Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable March 16, 2010
Topic: The Reading Meeting for March, "Children's Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases." by Special VWER Guest Nina Neulight/June Grantly
Thanks to Kali for the photo. Join our VWER group at Flickr and add your own pictures!
Links of Note:
hobbs Constantine: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable meeting.
hobbs Constantine: Our meetings are made possible by the Office of Information Technology at Montclair State University. We meet here each week at 2:30pm SLT for an hour.
Zotarah Shepherd: Hi Birdie
hobbs Constantine: The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable is a forum to educate and inform the community about issues that are important and relevant to education.
hobbs Constantine: The views and opinions of any of our special guests or visitors do not necessarily represent those who volunteer or organize these meetings,
hobbs Constantine: or of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Office of Information Technology , or Montclair State University.
hobbs Constantine: This is a public meeting, so we do keep a transcript of what is said in local chat. For a copy of transcripts, please visit http://www.vwer.org
hobbs Constantine: If you've not seen the transcripts, you should check them out - they are a great information asset.
hobbs Constantine: Today is the Reading Meeting and our very special guest is Nina Neulight/June Grantly.
hobbs Constantine: Welcome!
hobbs Constantine: Our article is "Children's Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases."
hobbs Constantine: This paper was published in the Journal of Science Education and Technology in 2007.
hobbs Constantine: It is linked here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/e312w7l681h38342
hobbs Constantine: We will NOT be using voice today. We will not be using Google Moderator because you can ask your questions directly to Nina.
hobbs Constantine: We will be using local chat only.
hobbs Constantine: The Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable meeting happens each week and we continue to develop a community of educators from around the world with a variety of thoughts, needs, and ideas.
hobbs Constantine: Please join the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable group here in SL. You can also find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Flicker, and KoinUp, as well as on Twitter as VWER.
hobbs Constantine: Finally, if you have Mystitool on, or other similar tool, please put it to sleep or detach it for now. :-) It tends to lag things.
hobbs Constantine: As a hint, it is better to have "local chat" open for these meetings, it will help you follow along better.
hobbs Constantine: You can find local chat by clicking COMMUNICATE in the bottom navigation bar and you'll find LOCAL CHAT as one of the tabs at the bottom of the window.
hobbs Constantine: For those sitting up in the amphitheater seating, please come down and join us around the roundtable. There is always an empty seat on the side closest to the ramp.
hobbs Constantine: As this is my first VWER meeting facilitation, you probably do not know me. So I’ll fix that right now.
hobbs Constantine: My name is Heather Dodds. For my day job, I am a Mentor and Community Facilitator for Math and Science Education Programs at Western Governors University.
hobbs Constantine: My presence here however reflects my personal preference for virtual worlds and I am studying them for my doctorate. I will let Nina introduce herself in a moment.
hobbs Constantine: Why don't we start off the way we always do, by introducing ourselves. No need to wait, except for our guests, everyone else go ahead and type into local chat now
Firery Broome: sorry gotta run new students IMs coming in.
Margaret Michalski: Margaret Czart, Research Information Specialist from the University of Illinois at Chicago
Silhshoot Seelowe: San Jose Library Grad studdent and high school librarian in Marysville California
Ilene Pratt: Ilene Frank in RL - librarian at UMUC and retired from Univ of South Florida
Zotarah Shepherd: I am a MA in Education (technology & psychology) student at Sonoma State University in northern California working on a curriculum project: Teaching and Learning Life Foundation Skills in Second Life. Visit my Immersive Interactive Educational builds on Ralanora. I also have a build for Multiple Intelligences on Koru.
Doctor Zeritonga: Research student at the Open University
Ju Roussel: J. Stanaityte, PhD student in management, Stockholm Univ.
Edith Halderman: hobbs - which country?
Birdie Newcomb: Birdie Newborn, itinerant educator
hobbs Constantine: @Edith, I'm in the US
danwighton Shackleton: Dan Wighton - Research Assistant at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
hobbs Constantine: Excellent everyone
hobbs Constantine: Nina/June Please feel free to introduce yourself now too
Edith Halderman: Edith, Gopher at Large in a PreK-12 in Hagerstown, MD, USA
hobbs Constantine: Type in Local Chat
Logos Sohl: Sorry I'm late. Logos Sohl is Niamh O Riordan, Irish PhD Student investigating the educational community in Second Life
Kali Pizzaro: sorry crashed
hobbs Constantine: It's OK Kali
June Grantly: I am so glad that you all have chosen to read and discuss my article. I did the research with a team at UCLA. I am a former teacher, having taught K-9. I am now a doctoral candidate at UCLA in Psychological Studies in Education. Glad to be here!
