scholarly journals On the MUVE or in decline: Reflecting on the sustainability of the Virtual Birth Centre developed in Second Life

Author(s):  
Sarah Stewart ◽  
Deborah Davis

<span>Pressures in terms of the availability of quality, real-life clinical experiences for students have resulted in increased interest in the use of simulation in a variety of healthcare disciplines. </span><em>Te wahi whanau: The birth place</em><span> is a Virtual Birth Centre (VBC) that was created in </span><em>Second Life</em><span> in 2009 as part of the Second Life Education in New Zealand (SLENZ) initiative. It was introduced to midwifery students at two New Zealand polytechnics, with the aim of exposing the students to a birth centre environment and providing them with an opportunity to practise midwifery through immersion and engagement in a number of clinical scenarios. It has been just over two years since the development of the VBC, yet it is no longer used in the midwifery programs in which it was introduced. Using the VBC as a case study, we recount its development and critically reflect on the factors impacting on its ongoing utilisation. We believe our reflections offer useful insight into issues relating more broadly to the sustainability of MUVE-based teaching and learning projects and initiatives.</span>

Author(s):  
Paulo Frias ◽  
Ricardo N. Fernandes ◽  
Ricardo Cruz

This project is a proposal for a case study that aims to describe and understand communicative and pedagogical processes involved in Second Life® (SL™) in a context of second language learning, by modelling in-world lessons of Portuguese as a second language for ERASMUS students1 arriving in Portugal. The purpose is to provide examples of situated e-learning driven activities and perceive how an immersive context stimulates learning by involving students in a virtual reality situation, where real life language context situations are provoked and where ‘not possible in real life’ learning routines happen. This will allow experiencing the advantages of this platform compared to physical life teaching and learning contexts, through the inherent characteristics of this medium, such as the synchronous and simultaneous use of voice and text.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Renol Aprico Siregar

As teaching is considered as a lifelong process, teachers should always intend to develop themselves to be able to effectively conduct the teaching and learning process. This study aimed at exploring the view of pre-service English teachers towards the effective 21st-century teachers’ pedagogical competence and how they develop their pedagogical competence for their future teaching. The data were obtained through interviews and questionnaires. The study was qualitatively conducted as a case study by involving 12 pre-service English teachers purposively chosen due to their familiarity with the study issue. The results indicated that in terms of 21st-century education, the participants perceived that the pedagogical competence focused on teachers’ capability of integrating the technology in classrooms and teachers’ ability to exploit adjusted methods and materials which furnish students with skills appropriate to their future real-life careers.  Further, there were eight very crucial traits of effective 21st-century pedagogical competence perceived by the participants. They were extended to; facilitating and inspiring students to learn creatively, utilizing, designin


Author(s):  
Susan Martin Meggs ◽  
Sharon Kibbe ◽  
Annette Greer

This chapter provides a comprehensive case study to demonstrate the longitudinal development of online pedagogy for higher education through a lens of interior design. The chapter presents constructivist theory as a guiding pedagogical framework for the creation of learning environments within Second Life (SL) virtual reality. Details of the rigorous process of incorporation of SL, as an enhancement to a traditional course with a laboratory component, is presented to validate the integrity of the scholarship of teaching and learning undertaken in the exemplar case study. The concluding components of the chapter review the iterative process of course outcome evaluation compared to course and accreditation standards to further demonstrate the educational value of virtual reality as an environment for learning.


Author(s):  
Galip Kartal ◽  
Cem Balçıkanlı

This study aimed at investigating the effects of using a virtual world, Second Life (SL), on the motivation of Turkish EFL student teachers. First, a 10-week real-life task syllabus was designed and conducted in SL. Focus-group interviews were utilized to enhance the quality of the tasks. Then, the effects of SL on motivation were tracked via qualitative research tools, namely semi-structured interviews, weekly evaluation forms, and observations. The findings showed that SL was effective in increasing motivation of the participating student teachers. The characteristics of the virtual world that were reported to have an effect on motivation were as follows: natural environment, realistic places, anxiety-free environment, excitement, and visual support. This chapter provides possibilities for those who are interested in employing virtual world technologies in foreign/second language teaching and learning and finally describes an investigation into the role of the virtual world in relation to affordances such technologies present across the globe.


