The document discusses the use of virtual worlds for education and their potential impact on student identity formation. It notes that virtual worlds can provide immersive learning experiences and allow students to explore different identities. However, some argue that students should develop their identity through real-world interactions first before challenging it virtually. The document also examines debates around whether students approach virtual worlds with an "immersionist" mindset, fully engaging with their virtual identity, or as an "augmentation" to reinforce their real-world identity.

1. Charlotte Horne

2.  How education is used in virtual worlds?
 ‘The success, and wide reporting, of Second Life has helped to
highlight the wider use of immersive worlds for supporting a range of
human activities and interactions, presenting a wealth of new
opportunities for enriching how we learn, how we work and how we
play.’(Buckingham 2007)
Not everyone agrees with Virtual
Worlds and Education mixing
Vygotsky: The constructivism model

3. ‘Ultimately these resources provide students with
an opportunity to recreate their physical world
identity through supported staged exploration…’
Derby University’s Psychology Department

4.  Gives you the ability to be whatever or
whoever you want to be!
 ‘This dynamic nature of self means that we are constantly changing
our identities through choice or through circumstance’ (childs, 2011,
p4).

5. Immersionists or Augmentationists?
VS

6.  ‘It was the educational philopsher Rousseau (1762) who proposed
that education shapes who we are and laid one of the foundations
for the notion of learning as a route to reforming our identity’ (Childs,
p275)
 Education supports our development and
Identity reformation
Mark Childs believes that our physical situation
has just as much impact on our identity as our
social situation
Learning something new
shapes our identity

7. ‘A student’s digital identity is strongly bound to situation and previous
experiences in physical world equivalents. Physical world identities and
social norms had a strong impact on their interactions.’ (Childs p297)
Everyone is a digital citizen.
Could Identity be getting in the way of
learning in Virtual Worlds?
Students wants to present the best version of themselves, are they doing the
same in Virtual Worlds? Are students using second life in an immersionists way?
‘It could be argued, therefore, that
situated attention through immersion in
a virtual world is a key aspect of virtual
world learning’. (Childs (p278)

8.  It can be argued using Virtual World is a fun
way of engaging the students and
motivating them!
‘Recent work in the gaming area has demonstrated how whole
brain activity occurs when learners are playing games as opposed
to limited brain activity when learners are learning in formal ways’
(de Freitas)
Virtual Worlds offer educational experiences that
wouldn’t be possible in the Real World.

9.  I think virtual worlds will be used more for
education and the exploration of identity
Need to be cautious of the age of students using it.
Children need to experience real life interactions and begin to
develop an identity before they can begin to challenge one in
Virtual Worlds
Technology is forever evolving – this could be the new classroom setting
As soon as technology advance
enough to cut out all the little
problems, such as loading too slowly,
everyone could be learning in Second
Life

10. Azizi, Z & Rezaee, A. (2012). Journal of Language Teaching and Research. The Role of
Zone of Proximal Development in the Students’ Learning of English Adverbs. 3 (1), 51-
57.
Baym, N, K (2010). Personal Connections in the Digital Age . Cambridge: Polity Press.
p5-109.
Buckingham (2007) Beyond Technology: Children's Learning in the Age of Digital
Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Childs, M. (2011a) ‘Identity: A Primer’, in Peachey, A. & Childs, M. (eds.) Reinventing
Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds. London: Springer.
Childs, M. (2011). Situated Learning in Virtual Worlds and Identity Reformation. In:
Peachey, A. & Childs, M. Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in
Virtual Worlds. London: Springer. p275-301.
de Freitas (2009) Serious Virtual Worlds: A scoping study. Bristol: Joint Information
Systems Committee [online]. Available at:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/seriousvirtualworldsv1.pdf (Last
Accessed: 01/05/2013).
Savin-Baden, M (2010). A Practical Guide To Using Second Life in Higher Education. UK:
Open University Press. p7-10.