Class 6, Assignment 4: Virtual World Affordances for Education and Training

Amid the relatively resent emergence of the educational use of virtual worlds, there has been a look to study the differences this type of setting has on both students’ and teachers’ experiences in comparison to more traditional learning environments. Virtual worlds allow for students to take part in classroom activity together in a new type of space. This setting allows for interactivity with each user individually, while also allowing for group collaboration and new methods of student assessment. 

Unlike a traditional classroom where normally at all times one student’s participation in a class is affected by and effects the other students’ participation, this is not necessarily the case in a virtual world. An educational experience in a virtual world can allow for each user to learn to solve a problem or have the opportunity to engage with the subject matter individually all at the same time as other students. Students are allowed to make choices about the personalization of their interaction with the world and other students in new ways. Each individual can have a meaningful and unique experience with the objects within the learning space that do not necessarily mean that other students cannot.

At the same time, a virtual world allows for unique group collaboration and community. A virtual world learning environment tends to become a social and interactive experience. Virtual worlds allow for group collaboration for a set of students who might not otherwise be able to interact. The space of a virtual world does not have to correspond to a traditional classroom, enabling students to interact together in new scenarios and environments.

Lastly, virtual learning environments allow for a teacher to assess students using new methods. In a traditional classroom project, a teacher might not be able to watch every group and understand each student’s participation level or understanding compared to the group as a whole. A teacher in a traditional classroom is also unlikely to be able to measure a student’s path to an answer and the student’s process. In a virtual world, this measurement is much more likely to be able to be captured. A student’s creations, interaction with the world and his or her group can possibly all be measured in a virtual environment.

References:

Vimani Gamage, Alexei Tretiakov, Barbara Crump, Teacher perceptions of learning affordances of multi-user virtual environments, Computers & Education, Volume 57, Issue 4, December 2011, Pages 2406-2413, ISSN 0360-1315, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.06.015.

Dalgarno, B., & Lee, M. W. (2010). What are the learning affordances of 3-D virtual environments?. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 41(1), 10-32. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.01038.

Lakshmi Goel, Norman A. Johnson, Iris Junglas, Blake Ives, How cues of what can be done in a virtual world influence learning: An affordance perspective, Information & Management, Volume 50, Issue 5, July 2013, Pages 197-206, ISSN 0378-7206, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2013.01.003.

N. Barbalios, I. Ioannidou, P. Tzionas, S. Paraskeuopoulos, A model supported interactive virtual environment for natural resource sharing in environmental education, Computers & Education, Volume 62, March 2013, Pages 231-248, ISSN 0360-1315, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.029.