This afternoon I hiked to a mountain temple in the snow. But for REALS. It has been said that virtual experience is like going to the finest French restaurant in the world and eating...the menu.
What are the relative advantages (and disadvantages) of real world experiences? vs. virtual experiences?
To broaden the discussion, how does experience with virtual worlds compare with other "hands-on" augmented learning experience? As an example, here is a montage of framegrabs from a project I was involved with where students in a technical school interacted (or did not interact as the case may be) in English while programming their own robot with a LEGO Mindstorm kit.
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Are we still talking Language learning only? If the answer is yes then I have and example I was involved with as a learner and a couple of questions. (Mind you I think it applies to learning any subject)
ReplyDeleteYears ago, after learning Spanish attending classes at the Spanish Cultural Center in Cairo I went to Spain for a one month intensive summer course that was organized by one of the Spanish universities. The group of friends that I made there and spent most of my waking hours with were from Italy, Germany, Japan, UK, Holland and Switzerland. We were at different levels of the language but all the time we were together we managed to communicate using whatever Spanish we knew, we helped each other, learned some things about each other and we had a lot of fun. There were classes to attend, extra curricula activities and festivals to participate in and enjoy, planned and spontaneous excursions to go on etc. I remember one day a German girl who'd recently, suddenly, joined our group decided to confess the reason she'd done that; She said that we were the only group that used Spanish all the time. You see, from the beginning we could see how some nationalities congregated with their own people after classes and used their mother tongues most of the time.
My questions are
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- How do you compare this augmented learning with your example?
- What kind of augmentation(s) was/were there in both cases?
- How many students/learners can have an experience like the one I had, considering travel expenses alone?
A side note :)
This was and still is the best learning experience that I've ever had in my life. Also the German girl's confession made me realize how lucky we were as a group to have found and supported each other, and it also felt good to realize that we were approachable and open enough for people to join whenever they wanted or needed without having to stick around with us all the time if they didn't want to.
I guess my first question is this: In what sense was this "augmented" learning. I can see how it was an immersive experience, but not how it was augmented. (BTW, during the year that I was an exchange student at a German university, I staunchly refused to hang out with the other American because they only spoke English with each other. At first I just always spoke to them in German. After a while they learned that they didn't want to hang out with me. : )
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, you're right that virtual experience is available to anyone with access to a computer or even smartphone. That is, without a doubt, a huge advantage.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't yet make myself say "virtual worlds" and mean it.
ReplyDeleteCould you elaborate please Don Carroll ?
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