Presentation at AAOS – fall ‘2009by Eileen O’Connor

• Brief pictorial overview of some actual uses • Some general suggestions • Discussion ?

Courses: time frames, focus, and student experience

Brought in a summer course too & will be bringing into a course this fall – used as part of the “discussion” areas; these are mostly 100% online courses

Small meetings with students: office hours

Class meeting at another island (ISTE) – students lead

Class meeting in MAT Science Center: student presentations on uses of SL

Class meeting in MAT Science Center: student presentations – the presenter is standing

Field trip to ISTE: small groups

Non-science class: speaker & questions / an MAT 1st year teacher / speech & text questions

Virtual and interactive experiences are possible: NOAA – real-time weather map (Northeast)

Non-science class: class members presenting / notice the interactive/supportive companion text chat

Guest speaker from Indiana: assistive technologies /not feasible otherwise – I meet Dan in SL

Field trip to Genome Island: small group of bio teachers / meeting Quebec teachers

Professional meeting that students and I “crashed”

Meet deans and other unsavory characters in SL

Best expressed through an instructional metaphor: like designing an intelligent experience (field trip /

discussions / role playing / construction) . . . with an assessment

More advanced uses

Pros / cons

• Advantages: – Closeness, empathy, fun with students – you will

be a learner too; they may be better (Great)– Makes online personal & connected (Jack’s quote)– You control scheduling / students can meet alone– Many applications: discussions / speakers / field

trips / building • Disadvantages: – Learning curve / tech support / security

Basic / not-too-difficult

Designing an SL portion to a courseCourse objectives Is there a requirement for collaboration, sharing, discussion?

Meeting arrangements Some required time, at least initially

Give multiple times for participation if online course

Tasks & conversations Discussions / role playing / guest speakers

Overheard – real discussions

Collaboration spaces You don’t have to be there all the time

Require documenting & reporting; snapshots in

Shared experiences Field trips / presentations / scavenger hunts

Put PowerPoint into SL for presentations (it’s easy)

Methods of gaining SL expertise

Tutorial / handouts / peer tutoring / tech support

Posit, expect and support awkwardness & learning curve

Ways of communicating Voice chatting (w/ headsets) is useful with smaller group

In larger groups, determine who speaks and have others use text

Considering students & their learning curve

Issue Ways instructor can help

- Technology requirements - In the school lab if possible; alternatives if necessary

- Finding time to learn SL - Embed learning SL as an early assignment

- Time to overcome awkwardness

- Instructor can model learning and awkwardness (generally easy to do); have a field trip

- Problems with scheduling - Have multiple sessions and/or times & ways to participate

- Problems with voice chatting

- Work with them on their audio / headset settings; get tech help if possible; use text chatting as a backup

- Problems with collaborating - Provide structured / required interactions until groups can work on their own

- Problems with valuing SL - Don’t expect all will “like” SL at the start; over time more come to value the experience

Overall recommendations

• Stage SL introduction / test along the way • Attend to scheduling • Integrate into course objectives / require

reflection & application / assess• Value and require collaboration / facilitate• Gather suggestions from students for future • Find ways to work across courses & program