Second Life Virtual Tutoring :

More than Meets the Eye 

EDTC 6325/Group One Project 

John

Roy

FabianLynda

Alfredo

Second Life Overview• Creation• Usage and Popularity• Avatars• Transportation• Communication• Economy

Research• Can SL be used as an effective

tool for teaching and learning?• Potential is there• No research to support learning

outcome improvement• Investigation needed

Instructional Principles• Goals = Learning Outcomes• SL Success = Objectives• Manage Complexity• Instructional Support• Explanatory Feedback• Reflection

Useful Education/Training Resources in SL

• A.  Medical Professionals• B.  Health Librarians• C.  Educators

Medical Professionals

• The article “Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education, “ the authors explain that high definition avatars can help potential doctors be part of an operating room procedure without being there (Boulos, pg. 235). 

Post Graduate Medical School (Operating Room)

Department of Bio surgery and Surgical Technology

What medication is the patient being given? Insulin 

Health Librarians

• Health librarians can benefit from the use of Second Life as it allows potential patients to visit health centers without leaving their homes.

• An important point to address is that many people do not visit a doctor due to fear, but online Health Librarians can help  ease this issue by providing 3-D scenarios of health institutions.

•  

Info Island Collection on sports, medicine, fashion etc. 

Education

In the article Virtual Libraries on a Budget: Case Studies article we are informed that Virtual Libraries (VL) are needed due to the current budgets libraries are facing (Dalston & Pullin, 2008, pg. 30).  

The article also informs us that creating a virtual world to enhance education for learning-disabled students such as deaf students in hearing environments is just as important (Dalston & Pullin, pg. 31). 

Tutorial Overview (SL Scenario)

• Where did the lesson come from?• The Perfect Case Study• Math Tutorial

(Roy’s Part)

First Life

(Roy’s Part)

Second Life

(Roy’s Part)

Example Work

• Student Work– John Cecil– Fabian Solecado– Lynda Cannedy– Aflredo Davila

(Roy’s Part)

Experiences & Perceptions: A Lesson in SL

 

John’s Slide A

John’s Slide B

Tutoring “one on one” or independent learning

(not a classroom simulation)

 

John’s Slide C

Adapted a “real

world” lesson

 

John’s Slide D

We “were” the 2nd graders in this experiment

 

(John’s Part)John’s Slide E

John’s Slide F

Issues:

•Visual Clarity•Social Problems•“Cheating” 

John’s Slide G

SL experience conclusions:

•Good for independent work•Great for basic geometry 

John’s Slide H

Visual Documentation Screen Shots of Group 1 Meetings and the Tutorial

Experiment

Fabian, Lynda and Roy take a look around. Team members in learning area

A. Davila

A. Davila

Lynda and John meet with other team member "ghosts" possibly caused by slower connection speeds

Team members find the UTB island

Roy interacts with other avatars Team meeting in Learning Island

Screen Shots of Group 1 Meetings and the Tutorial Experiment

Screen Shots of Group 1 Meetings and the Tutorial Experiment

A. Davila

Team meeting in Learning Island

Team members discussing Project Team members examine shape building  

Visual Documentation Screen Shots of Group 1 Meetings and the Tutorial

Experiment

A. Davila

Alfredo wearing a UTB loyalty -scorpion shirt!

Lynda interacts with UTB developers

Alfredo, looking for the geometrical shapes.

Conclusion 

In surgery training and medical simulations, in virtual libraries for health and in the education field in general, Second Life has proven to be a useful teaching tool.

With Group 1’s experiment with SL geometry tutoring, advantages included greater variety in the teaching environment, more choices for shapes, and the options of independent and asynchronous work.

Complex social interactions in SL and its “uncontrolled” environment, however, are still problems to be overcome.

Greater teacher exposure and experimentation in SL can hopefully lead to more engaging lessons and student success.

Attributions

• Team One was comprised of Lynda Cannedy, Roy Campa, John Cecil, Alfredo Davila, and Fabian Salcedo.

• The SL cooperative project was conducted as part of UTB’s online EDTC6325 Educational Telecommunications course taught by Dr. Rene Corbeil during Spring 2010. 

• Photos were taken by team members from http://www.secondlife.com

ReferencesBaker, S. C., Wentz, R. K., & Woods, M. M. 

(2009). Using virtual worlds in education: second life as an educational tool. Teaching of Psychology, 36(1), 59-64.   

 Bell, D. (2009). Learning from second life. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), 515-525.

Boland, Irene. (2009). Learners' love/hate relationships with 3-d virtual worlds. Learning Solutions Magazine, 38.

Boulos, Maged N. Kamel, & Hetherington, Lee, & Wheeler, Steve. (2007).Second life: an overview of the potential of 3-d virtual worlds in medical and health education. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 24, 223-245.

Clark, Ruth Colvin, & Mayer, Richard E. (2008). Simulations and games in e-learning.  In E-learning and the science of instruction (2nd ed.)(pp. 345-378). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Cooke-Plagwitz, Jessamine, & Hung, Wei-Chen, & Luetkehans, Lara, & Omale, Nicholas. (2009). Learning in 3-d multiuser virtual environments: exploring the use of unique 3-d attributes for online problem-based learning. British Journal of Educational Instruction, 40(3), 480-495.

Dalston, Teresa, & Pullin, Michael. (2008). Virtual reference on a budget: case studies. Library Media Connection, 2008(10), 30-33.

 

Delgarno, Barney, & Lee, Mark J. W. Lee. (2010). What are the learning affordances of 3-d virtual environments? British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(1), 10-32.

 Hsu, Hui-Yin, & Wang, Shiang-Kwei. (2009). Using the ADDIE model to design second life activities for online learners. TechTrends, 53(6), 76-81.

Jarmon, Leslie, & Mayrath, Michael, & Traphagan, Tomoko. (2008). Understanding project based learning in second life with a pedagogy, training, and assessment trio. Educational Media Inernational 45(3), 157-176.

 

Schiller, S. Z. (2009). Practicing learner-centered teaching: pedagogical design and assessment of a second life project. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(3), 369-381.  

Taylor, K. C., & Chyung, S. Y. (2008). Would you adopt second life as a training and development tool? Performance Improvement, 47(8), 17-25.