Game-based Learning in Virtual WorldsEsther Lambe, Principal, St. Kierans National School & James Corbett, CEO, MissionV Education

●2 Teacher●27 children rural school●Shared LS RT teacher●Agriculture and farming●Children from local town

Background

September Day Course

●Positives●Child centred/child led●Authoring programs/content free●Variety of abilities/backgrounds

●Negatives●No idea how it would work●Teacher input? Log in/supervision/ parental support

Teacher View

●Set up Groups of mixed ability, boys/girls●Explore Virtual World●Brainstorm for Science challenges●Research topics/record●Consider Literacy/Numeracy objectives●Continuous Evaluation a must

Child’s View

●We are doing a project on the virtual world. The project is based on living things.● There are two groups on the whole 16 acres. 3rd and 4th class is working on half of the land and 5th and 6th is is working on the other half of the land.● I am doing the water cycle and John and Eoin are doing the bog life and animals. We have nearly spent all our time looking up information about how a bog is formed. John and I did bog in a bottle and our experiment is to do the P.H on the bog in the bottle. We are hoping we will do well. By: Dan

The Beginning

Relig Farm

●On mission v me, Emma and Aine are doing about water pollution and river life. We have blocks with river life on them and were going to make them move. When you are spreading slurry you have to stay 5 meters away from the river. ●I like Mission V because you can fly, talk and walk . I think it is so cool . ●If I had my own 16 acres I would have a horse ranch and the education would be measuring the saddles and tacks and it would be fun at the same time. ● By Ciara

Tour of Breachoill

●Virtual World videos, tour of Breachoill - http://youtu.be/bgbhm5PRguc

●Droighneach Farm

●First we downloaded Imprudence. Then we put in the grid called Mission V http://missionv.ie:1909●Our teacher put us into 5 groups of 3 The groups were based on our Placenames project. ●Then we picked out our Science Challenges and we picked our land in the North.●We downloaded Scratch for Open Sim. Then we practiced Scratch for Open Sim. ●We made a gate, built our house, decided one two or three storeys.●We put a floor down, put textures on the walls, made stairs, and made the kitchen.●We made a second floor, made our couches, our tv.●Then we learned about Yeast and Pasteurisation and made bread rise. ●We did experiments. We used 3 Green Eggs

●Then we showed how we learned about yeast and pasteurisation by putting posters up in the Virtual World.●We put uniforms on our Avatars to show our schools identity when we were visiting other schools.●We made the doors swivel using Scratch.●We made the light turn on and off ●We made the oven door swing out ●We made the plate of Yeast bread rise●We made the back kitchen, the extension, the attic,●Chelsea moved in and we made the trampoline, decorated the extension and took down our Christmas decorations.●We got information about Yeast and Pasteurisation●We built a model of Virtual World●We put information on posters using coloured paper.

Game based learning

●Virtual world is a good game. The virtual world is educational. We do new things on virtual world each week. ●Me, Aine and Ciara are doing this project on how the water gets polluted on the virtual world. You can build whatever you want to build on virtual world such as build a gate●I learned a lot from virtual world. You can do many projects on virtual world. You can also teleport to people.

Concerns

●No Previous Knowledge●Addicted?.. Parent●Time constraints / Time limit ●Organisation and timetable●Learning styles/learning targets●Curriculum /WSE Inspector

Benefits

●New Experience game based●Child centred… team work●Catalyst for Learning all subject areas Child with poor attendance●Group Interaction ..one exception●Problem solving/critical thinking●Creative and fun●Affirmation

Group Problem solving

Quotes: I learnt a lot while doing the Virtual World. I learnt when something does not work to keep at it.I think in the future Virtual World should be used for History ..like what townlands were like long ago.. It is good for teamwork too…..JohnIt is a great learning experience.I learnt angles for Maths. It also is good for problem solving like making the drops move in the water cycle.. DanWe had a problem trying to get the doors to swivel but Gráinne got it….Eadaoin

I really like the Virtual World and I also like the feeling you get when you make something really cool. I’d give it ten out of ten…AnnaWe learned a lot of stuff in two weeks..CathalIt was cool doing the cows digestive system…SeanIt went all bonkers but we fixed it up and it was grand….Gráinne

Water Cycle

●Virtual World videos - tour of Water Cycle - http://youtu.be/cwMia8vB_kc

Regional Final Science Competition 1st Place