An Experienced Austrian Educator's View on the 3-D Skills Implemented to Design and Integrate an Alien Mystery in OpenSim

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella K. Hadjistassou ◽  
Judith Molka-Danielsen
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
School Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Training Stage ◽  
Task Oriented

With their playful game-oriented nature, virtual learning environments can form constructive ecosocial settings for enacting game-driven collaborative tasks that have real pedagogical, learning, and teaching implications. Even though multiple studies have been undertaken in virtual learning environments, there is a dearth of studies on the constellation of complex interrelated skills and knowledge that second or foreign language educators integrate in actual situated contexts to design and offer task-oriented game-driven learning activities. Building on Compton's (2009) framework, this study investigates the complex set of technological, pedagogical, and evaluation skills that an expert Austrian educator, Franziska integrated to design a multifaceted game-oriented plot in the virtual village of Chatterdale in OpenSim in order to engage thirteen-year-old Austrian and Norwegian high school students in oral interactions during three slightly different task-oriented quests to solve an alien mystery. Data analysis of an interview, reflective comments on a wiki, and follow-up emails indicate that the design and integration of an epistemic game in praxis forms a collaborative endeavor involving the integration of a set of complex and multifaceted sets of skills and knowledge. The study investigates the skills that emerged during two stages, the planning, preparation, and student training stage and integration stage. The findings of this study can be used to broaden the pedagogical discussion on the skills and knowledge that second or foreign language teachers need to acquire and apply to design successful playful task-driven learning quests in virtual learning environments.

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR ESL COURSES

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-243
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria CHISEGA-NEGRILĂ
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environments ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Online Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Face To Face

Abstract: As the time in which online teaching and learning was still an element of novelty has long been gone, virtual learning environments have to be studied thoroughly so that they will provide students not only with the necessary knowledge, but also with the proper tools to meet their learning objectives. The advancement in information technology and the access to an almost inordinate number of learning and teaching tools should have already been fructified and, as a result, not only teachers, but also learners should have already picked up the fruit of knowledge grown in the vast virtual environment of the Internet. However, as education has recently moved almost entirely online, some questions have arisen. Are the Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) enough to offer ESL students both motivation and knowledge? Will foreign languages benefit from this growing trend or will traditional, face-to-face interaction, prove to have been more efficient? The present article will look into some of these questions and into the benefits of VLEs in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Using 3-D Virtual Learning Environments to Improve Listening Skill

2015 ◽  
pp. 296-312
Author(s):  
Ramazan Zengin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
Teaching Context ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Listening Skill

The recent developments in educational technologies have given opportunity to the use of various Internet-based resources, apps and Interactive Multimedia Software. This variety has provided freedom for foreign language learners to reach multiple sources of technology. The immersive nature of 3-D virtual learning environments such as the Second Life may provide many new opportunities for authentic communication, cooperative creation of content, and multiple modes of information processing in the context of foreign language learning. This chapter will discuss how these new technologies can be used in language classrooms to improve students' listening skill which is important for effective communication. In the digital age, new technologies are repositioning listening as an important ‘new' literacy where new resources can be used to provide a better learning-teaching context. Today's young people known as “digital natives” are born into a digital world, and they spend hours in front of their digital devices.

scholarly journals VIRTUAL EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE TRAINING OF A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETENT FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mira Kanbakova ◽  
Mariana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Educational Environment ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Pedagogical Training

The article characterizes the basis of the notion of a virtual educational environment: its interpretations, specific features and criteria. It also provides justification in favor of the importance of this concept in pedagogical training as well as a set of drawbacks. The analysis of scientific works of foreign and domestic researchers within the framework of the topic is carried out. The purpose of this article is to analyze and reveal the foundations of virtual learning environments from the point of view of its significance for a competent and developed teacher of a foreign language.

Multi-User Virtual Learning Environments in Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 146-159
Author(s):  
Nancy Sardone ◽  
Roberta Devlin-Scherer
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Games ◽  
Beginning Teacher ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
School Students

Today’s middle school students represent a generation growing up where digital tools abound and where using them for home and school is the norm. Virtual learning environments to include multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) are fairly new to formal educational settings as teaching and learning tools but are growing in popularity. These learning environments have an ability to reach all levels of students in ways that are both familiar and appealing. This chapter reviews interest and trends in educational games and describes beginning teacher reactions to using one of these critical thinking tools designed for middle school students. Recommendations for future implementation in classrooms are made. Faculty perspectives about these newer forms of educational technology are explored.

