Second Life

 

Background to Proposal

The literature describes both advantages and challenges when using virtual worlds. The advantages are described as providing students with the ability to access information resources and a psychosocial community that broadens and deepens their learning experience (Antonacci & Modaress, 2005; Berge, 2008; Dede, 2005; Good, 2004;Lui, n.d.); building a sense of community (Lamb, 2006); creating interactions and activities in mediated experience not possible in the real world, such as teleporting within a virtual environment, enabling a student to see a real-time image of a local environment (Dede, 2005); and facilitating learning where students discover and create knowledge not for its own sake but in order to accomplish something they want to do, resulting in stronger comprehension and deeper knowledge (Educause Learning Initiative, 2006). The challenges are listed as needing high system requirements and time (Conklin, 2007; Skibia, 2007), ensuring that the virtual world is appropriate in terms of specific learning outcomes (Skibia, 2007), and designing learning contracts to hold students accountable for language and actions on the virtual world site. The literature also indicates that further use and evaluation of virtual worlds is needed to support its use as an instructional strategy.

 

Teaching and Learning Question:

What is the pedagogical significance of using an instructional strategy in a virtual world, such as Second Life, as a teaching and learning space for students and faculty?

 

Relevance to Teaching and Learning for Education and Nursing Faculty and Students

This proposed inter-professional teaching and learning project has the potential to engage education and nursing students and faculty in a variety of ways that are consistent with theory of constructivist learning. Constructivism describes how learning should happen, regardless of whether students are using their experiences to understand a lecture or attempting to formulate an intervention in their professional practice. In both cases, the theory of constructivism suggests that students construct knowledge and engage in active learning throughout the learning process. Each co-investigator will ensure that the Second Life project is congruent with learning outcomes of the specific course that they or other faculty members deliver to education and nursing students. Students and faculty will have an opportunity to experience interactions and an instructional strategy in a simulation-based environment that builds on or enhances learning outcomes from traditional or blended learning environments. Students will have access to information resources that have the potential to create and support a dynamic interaction between learning outcome, faculty member, and themselves. Second Life is an immersive environment where faculty and students can interact and construct knowledge that will impact their professional perspective. Learning experiences can be designed to provide a balance among experiential learning, guided mentoring, and collective reflection. A comprehensive evaluation will be conducted throughout the project to determine the educational implications from the perspective of students and faculty. Evaluation results will be used to guide revisions throughout the project and determine next steps for use of the virtual site on Second Life. Other education and nursing faculty members will have the opportunity to work with the co-investigators if they indicate an interest in the project.

 

Impact on Teaching and Learning Practices

Although educators are interested in using new and creative tools in their teaching, they are also concerned about the pedagogical significance of using them in relation to the learning outcomes of students. This project will provide the evaluation of an instructional strategy designed specifically for use on Second Life. The co-investigators will have an opportunity to determine if there are differences in results from feedback from education and nursing students and faculty. This comparative evaluation will provide each co-investigator with evidence to make informed decisions about teaching and learning practices and use of Second Life. The participatory environment on Second Life offers educators an innovative opportunity to engage learners into and turn passive, knowledge-receiving students into active, knowledge-making students.

 

Impact on Colleagues within and Beyond Specific Disciplines

The co-investigators have worked on a number of interprofessional education projects together over the past three years and this project will continue the collaboration between the two professions. The results of the project will have an influence beyond just one discipline and hopefully, will demonstrate the advantages of designing and implementing interprofessional education sites on Second Life.