A little background: Here at Santa Fe College in the Information Technology Education area, our enrollment is rather low. We offer several tracks to our students so the students we do have are spread over many classes. For example, Networking students will never take our upper level programming classes. So, while we have many sections of our introductory courses, we can’t offer more than one section of the advanced courses per course each semester. Thus, we have to decide: should we offer the course during the day? evening? When we pick a day time schedule, we learn that half the students who want the class work all day and can only attend night classes. When we switch to an evening schedule, we find that half the students complain that they can’t come at night because of children, transportation problems, or other responsibilities. We end up offering most of these classes online in an effort to please everyone.
But we don’t please everyone. In fact, we please fewer students! People think that students who are taking computer classes would absolutely love online classes. And that the more advanced the student, the more that student would appreciate online classes. Not so. The material in upper level programming courses is difficult. Students want to listen to an instructor explain it. They want a teacher in front of the room who can be stopped, mid-explanation, to clarify a point. These students know how to read a text on their own. They know how to play with a new piece of software on their own. But if they are trying to understand how to use a Flag in a Sort Routine, they need the instructor right there to explain it, step by step, and stop when things get confusing, and backtrack, and try a second type of explanation.
I thought I had a wonderful partial solution! I began to dream of a virtual classroom in Second Life where the class would be scheduled at a specific time. True, this might still keep students who are working at that time from taking the class, but it would certainly allow students who lack night transportation to take the class. I even envisioned running two sessions of the same material (a day and a night) in lieu of a specific number of office hours. The administration would be happy because I would only be officially teaching one section but the students would be able to take the class either during the day or the evening schedule. The logistics are yet to be worked out.
What I did know was that this would be a way to have an online class environment in real time with real-time student-teacher interaction. It wouldn’t solve all the problems, but it would be a start. So I began looking into the possibility. And I found that not only has it been done already, it’s been done right here in Gainesville! At UF…
Science Daily in February 2007 reports on Paul Fishwick’s classes: “There’s no excuse for being late to Paul Fishwick’s class, even though it’s held on an island, one that does not appear on the map of the landlocked University of Florida in Gainesville. That’s because students can just teleport in. “
“Fishwick, a computer science and engineering professor, is teaching one of at least two classes offered at UF this semester largely in cyberspace — specifically, the trendy three-dimensional online world called Second Life. There, Fishwick’s ‘avatar,’ the character that represents each player in Second Life, leads discussions among some 30 other avatars controlled by upper-level UF undergraduate and graduate students in CAP 4403/CAP 6402, Aesthetic Computing.” (from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070207193301.htm)
Why does Fishwick use Second Life for his classrooms? “I like the potential for collaboration, immersion, aesthetics, creativity, social interaction,” Fishwick said. “There are a lot of different dimensions I think are valuable to educators.” Just what I think!
On the other hand, Paul Fishwick at UF is not the only person using Second Life as a classroom. A Google search immediately returned a plethora of articles about this exact possibility; I didn’t even have to refine my “Second Life classrooms” search entry at all. One of the best articles I read is “101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom” by Dr. Megan S. Conklin at the Department of Computing Sciences at Elon University (http://facstaff.elon.edu/mconklin/pubs/glshandout.pdf). The article is a 31-page guide to using Second Life for various college disciplines, including many tips and suggestions about how to optimize the virtual world. I will keep this site for future use!
However, my blog should be about how using virtual worlds and avatars can work to eliminate teacher bias based on demographics like race, ethnicity, age, physical disability, and gender in the classroom. With this in mind, I can only say that I am thrilled to find so many references to help me in the future when I try using Second Life for an actual class. This blog has allowed me to come to the conclusion that my dream-class is not outside the realm of possibility and I will, in the future, be able to implement my idea and, hopefully, use the results to come to some valuable conclusions about bias, anti-bias, and avatars.
More to follow next time when I return to the topic of bias.
References:
University of Florida (2007, February 8). Distance Learning Moves Into 'Second Life' Virtual Classroom. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070207193301.htm
101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom. Dr. Megan S. Conklin. Department of Computing Sciences, Elon University (2007, February) Retrieved April 9, 2009 from http://facstaff.elon.edu/mconklin/pubs/glshandout.pdf
Liz,
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be discouraged if I were you... there is still so much room for exploration on the topic of SL as a supplemental classroom tool. Several semesters ago when I was teaching a face-to-face programming class at UCF, I would have to travel unexpectedly for my job. In those circumstances the class would all meet in SL for a virtual lecture. I would use a combination of voice and text input to cover the materials, and ths students much prefered that approach to a standard conference call of web seminar.
Even though the technology is not perfect, I think that we're getting closer to being able the online connection with a majority of students. I'm just basing that statement on my own experiences, so this is more testimonial than research.
- Hap Aziz
Hi Liz,
ReplyDeleteI know exactly where you are with the idea of a virtual classroom. It shows promise!
Several semesters ago, students decided they preferred to have the Intermediate Object-Oriented programming class IN the classroom. I chose to do the hybrid venue because I really feel it's the best venue of all. This class met once a week for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Of course, some students were unhappy to drive to campus, some were excited that it was hybrid and some were concerned that they would not be able to come to class AT ALL due to other obligations. I told everyone not to worry, I would post all information into our LMS and they could treat the class as an online course. All materials and exams would be given on the LMS. But each week, I would lecture and give demonstrations on new concepts of OOP.
Guess what - out of a class of 20 students, only 3 attended with some regularity. 3. I had good participation on the LMS; that is, everyone took the exams and turned in projects. I suppose students just wanted a choice. They had the option to attend if they wanted.
Perhaps a virtual classroom would be ideal for those students who can't quite seem to make it to campus for a variety of reasons. The instructor "presence" is there IF they choose to attend.
I plan to keep a close eye on your research. I will be a beneficiary of your results.
--Debbie