Shannon Kennedy-Clark

Pre-service teachers' perspectives on using scenario-based virtual worlds in science education

This paper presents the findings of a study on the current knowledge and attitudes of pre-service teachers on the use of scenario-based multi-user virtual environments in science education. The 28 participants involved in the study were introduced to Virtual Singapura, a multi-user virtual environment, and completed an open-ended questionnaire. Data from the questionnaire indicated that gender and current computer game use were likely to affect the perceived benefits of using virtual worlds in a classroom setting. Behavior management was seen as being a constraining factor on a pre-service teachers willingness to use a virtual world in the future. Overall, the results of the study indicate that pre-service teachers as a result of their use of Virtual Singapura are both aware of virtual worlds and have a reasonable understanding of both their potential advantages and disadvantages within a classroom setting.

Discovering indicators of successful collaboration using tense: automated extraction of patterns in discourse

This paper describes a technique for locating indicators of success within the data collected from complex learning environments, proposing an application of e-research to access learner processes and measure and track group progress. The technique combines automated extraction of tense and modality via parts-of-speech tagging with a visualisation of the timing and speaker for each utterance developed to code and analyse learner discourse, exploiting the results of previous, non-automated analyses for validation. The work is developed using a dataset of interactions within a multi-user virtual environment and extended to a more complex dataset of synchronous chat texts during a collaborative design task. This methodology extends natural language processing into computer-based collaboration contexts, discovering the linguistic micro-events that construct the larger phases of successful design-based learning.

Designing Failure to Encourage Success: Productive Failure in a Multi-user Virtual Environment to Solve Complex Problems

The purpose of this research project is to gain an understanding of the initial stage of a productive failure treatment. The research focuses on how learners solve complex or ill-defined problems in Virtual Singapura, a multi-user virtual environment. The research uses a mixed method approach that employs conversation analysis, questionnaires and pre, mid and post-tests. Complex problems, by their very nature, are difficult for learners to connect with, and this project will focus the initial cycle of a productive failure treatment in order to develop a series of design considerations that teachers can implement in an immersive learning environment to help students develop the strategies necessary to engage with complex problems across domains of knowledge. The project aims to inform theory on productive failure, learner processes and learning in immersive environments.

Scenario-based multi-user virtual environments: productive failure and the impact of structure on learning

The purpose of this paper is provide an overview of a study designed to investigate the impact of structure on learning activities designed for developing scientific inquiry skills in a scenario-based multi-user virtual environment. The research will compare the results of participants exposed to high-structure and low-structure initial activities. Participants will be 150 year nine high school students who will be studying inquiry learning as part of their set curriculum. Students will complete pre, mid and posttests. The research will focus on the use of Virtual Singapura, a scenario-based multi-user environment, in a classroom environment.