Reflecting on Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World
There were many points in this article that I connected with. The first was that instructors should start by showing students what can be done in the virtual world before teaching them the basics so they can see what they'll be able to do. I think this should be the case with many things that we teach. Students need to know where we're going...they need to know "what's the point".
The next thing that caught my interest what when the author talked about students disengaging from the lessons and going into "cruise control", expecting the teacher to entertain them. The virtual world atmosphere makes them more of an active participant or explorer. Sometimes I feel like I have to do a whole show in front of my students to get them to pay attention and they expect to be entertained. They do not see learning as partially their responsibility and can get pretty defensive (sometimes their parents too) when you act as their facilitator or fellow explorer because they expect the information to be dispensed to them and not have to do any of the work. I have found though that this is not the way they learn best, so if I push past the initial resistance and stick to my methods they learn more (whether they liked it initially or not). If I could find a virtual world that was secure for my students to participate in they might enjoy this process more.
I am hoping to learn more ways that virtual worlds can be used in science classes. Hopfully once we get into the building aspect of the course I will be able to perhaps build something that would help my students make an abstract concept more concrete.
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