Name and Job Title: Dr. Chris Deason, Course Director (Associate Professor)
School or Organization Name: Full Sail University
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Orlando, Florida
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): Home School Parents, High School History Teachers and their learners 18 + years old, High Education History Professors
Short Session Description (one line). Examining the role of student engagement, learning, and intercultural competence when planning for global collaborative projects using Virtual Wild West role-play in Second Life.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
Practicing, experiential learning, and learning by doing will be explored as pedagogical frameworks for using virtual role play worlds like Tombstone for global collaborative projects will be discussed. In addition, this session will encourage dialogues on ways in which historical virtual role play like Tombstone can be leveraged to promote discussions and learning centered around the following tenets of global collaborative projects:
- Peace and Justice – the non-violent resolution of conflict;
- Sustainability – social tolerance between people and cultures.
- Diversity – tolerance of and respect for differences among people’ attitudes, cultures, and belief systems.
- Democratic Participation – the right to participate and express an opinion in community government, and political process.
- Effective Communication, like the ability to build trust and understanding to create a community with common aims.
- The development of intercultural competence. Individuals need to understand cultural differences that determine behavior, successful teamwork and outcomes through reflection of their own cultural identity, beliefs and assumptions.
Some towns have stories associate with them, but Tombstone is the city with historical legends and ghost stories. The Tombstone Wild West role-play is set in 1899. Second Life’s Tombsone Arizona is developed with historical accuracy. The Tombstone sim is made up of various sims and several different towns. These include sims for residential living and Winslow (a Western Shopping district). Players can choose to be an outlaw, citizen, sheriff, deputy, lawyer, judge, drifter, and more. It’s all up to the user. Engagement to explore and learn about History and the global competencies bulleted above can all be addressed through historical role-play. This session will promote discussions centered on these areas. Attendees will be encouraged to provide ideas that can help promote and frame global collaborative projects using historical role-play.
Specifics regarding Second Life’s Tombstone Role Play will be presented. These include basic rules like wearing a Mad Thunder HUD for your interactive weapon, Wounded & Dead rules, character and clothing rules, and the group chat feature.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
http://secondlife.com/destination/tombstone
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