). “How do people behave in virtual worlds that are being used for educational purposes?” (Child and Whithnail, 2014, p. 126) is an important question that Jerry proposes for future discussion and exploration. It is a question not just for education, but also for creators of virtual worlds for adults.
For middle school students, clear rules and social expectations would need to be established prior to participation and appropriate consequences for infractions. I understand the desire for anonymity in virtual world applications for adults, but I wonder if it wouldn’t be more appropriate for avatars for younger students to replicate their real world image and be identifiable by other participants and the teacher as “the real person”. I would also be more comfortable if participants were restricted initially to the school and later opened to other schools and districts.
“Virtual Hybridity: Multiracial Identity in Second Life Explored”Dean Anthony Fabi Gui
Gui collected data from 42 surveys using a Google Doc survey with 35 races represented. The term “race” needs defining since the participants consisted of 80% from Europe, 10% Indigenous Indians from North America, 5% Japanese, and 5% Mexican with non-specific racial categories such as “black” and “Canadian” and non-racial categories such as “Jewish“(Childs and Withnail, 2014, p. 178). Gui set out to establish whether or not a virtual world like Second Life is a site of engagement for multiracial discourse or rhetoric and found that there was no evidence that it was a site of engagement from the data he collected.
Avatar: “human representations designed as a simplified version of the users physical features”. (p. 175)
“durable social practices, social identities and social groups to be constructed.” (p. 175)
“Ethnographic research evinces that interactions through computers behave as extensions of offline practices and communications rather than being separate from them.” (p. 176)
“Most participants in their (Messenger et al) study indicate that their avatars consisted of a mix of similar and unrecognizable features of their physical (first life) appearance” (p. 176)
Findings:
“Two possibilities are considered: 1) that multiracial avatars do not find self-worth or sense of identity through group membership, but rather find it through individual interaction; and 2) that non-human hybrid avatars have transcended the virtual realm more successfully than their mono-racial human counterparts, thus exhibiting Homi Bhabha’s idea of a restlessly forming culture in a third space, or the perfect body found in utopias” (Childs and Withnail, 2014, p. 180) Could it be possible that virtual world participants select avatars based on fantasy that have nothing to do with their real world identities?
The author discusses satisfaction with socialization, entertainment and educational opportunities Second Life offers which has nothing to do with the study except when it comes to customizing avatars. The author describes his own avatar’s color and features not true to his real world appearance even though more accurate skins and features were available.
Author’s “overarching” statement:
“ Second Life meets the needs of multiracial users who are represented through human-cantered multiracial avatars with equally varied physical characteristics, interacting daily with the virtual landscape in order to socialize and engage with the educational community” (Childs and Withnail, 2014, p. 182)
Little useful findings came out of this study except that, “multiracial users traverse the virtual landscape primarily for socialization, entertainment and education” and that “multiracial users do not use Second Life as a site of engagement for multiracial discourse or rhetoric, at least not through group membership” (Childs and Withnail, 2014, p. 185). The Literature Review may be useful to look at similar, referenced research.
“The Future of Virtual Worlds”Mark Childs
-The nature of technology is important to the experience of learner in experiential learning in the virtual world.
-Immediacy: the direct experience of the online activity (p. 193)
-Hypermediacy: “the perception of the technology intruding into the consciousness” during the online activity. (p. 193)
-Two important elements: creation and performance of the avatars for the learner; ease and range of communication features.
-Needs to be immersive.
-Learning Management Systems combined with virtual worlds; blended seamlessly; “machinima” (p. 194)
-Features of virtual worlds necessary to support leaning: design, animation, 3D movement, camera control, group and 1-1 messaging, creation and co-creation. (p. 194)
-Evolution: close link between pedagogy and technology; dependent on the way virtual worlds evolve. (p. 195)
-highest sophistication is realism that matches the physical. (p. 195)
-Future: Second Life residents has dropped from its peak of 1.4 million to 1.0 million in 2012. Are they going elsewhere or dropping out of the virtual world?
-2007 Gartner predicted that by the end of 2011 80% of internet users would have a virtual life. Not realized. (p. 196)
-Essid predicts that the use of mobile technology will stall the uptake of virtual worlds. (p. 200)
-layering virtual over real
-Blended learning with virtual and real
After reading Experiential Learning in the Virtual Worlds, I realize how important interdisciplinary research can be and the possible need for collaboration for research to be truly interdisciplinary. I had no prior knowledge of virtual worlds before reading this book. In several of the articles, direct connections to education, pedagogy and/or other disciplines were often only made in the introduction and the literature review and maybe in references in the findings section. Persuasive arguments well supported with findings from prior literature were made, but were lacking in evidence from the author’s own research. I think that when a researcher conducts research on a topic that they are highly immersed in, it may be difficult to recognize his/her own biases and desire to prove his/her interests viable, hence the need for experts from other disciplines to offer their perspectives and critiques. The final chapter from Childs demonstrates the need for more interdisciplinary research for virtual worlds to evolve into a truly viable educational platform. Virtual worlds designed specifically for education are needed. Developments in accessibility, seamless interaction and immersion with a web browser or mobile device, appropriateness and ease of use along with rules of behavior and social norms will make introducing virtual worlds for educational purposes to middle school students possible.
