Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
professional community of practitioners
performs their everyday problem solv-
ing activities. For example, a construction
company is designed and built in a virtual
world where engineers build and test pro-
totypes of bridges.
expert, they should gradually retire these
supervisory actions. For example, in the
nursing example, during patient visits in
an in-world virtual hospital, apprentices
are asked to orally articulate their thought
process (thinking aloud) and their reasons
behind a possible diagnosis and treatment.
In this way the teacher and assistants can
coach and scaffold the students' perfor-
mance in real time. Students can also re-
ceive differed feedback submitting their
solutions and their explanations in written
form by uploading them to a certain Blog.
Also, as part of the scaffolding structure,
the in-world environment can have tools
and objects with relevant content attached
to them that could support the students'
learning process.
•
The main objective for a student within a
MUVE must be to solve problems collab-
oratively and not to just learn content. In
this sense, information is considered to be
another resource, without doubt necessary
to solve a problem, but it is regarded as a
means to an end and not the end in itself.
From the beginning, students are informed
of their problem solving mission within
the MUVE and that pertinent information
resources are available. For instance, the
environment can have a local library with
text materials and also offer links to out-
side resources.
•
The MUVE should allow apprentices the
freedom to perform differently in the virtu-
al learning environment according to their
place in an apprentice-expert continuum
(A ------- E) at any point in time. Their
position depending on: 1) their previous
knowledge at the moment of starting the
learning process; 2) the type of problem at
hand; and 3) the experience/knowledge ac-
cumulated during the actual learning in the
MUVE. It is expected for the students to
gradually move towards the expert side of
the continuum.
•
As part of the instructional practices within
the MUVE, teachers and assistants should
model the professional practices that the
apprentices are expected to learn. For ex-
ample, in a nurses training MUVE, the
teacher can form a team of nurse appren-
tices to visit a patient in a virtual hospital
and during the whole process of analysis
of symptoms and diagnosis she explains in
detail her thought process (thinking aloud).
These practices can be filmed, using the so
called machinimia techniques for making
movies in a virtual world, and stored so that
students can review them when necessary.
•
The virtual learning environment should
promote reflection-in-action activities dur-
ing the whole learning experience. During
the different learning experiences students
should be: 1) asked questions regarding
their own learning processes, for example
they can be directly asked: How are you
learning? In this way they learn about
learning; 2) encouraged to compare their
own performance with their teacher's and
peers' performances. In this way they can
•
The MUVE should allow students to prac-
tice realistic problem solving tasks that
characterize the system of activities of the
professional community of practitioners
being simulated. During the students' first
attempts, teacher and assistants constantly
supervise the apprentices' different perfor-
mances giving the necessary coaching and
feedback; but, as students become more
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