2021 #VWEDU: Narrative-based learning in virtual worlds can be a form of PBL and/or of gamified learning. The detective story as a model.

Narrative-based learning in virtual worlds 

can be a form of PBL 

and/or of gamified learning. 

The detective story as a model. 

An illustration of how to integrate narrative, project, inquiry, gamification and role-playing into the basis for learning.

• Watch on YouTube

Telling is not teaching

• Once you hear lecture about swimming, you never forget what you learned about lectures. Talking is not teaching.
• Real learning comes from practice, not from reading or hearing.  
• They remember some of what they read or heard, but not well.
• That's why they forget it over the summer. 
• And remember little of it when they get out of school. 

Narrative-based learning

• Inquiry-based learning, project-based learning 
• Narrative-based learning and the use of digital places as teacher and text With the DTA as mentor
• Narrative-based learning (Wikipedia)
• Scholarly articles for narrative-based learning
• How to teach narrative-based learning
• Digital literacy. He did it in Classcraft. Like a detective story. Could you do it better in your favorite virtual world? Are your students the heroes who will solve this problem?
• Narrative-based learning (search)

Who would use narrative-based learning?

• Second language teachers using the target language.
• English teachers giving writing practice.
• Math teachers posing word problems.
• History teachers giving anecdotes relevant to the historical period.
• Any teacher showing the use of any subject.
• Any teacher using a narrative in game-based learning.
• Any teacher wanting to teach critical thinking skills.

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A draft plan: Detective story

Planning

• Think like a coder. Think like a planner. Think like digital teaching assistant (DTA). Computational thinking is really concrete planning.
• How to Write a Detective Story: The 5 Elements of Crime Novels
• Detective stories (search)

Learner tasks

• Learners role play as investigators or detectives.
• Teams of 3 or 4 students are assigned to work together.  
• Each team is given an assignment which is essentially a puzzle.
• The puzzle requires specialized (instructionally relevant) knowledge to solve.
• The overall task of the team is to prepare and present a report of their findings.
• The presentation is made to Commissioner Gordon (the teacher) and the class

Template for a simple puzzle

• There are several suspects, all supposed to be experts in the instructional subject. 
• One (or more) is a fraud.  
• All suspects answer questions about the subject.
• The clue is that the fraud makes serious errors.  
• The task of the team is to identify the errors and thus the fraud.

Role assignments

• In the simplest case, all team members have the same role.
• But the teacher will designate one member as AIC (Agent In Charge).
• The team may give individual tasks (roles) in its investigations.  
• If achievement badges are awarded, they may be used for later role assignments.

What they are practicing (learning)

• Planning
• Goal setting
• Team work, team management
• Research
• Evaluation of evidence
• Organization of rational argument
• Oral presentation
• Rational defense of a position. 

Related

• Era of the entrepreneurial educator. The unbundling of education opens the gate for entrepreneurs.
• A campus on the internet. A front office on the web. A school on a laptop
• An online school needs a digital campus. Not just for classrooms, but for many of the services currently offered on a physical campus
• Digital Literacy: Matt Harris Vlog. Connections to the DTA and the virtual campus
• Online education, sure. But why a virtual campus? Why in a virtual world (MUVE)?
• Language learning: What could a virtual (online) campus offer?
• Web-worlds, MOOCs, and online conferences. Learning centers on the web

Digital teacher assistant (DTA)

• Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching
• A digital teaching assistant (DTA) in a virtual world. Can it be done?
• The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
• The DTA as search coach: How does that work? Especially for project-based learning
• DTA and digicoach take on a form to suit the task: Shoulder pet, HUD, NPC, signs in places
• Virtual Teacher's Assistant, an option for entrepreneurial educators: a job for SuperTA
• DTA content pages: The plan: Initial DTA content on the web here. Can be used from here or copied for use elsewhere.
• Digicoach can support collaborative homework and study sessions
• Digicoach can support homework in virtual worlds with JIT learning, immediate feedback
• Digicoach for project management

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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.
• Screenshots from ShareX
• Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
• Annotated screenshots made with Techsmith Capture
• This blog is not affiliated with anything.   Ads are from Google.
• Selby Evans in Kitely and Hypergrid, Thinkerer Melville in Second Life.