This professional development series consists of 25 videos that focus on supporting teachers’ use of iSee as a pedagogical tool for teaching and learning. The materials are informed by the experiences of teachers and an examination of literature and research into virtual worlds in education, online learning and digital technologies.
The series provides digital teaching principles that guide the use of iSee and your pedagogical reasoning. Examples of lessons, practical ideas and how to design learning for student engagement is provided.
Topic Set 1: Introduction
The introductory series gives an overview of the resources in the professional development materials. It starts to unpack digital tools and virtual worlds both theoretically and pedagogically. The designers provide their background and also a critical conversation about learning in a virtual world.
An introduction to the Professional Development Series and Digital Tools.
Choosing iSee spaces to support your teaching and learning objectives.
Dr Sarah Prestridge is the 2020 Top scholarly researcher in Teaching in Teacher Education in Australia.
Her full bio can be found here.
Dr Deniese Cox is a researcher and educational coach with a focus on distance education.
Her full bio can be found here.
Topic Set 2: Digital Teaching Principles
Three pedagogical models are presented that inform how to teach in iSee. These include Digital Teaching Principles that guide the use of all digital tools in education; Zones of Digital Teaching and Learning which orientate pedagogical reasoning; and the Digital Teaching in Action model which identifies strategies to use when incorporating digital technologies.
Introducing a theoretical basis and three model frameworks for digital teaching and learning.
Model frameworks for digital teaching and learning
Unpacking and walking through the Digital teaching Principles that underpin all digital teaching and learning.
Understanding how teachers create impact with a knowledge of the Zones of Digital Teaching and Learning.
Harnessing relationships and participatory pedagogies to marry your processes and concepts.
Topic Set 3: Theories in Digital Teaching
The professional development materials are informed by education theories and literature in the fields of digital pedagogies, virtual worlds in education and online learning. Frameworks are provided to help develop teachers understanding of how to effectively use iSee as a pedagogical tool. The Why and How to use iSee is examined.
Introducing the relationships between online learning environments, pedagogical theories and online learning theories.
Unpacking iSee as an environment for online learning.
Unpacking the Cognitive Apprenticeship Model (CAM) and how it informs our teaching in iSee.
Some introductory ideas to consider when shifting to teaching online - Building rapport, online engagement, collaborative activities, communities of enquiry and roles of the online teacher.
Topic Set 4: Different Types of Teaching Approaches
In this series the Digital Teaching Principles are put into action. The focus is on an inquiry approach to build students’ capabilities to learn while supporting the development of relationships illustrated through four teaching approaches in iSee: Problem based learning; Exploration based learning; Role play and Tasked based learning. Elements of each approach are presented then illustrated through examples of lesson ideas in iSee.
An introduction to the different teaching and learning approaches which have shown to be especially effective in iSee.
Building an authentic student to student learning approach to drive engagement and deep learning.
Drawing on intuition, imagingation and creativity to encourage learner autonomy.
Helping students to examine different perspectives and develop evidence driven arguments.
Using gamification to drive student engagement in iSee.
Topic Set 5: Routines and Procedures
How to build routines and procedures for teaching and learning in iSee is illustrated in this series. Based on the Digital Teaching Principles, routines and procedures are examined so that a learning culture of community, care and collaboration is created based within the virtual world environment. A deconstruction of an iSee lesson is provided.
Developing a learning culture in your iSee sessions.
The critical underpinning to effective learning engagement online. Stepping beyond teacher/student relationships to engineering relationships between students.
Exploring the range of ways that you can harness group and team interaction in iSee.
Developing and reflecting on your readiness to try new things with an open mindset and create better experiences for your students.
Topic Set 6: Quality Dimensions
Three key dimensions are examined and illustrated to build quality learning opportunities in iSee. These include understanding and designing feedback and assessment, recording student learning and differentiation.
Rewards, student-student feedback, giving and receiving feedback, modelling feedback, explicit assessment exemplars....
Using features from iSee and other apps from your digital learning ecosystem to capture evidence of student learning.
Creating differentiated pathways for students based on their learning stage within a single iSee session.