The US-based Virtual Technology and Science Education Research Group has secured a $700,000 three-year grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for its research into collaborative virtual learning environments. The group, which is made up by researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, plans to explore the potential of using Second Life as a virtual learning environment for urban high school pupils studying geosciences.
It's called the GeoWorlds Project, and there's more information on it
here. Over the three years, the researchers will design a curriculum and assess its impact, develop Second Life learning scenarios, select and train teachers, and ultimately launch the project on a national and even international scale. Dennis Cheek of the Kauffman Foundation is certainly keen to see how the research develops:
“Online environments are the newest settings where teens hang out. Preliminary research shows that these environments can enhance students’ skills in a wide variety of ways, both expected and unexpected. This project explores how educators might effectively use the innate interests of teens in these virtual worlds to increase their mastery of important math, science and technology content and concepts vital to life, learning and the work environment in the 21st century.”
It's certainly a project to follow, and a sign that university research teams are seeking to capitalise on the growing prominence of virtual worlds to explore the academic potential of collaborative v-learning.
GeoWorlds Project website
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