Kali Pizzaro: hope this is not indicative of the latest download
hobbs Constantine: :-)
Kali Pizzaro: Come join us Passionate
hobbs Constantine: Thank you June! By habit, we call each other by our Avatar names
hobbs Constantine: So to be clear for everyone June is Nina
hobbs Constantine: I have a question to start off with
Zotarah Shepherd: Oh I would like ot know more about that PhD program at UCLA.
hobbs Constantine: June, there were multiple authors listed on the paper, would you like to explain exactly what your role was?
June Grantly: Sure, I helped collect the data and used this study as my thesis, not my dissertation. My advisor was second author.
hobbs Constantine: Excellent
hobbs Constantine: So you are a number-cruncher?
June Grantly: One was another grad student, and one was the classroom teacher where we did the research, another was another researcher.
Logos Sohl is afk while she studies the paper and gets together some questions...
hobbs Constantine: OK Logos
hobbs Constantine: Your paper focused on the virtual world Whyville. That may be unfamiliar to some of our roundtable members. Can you explain Whyville for us?
June Grantly: We were able to do some quantitative analysis.
hobbs Constantine: (For those of you that can see the screen, we have some slides that we'll work through, they are from the paper.)
June Grantly: Whyville is an online community that was/is very popular with boys and girls. They were using it at home for fun!
hobbs Constantine: I've not been there, it does seem targeted to preteen
hobbs Constantine: Has anyone else here seen it? perhaps your kids have seen it?
Birdie Newcomb: I remember visiting, and they were describing this experiment -- for kids to discover how to track and eradicate an epidemic. Fascinating.
Margaret Michalski: I have not seen it. I do have a small interest in virtual worlds for younger children
Edith Halderman: isn't whyville the one with half people?
Birdie Newcomb: I thought, Whyville is too sophisticated for me...
hobbs Constantine: Wikipedia says it started in 1999, I think
June Grantly: Yes, it is targeted to preteen. It's got the chat feature they love and the avatars they can design themselves and update.
hobbs Constantine: ;-) Birdie
Margaret Michalski: @ Biridie sophisticated?
Kali Pizzaro: Hi betz have a seat
Betz Darwinian: thanks
Kali Pizzaro: chair next to me
hobbs Constantine: Can you explain what WhyPox is in reference to studying infectious diseases?
June Grantly: Ahigh percentage of girls which was also of interest to us.
Birdie Newcomb: @ Margaret -- irony gets lost in texting
hobbs Constantine: my question was to June - specifically
Kali Pizzaro: 17 for the transcript
June Grantly: The virtual world of Whyville offered a great context to study something in which the user can experience it without the negative consequences of a real-life encounter, say with a real disease.
hobbs Constantine: and WhyPox was actually a creation of the Whyville creators, not your research creation, correct?
June Grantly: No, it's not our creation. However, we were in contact with the creators.
hobbs Constantine: Very good.
hobbs Constantine: The paper mentions that at the time of the study, only two other virtual worlds had researched (or used?) infectious disease simulations. To the best of your knowledge, has that changed?
June Grantly: I'm not sure.
hobbs Constantine: I too am not sure. I actually researched that term and didn't find any other references other than to the one in World of Warcraft
hobbs Constantine: Where players could and DID maliciously spread a virus
June Grantly: Hmm, I will check that one out!
hobbs Constantine: So that wasn't really an experiment
June Grantly: There have been other studies about Whyville that explored different research questions.
hobbs Constantine: Do you think that the resultsâ that the kids could not connect the biology aspect of an infectious disease to the computer aspect of the virtual worldâ would be different if one could repeat the study today? Are kids more connected to their computers/iPods/cell phones?
hobbs Constantine: This is a hypothetical question of course
Kali Pizzaro: Hi Joy
Joy Rembrandt: hello Kali and All
June Grantly: My opinion is that this would need to be explicitly mentioned by an expert other (live person or virtual). I don't think that kids intuitively understand the computational explanations. I'm interested to hear your thoughts!
hobbs Constantine: Indeed, let's open this up
hobbs Constantine: any input from the group? thoughts? reactions? questions/
Margaret Michalski: @June you do not think they understand the concept of presence?
