Opportunities Abound in Communities of Practice

Exploring Teaching and Learning with Second Life

Faculty Learning Community Call for Applications

As students and instructors become increasingly comfortable (and confident) in the online environment, there is a growing interest in exploring new technologies and tools that appear to have the potential in making teaching and learning in the online space more engaging, while at the same time ensuring it remains pedagogically sound. The online virtual world Second Life (www.secondlife.com) continues to be considered one such tool in furthering the definition and scope of an online learning environment. To that end, we invite applications from faculty interested in participating in a faculty learning community to investigate the pedagogical implications and opportunities of Second Life across a diverse set of disciplines.

What is a faculty learning community?

The primary goal of a faculty learning community (FLC) is to explore a specific topic area or theme as it relates to best practices in teaching and learning. This goal is achieved by providing safe, supportive communities wherein members can engage in research, scholarship of teaching and learning and service to explore new approaches to teaching.

What is the Teaching and Learning with Second Life FLC?

The Exploring Teaching and Learning with Second Life FLC includes a specific focus on how online environments, specifically Second Life, can enhance teaching and learning across a wide variety of disciplines/areas of interest. This FLC is intended to encourage faculty to explore whether Second Life enhances or enables our ability to:

 Promote student engagement in an immersive virtual learning environment  Develop new pedagogies that take advantage of the wide array of options available in the virtual environment (e.g., the ability to “fly”, and/or to design replicas of real-world environments otherwise inaccessible in a traditional course format)  Utilize Second Life in conjunction with other “Web 2.0” technologies

Possible scenarios for exploration might include the following:

 An English professor teaching Hamlet wants her students to better understand the time period in which Shakespeare was writing. By touring a virtual Globe Theater and dressing their Second Life avatars (digital representations of themselves) in Elizabethan-era clothing, students are able to contextualize their study of the play in a more experiential fashion.

 As part of a series of lectures on serious mental disorders, a psychology professor wants his students to “experience” schizophrenia. As such, students are asked to visit a simulation area within Second Life where their avatars experience auditory and visual hallucinations in a manner not easily (or even feasibly) produced in a real world environment. Given that Second Life allows for an avatar’s “in world” actions to be recorded, students are asked to capture their experiences and then reflect on them later as part of a group assignment.

1 | P a g e  In conjunction with real world training, a professor of radiology designs a virtual lab where student avatars can role play as both technicians and patients. Moreover, by taking advantage of Second Life’s ability to provide live audio chat, the technician/patient interaction takes on an enhanced level of realism, and allows for observation by other students.

 An archaeology professor wants her first-year students to experience the excavation of a dinosaur fossil on a Montana dig site. Rather than only show slides of her own experiences at such a site, the professor has her students visit a virtual dig site in Second Life, where their avatars can gain a better sense of excavation techniques and more closely observe the placement of a dig in the context of its larger environment.

 An engineering professor would like his students to have a better conceptual understanding of skyscraper design and construction, specifically the load and vibration factors that impact such structures. He meets his student’s in-world at the ground floor of a virtual skyscraper, where he offers some preliminary remarks; then, he and his students “fly” to the top of the skyscraper, so he can continue his lecture in the context of having students observe the skyscraper’s virtual sway.

 A human computer interaction (HCI) instructor seeks to broaden her students’ understanding and advocacy for all users. She creates an assignment where student teams will consider avatars with disabilities (vision, hearing, mobility, and cognitive) in the context of Second Life, and consider the cultural impacts, the adaptive technologies used, and the benefits/limitations to the accessibility of available information and interactions in Second Life. In turn, students will use this information to create universal design specifications for virtual worlds.

Why should I apply?

Each FLC member will receive up to ten hours of development expertise and support from UITS Media Design and Production staff, as well as $750 (upon completion of preliminary project report – see timeline below) for professional development needs, such as travel to present findings and resources for additional work in Second Life.

Who may apply?

Any full-time faculty and/or lecturer

Responsibilities of FLC Members

FLC members will be required to attend and actively participate in all meetings (initially held via videoconference, then in-world on the IU Island). The FLC will submit a preliminary report by January 31, 2012 on the results from their fall 2011 semester discussions and findings. A full FLC report will be due on June 30, 2012. Additionally, FLC members will be asked to present on their work at a professional conference (at least one, but preferably more) held either on their own campus or at an external forum. It is also hoped that FLC members will strive to publish findings of their work in a journal respective to their specific disciplines, and/or a more general (e.g., Educause) outlet that could speak to the work/findings of the entire group. Finally, FLC members will also be asked to complete a short survey at the end of the project about their Second Life experience.

2 | P a g e Important Dates

 August 16, 2011 @ 3:00 PM: General information session to be held via Adobe Connect: http://breeze.iu.edu/iusl/  August 19, 2011 @ 10:00 AM: General information session to be held via Adobe Connect (note: this will repeat information given during 8/16 presentation, and use same URL as listed above)  August 26, 2011 @ 9:30 AM: Live “in world” demonstration of the IU Second Life island (note: you will need to create a free Second Life avatar to attend this session – information on doing so will be given at the 8/16 and 8/19 sessions) In-world location for this demonstration will be: http://world.secondlife.com/place/ad50ecb7-4f76-091c-3187-7706eb19e0fc.  September 2, 2011 @ 5:00 PM: Deadline for applications  September 9, 2011: Successful applicants are notified  January 31, 2012: Preliminary report due on fall 2011 semester projects  June 30, 2012: Final FLC report due

3 | P a g e Teaching and Learning with Second Life Faculty Learning Community Application

Please complete this page and send it as an attachment together with a short CV to [email protected]

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Friday, September 2 @ 5:00 p.m.

Name: Rank: School and department: Campus mailing address: Preferred phone: email address:

How would your proposed topic build on the significant amount of work that’s been done with Second Life around teaching and learning? What unique or otherwise unexplored angle of research would your topic represent?

Please list the times when you are regularly AVAILABLE during each week of the fall semester:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Please list any extended periods when you will be away from campus during the fall or spring semesters:

By submitting this application, I indicate my intention to attend all meetings of the learning community and to actively engage in the work of the FLC in exchange for professional development funds and Second Life development expertise.

This Faculty Learning Community is sponsored by University Information Technology Services (UITS) and the Indiana University Campus Centers for Teaching and Learning

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