Education

Over the past decade, teaching and learning in virtual worlds has been at the forefront of many higher education institutions around the world. The DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) consisting of Australian and New Zealand higher education academics was formed in 2009. These educators are investigating the role that virtual worlds play in the future of education and actively changing the direction of their own teaching practice and curricula. 47 academics reporting on 28 Australian higher education institutions present an overview of how they have changed directions through the effective use of virtual worlds for diverse teaching and learning activities such as business scenarios and virtual excursions, role-play simulations, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insights into the ways in which institutions are continuing to change directions in their teaching to meet changing demands for innovative teaching, learning and research in virtual worlds. This paper highlights the ways in which the authors are using virtual worlds to create opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would be difficult or not possible to achieve through more traditional approaches.

The popularity of user-generated content in Virtual Worlds provides educators with an extensive range of 3D immersive resources. Some of the issues for educators are how to find the resources and how to evaluate whether they will be effective for a particular teaching and learning experience. A Checklist for Evaluating Virtual World Sims is proposed. The two page document includes thirty-seven questions under six categories. Each of these questions has a numerical rating scheme to create a final quantitative evaluation. Research in relation to virtual world typologies and criteria for evaluating Web sites has been drawn on in the development of this preliminary model.

The tools and techniques available for visual arts expression have expanded tremendously with the advent of new hardware and software and ICT provides unique opportunities to extend visual arts teaching and learning. Society now demands new visual literacies for its citizens to function effectively in social and employment contexts. Furthermore, the very nature and interests of students themselves contribute to the changing face of visual arts education. ICT can engage and inspire teachers and students alike.

Virtual worlds are emerging as the new frontier in the use of ICTs for the engagement of students in primary, secondary and tertiary education. In 2010 the use of the virtual world, Second Life, was trialled as a pedagogical tool in the training of Visual Art Education students studying at Southern Cross University. The students, physically located at three regional campuses, spent time in-world discussing concepts, visiting art sites, creating 2D and 3D art work and designing an exhibition space. This case study makes a comparison between traditional and mixed mode delivery and recommendations are proposed in relation to strategies for implementing the use of virtual worlds in Visual Arts teacher training and Secondary School Art Education.

Virtual worlds continue to be used in Australia and New Zealand higher education institutions although the hype has settled. Whilst some higher education institutions continue to use virtual worlds as they have done for some time, other institutions are trialing different virtual worlds and some are opting out altogether. An overview of how 46 authors from 28 institutions see virtual worlds as an opportunity to sustain the future of higher education is presented. The positives and negatives of using virtual worlds are discussed.

The DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group has an informal membership of nearly 200 members with an interest in education and virtual worlds within the Australian and New Zealand context. Members come from a variety of academic disciplines and may be teaching or research academics, Research Higher Degree candidates, project managers, virtual world builders and developers.

When Second Life first came to the attention of the mainstream media in 2007, educators recognised the potential of virtual worlds for teaching and learning. They seemed to be the ideal environments to facilitate authentic learning, alleviate the tyranny of distance for students not on campus, and provide an inexpensive and safe environment to teach skills that were too dangerous or expensive to teach in the real world. In spite of all this fanfare, virtual worlds have failed to gain significant traction in higher education. This paper outlines a preliminary investigation into the reasons why virtual worlds have not been adopted for learning and teaching. The reflections of the six authors on this topic were subjected to a thematic analysis with themes arranged under four broad topics. This information informed the development of a survey to be distributed more widely to further explore this phenomenon.

Group has an informal membership of nearly 200 members with an interest in education and virtual worlds within the Australian and New Zealand context. Members come from a variety of academic disciplines and may be teaching or research academics, Research Higher Degree candidates, project managers, virtual world builders and developers. The group acts as an informal Community of Practice, facilitating learning and the transfer of skills through social contact, opportunities to collaborate on projects and publications, and through the sharing of knowledge and experience. This poster provides a snapshot of the activity of this highly active group. Queensland. At that first meeting, it was decided to open up membership beyond the DEHub consortium as there was considerable expertise in virtual worlds and education outside of that group of institutions. The group now has a membership of 190 from 55 Australian and New Zealand institutions. From February 2010, the group has met monthly in Second Life at Australis 4 Learning -an island jointly owned by the University of New England, the lead project member of the DEHub, and two other members of the VWWG (Gregory, 2011). The membership of the VWWG has a common interest in using virtual worlds for teaching and learning, though individual's own roles in institutions vary. The majority of the members have roles as teaching academics but there are also research academics, Research Higher Degree students, and virtual world builders and developers. Even within those groupings, there is considerable variation both in the level of experience in dealing with virtual worlds and the teaching disciplines.

