Authored by Jessica Barberry: k20 Global Virtual World Building Think Tank Fellow

Digital spaces reduce inequity by opening the door of differentiation for all learners, if educators have the imagination to build them and the courage to try. Virtual world experiences are real world experiences, valuable to student learning and development. Members of the k20educators Global Virtual World Building Think Tank are building on-ramps into #virtualworlds for learners that struggle, learners that are bored, learners who are lost, and learners who are alone.

We recognize that learner struggles are teacher struggles, too. Often, new frontiers in education that hold the promise of help are first populated by VCs, entrepreneurs, and if we’re honest…individuals that do not have the best interest of teachers and students in mind. This is why k20educators designed a Virtual World Building Think Tank of administrators and educators to share tips, best practices, and advice from professionals in the field (read: they all have day jobs in education) around the globe. We seek with curiosity, have permission to fail forward while we do so, and demonstrate our work in public. Here, you can see imagination, pedagogy, and kindness at work for all learners, especially those who struggle. We know the #eduverse is neurodiverse and we’ve designed virtual learning spaces inside Gather Town, our virtual world of choice, with this in mind. Here’s what we know so far that can help you, too:

You try it first. Sixty-four percent of students with disabilities from ages 6-21 spend at least eighty percent of their time educated in general education classrooms (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). Odds are, if you are in the K-12 ed sector, you have a co-teacher or teaching team that guides your practice. So, we recommend you enter a template space from Gather Town and explore with them. As you do, remember that virtual worlds offer inherent opportunities for student collaboration and high rates of feedback. Bonus: this is considered a high leverage teaching practice that fast tracks student learning gains. As you explore with your colleagues, envision concepts or content that has been a challenge to teach and wonder how a virtual space can make these complex skills explicit, collaborative, and fun.

“When used intentionally and with structured pedagogy, your virtual environment will lead to student growth.”

Next, pick your pedagogy. Already co-teaching? Remember that effective co-teaching involves small groups learning with each teacher leading at the same time, while also affording independent collaboration between students. Consider templates or create maps to facilitate this practice. Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility model? Utilizing a virtual environment during the “We Do” phase allows teachers, other students, and technology to provide the corrective feedback and models of success immediately and at high rates within an engaging environment. Pro tip: while a wrench can be a hammer and might get the job done, it doesn’t do it well. What does this mean? Pick your virtual environments wisely. It is a tool. Your aim is to provide as many practice turns and feedback as possible. When used intentionally and with structured pedagogy, your virtual environment will lead to student growth. When used as an afterthought, it may initially boost engagement, but ultimately leads to student disappointment. Without a small amount of pre-planning, it will be easy for teaching to slide back into a passive “sit and get” learning model that virtual worlds promise to avoid. Use virtual environments to your advantage!

As a team or staff brainstorm simple community guidelines for working in your new virtual spaces. Keep them short, positive, and focused on the types of behaviors students can engage in to be successful. Ensure all teachers are ready to pre-teach these to students before expecting them to perform together in these spaces. Once this instruction has taken place, ensure teachers are comfortable allowing students many opportunities to practice these skills with teacher feedback and support.  We recommend posting guidelines somewhere inside the virtual space and refer to them frequently as activities progress. Be sure to point out students or collaborative groups who are following them and specifically state how they are able to do so. When students require correction, do so privately by engaging a private space tile effect (specific to Gather Town)  or have a designated “private” area where conversations of this nature can occur.

“We recommend you find as many ways as you can to place control of your classroom spaces in the hands of your students.”

With these guard rails in place, you’re ready to invite students. Remember the wonder of your first experience in a video game or digital space?  You were there for fun and had the freedom to explore with zero stakes. Give this gift to your students. Many of them are socializing together in gaming environments and have been since they could hold a controller or type (and maybe you have, too). Expect some students to be hungry for more collaborative activities and expect some to need additional guidance. This is why we recommend spending a class period inside a map that offers areas for each experience level; a quiet space, a space to socialize, and a challenge space that requires collaboration.

“These spaces naturally encourage student autonomy by sparking wonder and curiosity.”

