Identifying an appropriate pedagogy for virtual worlds: A Communal Constructivism case study
Citation:
Carina Girvan, Timothy Savage, Identifying an appropriate pedagogy for virtual worlds: A Communal Constructivism case study, Computers and Education, 55, 1, 2010, 342 - 349Download Item:
Abstract:
As increasing numbers of educators explore the use of virtual worlds for education, there is a need to consider which pedagogical approaches can provide an opportunity to do more than recreate the traditional classroom by leveraging the unique characteristics and potential that the technology can offer. This study identifies Communal Constructivism as a potentially appropriate pedagogy for use in the virtual world Second Life. Five groups of learners took part in a learning experience specifically designed to provide opportunity for the features of Communal Constructivism to emerge through the affordances of the technology. The chat logs, learning artefacts, post-activity semi-structured interviews and researcher?s observations from each of the five groups were analysed to explore participants? experiences and both the operation and outcome of the pedagogy in action. Findings from the qualitative analysis of the data sets indicate that learners collaboratively constructed knowledge for themselves as a group and for others, as the features of the pedagogy emerged.
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Grant Number
Irish Research Council for Science and Engineering Technology (IRCSET)
Author's Homepage:
http://people.tcd.ie/tsavagehttp://people.tcd.ie/cgirvan
Description:
PUBLISHED
Author: Savage, Timothy; Girvan, Carina
Type of material:
Journal ArticleCollections
Series/Report no:
Computers and Education55
1
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Full text availableKeywords:
collaborative learning, interactive learning environments, pedagogical issues, virtual worlds, teaching/learning strategiesDOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.01.020Metadata
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