"Bringing Virtual Worlds into the Classroom through the Backdoor: After School"
1. What is the title of your best practice?
Bringing Virtual Worlds into the Classroom through the Backdoor: After School
2. Organization/Institution Name
SciCentr, Cornell University Outreach
3. Project Name
SciCentr/SciFair
4. Names of project lead(s) at your organization
Margaret Corbit, Rich Bernstein, Cathy Norton, Suzanne Kolodziej, Britt Gamble
5. Names of best practice author (if different from leads)
Margaret Corbit
6. Contact Information
Name: - Margaret Corbit
Company: - SciCentr
Address: - 533 Rhodes Hall
Address 2: - Cornell University
City/Town: - Ithaca
State: - NY
ZIP/Postal Code: - 14850-3801
Country: - USA
Email Address: - mdc7@cornell.edu
Phone Number: - 607 254 8716
7. Funder for project
over the past 10 years: NYS, CU, NSF, GE Foundation, Microsoft, Intel
8. In which of the following settings does your project take place
K-12
College
Home
Training
Museum
Afterschool/ non-profit
9. Which of the following will your best practice explore?
Institutional buy-in
10. Which virtual world(s) or gaming environment are you utilizing in the program being described?
Activeworlds
11. Why did you choose that specific platform or community for your project?
After developing VRML worlds for science outreach in the mid 90s, it was clear that a simple, robust software solution was needed to bring reliable 3D into the schools. We found Activeworlds (AW) in 1998. We got our own Universe in 2003 and thus have control over account distribution and security, as well as access to a wealth of data from the many logs. This makes schools more comfortable with the technology. We work primarily with minority and underserved schools with limited computing and network resources. AW works at these sites. The AW browser is a less than 3 Mb application; we control upgrades. We are a community of teachers, researchers, administrators, tech facilitators, undergraduates, and graduate students focused primarily on enhancing the skills of middle schoolers through creative use of virtual worlds. Multi-user worlds support wonderful interaction around content/projects, mentoring, tours, events, leave-behinds, etc.
12. What are the learning objectives of your project?
From the perspective of this Best Practice description, our objective is to support the integration of the use of the medium of virtual worlds into the culture of a specific site (institution). Each site/partner is unique. We seek to build consensus on the goals for a specific project and then design a program that will ensure its success. Ultimately, SciFair is intended to introduce the medium of virtual worlds into a school/community center/community college/college in a fun and structured way that supports social interaction among age groups and creative exploration. The content focus of this initial SciFair program is usually, but not always, on an obvious STEM area. The underlying acquisition of computational skills correlates directly with the ISTE NETS.
13. Please write a description of your project and how it leverages virtual worlds for learning.
SciFair is a project-based learning program directed at engaging middle school students (actually grades 5 - high school depending on the site) in researching, designing, and building their own virtual worlds that will be shared with friends, family, and visitors at the end of the program. Trained teacher/coaches onsite and mentors (high school level and above) support them with tech support, encouragement, feedback, and act as peer role models.
14. Best Practice: Please describe one key element of your program's success that you learned during the process and would like to share with the RezEd community.
We developed the SciFair Model, a process model that outlines a sequence of activities through which people learn to comfortably engage, explore, and create virtual worlds. We use the same process to introduce ed tech professionals to the medium as we use to send twelve-year-olds off into Cyberspace. We keep it simple for those less technically confident, of whatever age or level of education, and we make it fun and personal. We start by establishing a relationship with the administration and, through their effort, introducing the medium to as many faculty and staff as possible. Trainers, teachers, mentors, students all move through the same sequence, in two hours or over two years. Short programs take place within a small and intensely scaffolded environment. Longer programs take advantage of additional resources and explore more advanced features and concepts. Most programs have a Science, Engineering, Technology, and or Math (STEM) content focus, however, we have also developed activities around Museum Studies and one of our Math activities covers ancient Mayan numbers and civilization. The model can be adapted to almost any topic. While teachers often come away from training all fired up to create “exercises” for their students, the introduction of virtual worlds into the schools through SciFair tends to open up their minds to the potential of project-based learning. As after school coaches, they are free to let the youth explore and to take advantage of the older youth mentors’ inherent understanding of the medium. The final activity for any SciFair program is a Showcase for peers, family, friends, VIPs. These help to breed excitement and familiarity within the school community.
15. What would need to be in place (in terms of skills, staffing, infrastructure, systems, etc.) for someone else to reproduce your best practice?
