2. Positives of using Virtual Worlds for
Educational Reasons.
Virtual Worlds open up “a wealth of new opportunities for enriching
how we learn”
Students are no longer the people our educational system was designed
to teach.
An average college student spends 10,000 hours using the internet
compared to 5000 hours reading books. So surely we should adapt new
teaching methods know we know this?
4. Teaching people with Disabilities within
Virtual Worlds.
Using Virtual Worlds for
educational reasons will provide
children with disabilities better
opportunities.
Those who face social problems
will find it easier to come to
lessons in virtual worlds and gain
confidence from it.
Children with disabilities cannot
be judged by others within
virtual worlds and are viewed like
anyone else is.
Children with disabilities will not
be left from different activities
when education is on virtual
worlds, such as they will not be
left out when it comes to school
trips.
5. Teaching people with Disabilities within
Virtual Worlds.
University of Texas is already using virtual worlds as a place
to help young adults with autism over come problems which
they face.
They put these adults in real life situations, such as day to
day activities of speaking to people they haven’t met before
or job interviews.
There aim is to gain confidence in these young adults so they
overcome there problems and then hopefully they will no
longer see talking to other people as an issue.
People with these social problems will find learning in virtual
worlds much easier than to turn up to a classroom everyday.
6. Negatives of using Virtual Worlds for
Educational Reasons.
Children may have a lack of interest in using computers.
Children may have a lack of knowledge in using the
internet and virtual worlds.
It is unfair to force children to learn in a way which they
may not understand.
All children have different learning methods, and to teach
all children in the same way surely is a bad thing rather
than seeing to each child’s needs.
Children may not be paying attention to what is being
taught and teachers will not know any difference.
Teachers may struggle to see what level each child is at if
teaching takes place over virtual worlds.
7. Students Attitudes in Virtual Worlds
Teachers in virtual
worlds will be viewed
differently compared to
how they are viewed in
real life in a classroom.
Teachers may have
trouble gaining
authority from students
in virtual world lesson .
8. Difficulties Teachers may face when
uses Virtual Worlds
May have trouble finding and deciding which virtual world to
choose.
By choosing the wrong virtual world, teachers may realise later on
in the course that they do not have the correct resources that they
need.
Children in that case will then be left behind in their education.
9. Social Factors
Prensky calls Generation Y – Digital Natives compared to the
older generation who are called ‘Digital Immigrants’
Adults (Digital Immigrants) were brought up differently to
how ‘Generation Y’ or also known as the ‘Net Generation’ are
being brought up now.
Some people believe that Digital Natives are just being
‘lazy’.
Learning in virtual worlds for Generation Y can have
damaging effects on children as they will not be socialising
the same way children currently do.
By having a lack of social skills this will effect children later
on in life when it comes to interview for jobs or forming
relationships.
10. Dotcom Student
Prensky makes the point that students nowadays have new and
different methods to learn from and prefer to use modern
technology rather than to use a textbook.
11. My Own Experience
I believe virtual worlds can give students experiences that
they are unable in real life. I was able to walk through a war
trench (Frideswide in Second Life learning island) whilst
being taught in different ways, through experiencing what I
was seeing and through speaking and writing.
Students can also have other experiences such as walking
through a cell – this is something that cannot happen in real
life and students will find it much more memorable than
reading from a textbook.
These are experiences which students cannot get in real life
so they should be used to give children the best possible
education.
12. Conclusion
I believe that teachers need to move with the new digital age
and use virtual worlds for educational reasons. Students can
gain valuable experiences from using virtual worlds which they
cannot get from a classroom. However I don’t believe that
teaching should just take place in virtual worlds, I still think
students need interaction with others and can gain important
social skills in the classroom. I believe virtual worlds can
provide a good basis for education as long as there is a good
balance between using virtual worlds and lessons taking place
face to face.
13. References
Catchen, Ruth (2012) Technology in the Classroom. Available at:
http://ruthcatchen.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/technology-in-the-classroom-
stay-cutting-edge-encourage-differentiated-learning-and-creativity/
(Accessed:09/05/2012)
Daily Sundial (2012) Students use alternative methods to purchase textbooks.
Available at: http://sundial.csun.edu/2012/01/students-use-alternative-
methods-to-purchase-textbooks/ (Accessed: 09/05/2012)
de Freitas (2009) Serious Virtual Worlds: A scoping study. Bristol: Joint
Information Systems Committee [online]. Available at:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/seriousvirtualworldsv1.
pdf (Accessed: 09/05/2012).
Dodson, Sean (2012) Is There a Second Life for Teaching? The Guardian.
Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/digitalstudent/second-life
(Accessed: 09/05/2012)
Flickr (2008) Disabilities in Virtual Worlds. Available at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/2300727296/ (Accessed:
09/05/2012)
McMahan, Alison (2007) Second Life – The Game of Virtual Life. Manchester
University Press.
14. References
Prensky, Marc (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Availble at:
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-
%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf
(Accessed: 09/05/2012)
Teacher Tech (2011) Google Certified Teacher. Available at:
http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2011/12/02/the-strange-
psychology-of-grades/ (Accessed:09/05/2012)
The Guardian (2009) Doing Pythagoras the pacy way. Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/27/teaching-awards-
secondary-school-teacher (Accessed: 09/05/2012)
The Guardian (2008) Depressed, stressed: teachers in crisis. Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/aug/31/teaching.teachersworklo
ad (Accessed: 09/05/2012)
Tumblr (2012) 10 Reasons Technology is vital to education
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/education?before=1336494957 (Accessed:
09/05/2012)
