2020 #DTA: #VWEDU: The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary with JIT learning design

The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) 
for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
Updated 4/7/2021

A collection of articles about the concept of a Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in virtual worlds.  The articles describe possible services the DTA could provide and draft content the DTA could offer to help students begin learning in virtual worlds.  This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).

DTA1 (left)

• MUVE, the Future of e-Learning: Building a Virtual Learning World (From IEEE)
• Entrepreneurial thinking and design thinking for the virtual world Digital Teaching Assistant
• Teaching assistant
• Seven major educational affordances from virtual worlds and how they can work together
• NEED A TEACHING ASSISTANT? ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO THE RESCUE!
• A professor built an AI teaching assistant for his courses — and it could shape the future of education
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
• Parts are done:  
• A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in a MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
• Parts are in progress:
• Magnolia gardens of knowledge . A demonstration of introductory training on the parts (of anything)

JIT Learning design

• JIT = Just In Time
• Search this page: Ctrl f opens search bar near the top. 
• Design for JIT help: Search on page supports for learning from a computer

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Keywords

• Content 
• Beginners
• Travel
• Social 
• Projects
• Assessment
• Skill-based
• Knowledge-based
• Presentations
• Creativity
• Coding
• Medical
• Discipline
• Language
• Game

DTA content pages

• DTA content pages: The plan: Initial DTA content on the web here
• This content can be used as is with a web link.
• Or anyone can copy into another web page or into software.
• Note the public domain license.

DTA basics for beginners

• Starting in CybaLOUNGE. A DTA content page designed for JIT learning
• Scenegate beginner's instructions: for people coming to a class or meeting in OpenSImulator. DTA content
• Firestorm settings for beginners. A DTA content page
• (If you have a customized viewer, you can put the settings in as defaults.)
• Newcomer welcome coach: Basic skills needed promptly
• Basic skills needed for attending a meeting or class in a virtual world. 

DTA travel for beginners

• Travel tips for the Hypergrid. A DTA content page
• Ingrid (within a grid) Travel tips for OpenSimulator . A DTA content page

DTA social for beginners

• Develop your contacts list. DTA content page
• Communications tips for OpenSimulator. A DTA content page

DTA for projects and inquiry

• Project-based learning can develop work-group skills--if it uses team projects It needs a DTA familiar with group facilitation roles.
• Get and use pictures in SceneGate: A DTA content page.
• Managing the media streams in SceneGate. For OpenSim (user level)
• Search tips from a digital coach: DTA content page

DTA for informational web pages

• 3DWebWorldz adds Keyword search to its FAQ. Brain for a bot.
• A chatbot wanders the virtual world. His goal was the make friends. But he could play a role: teacher, sidekick, or story character.
• DTA as Chatbot. Preliminary plans for providing focused information for visitors, with quiz games for added interest.

Other DTA articles

General

• Seven major educational affordances from virtual worlds and how they can work together
• 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

• More Digital teaching assistants planned for Magnolia Garden. AI-driven teaching assistants.
• Who is building a digital teaching assistant? Can just anybody make one?
• Gathering educational support in OpenSimulator. Scenegate, RezMela™, Kitely Organizations, DTA
• DTA content pages: The plan: Initial DTA content on the web here. Can be used from here or copied for use elsewhere
• The digital teacher assistant and FERPA: there are security issues
• Will the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) need artificial intelligence?

Assessment possibilities

• Possible uses of formative assessment items: JIT evaluation, immediate feedback, detailed analysis
• Digicoach can support homework in virtual worlds with JIT learning, immediate feedback
• Error based learning in writing. Combine project-based learning with test-based learning. And maybe get a useful product out of it.

Favorable learning practices

• A learning place with a DTA can handle asynchronous study, but should it? I thought yes, but a teacher told me why I was wrong
• Design for JIT help: Search on page supports for learning from a computer
• Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. Language as an example

Skills based learning 

• OpenSim: get sim visitors to the right destination. Skill sets: land manager, event manager. An example of use-organized instruction.
• OpenSim Traveller badge: Knowledge base. What you need to know to be a world traveller in SceneGate. Travelling the Hypergrid.
• An OpenSimulator place can be big, with many destinations. The landmark solution. Land manager skills
• Images for learning projects: Creative commons licenses. PBL: Project-based learning
• Skill-based learning: Requires evaluated practice. A job for the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA)
• Inquiry-based learning: "Here's what you have to know." changes to "Here's how to find out things."

Knowledge-based learning

• Knowledge-based learning teaches study skills. That is learning how to "learn." The DTA can coach study skills.

Presentations/lectures

• Can virtual worlds support large lecture classes? The past is not the future
• Presentations: In 3D places you can do more than show slides and talk about them. You can use 3D places as slides. Your audience can go there to practice
• Preparing a presentation: What can the Digital Teaching Assistant do?