At this point, we are encouraging people to join our community through educational institutions so that they can participate in and contribute to our efforts. To join, an organization needs to be willing to support computer access for their participants and we recommend that this be using Windows computers, although there are solutions for contemporary Macs. There are charges for training, and annual license fees for access. For those not interested in joining, our model is described in some detail online at http://www.scicentr.org/resources/.
16. Please write a short anecdote that reflects this best practice.
In the summer of 2006, we partnered with the Jump Start Program in Elmira City Schools to provide programming for a cohort of at-risk rising 6th graders. These students were challenged by physical and learning disabilities, behavioral problems, or simply by lives too difficult to support regular school participation. Their skill and abilities varied wildly, but all were entranced by computers. The program ran at two sites, approximately one hour’s drive from Ithaca. At least one teacher at each site taught 6th grade and would interact with the students the following year. We hired two full time student mentors to work with each team of students and teacher/coaches. These mentors came on board early for training and helped with short programs in advance of working with Jump Start. SciCentr staff conducted a 3-day teacher workshop for the District in one of the labs for the program. When the program began, the coaches needed the mentors onsite, but after a week, they were weaned and the mentors interacted with the teams strictly within the worlds. They communicated with the teachers via everything from IM to telegrams to email and cell phones. The teachers were amazed. They had to enforce bathroom breaks. Students immediately started asking if they could continue in the fall. All the students had at least one family member show up for the showcase (during the workday). Many had younger siblings and grandparents sitting at the computers. The general quote was “he/she wouldn’t stop talking about it at home, so I had to come and see what it is all about.” According to the teachers, one student who spent his 5th grade year in the principal’s office became a trusted student helper, proud and behaving well so that he could continue to lead the virtual world activities. Another student was handicapped and had been bullied in elementary school; his prowess with building made him cool and students sought him out for help. The teachers’ enthusiasm for the program sold the administration on expanding the use of the medium in the school and we are now entering our third year of after school, summer camp, and joint curriculum development with Elmira City Schools.
17. Please include the URLs of any photo(s), video(s), or sound file(s) that are specific to the program you are describing.
http://www.scicentr.org/Videos/SuccessStory1.wmv; http://www.scicentr.org/videos/IYBHomesteading.wmv; http://www.scicentr.org/Videos/SVEMusicWorld.wmv
Bringing Virtual Worlds into the Classroom through the Backdoor: After School
2. Organization/Institution Name
SciCentr, Cornell University Outreach
3. Project Name
SciCentr/SciFair
4. Names of project lead(s) at your organization
Margaret Corbit, Rich Bernstein, Cathy Norton, Suzanne Kolodziej, Britt Gamble
5. Names of best practice author (if different from leads)
Margaret Corbit
6. Contact Information
Name: - Margaret Corbit
Company: - SciCentr
Address: - 533 Rhodes Hall
Address 2: - Cornell University
City/Town: - Ithaca
State: - NY
ZIP/Postal Code: - 14850-3801
Country: - USA
Email Address: - mdc7@cornell.edu
Phone Number: - 607 254 8716
7. Funder for project
over the past 10 years: NYS, CU, NSF, GE Foundation, Microsoft, Intel
8. In which of the following settings does your project take place
K-12
College
Home
Training
Museum
Afterschool/ non-profit
9. Which of the following will your best practice explore?
Institutional buy-in
10. Which virtual world(s) or gaming environment are you utilizing in the program being described?
Activeworlds
11. Why did you choose that specific platform or community for your project?
After developing VRML worlds for science outreach in the mid 90s, it was clear that a simple, robust software solution was needed to bring reliable 3D into the schools. We found Activeworlds (AW) in 1998. We got our own Universe in 2003 and thus have control over account distribution and security, as well as access to a wealth of data from the many logs. This makes schools more comfortable with the technology. We work primarily with minority and underserved schools with limited computing and network resources. AW works at these sites. The AW browser is a less than 3 Mb application; we control upgrades. We are a community of teachers, researchers, administrators, tech facilitators, undergraduates, and graduate students focused primarily on enhancing the skills of middle schoolers through creative use of virtual worlds. Multi-user worlds support wonderful interaction around content/projects, mentoring, tours, events, leave-behinds, etc.
12. What are the learning objectives of your project?
From the perspective of this Best Practice description, our objective is to support the integration of the use of the medium of virtual worlds into the culture of a specific site (institution). Each site/partner is unique. We seek to build consensus on the goals for a specific project and then design a program that will ensure its success. Ultimately, SciFair is intended to introduce the medium of virtual worlds into a school/community center/community college/college in a fun and structured way that supports social interaction among age groups and creative exploration. The content focus of this initial SciFair program is usually, but not always, on an obvious STEM area. The underlying acquisition of computational skills correlates directly with the ISTE NETS.
