Collaborative Learning - Innovation, Learning & Communication in Virtual Worlds

Sharing by Joe Miller, VP (Platform & Technology) Linden Lab @ Vista Lab on 29 October 2008
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Key Points (I)

• One key message brought across: 2nd life is about context. It isn't about technology.
• Second Life (SL) Circa - by 2003, there existed 50 regions (ie. lands) while now it has more than 32K regions!
• To-date, there are more than 74,000 avatars & 15M registered residents!
• On average, a regular player commits 20h per week in SL

Industry is entering the 2nd wave and faces

• global workforce needs
• Economic pressures
• Carbon & Cash Concerns

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Video clip 1: Education in Second Life: Explore the Possibilities


Key Points (II)
Use of SL in Education could cover the following:

• Content Creation: Art, Software, 3D objects
• Simulations: Places, Events, Buildings
• Classes: Lectures, Tutorials, "Treasure Hunts"
• Libraries and Museums
• Risky/expensive experiences: Running a business, investigating other cultures
• Learning experiences not possible in real life
• Others like meetings, socialising

Examples of use include...

• Prototype new models
• Train Remote workers
• Demo new products
• Collaborate on Product Development
• Visit a Global Virtual event
• Learn a Foreign Language
• Practise Disaster Recovery
• Design Buildings
• Conduct Simulations
• Take a class at your alma mater
• Simulate the brain
• Simulate subatomic structure
• Learn Basic 3D modeling
• Group study sessions with remote classmates
• Tutor your friend/student from home
• Hold job fairs for students
• Simulate starting a business & earn real money
• Walk through the digestive system
• Offer parents a way to connect with their children's teachers from home.
• Role-play caregiving in a model
• Extend course management system with a synchronous student union
• Produce a Shakespeare play in the model of the Globe Theatre on Renaissance Island
• Practices the procedure for anesthetizing a petient in a SL operating room
• Rehearse client interactions and presentations
• Go on a virtual fossil dig; explore Tanzanian culture and society

Note: Those in bold are more directly related to students' learning in school

Video clip 2: Educational Uses of Second Life

Key Points (III)

Some things that we can do in the internet can also be done in SL

• streaming video & music
• uploading presentation slides
• links to other web resources
• pull live-data in-world from the web
• display RSS feeds and websites in-world

In could link to other platforms like

• Moodle has Sloodle (http://www.sloodle.org/)
• Facebook
• Gridmaker.com
• Life2Life
• Flickr (in SL)
• Del.icio.us & SL
• Slurl Maker & SL

Pedagogy of Virtual World

• Participation
• Engagement
• Investment
• Ownership

Instructional Design

• Virtual Class
• Models
• Simulations
• Group Work
• Field Trip
• Role-playing

Case Studies:
(1) Skoolaborate

Read more about Skoolaborate HERE

(2) Ramapo Island (Suffern Middle School)

Read more about Ramapo Islands HERE

(3) Schome - not school, not home

Read more about Schome HERE ; Read Report HERE

(4) VITAL Lab (Ohio University)

Read more about VITAL Lab HERE

(5) Global Kids

Read more about Global Kids HERE




Video clip: NASA using Virtual Worlds (Colab)

Key Points (IV)

Second Life Best Practices in Education

• Wikiarchive
• Video archive
• SIMTeach.com
• Second Life Education Wiki

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Afternote.... Some Reflections...

Within 2 months, attended 2 presentations on 2nd life - both focus on its use in education. Prior to that, was pretty reluctant to spend time to think about it or imagine its role in education.

Nevertheless, the first presentation came with some convincing examples, though none illustrates how Maths can have a place in the virtual environment. In the phase of slowing buying in... In fact, I was quite hopfeul that the 2nd presentation would shed more light. Nevertheless, it didn't. Though were showed several video clips on how 2nd life gets into work... However, one challenge is... is it so good that it could actually replace real life learning experiences? Of course, there are other questions to challenge the use of 2nd life in learning.

It is obvious that the SL environment offers a space for users to interact and experiment in situations/made-up scenarios - lots of room for innovation ideas! Apart from this... the overall impression is...

(i) While there are so many objects (or even virtual labs) out there, we were told that these were created by web-users out there and the copyright and ownership lie belongs the creator. Then I just wonder, who will ensure that all the experiments featured are giving the desireable outcomes? Given that some people would not be able to discern the right stuff... they may just believe in every-and-any-thing out there!

(2) Learning using virtual world, manipulatives (and even 3D modeling) is not that new actually... except that many a time, these objects reside in different places... so, SL somehow becomes the 'mash-up'! Similarly, many years back, virtual lab is already a very popular concept in science learning... so, SL simply gather all the good stuff there...

(3) What I felt lacking in tasks carry out in SL is the "feel-and-touch". No doubt it provides an environment to carry out experiment, it just lack the feel - eg. the texture of stuff... the sense of weight... and the smell... and natural sound.

... to be continued...

