edna.edu.au

What's in a name?

As we approach the end of our project it is time for some reflection on what was learned or achieved and what can be celebrated.  Equally we need to examine the challenges still facing us and provide advice to others who may wish to venture down a VATA path.

It was during the winter months "red wine weather “ when Ruth Frazer and Jacinta Ryan spent a couple of weekends writing their application for funding to the Australian Flexible Learning Framework to trial the use of a virtual world with a group of Aboriginal trainees.  When we were successful in winning the funding, we decided to name our project VATA  originally because we wanted Virtual and Administration Trainee in the name, but also because we found that VATA is a Sanskrit word meaning wind and we hoped that using a virtual world in education would bring winds of change and engagement.  Now, as white wine weather is upon us, we can look back over this relatively short period of time and with some pride relate to you what we consider to be our achievements.

Within days of presenting our Business Case, we were meeting with our VATA team and with members from the DECS department of Aboriginal Employment and Retention.  During this time our greatest concern was to get access to Second Life as it was clear to us that Second Life had great educational potential.  It is a virtual world that is user-friendly and can be accessed without having to spend any money at all.  In fact, we were surprised at how easily we could find suitable sites and various possessions for our avatars without having to spend a cent (or a Linden which is the currency used in SL).

The inability to have access to SL from the workplace meant that we needed to learn the rudiments of SL and hunt for educational sites from our home computers and so, for weeks, the VATA team met online each Sunday afternoon.  In the meantime, we realised that getting access to SL had become our most challenging obstacle, as each time we requested access it was denied.  Most times we were told that it was a DFEEST policy and that was that.  We then discovered that the IT Program group, managed by John Cocks and Stephen Donaldson, had their own server which could operate outside of the restrictions of the TAFE servers.  We approached them for assistance and it was through their willingness to find a solution and their absolute dedication to education that they provided us with some dates, rooms and times where we could access SL for our trainees.  We continue to be grateful to these two men because without their help, we would not have been able to continue. 

Since that time we have met with the trainees both in class and online in SL.  Initially we met in class so that we could give assistance with using the virtual environment (however, the trainees were more at home in this environment in 2 hours than we had been in two weeks).  In the latter part of our project, we were meeting with the trainees online in SL for about 2 hours every second week. This gave them an opportunity to catch up with each other and also to discuss any outstanding work that may have caused them problems. The competency we had chosen to “teach” via SL was “Deliver and Monitor a Service to Customers”.  All of the trainees were already in the workplace and so were already providing a service to either internal or external customers.  We looked at each of the elements of the competency and tried to find a way in SL to either focus on, practice with or assess the trainees knowledge and skill level.

Back to the IT issues

As early as June we had been informed by IT professionals outside of TAFESA that access to software like SL could be linked to a single ID or login.   We had met with the DECS management on 11 June and already by 19 June the HR Manager, Di Ferris, had put out a request to the various IT staff to enable access to SL for the trainees.  These trainees were located at various schools or Education District Offices across the state of SA.  By the 22^{July, all trainees (except one) had access from their workplace.  The one who did not have access was given permission to go online for 2 hours from her home on the days that we were meeting.}

It was not until the end of July that we received a forwarded email from a library staff member, Barbara Staite.  This email was between Paul Mersh (Manager ICT Infrastructure DFEEST ICT Services) and Ann Marie Betros (Director, ICT Services DFEEST) and the content of this email concerned what was or should be available on the administration and education servers at TAFESA.  It was suggested that staff should be able to have access to SL.  We were amazed at this and so started another round of entreaties and lobbying for access.  We started to get emails from a number of people who were interested in seeing an end to ICT restrictions that all TAFESA lecturers face when trying to bring their teaching into the 21^st Century.  There were many people attracted to the project and for a short while there was a flurry of emails and messages.  On 14 August, we discovered that a colleague from Regional Institute with support from Susan Meiers and had been given permission to use SL with his students.  This encouraged us and we continued to press for access.  Then on 19 August, as I was getting the 8.30am coffee to kick start the day, Sam Ntafilis (ICT Manager at TAFESA -  Adelaide South) informed me that we had access to SL on the education server via the NAL.  I nearly choked!  Quickly we tested it and sure enough it was working.  Within a couple of weeks we had access to our desktops and so were able to complete the last part of our project from the workplace.  This was an amazing end to a situation that had seemed totally hopeless at the beginning.

As can be seen from this long and tedious story, a large part of our time was spent in trying to obtain access and in finding ways to run our project in spite of the access issues.  To give an example, we had arranged an event to occur in SL and we had invited other educators to come to a certain location in SL to interact with our trainees.  These dates were set when we had initially worked with John and Stephen from the IT program.  On these particular dates, the only room that the IT program could offer us (and even this meant moving their regular classes) was a computer lab at the Noarlunga campus.  To get our trainees to the campus, Ruth Frazer and I drove to the Panorama campus, picked up Government cars, drove back to the Adelaide campus and picked up the students.  We then drove to the Noarlunga campus.  Then at the end of the day we drove the students back to the Adelaide campus.  We did this for the two days. 