13. Please write a description of your project and how it leverages virtual worlds for learning.
SciFair is a project-based learning program directed at engaging middle school students (actually grades 5 - high school depending on the site) in researching, designing, and building their own virtual worlds that will be shared with friends, family, and visitors at the end of the program. Trained teacher/coaches onsite and mentors (high school level and above) support them with tech support, encouragement, feedback, and act as peer role models.
14. Best Practice: Please describe one key element of your program's success that you learned during the process and would like to share with the RezEd community.
We developed the SciFair Model, a process model that outlines a sequence of activities through which people learn to comfortably engage, explore, and create virtual worlds. We use the same process to introduce ed tech professionals to the medium as we use to send twelve-year-olds off into Cyberspace. We keep it simple for those less technically confident, of whatever age or level of education, and we make it fun and personal. We start by establishing a relationship with the administration and, through their effort, introducing the medium to as many faculty and staff as possible. Trainers, teachers, mentors, students all move through the same sequence, in two hours or over two years. Short programs take place within a small and intensely scaffolded environment. Longer programs take advantage of additional resources and explore more advanced features and concepts. Most programs have a Science, Engineering, Technology, and or Math (STEM) content focus, however, we have also developed activities around Museum Studies and one of our Math activities covers ancient Mayan numbers and civilization. The model can be adapted to almost any topic. While teachers often come away from training all fired up to create “exercises” for their students, the introduction of virtual worlds into the schools through SciFair tends to open up their minds to the potential of project-based learning. As after school coaches, they are free to let the youth explore and to take advantage of the older youth mentors’ inherent understanding of the medium. The final activity for any SciFair program is a Showcase for peers, family, friends, VIPs. These help to breed excitement and familiarity within the school community.
15. What would need to be in place (in terms of skills, staffing, infrastructure, systems, etc.) for someone else to reproduce your best practice?
At this point, we are encouraging people to join our community through educational institutions so that they can participate in and contribute to our efforts. To join, an organization needs to be willing to support computer access for their participants and we recommend that this be using Windows computers, although there are solutions for contemporary Macs. There are charges for training, and annual license fees for access. For those not interested in joining, our model is described in some detail online at http://www.scicentr.org/resources/.
16. Please write a short anecdote that reflects this best practice.
In the summer of 2006, we partnered with the Jump Start Program in Elmira City Schools to provide programming for a cohort of at-risk rising 6th graders. These students were challenged by physical and learning disabilities, behavioral problems, or simply by lives too difficult to support regular school participation. Their skill and abilities varied wildly, but all were entranced by computers. The program ran at two sites, approximately one hour’s drive from Ithaca. At least one teacher at each site taught 6th grade and would interact with the students the following year. We hired two full time student mentors to work with each team of students and teacher/coaches. These mentors came on board early for training and helped with short programs in advance of working with Jump Start. SciCentr staff conducted a 3-day teacher workshop for the District in one of the labs for the program. When the program began, the coaches needed the mentors onsite, but after a week, they were weaned and the mentors interacted with the teams strictly within the worlds. They communicated with the teachers via everything from IM to telegrams to email and cell phones. The teachers were amazed. They had to enforce bathroom breaks. Students immediately started asking if they could continue in the fall. All the students had at least one family member show up for the showcase (during the workday). Many had younger siblings and grandparents sitting at the computers. The general quote was “he/she wouldn’t stop talking about it at home, so I had to come and see what it is all about.” According to the teachers, one student who spent his 5th grade year in the principal’s office became a trusted student helper, proud and behaving well so that he could continue to lead the virtual world activities. Another student was handicapped and had been bullied in elementary school; his prowess with building made him cool and students sought him out for help. The teachers’ enthusiasm for the program sold the administration on expanding the use of the medium in the school and we are now entering our third year of after school, summer camp, and joint curriculum development with Elmira City Schools.
17. Please include the URLs of any photo(s), video(s), or sound file(s) that are specific to the program you are describing.
http://www.scicentr.org/Videos/SuccessStory1.wmv; http://www.scicentr.org/videos/IYBHomesteading.wmv; http://www.scicentr.org/Videos/SVEMusicWorld.wmv
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Permalink Reply by Petter Parker on -
Semetko conducts research in how new media changes political practices, especially around elections. Politicians have already started using virtual worlds to campaign. In March 2007, Sen. Barack Obama appeared as an avatar in Second Life, where he spoke to supporters on SoHo Island while meeting with a group of supporters at a library in real-life Iowa.
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