second life: teaching tips from the virtual frontier

Second Life: Teaching Tips from the Virtual Frontier

Copyright Cynthia M. Calongne, 2008.

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Cynthia CalongneColorado Technical University

TCC 2008 Conference April 15-17, 2008

Teaching in a Virtual World

• Tips -- add your ideas during this session– People -- that sense of presence

• Avatars, movement and communication

– Places -- learning environments and meetings• Class settings that support teaching styles

– Content -- course designs• Pedagogy, activities and class projects

– Assessment -- for a future presentation• Assignments, rubrics and course assessments

MBA 770 Class at Wright State

Shu’s students prepare for a collaboration exercise in Second Life

How we Teach and Learn in SL• Self image

• Mentor, collaborate

• Social networks

• Class projects

• Roleplay

• Learning games

• Blended reality

• Exploration

• Build

• Create an avatar - you!

• Office hours, facilitation

• Share ideas, hold meetings

• Applied learning

• Immersive learning

• Interactivities

• Real & virtual meetings

• Visit, tour, study

• Create and customize

80% of the world’s Internet users will be in a virtual world by 2011 (Gartner, 2007) -- Are you ready?

Getting Ready to Teach

• Readiness checklist– Avatar -- yourself!

• Appearance• Communication

– User interface• Using the tool• Motor skills• Camera controls

– Class content• Activities

– AssessmentLyr Lobo in Second Life

Sense of Presence

• Appearance– 1st self or ideal self?

• Movement– SL user interface– Animation override (AO)

custom device

• Communication– Voice, text, gestures

• Hair, skin, shape and clothes

• Moving your avatar – Arrow keys or View menu

and Movement

– Poses and animations

• Looking at the class– Camera controls

• Arrows or View menu

The Many Faces of CTU Faculty

Communicating with studentsin Second Life

Left to right

TeleportGroup Notice

2nd rowVoice Chat (*)Instant MessageURLs embedded

Middle School Students at Ramapo

Roleplay andconflict in animmersive literature class

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, portrayed by Suffern Middle School students

Looking at Objects and People

• Camera orientation– Hold down your alt key

and left mouse click on a person or an object to focus on it

• Your display will follow the person or the object’s movement

• Use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out

– Use the Escape key twice (Esc) to return to your view

Controlling What You See

• Camera controls– To move around a person or

object• Let’s look at your face!

– Press and hold down• ctrl + alt + left button

– All 3 at the same time

– And on a Mac?

• Move your hand down, around and up while pressing these keys to move your camera around the object

Navigation ControlsCan also use the arrow keys

Camera ControlsHandy for Capturing Video

Shall we dance?

Movement in Second Life

TCC Learning Times Reception

Dance animation menu displays after clicking the floor; control menus on screen

Social Networking

A screenshot of the TCC Reception in Second Lifefrom a dual monitor system; notice Twitter in the back channel

If You Build It, They Will Come

• The interaction between people and content– Students, faculty, instructional designers

• Support for active and passive learners

• Support for a variety of learning styles– What are your favorites?

• Discussion

• Exploration

• Discovery

• Creation

Otis College Art Projects

Virtual World Learning Spaces

• An environment for learning includes– Communication tools

for sharing ideas

– Content that maps to the the course objectives

– A variety of course delivery methods

Nanotechnology Lab in Second LifeAn asynchronous learning environment

Instructor-designed classrooms

use creative and innovative

environments

ExperimentalDesign

Classrooms

Content at Virtual Hallucinations

Words leap out at you,simulating an experience

CS 820 at CTU included novice users who learned to build their class projects

A self-guided tutorial for building a 20-minute project

Student projects and class content on display at Acheron LV426

Interactive Learning Spaces

Dr. Dobb’s Life 2.0visit http://life20.net

Acheron LV426CTU class work space

Science Comes to Life

The National Physics Laboratorypresents the advances in

Nanotechnology

Interactive Nano Labs

Preparing for student presentations and usability testing

Building class prototypes in a virtual world with students new to SL

Virtual Meetings, Interactive Content

(top two images, left to right)

The House of Seven Gables session

(bottom image)

Jared Bendis on Digital Tattoos

NMC Fall Symposium in SL 2008

Content and Virtual Spaces

• Virtual world classes support– Immersive, interactive, imaginative settings

• Asynchronous and synchronous support

• 3D graphics, sounds, gestures and interaction

• Immersive literature, immersive history, scientific discovery, contextual settings, applied math, creativity and social networks

– Activity-based learning• Can you think of other learning activities?

Second Life: Teaching Tips from the Virtual Frontier

Lyr Lobo in Second LifeRyl Redgrave on the Teen Grid at Ramapo

calongne@pcisys.net

For more information, contact