We can reduce barriers to
educational uptake of virtual worlds.
Assessment of the situation
Assessment of perceived barriers to the use of virtual worlds in education. And some suggestions for solutions. This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).
Busy classroom in a virtual world
- Content given in signs and notecards.
- The digital scene can be relevant to the topic.
- The cost is tiny compared to the cost of a physical classroom.
- Audio and video lectures can be provided here,
- Students can talk and collaborate here.
- A teacher can be here at class time.
- Students can come here to study at any time.
- No travel time, no travel costs, no travel risks.
- With a computer at home, this works for home study.
- And still allows experience in collaboration.
- The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
Contents
- What are the barriers?
- Institutional issues
- Relevant research
- Personal perceptions, student difficulties
- Needed solutions
- What does the target market want?
- What barriers can we reduce?
What are the barriers?
Relevant research
- Barriers and Enablers to the Use of Virtual Worlds in Higher Education: An Exploration of Educator Perceptions, Attitudes and Experiences
- Gregory, S., Scutter, S., Jacka, L., McDonald, M., Farley, H., & Newman, C. (2015). Barriers and Enablers to the Use of Virtual Worlds in Higher Education: An Exploration of Educator Perceptions, Attitudes and Experiences. Educational Technology & Society, 18 (1), 3–12.
- Items taken from Table 2
Institutional issues
- My institution doesn’t provide adequate technology to use virtual worlds 30% 44%
- My institution doesn’t provide funding to use virtual worlds 30% 40%
- My institution doesn’t provide teaching support to use virtual worlds 36% 29%
- My institution doesn’t provide technical support to use virtual worlds 54% 37%
- First number is percent of respondents currently using virtual worlds.
- Second number is percent of respondents not currently using virtual worlds.
- Symptoms: problem is that institutions are not sold on virtual worlds.
Personal perceptions, student difficulties
- I don't have the time, too hard, I feel uncomfortable, lack computing skills.
- Colleague views, Student evaluations.
- Just a game, undesirable exposures.
- Classes too big.
Needed solutions
- Get institutional buy-in.
- Reduce level of difficulty for educational users.
- Publicize educational use.
- Develop software to support educational games.
- Separate the place from undesirable exposures and publicity.
- Develop and publicize ways to handle large classes.
What does the target market want?
- Market to institutional leaders, not just teachers.
- Think of the target market as educational institutions.
- Think what the institutional leaders want (and want to avoid).
What barriers can we reduce?
- Level of difficulty for educational users.
- SceneGate: updating the strawman model for education
- A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
- New educational term: Batch Registration: for schools and organizations in virtual worlds
- Bring the virtual campus into the school: Kitely custom viewer login page
- Undesirable exposures and publicity.
- Kitely offers themed "grids". Independent websites using Kitely tech but managed by an organization
- Lack of publicity for educational use. TBD
- Need for software for educational games. TBD
- Maybe handle large classes--this is an academic issue. TBD
DTA articles
General
- A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in a 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
Possible services, education
- The DTA as search coach: How does that work? Especially for project-based learning
- The Digital Teaching Assistant fits with the practice of blended learning
- F/Xual Education Services: Occupational Medicine Simulation. A HUD is a Digicoach without personality
- Error based learning in writing. Combine project-based learning with test-based learning. And maybe get a useful product out of it.
- 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)
- David Lee - Design Thinking in the Classroom: How-to for project-based learning
DTA content pages
- DTA content pages: The plan: Initial DTA content on the web here
- Travel tips for the Hypergrid. A DTA content page
- Firestorm settings for beginners. A DTA content page
- Newcomer welcome coach (1): Basic skills needed promptly
New century education
- Once you hear lecture about swimming, you never forget what you learned about lectures. Talking is not teaching
- 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?
- Immersive Technologies (Heritage Christian Online School)
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.
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