Hello fellow educators or educational enthusiasts. I know it has been a long time coming, but hey better late than never. This site will focus on aspects of virtual world education. The aspects we focus on will primarily be driven in direct relation to issues and/or concerns I come across as my team and I travel the exciting waters of VW education. It is important to understand that the comments made in this blog are my personal beliefs and are in no way official endorsement from TSTC or any other entity. I will use this forum as a personal communication of my experiences and beliefs.
Let's start with an introduction...I am Chris Gibson, and I lead a team of educational artists at Texas State Technical College (TSTC). One of our primary team projects is developing virtual world learning experiences. We currently use Second Life(SL) as the primary delivery platform, but understand the environment is dependent upon need and not any specific virtual world branding issues. My team is dedicated to utilizing whatever tools we feel are the best tools for the job at hand and currently SL meets that criteria.
Most recently we have been recognized for developing and leading TSTC to the head of virtual world education by being the first college (vTSTC) to offer a completely online college program using virtual worlds as the primary delivery method (yes, this means an actual college degree obtained using SL). Now enough with the portfolio, let's get to the meat of this site and that is virtual world education.
What is VW education? First, I will be upfront about the term virtual world education, to me it is synonymous with online education. It is my belief that in the very near future (3-5 years) we will reference the two as one in the same. Yes this means, I believe, we will see a shift in the coming years for educational online delivery methods. This shift will introduce "traditional" online educators to a new paradigm for teaching and learning. This new paradigm will revolve around using 3D environments in an effort to establish a more immersive engaging environment than current 2D delivery methods readily offer.
What are your thoughts or ideas in relation to online education and virtual worlds?
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1 comment:
First of all, BRAVO for creating your blog!
Secondly, I agree that online education and virtual world education will be synonymous very soon. As I talk to students who are taking traditional online courses, it is easy to recognize the need for a major overhaul in this area. Students need to take online courses because they allow them some flexibility in their schedules and they are able to conserve on fuel costs by not having to travel to the campus. But the bottom line is - students are not enjoying their online classes and many struggle to stay engaged. I believe virtual world education will help to solve this problem.
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