Group has an informal membership of nearly 200 members with an interest in education and virtual worlds within the Australian and New Zealand context. Members come from a variety of academic disciplines and may be teaching or research academics, Research Higher Degree candidates, project managers, virtual world builders and developers. The group acts as an informal Community of Practice, facilitating learning and the transfer of skills through social contact, opportunities to collaborate on projects and publications, and through the sharing of knowledge and experience. This poster provides a snapshot of the activity of this highly active group. Queensland. At that first meeting, it was decided to open up membership beyond the DEHub consortium as there was considerable expertise in virtual worlds and education outside of that group of institutions. The group now has a membership of 190 from 55 Australian and New Zealand institutions. From February 2010, the group has met monthly in Second Life at Australis 4 Learning -an island jointly owned by the University of New England, the lead project member of the DEHub, and two other members of the VWWG (Gregory, 2011). The membership of the VWWG has a common interest in using virtual worlds for teaching and learning, though individual's own roles in institutions vary. The majority of the members have roles as teaching academics but there are also research academics, Research Higher Degree students, and virtual world builders and developers. Even within those groupings, there is considerable variation both in the level of experience in dealing with virtual worlds and the teaching disciplines.

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 di...

The adoption and pedagogical use of technologies such as virtual worlds to support teaching and learning, and research in higher education involves a complex interplay of technical, organisational and personal factors. In this paper, eighteen educators and researchers provide an overview of how they perceive a virtual world can be used in education from the perspective of themselves as individuals 'me', their educational organisations and as members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) community of practice 'us', as well as the complex technology that underpins this learning environment 'IT'. Drawing on Linstone's (1981, 1984) Technical, Organisational and Personal (TOP) multiple perspective concept as the framework for analysis, the authors discuss their perspectives of how the personal, organisational and technical aspects of teaching through the use of virtual worlds have impacted on their teaching and research in highe...

This study aims to establish a Heutagogy approach for teacher professional education in Indonesia as an attempt to improve teacher competencies. This study will identify key elements of a Heutagogy approach derived from previous Heutagogy practices. The methods to collect data for developing the Heutagogy approach in this study employs a literature review of previous research and findings related to Heutagogy practice. In this regard, this study's established elements are Learnerdetermined learning, Metacognitive reflection, Collaboration, and Capability development. These elements are analysed and then incorporated into the TPE model with support from online learning tools. Capability development is the goal of experiencing each of the elements of Heutagogy in this approach. Each of these key elements will contribute to developing participants capability as professional teachers. The Heutagogy approach in this study is expected to be significant for improving teacher competenci...

and Symposium Plan There has been much media reporting on the efficacy of virtual worlds for education over the last few years. Some of the claims made are unfounded and not based on empirical evidence. All panel members have been teaching and conducting research in virtual worlds for several years. They will address many of the myths about teaching and learning in a virtual world. The format will follow Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage’s television series, “Myth Busters” (“MythBusters,” 2011) to find out whether the myths are “founded”, “busted” or “plausible”. To date there has been limited research and publications reporting on myths surrounding the teaching and learning in virtual worlds. However, Calani (2010) attempted to resolve the myths around immersion, James (2007) set about resolving the myths surrounding business in Second Life and, Hendrich & Mesch (2009), discussed 10,000 reasons why a virtual world will or won’t work. This interactive session will seek audience particip...

The landscape has already changed for the music industry in the way that music is created, performed and distributed. Higher education courses in music, including contemporary music, are abundant but in many cases are not preparing students for the 21 st century music industry. Innovative technology is pushing the boundaries of what live performance in music actually entails. Technology such as virtual worlds is opening up avenues for greater control by the musician in relation to design of performance spaces and ability to attract global audiences. The potential for the exploration of virtual worlds by musicians to promote appropriate career development skills is discussed. Technical, organisational and motivational issues are also raised. Problems and possibilities associated with the initial running of performances in a virtual world reveal the capacity of higher education to implement live music performance in virtual worlds as part of their music courses.