George wrote: "“The Future of Virtual Worlds”Mark Childs
-The nature of technology is important to the experience of learner in experiential learning in the virtual world.
-Immediacy: the direct experience of..."
George,
Thank you for this post titled "The Future of Virtual Worlds" by Mark Childs. I had the same gut feeling as I think you did regarding the articles found in the Virtual Worlds book. Though the book is published by the interdisciplinary press, it seems like the articles themselves did not attack issues in an interdisciplinary manner (as we have learned through the Repko book).
All of the articles were definitely interesting and I too think that learning in virtual worlds is an underutilized resource, but the utilization and presentation of learning in a virtual world environment definitely needs to be approached with a purposeful, and guided manner to maximize learning and not, superfluous catawampus activity.
Title: Experience as an Essential Aspect of Teaching and Learning in a Virtual World; Thomas BoudaBrief Summary and take away(s): This chapter breaks down into sub-chapters describing the variables and difficulties that come with implementing virtual or 3D learning Environment. Section 1 - core since of new paradigm of teaching/learning. 2 - essential aspects of MOVE. 3 - the difficulties that comes with establishing and maintaining a virtual environment for education (financial, technical support, etc.)
Bottom line - “…3D virtual learning environment is not an appropriate tool for holding classical classroom activities. … The added value lies in activities which are no possible to conduct in real life because of their high financial burden or security concerns requirements. Such activities are role-play, project learning or simulations.” (146) “If a selected virtual world is not user-friendly and easy to understand for new visitors, it will bring no added value, simply because users do not have a change to feel part of the ongoing educational processes.” (147)
Key Quotes:
MUVE - Multi-user virtual environment.
“For instance, ‘The Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ proposes several competencies which need to be adopted by students in order to become competitive. There are needs of critical thinking and making judgments, solving complex problems, multidisciplinary open-ended problems or ability co communicate and collaborate with others. These competencies require new approaches of teaching and learning.” (134)
“…educators have powerful tools to improve and enhance student’s experience through project-based learning.” (134)
“…the more refined the quality of the environment, the better and richer is the user’s experience and this therefore causes students to be more motivated, engaged and open to share and communicate together within 3D VLEs.” (135)
“Experiential principles are to ensure that every education activity is participant-centered, contextually-situated, discovery-driven, action-oriented, consequentially-experienced, and collaboratively-motivated.” (136)
Author’s thesis: “..verify if the hypothesis that the social virtual world of Second Life is a environment which influences education activities positively.” (137) Result = “In terms of the hypothesis the findings are not conclusive; both positive and negative aspects of education were found within the studies of the virtual world of Second Life.” (138)
Positive = well structure and well contextualized environment. when actives inward are connected with specific learning management systems; student motivation increases. Negative = technology difficulties, user interface difficulty, moving and navigation difficulty.
When Second Life is useful = role-playing, project learning, group learning. overcomes geographic, cultural, religious barriers (thus supports socialization); potential to enhance distance learning.
When Second Life is not helpful = whenever there is a technical or minor difficulty that interrupts concentration or frustrates the learner not related to the learning objectives.
“There is a need of a technical training and staff support for new users of Second Life.” (139)
How it applies to Military Science. - The key take away from reading this is confirming my suspicions is that you have to go “all-in” when using a virtual environment - and only use it when you know or have a high confidence when it will add value (using it when there is not a better way to achieve the learning objective). An example of when to use a virtual environment is to test combat leader’s proficiency at leading in a virtual combat environment. It would not be feasible to test this in actual combat because mistakes there result in actual death, rather than simulated death. Also it gives the simulation participants more “reps” at a lower cost if the learning objective is to direct artillery to fire at a specific time and location, there a much fewer tax dollars spent on simulated artillery rounds, rather than actual artillery rounds. However, I will argue that nothing can replicate calling for actual artillery and actual bombs coming out of Air Force jets.
This is awesome. I was just browsing my works online, and came across your discussion group. Thank you so much for choosing our publication for discussion. I'm Dean A F Gui, and my article is "Virtual Hybridity: Multiracial Identity in Second Life Explored".Cheers!
