Enhancing Learning, Teaching and Student Success in Virtual Worlds

Why Rosa keeps dancing

Mark ChildsCoventry University

So ... why teach in virtual worlds anyway?

Not only good for ...

• Simulation and roleplay• Design / creation / exhibition• Exploration and immersion• Creating a feeling of copresence at a distance• Reification of concepts such as identity

...but possibly best medium for learning these

So what’s the experience like?

http://www.cognitivedesignsolutions.com/Instruction/TestingEvaluation.htm

Getting used to distractionStudent A: I’m going to try some dancingStudent B: (Reading from worksheet) What do you think the challenges for actors and designers would be in the real theatre this model represents? (pause) Stop dancing.Student A: Sorry

Getting used to distractionStudent D: ...What’s this? Is it magical toadstools?Me: Who’s got the magical toadstools?Student D; We have! I think they are magical toadstools. ...Student D: I think we are actually getting high on ‘shrooms. Yes we are, we are.Student E laughs.Student D; Look we’ve just eaten toadstools and we’re going crazy. Oh amazing. Awesome. Student E: Do it again. Do it again.Student D: OK let’s have another one. See what happens. Weeeee. Getting high while flying. That’s dose. Weeeeeee.Me: Can we start move back to Theatron?

Theatre Design and New Media

Real life theatres in Second Life• What do you think the challenges for actors and designers

would be in the real theatre this model represents?• What would be the challenges for actors and designers working

in the virtual theatre in Second Life?

Theatres that only exist in Second Life• From the stage design (and any other surrounding spaces) what

can you determine are the nature of the performances and the communities that built the stages?

• How do these theatres/ auditoria differ from real life theatrical spaces?

Presence v. learning experienceData from all cases

High presence

(2-4)

Low presence (0-1)

High rating (3-4)

26 2

Low rating (0-2)

1 6

So what else is going on?

Social anxiety

Student E: This is sad...I am scared to leave! I am worried will end up bald, lost, and naked again. One life is enough...

Student Z: I worry about looking silly in this because I don't feel comfortable with this type of environment

Student D: don't want to look "stupid" ... I'm worrying about sitting down and can't do it

Social presence and identity

“I didn't want to look UGLY”“I wanted to look more "personalized" rather then the

sample model”“originality seems important to some as well, beauty in

the eye of the beholder”“I want to look like I smell nice.”“I didn't want to be too skinny and generic”“it is difficult for me due to not being able to witness

other peoples non-verbal behaviors or reactions to comments”

Not that different from RL

Cycle of disengagement (Barrett 2002; 35)

Low copresence

Feels impersonal

Feel vulnerable

Limit information

Low social presence

Cycle of engagement (Caspi and Blau 2008; 339)

High copresence

Sensitive to others’

presence

Experience community

Motivated to project self

Acquire presence skills

Embodiment

cognition

and

Learner experience 3 months in

• “Because we've got the atmosphere, because you can play around with the characters and make the audience be back in that century, It encourages as an audience member to actually think ‘wow we’ve actually been transformed’”.

• “It's not just the idea round the theatres; we actually have to perform in different spaces to get the atmosphere”.

Virtual body schema

• Given enough time spent inworld, virtual body becomes mapped to body schema, technology “disappears into the architecture of the body”.

• Around the same time students report “feeling the atmosphere of the space”.

• A link could be embodied cognition.• “Cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the

body’s interactions with the world” – Wilson.

Bodies defined by acting

• Interaction is not what happens in the object, it’s what happens in the mind of the learner

• “we actually have to perform in different spaces to get the atmosphere”

• “i like dancing / because we’re on the stage / it feels right” - Rosa

Contact

• mark.childs@coventry.ac.uk• SL: Gann McGann• Portfolio and thesis at

http://go.warwick.ac.uk/edrfap/

Reinventing Ourselves – edited by Anna Peachey and Mark Childs, available from Springer later this year