2019 #VWEDU: DTA: Once you hear lecture about swimming, you never forget what you learned about lectures. Talking is not teaching.

Once you hear lecture about swimming, 
you never forget what you learned about lectures.  
Talk does not teach skills. 

Heard about the learning/doing gap?  There is no such thing.  Sure, you tell people how to do something and they can't do it.  Talk does not teach, it just informs.  To learn a skill, you have to practice it.   This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

The Empty Classroom

Learning to swim?

• The Learning/Doing Gap
• A lot of people are talking about it:
• Gap between learning and doing (search)
• The learning/doing gap does not exist.
• Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. 
• The Secret of the Instruction Manual
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
• What can we do about it?  Scroll down.

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The learning/doing gap does not exist

• People learn by doing.  No gap here--you practice, you learn.
• You can practice better with a coach.  You practice better, you learn better.
• The problem is that educational industries confuse talking with doing.
• A lecturer can talk about swimming.  It may be an interesting lecture.
• The audience may be enraged.   They may be able to talk about it at length.
• Nobody would expect talking to teach swimming.  
• Swimming is a skill.  We have always known that we develop skills by practice.
• If we talk about swimming we probably get better at talking about swimming.
• And that is all we were learning (all we were practicing).  

What can we do about it?

• We already know the general answer:
• You teach swimming in a swimming pool.
• That takes time and money.  A lecture is cheaper.
• But nothing is cheaper if it does not accomplish your goal.
• For some goals we found a solution long ago.
• We didn't want inexperienced pilots flying commercial planes.
• So we made flight simulators for them to practice on.
• It would have been cheaper to give them lectures or have them read a manual.
• I doubt that anyone suggested that.  At least not with a straight face.
• So the "solution" was obvious: they practice in a simulation.
• Experiential learning: learning by doing (2)
• Experiential learning (Wikipedia) 
• Experiential learning (search)

How can schools offer simulations?

• Educational resources on the Hypergrid: Educator places, educational places, education support
• Teachers don't need to learn how to build in virtual worlds to teach there
• Edutopia 1 and 2: Places for practicing English as a second language
• When i checked I found 6 worlds in Kitely specifically labeled as simulations.
• Role-playing has long been used to simulate social situations
• Demonstration oil rig: Conversation with an imaginary TA (Teaching Assistant)
• Project-based learning teaches project-management skills as well as content.
• If projects are assigned to groups, team-management skills are also learned.
• Projects will pose problems, so problem-solving skills will also be learned.
• The practice of these skills is a major benefit of project-based learning.
• Scholarly articles for Project-based learning

DTA articles

General

• A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
• A digital teaching assistant (DTA) in a virtual world. Can it be done?
• Digital coaching is needed for the DTA: Do we have the technology for that?
• Online education, sure. But why a virtual campus? Why in a virtual world (MUVE)?

Development considerations

• The digital teacher assistant and FERPA: there are security issues
• Will the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) need artificial intelligence?

Possible services, education

• Digicoach can support collaborative homework and study sessions
• Digicoach can support homework in virtual worlds with JIT learning, immediate feedback
• Digicoach for project-management in self-managed teams: (Note: skills to be learned in doing these tasks)

Possible services, virtual worlds

• Newcomer welcome coach (1): Basic skills needed promptly
• DTA content pages: The plan: Initial DTA content on the web here. Can be used from here or copied for use elsewhere.
• Firestorm settings for beginners. A DTA content page

New century education

• Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. Language as an example
• Why a reading assignment is like a treasure hunt. And why it is not
• Suppose the real objective in school is to pass multiple-choice tests. Can a digital TA handle test-based learning?

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Visit me on the web

• Drop by my web offices Weekdays: 12:-12:30 pm Central time (US)
• I am available for free consulting on any topic in this blog.
• Cybalounge and 3DWebWorldz (Orientation room)
• I will be in both places, so you may need to speak to get my attention.
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
• And we can visit the Writer's Workshop on the Web
• Don't register -- enter as guest.  

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License

• Original text in this blog is CC By: unless specified public domain.
• Use as you please with attribution: link to the original.
• All images without attribution in this blog are CC0: public domain.
• Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
• Annotated screenshots made with Jing
• This blog is not affiliated with anything.   Ads are from Google.
• Selby Evans in Kitely and hypergrid, Thinkerer Melville in Second Life.