“Participatory Pedagogy: Challenging ‘Real Life’

Practices of Educational Institutions in Virtual Worlds”

Joanna Robinson Great Northern Way Campus – Vancouver,

BCCo-Author: Tracy Kennedy

Communities & Technologies Research Group, Microsoft – Redmond, Washington

“Participatory Pedagogy: Challenging ‘Real Life’ Practices of Educational

Institutions in Virtual Worlds”

• GNWC Masters of Digital Media Program’s explorations in Second Life

• Overview of pedagogical approaches to virtual worlds

• The ‘Modding the metaverse’ workshops and what we learned

• Blended reality learning?• Some useful strategies for educators

in virtual worlds

GNWC Masters of Digital Media Program’s explorations in

Second Life• The Masters of Digital Media (MDM) team

came to SL in 2006• Originally we had recruitment and

promotion in mind• It wasn’t long before we noticed there

were many more possibilities for augmenting our program

• We began researching what others had learned and explored and began developing our virtual space

We held a number of events & workshops to explore how we could

utilize the space• Blended reality open house• Collaborative Modding workshops

And hosted some events:• Vancouver Police Department Info

Session• William Gibson’s Second Life book

launch• CITASA MC 3.0!

Our SL island will be a resource for modeling project concepts and student social space as well as hosting events such as these.

Moreover, we plan to explore participatory activities in SL (among other tools) in Fall for these blended reality/hybrid courses:

• Building Virtual Worlds• The Visual Story/Narrative• Interdisciplinary Improv

Approaches to pedagogy we observed

in Second Life1. Replicating the first life classroom2. Building environments and activities

around learning objectives3. Exploring both of these styles

Virtual environments such as Second Life provide different opportunities and

constraints to the first life (or rl) classroom.

‘Modding the Metaverse’ workshop

• A series of workshops held at the Virtual Centre for Digital Media in SL, exploring how a group of student and educator participants could collaborate to modify a traditional style seminar room

• Aimed at developing the best spaces and methods for our students (some of the non-traditional classroom ideas generated we are building now)

• Stage one – Discussing building around a pedagogy of participation, why different styles of building may be better than others

• Stage two – Working together to modify the space and build new configurations

‘Modding the Metaverse’ workshop

What we learned:• It is possible for a large group to collaborate in SL

modifying a space• BUT, it is not easy – there is a skills barrier, and clear

design brief is needed• As others have noted, many enjoy some familiarity,

linking them to the first life classroom – such as chairs, or a school tshirt

• Maintaining order in the group is more difficult than first life!

• Modding took place but mostly rebuilding, predominantly in circular designs – none of these had a roof

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLY6Ig9SR8Y/

Blended reality learning?

• Since virtual environments are inherently different than first life classrooms we suggest that:

• Space design and activities are best build around learning outcomes, in order to augment rather than attempt to replicate

• Replication of the first life classroom and modes of teaching serves no purpose (other than basic distance learning and collaboration opportunities)

What are some useful strategies for educators in

virtual worlds?• Educators need to understand that virtual worlds bring out certain responses in participants

• Perhaps in part because of the cultural framing of the space and associated expectations of participation and play

• The first things students often do:– Edit their appearance– Dance and try out gestures/animations– Run and jump around, push into each other– Fly around– Start talking and not listening to the instructor

What are some useful strategies for educators in

virtual worlds?• Build (or visit) a variety of spaces, do not

expect students to sit still in a virtual classroom build and be engaged

• Harness the power of their drive to play and explore

• Find activities that are participatory, related to learning objectives

• If you can, start with what students generally want to do first anyway, participate in the activity with them and then discuss relevance

• Get to know other educators using virtual worlds – share ideas and lessons learned!

• There is a large community of educators using SL – a good place to start is the SL and education and SL Researchers mailing lists

• A good reference for developing engaging course work is “101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom” (Conklin, 2007)

• Intellagirl Tully, Lyr Lobo, Anya Ixchel, Professor Beliveau

Joanna Robinson / JoannaTrail BlazerResearch Associate

GNWC – Masters of Digital Media Programjoanna@gnwc.ca

Co-Author: Tracy KennedyCommunities & Technologies Research Group,

Microsoft