Communications of the ACM
Avatars, Virtual Classroom Aid as Teacher Preparation Tools
Laurie Leake, a junior in special education at Southeastern Louisiana University, talks to her "class" of five avatars as preparation for working in a real classroom.
Credit: Southeastern Lousiana University
Teacher candidates at Southeastern Louisiana University are working in a virtual classroom before having to experience the real thing, gaining the opportunity to practice what can sometimes be a daunting exercise.
The university is one of a handful of institutions nationwide to tout the innovative program designed to help in the formation of future educators.
The software gives teachers in training the opportunity to respond to multiple situations within the classroom environment through the use of avatars, the virtual, computer-generated "students" who populate the simulated classroom.
"It is a virtual classroom filled with real-time avatars," says Associate Professor of Education Nicki Anzelmo-Skelton. "The students in our lab can talk to the avatars and the avatars respond."
Researchers at the University of Central Florida control the avatars, which represent sixth grade learners of diverse ethnicities and personalities that are typically encountered in a middle school classroom, Skelton says. Their behaviors reflect everything from those in a "perfect" classroom to the other extreme where the students may be completely out of control. The virtual classroom and its avatar middle-schoolers are projected from a computer via Skype onto a screen or SmartBoard.
Anzelmo-Skelton brought the technology to the Department of Teaching and Learning through a Louisiana Department of Education grant to be a part of the TLE "TeachLive" program. The initiative began as a pilot project at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando.
"Our young teacher candidates are able to work on behavior management skills; they are able to work on the pedagogy or the 'how' of teaching, and they're able to implement various instructional strategies," Anzelmo-Skelton says. "The research indicates what you can do in just 10 minutes with the avatars takes an hour to do face to face."
"The avatar experience was absolutely amazing," says Ashley Lee, a senior elementary education major, who is also pursuing a dual certification in special education. "I loved the interaction between myself and the avatars and the fact that the avatars had different personalities, which presented some real challenges. This was just a glimpse of what is yet to come when we get into our own classrooms and good practice on handling behavior problems in students."
Anzelmo-Skelton describes the most "powerful" part of this technology as the opportunity for students to refine their instructional skills without impacting real students.
"Young teachers can make the mistakes new teachers are prone to do without affecting the 'students' at all," Anzelmo-Skelton says. "It allows for a nice progression. Our young teachers can reflect on their practices and then build their knowledge and confidence with the avatars before moving into the classroom."
In addition to working on a grant extension for Southeastern from the Louisiana Department of Education, Anzelmo-Skelton is also documenting the student teachers' experience with researchers from UCF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Soon we're going to have research under our belts that I believe will say the avatars and the virtual classroom make a real difference in teacher behaviors and in student outcomes," Anzelmo-Skelton says.
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