Week+6

=Week 6: February 15-21=
 * Designing Immersive Learning Spaces: Pedagogy**

Now that we have a good overview of how educators from around the world are using Second Life, and have attended a live educational event outside of our class, let's look a little more closely at the pedagogy of immersive learning environments - and specifically, what makes good learning spaces in THIS virtual environment. Different platforms have different affordances, but few virtual worlds offer as many open ended options for novice and amateur content creators as Second Life, and as many opportunities to create student-centered pedagogy. This week we'll discuss the design of specific types of learning spaces, including role play, self-paced tutorial, and student created activities/projects.

Readings
Bronack, Stephen et al. “Presence pedagogy: Teaching and learning in a 3D virtual immersive world.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higer Education 20.1 (2008): 59-69. http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE453.pdf

Second Life Tasks
Though most of us have no intention of becoming 3D modelers ourselves, having a basic grounding in construction techniques in a virtual world like Second Life can give us some sense of the effort required to create a virtual learning space.

View this brief tutorial video about the building interface in Second Life (7 mins): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBKugcT00IM (Hint: You can stop and start, or replay the video as many times as necessary to get the hang of the basic building interface.)

Then, in the green space on the University of Manitoba campus, try to build a simple chair (with a seating platform, four legs, and a back). Leave your chair in the green and we’ll use them for our next class!

For those especially interested in building, another resources to learn more about building in Second Life is the Ivory Tower of Primitives, a walk through tutorial in Second Life, located at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natoma/210/164/28

Forum Posts 6
Reflect on the Bronack reading. o Are you convinced that "presence pedagogy" is an effective approach to using virtual worlds for teaching and learning? o What lessons can we take from the authors' experiences in the virtual world that might also apply to "real world" learning? o From a critical perspective, what are some likely pitfalls to this approach?