Best Practice of Education2009 Workshop

Last Saturday March 28th Best Practice of Education Conference was held. The presentations took place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and keynote speakers like Pathfinder Linden were among those who spoke about Second LIfe and its use for Educational Purposes.

Inside our MUVEnation group, some participants decided to take part in BPE2009 and offer a workshop. Among the 4 groups, together with two more colleagues we decided to participate and give a presentation.

We chose 'Educational Boards' to show young SL educators how they are managed for different purposes. Fabrizia and Morgen,my two colleagues from MUVEnation group joined and together we discussed about our presentation.

After several in-world meetings a whole workshop came up. We agreed that I would start presenting 2 educational Boards as : Xytext Notecard reader and Brainboard 4.0, both belonging to Gavin Dudeney's creations.



Fabrizia decided to present a PictureBoard and a Brochure display where textures can be added to the board and it can also be used as a Hud, giving more freedom to the user and to be able to display the textures without much interference.a>

In the brochure you can add landmarks and it also displays pictures enlarged that are better seen by the audience. As the following picture shows.



Morgen presented a tool that was very easy to manage, since you just pass textures to the board and they are automatically shown. This gives an extra advantage to educators in SL enabling teachers to use these tools in an easy way.

Joining the 4 tools we decided to round up the workshop asking the participants to imagine a class where some of these tools were part of their teaching.



Participants were eager trying the different tools, asking details about resizing boards and textures and found extra uses to be applied in their classes.

After our first successful Conference presentaion, we joined next to a sign that Marga, our tutor in MUVEnation built to gather participants to show the works that the 4 different groups presented. Unfortunately I was not present when the pictures were taken, but I managed to add myself as this pictures shows....



Most of the members of the presenters groups gather and finally we celebrated with 'red wine' the success of each other's presentations.
It was a nice way to know how to :

*face difficulties while giving your workshop
*understand the importance of rehearsing
*know how to work and develop an activity in collaboration with others avatars
*understand the importance of sharing information with your colleagues so as to be
ready to cover each other's job
*take advantage of strengthening your bonds with colleagues in activities like this

Second participation on ' Hands on Workshop'

On Sunday I attended my second workshop in Second Life. It was about 'texture' and how to play with the different options.

The workshop was recreated in a similar RL classroom with even a sign outside mentioning the word 'classroom'. According to the advertising of the event, none or little knowledge was required. Just to rezz and build a box.

There were 6-8 participants and the way it was developed was with the instructor sitting at the front communicating with the participants via 'chat'.



The instructor specifically mentioned that questions were going to be posted when she finished each module in where she divided the presentation about how to manage textures and that no IM was going to be answered while the teaching was shown.
This showed a little bit of toughness in the delivery of the instruction not letting participants clarify their doubts while instructions were given.

He/she made a good introduction of the topic so as to let people 'tun in' with the subject. He/she also divided into stages so as to go back to the process that was not understood in a better way.

I tried asking some questions and the instructor replied, though at a certain time of the workshop the instructor started speeding up as if just wanted to fullfil what was programme more than what participants understood about the process.



I personally could just follow half of the workshop,not being able to fullfil some of the tasks that were mentioned near the end.

At the end of it, the instructor handed me out her classplan so as to follow and revise it for any doubt. He/she also stayed for a while for further explanations or doubts that the participants wanted to ask.

This workshop was 'free' though a tip jar was at the stage where the instructor was and it was mentioned at the end that if we had enjoyed the presentation we were invited to tip on so as to help maitaining the place.

After the class finished, I asked the instructor the two questions requested based on : what did he/she consider important when giving workshops, and the instructor emphasized the best way to do a lesson plan is to do it on your own and then record the process to get there. He/she also suggested doing a video and then everybody tune into it.

I also asked about tips for effective workshops and he/she replied :The best way to go is have everyone partipate. Just a lecture is tough in SL even though all the notes can be logged and recorded so he/she uses note cards to keep the info organized.

So, from my point of view the positive aspect I saw from this workshop was the organization and preparation that the instructor had before the class, but I guess he/she should not be so demanding in terms of giving too much content to participants who have little of none experience in the subject they will teach.
I believe that part of this management might be since he/she was not a teacher who was trained to give classes and it was also the second time she/he did so in SL.

This place offers people to volunteer and teach what they feel comfortable with an ability they might have no matter if they are teachers or not.

Would I return to this place to learn more? I guess not. I would be afraid of leaving with the same impression of not being able to understand all till the end of the process.

Instructions in SL should be 'short' and clear' and a lot of reinforcement through different proceedures should be given when there are so demanding classes to be taught. That's my personal view.

Hands on workshops in Second Life - MUVEnation task for experienced SL users

Yesterday I attended a FREE workshop on creating HUDs at ICE (Institue for Cooperative Education ).


The workshop lasted 2 hours and the training was available for a limited number of 20 people.
The instructor was really good. I was gladly surprised to see how well she managed the class assiting individuals all the time it was requested.
She was always supportive and helpful and all the content was carefully planned to be followed by attendants.