scholarly journals Rethinking the Insights from Good Language Learner Studies: Moroccan Learners of EFL as a Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Bendaoud Nadif ◽  
Driss Benattabou
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Achievement Test ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
School Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
The Relationship

Over the recent decades, there has been a growing research interest in placing learners at the heart of any enterprise pertaining to foreign language learning and teaching. Alongside the growth of new perspectives and theories in cognitive psychology and foreign language learning and teaching, research has shifted its focus from the teacher and learning outcomes to the learners and the learning processes. Correspondingly, researchers emphasize the significance of making the learning and teaching paradigms more supportive and responsive to learners’ needs and interests to fully play more active and participatory roles. Drawing on researchers’ contributions in the area of good language learner studies, this paper sets out to examine the relationship between the characteristics of GLLs and language achievement. For this purpose, a sample of (N = 98) senior Moroccan high school students took an EFL achievement test and responded to the GLL questionnaire as designed and developed by Constantinides (2013). Using a Spearman correlational coefficient test and regression analysis, results show that GLLs’ scores significantly correlate (r = .81) and reliably predict the respondents’ achievement test scores. The paper ends with a conclusion and some pedagogical implications to promote EFL learning and teaching.

scholarly journals The Effects of Enhancing Prospective EFL Teachers' Knowledge Management Strategies in Virtual Learning Environments on Their Ideational Flexibility and Engagement

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Ammar Abdullah Mahmoud Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
The Impact

The last few years have witnessed an increased interest in moving away from traditional language instruction settings towards more hybrid and virtual learning environments. Face-to-face interaction, guided practice, and uniformity of knowledge sources and skills are all replaced by settings where multiplicity of views from different learning communities, interconnectedness, self-directedness, and self-management of knowledge and learning are increasingly emphasized. This shift from walled-classroom instruction with its limited scope and resources to hybrid and virtual learning environments with their limitless provisions requires that learners be equipped with requisite skills and strategies to manage knowledge and handle language learning in ways commensurate with the nature and limitless possibilities of these new environments. The current study aimed at enhancing knowledge management strategies of EFL teachers in virtual learning environments and examine the impact on their ideational flexibility and engagement in language learning settings. A knowledge management model was proposed and field-test on a cohort of prospective EFL teachers in the Emirati context. Participants were prospective EFL teachers enrolled in the Methods of Teaching Courses and doing their practicum in the Emirati EFL context. Participants' ideational flexibility was tapped via a bi-methodical approach including a contextualized task and a decontextualized one. Their engagement in virtual language learning settings was tapped via an engagement scale. Results of the study indicated that enhancing prospective EFL teachers' knowledge management strategies in virtual learning environments had a significant impact on their ideational flexibility and engagement in foreign language learning settings. Details of the instructional intervention, instruments for tapping students’ ideational flexibility and engagement, and results of the study are discussed. Implications for foreign language teaching/learning along with suggestions for further research are also provided.Keywords: Knowledge management, ideational flexibility, student engagement

scholarly journals Maintaining Middle School Students’ Engagement in Virtual Learning Environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Blanca Ibarra ◽  
Pierre Lu
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
Social Studies Teachers ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
School Students

The current COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for teachers as they transition to teaching in virtual learning environments. Virtual learning environments have forced educators to adapt teaching strategies and become creative and innovative to maintain student engagement (Korkmaz & Toraman, 2020). Middle school social studies teachers have always dealt with a lack of student interest in learning history, and the current instructional setting is requiring a reimagined teacher craft to deliver high-quality instruction. The interaction between students and teachers often depends on the content, highly effective questioning, choice in response methods, technology tools, or learning platforms (Czerkawski & Lyman, 2016). A conceptual understanding of the types of engagement, including cognitive, affective, and behavioral (Buric & Franzel, 2020; Raes, Vanneste, Pieters, Windey, Van Den Noortgate & Depaepe, 2020; Van Uden, Ritzen & Pieters, 2013; Ding, Kim & Orey, 2017) will help inform the types of instructional strategies that will be most effective at increasing and maintaining student engagement. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences and problems associated with engaging students in virtual learning environments for middle school social studies teachers in a border school district with over 40,000 students. The overarching theme that emerged from the data collected was that teachers play a significant role in creating a learning environment that supports students, encourages participation through interactive technology, and nurtures relationships to promote student engagement. Findings suggest educators understand the challenges educators face to keep students engaged and motivated, and some of the best practices that can increase student engagement in virtual learning.

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