E-tivity 6.1
My avatar on second life is Narbell3. My first venture was
on 25th July. I found it very lonely, although I did grab a couple
of t-shirts! Many years ago when I did a course with Charles Sturt Uni, we had
a meeting place – but there were no graphics. It was all imagination. I would
have had to type “walk down stairs”, “look around room”, and so on. There was a
set time to go there, and after milling about in the foyer, having a drink and
chatting to each other, we were ushered into a theatre where the tutor asked
questions and we had a chat session (all in text). I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that
people tend to choose an avatar which represents themselves. If mine does it is
an accident. I just chose the first one I was offered, thinking I would change
it once I got into the new world, but haven’t managed to do so successfully
yet. Hopefully when we meet on 2nd life, I will not be a goth!
Second life seems to be a similar idea – but much more
advanced. It looks like it could be fun.
The spark for e-tivity 6.2 suggests that students get a ‘sense of presence’ by
using an avatar. It does add more realism, and is definitely an improvement on
texting. Kapp and O’Driscoll (2010) make a case for using a three dimensional
world. They explain that since Avatars are often an extension of the person,
someone can become fully immersed in the virtual world. “(L)earners act and
interact in real-time with each other and the instructor to accomplish a
challenge or task”. This means it fits
in with constructivist theory very well. TAFE NSW Western Institute (2010) made
good use of it for their tourism program. It may be a tool to be considered in
the future for larger cohorts of remote students to get together and foster the
sense of collegiality and learning from each other. The examples provided also
show that it would be very successful to use for role plays, team work and case
studies, where the situations can be as realistic as possible. In fact when
someone is totally immersed they respond as they would in the real world. It
makes learning fun, while people have a sense of gaming – where they can
achieve what can’t be achieved in the real world, and yet they are learning
while they do it. Prensky (2007) says games are great teachers and great
motivators, so a learning tool which resembles a game should be very
successful.
Reference
Kapp, K.M. and O’Driscoll, T. (2010) Escaping flatland. Learning in 3D: adding a new dimension to
enterprise learning. Wiley, Hoboken.
Prensky, M. (2007) Sims
vs. Games: The Difference Defined. Eutopia. (online, accessed 27 July
2013).
TAFE NSW Western Institute (2010)The virtual tourism project. (online accessed 26 July 2013).
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