Modding the Metaverse; The Pedagogy of Participation - AoIR 2007

Modding the Metaverse: The Pedagogy of Participation AoIR 2007 Tracy Kennedy , University of Toronto / Virtual Research Assistant, GNWC Joanna Robinson , Brock University / Virtual Research Assistant, GNWC Dr. Gerri Sinclair , Director, GNWC Centre for Digital Media http://mdm.gnwc.ca/

Traditional Didactic Modes of Learning
Lecture styles with a top-down approach
Information delivery is linear and static
Legitimates disciplinary discourses, knowledge & information
Problematic power relations between professor and student - hierarchies
Does not always allow for nor encourage constructive interaction between students, and between students and instructors

Participatory Pedagogy
Content:
Incorporating personal experiences, skills, knowledge and individual context
Process:
More interactive and empowering pedagogical style of learning and knowledge construction inside and outside the classroom
Students take an active role in the learning process

Internet & Education
Web 2.0
Collective & interactive
Synchronous
Flat Web
ie: Wikis, Blogs, Moodle etc
Web 3D
Incorporates Web 2.0 features
Self expression & self direction
Diverse ways of learning
Hands-on technical skill building
Three dimensional spaces
Transformation of personal experience and researched content into a tangible visual form
Virtual Worlds
ie: Second Life, Active Worlds, Metaplace, Google Sketch up and more...

Why Participatory Pedagogy?
Self directed learning can increase their sense of empowerment
Using student’s own knowledge can improve the perceived relevance of subject material and therefore can improve their motivation
Can allowing students to gain insight into their own value systems and improve their confidence
Exercising reflexivity and contemplation can improve their level of ‘self-awareness’ skills generally
(Aldrich 2004)‏

Why Participatory Pedagogy?
We are living in a time of emerging participatory culture, fluency in this culture is an asset
Need to prepare students for work in the
information age
ICT use among students is pervasive
mp3 players, cell phones, laptops, video games
Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Skype

Centre for Digital Media (Latitude: 49:16:0.383N, Longitude: 123:5:26.329W)‏

Virtual Centre for Digital Media University Project (150, 84, 23)

Thank You!

Modding the Metaverse Workshops
How can a group collaborate to modify or create their own learning space?
What are the processes involved?
What are some of the factors that must be considered?
How might the findings be beneficial to our students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp5FNID5kMU

Modding the Metaverse Workshops
Call for participants sent to potential students, SL educators & researchers lists
3 workshops: 2 discussions, 1 modding & building
Objectives:
Support small teams and large group work
Individual/reflexive tasks
Design and creation
Flexibility – can one environment facilitate all of these things?

What we learned
Exercise helped us think about how we might envision virtual learning spaces
Collaborative modding and building is possible in SL
A design brief is only useful if participants adhere to it
Roles need to be well defined in the team
Need to have a clear concept of what the space will be used for to best facilitate learning objectives

What we learned
Skill divides bring about challenges in participation in building and even discussing
Circular designs emerged
Builds had no roof in many cases
Disagreement among participants as to whether replicating first life classrooms was useful in virtual spaces
Placement/style of screen/display/whiteboard device was important in most designs

CDM’s other Second Life activities to date:
Blended reality open house
Community partner Vancouver Police Department's Second Life experiment
Blended reality book launch by MDM advisory board member William Gibson
Hosting a virtual conference - CITASA MC 3.0 2007
Blended reality program launch with Premier Campbell
Projects for ‘The Visual Story’ and ‘Building Virtual Worlds’
Exercises and exploration in ‘Interdisciplinary Improv’
Use in courses & future events proposed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLTDwzpPWMI

Professor Tracy JoannaTrail Blazer GerriTrail Blazer [email_address] [email_address] [email_address]

http://mdm.gnwc.ca/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnwc http://www.youtube.com/user/gnwc

Modding the Metaverse; The Pedagogy of Participation - AoIR 2007

by Joanna Robinson on Oct 29, 2007

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Modding the Metaverse; The Pedagogy of Participation - AoIR 2007 — Presentation Transcript