Betz Darwinian: when i was in genetics, kids and adults could not understand genes until we extracted dna from something they ate.
hobbs Constantine: Wow Betz!
Logos Sohl: I have a number of interim questions. Address whatever sounds interesting I guess...
1.What impact did being in Whyville have on students' attention? Did it distract them?
2.How do you think "students draw on their participation within a virtual disease simulation in order to expand on their knowledge of natural infectious diseases".... how would that differ from an older audience in your opinion?
Logos Sohl: 3.What design features do you think will create more effective integrations and simulations of disease in the future?
4. You note that having a disease last for 2 months was new for your study. What impact did that extended time period have on students' learning?
Margaret Michalski: @Betz,, genetics is a complicated thing
Logos Sohl: 5. You looked at both students' understandings of how diseases spread using Au and Romo as a guide and also at classroom discussions. How important were these discussions in informing your judgments about students' learning? Do you think this is a necessary/important tool in the methodological arsenal of this kind of research?
hobbs Constantine: So @Betz: they had to SEE it? (floating in a glass or something?)
Logos Sohl: 6. There is a lot of talk in sl about moving from instruction to a more egalitarian mode of teaching/learning where educators become facilitators rather than instructors. What's your opinion on that?
Betz Darwinian: @hobbs it took biology into the physics realm. biology is now hard. Until they can put it in their mouth.
Margaret Michalski: Logos can you give June a chance to answer questions 1 at a time
hobbs Constantine: Either you read fast or type fast Logos. :-)
Margaret Michalski: @hobbs my guess is copy and paste
Margaret Michalski: lol
Logos Sohl: sorry Hoobs. I dont think June should answer all of them
Logos Sohl: And yes, I'm dealing with lag
hobbs Constantine: @Betz. I agree. there is some evidence I believe that the physical aspects of biology that CAN be see are learned faster
Logos Sohl: So I'm copying and pasting
Margaret Michalski: @logos no worries
hobbs Constantine: @Betz aka Ecology, human body (on the outside)
June Grantly: 1) Students were very excited to go on to Whyville during class. In fact, some of the students spent a lot of outside time on Whyville. I'm doing the best I can to think, answer, type, and engage in scholarly discussion.
hobbs Constantine: @Logos, yes, no worries, good questions we might not get to all of them but Jun will have the transcript to work from
hobbs Constantine: We know we are putting you on the spot June, you are doing well
Betz Darwinian: hobbs http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/howto/index.html
Margaret Michalski: @ June you are doing very well
hobbs Constantine: @Betz, do I date myself if I say that DNA extraction labs came online just AFTER I finished Biology 102?
hobbs Constantine: :-)
June Grantly: I'd like to discuss concept of presence, which was presented.
Kali Pizzaro: grand
hobbs Constantine: Sure, take your time with your typing June
hobbs Constantine: Margaret asked about that
Betz Darwinian: @hobbs no if i have to date myself. haha
hobbs Constantine: Margaret-- could you expound upon that concept for those of us without a medical background?
Birdie Newcomb: Yes, with those huge heads on tiny legs -- what effect would that have on presence?
Margaret Michalski: @ June did the students see the avatar as the representation of themselves
June Grantly: Also, about teachers as facilitators, I agree. During the Whyville study , we looked at how the teacher-led discussions were structured. My current work is on expert others scaffolding learners to help them to learn things that they are unable to learn unassisted.
Margaret Michalski: @ June, that is very important to see how much motivation and reflection they put into learning
Birdie Newcomb: Like coaching?
Betz Darwinian: @hobbs. would i date myself when at the u they were betting that the gove's u would never survive the first year?
hobbs Constantine: @Betz, ouch!
Betz Darwinian: @hobbs yepper. and they say the same about SL
hobbs Constantine: I think the concept of presence is connected with this idea of the children did not connect...
hobbs Constantine: real disease with simulated disease
hobbs Constantine: For the group: why could that have been? Do you have a theory?
hobbs Constantine: For example, in 2007 were kids 'connected' to their computers like they are today?
hobbs Constantine: did they have virtual pets?
