W4- Yunong Article review

Source: Competition Forum 2008, Vol. 6 Issue 2.

“A Second Life for Tourism and Economic Development?: A Look at Early Experiments in Using Virtual Worlds to Promote Real World Sites.”

Authors: Wyld, David C.

Initially, I didn’t find some topic that I am very interested in about Second Life. Last week I find an article about the tourism and Second Life. I wonder if companies or government can use Second Life to build some landmarks to attract people to visit the real world landmarks in order to develop the economy of one place or one country. Thus this week I find another article about this topic.

Aim:

The aim of this article is to explore the effectiveness of using the Virtual Worlds like Second Life to promote real world landmarks and develop real economy.

Methods:

They picked some virtual reproductions of cities and landmarks in Second Life to analyse the benefits of building them.

The article gave two virtual cities which are Galveston and Tuscany to prove that digital visitors can explore the culture and landmarks about the real sites. Visitors also can purchase real-world items and build or rent their own virtual houses from the region.

Then, the article used some examples of virtual embassies, such as The Maldives, Sweden, Estonia, and Kazakhstan in Second Life to illustrate the functions of these virtual reproductions. (The virtual embassies can help the government to let visitors get tourist information about their country, some links to the official government offices and so on. It also can reconnect the expatriate to their home land by touring in the Second Life.)

Main findings:

The examples proved that a virtual world presence can expand the online presence of a real world site. The virtual environment could attract new visitors to the real world region. Virtual tours provide a chance for people who don’t have time, economic ability or who are disability to travel in their virtual lives. Many pre-programmed “experiences” will make people feel more interested in the real world sites. In the end of the article, it mentioned the ROI (return on investment). Building the virtual sites is a cost-effective way to attract mass audience.

Habib W4 Article review

Shen, J., & Eder, L. B. (2009). Intentions to use virtual worlds for education. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 225.

This is a study on the students’ intentions to use virtual world for education, and it specifically focuses on the factors related to their intentions. The virtual world that has been used is Second Life. The study takes into account the fact that most of the companies have started using virtual world and students must get familiarized with it as they are the future workforce. There are certain reservations though such as administrative support, technical skills et cetera.

The age of the participants is between 20 and 35 and the sample size is 77. These were the students at a business school in the North-eastern United States. The study is based on TAM and the variables that have been focussed on are PEOU, PU, CP, CSE, CA and BI. The data was collected by a practical activity and surveys. It was later analyzed quantitatively.

Towards the end there are certain limitations that have been discussed which are: the network speed, the size of the sample and some other relevant areas that could not be covered.

Last, the findings were a bit unexpected where the PEOU did not affect the BI directly as opposed to PU which affected BI. 

Somayeh, W4 Photo Blog

Somayeh, W4 Article Review

Kindergarten Teacher Training Through Virtual Reality: Three‐Dimensional Simulation Methodology 

 The aim of study:

The aim of this study is to determine the condition of virtual reality simulation model that designed to train kindergarten teachers in the understanding of kindergarten children's needs and perceptions. To find out how Information and Communication of Technology can contribute to the improvement of learning and teaching at all levels in the educational system. To investigate whether virtual reality three-dimensional simulation model can get the teachers the ability to better considering and understand children's perceptions and feelings as well as their cognitive and emotional needs or not.

The method of Study: 

Simulation and modeling. These simulations are based on a dynamic interaction between the learner and a computer program. The research sample consisted of 72 female kindergarten teachers in their first year of teaching after obtaining a degree in kindergarten. All 72 were engaged in a yearlong training course in the School of Education. They all participated in the research study. 37 were randomly chosen for the experimental group and 35 to the control group. A research questionnaire designed to examine the teachers’ understanding of children's feelings, needs and perceptions. 

Main Findings:  

IT is strongly suggested for teacher trainers to consider using virtual reality simulation models for training teachers in order to get a better result in the teacher-training process. According to statistical analysis of the data, we realized that those teachers who were trained in the virtual reality technology, they got more understanding of children's needs, emotional and perceptions than those trained through non-technological methods workshops. Research shows that virtual reality is an interactive computer-based environment in which the learner can engage deeply to experience learning in a motivating, interactive world. The results of this research study indicate that learning and instruction through three-dimensional simulation in a virtual world have that much potential to prepare kindergarten teachers more effectively and efficiently for their roles. It improves teachers’ abilities to assist children to develop the potential of learning and problem-solving behavior. Also, it provides teachers to strengthen their ability to help pupils in the stressful situation, like transitional problems of the educational system.

W4-Amanda Article review

Source: Teaching English with Technology,Vol. 17 No. 1

PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES IN USING SECOND LIFE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH 

This article is focus on the female students who are prospective teachers in using second life. Second life is the most  and well-known virtural world platform of learning and teaching a foreign or second language. In this article I learn a new phrase which called" digital natives", and the author claimed that "digital native teacher"  who were born into digital world are becoming foreign language teacher nowadays also in the future.
  

Aim of study:

The aim of this study is to investigate prospective teachers’ experiences in utilizing Second Life for learning English, differentiating between personal use of the said virtual world for learning the English language and its potential use for teaching English in the future.

Methods:

Fifteen female second years students of English philology were asked to completed the questionnaire with six open-ends questions. All the answers were provided after they use Second Life to practice their English in their own time. And students should analysis the benefit and drawbacks of Second Life in English learning. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.

Main Findings :

Benefits:

1. Second life is helpful in skill of writing and reading as well as the target language vocabulary;
2. Second Life made people more motivated and confident of using target language in communication;
3.Students more willing to learn other culture or languages;
4.The language in Virtual world helps to develop the awareness of its native side;
5.Students’ perceptions of what constitutes effective foreign language pedagogy are visible in a selection of their proposals of language activities to be performed in virtual worlds.

Drawbacks:
1.Not help with speaking and grammar as well as pronunciation;
2.Some Second Life users had rude or impolite behaviors and can not be avoided;
3.Students decided on the said areas of the target language based on their own experiences in this world and their own experiences as language learners;

4.Difficult to find someone in the similar English level or whether they are native speakers. 

W4 Amanda-Photo Blog

This week I wanna explore some place where I've been thinking many times but never make it, which is Disney Land. I found this place is called" ForeverLand Park of Magic- Disney Tribute". I got excited because of the famous castle.

The first stop is going to the castle in front of me, on the way enter to the castle, one the side is a huge sculpture of Cinderella and her prince.

In the castle is the exhibition of  Disney Brother, we can see how they create Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters.

The island is full of  theme park, I walk around and to see all the different parks. The first stop will be one of my favourite "The Frozen".

The next stop is The Croods, I feel that I came to a virgin forest, and on the right side is the place where I could sit down with different poses.

The easy way to explore this place is follow the arrow on the follow.

This place is mainly for tourist who would like to going to Disney Land before they actually go there, but still some thing you can buy here. There are many Mickey Mouse sculpture on the side, click on it could buy it. This is a really good place, especially for children.

W3 Habib photo blog

I finally completed what I started earlier. Actually, I tried to find an AUT picture, but I couldn’t. So, I purchased one from Google images.

Also, here I built another one to make myself more comfortable with these steps in the future.

After that, I teleported to a new land. I walked around and found many people in the large hall dancing. I tried to dance with them, but I couldn’t. I noticed that on the ground there were some things. I found out that when I sit on one of these things, I can join the dancing group.

And I'm dancing! ;)

This land is huge and there are some mountains and also some animals such as ducks, horses and tigers.