Our Celebration

Our celebration in this project is that we were able to bring the trainees into SL from the workplace and provide them with the support that being with each other in SL enables.  We were able to use fabulous locations such as the NMC Conference Centre and Terra Incognita to provide a fantastic context for our activities and discussions.  We were impressed with the teamwork that using SL engendered with the group and it was interesting to hear from Jodie Coleman, the trainee project officer, that she noticed that the trainees communicated with each other more in SL than they did in the real world.

The feedback from the "event" that we set was highly encouraging. Here are two of the comments we received.

" Congratulations to your students, from my interaction they did a wonderful job ." Malcolm Jolly, Lecturer GippsTAFE.

"..your trainees were excellent in the way they responded to these strange people wandering around and asking them often 'silly' questions.  They have certainly learned a lot about SL and also showed their great Customer Contact skills.  Judith sat with me for quite a bit, and was equally as impressed with their work.  She is keen to see how her program could use SL especially in the Lands, and as they do have access to satellite and are not using it very much."   Margaret Granger, SA E-Learning Coordinator Australian Flexible Learning Framework.

We regularly asked our trainees what they thought about using a virtual world and the responses were varied.  Mostly they were positive however we sometimes got a shy or non committal response.  We did, however, notice that each time there was a meeting online they were all there. When we followed up on the (usually) only one who was not positive about the experience the reason was that while she was at work she had very pressing tasks to complete.  Taking a couple of hours off to meet with a bunch of avatars in a tree-top destination to discuss the importance of customer feedback and to investigate various feedback mechanisms irritated her when she had so much REAL work to do.  However, this was not the feeling shared by the majority of the trainees and their willingness to participate in the project was evidence of their enjoyment.

Ongoing Challenges

The challenges will always be there.  For example, a major challenge with using SL is the age restriction.  All users must be over 18 and yet our classes often range in age from 17 to 50.  Currently, at our campus, we must request access for a classroom and then SL is available to anyone who uses that classroom.  This might be fine while we are there to ensure that only those over 18 have access, but that is not possible.  There are very few of us who have a class from 9am to 9pm each day.  Therefore, when we are not in the room we cannot see who has logged into the program.  We have requested that SL be linked to an ID number which would enable us to have better control over those getting access.  As yet, the linking of SL to an individual ID number has not been made available.

Another challenge is encouraging teaching staff to "give it a go".  Most people assume that it will be very difficult to control and to learn, yet we found neither to be a problem.  Another reason often given is that the infrastructure is either not there or not sufficient.  Of course, it will probably be some time before the infrastructure issues surrounding the use of web 2.0 and 3.0 software will be resolved and many educators won't try because it looks to be too hard.  However, waiting for someone (usually non educators) to decide what will or won't be approved for use just delays our uptake and further confuses and frustrates educators.  The VATA project was important to us and it was our commitment to the project that kept us lobbying for more freedom and it is this freedom, now won, that is the best outcome of all. Future educators who are prepared to become avatars and investigate the possibilities for their classes will find a fantastic array of choice with far more opportunities than exist for a traditional classroom. 

Our Future

We have continued to discover wonderful sites for education - the latest being a complete hospital with all the various departments.  For our medical administration students who must struggle with medical terminology this could provide a fun environment in which to practice their pronunciation and spelling of difficult medical words.  There is a fantastic law court for legal students to investigate and use.  The more we spend time in virtual worlds the more value we see for education.  As usual with any education, the more blended and flexible the delivery, the more interesting and useful it is for the student.  The virtual world option gives the educator another strategy in the ever expanding inventory of tools and devices to engage learners and provide quality education.

So, what is in a name?  Our VATA project truly lived up to its name - winds of change are definitely blowing through TAFESA.  We have had many meetings with educators from TAFESA, UniSA and from DECS who are interested in trying this fantastic software to engage their learners. In particular, we presented at an Aboriginal Access State Managers meeting in Port Augusta to show how SL could engage the indigenous students.   We have demonstrated the educational advantages of SL to educators from Justice Studies, Marketing, IT Studies, ELS, SA Virtual Enterprises Australia, Children's Education and representatives from private RTO's.  We now have staff seriously considering how they could bring some of the colour and enjoyment of SL into their delivery - to mash it with Moodle, Centra, Web 2.0 tools and so on.   So we believe we are well on our way to embedding more e-learning into our programs and developing partnerships with other organisations.  With the Skills Strategy target of more e-learning by 2012 we believe that we will be able to establish the use of SL as a legitimate teaching device which will bring more enjoyment, engagement and education to our students.

Posted at 02:03PM Nov 27, 2008 by Jacinta Ryan  |