She tools used were text chat and a board to show images so as to support the instructions she was giving.



By chance we met with Bonbon who was also attending the same workshop and it was really fantastic to have gone together so as to share views about it. Bonbon was very helpful as well since I had a little problem in my PC near the end and could not follow the workshop in the way I would have liked, so, she gladly offered herself to help me with the instructions given.



At the end of the worshop, we interviewed the instructor, Hannah, who continued showing her willigness and involvement in our activity and gladly answered our questions apart from inviting us to join a party at the end of the class where she also suggested us interviewing Lishi, one of the Administrators at ICE. Lishi was also very patient and cooperative with us answering the questions we had already addressed to Hannah and also offering extra information about courses given at her University.



So, my summary regarding the assessment to this task is:

1- The spatial was an emulation of RL mixed with an open space
2- The learning objectives and the instructions were structured and pre-prepared
3- The learning material was given in folders. The course was free mixed with free donations
4- No prior knowledge was requested and the instructions covered several technical issues
5- The communication dynamic was Tutor-Learner-Tutor
6- The activities shown were exclusively to be used in a 3D environment
7- The teaching approach was focused on rules and procedures
8- The follow up evaluation was made through text chat and the feedback was formative
9- The revisions of key concepts from the workshop were systematic

Regarding Hannah and Lishi responses towards what the considered most important when delivering workshops in Second LIfe, Hannah replied : that you have to learn to pace the class for the mayority of the students and that's more difficult without the f2f feedback and the international aspect.
On the other hand, Lishi said that for her 'preparation' was the key aspect in all.

(Bonbon and me interviewing Hannah after class)


About the second question on: Do you have any tip/advice on teaching/presentig workshops in Second Life? , Hannah replied: I highly recommend the 'Teachers in Creation' that will be given here (ICE), once things settle down a bit.
Lishi kept remarking the key element of 'preparation' for all .

I would like to thank Margarita and Steven for the useful grid they've prepared and Hannah and Lishi for the wonderful workshop organized at ICE!

Communication and Interaction Tools in Second Life

It's almost Christmas Eve and we have just finished our cooperative activity based on
'Communication and Interaction' tools in Second Life.

The activity involved was to collect a number of Educational tools that could be useful for teachers in Second LIfe to help their teaching where Communication and Interaction is involved.

It's been a very rewarding task. We have conformed a great group with Viki, Nergiz and Marga. The tasks were naturally divided and we found that we could complement each other perfectly well.

It's been not easy to meet in-world. The End of the year was near and all of us were
busy in our normal Real Life activities.But going back to our complementation as a group, the task could be fulfilled thanks to the cooperation of all the members. We had the luck to have Viki in our group, who is an expert in building and displaying our great BOOK where we are displaying a sample of the long list of Educational tools to develop communication in Second Life.

After deliberating we decided that a 'book' was going to be a good tool to show Educators our job, where they can take it with them and read it 'in-world' or use it as a HUD.

As I mentioned, Viki built the place where our book is displayed. YOu can see the picture here



Once you enter the place there is a 'Merry Go round' in the middle of the area where the books hung from the place giving the idea of 'movement and interaction', exactly what we will be looking for the moment you'll be experiencing the book. Image below:



Then, on both sides you have nice dispñays where the books are on show so about 6 educators can be reading the book at the same time without disturbing or waiting for others to finish.



Pages can be easily turned by touching on them. Fonts have been carefully chosen to be able to be read easily. Once reading the tool you have chosen from the 'content' page, a picture and a description of the tool on how to use it in your classes is written on the book, so you can choose and know how to make future use of it.



This Communication and Interaction book is also furnished with a notecard holding the same explanations as the book has plus the additional landmark where you can find the tool. We basically tried to include free tools in this sample, but you can find a further list on Muvenation wiki, which we will soon post.

The book can be rezzed and placed it in your favourite area to read it comfortably



or wear it as a HUD



and keep it with you while being teletransported from one sim to another to find the tools we have carefully recommended for you.

Viki,Daffodil,Paz and me, Wonderalica, hope you can find this book useful for your future development.

I take the chance to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2009. My warmest regards to Muvenation participants and all Educators who can find our job useful for their Educational lives inside Second Life!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Muvenation: Communication and Interaction tools in SL

The last activity of the year for Muvenation course was working in groups for the collection of educational tools. Among the educational tools that you can collect you can apply them for different purposes: communication and interaction, assessment and feedback, reflection, creationg of content, delivery learning material, etc.

As individuals we had to choose a purpose, and my choice was : communication and interaction. For that activity you had to create inside your group a hud, tour guide or book to show Educators about Educational tools you've chosen.

I found this proposed activity very challenging, since I immediately got enthusiastic. It was a chance to gather useful information for other educators about Educational tools that we can either know or discover and put them on show.

We are about to finish our project and in a few days I'll be able to post the work we've done in collaboration with other educators that participate in the same course.

alicia
(Wonderalica Alturas)