Virtual Worlds in Education Forum, 2nd December 2009
From RSCWMWiki
Staffordshire University, Wednesday, 2 December 2009
 Mark Childs and other delegates |
 Ailsa and Tim |
 The Octagon Building |
 Rob, Jas and Luke |
 Christine, Kris, Hamza and Christa |
Contents |
Welcome
There was representation from the Further Education, Specialist College and Higher Education sectors. Some delegates are experienced users of virtual worlds and are using them in their teaching and research; there were also some people to whom virtual worlds are a very new idea and they were keen to find out what they were and how they could be used in education.
Morning Guest Speaker
Karl gave a very interesting and stimulating talk which provoked much discussion. He talked about what's good and bad about games, ways of using them, why we should be using them, digital habits and how to think about using them in education. Click on this link to see his presentation
Karl also presented an implementation model for ICT in Initial Teacher Training that has been developed for teachers in schools: http://www.cedare-reports.co.uk/tda-ict.php
Open up to the floor
The delegates were invited to introduce themselves and talk about their current experience with virtual worlds and their educational interest.
Mark Childs, Teaching Development Fellow (Elearning) from Coventry University, gave a demonstration of the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre in Second Life that is being used to train theatre staff in handling and managing stage scenery. The intention is to develop the theatre so that theatre goers can try out their view of the stage before clicking on their seat to buy their ticket.
Mark has also just completed the Theatron project: http://cms.cch.kcl.ac.uk/theatron/
Click here to see the final Theatron report
Karen 'Tim' Johnson, Senior Lecturer, Nursing and Mid-Wifery, from the University of Worcester talked to the group about the shared learning that she is involved with, with Ball State University. The project looks at what support teaching staff need for them to be able to use the virtual world of Second Life for teaching. Some of the activities include: making friends, joining groups, touring islands, giving out landmarks for clothes shops etc. She has also developed an egg hunt whereby the hunters find coloured eggs and then write the colour on a notecard and send it to her and she gives them some linden dollars.
They are also planning on running some basic building sessions for educators from January 2010. These will be short classes, once a week covering building, scripting, changing clothes.
Some questions were put to Tim:
1. Why is Second Life used by nurses and midwives?
- It's difficult to find placements
- It's difficult to find mentors to support them
- Hospitals have specialist areas, but it's difficult to get students into those hospitals.
- Simulation and role play. In a practice lab you are aware that it is only a practice lab whereas in Second Life you feel like you are there. There aren't enough opportunities to see cardiac arrest and haemorrhages
2. Does everyone in the discipline, approach Tim for support?
- People who don't want to try out Second Life, don't go to Tim. It's an optional extra. Tim is seeking to have Second Life installed on all computers. At the moment there is no structure in place to support Second Life.
3. What do teachers ask for help with?
- The basics of getting around.
4. Is there a difference in attitude towards Second Life between younger students and part-time adult students?
- The only influence over a student's response and taking up of Second Life is the level of ICT skills. Nowadays everyone working in the NHS is required to have ICT skills.
5. What about anxiety, peripherality and marginality?
- Peripherality is seeing difficulties as part of the process, marginality is seeing them as preventing becoming involved
- Some people know that it is difficult at first but that it will get easier; others feel excluded straight away because of the skills needed from the outset.
6. Is it possible to say that certain types of personality are more likely to take to Second Life than others?
- The research is too difficult to carry out. However Kathy Trinder from Glasgow Caledonian University looked at "why members of staff are finding new 3d Virtual Worlds unnerving and are displaying negative attitudes to becoming involved in this technology".Click here to see Kathy's paper
- Also, see Liz Thackray et al's paper "Difficult, Dangerous, Impossible...: Crossing the boundaries into Immersive Virtual Worlds" which explores "some of the challenges and opportunities experienced by teachers and students": http://www.lizit.com/academic-stuff/documents/ReLIVE08.pdf
If anyone is interested in joining in Tim's in-world building sessions for teachers, please contact her avatar in Second Life: Bluesky Larkham.
Gemma Tombs and Matt Mawer from Coventry University outlined the work they have been doing as part of the Coventry University Research into Learning in Immersive Educational Worlds (CURLIEW) Project: "This study will use participatory action research to examine staff and students from a wide range of disciplines in Higher Education Institutions across the UK. It will investigate their conceptions of and decisions about the way in which they teach and learn at the socio-political boundaries of reality." For more information, go to: http://cuba.coventry.ac.uk/leverhulme/
Ailsa MacLeod UK Projects Lead Project Officer at the Royal National College for the Blind has been using a plot on the RSC West Midlands Island (see 2009-10 JISC RSC WM island in Second Life (tm) for details) to experiment with communication and mobility, using Second Life with a screen reader. One of the tools she has been testing is Max, a guide dog for the blind. http://www.virtualguidedog.com/
Afternoon Guest Speaker
For more information about the project, visit the website: http://www.keele.ac.uk/schools/pharm/vp/index.htm
Christa Appleton, Second Life Experiences
Christa is one of the RSC West Midland Island residents and she has been on a steep learning curve, getting to grips with Second Life since September. Christa's presentation voiced some of the concerns that 'newbies' face. Rather than worry about reasons not to go into Second Life, she looked at the bridges she has encountered to overcome these: having fun sorting out your identity, meeting like-minded people, exploring the environment and finding some fascinating places to visit.
Christa's presentation can be seen by clicking on this link: Christa's Adventures in Learning
SIMPLE : Simulated Professional Learning Environment
Kris Lines and Christine Harrison from Staffordshire University, gave an outline of a project they are involved with. The SIMulated Professional Learning Environment (SIMPLE) project was aimed to prove that simulations can effectively enhance learning across a range of disciplines, professions and institutions and to provide tools for FE/HE institution to freely download. The original project was used by Glasgow Graduate School of Law which developed an innovative Virtual Learning Environment involving students becoming solicitors in their own firms and undertaking transactions in a virtual community.
To see Kris and Christine's Online Town presentation, click here.
For more information about the SIMPLE project, go to The SIMPLE Project website
Acknowledgements
Facilitator's Contact Details
- Jane Edwards p.jane.edwards@rsc-wm.ac.uk Tel: 01902 518983
