AVATAR project at the Online Educa Berlin Conference 2011

Online Educa Berlin - 1 December 2011Cristina Stefanelli, FOR.COM, Italy

ADDED VALUE OF TEACHINGIN VIRTUAL WORLDS:

LESSON LEARNT FROM THE AVATAR PROJECT

Cristina StefanelliProject Manager

Online Educa BerlinBerlin, 1 December 2011

Cristina Stefanelli, FOR.COM, Italy

OVERVIEW

AVATAR project

Partners and cross-cooperation

Project phases

What works? What is less efficent?

What next?

Agenda



The AVATAR project

PROJECT AVATAR - Added Value of teAching in a virTuAl woRld

PROGRAMME Lifelong Learning ProgrammeSubprogramme Comenius

DURATION 24 months (Dec 2009 – Nov 2011)

AIM Teach secondary school teachers to use virtual worlds in education through an on-line pilot course and virtual laboratories.



For.Com. Formazione per la Comunicazione Italy - www.forcom.it

Information Design FH JOANNEUMUniversity of Applied SciencesAustria - www.fh-joanneum.at

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

Spain - www.uned.es

University of Southern DenmarkDenmark- www.sdu.dk

Burgas Free UniversityBulgaria - www.bfu.bg

University of HertfordshireUK - www.herts.ac.uk

SOPH.ia In Action Consulting Italy - www.sophiaconsulting.eu

Partners



AVALON - Access to Virtual and Action

Learning live Online LLP KA3

NIFLAR - Networked Interaction in

Foreign Language Acquisition and

ResearchLLP

MUVENATIONLLP Comenius

AVC@SL - the Anti-Violence-Campus at Second

LifeLLP Grundtvig

ReDNetEU Health Programme

NEXT-TELLFP7 for R&D ICT

ITEMSLLP LdV

Virtual LifeFP7 ICT-2007.1.5

Cross-CooperationCross-Cooperation



• Students can achieve extra competencies (problem solving, communication skills, team working, creativity, leadership) (Campbell, 2009)

• Six “learning frameworks” (Lim, 2009)– Learning by exploring– Learning by collaborating– Learning by being– Learning by building– Learning by championing– Learning by expressing

VIRTUAL LEARNINGWhy virtual worlds?



RESEARCH DESIGNAND PRODUCTION

EXPERIMENTATION EVALUATION

We are here!

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

AVATAR Project phases

Research & comparative analysis on existing VWs

Research: Educational perspectives and Didactic Methods to Teach using V-platforms

From Jan to May 11c.a. 100 hrs

120 secondary school teachers + 3 observers

c.a. 290 pupils involved in the project works

Project Phases



Experimentation phase• 123 teachers enrolled

• 55 dropped out

• 3 acted as observers

• 65 teachers completed the training

• 26 experimented a project work

• approx 290 students involved

Total

32%

21%

45%

2%

ATTENDANCE COMPLETION drop-out Observers



What works?

• Peer to peer learning

• Informal mentoring

• Learning by observing

• Practical exercises and experiments

• Support and guidance inside the virtual world



What is less efficent?

• The theoretical angle: articles etc.

• Asynchronous reflection exercises/e-platform

• More face-2-face time requested



“There are many useful resources to use in-world and to create you learning scenarios”

Evidencies



“Students can learn through exploration, building and collaboration. They can travel through time and space”

Evidencies



“Virtual worlds add an international dimension to language teaching”

Evidencies



WHAT NEXT?

PROJECT EuroversityPROGRAMME LLP, KA3 (ICT) Multilateral networks

DURATION 3 years , 1 Dec 11 – 30 Nov 14

COORDINATOR

PARTNERS

University of Hull, UK

19 partners (from Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Israel)

AIM Facilitate the transfer of core knowledge in teaching and learning in VWs to new contexts.Provide a framework for the creation of a pan-European virtual-world university

Websitewww.euroversity.eu

What Next?



More info

Cristina [email protected] Simmering in-world

For more information visit http://www.avatarproject.eu• Analysis report on the most effective virtual world for teachers• Collection of resources, best practices and methods for teaching in virtual

environments• Video interviews with expert• AVATAR Course modules (tasks, lessons, resources)

And the Euroversity Nework: http://www.euroversity.eu

Thank you for listening!

AVATAR project at the Online Educa Berlin Conference 2011

Education

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