Well this project is almost officially over - but I think our work integrating virtual worlds like Second Life into our elearning offerings has just begun! It's exciting! I'm looking forward to building on what we've learnt and taking it further - perhaps with our own island, and a number of courses using Second Life next year.
I wanted to post a few more links here in this blog so everything is together.
The first one is a link to our i-youth project moodle.
The second is a Second Life induction moodle that you may find useful.
The third is a link to the machinima we created - we have uploaded them to YouTube.
And lastly, a link to a machinima about the Second Life Terms of Service, created by Rhys Moult.
Thanks to those following this blog - and thanks to the team for posting some great posts here! I hope this will be a useful resource for our staff, and for anyone else that may be interested!
Cheers
Trudy
Friday, November 27, 2009
Our 6 Keys for using Second Life as an immersive learning tool
1. Have a Second life: Get to know SL before trying to use it as a Facilitation tool
We used an Industry Partner with knowledge of organisation and training needs, also a gifted facilitator and trainer.
The SL skills of the participants (and Facilitators) take time to develop. Don’t be too adventurous at first. Teach new skills in Second Life along the way eg teleporting, changing appearance, flying
4. Be flexible
- familiarize yourself with Avatar movements, flying, teleporting, Chat IM and local chat, groups, voice
- Educational methodologies such as Lecture Booth, machinima videos, chat logger, sloodle,
We used an Industry Partner with knowledge of organisation and training needs, also a gifted facilitator and trainer.
- Educational expertise from Tabor
- Technical knowledge from On Line Learning Manager
- IT staff
- Consultants
- GippsTafe- provided us with an island to use
The SL skills of the participants (and Facilitators) take time to develop. Don’t be too adventurous at first. Teach new skills in Second Life along the way eg teleporting, changing appearance, flying
4. Be flexible
- Prepare for things that can go wrong in SL. Eg: technical difficulties, avatars getting lost, SL crashing [presenter 'crashes'] Distractions at participants computers, eg visitors, children, phone calls
- Must plan thoroughly and consider the above contingencies.
- Go with the flow, eg move to chat if voice not working, if someone drops out, keep going a different facilitator takes over
- At least one group facilitator and one technical facilitator. Group discussions, need strong facilitation skills.
- Avatars can get lost, have trouble with voice and audio
- Trying more complex methodologies eg Machinima, videoing and recording takes another level of expwrtise that the educational facilitator may not have
- There is a lot going on and there is a lot to juggle for just one presenter
- At times, technical difficulties can present limitations to the participants eg: Can’t speak Can’t hear
- Need to have a variety of ways to communicate organised, eg: The script of the lecture can be handed out through a note card so students can read it if they cannot hear (Also may suit their learning style)
- One facilitator can type chat in, as Avatars use voice
- Establish group norms for communication eg “k” for OK
- Brilliant for gathering a geographically scattered group of participants
- Great for getting quieter/shy participants to contribute, through chat and voice
- Immersive, (more than you think) and therefore absorbing and engaging learning!
- Free!
- Exciting visually and fun!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
3rd and final SL Session
Have now completed our SL trial - 3 sessions. Personally felt underprepared for this session. Meg and I talked through the outcomes and session outline but I had not time to script it up and had family issues to deal with as the lecture progressed (My wife is on conference, had to pick up 3 kids from school, be home in time for the lecture, keep the kids entertained/fed etc. tricky to say the least)
Quick breakdown of the session
Quick breakdown of the session
- Intro for the session
- Watch Machinima to tell the story of the Scenario which we would get the students - had technical issues which Missy can tell us about, but basically the students watched the machinima in youtube. Probably should make a few comments on the machinima.
- After watching the scenario we 'went' to the various locations to pick up where the machinima left off to role play the scenario's further.
- We debriefed the experience of using SL as a learning environment.
Session Intro
By this session the students are far more familiar with the SL environment which makes the session simpler to run. Interactions worked well, students combined voice and chat well. essentially by the 3rd session it appears that students can be up to speed - even the tech challenged were able to fulfill the essential requirements. This makes it far easier for the lecturers.
Handy having Missy on the side to knock up notecards on the fly and give them to students.
Agree with Lucille on having a list of students to check off. A number of times I lost track of whether all the students were present or had responded to a question.
Machinima
Great start on Machinima - the crew really did a good job. Some reflections to improve the product
- I am not certain the story makes enough sense without a decent intro/notecard on the scenario.