Creativity for all

• Rezmela™ supports easy creation of instructional scenes. A demonstration in VWMOOC19
• DTA can guide ideation sessions. Group ideation: "Brainstorming"
• Digicoach for project-management in self-managed teams: (Note: skills to be learned in doing these tasks)
• The DTA as search coach: How does that work? Especially for project-based learning

Suggested DTA forms

• The myth of Asgard. Role play: Norse mythology characters. Could people learn about mythology here?

Existing DTA technologies

• What would a virtual campus do with classrooms? They could be a secure home base in a familiar environment
• Edpuzzle offers DTA features and could serve as a module in Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA)
• New educational term: Batch Registration: for schools and organizations in virtual worlds
• CybaLOUNGE: credentials: Batch-Registration for Students
• Kitely announces virtual campuses for schools (and other organizations): Virtual worlders would say private grids.
• Teacher-Tested Classroom Management Software for Schools

Possible services

Beginner help

• A meeting with Charlie the Chatter. A draft model for a welcome bot in a virtual world. The tale of the chatter dog.
• Use-targeted learning plan for schools in digital worlds. Learners can pick the skills they need for the uses they intend. Gamified as a model

Life skills

• The DTA can encourage good time-management habits
• "Engaging Students in Goal Setting and Monitoring Progress." How much coaching and monitoring could be provided by a DTA?

Creative writing

• Write on site. The scene as a story prompt. Mystery Manor as a story source
• DTA can guide ideation sessions. Group ideation: "Brainstorming"

Project-based learning

• The bots of Magnolia Garden. Bots can give routine help while the teacher helps those who really need it.
• Agenda training for a project meeting by a self-managed group. Learning to plan in a group
• Action-item practice for group meetings in project based learning. Effective meetings don't just happen, they are planned.
• Project-based learning with work-groups: Not just the content: project skills, team skills, self-confidence

Coding

• Think like a coder. Think like a planner. Think like digital teaching assistant (DTA). Computational thinking is really concrete planning.
• Coding and virtual worlds: a marriage made in computers. The DTA could officiate

Medical 

• Virtual Laboratory Training and Career Center: Virus model
• F/Xual Education Services: Occupational Medicine Simulation. A HUD is a Digicoach without personality

Discipline

• Classroom discipline in digital worlds. The technology can provide powerful tools.

Language learning

• Virtual worlds for learning language. Immersive learning does not have to be expensive. Summary
• Vocabulary learning from the beginning: Can the DTA evaluate beginner performance? How?
• Learning the vocabulary with gamification and AI. Intelligent environment for routine instruction.
• Learning the vocabulary with AI. Two major cases. The DTA can provide an intelligent environment
• Language learning in virtual worlds. What the DTA could do
• Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. Language as an example
• Interactive Digital Teaching Assistants in Open Simulator (video)

Education

• "Learning" objectives for descriptive knowledge. The limitations of academic knowledge
• The Digital Teaching Assistant can encourage practice in metacognition. Thinking about thinking for learning about learning
• Magnolia gardens of knowledge . A demonstration of introductory training on the parts (of anything)
• We can reduce barriers to educational uptake of virtual worlds. Assessment of the situation
• The Digital Teaching Assistant fits with the practice of blended learning
• Digicoach can support collaborative homework and study sessions
• MOOC2019 Digital classrooms in the sky. And how a Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) could fit in.

New century education

Learning as a game

• The merit of badges: Define a useful skill set, specify a goal, give public recognition of skills.
• The learning game and the conquest of the Lims. The generic education game. What can the Digital Teaching Assistant manage?
• Narrative-based learning and the use of digital places as teacher and text With the DTA as mentor

Online learning

• What do you do with class time in a digital campus? Surely not live lectures: You can replace those with polished videos. And so can your management
• Draft plan for teaching elements of digital citizenship: How to become a digital guard. Game elements for digital self-defense. Sure you can improve it.
• The fake news challenge: a natural for educational games
• SceneGate OpenSim viewer with beginner and extended modes. Summary
• Seven educational assumptions you can abandon with DTA-supported instruction in a virtual (digital) world
• The sense of instructor presence in the online classroom. Loneliness not a problem on a virtual campus
• An online school needs a digital campus. Not just for classrooms, but for many of the services currently offered on a physical campus

Digital support for teaching

• A professor built an AI teaching assistant for his courses — and it could shape the future of education
• Learning Made in Second Life - CNDG
• Schools need 3 levels of edtech--Matt Harris, Ed.D. And how does the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) fit in?
• 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)
• Simple Ways to Integrate Four Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies
• The Case of the DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group
• Carnegie Mellon Releases Learning Tools for K-12 and Higher Ed

Education as growing up

• Once you hear lecture about swimming, you never forget what you learned about lectures. Talking is not teaching
• Why a reading assignment is like a treasure hunt. And why it is not
• Student-thinking versus breadwinner-thinking versus entrepreneurial thinking: coming of age in school
• Learn to be a self-starter. Self-managed learning, libraries, learning communities
• David Lee - Design Thinking in the Classroom: How-to for project-based learning

Virtual reality study

• Virtual reality study programs (search)
• Scholarly articles for virtual reality study programs
• Immersive Technologies (Heritage Christian Online School)

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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.