Betz Darwinian: with the internet kids were connected way before adults
Birdie Newcomb: that's a whole industry now, I believe -- but I don't know about Whyville
Kali Pizzaro: so did they maybe not see their avatar as themselves but as a character in the story?
hobbs Constantine: Good point Kali
Kali Pizzaro: what do you think June
Doctor Zeritonga: i am unsure when the concept of virtual pets began, but i think it was pre 2007
Ilene Pratt: But about connecting virtual reality to real life - do kids the age you studied separate real life from virtual life? Wouldn't we hope that they would try to differentiate?
Logos Sohl: Bailenson said if you take young kids shark diving in vws they remember it as if it really happened
Betz Darwinian: when i worked for museums and had the robot dinosaurs they could not distinguish them from real life.
Betz Darwinian: we had to protect them from being petted.
hobbs Constantine: @Logos, excellent point
June Grantly: we did see that children, ages 10-12, were referring to their avatars as "I" and "we."
Margaret Michalski: @ Kali, I know that my niece and nephew who are 5 and 7 looked at snapshots of my avatar and understood the concept without my explaining very much. That is why I asked.
hobbs Constantine: @ Logos, I've also heard that psychologists have discovered that what we SEE with our eyes is received in the brain as if it happened TO US even if we see it happening to others...hence the wince when a quarterback gets hit.
Betz Darwinian: look at the profiles of people on SL they have to make a point of divorcing themselves from one life to another.
June Grantly: I wanted to find for you all how many users were using Whyville at the time of our study. Our study looked at 2 classrooms who were using it. There were thousands of other users.
Logos Sohl: I say that "I am parked down the road". It doesnt mean I am my car
Kali Pizzaro: haha
hobbs Constantine: Yes, good point June. Imagine that
Birdie Newcomb: Your car is an extension of you.
hobbs Constantine: Thousands of users were catching WhyPox
Birdie Newcomb: McLuhan
Kali Pizzaro: so what if you had brought a real person into the class who you said was suffering from whypox and he looked sick
Kali Pizzaro: do you think that would have made a difference
Kali Pizzaro: i am interested because i have never taught kids
hobbs Constantine: welcome Jimmie
June Grantly: The social aspect of Whyville was/is huge. Users get clams, the Whyville currency, to update his/her avatar.
Kali Pizzaro: sounds painful
Doctor Zeritonga: lol
Jimmie Veeper: Hi everyone
Ilene Pratt: Hi, Jimmie!
hobbs Constantine: I wonder if we are starting to agree that kids saw themselves as separate from their avatar just like adults do?
Doctor Zeritonga: Welcome Jimmie
June Grantly: Whypox had the symptoms of measles or chicken pox, both diseases that I don't think today's children have that much experience with due to vaccines. However, kids are very used to having someone come to class with a cold, runny nose, etc. Doesn't answer your question directly.
Kali Pizzaro: ok
hobbs Constantine: Ah
Kali Pizzaro: what if there avatar got sick
Kali Pizzaro: or did they
Logos Sohl: they did
Kali Pizzaro: ok sorry
June Grantly: Can you read the text of the chat on the screen shots to get a sense of the conversations? I can't read them from my hard copies and am not advanced on Second Life.
hobbs Constantine: @Logos, would you like to find and repost one of your questions
Kali Pizzaro: open the text chat
Logos Sohl: ty Hobbbs
hobbs Constantine: Yes, I was suspicious that June was only seeing one comment at a time
Betz Darwinian: june, what would you recommend from your study? more virtual world experiences for children?
Kali Pizzaro: i am trying to catch up as i have a cold so watch out
Kali Pizzaro: in rl
hobbs Constantine: We are viewing this conversation in a grey pop-up window inside of SL
Kali Pizzaro: achoooooooooo
Logos Sohl: lol Kali
hobbs Constantine: If you click on the Local Chat blue button in your lower right side of your screen, the gray screen should pop up
Zotarah Shepherd waves to kids and moves away from Kali
June Grantly: That reminds me, kids wanted to get rid of Whypox because it interfered with their abilities to chat.
hobbs Constantine: I've already had what you have Kali and it's no fun
Logos Sohl: If you are using viewer 2 there is a little arrow in the bottom left as well
hobbs Constantine: Thanks Logos!
hobbs Constantine: I thought that was actually clever from the WhyPox creater...interfere with avatar life
June Grantly: The integration of the online community with the classroom was helpful since kids were guided to the "science sites" on Whyville.
