Michael C. Hynes

The Potential of Simulated Environments in Teacher Education: Current and Future Possibilities

The future of virtual environments is evident in many fields but is just emerging in the field of teacher education. In this article, the authors provide a summary of the evolution of simulation in the field of teacher education and three factors that need to be considered as these environments further develop. The authors provide a specific example of the work at two universities that use a specific virtual environment, TLE TeachLivE™, in teacher education. This environment is already being used in teacher preparation at 32 universities to collaboratively find ways to enhance teacher practice while using a standardized tool often found in medicine, business and military training, and virtual simulation.

Ludic Learning: Exploration of TLE TeachLivETM and Effective Teacher Training

New and emerging technology in the field of virtual environments has permitted a certain malleability of learning milieus. These emerging environments allow learning and transfer through interactions that have been intentionally designed to be pleasurable experiences. TLE TeachLivETM is just such an emerging environment that engages teachers in practice on pedagogical and content aspects of teaching in a simulator. The sense of presence, engagement, and ludus of TLE TeachLivETM are derived from the compelling Mixed Reality that includes components of off-the shelf and emerging technologies. Some of the noted features that have been identified relevant to the ludic nature of TeachLivE include the flow, fidelity, unpredicability, suspension of disbelief, social presence, and gamelike elements. This article explores TLE TeachLivETM in terms of the ludology, paideic user experience, the source of the ludus, and outcomes of the ludic nature of the experience.

Teaching/Learning/Leading: Synonyms for Change.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to describe our approach to teacher leadership that is far from an oxymoron. Instead we believe that teaching, learning, and leading are synonymous. We will support our views with related data from a school improvement project in central Florida. Our data reveals multiple manifestations of teacher leadership embedded within the landscapes of inquiry, collaboration, and research and that there are easily-identified dilemmas associated with being identified as an Academy Scholar teacher leader. We claim that teaching, learning, and leading are inextricably linked and that facilitating this linkage supports sustainable changes that assist schools to find ways to meet the needs of all students. The successes of this Academy cadre of teachers, who we believe represent a significant and often untapped reservoir of educational leadership, are evident as they provide direction and vision for their classroom, school, and district efforts to improve.

TLE TeachLive™: Using Technology to Provide Quality Professional Development in Rural Schools.

Rural schools face challenges in training and retaining qualified teachers, especially special education personnel. This article describes how an interdisciplinary team at the University of Central Florida developed TLE TeachLivE™, a virtual reality application designed to serve as a classroom simulation to support teachers and administrators to practice skills for instruction and management.

Applications of Avatar Mediated Interaction to Teaching, Training, Job Skills and Wellness

The focus of this chapter is on the application of a framework for remotely delivering role-playing experiences that afford users the opportunity to practice real-world skills in a safe virtual setting. The framework, AMITIES, provides a single individual the capabilities to remotely orchestrate the performances of multiple virtual characters. We illustrate this by introducing avatar–enabled scenarios that range from teacher preparation to effectively dealing with complex interpersonal situations such as resistance to peer pressure and participation in job interviews (either as the interviewer or the interviewee).

Note on the Face Validity of Certification Competencies of Computer Science Teaching

Rating scale data on the face validity of competencies in computer science teaching were compared for three groups (150 practitioners, 67 district specialists, 101 faculty). Through the use of Boxplots certain trends were readily identified. Implications for curricular validity were discussed.