Jess’ E-Learning Blog

This is my final reflection for this Assignment (not counting the extra work). Its purpose is to outline and reflect on the main issues and experiences I had during my E-Learning course. In particular, I will discuss technical issues, creativity and structured learning. I will also discuss how these issues can affect a learner’s experience. 

Technological Issues

I encountered a lot of technical problems. Firstly, bandwidth and download were very large problems which I could not solve. This led to me contributing largely to my family going over our download limit last month and increasing the probability of us doing the same thing again this month. This affected my learning experience in two ways. Firstly, I had to closely monitor our download consumption to avoid going over our limit. I limited the amount of time I was in Second Life, therefore reducing my learning experience, and once my download limit had been reached, I did not go into Second Life at all because the lag time was so severe. The second effect was the lag time. Even at our faster speed, there was still a lag, which made it difficult to learn how to drive and how to fly. 

In addition, Second Life crashed on my computer once when I was on Help Island. This interrupted my learning experience, frustrated me, took additional time to correct and demotivated me. Lastly, I had to download QuickTime player in order to view movies in Second Life. Not only did this increase my already stretched download limit, but it required more time and disrupted my learning experience. Learners can be discouraged from learning from videos because they need to download additional software and then restart Second Life for it to take effect.  Creativity

Originally, the opportunity to be creative was one of the reasons I chose Second Life for this assignment. And I still believe that giving students the opportunity to create and modify their avatars gives them ownership which has positive flow on effects for their learning. However, there needs to be a limit to how much time can be spent modifying an avatar in a learning situation. Giving the learner free reign over how much effort they put into their appearance can mean that the learner:

1. Does not spend enough time learning how to modify an avatar and therefore does not learn enough;
2. Or that the learner spends too much time modifying their avatar, at the expense of learning through other activities.

Structured Learning

The introductory island in Second Life included both positive and negative learning techniques. This is based solely upon my experiences but is still relevant as everybody’s’ individual experiences carry weight in analysing a learning experience. Orientation Island contained enough structure to direct learners without imposing on them. This was achieved by:

• The four separate and distinct areas on the island. These each had their own purpose which the learner could see by the banner on each entryway, making it easier for the learner to move about the island and to ensure that he/she had learned everything;
• The HUD was useful because it provided direction and support. In the Search part of Search Island, the HUD asked multiple choice questions which encouraged learners to explore the functions of what we were learning. In the Communication area, the HUD responded automatically to what the learner did. When the learner completed a task, the HUD would move on to the next task.

Experiential learning can be difficult when the learner doesn’t know what they can do, but the structure of Orientation eased this. Help Island, however, was not structured at all. There was no HUD, no NPC’s and nothing prominent listing what was available to be learnt. This was problematic for three reasons:

• I couldn’t be sure that I had learnt everything on the island, meaning that my learning experience probably wasn’t complete;
• I was demotivated because it seemed as if I was wandering aimlessly with no purpose;
• I became bored because there wasn’t any interaction or guidance in my learning experiences.

This reflection outlines three of my main issues during my learning experience. I learnt many things during my time in Second Life and experienced both positives and drawbacks. I think that while there were problems, overall, Second Life’s introductory islands were a good learning experience. While problems with technology apply to the whole game and therefore would take serious work to fix, difficulties with the learning itself can be changed.