Kali Pizzaro: ah you beat me to it June, i was going to ask if you took away aspects of whyville
hobbs Constantine: Ah-Ha! Now I like that!
Kali Pizzaro: as avatars became sick
June Grantly: I have the gray screen and can see the larger conversation. Thanks for your help!
hobbs Constantine: Yay and whew!
hobbs Constantine: :-)
hobbs Constantine: We are almost out of time....last questions please?
Logos Sohl: 3.What design features do you think will create more effective integrations and simulations of disease in the future?
Logos Sohl smiles at June
Kali Pizzaro: 14 on the sim for the transcript
June Grantly: For future studies about using technology, I am always interested to see what the affordances of using that technology are. Can something be learned with technology that couldn't be learned without it?
hobbs Constantine: Excellent research question
Kali Pizzaro: good point June
June Grantly: Thanks so much! I am a newbie here! It's been fun.
hobbs Constantine: hee hee, good!
Ilene Pratt: June, thanks for your presentation!
Logos Sohl: Well done June
Betz Darwinian: who here is from Montclair?
Logos Sohl: Sorry for overwhelming you with questions
hobbs Constantine: Thank you for your comments and for attending today Nina/June. We very much appreciate that you took the time to be with us.
Logos Sohl: But that was great
Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you
hobbs Constantine: I will certainly be watching for more research from you and your fellow authors in the future
June Grantly: You're welcome. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask them to me via hobbs?
Kali Pizzaro: Yes and you can see the transcript and answer any other questions if you wish
Joy Rembrandt: thanks, I must go now. have a good evening.
hobbs Constantine: Yes!
Kali Pizzaro: cheers Joy
Margaret Michalski: Thank you June
hobbs Constantine: Anyone may send me more questions. Logos, yours are already in the chat
Zotarah Shepherd: I have to go to my class now. Thank you
Logos Sohl: Thanks hobbs
Ilene Pratt: Thanks, everyone!
Margaret Michalski: very interesting
hobbs Constantine: We'll make sure a copy of the transcript gets to June so she can work on any other questions we missed
hobbs Constantine: Next weeks roundtable is: Second Life 2.0: The New Viewer with AJ Kelton/AJ Brooks. Stay tuned to your VWER announcements for how to prepare for that. As always, all are welcome.
Have a good evening everyone!
Kali Pizzaro: is there a balance in teaching this type of subject
Kali Pizzaro: ie
danwighton Shackleton: Thanks everyone.
Kali Pizzaro: gaining understanding but ensuring you do not scare them
Jimmie Veeper: See you all next week
Kali Pizzaro: have you ever had that June
Logos Sohl: Re viewer 2
Zotarah Shepherd: Thanks Hobbs
Logos Sohl: It takes ages to download and install
hobbs Constantine: Thanks again so much June!
Logos Sohl: Give yourselves time
Margaret Michalski: Thanks Hobbs
Margaret Michalski: great job
Kali Pizzaro: yeah i found that out
hobbs Constantine: You're welcome Z...good to see ya!
Kali Pizzaro: cheers all
Logos Sohl: Okay folks, see you all soon
Kali Pizzaro: ok cough cough snort snort
Kali Pizzaro: i am off to bed
hobbs Constantine: rest and get better Kali
Kali Pizzaro: hope i have not given you the virtual cold
Silhshoot Seelowe: very interesting, thanks
Margaret Michalski: Thanks June
hobbs Constantine: the paper really was great June. You had ground floor access to some of the newest data
Kali Pizzaro: next weeks meeting on the facebook group
hobbs Constantine: Oh, this is a no fly zone
Kali Pizzaro: if you are not a member please join us
Margaret Michalski: Hobbs will let you know when the transcript is available
Doctor Zeritonga: thanks
Margaret Michalski: Hobbs AJ turned of the fly here I think
hobbs Constantine: Thanks Margaret
Margaret Michalski: ever since that one issue
hobbs Constantine: Yeah, I have to walk home
Margaret Michalski: lol
hobbs Constantine: lol
Kali Pizzaro: my my i am getting breathless
Kali Pizzaro: toodle loo
hobbs Constantine: REST Kali REST no SL anymore for you young lady
Margaret Michalski: Bye Kali
Margaret Michalski: I am sending transcripts to Iggy
hobbs Constantine: Thank you everyone left for coming
hobbs Constantine: This was my first facilitation and you were a kind group