Virtual Learning Community and Online Teaching Strategies

Educational games and simulations can engage students in higher-level cognitive thinking, such as interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving. Recent technical advances in multiplayer, user-created virtual worlds have significantly expanded the capabilities of user interaction and development within these simulated worlds. This ability to develop and interact with your own simulated world offers many new and exciting educational possibilities. This article explores the technical capabilities and educational potential of these new worlds. Additionally, it presents and illustrates a model, which uses interaction combinations, to identify course content and topics having educational applications in virtual worlds.

This session will examine models for collaborative learning evidenced within the context of an online Master of Educational Technology program. This session will examine models of online learning from pedagogical and instructional design perspectives and consider the epistemological implications of collaborative spaces for learning and knowledge production.

The author provides a long and comprehensive list of resources concerning teaching and learning with technology.

Instructors in higher education get e-learning support from two distinct sources: their own institutions, through colleagues and faculty teaching centers, and their disciplines, through subject area experts and scholarly associations. Tom Carey, professor of management sciences at the University of Waterloo and chief learning officer of MERLOT, explains how the MERLOT consortium is finding the sweet spot where those two processes come together.

In the face of increasing difficulty placing teacher candidates in schools for their practicum, using a cyber practicum offers several advantages.

Technical developments in MMVWs continue to advance dramatically. In this session, we will tour Second Life, a MMVW created by each user and simultaneously played by hundreds of people around the world. As we demonstrate educational possibilities, we will also introduce a vision mechanism for incorporating MMVWs into teaching and learning strategies.