- The connection between the scenes may have too much of a disconnect. I wonder if we gave the youthworker, dole worker and the girl names then people would be able to track the characters/story line better.
- There is lots of silence between dialogue which feels awkward - either background music will help fill that silence OR the silence could be edit out
- Instead of having the scenes separate running the whole scenario together then roleplaying would work
Additional ideas on using the machinima
- A late idea was to have the 'bodies' of the machinima avatars available for the student avatars to put on as they roleplayed. This is definately something you can only do in SL.
Roleplaying
Worked well imho. Process was
- 2 avatars took the roles and roleplayed.
- We paused the roleplaying for other student avatars to provide feedback.
- 2 other avatars took up the roles and played the scenario out to the end
- We debriefed the conclusion.
This was simple to facilitate and worthwhile process.
SL Debrief
Very positive feedback from the participants. I'll leave this to Missy or Lucille to write out. Hopefully someone took notes!
From my memory
- everyone was positive with the SL experience
- everyone indicated SL helped a topic which would normally be 'boring' to be engaging
- there was enthusiasm in thinking through more options for the use of SL (like preaching/mentoring...)
Conclusions
- Very positive. We have ended just as we were getting nearly good at it!!!
- I am certain Lucille, Missy and myself have learnt much in using SL.
- A merged technology approach using moodle and SL makes the most sense. Moodle for assignment work, SL for lectures/engagement.
Meg's review of the first 2 live Second Life sessions
We have now held 2 SL sessions with real students!
We have trialled a number of methodologies/ SL features including:
• A treasure hunt (students seek prims containing “note cards”) which provide information that they then need to discuss
• Recording the group discussions in “chat logger”
• Using SL as the first point of contact for the course information and the Moodle site as the secondary source of information
• Delivering a lecture through SL
• Facilitating group discussions through SL
Treasure hunt for note cards
On reflection we were probably way too ambitious for our first trial session! Oh well, full marks for enthusiasm! As it was we had various technical difficulties and trialling a treasure hunt was too difficult for us at this stage of our competence. However I think the students enjoyed the concept and the one note card that they were able to get produced a great discussion. This was hampered by the fact that my Avatar, Lucille, could not use voice due to technical difficulties.
Recording the group discussions in “chat logger”
The Group chat was logged on the chat logger. I am not sure at this stage, how to use this log of chat and how it could be uploaded to the Moodle site for this course and further used as a learning tool. But it does provide evidence that could b used to verify students’ thoughts and contributions which could be used for Assessment evidence!
Using SL as the first point of contact for the course information and the Moodle site as the secondary source of information
One drawback of Moodle which is pretty important from an educational point of view, is that is looks so boring at first view. (Well, that is my opinion and Jason agrees with me on that!) We discussed using SL as the first point of engaging the students, and using the Moodle site as the site to refer them to, to find a greater level of detail.
So with the trial students we have taken this approach. Checking the Moodle site I can only see 2 students have actually referred to it at the time of writing this, so I am not sure how successful this concept has been. It may be, that these are the only 2 students wanting to gain credit for doing the course.
Delivering a lecture through SL
Lucille delivered the lecture on SL in an informal lecture theatre that Trudy had provided. This was much more controlled and orderly than the previous session, although the students were much more passive, as they would be in a normal stand and deliver lecture. In the real life setting the lecturer can gain feedback from the students during this kind of lecture by watching the body language, eye contact and facial expressions. In SL these visual cues are absent and it feels very one way. I used Ariki’s idea of asking the student to give me a “k” by chat, if they were following me. This gave immediate feedback and I found it very encouraging, other wise it was hard to even know if the students were still at their computers. I also stopped fairly frequently and asked for verbal comments, asking students by their Avatar names what they thought of the various points being made.
It will be interesting to ask the students whether they found the lecture methodology in SL boring or not. I had assumed that because I was delivering the lecture at 6.30 at night that I would not be interrupted by any other work colleagues. However, I was a bit taken aback when a colleague popped into my office to ask me a question, The person concerned quickly realised that I was otherwise occupied but it did throw me a bit and I momentarily lost concentration.
Facilitating group discussions through SL
To do this I used the technique of naming avatars and asking for their opinions or thoughts. It would have been helpful to have a list of the participants at hand and tick every time I asked particular names, I may have favoured some above others unintentionally. This technique also puts people on the spot which is a bit unavoidable. We could introduce a system whereby they can say, Pass and we move to another person.
