VirtualPREX: Providing Virtual Professional Experience for Pre-Service Teachers
Professional experience (or practicum) is problematic within teacher education courses because preparation for, and the quality of, placements can be inconsistent. Preservice teachers can commence their first placement without some of the requisite skills and off-campus pre-service teachers do not always have opportunities to practise any ski lls at all pre-placement. VirtualPREX is an innovative approach to professional experience preparation, providing opportunities for practice in a virtual world such as Second Life . In this chapter the authors outline the rationale for this innovation and then report on the data from the pilot trials of the VirtualPREX role plays where pre-service teachers role-played the teacher and students in a Second Life virtual classroom. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the next steps in the project.
Virtual worlds in Australian and New Zealand higher education: Remembering the past, understanding the present and imagining the future
3D virtual reality, including the current generation of multi-user virtual worlds, has had a long history of use in education and training, and it experienced a surge of renewed interest with the advent of Second Life in 2003. What followed shortly after were several years marked by considerable hype around the use of virtual worlds for teaching, learning and research in higher education. For the moment, uptake of the technology seems to have plateaued, with academics either maintaining the status quo and continuing to use virtual worlds as they have previously done or choosing to opt out altogether. This paper presents a brief review of the use of virtual worlds in the Australian and New Zealand higher education sector in the past and reports on its use in the sector at the present time, based on input from members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. It then adopts a forward-looking perspective amid the current climate of uncertainty, musing on future directions and offering suggestions for potential new applications in light of recent technological developments and innovations in the area.
Changing directions through VirtualPREX: engaging pre-service teachers in virtual professional experience
Many pre-service teachers currently undertake their professional experience with insufficient knowledge and confidence to handle unexpected teaching situations. VirtualPREX explores the experiences of 72 pre-service teachers who undertook a teaching role-play in a virtual world. The researchers discuss this opportunity for pre-service teachers to utilise new methods and avenues in a virtual world to both supplement their learning and undertake preparation for practical experience. Participation by pre-service teachers in role-play enables them to test and develop a better range of professional skills and acquire confidence in, and more realistic awareness of, their skills before being placed in real-life classrooms. Presented in this paper are the findings from a pilot of this study and pre-service teacher reactions to the role-play activity including whether they felt that it was helpful in preparing them for their upcoming professional experience placement.
VirtualPREX: Innovative assessment using a 3D virtual world with pre-service teachers - Final Report 2013
The higher education community has embraced the use of virtual worlds for teaching and learning. There have been many publications produced over recent years on the efficacy of virtual worlds as a teaching and learning tool. However, even though there has been increased usage, there has not been comprehensive research on using a virtual world to practise teaching in a way that is simple to use and provides a variety of scenarios for use by educators in a risk-free environment. VirtualPREX, the term coined for this project, provides this. The VirtualPREX project, part of an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) two year project grant, explored the validity of pre-service teachers using a virtual world to practise teaching skills prior to undertaking professional experience. Second Life was the virtual world chosen for this research as it is a tested environment and three of the participating institutions jointly owned land that could house the VirtualPREX classrooms. Additionally, a number of the project team were familiar with the Second Life environment. A classroom and playground theme had already been created, making it an ideal platform for the creation of more VirtualPREX classrooms. ... This report draws on research conducted by project team members from UNE, CSU, Curtin, RMIT and ACU over the two years from 2011 to 2012. Data was collected from surveys, observations and discussions. The research sought to examine the virtual world space created for the VirtualPREX project for pre-service teachers to undertake practice teaching and assessable tasks. The aim was to develop the space, the role-play scenarios and bots for teaching in an authentic setting to be used worldwide upon completion. The study set out to provide the higher education community with guidelines and recommendations to encourage the use of the virtual world classrooms and assessable tasks with pre-service teachers.
VirtualPREX: Developing Teaching Skills in 'Second Life'
Virtual worlds are accepted as alternative learning environments and have been incorporated into the repertoire of higher education teaching and learning strategies for more than a decade. Numerous reports exist regarding the efficacy of this form of learning for both student engagement and enhanced student outcomes. The immersive affordances of these worlds are also being used to enhance another aspect of many higher education courses; work integrated learning. This form of learning, also referred to as practicum, placement, practice teaching and professional experience, is a core component of teacher education courses. Research has highlighted quality preparation for practice teaching (or lack thereof) as problematic, necessitating new approaches to teacher preparation. The active experiential learning affordances of virtual world technologies have led to the development of 3D virtual classrooms and a playground designed to be effective spaces for developing a range of critical teaching skills. Pre-service teachers have opportunities, through interaction in and with the virtual environment, to practise skills and apply concepts in a realistic setting that is risk free. In this chapter, the authors discuss the problems of preparation for practice teaching and the ways in which the virtual world of 'Second Life' is being utilised as a site for enhanced teacher preparation
New applications, new global audiences: Educators repurposing and reusing 3D virtual and immersive learning resources
There continues to be strong interest among established, experienced academic users of 3D virtual environments for their sustained educational use. Consistent with global trends, they plan to further develop and optimise existing applications, reuse skills and experiences gained to develop new applications, and to share and reuse existing virtual resources. This is against a background of varied support from institutions, colleagues, students, funding bodies and also changing understanding and awareness of virtual environments and virtual reality by the general community as a result of consumer developments such as the popularity of multi-user online role playing amongst both children and adults, and the acquisition of technologies by companies with deeply entrenched technologies. At the same time, the ongoing development and availability of new multiuser virtual environment platforms, associated peripherals and virtual reality technologies promise new and exciting opportunities for educators to collaborate with researchers on a global scale, while also exploring the affordances of these technologies for enhancing the learning outcomes for an increasingly diverse and distributed student population.
Branching Out through VirtualPREX: Enhancing Teaching in Second Life
Virtual worlds have been incorporated into the repertoire of higher education teaching and learning for over a decade with numerous reports on the efficacy of this form of learning for both student engagement and enhanced student outcomes. The affordances of these worlds are being used to enhance another aspect of many higher education courses; work integrated learning. In teacher education courses, practice teaching is a core component. However, research has highlighted quality preparation for practice teaching as problematic. This is a particular challenge for distance education students necessitating new approaches to teacher preparation. Virtual world technologies have provided the authors with a capacity to develop 3D virtual classroom and playground environments. These are currently being tested as effective spaces for developing a range of critical teaching skills prior to pre-service teachers entering a physical classroom. These students have opportunities, through interaction in and with the virtual environment, to practise skills and apply concepts in a risk-free realistic setting. In this chapter, the authors discuss the problems of preparation for practice teaching and the ways in which the virtual world of Second Life is currently being tested as a site for enhanced teacher preparation. The results of the first trials are described and the future of the project explored.