 Not me. I know Hello everyone and welcome to the 2 30 p.m. Session in the research and education track as a reminder to our in-world audience and our web audience you can view the full conference schedule at conference.opensimulator.org and tweet your questions or comments to at open sim cc with the hashtag oscc14 Well this hour we are happy to introduce a terrific session called Instructional design in the virtual environments our speaker today is Catherine Donahue Catherine is a graduate student at Drexel University in the learning technologies program with a concentration in Instructional design her areas of interest are new media universal design for learning virtual world Learning environments and game-based learning welcome all and let's begin the session Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm very excited to be here My perspective on instructional design in virtual environments is that of an end user who is really new to these spaces I'm out there on the edges of the open-source community looking in and still feeling very challenged by the steep learning curve But excited by the opportunity for deep learning in these spaces There have been a number of presentations throughout the conference from educators who are building environments here and from developers But my interest in the virtual worlds is a little bit different. I'm looking at repurposing existing environments in the design process From that perspective for me a virtual world is one of many tools in the instructional design toolbox So how does a virtual environment become a learning tool? If I'm repurposing virtual worlds that have been designed for recreation or artistic expression The design thinking in the instructional design process is to match the affordances and constraints in the existing environment to the learning goals and to the needs of the learners The theories models and strategies used in instructional design depend on how we view learners Older models of instructional design focused on content Viewing the learner as an empty vessel a consumer of the content But instructional design is evolving along with the learning sciences Towards learning strategy is that view learners as active builders of their own knowledge Here are the design opportunities for active learning also involve reflection So I'm thinking about what are the learners goals and what are the needs of the unique learners that need to be met in order to reach those goals and what learning technologies are the best match And then to design out from there. I Started in Drexel's program for learning technologies in the game-based learning concentration But I found that I was less interested in leveraging games for learning as I was in exploring content That was being shared within the game communities much like my interest here In the community that's behind these virtual worlds My interest there was in modding screencasts that you see on YouTube of Narrated gameplay the gamer blogs Where gamers are supporting each other and curating content and also posting Machinima that's made inside games unrelated to the gameplay Midway through the learning technologies program. I switched over to instructional design and My primary focus then became design thinking With games being one more tool in the toolbox, but all of those things that interested me in games came along with me and Those are the same kinds of things that I'm thinking about as I look at other technologies for example virtual worlds Here we see portal 2 which is one of my favorite video games for many reasons I'm showing it here because Valve released a free modding software for educators So that students could recreate puzzles from the game or build their own puzzles and We're looking at it here because it's an example of a learning technology that's being repurposed for teaching physics What you see here is a website called physics with portals a high school teacher Figured out that he could use the puzzle to I mean the portal to puzzle maker to create an actual physics lab a simulation that Really runs very very accurately and I'm looking at this because when we're talking about you know running simulations, we're talking about the engine and Valve's source engine is very powerful and Can replicate real-world physics in ways that virtual world engines cannot So when I'm looking for a free user friendly virtual space for building a physics lab I'm probably going to turn first to puzzle maker However, I Was reading MIT's technology review site back in June and saw that There there was an article that that addressed those issues, but talked about how virtual worlds give us an innovative environment to interact with physics precisely because the source engines Don't work in the same way And this allows educators to simulate universes in which matters governed in an entirely different way and Allow students to study and experience laws of motion that are entirely different ones from those in our universe So when this is the learning goal a virtual world becomes a really good match for the study of physics and Again, I'm talking about repurposing environments not building them Because I've done some exploring and I've seen some wonderful science builds out there But I'm coming from the perspective of someone who's not building someone who's repurposing So if we think about the wide range of learner variability in the motivation to learn science We can take this kind of thinking in a different direction What you see here on the screen are screenshots that I took on an island that was designed for people who have a passion for Photography and want to play around with composition and light This is a recreational space that I've really enjoyed and I have a lot of pictures in fact I should be putting them on flicker. I remember When I taught middle school physical science not many of my students were engaged by these kinds of diagrams that we Find in textbooks and even on the web So in thinking about repurposing environments in this context I'm thinking about the emotional impact of sunrises and sunsets in virtual worlds and Using those subjective experiences as a point of entry for students who aren't Really engaged in learning science directly The screenshot here is from open sim because I'm thinking also about students