David W. Deeds' presentation for the June 20th Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable.

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David W. Deeds
Virtual Worlds
Education Roundtable
June 20, 2013

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Goals:
 Provide overview of what I’ve been
doing with Second Life (and other
“serious games”) for the past 7 years
(3 higher ed, 4 K-12), also plans for
the future
 No DBP (Death By PowerPoint), so
please interrupt me with questions
and/or comments!

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Opened first Second Life cybercampus
for South Korean university back in
2006

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Was professor for new International
Business Department, Chinese and
other students couldn’t speak English

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Big success with everyone but teachers
and administrators, decided to switch to
international schools in 2009

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Students too young for SL, so switched
to OpenSimulator via ReactionGrid

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IT Manager/Teacher for Changchun
American International School in China:
 Focused on OpenSimulator, but as of
2010 used SL for IB DP ITGS course
 Introduced Quest
Atlantis, MinecraftEdu, Alice/Scratch;
flirted with Unity/Jibe
 Presented at 7 international edtech
conferences during 2011, 6 in 2012

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Now Technology Integration Specialist
for Colegios Peterson (Peterson
Schools):
 Use SL for IB DP ITGS course
 OpenSimulator for Computer
Workshop, later all kids 3-15
 Tried Alice and Quest Atlantis, results
have been mixed, different reasons
 Big success with Scratch 2D and 3D

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Peterson Schools SL Cybercampus:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching%206/237/21
1/25/

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Genome Island Tour

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Example Project: NAIS Challenge 20/20
 Partner school in Athens, GA, USA
 Used SL cybercampus as
headquarters
 Students studied global
warming, started virtual education
center
 Cross-curricular lesson plans
 Will continue next year, expand on
programming

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Things happening next school year:
 Presentation to Tri-Association on
creating “3D Global Village” via
OpenSimulator (SL for
students/teachers)
 Plan to introduce World of Warcraft
(maybe Guild Wars too)
 3D printing, tying together SL and
other creations
 Maybe Unity/Jibe with computer

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Things happening next school year:
 Emphasis on “everything online,”
2D/3D
 Sudden fascination with Games-
Based Learning, MinecraftEdu big
eye-opener
 Expansion to younger kids using the
cool stuff too
 Switch to iPads, mobiles versus

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Fits in with “21st century
teaching/learning”:
 Students being in charge of their own
learning process/experience
 Collaboration/cooperation (project
management)
 Ultimate problem-solving (task-
oriented) environments

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Quest Atlantis

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MinecraftEdu

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Alice/Scratch (2D and 3D)!

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World of Warcraft

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Guild Wars

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Cultural comparisons/contrasts:
 Biggest factor is private versus public
 Next is International Baccalaureate
versus other systems
 Asian kids terrified at first, then get
used to it; Others love it at first, then
realize it’s a lot more work!

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Cultural comparisons/contrasts:
 Students get it, teachers don’t…yet
 Struggling with government
regulations here, not a factor in China
 Some fears related to online in
general
 Biggest fear is loss of control

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Follow my Scoop.it page:
http://www.scoop.it/t/3d-virtual-worlds-
educational-technology

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Thank you! Questions/Comments?
Contact me:
ddeeds@peterson.mx
davidwdeeds@yahoo.com