t. peters annotated bibliography emerging technology

8/12/2019 T. Peters Annotated Bibliography Emerging Technology

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Emerging Theories of Learning and Emerging Technologies: Selected Research on

Constructivism and Virtual Worlds

The entries which follow primarily concern the use of virtual worlds (VW) such as

Second Life (SL) for educational purposes, with an emphasis on constructivist learning theory as

a framework for developing, implementing and evaluating learning activities in virtual

environments. While researchers involved in this line of inquiry generally agree that VWs and

constructivist learning theory complement each other well, it must be noted that neither the

theory nor the environment are consistently well-utilized by those venturing into VWs for the

purpose of education. Many factors contribute to this under-utilization of VWs such as the time

needed to learn to navigate, communicate and create in-world, the failure to recognize the unique

affordances of VWs, and the failure to adapt sound instructional design principles to the

environment. Virtual worlds such as SL should be an excellent place to construct virtual clinical

nursing experiences to complement actual clinical experiences within a constructivist framework

employing collaboration, situational learning and authentic assessments, as examples. Therefore,

research dealing with various aspects of educational research was selected in order to provide an

overview of the field and to present some of what is known about how SL has been used as an

educational environment within a constructivist framework.

Cook, M.J. (2012) Design and initial evaluation of a virtual pediatric primary care clinic in

Second Life.Journal of American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 24, 521-527.

The author describes the process and intent of developing a virtual pediatric clinical

experience for nursing students, and her research adds to what is known about using SL in

nursing education. The virtual clinical experience was developed by a team which included an


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instructional designer, instructional technologist and nursing faculty members with the overall

goal of providing a meaningful adjunct experience to existing real life clinical experiences. The

researchers were concerned with both the quality of the experience as well as the framework for

the design and evaluation of the project. To this end they drew from the research of others and

applied the four-dimensional framework developed by de Freitas and Oliver (2006). In addition

to the design considerations the team also incorporated constructivist learning theory into their

design through experiential, collaborative and problem-based learning activities. Scaffolding and

debriefing were also used effectively, though the researchers did recognize the need to balance

educational integrity against the limitations of the technology. Students were pleased with the

experience overall, and most reported learning from the virtual clinical experiences which

contrasts to other research indicating college-level English students were displeased with the

experience even though they felt they learned from it. In this case the research must be examined

to determine what might be at the root of the variance between studies.

Girvan, C., & Savage, T. (2010). Identifying an appropriate pedagogy for virtual worlds: A

communal constructivism case study. Computers & Education, 55, 342-349.

The authors begin their article by pointing out that although previous researchers have

stated that although no one intends to use new technology to simply do what has already been

done in education, just in a different way, the fact is that is exactly what tends to happen. Their

main interest was to examine already defined affordances of VWs and use those to develop

pedagogy appropriate to constructivist education in VWs in order to support educators as they

use VWs for teaching and learning. Their question is not what can the technology replace, but

rather what can it offer? SL offers the opportunity for knowledge building and communal


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constructivism, and the authors focus on these ideas in their research project design and

discussion, both of which were well-constructed and relevant. Their findings indicate that a

communal constructivism approach to learning in VWs does make use of the affordances of

VWs and that the evaluation of the learners project artifacts indicates learning has taken place.

The authors do state that this is just one of many valid pedagogies for learning in VWs, but that

this approach works for a number of reasons including the ability of the constructivist framework

to exploit the affordances of the VW.

Huang, H. M., Rauch, U., & Liaw, S.S. (2010). Investigating learners attitudes toward virtual

reality learning environments on a constructivist approach. Computers & Education,

55, 1171-1182.

While this article deals with virtual reality generally rather than VWs only, the link

between virtual reality (VR), virtual worlds and constructivist learning is explained well, and

well-supported connections were made for the reader. Interestingly, the authors mention

presence and transfer, neither of which had been given much space in other articles but which are

significant affordances of virtual reality. As the authors point out, virtual experiences can be both

experimental and experiential for the learner as in role-play, collaborative or problem-solving

learning activities. The article deals primarily with the authors research of particular VR

experiences, the results are relevant to teaching and learning in VWs as well. The first issue the

researchers mention is the fact that the virtual experience may fail to meet expectations if not

designed with the correct pedagogic approach. Virtual learning activities, like all learning

activities, must be designed within an appropriate framework and implemented thoughtfully

rather than depending on the novelty of the activity to support learning. Purpose, not ease of use,


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should drive the design of the learning activity. In addition, the authors findings indicate that

novelty can mean a steep learning curve for both educators and learners, and it can also mean

that some learners will resent the virtual environment because it is simply not realistic enough.

These findings are consistent with other research and represent persistent limitations to the use of

virtual reality in any form for educational purposes.

Kamel-Boulos, M.N., Hetherington, L., & Wheeler, S. (2007). Second Life: An overview of the

potential of 3-D virtual worlds in health education,Health Information and Libraries

Journal, 24, 233-245.