who have an interest in the technology In virtual worlds many of the presentations this weekend talked about students doing the building which is so exciting So a student who has that technology interest might be able to come to this content in thinking about how light interacts in the virtual space in contrast to real-world science and might be thinking about scripting To change how light behaves in any environment or building environments like those that are designed for photography Other students might be more motivated to experience the aesthetics of a simulated sunrise Midday sunset and reflect on those subjective Experiences using those kinds of experience as a bridge to the science behind the experience and an added benefit here is opportunity for social learning where students can travel to these spaces together Play with the the settings for time of day take lots of you know screenshots and then come back and Reflect on those experience and the science behind it. So in the end all of these students whether playing with Physics laws that don't apply to our world or thinking about the technology behind virtual worlds and Doing their their own Scripting and designing in world or students who just want to experience sunset and Come to the science through that lens Everyone is getting to the same learning goal. They're just getting there in different ways and what I love about virtual worlds is how easy it is to Think about this variability and give children a freedom to explore in these ways this journal article is a wonderful example of This kind of complex design in higher education Elizabeth's old designed an active learning project that allowed for autonomy and experiencing her course content in a way that supported unique learner reflections and gave them an opportunity for Much deeper learning than they would have experienced Just with text In this project her students were studying 18th century travel logs and Studying the genre and then they traveled throughout the virtual world I believe in her article. It was second life where they traveled, but this could actually be happening on any grid and They were traveling primarily to experience new cultures So you have the culture of the island that they're exploring you have the culture of the community that then comes and and gathers in that place and the the community of virtual worlds themselves So here pre-built environments are repurchased Repurposed for exploration Not just for the geography, but for the culture, which was the purpose of studying these travel logs from the 18th century This study really interested me because it really Leverages the whole idea of the ecologies of learning and The complexity of learning that can happen in these spaces So when I go back to the toolbox and I think about selecting environments for learning Sometimes the real world is the environment where the learning needs to occur. For example, if students are going to Grow an organic garden It's about growing food. And so I would want my students to have real food that can be eaten because It's about the larger community Where they may take the food home or donate it in the local community or sell it to benefit the school community and I think there are wonderful simulations that go with this where students can learn more about Plants and how they're growing effect. There are some game environments. I Know of that do that but in this case you want an actual environment and Sometimes it's modding a game environment because of the technology because of the engine because of the drag-and-drop because it's just easier but other times it's about designing in very complex social collaborative environments where we can really explore and Reflect in a very collaborative in a very social way So here we're back in the game world again, but I I don't have Game-Star mechanic up here to talk about games even though it's a brilliant game and It's an amazing Piece of software to teach game design I I'm looking at Game-Star mechanic to talk about reflection on learning and How that is also part of instructional design Here what we see is An example of how this game is designed so that after a student designs a game a Classmate can play the game and They can put their feedback Not only right in the game but Also right at the point in the game Where they're targeting their feedback for example? If if this the the classmate thinks that the design needs to be tweaked or that something doesn't work or that something is missing You see those little arrows they they can put the message right there So that when the designer of the game goes back in and they're receiving their feedback They're receiving it in action in that environment And I talk about that here because I think that screen capture whether it's a still photo or whether we're looking at capturing for video is Wonderful affordance that we here have here in learning environments. So many of the presentations this weekend talked about role-play Or all kinds of building or things that You don't necessarily have an artifact later for Reflection and sharing on the learning. So I've been thinking about that as I have explored virtual worlds Here you see back in the spring. I was preparing to go to a Conference in Second Life and OS grid that was similar to to the conference where we are this weekend and Before I went because I was totally new to virtual worlds at this point. I practiced sitting walking teleporting and I Don't know why but I I Captured it with Camtasia and I was so glad that I did because it gave me an opportunity to go back and reflect on the learning now here For me the content was not learning other content in the virtual world for me The content here was learning the virtual world learning how to interact in that world and I've Taken these videos and added them to find the places where I have insights and then shared them with You know back at Drexel and in my classes with people who aren't using virtual worlds And they've been so well received because they're not only learning about my experiences But they're also learning about my own learning curve and and my insights as I go. So I think that that Leveraging this tool is a wonderful opportunity for students to be able to Reflect on problem-solving and learning in these spaces Here