Visualizing a 21st Century School:

Designing a Virtual Educational Environment to Support Teaching

and Learning

41st Annual IVLA Conference

Critically Engaging the 21st Century Learner in Visual Worlds & Virtual Environments

Lynne Schrumlschrum@gmu.edu

Goals for Today

• 21st Century skills

• Web 2.0 in schools

• Virtual environments…

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

• Standards: More than content

• Assess: Challenge of 21st century skills

• Teachers: Trained & supported

• Literacy: Content, knowledge, skills

• Content: Global awareness, financial and civic literacy; health awareness

• Future: Investment in R & D

Graphical 21st Century Skills

ISTE NETS – Students

• Basic operations/concepts• Social, ethical, human issues• Tech productivity tools• Tech communication tools• Tech research tools • Problem solving/decision

making

2007• Creativity & innovation• Communication &

collaboration• Research & info literacy• Critical thinking, problem

solving, & decision making

• Digital citizenship• Tech

operations/concepts

1997

• 96 % say doing well in school is important

• 94 % plan to continue their education

• 90 % between 5-17 use computers

• 94 % of teens use Internet for school research

• 75 %+ are creators of content on Internet

• Teens spend more time using the Internet than TV

Our Students

Capable, conscientious, concerned & optimistic, determined to succeed…

Digital Natives

• Parallel process and multi-task

• Prefer graphics before their text

• Prefer random access

• Function best when networked

• Thrive on instant gratification & rewards

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Marc Prensky 2001

Compare: Old Web & New Web

Web 1.0 Web 2.0

Application based Web-based

Isolated Collaborative

Offline Online

Licensed / purchased Free

Single creator Multiple users

Proprietary code Open source

Copyrighted content Shared content

Question:

Endless new tools and possibilities…what are educators doing to engage and prepare their learners?

Web 2.0 Collage logos Originally uploaded by premiardiego

Advent of Web 2.0

Use of Web 2.0 Tools

• Podcasts for news, TV, radio, interviews, entertainment www.ibizradio.com

• Wikis for idea generation, information sharing & updates

• Government, agriculture, medicine, etc.

• Blogs by small business to reduce costs

• Range of uses at: http://www.go2web20.net/

WikisWikis

• Joint wiki-10th graders in Georgia and Bangladesh; impacts of Friedman’s global flatteners: off-shoring, globalization, open-source software

• Applied Math Wiki Solutions Manual; students write collaborative solutions manual (http://am40s.pbwiki.com/)

Student Blogs

• A class blogs about books & creative writing (http://cdnpyp2il.blogspot.com/ )

• 8th graders discuss humanities class (http://mrcoyle.edublogs.org/ )

• 1 teacher offers blog for ESL students (http://www.paradigmshiftpodcast.org/ )

• Applied Science Research course for students’ understanding of concepts (http://www.appliedscienceresearch.blogspot.com )

Podcasts• 8th grade students produce “The

Amazing Internet Radio Station”

• Honors chemistry students create podcast about complex topics

• Museums create podcasts that prepare students for upcoming visits, or explain exhibits

Other Tools

• Social bookmarking: • Shared lists of user-created Internet bookmarks

are displayed - Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/)

• Webquests (life.familyeducation.com)

• Video editing: • Jumpcut (www.jumpcut.com)

• Eyespot (www.eyespot.com),

• Grouper (www.grouper.com)

• VideoEgg (www.videoegg.com)

And More…• Intel Mashmaker

• Build on-the-fly• Combine content from multiple sources

(web content, videos, maps, RSS feeds, photos, and display)

• Widgetbox • Mix & match content from 2 or more sites;

Flash Earth (www.flashearth.com)• A mashup of Google Maps and Virtual Earth

satellite imagery

What do you see here?

Students read about the 1906 earthquake, but also see it!

It is critical that schools focus on helping students acquire the skills necessary to navigate, evaluate,

and communicate with visual information.

Can we agree…

• How we teach is as important to learning as what we teach

• Inclusion of art, technology, & imagery enhances traditional books, paper, pencils

• Our goal: engage students in visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities

Authentic and Engaged

Say it - Display it

Virtual Environments

• Very engaging but is this also educational?

