Developed by the University of Central Florida, the TeachLivE system is being used by students in the William & Mary School of Education for the first time this fall semester under the guidance of Jackie Rodriguez, an assistant professor of special education. This mixed-reality simulation lab allows pre- and in-service teachers to get experience in front of a classroom without the pressures and consequences that come with being in front of a live group of students. While it does encourage these new instructors to practice and apply teaching techniques, this system also factors in negative behaviors or rare attributes (like speech problems, indirect questioning, etc.) coming from students. Here’s a video presentation:
In most cases, teachers will encounter scenarios when a student is using a cellphone or electronic device during a classroom session. Even though the teacher can order or advise the student to put it away, the situation can possibly escalate into a tense argument when the student feels defiant. Although the teacher is practicing on animated avatars sitting in a classroom setting on a projector screen, it’s an uncomfortable situation that might leave “some new teachers shaken, uncertain of whether they handled it correctly and how the confrontation may impact their classroom”.
Fortunately, this virtual lab removes some concerns like long-term impact and more. To track the participant’s movements in the digitized room, a camera on a tripod records the participant’s real movements to show him/her virtually walking around the classroom. Although it seems like the avatars are programmed with pre-recorded responses, they are actually reacting in real-time to the participant as shown from the video.
Before the session even starts, professors can also select the behavior-escalation level they’d like to encounter on a scale of zero to five, with level five including bullying and personal attacks. Besides that, TeachLivE offers several simulation options, including ELL (English Language Learners) classrooms and TeachLivE en Español. The middle school and high school options feature five student avatars from racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
As a quick reminder, TeachLivE was first launched in 2004 and is currently being used by more than 50 universities across the United States. To read the original source, please read this article. Twitter tags used #LabSimulation, #TeachLiveE and #EduGaming.
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