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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Comparing Role-Playing Activities In Second Life And Face-To-Face Environments, Fei Gao, Jeongmin J. Noh, Matthew J. Koehler
Comparing Role-Playing Activities In Second Life And Face-To-Face Environments, Fei Gao, Jeongmin J. Noh, Matthew J. Koehler
Fei Gao
This study compared student performances in role-playing activities in both a face-to-face (FTF) environment and a virtual 3D environment, Second Life (SL). We found that students produced a similar amount of communication in the two environments, but the communication styles were different. In SL role-playing activities, students took more conversational turns, but have shorter exchanges compared to the FTF environment. Students generated an equal amount of topic-related concepts in the two environments. They also reported role-playing activities in SL as more interesting and less formal. The educational implications for this study are discussed.
Mac's Fiesta: A Foreign Language Game For The Sifteo Platform, Karina Cordon
Mac's Fiesta: A Foreign Language Game For The Sifteo Platform, Karina Cordon
Computer Engineering
Mac’s Fiesta is a Spanish learning game designed on the Sifteo gaming platform for children ages four and up. The Sifteo gaming platform provides a new way of interacting with computers by giving users a set of tangible and interactive cubes. Each Sifteo cube has a clickable colored screen and can sense motion and adjacent blocks. Games on this platform are designed to encourage the development of core thinking skills. This project aims to explore how Sifteo cubes can be used for language learning as well as observe how effective they are as educational tools.
The Impact Of User Attributes And User Choice In An Agent-Based Environment, Yanghee Kim, Quan Wei
The Impact Of User Attributes And User Choice In An Agent-Based Environment, Yanghee Kim, Quan Wei
Yanghee Kim
This study examined the impact of learners’ attributes (gender and ethnicity) on their choice of a pedagogical agent and the impact of the attributes and choice on their perceptions of agent affability, task-specific attitudes, task-specific self-efficacy, and learning gains. Participants were 210 high-school male and female, Caucasian and Hispanic students who worked at computer-based algebra integrated with pedagogical agents. The results indicated, first, that students preferentially chose a same-gender agent and a same-ethnicity agent, supporting similarity-attraction theory. Second, males who chose an agent showed more positive attitudes toward working at the learning environment than did males who were assigned to …
Comparing Role-Playing Activities In Second Life And Face-To-Face Environments, Fei Gao, Jeongmin J. Noh, Matthew J. Koehler
Comparing Role-Playing Activities In Second Life And Face-To-Face Environments, Fei Gao, Jeongmin J. Noh, Matthew J. Koehler
Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications
This study compared student performances in role-playing activities in both a face-to-face (FTF) environment and a virtual 3D environment, Second Life (SL). We found that students produced a similar amount of communication in the two environments, but the communication styles were different. In SL role-playing activities, students took more conversational turns, but have shorter exchanges compared to the FTF environment. Students generated an equal amount of topic-related concepts in the two environments. They also reported role-playing activities in SL as more interesting and less formal. The educational implications for this study are discussed.