• Teen Second Life, 13-17; only to students, safe & controlled for educational activities

• WebKinz; Club Penguin; others

• Multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs)

Potential?

Just as once many in higher education loudly proclaimed that the Internet was of no practical use and was filled with questionable material and marketing, so too do critics today have their doubts about virtual worlds. But the web grew into a vital part of our lives, and a growing number of people believe that virtual worlds will do so the same.

(Kelton 2008, p. 22)

Epistemic Games• Help players learn ways of thinking–the epistemologies–of

digital age

• Based on theory of learning in digital age;

• Learners develop domain-specific expertise; realistic constraints

• Learners experience thinking & acting “journalists, artists, business managers, or engineers to solve realistic complex performance tasks”

• Like professional practicum: a blend of individual & collaborative work in real-life & virtual settings

(Rupp, Choi, Gushta, Mislevy, et al. 2009, p. 4)

One MUVE Example• River City Project: interactive simulation, middle

grades science, scientific inquiry & 21st Century skills (Multi-User Virtual Environments)

• Content from NSTA, NETS, & 21st Century Skills

• Virtual 19th century town plagued by disease

• Work in teams, study materials, develop hypothesis

• Examine documents & photographs, visit hospital

• Virtual agents provide guidance; students determine approach (Ketelhut, 2007)

Another MUVE

• Quest Atlantis (ages 9 to 12)• Poor leadership led to disaster in city;

students are invited to help • Quests require

• Environmental study• Interviewing members of the community • Studying other cultures • Developing action plans

Research: Virtual Environments

• Ketelhut (2007) results “suggest embedding science inquiry curricula in novel platforms might act as a catalyst for change in students’ self-efficacy and learning processes” (p. 99)

• Quest Atlantis, sixth grade students made “larger gains in understanding and achievement” than in classes that used expository text to learn the same concepts and skills (Hickey, Ingram-Goble, & Jameson, 2009, p. 187)

Requirements & Results

• MUVEs: more effective in supporting learning when embedded in instruction

• Students with video gaming did better with zoning maps; they had developed the visual hand to eye skills to be able to infer meaning with their actions

• Visual skills from gaming are not necessarily just hand-to-eye. They are hand-to-eye-to-mind.

Other Examples• Kids Connect: youth use media art, creative

performance & collaboration, physical & digital

• Sound, video editing, streaming, 3D modeling

• Brooklyn H.S. for Global Citizenship: new curriculum for freshman physical science; takes advantage of virtual world in Second Life

• Goal: “teach the kids how to be citizen-scientists in the future.” Tour virtual Naples Italy, conduct trash dump survey, compare real trash dump (Czarnecki, 2008, p. 14)

What might Second Life offer?

Data Visualization

Simple Simulations

Building Tools

NOAA (Meteroa Island)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Life Sciences Building

What is your prediction for future of virtual worlds in education?

The Botanical Gardens

Remember ---

The future comes all by itself …

…progress does not!!!

(Paul Henningsen)

Thank you!

References

Czarnecki, K., & Gullett, M. (2007). Meet the new you. School Library Journal, 53(1), 35-39.

Hickey, D. T., Ingram-Goble, A. A., & Jameson, E. M. (2009). Designing assessments and assessing designs in virtual educational environments. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18, 187-208.

Kelton, A. J. (2008). Virtual worlds? Outlook good. Educause Review, 43(8), 15-22.

Ketelhut, D. J. (2007). The impact of student self-efficacy on scientific inquiry skills: An exploratory investigation of River City, a multi-user virtual environment. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1), 99-111.

Rupp, A, Choi, Y, Gushta, M, Mislevy, R, Thies, M. C, Bagley, E, et al. (2009). Modeling learning progressions in epistemic games with epistemic network analysis: Principles for data analysis and generation. Paper presented at Learning Progressions in Science conference (LeaPS), Iowa City, IA, USA. Retrieved August 1, 2009, from http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/leaps-learning-progressions-paper-rupp-et-al-2009-leaps-format1.pdf