Walden 6177 Week 5 Blog Post

This week we were asked to investigate games and virtual environments that have the potential to enhance adult learning.  While significant evidence exists in the literature to make a strong case that games and virtual reality environments do enhance learning; the literature is also filled with qualifiers as to the importance of design and requirement of a strong commitment on the part of the educator to ensure the best possible learning effectiveness (Squire, 2011).  For example, Barab & Arici, (2009), emphsize the importance of designing games in such a way as to support the transfer of learning.  Their therory is the students must be able undestand how the virtual expereince applies to real life.  Otherwise, the game may be fun to play but fail to support the learning objectives. 

To complete this assignment I chose to investigate two of the most popular virtual worlds, Second Life and World of Warcraft (WoW).  After registering and logging into these virtual worlds, my initial opinion is that while both would enhance adult learning in the general sense, neither would work well in my prticular adult learning setting. 

I will soon be teaching Orgnizational Ethics to working adults in an undergraduate continuing education program.  The term will last 8-weeks and cover a specific topic.  It seemed to me that virtual worlds such Second Life and WoW are better suited to learning larger, overarching topics such as problem solving and strategy.  For example, Steinkuehler & Duncan, (2008), found that the learning taking place in several WoW discussion boards was collective and not collabrative, meaning that many people contributed to stratigizing and solving problems in the game as opposed to a relative few people working together to do the same.  In my opinion, a college level leadership class would be better supported by the collabrative learning of the students in the class.

Another example of the broad scope of a virtual world such as Second Life is the use of the platform by the Department of Defense and all the military services.  For example, Pellerin, (2011) explains how the Air Force developed an activity in Second Life called My Base.  The objetive of My Base is to be immersive in nature and allow a learner to experience several different aspects of military life such as participating in Basic Military Training, learing to fly an aircraft, or work in an combat hospital at a deployed location.  While this type of “activity” or “island” within Second Life provides a good overarching perspective of an organization, I’m not convinced it would be effective in my adult learning setting.

Several of my classmates were able to locate and games that would work well inthier particular setting, however, I was not able to find a game that directly addressed the type of curriculum.  My vision is to work with a instructional system designer to develop a game or simulation based a specific topic, such as organizational ethics.  Furthermore, the game simulation developed may even be based on a particular text book, and contain scenarios that apply to certain chapters, concepts, or therories, in order to leverage existing curiculum resources.  Such a limited scope would allow for a more targeted learning objectives that could be reached in a shorter amount of time.  I believe this approach would be the most effective for my particular adult learning setting.

Cheers,

Ron N.  

References

Barab, S. A., Gresalfi, M., & Arici, A. (2009). Why educators should care about games.         Educational Leadership, (67)1, 76–80.

Pellerin, C. (2011). Air Force eyes new learning systems in “Second Life.” Retrieved from     http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=63873

Steinkuehler, C., & Duncan, S. (2008). Scientific habits of mind in virtual worlds. Journal of             Science Education & Technology, 17(6), 530–543.

Squire, K. (2011). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age.             New York, NY: Teachers College Press.