VirtualPREX

Manager:

Sue Gregory

Elements:

Use of a virtual world environment to provide a platform for an authentic role play activity

Goals:

To allow student teachers to obtain experience in the role of a teacher in a safe environment prior to their first practice teaching placement

Description:

Context:
University of New England/Teacher Education.

Program:
The VirtualPREX (virtual professional experience) classroom environment was created in order to address the need for university-based classroom role-play activities to prepare student teachers for, and to supplement professional experience placements in, schools. The four classrooms are housed in the virtual world of Second Life and allow student teachers to adopt either a student or a teacher avatar in order to participate in classroom role plays. Each virtual classroom is a 3D representation of a real classroom environment, which allows role-play participants to walk around, sit down, stand up and interact with each other, with Second Life’s dynamic rendering of their viewpoint providing a realistic visual representation similar to what they would experience in walking around and interacting in a real classroom. They are also able to carry out activities using a variety of interactive virtual tools, such as reading books and writing on boards.

Results:

Evaluation results suggest that students value the activities but that there are usability and learning design issues that need to be addressed in future iterations

Future:

Experiments are underway to provide automated ‘bot’ characters to play the role of some of the school students to allow for larger simulated class sizes without the need for large numbers of student teachers to be present at the role play.

Axis:

#1 ESTUDI I ANÀLISI DEL PROCÉS EDUCATIU

Line:

L4

Link:

http://virtualprex.com/

Contact:

sgregor4@une.edu.au