sloan-c international emerging technology in online learning, san francisco, june 09

Learning Technology Center

Meeting Your Pedagogical Needs More Effectively: How to Best Use Second Life

Session 2, Room: N, 9:00a.m. - 9:50a.m.

Tanya Joostentjoosten@uwm.eduLearning Technology CenterDepartment of CommunicationUniversity of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeSL Juice Gyoza

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Abstract

• Every educator wants to know is how do I use Second Life in my course? Educators are looking for not only concrete examples of Second Life use, but they are looking for pedagogically sound best practices that are supported by research, which I will provide.

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Session Overview: Outcomes

• What is Second Life?• How do we use it in our courses?• Why should we use it?

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University Wisconsin-Milwaukee Second Life Initiative

• Pilot started Summer 07, Delivered Spring 08• UW System Emerging Technology Grant• Faculty Development Workshops for Second

Life – over 40 new faculty • Second Life Wiki for Faculty

– http://uwmsecondlife.wikispaces.com

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Who are you?• Who is teaching using Second Life already?• Who wants to teach using Second Life?• Who is helping faculty teach using Second Life?• Who is trying to figure out what Second Life is?• Who is waiting to be convinced to use it?• Who has an avatar?

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What is Second Life?

• Not a Game• Online, Virtual World, 3-D• Network through software to a virtual space• Not just information• People, Places• User constructed

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What is Second Life?

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What is Second Life?

MediumAsynchronous

Discussion Forums

Synchronous Collaboration Tools

Virtual Worlds

Technology Text-Only, Static Images, Tables

Text, Audio (VOIP), Static Images, Video

Text, Audio (VOIP), Static Images, Video, 3-D

Cues Written Verbal, Emoticons

Written Verbal, Emoticons, Oral Verbal, Nonverbal: Paralanguage, Kinesics

Written Verbal, Emoticons, Oral Verbal, Nonverbal: Paralanguage, Kinesics, Proxemics, Haptics, Objectics, Environmentics

Feedback Delayed Immediate/Real Time Immediate/Real Time

Participants Limited to course size

Limited by task, invitees, and bandwidth,

Somewhat limited by bandwidth and task, open attendance

Media Richness Lean Medium Rich

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How do we use Second Life?

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Getting Started: Tips for Faculty

• 1: Learn basic navigation – https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/groups/sa/ltc/SecondLife/Faculty%20Workshop/

• 2: Network– Finding events: http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/SLED_Calender – Second Life Educators list: – https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators – Search SLED archives: http://tinyurl.com/y234ht

• 3: Tour– Collect SLURLS from colleagues and networks

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Question 1

• What networks will you tap in order to find out more about the resources that already exist in Second Life? To support your implementation of Second Life?

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Pedagogical Task -- Medium RichnessExperiential

Didactic

RichLean

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Question 2

• With the richness of Second Life, what learning objectives could you achieve better in Second Life than in the f2f classroom or the traditional online classroom? (whichever applies)

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Question 3

• Students who spend more time completing a meaningful project in Second Life are more satisfied with the experience. How much time do you foresee your students spending in Second Life (weekly, over the semester)? How can you make the learning activity a meaningful one?

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How do we use: Best practices• Create meaningful activities in SL

• Create a collaborative activities for SL

• Manage student expectations

• Don’t have to build to use SL

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Question 4

• Second Life has a great impact when the activity is collaborative. How could you move a current group project into Second Life? What new activity could you create that would facilitate the collaborative nature of Second Life?

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Question 5

• The learning curve for students is a concern for many faculty.

• How would you introduce your students to Second Life? How would you orient your students to Second Life? What do you see as the crisis points for your students?

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Why should I use Second Life?

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Communication Student Comments

• “I thought the content of the course was very interesting. I really enjoyed the face that we incorporated Second Life into the course. I also think it is very useful to work in virtual teams to complete a project(despite the fact the it can be a pain:])”

• “I would have liked to see more required participation within second life. I noticed many students went in did what they had to fro the first couple task and then did not sue it again.”

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Health Sciences Student• Students response after visiting

numerous health resources in SL• “Overall, I think Second Life provides

endless opportunities to explore and learn about an infinite number of subjects.”

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Emerging Technology Grant

• How do virtual worlds, an emerging technology, impact student learning?

• What are some best practices in using virtual worlds?

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Obvious Question

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Evaluating Virtual Worlds

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Preliminary Survey Results

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I was able to use rich and varied language in Second Life

Media Richness

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I felt as if I was communicating with a real person in Second Life

Social Presence

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Second Life aroused my imagination

Engagement

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Second Life was beneficial to my learning

Learning

7.1%, no response

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Participating in Second Life was a useful experience

Satisfaction

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Second Life was fun and exciting

Satisfaction

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Tanya M. Joostenhttp://uwmsecondlife.wikispaces.com

tjoosten@uwm.eduSL: Juice Gyoza414.229.4319

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Questions?

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Getting Started in Second Life

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Communication Student Blogs• Option 1, Managing Change, an Implementation of SL• http://emily-second-life.blogspot.com/ , tba• http://teamdynasty4.blogspot.com/ , 12.18, 2pm

• Option 2, Virtual Decision Making in Second Life http://www.teamcatalyst.blogspot.com/ , 12.17, 4pm