• 13 Tips for Virtual World Teaching

12th January 2008

13 Tips for Virtual World Teaching

posted in Bright Idea |

BrightIdeasCampus Technology is the glossy magazine for university IT managers and technology wonks. This January story does an excellent job of laying the concepts out cleanly.

Don’t look now, but multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) are gaining momentum as the latest and greatest learning tool in the world of education technology. How do you get started with them? How do they work? Arm yourself with these 13 secrets from immersive education experts and educators, and you, too, can have real success implementing these new tools and technologies on your own campus.

Campus Technology coverpageThe thirteen tips:

  1. Understand the Basics
  2. Explore Your Options
  3. Observe
  4. Collect Best Practices (with a plug for simteach.com)
  5. Try It Out
  6. Plot Your Curriculum
  7. Make It Different
  8. Make It Fun
  9. Make It Count
  10. Be Inclusive
  11. Be Available
  12. Encourage Exploration
  13. Keep Growing

~ Jeremy Kemp | Jeremy Kabumpo

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 4:46 am and is filed under Bright Idea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 3 responses to “13 Tips for Virtual World Teaching”

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  1. 1 On January 12th, 2008, Peter Miller said:

    Good list but was there a number 13 or did you just get superstitious?

  2. 2 On January 12th, 2008, Peter Miller said:

    13 Keep Growing (lol)

  3. 3 On March 5th, 2008, Antoine Hegeman said:

    Purpose

    Second Life (and other Virtual World applications) is a beautiful tool for learning. But the question educators should ask themselves is: “What purpose does the Virtual World serve?”.
    Does it make it easier for a teacher to teach, by him or her not having to leave their home? If so: how easy will it be for the teacher to keep an eye on all of the students? How do you check attendance in a virtual world?
    This is why I do not believe a virtual classroom where teacher and students meet is the best use of a tool like Second Life. Another example is the fact that an avatar does not have body language (yet). The way people move body and face tells us a lot about how they experience things. A (good) teacher can read from a students face if that student understands what he or she is teaching.

    Back to purpose. Purpose in this case would be shown in the material to be learned.
    I think the most powerful example of purpose can be found in teaching history. Here we have to rely on old pictures (if any exist) and written accounts. Second Life offers teachers the ability to show students what life in Rome was like during the rule of Ceasar. Or how horrific fighting in WWII was. By submerging students in a world they could never see in real life it could greatly increase their understanding of the teachers teachings. A picture says more then a thousand words.

    There are many more examples and ideas to be found within many more subjects (not just history). So my opinion is that a teacher should search for a good purpose to use Second Life as a teaching tool, before even considering to us it at all.

    Teachers should understand that it is easy to find purpose if he or she desires to.
    Be realistic. Do you just want to use Second Life? Or is your purpose just?

    The thirteen tips on Campus Technology also talk about making it fun, and so on. Leaning on ‘purpose’. I want to get across that I believe that teachers should think about the purpose before even setting foot in Second Life.

    Antoine Hegeman
    Student of Digital Communication, the Netherlands

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