Approximately one-half of this article was spent giving an overview of some of the

various health related sites in SL and how those are being used to educate both consumers and

students, and this provides some introduction to the subject for the uninitiated. This overview is

followed by a discussion of the pedagogical potential of SL and talks about the advantages of

using SL for synchronous distance learning, problem-solving and collaboration, but none of

these subjects is discussed in much detail. Still, the mention of discussions during ward rounds in

a virtual hospital or learning to identify heart murmurs may spark a readers imagination about

new ways to use SL in medical or nursing education. While some of the usual limitations are

mentioned, the authors do mention how SL can be used by older adults and people with

disabilities to get out and socialize, but that SL does require a fair amount of manual dexterity to

type and work the mouse or keyboard for navigation and communication. While interesting, this

article does not provide any hard research or new insights into using VWs for education, but it

does provide a solid general overview of how VWs could be and are being used in health

education, and is useful for those who are not well-acquainted with the subject. This research fits


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educators who are not familiar with the SL environment themselves. In addition, the researchers

found six factors that affected student attitudes toward the SL experience but only one, taking

advantage of the affordances, applied specifically to SL. The remaining five factors could easily

apply to any learning environment such as making sure the learning activities are tied to the class

objectives; if students have the requisite skills to participate in the learning activity; is the

assessment appropriate for the activity; and is adequate support provided, and is the time allowed

adequate for the task at hand.

Neely, J.C., Bowers, W., & Ragas, M. (2010). Virtual possibilities: A constructivist examination

of the educational applications of Second Life.Journal of Interactive Learning

Research, 21(1), 93-110.

Once one moves past the brief mention of learning styles, the authors outline some of the

elements of constructivist educational theory that should be well-suited to VWs such as authentic

learning context and assessments, cooperative support, and intentional and generative learning

activities. Virtual worlds seem to be particularly well-suited for this educational framework but

are not without their challenges; therefore, the researchers asked two questions. First, To what

extent do the perspectives of post-secondary instructors with experience using Second Life as a

teaching tool reflect the constructivist attributes of a rich environment for active learning

(REAL)? Next they asked, other than constructivist applications, what themes emerge in the

responses of post-secondary instructors regarding their experiences using Second Life as a

teaching tool? The responses to their survey indicate that educators are only partially using

VWs to its best benefit by failing to incorporate major constructivist ideas such as authentic

assessments into their educational activities but that they did use the opportunities the venue


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affords in terms of role-play and generative activities. Not surprisingly, some of the same issues,

both positive and negative, mentioned by other researchers were mentioned by respondents and

addressed by the authors. Their findings were presented in detail and discussed in terms of the

practicality of using VWs for educational purposes and in terms of the constructivist learning

theory, which makes the article quite useful to anyone researching similar questions.

Schmidt, B., & Stewart, S. (2010). Implementing the virtual world of second life into community

nursing theory and clinical courses.Nurse Educator, 35(2), 74-78.

This article was designed to be a general report of findings and observations of faculty

members who implemented a series of public health nursing scenarios and clinical experiences

for BSN students who used the SL clinical experiences as part of their online coursework. Some

detail was provided about how the project developed and how the faculty gained their experience

in SL, but the most useful comments concerned how SL was utilized and perceived by the

students, and the results were what anyone familiar with SL would expect so in that sense the

information appears to be credible. Students liked the collaborative nature of SL and appeared to

take advantage of the affordances of the experience. Unfortunately, the one activity the students

did not like was not evaluated well enough to determine if the problem was the activity, the

presentation or SL. In this sense, the article lacked any clear direction for other researchers

regarding how to setup and run clinical scenarios in SL or about the theoretical framework that

guided the project, but the information is useful in terms of supporting the venue as a valuable

addition to nursing education in that the observations presented in this article were consistent

with the findings of other researchers.


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Warburton, S. (2009). Second Life in higher education: Assessing the potential for and the

barriers to deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching.British Journal of

Educational Technology, 40(3), 414-426.

Warburton has written a detailed explanation of how VWs can be used in education,

detailing both the positive and negative aspects of VWs. The author references and builds on

credible resources as well as his own observations and insights to outline the difference between

games and user-created worlds, ego- versus object-centered environments and how VWs can

contribute to the development of communities of interest, for example. This article would work

well for anyone wanting a solid, well-supported explanation of VWs and how they can be used

within a constructivist framework to support education and provide experiences for students that

they would otherwise not have. The author also outlines some of the major, persistent issues

surrounding the use of VWs for education such as the technical expertise and time required to

develop educational experiences. These issues and others are critical to the successful

implementation of any educational experience in a VW and the findings should be useful to

guide other researchers or educators looking for valuable information on the implementation of

VW educational projects.

t. peters annotated bibliography emerging technology

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