EDUCTION AND IMMERSION WORLDS5

Education and Immersion Worlds:

Endless Possibilities

Lori C. Hyde

Running head: EDUCTION AND IMMERSION WORLDS1

University of Mary Washington

As I have spent the last several weeks researching, reading about, and participating in virtual worlds, I am convinced that they are the future of education. The thing that I find most intriguing is that virtual worlds offer people that have language or social deficits a way to interact with others. Additionally, there are many advantages of using a virtual world as a learning environment as opposed to a traditional classroom.

As I listened to the lecture about this assignment, I was unaware of virtual worlds beyond those found in video games. I did not realize that there were whole worlds created that could also be used for educational purposes. As I listened to the description of Second Life, my thoughts immediately went to my younger son, who is profoundly impacted by Autism. Colin is verbal, but interacting with others is challenging for him because it sometimes takes him a long time to formulate a thought and verbalize it. Looking other people in the eye can also be extremely difficult for him. Additionally, he often appears to not be listening, even when he is, and that can be very frustrating for people that don’t understand him. Colin has many interests and spends a great deal of time online researching and reading about them. In a world like Second Life, he could find and interact with other people that share his interests in a nonthreatening way that would make him feel at ease. As I watched the videos on YouTube from this module I saw that my instincts were right and that people with Autism are already using these worlds to great advantage. I am very excited to share this with my son and his teachers.

Virtual worlds could also be used very effectively as instructional tools for children with Autism. Social stories have long been used to help them understand and navigate the world. People with Autism are typically very visual, so stories with pictures are often used, and in recent years, video stories have been used with even greater success. A wonderful example of this can be found here. However, even better, I can imagine a teacher or parent creating a virtual world that is designed for her children to navigate and learn socially appropriate interactions. Imagine creating the coffee shop experience in a virtual world? The ipad video is wonderful and could certainly be taken along with them, but I truly believe that experiencing the trip in a virtual world first would be far more useful and meaningful to him than the video alone.

As a teacher, it can be difficult to help students understand complex topics, especially in the science classroom. A virtual world would allow students to see working three dimensional examples of concepts that are difficult to grasp, take interactive quizzes, and do just about anything else that the instructor can imagine that would assist their mastery of the curriculum. An amazing example of an interactive cell from Second Life:

In addition to the interactive cell, there were many other places in this location where I was able to touch, interact with and learn about other topics that relate directly to material that I will be teaching in my classroom. Another screenshot that shows many of the exhibits in this location:

Second Life was the first site that I joined and explored. It took me a long time to figure out how to move, teleport and chat. I found a great place to help me do all of that, and while I was there, I managed to fall off a bridge into the water and had to figure out how to get out. It’s silly, but I was embarrassed! I finally got back onto the dock and continued with my tour of this little island. This was time well spent, as it helped me learn the basics pretty quickly so I could start exploring other places. I learned how to create landmarks, which was great so that I could go back to some of the places that I’ve been visiting to capture screenshots for this paper. In addition to learning all that I’ve mentioned, I learned some other handy things as well. Here I am learning to sit around the campfire:

Next, I moved on to World of WarCraft. My husband and older son play frequently and often go on quests together. I joke with them that it’s the 21st century way of spending time together… that fishing is so “last century.” I found it much easier to figure out how to move around in World of Warcraft because of my time in Second Life. Many of the keystrokes are the same so I was able to jump right in once I created a character, which was also surprisingly simple. I’m not sure if it was entirely because of my second life experience or if World of Warcraft is just easier to use, but I was much more comfortable much more quickly there. It would be interesting if I could go back and change the sequence of my explorations. Here I am with my penguin:

I found the graphics and responsiveness to be much better in World of WarCraft. I also had a much easier time finding people to interact with. I think this kind of virtual world could be used to help with team building and collaboration. Players often have to work together to accomplish a task. That said, I enjoyed Second Life much more that World of WarCraft. I particularly liked the fact that there are so many real world replicas. What a wonderful tool to use to take students on a fieldtrip, or help prepare someone for an upcoming trip. The New York City environment would have been so useful to show to my younger son last summer before we took him there for a vacation.

I have been thinking about the integration of this technology into my instruction since I started researching and using it several weeks ago. The possibilities are truly endless and I am excited to learn more and eventually build my own environments to share with my students.

Resources:

Leo’s Social Story made with Stories2Learn [Video file]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRb3GguSRvY

Second Life.http://secondlife.com/

World of WarCraft.http://us.battle.net/wow/en/