1. TEACHING AND LEARNING IN-WORLD: LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE AVATAR AND THE ST.ART PROJECTS Ilaria Mascitti Head of European Projects and R&D Department Monica Fasciani Project Manager European Projects and R&D Department
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7. ST.ART PROJECT “ STreet ARTists in a virtual space” PROJECT ST.ART - STreet ARTists in a virtual space PROGRAMME PERIOD Lifelong Learning Programme Sub-programme Comenius – Multilateral Projects 24 months (1 December 2009 - 30 November 2011)
8. ST.ART PROJECT “ STreet ARTists in a virtual space” Programme: LLP COMENIUS Multilateral projects December 2009 - November 2011 Project Prime Contractor: USGM (IT)
15. THE AVATAR PROJECT “ Added Value of teAching in a virTuAl woRld ” PROJECT AVATAR - Added Value of teAching in a virTuAl woRld PROGRAMME Lifelong Learning Programme Subprogramme Comenius DURATION 24 months (1 December 2009 – 30 November 2011) AIM Teach secondary school teachers to use virtual worlds in education through an on-line pilot course and virtual laboratories .
16. THE AVATAR PROJECT “ Added Value of teAching in a virTuAl woRld ” Programme: LLP COMENIUS Multilateral projects Project Prime Contractor: For.Com. (IT) - www.forcom.it Information Design FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences Austria - www.fh-joanneum.at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia Spain - www.uned.es University of Southern Denmark Denmark- www.sdu.dk Burgas Free University Bulgaria - www.bfu.bg University of Hertfordshire UK - www.herts.ac.uk SOPH.ia In Action Consulting Italy - www.sophiaconsulting.eu
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19. RESEARCH DESIGN AND PRODUCTION EXPERIMENTATION EVALUATION We are here! THE AVATAR PROJECT Project phases Research & comparative analysis on existing VWs Research: Educational perspectives From January to May c.a. 100 hrs 120 secondary school teachers + 3 observers c.a. 290 pupils involved in the project works 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
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21. The e-learning platform 5918 users access 2203 posts RESEARCH DESIGN EXPERIMENTATION EVALUATION national international
22. AVATAR Estate in SL RESEARCH DESIGN EXPERIMENTATION EVALUATION The Hub : Info point and inspiration Auditorium Resource Centres Dissemination path
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25. THE AVATAR PROJECT Cross cooperation ST.ART STreet ARTists in a virtual space” Comenius project LLP Comenius Exchange of best practices and lessons learnt AVALON Access to Virtual and Action Learning live Online LLP KA3 Support with the estate in SL AVATAR invited keynote speakers for the in-world seminars NIFLAR Networked Interaction in Foreign Language Acquisition and Research LLP Support with the estate in SL MUVENATION LLP Comenius Transferibility to differtent target groups
26. THE AVATAR PROJECT Cross cooperation [email_address] the Anti-Violence-Campus at Second Life Exchange of lesson learnt for the organisation and promotion of virtual seminars ReDNet EU Health Programme Guest speakers NEXT-TELL FP7 for R&D ICT Sustainability issue LLP Leonardo da Vinci Participation to their project conference 7th FWP - Action Line: ICT-2007.1.5 Participation to their project conference
27. WHAT’S NEXT? The Euroversity network PROJECT EuroV PROGRAMME Lifelong Learning Programme KA3 (ICT) Multilateral networks DURATION 3 years – expected start date: 1 Dec 2011 COORDINATOR PARTNERS University of Hull, UK 19 partners (from Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Israel) AIM Facilitate the transfer of core knowledge in teaching and learning in VWs to new contexts. Provide a framework for the creation of a pan-European virtual-world university
A virtual world is an online community or computer-based simulated environment where users can interact with one another and use and create objects. Virtual worlds or interactive 3D virtual environments, allow users to inhabit through their avatars, or 3D graphic representation, and communicate through text, graphical icons, visual gesture and sound.
Virtual worlds technologies are not without their obstacles. Currently, we assist to an explosion of virtual worlds technologies and each of them exists into itself; “travel” between them as a single user or identity is largely not possible and each world implements a different combination of toolsets, communication features and resources. Existing virtual worlds are internally consistent, but in most cases the content or resource created within one environment can’t be exported or imported into other worlds. This closed-world paradigm puts educational institutes or individuals in the position to have to choose the virtual world that better fits their educational needs. From an educational perspective also the way how virtual worlds technologies integrate with existing e-learning platforms must be considered. Actually, most virtual worlds platforms are proprietary and the technical standards that allow interoperability between different systems have not yet been developed. Additionally facing a myriad of possibilities offered by virtual worlds, a number of strategic and legal issues need to be considered.
The use of new technologies as a support to training involves new active and collaborative teaching models that reduce traditional methods. The use of virtual worlds offers the possibility to use different communication codes at the same time and is expected to provide more vivid information which is also easier to understand. Inquiry and project-based learning activities use a graphical 3D application that builds on the students’ curiosity and motivates students to reflect on what they are learning. Virtual worlds have the ability to adapt and grow to different learner needs and can overcome the limitations of a traditional classroom setting where certain tasks can be difficult due to constraints like cost, location, etc. collaborative learning, role playing, serious gaming and learning by doing in simulated settings will be encouraged; Used to videogames, students will find this kind of environment much more familiar and attractive, which should make the whole learning process more effective. According to the article Serious Virtual Worlds (3) “the lines between virtual worlds, games and social networking are blurring significantly leading to the assertion that over the next five years the majority of young people under 18 will have avatars and be using these kinds of applications daily and therefore have different expectations about how education may be delivered to them”. Six “learnings framework” ( Lim, 2009 ) Learning by exploring Learning by collaborating Learning by being Learning by building Learning by championing Learning by expressing
10 teachers as Trainers (2 each school) attended an in presence Seminar in order to: get acquainted with the ST.ART training path in terms of objectives, contents, methodologies and technologies; Define their role as trainers of own students during the experimentation phase. Around 250 students (2 classes each school) attend a 48 h E-learning course with their teachers on: Aesthetics and creativity; Entrepreneurship; Digital competences WEB 2.0 and Open sim The training session is developed in 45 hours of project work where: The students are encouraged to emulate the spirit of art in a “public” virtual city without acting in an illegal manner; The learners are involved in a street art permission process drawing up the Graffiti Prevention Act with the Council of the city; They are trained about the ICT skills to draw up a digital mural in the 3D virtual world. VISITOR: the first time a student access the city. CITIZEN: students register them at the Mayor’s office. They found information about laws, rules, etc. STAMPER: This role allows them to use stencil tools. The tool is like a gun to shoot stencils anywhere. Students can take photos and make videos of their work. PAINTER: the art works don’t decay BUILDER: Students can move and rezz stuff on the city using the viewer and 3d tools.
Creazione di competenze extra ( Campbell, 2009 ): nei mondi virtuali gli studenti possono acquisire competenze extra, ad esempio capacità di problem solving, una migliore comunicazione, capacità di lavorare in squadra, creatività, capacità di leadership…)
Inge Knudsen "Teaching English and building skills / Creating your own learning objects and environments“ Inge insegna inglese e building skills in Second Life Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart “Language learning in SL: experience mad and teacher resources” Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart è fondatrice e direttore generale di talkademy.org e partecipa al progetto AVALON. Charlotte S. Jensen “Making history come alive”. Charlotte S. Jensen fa parte del Danish National Museum e si occupa di promuovere la storia in SL.
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