Using Second Life to enhance classroom management practice in teacher education

Abstract

The following article discusses an educational simulation created within Second Life (SL) in order to assist pre-service teachers (PSTs) in gaining more experience managing student behavior. The article discusses the development, implementation, and assessment of the simulation as well as student data on the feasibility of the approach in comparison to other methods of learning classroom management. It includes discussion of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods to infuse the simulation with random student behavior, much as it would arise in the classroom. Results indicated that the students found the simulation to be a useful learning experience and put them in situations that forced them to think on their feet. Recommendations for future work with the simulation and for others considering the use of SL for educational purposes are discussed. Der Gebrauch von Second Life zur Verbesserung von Unterrichtsmanagement in der LehrerbildungIm folgenden Beitrag wird über eine im Second Life (SL) erstellte Ausbildungssimulation zur Unterstützung von auszubildenden Lehrern (PSTs) beim Erwerb von Kompetenzen beim Steuern von Schülerverhalten berichtet. Der Artikel beschreibt die Entwicklung, die Einführung und Bewertung der Simulation ebenso wie die Studentendaten bei der Umsetzung der Annäherung im Vergleich zu anderen Methoden des, lernenden Klassenzimmer "…Managements". Es schließt Diskussionen über die Nutzung von Methoden künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) zur Einführung der Simulation mit zufälligem Schülerverhalten in der Art, wie es im Unterricht entstehen könnte, ein. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Studenten die Simulation als nützliche Lernerfahrung ansahen und und die sie auch in Situationen benutzen, in denen sie zu grundsätzlichen Überlegungen aufgefordert waren. Empfehlungen für zukünftige Arbeit mit Simulationen und für andere Überlegungen des Gebrauchs von Second Life für pädagogische Zwecke werden angestellt. comparaison avec les autres méthodes d'étude de la gestion de classe. On y inclut une discussion sur l'usage des méthodes d'intelligence artificielle (IA) pour intégrer la stimulation avec le comportement aléatoire des élèves tel qu'il peut se produire en situation de classe. Les résultats ont indiqué que les enseignants en formation ont trouvé que la simulation était une expérience d'apprentissage utile et qu'elle les plaçait dans une situation qui les forçait à penser debout sur leurs pieds. On présente des recommandations en vue de travaux futurs avec la simulation et d'autres portant sur l'usage possible de Second Life à des fins éducatives.El uso de Second Life para mejorar las prácticas de la gestión de aulas en la formación de los profesores El artículo abajo trata de una simulación educativa creada dentro de Second Life (SL) para ayudar a los futuros profesores (PSTs) a adquirir más experiencia en el manejo de la conducta de los alumnos. El artículo examina el desarrollo, la puesta en práctica y la evaluación de la simulación además de los datos procedentes de los alumnos acerca de la fa...

Practising teaching using virtual classroom role plays

“…The 3D immersive characteristics of the VirtualPREX environment make it similar to the environments described by Fluck andFox (2011), Cheong (2010), and Mahon et al (2010), but differentiates it from the ClassSim simulation (Ferry et al, 2004), the SimSchool simulation , and the Cook District simulation (Girod & Girod, 2006). The ability for student teachers to play the role of school students rather than the use of simulated school students further differentiates the VirtualPREX learning environment from the latter three classroom simulations.…”

“…Pilot versions of immersive classroom simulations in which student roles are simulated by the software have begun to emerge in the literature (see, for example, Mahon et al, 2010;Fluck & Fox, 2011), and this is also an avenue being pursued by the project team (see, for example, . Environments in which a student teacher can undertake the teacher role in their own time without the need to coordinate with other student teachers are likely to be particularly valuable in off-campus or online teacher education courses.…”

“…Cheong (2010) investigated the use of a virtual classroom environment in Second Life in which student teachers prepared and delivered lessons while their peers played the role of school students. Mahon, Bryant, Brown, and Kim (2010) describe a Second Life virtual classroom environment in which participants play the role of a teacher or a school student with a focus on classroom and behaviour management techniques. An additional element within this environment is the inclusion of simulated school students exhibiting rudimentary student behaviours, implemented as bots (non-player characters).…”

Breaking Bad Behaviors: A New Tool for Learning Classroom Management Using Virtual Reality

“…There is a significant body of research on the effects of teachers' non verbal communication in real classrooms (Alibali and Nathan, 2007;Kelly et al, 2008Kelly et al, , 2009Mahon et al, 2010;Wang and Loewen, 2015) and also in virtual ones (Barmaki and Hughes, 2015a). Teachers tend to use a variety of non verbal behaviors to communicate knowledge, including hand gestures (iconics, metaphorics, deictics, and beats), head movements, affect displays, kinetographs, and emblems (Wang and Loewen, 2015).…”

“…In the context of CRM, virtual training environments (VTEs) have been successfully used in training and education domains for many years (Tichon, 2007;Gupta et al, 2008;Dieker et al, 2013). VTEs often provide alternatives to various teaching setups concentrating on the knowledge transfer of the subjects taught (Schutte, 1997;Keppell, 1998;Mahon et al, 2010). Stress exposure training delivered via a VTE has been used across many domains, including military, aviation, and health care (Schuemie, 2003;Baker et al, 2005).…”