Second Life as a Pedagogical Tool
-
Upload
laura-nicosia -
Category
Business
-
view
6.263 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Second Life as a Pedagogical Tool
Second Life
College of Humanities and Social Sciences @ Montclair State University
Virtual Environment as Pedagogical Tool
AJ KeltonAJ Brooks
Director of Teaching and Emerging Technology
Laura NicosiaLauraMaria Onomatopoeia
Assistant Prof English/Dir. Eng.Education
What do you already know about Second Life?
Why Second Life?
A Universe of Virtual Worlds
Platforms
Adult - 22Teen /Tween - 18
“Kids” - 15
55 virtual platforms80.8 million users
What is Second Life?
Officially Launched in 2003 (beta in 1999)
“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.”
A flexible space for learning and exploration
An opportunity for people to interact in a way that conveys a sense of presence lacking in other media.
Generalized rather than contextual, applicable to almost any discipline, business, industry, etc...
What is Second Life?Second life is NOT a game - there are no rules or a fixed goal-oriented purpose.
10-15K sign ups daily - nearly 14 million total
30 - 60K residents on at one time - avg 50K(2000 census puts Montclair and Little Falls at about 50K)
over $1 million spent daily (real US dollars)
Well over 300 educational institutions with thousands of meters of land dedicated to education
The CHSS Pilot Project
Recreate What Exists
Recreate what exists, differently!xt
Recreate what exists, differently!
Walk into a story
Always “On” Content
Gloria Naylor’s Willow Springs
Traditional Spaces
Create Something New
Engage Your Students
ENWR 105:18Introduction to College Writing I
ENWR 105:18• The technology use was required
• Notification prior to the start of classes (MWB / MWH / MWO)
• Full support from the Department
• Open and Clear Communication
• Email prior to class starting
• Posting syllabus prior to class
• Expectations clearly outlined in syllabus
• Expectation of use
• Expectation of access
ENWR 105:18
Assignments• Explore NMC’s Orientation Island
• Group work
• Info Island field trip
• Research and share relevant SL places
• Alternate meeting place
• Library research (RL and SL)
• Friends, Groups, and Landmarks
• Final Project: Dorm
What does it take to teach a technology rich class?
• Relevance
• Planning
• Flexibility
• Experimentation
• Research
Using SL in a Literature Class
• ENGL 240.03 The Art of Fiction
By Using SL in Literature Classes:
Comprehension soars
Learning communities are fostered
Collaboration is nurtured
Cognitive capital is distributed
Students become immersed when inworld
where the environment
is as persistent as I build it to be
And they enter a world...
Each site is “always on” and “always full of content”
My learning sites are “always on” & “always full of content”
We meet in “interesting” places
Meeting in these places would be difficult or impossible in real life.
Dante’s Inferno and Linden Hills
Construct 3-D Sites
Autonomous Learning
Students visit the always available site
They enter the learning space
Explore and orient themselves
Encounter my assigned tasks
Open search engines and visit my pre-screened and pre-
selected urls. I control the environment.
They receive tasks to
accomplish (whether I am with them or
not)
Students write essays on note cards, deliver them to me via an “inworld email” system or deposit them in items.
Creating note cards is as easy as opening a file in a word processing program
Their note cards can be as long as they need to be.
Yet, while SL is new and fun
• It is not an end, in and of itself
Technology for learning’s sake--not as an end
Business
Collaboration
Genome Island
NOAA
Spaceport Alpha and Delta
The Second Louvre
Renaissance Island
The Lost Gardens of
Apollo
San Francesco Assisi
InfoIsland
Princeton
The Sistine Chapel Vassar
Vassar Island
Abbott’s Aerodrome
Kelly Employment Services
?
MUVEing Education ForwardAn Unconference for Anyone Interested in
Second Life as a Tool for Teaching and Learning
Monday, June 23rd, 2008University Hall - 7th Floor
8:00am to 3:00pmFree and open to all