Giuliana Perco, Romance Studies

What are the possible educational advantages and/or disadvantages of teaching in a MUVE (multi-user virtual environment)? While not trying to answer such a broad question, this presentation will discuss a hands-on exploration of the educational potentials of “Second Life” in enhancing foreign language learning. The aim of the project, that took place over two consecutive semesters, was both to appeal to students’ familiarity with virtual social networks and to make them come into contact with virtual cultural resources and artifacts and with native speakers met in the “Second Life”. Works and responses by students will be presented to discuss how and to what extent activities and assignments to be completed in a MUVE could (or could not) enrich language learning and whether the outcome was worth the time and energy needed in the endeavor.

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Constance Johnson, School of Nursing

We have built a Second Life® infrastructure that allows faculty and students experiential learning and promotes social interaction, in a collaborative environment in our distance education program. It furthermore supports immersion and presence, allowing real-time teaching and discussion. In the School of Nursing, the use of virtual environments for distance education has been piloted for one year. We built a virtual School of Nursing using Second Life as the infrastructure. A Summer theory course was taught using this medium as well as Blackboard and Elluminate (a webinar). A self-administered survey instrument was completed by students following each of the three instructional modalities (Blackboard, Elluminate, and Second Life). The survey instrument included perceptions of learning from a variety of components of the instructional technology, such as pace of class, quality of discussions, integration of technology, and fit between assignments and classroom environment. Significant differences occurred in both overall perceptions of the effect of the instructional modality on individual learning, as well as of the quality of instruction provided to understand the fit between instructional modality and coursework. Student rated experience of Second Life was significantly higher than that of Blackboard for both overall perceptions and quality of instruction (post-hoc Tukey; p<.10). Evaluative feedback from the students suggests that 3D learning environments have the potential to bridge barriers such as isolation, foster interactivity, clarify information, support spontaneous discussions, and facilitate learning experiences.

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Richard Lucic, ISIS and Computer Science

Virtual Peace: Turning Swords to Ploughshares brings together digital learning technologies and international humanitarian assistance efforts. Students and educators enter an immersive, multi-sensory game-based environment that simulates real disaster relief and conflict resolution conditions in order to learn first-hand the necessary tools for sensitive and timely crisis response.

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