Presentation held on SLACTIONS 2011 Conference about the Use of Second Life in the teaching of Religion - a case study in the monotheist religions teaching

1. THE USE OF SECOND LIFE IN THE ©
TEACHING OF RELIGION
a case study in the monotheist religions teaching
Fernando Cassola Marques / Fernando Moreira
Universidade Portucalense
Porto - Portugal

2. SUMMARY
Some of the
results
Our own obtained
study
Studies
about this
theme
Initial
aproach
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3. QUESTION?
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4. THE BEGINNING …
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5. FIND SOME STUFF ABOUT THAT …
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6. FIND SOME STUFF ABOUT THAT …
http://youtu.be/a4h4x5xjum0
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7. UQ RELIGION BAZAAR
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8. UQ RELIGION BAZAAR
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9. UQ RELIGION BAZAAR - CONCLUSIONS
• The students did not have enough lab time to adequately
prepare for the role play on Second Life
• Planning to continue with this project, for example in the course
“Introduction to World Religions”, but improving some variants of
the role-play model used
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10. GOALS OF OUR OWN STUDY …
• Check if the SL can be used in an educational context, teaching
the monotheistic religions;
• Identify advantages and disadvantages of using SL in teaching
the monotheistic religions;
• Planning for future investigations using SL in teaching the
monotheistic religions
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11. OUR CASE STUDY …
• 4 student groups of different years
• 2 groups in the 9th grade (15 years old),
• a group in the 10th grade (16 years old),
• a group belonging to the 11 th grade (17 years old),
• Enrolled in the course of Moral Education and Catholic Religious
(EMRC) in the Portuguese public school.
• 44 individuals, divided on 32 female and 12 male elements
• Coordinated by two teachers
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12. FIRST LESSON
Do you use Virtual Worlds
Have you heard about virtual worlds? (SecondLife, OpenSim, ReactionGrid,
Heritage, BlueMars, Habbo, etc.)
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13. SECOND LESSON
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14. SECOND LESSON - RESULTS
Can you better understand the symbols of the
following religions, through visiting their islands?
It was easy to identify the locations (islands)
with the respective religion
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15. THIRD LESSON
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16. THIRD LESSON - RESULTS
Do you think it is possible to
use the Second Life in the
discipline of EMRC?
Was I more aware of the issues Will you recommend the use of
studied because it was used the Second Life as a learning tool in
Second Life? the classroom?
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17. THIRD LESSON - RESULTS
What were your greatest difficulties in using Second Life in the classroom?
a. We were constantly without internet connection 18%
b. Problems logging in Second Life (login and password) 14%
c. Difficulty in moving the avatar 9%
d. Problems in finding interesting content on the islands visited 16%
e. Second Life was too slow to load graphics 7%
f. I had no trouble, or if I did it was easily overcome 34%
Other 2%
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18. SOME CONCLUSIONS …
 Virtual worlds is a very potential pedagogical teaching tool
 Some preconception and even structural barriers to its use in the classroom
 Virtual Worlds potential overcome any technical difficulties that may arise
 The students where motivated and committed
 The level of acquisition and understanding of content, using the SL was very high
 Need for more time for users in order to explore the islands visited, and the
contents learned
 At the level of religious education, much is yet to be done and created on the SL
 Existing resources are scarce and make the users of these worlds have enormous
difficulties
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19. THANK YOU !
fernandocassola@gmail.com fejocama Ubble / fernando cassola
http://www.twitter.com/fernandocassola
http://www.facebook.com/fernandocassola
http://www.scoop.it/t/fernandocassola/
http://www.slideshare.com/fejocama
http://uportu.academia.edu/FernandoCassolaMarques
http://pt.linkedin.com/in/fernandocassola
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