Virtual Worlds Questions
From Horizon Project
[edit] The 2007 Horizon Report: Toward a Research Agenda
The annual Horizon Report, a collaboration between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), highlights six technologies that the underlying research suggests will become very important to higher education over the next one to five years. A central focus of the discussion of each technology is its relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression.
[edit] Enter Your Responses Here
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With the release of the fourth edition in this annual series, the NMC is undertaking for the first time a concerted, international effort to describe a research agenda based on the six practices and technologies featured in the 2007 edition of the Horizon Report. You are invited to participate in this process, contribute to the discussion, and help shape directions for future research in these topics across higher education.
This effort reflects and embodies the topic of new scholarship, featured in the 2007 Report and also the subject of a major NMC focus area initiative. The completed research agenda is designed to encourage a deeper level of understanding around each of the topics in the Report.
The results from this effort were published in October 2007 as the Horizon Project Call for Scholarship. Scroll down to see some of the ideas that were provided in support of the Horizon Research Agenda.
[edit] What are the missing pieces for Virtual Worlds to be implemented in higher education?
- demonstrate effectiveness for use in learning:
- Learning Objectives
- Guides and practices
- does second life offer improvments over established learning activities using traditional technologies.
- What practices from SL can be transferred to other tools like google earth, google maps, etc.
- How do we 'train up' our faculty who are currently struggling with the 'last great thing'?
- can a compelling experience permit leapfrogging older technologies?
- It is not clear to see exactly how a tool like Second Life can enhance learning.
- Lack of infrastructure. Socialization inot community norms.
- Tools for design into curricula, easier administration of clients.
- Defined pedagogical significance. Time required to be able to use adeptly.
- Knowledge, sociological/behavorial patterns, infrastructure requirements policy, faculty interest and understanding, the IT will among boundaries.
- Pedagogical applications, benefits/costs defined student benefit, assessment, correlation to learning.
- Access to the technology; support, faculty, students; efficiency questions--seems complex.
- Lack of good computers; amount of time to get students and faculty ready.
- Bandwidth (still), training, dated web-evolving technology.
- Integration, development resources
- Usability and accessibility, sustainability and scalability, universal access to technology. Not familiar to faculty--big learning curve.
- Educational content; accurate, depth, richness; tools and expertise to create worlds; faculty adoption--leadership risk taking.
- Higher performance hardware, more evenly distributed. Conspicuous academic successes. Testimonials from outstanding students and teachers. Reliably high-bandwidth pipes, open education.
- How to get faculty up to speed quickly (training)? How to minimize time in getting students past the fun of superficial aspects?
- How to plug faculty into using gaming in their teaching.
- An open-sourced option that preserves intellectual property rights yet maintains the richness of current commercial systems.
- Faculty awareness of and skills involved in integrating the technology into teaching. Ability to create high quality examples economically and on a large enough scale to disseminate the technology broadly.
- What extensions would be needed in the virtual world to collect data for assessment? Track interactions and actions students/players.
[edit] What kind of research would you like to see around this topic?
- How effectively do virtual worlds enhance student learning?
- Is the teachers investment worth the benefits.
- Can we accommodate different learning styles of students.
- How do we assess learning in these spaces.
- comment: Teams will be very important in developing learning materials (rather than just the faculty member)
- comment: what ways are the _processes_ of learning enhanced?
- comment: setting up assessment from within 'Everquest'.
- How effectively do virtual worlds enhance student learning? Is the teacher's investment of training on and creating virtual worlds worth the learning benefits?
- Whether its use results in better learning
- The usual--impact on learning. How to train faculty? Does learning in a virtual world map to "real learning"?
- Why virtual worlds over other technologies such as wikis, IM, chat, web-conferencing? How do you keep students focused on academic goals?
- Pedagogical uses, learning impact, student interest
- How can these apps become part of the value system?
- How do faculty integrate it? What is actually learned by the student? How does the environment enhance the learning?
- Pedagogical value unclear (lack of good computers, amount of time to get students and faculty ready) in traditional classrooms. Does it take away from instructional time?
- IP issues. What is the longevity? Who owns the product? Time balance for both faculty and student.
- How will this impact student learning?
- Effectiveness needs assessment. Policy issues with respect to students. Public/private space unclear, accessibility of interface.
- Will it work? Effective, learning, objectives, cost
- What makes tele-presence compelling? Can complex concepts be represented, visually and experientially, with collaborative 3-D building?
- How well do lessons learned in a virtual world translate into real world application?
- How is gaming different than virtual worlds?
- Do we work with existing providers to open their protocols or does the educational community develop an open standard?
- Are the learning outcomes achieved sufficiently better than current strategies to justify development time and expense?
- Faculty developing skills to set up scenarios and debriefing skills.
[edit] What are the learning implications of Virtual Worlds?
- suitability in gender studies
- Gateway
- Performance
- comment: collaboration is different in 3-D. Potential in real time problem solving
- Identity
- ADA compliance and accommodating different learning styles.
- Do virtual worlds meet the needs of students with different learning styles? How would assessment be conducted by using virtual worlds in the classroom?
- Whether skills learned online transfer to real world. Inhibitions may be less online, for good or bad.
- Exploration of domains not otherwise accessible.
- Provides an interesting experimental environment for understanding how learning can occur effectively beyond traditional environments and distance learning. Use in a variety of learning situations and assessment will be important.
- Safe environment for failure; safe for psychological
- Virtual worlds seem to be more than 2-3 years out for serious implementation.
- Negative assessment, security, intellectual property. Positive rich learning environment when designed properly.
- Social, active, different learning style-"experience it", discovery.
- Highly motivated learners, learning from and with peers
- Performance; gateway to technology fluency; focusing on educational objective; construction of social identity.
- Learning is social activity. Value of being immersed in something.
- New modes and experiences of interaction and expression might fuel cognitive leaps--and offer us new ways of overcoming conceptual barriers. A new source of aha moments!
- The characteristic benefits of simulation software apply: relatively low cost, reduced risk, ease of repeating a task, etc.
- Is learning really taking place?
- A closed proprietary system will hamper efforts to develop and deploy on a massive scale, which will result in unrealized potential for the learning community.
- Need ways to integrate reflection into the gaming process.
- Challenge--technical expertise needed to develop the specific worlds. How to best assess effectiveness of virtual worlds for education..best practices, examples?
