Inhabited Virtual Learning Worlds and Impacts on Learning Behaviors in Young School Learners
The scholarly
paper is an overview of the concept of Virtual Education and what it has
become. Even though Virtual Schools and Virtual Education has grown and
developed it still has long ways to go due to the fact that most perceive it as
just a type of database and teachers perceive it as a tool for normal teaching
instead of viewing as a new way of teaching. Most of these views are due to the
issues commonly associated to new developments and new technology, and to the
fact that virtual education may create student isolation. The article continues
to describe the significance and importance of exploiting Virtual Education,
and how using avatars for the students breaks the time, distance and physical
barriers that may disrupt a normal classroom.
The article
focuses on asserting the issues that must be solved before Virtual Education
can function perfectly and is able to provide an enriched learning environment,
better than the tradition classroom. The article, also, does not shy away from
the crude reality; it would be incredibly hard to make a virtual classroom seem
as normal as the traditional classrooms. It clearly states that it would take a
long time and great amounts of money to get the prototype IVLW out of the pilot
system.
Questions:
What
are top issues that need to be addresses before virtual education can be fully
implemented?
The top three issues
that must be addressed are telepresence, learning communities, and learning
supports in networked learning.
2.
What
is the current way of virtual teaching?
The current paradigm is a
Web-based teacher-centered program, so basically just information delivery.
3.
What
could be achieved through the avatars?
Using the avatars proposed
by the IVSW program, different individuals that are geographically separated,
can simultaneously interact in the virtual learning worlds.
4.
Do
the benefits of Virtual Education surpass the benefits from Traditional
Education?
If the proposed ideas
are exploited is possible to not only create a networked learning environment
that resembles the real life school learning environment, but also increases
traditional education by taking care of its most common issues and introducing
the virtual learning accommodations and extending the student’ horizons.
5.
What
is IVLW?
IVLW stands for
inhabited virtual learning worlds and is an emerging learning environment that
promises to revolutionize the virtual learning experience.
Citation for the Scholarly Paper:
Lin, C., Chou, C. C., & Kuo, M. (2007). Inhabited virtual learning worlds and impacts on learning behaviors in young school learners. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 5(4), 99-112. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.fiu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/201698234?accountid=10901
