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- Building knowledge in the virtual world – influence of real life relationshipsPublication . Loureiro, Ana; Bettencourt Da Cruz, Teresa MariaThis paper intends to present a preliminary PhD research that is being developed by the authors, with the intention to determine how to improve teaching and learning situations, at the university level, based on experiences in immersive virtual worlds. The authors have realized that, nowadays, courses don’t fulfill our students’ needs. They belong to a networked and multitasking generation, and what they get from today’s teaching strategy does not, in many situations, fulfill students’ needs and perspectives. They need to gather competences in order to become motivated citizens, communicative and knowledge builders. It is our belief that we can take advantage from the immersive virtual worlds’ resources to overcome this situation and therefore to transfer it to real life. In order to achieve this we need, at the first instance, to understand how social interactions occur in these environments (in particular at Second Life®), how they grow and how they are developed. What we present here is a preliminary sample of our intended research.
- The use of virtual environments as an extended classroom – A case study with adult learners in tertiary educationPublication . Loureiro, Ana; Bettencourt da Cruz, Teresa MariaThis study was conducted in immersive 3D virtual environment Second Life®, with the support of web 2.0 tools as a complement to physical classroom - extended classroom. It was assumed that socialization is a key factor for collaborative learning and knowledge construction. The study aims to identify the variables that may influence knowledge sharing in learning contexts using virtual environments; with the aim of contributing to the improvement of learning situations using the online tools. This research is exploratory in nature and falls within the field of phenomenological studies. The study was implemented in a tertiary education institution involving regular and adult learners. We conclude that in virtual environments learners tend to feel more confident, open, participatory, creative, understanding and seem to participate in training sessions because they are indeed interested in learning. On the other hand, the possibility of providing online tutorial session allows reaching a larger number of learners. These online sessions can be established in a time and place (virtual) free of constraints and can be tailored, allowing a more effective participation from learners.