Recommendations
• Try a pedestrian approach for the first session. There will be technical issues and they will be enough to sort out in the first instance.
• Introduce a system for students to give feedback eg k= OK.
This could be expanded to cover a few other situations, eg r=please repeat etc
I think there are already some short hands such as AFC= Away from computer
This gives immediate feedback without halting the flow of the conversation in voice or the chat.
• For facilitated discussions use names to address questions
• Have a list of the participants at hand and tick every time you address questions of the Avatars, ensures no one is overlooked
• Don’t use a stand a deliver approach ONLY, (15 min is plenty for that) mix it up and get those Avatars moving around, keeps engagement levels up.
Meg (Lucille Lemondrop)
We have trialled a number of methodologies/ SL features including:
• A treasure hunt (students seek prims containing “note cards”) which provide information that they then need to discuss
• Recording the group discussions in “chat logger”
• Using SL as the first point of contact for the course information and the Moodle site as the secondary source of information
• Delivering a lecture through SL
• Facilitating group discussions through SL
Treasure hunt for note cards
On reflection we were probably way too ambitious for our first trial session! Oh well, full marks for enthusiasm! As it was we had various technical difficulties and trialling a treasure hunt was too difficult for us at this stage of our competence. However I think the students enjoyed the concept and the one note card that they were able to get produced a great discussion. This was hampered by the fact that my Avatar, Lucille, could not use voice due to technical difficulties.
Recording the group discussions in “chat logger”
The Group chat was logged on the chat logger. I am not sure at this stage, how to use this log of chat and how it could be uploaded to the Moodle site for this course and further used as a learning tool. But it does provide evidence that could b used to verify students’ thoughts and contributions which could be used for Assessment evidence!
Using SL as the first point of contact for the course information and the Moodle site as the secondary source of information
One drawback of Moodle which is pretty important from an educational point of view, is that is looks so boring at first view. (Well, that is my opinion and Jason agrees with me on that!) We discussed using SL as the first point of engaging the students, and using the Moodle site as the site to refer them to, to find a greater level of detail.
So with the trial students we have taken this approach. Checking the Moodle site I can only see 2 students have actually referred to it at the time of writing this, so I am not sure how successful this concept has been. It may be, that these are the only 2 students wanting to gain credit for doing the course.
Delivering a lecture through SL
Lucille delivered the lecture on SL in an informal lecture theatre that Trudy had provided. This was much more controlled and orderly than the previous session, although the students were much more passive, as they would be in a normal stand and deliver lecture. In the real life setting the lecturer can gain feedback from the students during this kind of lecture by watching the body language, eye contact and facial expressions. In SL these visual cues are absent and it feels very one way. I used Ariki’s idea of asking the student to give me a “k” by chat, if they were following me. This gave immediate feedback and I found it very encouraging, other wise it was hard to even know if the students were still at their computers. I also stopped fairly frequently and asked for verbal comments, asking students by their Avatar names what they thought of the various points being made.
It will be interesting to ask the students whether they found the lecture methodology in SL boring or not. I had assumed that because I was delivering the lecture at 6.30 at night that I would not be interrupted by any other work colleagues. However, I was a bit taken aback when a colleague popped into my office to ask me a question, The person concerned quickly realised that I was otherwise occupied but it did throw me a bit and I momentarily lost concentration.
Facilitating group discussions through SL
To do this I used the technique of naming avatars and asking for their opinions or thoughts. It would have been helpful to have a list of the participants at hand and tick every time I asked particular names, I may have favoured some above others unintentionally. This technique also puts people on the spot which is a bit unavoidable. We could introduce a system whereby they can say, Pass and we move to another person.
Recommendations
• Try a pedestrian approach for the first session. There will be technical issues and they will be enough to sort out in the first instance.
• Introduce a system for students to give feedback eg k= OK.
This could be expanded to cover a few other situations, eg r=please repeat etc
I think there are already some short hands such as AFC= Away from computer
This gives immediate feedback without halting the flow of the conversation in voice or the chat.
• For facilitated discussions use names to address questions
• Have a list of the participants at hand and tick every time you address questions of the Avatars, ensures no one is overlooked
• Don’t use a stand a deliver approach ONLY, (15 min is plenty for that) mix it up and get those Avatars moving around, keeps engagement levels up.
Meg (Lucille Lemondrop)
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