we have an example from when I finally got to the conference Despite all my practicing there were so many things that I still did not know how to do You see me sitting there on the left. I have the red jacket on and I can't hear the speaker because I don't know how to go into the viewer and You know move the viewers conversation closer to myself. I don't know how to zoom in on the screen But I'm resourceful so I Picked up the live feed and I didn't want to just watch the live feed because I had worked so hard and practiced To go into that environment and be part of the conference. So I wound up doing both Being there to get that that feeling of presence and watching it on the live screen so that I could Get the content Here you see I've started to play around with that video. I uploaded some of it to a site called wire wax and That's a cloud Technology it's like a studio where you can upload your video and then you can tag it for interactive viewing I Was playing around with this to create a training video for Others who are not familiar with virtual worlds who might want to come in and experiment and explore and The thing I like about the interactive piece is that the variability again that that student Well that whoever watches this can choose to only click on the pieces that interest them or pertain to them and so I think that this could be a wonderful tool for preparing students for Learning that's been designed for the virtual environment for students themselves to use to capture their learning there Not just editing the insights or their you know, they're their own insights on their learning process and maybe narrating them, but also possibly making them interactive and What I really love about that and the reason that I'm using wire wax is that The analytics there are free as I said there are a number of online Cloud technologies that will do this, but this one has free antelope analytics, which I think is great Not only for instructors to see what students are clicking on But also for students if they use this for their own learning and their own presentations so that they can see What other students are clicking on when they're Watching, you know their presentations and their feedback also thinking that when you're Recording group interactions and group projects. It could be really fun to have students Each narrate their own and and see how different it all comes out and you know Maybe interactivity can be built in there so that you could click to different insights and reflections on that learning so I'm going to Try pasting a URL in I had a third reflection That I did at the conference This is my last day as an attendee at the conference And I'm so excited in this video because I have finally figured out how to navigate my environment So I'm not seeing that come up. So I'm typing it into live chat The mid the video is about a minute and a half So I'm just going to wait a few minutes For those of you who'd like to click on it and view the video four days later. I'm at the last session I've learned to zoom in I can so That brings us to the end of the slides that I had prepared today So I'm going to stop here and take questions If if you see up on the the slide, I've added my Twitter handle I'm going to type that into local chat now. I Am working on a website with these videos and it's not up yet So if you would like to follow me on Twitter when I have those videos posted I would love for people to come and see them and give feedback So that's all I have for today. So thank you Did you want to ask about some questions? Since we have some time Catherine sure Are there any questions about any of The things that I've talked about here today either the the websites or the technologies or some of the studies You're a little typing. Maybe we have a question coming. It sounds like Okay, question from Steven Do your students carry their reflections and digital recordings after the class is over? Like on their personal websites or social media Absolutely, I'm working with students at this point who will be higher education But whether I was doing this in higher ed or K-12 my personal feelings behind this whether it's analytics or Video and editing is that I want students making the choices and owning the content so I'm not wanting to Have that need to be instructor's video. I'm wanting that to be the students video Question Okay, and let's see if we have any final questions at this point Let's take a look real quick in local chat. All right. She gave us the link for warrior wax. That's cool And everybody saw that if you need to reach out and contact Catherine, you can reach her on Twitter at K-A-T-H-M-R-E So thank you very much Catherine. That was a awesome presentation today This session closes out the business track Presentations and we are at the end of the second annual open simulator community conference a tremendous Thank you to all of our speakers our sponsors crowd funders volunteers and hundreds of attendees who braved a host of Technical challenges to make this conference a great success following the conference program all Staff and volunteers are invited to the stage at the keynote one region for pictures as well as a celebration and The audience is welcome to join the festivities on your assigned keynote regions In addition, they are Still three social events after the conference to keep the excitement going at 3 30 p.m. Pacific Steven Zootfly will be hosting in educators birds of a feather meeting on the avocon grid To discuss how to encourage more educators to use open simulator great Then at 5 p.m. Pacific Lucina Wyndham seeker hosts a continuation of the quest for the galaxy language session on the second life grid in the inspiration island region and Finally the last social event of the conference is that 7 p.m. Pacific on the Pirates atoll grid Dance on on the Sunset Beach at Pirates atoll to the Ethereal sounds of dream pop and the indie beat a great time to unwind and socialize after the conference Tremendous. Thank you to all of our speakers sponsors crowd funders volunteers and again the hundreds of attendees who braved Hosts of challenges to come to this conference and make it a great success Have a wonderful evening and we look forward to seeing you next year at the open simulator community conference 2015