Date post: | 22-Jan-2018 |
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A Potpourri of Tested “Innovations” —Enriching Classroom Communities
• Drs. Jelia Domingo & Eileen O’Connor
Virtual Environment Implementation
• Pros• Once in place, students can go
on at will according to their own schedule.
• All desk top computers have sufficient memory to support the platform.
• Cons• It requires students to prepare in
advance and many do not.
• Platform will not work on iPhones, iPads, or tablets
• This technology is unsupported by the college.
New: Virtual Collaboration
• Organized students into groups
• Gave them latitude to meet at their own convenience
• Required them to assign roles – documentation of ideas, recording attendance via screen shots
• Those without roles for sessions were to respond to other groups’ postings.
Benefits of Virtual Collaboration
• Students process information more differently than in the exclusive asynchronous environment. (Social learning theory in action.)
• Encourages accountability between students instead of just to instructor
• Higher level of engagement
• Development of stronger interpersonal relationships.
Ongoing virtual work
• Since 2007, Eileen has been bringing students into virtual environments for: • Meetings and discussions• Presentations for speakers
(dean; teachers-in-classrooms; special speakers – assistive technologies)
• Joint collaboration and project development
Since 2013, she has taught courses on virtual development • The follow slides simply
illustrate ways that virtual environments can be customized to create instructor level expressions of the environment they want to create
Selected publications on virtual environments
• O’Connor, E. A. & Domingo, J. A Practical Guide, with Theoretical Underpinnings, for Creating Effective Virtual Reality Learning Environments. in print by the Journal of Educational Technology Systems.
• O’Connor, E.A. (2015-2016). Open Source Meets Virtual Reality – An Instructor’s Journey Unearths New Opportunities for Learning, Community and Academia. Journal of Educational Technology Systems. 44(2), 153-170. (link thru ESC library databases)
• O’Connor, E. A. (2012). Developing effective online collaborative science projects by using course scaffolding, a virtual world, and web 2.0 technologies. In Proceeding of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2012 (pp. 728-735). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. (link thru ESC library databases)
• O’Connor, E. (2011). Practical considerations when using virtual spaces for learning and collaboration, with minimal setup and support. In H. H. Yang, & S. C. Yuen (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in Virtual Worlds and Environment. Hershey PA: IGI Global.
• O'Connor, E. (2011). Migrating Towards K12 in Virtual Spaces: Second Life Lessons Learned as Higher Education Meets Middle School Students. In Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011 (pp. 2192-2198). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
• O’Connor, E.A. (June 2010) Using Second Life (a virtual reality) in Language Instruction: Practical Advice on Getting Started; published with the proceedings of the 4th International Scientific and Methodological Conference on "Information and Communication Technologies in Foreign Language Teaching”
• O'Connor, E. A. (2009). Instructional and Design Elements that Support Effective Use of Virtual Worlds: What Graduate Student Work Reveals about Second Life. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 38(2), 213-234.
• O’Connor, E. A. and Sakshaug, L. (2009) Preparing for Second Life: Two Teacher Educators Reflect on Their Initial Foray into Virtual Teaching and Learning, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 37(3), pp. 259-272.
• O'Connor, E. (2008). Becoming a Virtual Instructor: How Can Higher Education Faculty Prepare for Second Life?. In G. Richards (Ed.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2008 (pp. 1144-1149). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Informative & comfortable startup areas –easy to navigate
Developed by a “science person” so aesthetics sometimes suffers
Teleconferencing – the TanbergHas been used for - statewide residencies- orientations- a course meeting
ProsEveryone can see each other to a degreeInformation does not meet to be repeated
ConStill very impersonalTech issuesSpace issues
Integrate peer reviews – have students issue badges
• Peer Reviews — postings for the entire class (private review)
• Students vote for informal badges
• Results (published) found the effectiveness of the interaction and the “caring” the came out of it
• O’Connor, E.A. & McQuigge, A. (2013-2014). Exploring badging for peer review, extended learning and evaluation, and reflective/critical feedback within an online graduate course. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 42(2), 87-105. (link thru ESC library databases)
Sharing lessons and discussion perspectives via video
•Video Challenges — student sharing YouTube’s • Increases familiarity and knowledge of others; • Demonstration of lesson done by students • Useful in almost any type of interaction or discussion• Easily done – and for free – with Screencast-o-matic