Research Article
Cigdem Ozbek, Irem Comoglu, Bahar Baran
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 8, Issue 3, pp. 280-302
ABSTRACT
This study aims to design of the two activities “introducing an innovation” and “role playing” in Second Life (SL) and to evaluate qualitatively Turkish foreign language learner’s roles and outputs before, while, and after the implementation of the activities. The study used community of inquiry model consisting of cognitive presence and social presence as a theoretical frame to discuss the roles and outputs. The participants were twelve students and two English teachers from two different high schools. Teaching and learning in SL took six weeks. The first activity “introducing an innovation” let students develop an innovation and introduce it in English at a congress hall. The second activity “role playing” had four different scenarios in which students would be involved in; travel agency, get permission from family to go out, restaurant, and renting a car. It was found that the two activities in Second Life had various requirements in terms of the teacher, the student and the social environment and that they differed in pre-activity, while-activity and post-activity phases in terms of outputs. When the learning contexts created in this study are considered in terms of cognitive presence, the outcomes of the interaction effect between the teacher, the student, and the social environment were higher in the role-playing activity than in the second activity. Written preparations done before the activity in both teaching activities had positive effects on students’ performance during the activity. The fact that students responded to the questions spontaneously without following the scenario and that they found the correct answer through discussion affected their cognitive presence positively. For social presence, the role-play activity resulted in highersocial presence than introducing an innovation since the students studied individually in the introduction of an innovation.
Keywords: Language education, Technology in foreign language learning, Community of inquiry, Second Life, Role playing
Research Article
Ming Nie, Paula Roush, Matthew Wheeler
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 1, Issue 3, pp. 267-280
ABSTRACT
Second Life (SL) is an emerging technology in higher education. Academics are showing strong interest in it, but so far have more imaginative ideas about using it than experience of actual practice. This paper reports on a pilot study of using SL with six undergraduate students studying Digital Photography in October 2008 at the London South Bank University. The students took part in a group activity in SL that involved creating and manipulating virtual cubes, taking digital photos of avatars, putting these images onto the cubes and telling a story about them. The researchers used qualitative methods, namely personal interviews and a focus group. The findings illustrate benefits of SL for the subject of Digital Photography, particularly with regard to engaging students with active learning, gaining publicity for students as photographers and extending research into subcultures. The study demonstrates how SL can be used as a virtual space to create collaborative learning opportunities that might not be easy to generate in real life. It also examines the issue of user identity through avatars and its impact on group discussion. The paper showcases an example of SL being used for media and art education and offers insights into how this practice might be expanded and transferred to other disciplines and contexts in higher education.
Keywords: Second Life, Digital Photography, 3D Multi User Virtual Environments, Collaborative learning, Avatar identity