[HMDS] Educating in Second Life: What you see is not what you get
Educating in virtual worlds is an interesting thing. It can be considered distance learning, though you and the teens' avatars might be standing a couple of (virtual) meters away. It's embodied, yet somehow disembodied as well. At Global Kids, as we worked with making education happen in Second Life through our virtual summer camp, Camp Global Kids, there were many small insights we came across. This is the first in a series of posts aimed at laying out some of the distinctive ways that the real world and the virtual world differ in terms of educating.
To start, take a look at the picture below:
This was our standard meeting space on Global Kids Island in Second Life. We used it to give instructions, hold activities and engage in discussions. It's not entirely unlike the space below that Global Kids, and certainly other educators, might encounter in the real world:
In both settings the educator is sharing a physical space with the learners, that space holds the same or similar meanings for all as being one of learning, and in both there is the capacity for communication.
That being said, there are clearly many differences between the two specific examples in terms of setup, resources and general appearance, but these are not what I'm looking to focus on, as these are things that can differ between any two spaces in the real world as well. What I'd like to focus in on is what the direct experience of both the educator and the learner is in each of the settings, real and virtual, and the critical ways in which they differ.
In the educational setting pictured above, which I'll refer to as 'real world', learners will be experiencing their basic sensory phenomena both as they relate to the focus of the educational setting (the sound of the educator's voice, the sight and cognition of reading materials or graphs, meta-analysis about the subject matter, etc.) as well as ones that aren't related to the focus (the sound of teens running and chatting in the hallway, the sight of a teen magazine they have tucked in their textbook, general daydreams and thoughts about everything but the subject of the class, etc.).
Now if you take a standard snapshot of a virtual world or 'VW' educational space, it might look something like our meeting space in Second Life, posted again to the right, though this can certainly vary into any kind of physical setting you can imagine. It has seats for all, some nice plants for decor and nice views of a volcano out the windows. Pretty straightforward. You come, sit, discuss, etc., right?
Well, no, not quite right. That image leaves out about 90% of what's being experienced in the space on a sensory level. The picture below is a bit more accurate. It includes what is generally refered to as 'user interface', or UI for short.
As mentioned, in the real world space, you experience many different types of sights, sounds and other sensory phenomena. Some can generally be considered universal like most sounds and visual prompts, others are specific to a learner such as a page in the text that no one else is looking at, or just the way that an individual processes certain peices of information.
In the virtual world space, while these experiences are present in one form or another, there is a whole other layer of processing and interaction that is happening in the UI. This might include the chat history, an inventory with documents, objects and many other things, buddy lists, spatial maps and instant messages (both from either other learners and educators in the same space or people that are signed into the VW though not 'present').
Each of these elements in and of themselves merits discussion, and we'll attempt to look at these further in later posts. The main introductory point is that virtual world and real world settings, while similar in some ways, diverge in some fundamental ways in terms of the direct experience of the learner and educator on an individual basis, and that divergence is usually invisible within the space. As an educator, the key is not to take for granted what you can't see.
Comments
Rafi, Good distinction to investigate. But are you essentially looking at how 1) teens multitask much more in the virtual learning environment than in the RW, 2) while teens do multitask in the real world, those forms (like notepassing or doodling) is frowned upon while in a space like Second Life it is expected and at times encouraged, and 3) in either case, the educators still has no idea what the teens are doing?
Posted by: Barry | August 25, 2006 1:12 PM
I think the main thing that I'm attempting to say here is that Second Life offers a distinctive sensory and phenomenal experience from a general classroom or really any 'real world' educational setting.
I'm pointing specifically to the fact that in a real world setting the educator shares the majority of sensory and phenomenal experiences (excluding thoughts) with the learners, while in a virtual world another layer of experiences, that of the user interface, is added into the category of that which is not shared experience.
The distinctive characteristics of the UI and its further implications, both affordances and limitations, are essential to any investigation of educating in virtual worlds, but at the start I thought it important to lay the groundwork for an exploration of those areas.
Posted by: Rafi | August 28, 2006 10:32 AM
We should also consider what happens outside of the UI, especially when learners access the computer from a non-educational environment (e.g. the classroom).
The learner could be doing other things on the computer, such as playing games. They could also be listening to their iPod, they may have TV turned on in the backgound, their little brother could be throwing balls at their head, their parents could be fighting in the kitchen... there are plenty of other stimuli and distractions that can be taken into account when investigating the educational and behavioural implications of working in such a virtual environment, as opposed to a real environment.
Personally I wouldn't be bothered by the other things learners are attending to... if my educating/facilitating is interesting/engaging/compelling enough the learners will pay attention when needed. Also setting some group agreements/ground rules can help.
Posted by: Sean FitzGerald (aka Sean McDunnough) | October 1, 2006 1:25 AM
Sean -
Absolutely. The idea of a non-shared sensory experience when dealing with virtual worlds completely extends to not only what other things might be going on the teen's computer, but in their surrounding real life physical environment as well.
We definitely had a couple of teens in camp this past summer that were on Skype throughout each camp day. But as you said, having engaging curriculum will keep teens engaged, and they were.
What you said about guidelines is also key. One of the community guidelines that Global Kids sets with any group it works with is that of participation, and the activities we run always reflect an approach that relies on that. Having teens understand that we're not just looking to funnel information into their heads makes a big difference in having successful programs in Second Life.
Posted by: Rafi | October 3, 2006 2:57 PM