Pedagogical Design of Learning Experiences Within Virtual Worlds

1. Pedagogical Design of Learning Experiences Within Virtual Worlds Sleepy Littlething & Esox Graves Carina Girvan & Timothy Savage Centre for Research in IT in Education Trinity College, University of Dublin girvanc@tcd.ie

2. Background • Early adopters focus on • Replication (Winn, 2005) • Next stage • Relationship between pedagogy and technology (Savin-Baden & Ward 2008) • Aim • Identify and analyse pedagogy in action • Design pedagogically informed learning experiences

3. This presentation... • Outline emerging model • Present initial implementation • Second Life • 20 educators • Experience of Second Life • 5 groups • Focus on pedagogical design of the learning experience • Evaluation of implementation

4. Model of Best Practice Affordances • Evaluation • - Learning experience • - Pedagogy in action

5. Affordance • Gibson (1979) • Relationship between organism and environment • Perception-action • Kirschner (2002) Educational affordance • “Characteristics of an artefact that determine if and how a particular learning behaviour could possibly be enacted within a given context”

6. Educational affordances of Second Life? • Sense of self and presence resulting in immersion (Cross et al, 2007; Kemp & Livingstone, 2006) • Socialising and collaborative learning (Cross et al, 2007; Minocha & Roberts, 2008) • Construction of objects and environments • Flexibility • Persistent

7. Communal Constructivism (Holmes et al 2001) • Active engagement in knowledge construction • Interaction with the environment • Active collaboration • Publishing knowledge • Technology integral • Transfer of knowledge between groups • Adaptive course

8. Mapping pedagogy to affordance

9. Murias

14. Mapping pedagogy to affordance

15. Data Sets • Artefacts • Chat logs • Researcher’s Observations • Semi-structured interview

16. Evaluation 1: Learners’ perceptions • Within-case themes • Successful group • Construction • Knowledge & books • Cross-case themes • Internal group dynamics • Between group dynamics • Time

17. Evaluation 2: Pedagogy in action Mapping pedagogy to affordance

18. Outcomes • Positive learning experience • Affordances leveraged to meet design criteria of pedagogy.

19. Future work • Explore other pedagogies • Leverage different combinations of affordances • Develop mapping process • Develop overall model of best practice

20. References Cross, J., O’Driscoll, T. & Trondsen, E. (2007, March 22). Another Life: Virtual worlds as tools for learning. eLearn Magazine. Retrieved September 22, 2007, from http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=44-1 Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company Kemp, J. & Livingstone, D., (2006). Putting a Second Life “metaverse” skin on learning management systems. Proceedings from Second Life Education Workshop 2006. Kirschner, P. A. (2002). Can we support CSCL? Educational, social and technological affordances for learning. In P. Kirschner (Ed.), Three worlds of CSCL: Can we support CSCL (7–47). Heerlen: Open Universityof the Netherlands. Minocha, S. & Roberts, D., (2008) Laying the groundwork for socialisation and knowledge construction within 3D virtual worlds. ALT-J, 16(3), 181 – 196 Savin-Baden, M. & Ward, R. (2008). Editorial: Learning and teaching in Immersive Virtual Worlds. ALT-J, 16(3), 137-138 Winn, W. (2005). What we have learned about VR and learning and what we still need to study. Proceedings from Virtual Reality International Conference. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from http://depts.washington.edu/edtech/laval.doc