Sheila Webber, 2008

Approaching learning and teaching in Second Life Sheila Webber/ Sheila YoshikawaDepartment of Information StudiesUniversity of Sheffield, January 2009

“Sheila will discuss approaches to

teaching that seem best suited to the

affordances of this rich and complex learning space”

Affordances of SL• Communication/community• Embodied social presence• Building/engineering/

design/sculpting • Animation and scripting • Data visualizations &

simulations • Sound & spatial

relationships• Language immersion

Sheila Webber, 2009

• Learning communities created by & for users

• International • Low capital expense

operations costs • Fundraising • Recruitment/administration/

management • Bringing distance & online

learning together in the 3-D virtual world

Taken from: (Jarmon, 2009)

Teaching approaches that are:• Well designed• Appropriate for the learners• Appropriate for the learning outcomes• Scaffolding learning as appropriate• Aligning learning, teaching & assessment• Using various learning environments, tools and methods as

appropriate• Facilitating understanding and/or conceptual change in the

learner (and so forth and so on ... )

Sheila Webber, 2009

i.e. good teaching practice

Sheila Webber, May 2007

Approaches to teaching

• Revealed through "conceptions of pedagogy" research, for example as reviewed by Samuelowitz and Bain (2001)

– Knowledge conveying categories (e.g. transferring knowledge, explaining curriculum)

– Intermediate categories (e.g. focus on student-teacher interaction)

– Facilitation of learning categories (e.g. facilitating conceptual change & understanding)

People will go into SL with their approaches....

“... She will identify how this demands active approaches to

learning from students …”

Liverpool University

Possible to use for all 3 approaches

Sheila Webber, 2009

University of Texas at Austin – self selected group projects – including fundraising

Educators’ coop member Chris2 Gallagher – exploring identity with her students

Sheila Webber, 2008

http://www.sconul.ac.uk

One of my builds

“... She will identify how this demands

active approaches to learning from students

…”

Learners’ stages in meaning making

• Absolute knowing (knowledge is certain)• Transitional knowing (doubts about the certainty of

knowledge, learning enables understanding of these)

• Independent knowing (developing your perspective, everyone has their own views)

• Contextual knowing (understanding nature of context and evidence)

Sheila Webber, 2009

Based on study of US undergraduates (King and Baxter-Magolda, 2004)

Knowhow island

Purple OR orange

Inquiry Based Learning“IBL is a term used to describe approaches to learning that are based on a process of self-directed inquiry or research. Students conduct small or large-scale inquiries that enable them to engage actively and creatively with the questions and problems of their discipline, often in collaboration with others. IBL approaches include case-study and problem-based learning (PBL) methods as well as research projects of different kinds. It is a key characteristic of IBL that inquiry tasks facilitate exploration and investigation of issues or scenarios that are open-ended enough for different responses and solutions to be possible (Khan and O´Rourke, 2005)” source: CILASS website (Centre for Inquiry Based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences) http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/ibl.html

“… and how it opens up opportunities for collaboration

with other educators.”

“She will draw on examples from experience, and use models of Real Life (face to face) teaching”

Sheila Webber, 2008

“Sheila will also identify some of the practical problems (e.g.

access to technology, cultural and time differences) of working in a

virtual world.”

Sheila Webber, 2009

“Me: yes, it's been really frustrating how it's been bogged down with technical issues

Student 1: yeah thats been the main problem” (inworld chat transcript, 10 April 08)

Sheila Webber, 2009

“SL has been having a lot of issues over the last 2 days - they had to replace one of the inventory servers and I (like others) had to try getting in several times before succeeding. Also crashed out 5 times running just now” (my e-portfolio, Nov 2007)

[2008/10/14 14:36] CC: what time is it where everyone is?[2008/10/14 14:36] ML: 5:36[2008/10/14 14:36] GW: In the USA it is 230 PM now.[2008/10/14 14:36] CC: it's 4:30 in the afternoon here[2008/10/14 14:36] FF: 5:36 pm[2008/10/14 14:36] ZW: @CC 736 am[2008/10/14 14:36] GW: Sorry, west coast USA 230[2008/10/14 14:36] You: 22.35[2008/10/14 14:36] CF: 10:36 pm[2008/10/14 14:36] PP: mine, 4.30 am[2008/10/14 14:37] EB: here it's 11:36 pm

(Part of discussion at SL Researchers’ Group, trying to agree a time for the next meeting)

Sheila Webber, 2009

Sheila Webber

s.webber@shef.ac.uk http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/

Sheila Yoshikawa

Powerpoint at: http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/

References• Centre for Inquiry Based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences.

(2008) Inquiry-based Learning: a conceptual framework. Sheffield: CILASS. http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/resources

• Jarmon, L. (2009) “Pedagogy and Learning in the Virtual World of Second Life®” In Rogers, P et al (Eds) Encyclopedia of distance and online learning. 2nd ed. (vol 3) IGI. (in press)

• Khan, P. and O´Rourke, K. (2005). “Understanding Enquiry-based Learning”, In: Barrett, T., Mac Labhrainn, I., Fallon, H. (eds), Handbook of Enquiry and Problem Based Learning. Galway: CELT.

• King, P. and Baxter-Magolda, M. (2004) Learning partnerships: theory and models of practice to educate for self-authorship. Stylus.

• Samuelowicz, K. and Bain, J.D. (2001) Revisiting academics’ beliefs about teaching and learning. Higher education, 41, 299-325.

Other material• Flickr set on Infolit iSchool:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23396182@N00/collections/72157604063164433/

• Infolit iSchool (our SL island) wiki: http://infolitischool.pbwiki.com/

• Video of presentation on: Inquiry and Information Behaviour in Second Life (my activity with 1st year UGs)http://stadium.open.ac.uk/stadia/preview.php?whichevent=1248