possible applications of Second Life in higher education

2. Courses: time frames, focus, and student experience Brought in a summer course too & will be bringing into a course this fall – used as part of the “discussion” areas; these are mostly 100% online courses

3. Small meetings with students: office hours

4. Class meeting at another island (ISTE) – students lead

5. Class meeting in MAT Science Center: student presentations on uses of SL

6. Class meeting in MAT Science Center: student presentations – the presenter is standing

7. Field trip to ISTE: small groups

8. Non-science class: speaker & questions / an MAT 1 st year teacher / speech & text questions

9. Virtual and interactive experiences are possible: NOAA – real-time weather map (Northeast)

10. Non-science class: class members presenting / notice the interactive/supportive companion text chat

11. Guest speaker from Indiana: assistive technologies / not feasible otherwise – I meet Dan in SL

12. Field trip to Genome Island: small group of bio teachers / meeting Quebec teachers

13. Professional meeting that students and I “crashed”

14. Meet deans and other unsavory characters in SL

15. Best expressed through an instructional metaphor : like designing an intelligent experience (field trip / discussions / role playing / construction) . . . with an assessment More advanced uses

17. Basic / not-too-difficult

18. Designing an SL portion to a course Course objectives Is there a requirement for collaboration, sharing, discussion? Meeting arrangements Some required time, at least initially Give multiple times for participation if online course Tasks & conversations Discussions / role playing / guest speakers Overheard – real discussions Collaboration spaces You don’t have to be there all the time Require documenting & reporting; snapshots in Shared experiences Field trips / presentations / scavenger hunts Put PowerPoint into SL for presentations (it’s easy) Methods of gaining SL expertise Tutorial / handouts / peer tutoring / tech support Posit, expect and support awkwardness & learning curve Ways of communicating Voice chatting (w/ headsets) is useful with smaller group In larger groups, determine who speaks and have others use text

19. Considering students & their learning curve Issue Ways instructor can help - Technology requirements - In the school lab if possible; alternatives if necessary - Finding time to learn SL - Embed learning SL as an early assignment - Time to overcome awkwardness - Instructor can model learning and awkwardness (generally easy to do); have a field trip - Problems with scheduling - Have multiple sessions and/or times & ways to participate - Problems with voice chatting - Work with them on their audio / headset settings; get tech help if possible; use text chatting as a backup - Problems with collaborating - Provide structured / required interactions until groups can work on their own - Problems with valuing SL - Don’t expect all will “like” SL at the start; over time more come to value the experience