Learning Journey to LSL @ NIE on 22 October 2008

Purpose of Visit:
To learn what are some innovative ICT-related projects that LSL is involved in.
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There were 4 presentations:
(1) Game-based Learning (with Centauri 7)
(2) Ideas Project - building a knowledge creating community
(3) Group Scribbles for Rapid Collaborative Knowledge Building
(4) Teachable agents

Some points gathered from the sharing...
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(1) Game-based Learning: Developing Students’ process learning skills and deep understanding of electromagnetism through the medium of a 3D simulation game (Dr Chee Yam San)

It's a research on game-based learning.
The game world that the project operates in is Centauri 7.

Briefly, the mission of the pupils is to escape from the planet. They have to clear various kinds of electromagnetic fields (in total 3). In the course of doing so, they have to learn about the various kinds of electromagnetic fields and their characteristics, etc.

In a nutshell...

• Learning on situated practice
• Learning in 1st person - the learner is immersed in the environment, they are represented by an avatar in the game world
• It's not learning about... but learning how to, learning to be
• In the process, learners are engaged in scientific inquiry - on their own as well as through group sense-making discussions (facilitated by the teacher)
• Deep learning takes place
• Execution: about 18 Sec 3 pupils involved in the 12h project - as part of the elective programme that took place in 1.5h sessions.
• Assessment: MCQ and artefacts. For the artefacts, learners come up with a manual to explain how they escape, which includes explaining how the field workds.
  

Source of image: http://lsl.nie.edu.sg/m26.htm

More information

• Background of project: http://lsl.nie.edu.sg/m26.htm
• Paper: Designing for the Epistemological Entailments of Physics through Game-centered Dialogical Activity Cycles
• Another Game: Space Station Leonis
  http://yamsanchee.myplace.nie.edu.sg/NIEprojects/NE/ne.htm
• Books mentioned: (1) Marc Prensky's "Digital Game-based Learning" and "Don't Bother Me Mom - I'm Learning" (note: Have these 2 books) (2) James Paul Gee's "What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy"

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(2) Ideas First: Developing a Model for Creating Knowledge Building Classroom in a school (Dr Kate Bielacyze)

• It's about building up a Knowledge Creating Community
• Key point: Collective responsibility for idea improvement
• It emphasizes the importance fo socialising students into the world of work with knowledge (Carl Bereiter)

How learners are engaged... (briefly...)

• Sharing of ideas
• Multiple perspectives
• Cognitive conflict and resolution
• Reflection
• Synthesis – sustained improvement of ideas

The ICT Platform is basically a platform to facilitate discussion forum with built-in scaffolds. It comes in words or short phrases to guide the students in presenting their view points, or ask questions, etc.

More information

• Designing Social Infrastructure: Critical Issues in Creating Learning Environments With Technology (by Katerine Bielaczyc) - note the Infrastructure Framework

• Background of Project: http://lsl.nie.edu.sg/m12.htm; http://lsl.nie.edu.sg/m17.htm
• Townsville Primary (Write-up): Ideas First
• Knowledge Building - http://ikit.org/fulltext/2003Knowledge_Building.htm

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(3) Rapid Collaborative Knowledge Building in the Classroom (Dr Chen Wenli & Dr Looi Chee Kit)

• Rapid Collaborative Knowledge Building (RCLB)
• 10 Principles of RCKB
  (1) distributed cognition
  (2) volunteerism
  (3) spontaneous participation
  (4) multimodal expression
  (5) higher-order thinking
  (6) improvable ideas
  (7) idea diversity
  (8) epistemic agency
  (9) democratized knowledge
  (10) symmetric knowledge

How Group Scribbles works (technically)...

• electronic Post-its operating in a two-paned window.
• Lower pane - user's personal work area, or "private board" while Upper pane is the public area.
• In the private board is a virtual pad that provides the user fresh "scribble sheets" on which can be left digital ink (e.g., a freehand drawing) or typed text. Scribbles authored in this manner may be shared with others by moving them to the public board in the upper pane.
• To move a scribble to the public board, the user simply drags it up from the private board and drops it on the public board.
• Users may interact with public scribbles in a variety of ways, such as browsing scribbles' content, repositioning scribbles, or taking a scribble from the public board into their private space.
• Click HERE for screenshots (from Group Scribbles website)

Some learning points shared in the implementation of the project

• Pre-implementation work: This includes enculturating learners - engaging them activities that require them to generate ideas and scribble them onto hardcopy post-its, putting them up at common spaces for sharing and discussion.
• Develop relevant protocols and social etiquettes - for instance, getting pupils to focus critiquing each others' ideas rather than on the individuals.

More information

• Group Scribbles: http://groupscribbles.sri.com/
• Brief project write-up (Mayflower Primary)
• Paper: Rapid Collaborative Knowledge Building: Lessons Learned from two Primary Science Classrooms

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(4) Teachable agents

Key Principle:

Teaching someone else is a better way to learn, as it requires learners to organise their thinking and figure out the connections between the concpets.

In a nutshell...

• teachable agents are computer-based learning programme
• learners teach agent using visual representations (ie. concept maps)
• agent performs based on teaching (generic AI algorithms draw inferences)
• learners could revise agent to do better
• Click HERE for Overview

More information

• AAA Lab at Stanford