Author(s):  
Lea Kuznik

Virtual worlds for adults (e.g. Second Life), youth (e.g. Habbo) and children (e.g. Whyville) have a great potential for learning and teaching practices for enriching wider public and engendering collective experience and collaboration. Informal learning environments such as educational virtual worlds offer children and adults various intellectual and sensory activities or »crystallized« experiences with reinforcing multiple intelligences, according to Gardner. Virtual worlds promote social interaction and offer visitors an opportunity for various interactive activities which can sometimes not be realized in real life education. Children and adults can explore and learn in a different way and from a different perspective, e.g. with educational games and simulations. Virtual worlds represent a new medium that allows people to connect in new virtual ways and offer new challenges in the educational field.


Author(s):  
David M. Antonacci ◽  
Nellie Modaress ◽  
Edward Lee Lamoureux ◽  
David Thomas ◽  
Timothy Allen

User-created virtual worlds are emerging technologies with rapidly growing acceptance in education. Of the various reported educational uses of these virtual worlds, the focus of this chapter is on virtual worlds for constructivist learning activities, because this use has application to many real-life courses and has the potential to transform teaching and learning. To assist educators with recognizing and understanding virtual world learning activities, Antonacci & Modaress (2005, 2008) developed the Interaction-Combinations Integration model. However, this model has not been studied in actual virtual-world learning practice. Using a case study method, this chapter examines the usefulness of this model to organize and describe actual virtual world learning activities, provides additional learning activity examples, and describes what was needed to implement and conduct these learning activities.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Barnes

Virtual worlds have been purported to provide a fertile bed for marketing and brand-building for real-life companies. In Second Life, for example, there was a flurry of media hype and activity by companies in the period from 2007-2008. Several years on, however, the reality is that most of the big name brands have pulled out of Second Life. One of the reasons for this is the poor level of value generated for customers by the virtual brand experience, poor interactivity, a lack of brand and channel fit, and inadequate understanding of virtual communities. Recently, a new form of more targeted brand offerings has emerged. Branded virtual worlds, many of which are targeted at the youth segment, are growing rapidly. Many of these worlds attempt to bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds, including advertising and real-world tie-ins, as well as subscriptions and digital micro-transactions. This paper examines one such virtual world, buildabearville.com, and its real-world counterpart, Build-a-Bear Workshop. This successful case study has become increasingly important in driving revenues and cross-channel activity for the company. The paper rounds off with conclusions and implications for practice in this very new area of investigation.


Author(s):  
Jiuguang Feng ◽  
Liyan Song

Various advantages of Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) have been identified in literature. However, MUVEs have not been widely adopted in educational settings due to technical and pedagogical challenges. This chapter discusses a qualitative case study that examines how Second Life, as a MUVE, was diffused on a university campus. Both instructors and students’ perspectives were examined using interviews, observations, and survey data collection methods. The theory of diffusion of innovation was used as a theoretical framework in both the design of the study and the analysis of the data. The findings from the study indicate that although the future application of MUVE can be promising, various challenges exist for instructors to adopt Second Life in their instruction.


Author(s):  
Sarah D. Kirby ◽  
Debra M. Sellers

This chapter follows efforts of an online community of practice whose mission is to make individual educational experiences for family caregivers widely available. The case study illustrates the collaborative learning and creative processes of the community of practice as it worked to construct and transform informal educational content into engaging, interactive, and immersive educational tools for its intended audience. As part of its efforts, the CoP created The LiveAbility House, a virtual demonstration home, constructed in Second Life®. This virtual home is designed to teach individuals about real life universal design principles and assistive technology devices that may increase their ability to remain living at home despite physical or cognitive challenges they may encounter due to aging, illness, or disability. In addition to the creation of a virtual learning experience, the chapter also addresses plans to then take that experience out of the virtual world and apply and demonstrate learning principles in a real world setting.


CJEM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 617-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrick Mok ◽  
Nicholas Schouela ◽  
Lisa Thurgur ◽  
Michael Ho ◽  
Andrew K. Hall ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTResident education in emergency medicine (EM) relies upon a variety of teaching platforms and mediums, including real-life clinical scenarios, simulation, academic day (lectures, small group sessions), journal clubs, and teaching learners. However, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted teaching and learning, forcing programs to adapt to ensure residents can progress in their training.1 Suddenly, academic days cannot be held in person, emergency department (ED) volumes are dynamically changing, and the role of residents in ED procedures has been questioned. Furthermore, medical student rotations through the ED have been cancelled, decreasing resident exposure to undergraduate teaching. These changes to resident education threaten resident wellness and will have downstream effects on training and personal professional development. In response, programs must develop strategies to ensure that residents continue receiving high-quality training in a safe learning environment. In this review, we will cover recommended strategies put forth by two large EM programs in Ontario (Table 1).


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