Virtual World Best Practices in Education
(VWBPE) 2010
Date/Time: Friday March 12 at 4:00 p.m. PST/SL
Location: VWBPE West 1
Panelists:
Real life name: Daniel Laughlin, Ph.D. (Chair)
Contact: Email address: daniel.d.laughlin@nasa.gov Avatar name: Greyark Hightower
Real life name: Mary Anne Clark, Ph.D.
Avatar name: Max Chatnoir
Real life name: Debbie Denise Reese, Ph.D.
Avatar name: Frecka Salsman
Real life name: Carolyn Lowe, Ph.D.
Avatar name: Clowey Greenwood
Panel Title: SciLands Best Practices in Education Panel and Discussion
Panel Description:
The SciLands is a mini-continent and user community in the virtual world platform Second Life devoted exclusively to science and technology. There are over 20 science and technology related organizations in the SciLands, including government agencies, universities and museums. SciLands members have regular meetings in Second Life where they share ideas, help each other, and plan future projects. Our panel will be composed of representative from SciLands islands that conduct and study education in Second Life. Members of the panel will briefly present on their projects and the best practice lessons learned at Biome, Genome, MoonWorld and NASA eEducation islands.
Participants will be better prepared to plan their own educational activities in Second Life and similar virtual worlds based on the combined experience shared by the panelist.
Include links to relevant Web sites or electronic copies of the materials you will share
Biome Island:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/BIOME/42/57/70
Genome Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genome/120/145/54
MoonWorld http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2010/pdf/1439.pdf
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/pdf/2229.pdf http://moonworld.cet.edu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXpTKp35clg http://slurl.com/secondlife/MoonWorld/173/173/319/?title=Welcome%20to%20MoonWorld
NASA eEducation Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/NASA eEducation/128/159/43 http://www.nasa.gov/education/LT
SciLands • www.scilands.org
Short Bio of Panelist:
Real life name: Daniel Laughlin, Ph.D. (Chair)
Real life organization: NASA Learning Technologies, University of Maryland Baltimore County Email address: daniel.d.laughlin@nasa.gov Avatar name: Greyark Hightower
Real life name: Mary Anne Clark, Ph.D.
Real life organization: Texas Wesleyan University Email address: mclark@txwes.edu Avatar name: Max Chatnoir
Real life name: Debbie Denise Reese, Ph.D.
Real life organization: Wheeling Jesuit University Center for Educational Technologies, NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future
Email address: debbie@cet.edu
Avatar name: Frecka Salsman
Real life name: Carolyn Lowe, Ph.D.
Real life organization: Northern Michigan University Email address: clowe@nmu.edu Avatar name: Clowey Greenwood
Published on Slideshare with permission of the participants.
65. Real life name: Daniel Laughlin, Ph.D. (Chair) Real life organization: NASA Learning Technologies, University of Maryland Baltimore County Email address: [email_address] Avatar name: Greyark Hightower Real life name: Mary Anne Clark, Ph.D. Real life organization: Texas Wesleyan University Email address: [email_address] Avatar name: Max Chatnoir Real life name: Debbie Denise Reese, Ph.D. Real life organization: Wheeling Jesuit University Center for Educational Technologies, NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future Email address: [email_address] Avatar name: Frecka Salsman Real life name: Carolyn Lowe, Ph.D. Real life organization: Northern Michigan University Email address: [email_address] Avatar name: Clowey Greenwood Panelists
Editor's Notes
1. I’m Debbie Denise Reese (a.k.a in Second Life as Frecka Salsman), senior educational researcher at the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future, working on the MoonWorld project.
2. Virtual worlds afford real-time transaction with the physical and social environment. Best practice for education must concentrate on transactions: On what people DO. We specialize in game-based and virtual worlds that are analogs of targeted domains.
3. In MoonWorld, we engage players as Explorers on the Moon, conducting lunar science field work within a realistic environment. MoonWorld Explorers engage in authentic inquiry on a hypothetical area of the Moon based upon the Timocharis region.
4. MoonWorld is a virtual lunar landscape that is designed to explore learning opportunities in virtual worlds such as Second Life. MoonWorld players work in teams of four in the role of planetary field geologists.
5. MoonWorld engages players in collaborative learning through authentic field work. Players conduct an inquiry to answer the investigation question: “What is the sequence of formation of features on the Moon?”
6. The MoonWorld mission conducts over seventeen field stations. Players explore Moon topography by measuring station features and Moon morphology by describing station features. Then the Explorers analyze and interpret their data.
7. Players observe the terrain at and surrounding the field station. They measure and collect samples of lunar materials. They also drill a core sample.
8. You can watch videos of MoonWorld, prepared by our development company, Avatrian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXpTKp35clg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hiiNTGFRjQ&feature=email
9. Explorer teams complete the seventeen field stations and then return to the Moonbase Research facility. Here they analyze the Moon samples and the drill core sample, guided by integration questions.
10. A snapshot showing a MoonWorld Explorer conducting analysis inside the Moonbase research facility. This shows the mapping of samples to the terrain, and the match between samples and the drill core sample layers.
11. A snapshot showing a different angle of the Moonbase research facility. This snapshot gives the viewer a look at the rock sample analysis table, the lunar world map, the drill core sample, and the guide investigation questions.
12. Technical best practice: (a) web integration (registration, database backend/reporting) and (b) in-world innovations (sizing/proportions of features/avatars, bypassing inventory, customized themes/viewers, consistent HUD-based instructions, and cam control).
13. Slide showing two images. 1. The MoonWorld Moonbase equipment room display of mission tools and (2) a MoonWorld Explorer in a spacesuit using the drill to sample the composition of the Moon’s layers.
14. Two snapshots of the MoonWorld HUD. The HUD is designed to model the experience of viewing through the helmet of a spacesuit. It contains the MoonWorld tools, the system for HUD-based instructions, and the camera and elevation reporting controls.
15. Register for missions through MoonWorld’s website or within SL at the MoonWorld sim orbiter. Individuals new to Second Life who register through our website, moonworld.cet.edu, can create an avatar and enter MoonWorld directly through our registration application programming interface (reg API).
16. In 2010 we will port MoonWorld to Open Sim: allowing teens, families, and informal educators to share MoonWorld missions. We will add mission life support challenges and website support materials. We hope to offer training, certification, and mentoring.
17. Please visit us in-world at MoonWorld, on the web at http://moonworld.cet.edu. You can contact Debbie Denise Reese using debbie@cet.edu or in world as Frecka Salsman.