Monday, March 25
1:30 PM-5:00 PM
CDT
Bayside B

Creating a Virtual World for K-12 and Adult Learners: No Experience Necessary (BYOD-Bring Your Own Device)

Workshop ID: 39306
  1. aaa
    Carolyn Lowe
    Northern Michigan University
  2. Mary Anne Clark
    Texas Wesleyan University
  3. aaa
    Stephen Gasior
    University of New Orleans
  4. Marion Smeltzer
    Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: Virtual worlds present the ability to learn in ways that “real life” cannot, offering immersive and 3D interactive activities that are engaging and enhance learning. However, several problems we have encountered using virtual worlds for education are cost, control, learning curve, and age restrictions. To resolve these issues, the presenters have created their own virtual worlds for K-adult science education. This workshop will introduce virtual worlds and teach virtual education skills to participants. We have found in the past that three hour workshops provide insufficient time for participants to learn important skills including creation and customization of an avatar, navigation, communication, and basic teaching skills. This workshop is designed to do all of the above and also teach some more advanced skills so that participants can use virtual worlds for teaching, networking, and collaboration. Also, how to create and maintain a virtual world will be introduced and demonstrated.

Objectives

Objectives: Participants will: • Join, navigate and familiarize themselves with a virtual world • Be able to utilize vocabulary specific to virtual worlds and virtual world education • Become aware of and be able to find new sources for virtual world educational materials and venues. • Be able to find and describe several existing educational activities in virtual worlds in their own content area. • Be able to design a brief lesson using a virtual world and appropriate teaching methodologies. • Know basics of what is entailed in creating a self-hosted virtual world. • Interact with other participants, presenters and educators as well as K-12 students in a virtual world setting. • Build a basic structure that could be adapted for educational use.

Topical Outline

Activities: During the morning session: 1. Learn about virtual worlds including: a. Vocabulary b. Available venues c. Basic instructions 2. Join, navigate, and familiarize themselves with an established (but free to use) virtual world and have them practice 3. Learn and practice basics on how to alter their avatars to fit their own vision of how they should appear. 4. Learn and practice communication basics including classroom teaching skills 5. Experience several education areas and activities. During the afternoon session participants will: 1. Get an overview of using self-hosted/privacy controlled virtual worlds primarily emphasizing the benefits to education in K-12 2. Create an avatar in our own virtual world. 3. Observe a live demonstration of a K-12 classroom utilizing a virtual world for education 4. Be able to interact with K-12 students 5. Do some of the various learning activities we have created in our virtual world as a student would 6. Learn basic building techniques and teaching skills 7. Create one object that can be used for education in a virtual world 8. Learn the basics on how to set up their own virtual world

Prerequisites

This presentation is designed for participants of any level from beginner to advanced. The participants will need to bring laptops with wifi connection. The computers should have graphics cards of medium capability so the virtual world will install and operate effectively.

Experience Level

Beginner

Qualifications

Carolyn Lowe, PhD, utilizes virtual worlds for undergraduate and graduate science and science education courses. She created areas for teaching evolution and diversity in the virtual world Second Life and is currently designing regions based around Earth Systems Science as part of the VIBE program. She has presented a large number of workshops and presentations to educators on creating and utilizing virtual worlds for education including workshops at local, state, national and international conferences. Mary Anne Clark, PhD, is the creator of Genome Island on Second Life and has taught a nonmajors genetics class there since 2008. The course content is fully on-line, with in-world content on Genome Island. Max has done several workshops and presentations about teaching in Second Life both on her own campus and at off campus conferences. She has also written a chapter about Genome Island in Engaging the Avatar: New Frontiers in Immersive Education (Hinrichs and Wankel, eds). Stephen Gasior, PhD, has been using Second Life to teach biology at U. of New Orleans since summer of 2010 through a multimedia rich learning experience and immersive projects such as chemistry building blocks, mitosis/meiosis objects, and population genetics activities. In addition to conducting several UNO faculty and student SL workshops, Stephen is also co-PI on a Louisiana Board of Regents grant to use Second Life and OpenSim for 4th-12th math teacher education and development. He organized Biological Interactive Objects for Science Education (BIO-SE) as a group to apply for a Fashion Research Institute Land Grant in ScienceSim, hosted by Intel into the OpenSim platform. BIO-SE is now VIBE (Virtual Islands for Biology Education). Marion R Smeltzer is a graduate student enrolled at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and President of Indiana County Archeology Society. Her passion is to educate and promote the aspects of applied archaeology in terms and visuals that can be utilized by both classroom environments and the general public. She has been privileged to be able to present virtual archaeological investigation renditions at PA State Social and Science teacher’s conferences.
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