Dreams into [virtual] reality
Kate Boardman
University of Teesside, United Kingdom
This presentation demonstrates a typology of thinking about virtual world learning scenario design. It is based on case studies developed from projects undertaken in Second Life during the academic session 2008-9.The potential of virtual worlds in learning and teaching has begun to be commonly accepted, subject to the development of appropriate activities and scenarios. There are many staff who have ideas about projects for development and these are often very detailed. However, they are text-based and one of the main benefits of a virtual world is its nature as a visual environment.Translating textual ideas into visual [virtual] reality is proving much more difficult than expected, because in a written scenario the reader is given all the required information but can then recreate the scene mentally in their own way whilst in a virtual world it is necessary to create that world, and what the world looks like can impact on the learning experience.The case studies discussed here cover a range of expectations of academic staff in written scenarios and the impact they will have. Key to efficient and appropriate development is to identify the level of detail required to engage a student in a visual scenario, and the extent to which an inappropriately developed scenario can bias, positively or negatively, the learning outcomes of the activity.no references included