Immersive virtual learning environments are a golden opportunity for students with learning needs. When a student has an Individualized Learning Plan (IEP) or a 504 plan, specially designed instruction (think academic and social supports) are put in place so the student may access general education curriculum and grade level standards. Often, specially designed instruction is delivered by an adult to a student that can, over time, lead to over-reliance on adults to learn. By marrying technology and design, immersive virtual learning spaces can prompt, guide, or remind in place of adults. These spaces naturally encourage student autonomy by sparking wonder and curiosity. Additionally, they invite collaboration and can help students, who were once unwilling to interact, positively work together. When these environments are designed intentionally, technology can be used to provide learning support that reduces learned helplessness and frees teachers to closely supervise and support positive student collaboration, practice turns, and feedback, which is the point. Good instruction in any setting is not about what teachers do but what students do.

So, let’s take a look at what students should be doing. Successful learning environments look like high levels of student engagement, access to flexible student working groups, and high levels of student success. In order to consistently build learning spaces that check these boxes, we recommend you find as many ways as you can to place control of your classroom spaces in the hands of your students. This is a tall order if you work with students who are legally required to be in your classroom (as most K-12 students in the US are). Inside immersive virtual learning environments, collaborative interactions can be better controlled by students than IRL. For example, there is less emphasis on eye contact. This allows collaboration to occur more frequently and with a greater sense of comfort when compared to in-person learning. While working within an avatar based environment, it’s easy for teachers to monitor participation by observing avatar movement and monitoring audio channels in private learning spaces. This practice eliminates the documented fatigue accompanied by video calls as reliance on a working camera is reduced or eliminated. Once we adopted a camera optional approach, we found all students were requesting to use cameras more often. While these choices were small, we noticed more instances of powerful learning, higher rates of engagement, and requests for more opportunities to learn in these spaces. Everyone wanted to be involved.

The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) and their Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework improves how everyone learns based on research and scientific insights. Here are ways avatar based environments meet and exceed these guidelines:

Optimize Relevance, Value, and Authenticity

Immersive virtual learning environments make complex ideas explicit, like traveling through the digestive system, touring a circuit, or understanding a digital footprint. These ideas or systems are impossible to see within a traditional K-12 learning environment without expensive equipment or (in our case) the creative use of technology. Initially, demonstrating template spaces alone may be enough to recruit student interest. Logically, not all students find the same activities valuable or relevant. So, before you engage in any learning, get to know your students' personal interests. Review learning needs and identify themes found across these needs. Then, you can better design immersive virtual learning spaces where students see themselves reflected, students get the help they need, and that show how learning is relevant to their lives. Students get the most value out of learning when it is personalized. This is a strength of immersive learning spaces as they allow anyone to create an environment that meets their needs for free or low cost, then others can be invited into the space for collaboration.

“Students get the most value out of learning when it is personalized. This is a strength of immersive learning spaces.”

Inside virtual learning environments it’s easy to optimize student choices and autonomy, which is a huge authenticity boost for student learning. According to CAST recommendations it’s not enough to provide any choice; they must be the right kind of choices. Recall the reduction of eye contact and camera control exemplified above? Consider taking choice a step further and inviting students to participate in building their own virtual learning spaces with academic goals in mind. This is easily accomplished in Gather Town by enabling “Global Build” which gives permission to certain (or all) visitors to add objects inside their space. k20 holds educator mapmaking competitions, provides access to free building resources like tutorials and walkthroughs of our own learning spaces, and recommends a totally free map making software (Tiled) to get all new map makers in the game. Authenticity means having a real audience for educational products and processes; help your students guide the future of the #eduverse. Invite them to create, solicit feedback from their peers, and submit to our contests.

Perception and Comprehension

Each student perceives information differently so instruction must be delivered in a variety of ways. For example, students with learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia) or students who have sensory needs (e.g., low hearing or vision) require different supports to access instruction. To get the most out of learning, CAST recommends offering content that does not rely on one sense alone. This is the greatest strength of immersive virtual learning environments, by far. In these spaces, teachers (and student creators) can easily offer ways to customize the display of information, and offer alternatives like text in place of audio or spoken descriptions in place of text. It’s easy to demonstrate complex systems using physical models, simulations, and multimedia sources. For students who do not have background information to draw on, embedding immersive multimedia can overcome the barriers of location and expense, allowing comprehension of complex topics free, easy, and accessible for all.

There are many instances when using an immersive virtual learning environment surpass IRL classroom instruction. For example, check out Jay’s map of the heart. As students are invited to walk through ventricles according to the proper directional flow of blood, understanding the circulatory system becomes a powerful experience lectures cannot deliver.

Check out this map of a simple circuit from Jessie, another Think Tank member. For students who do not have access to expensive equipment or backgrounds in circuitry, a fun and immersive map filled with electricity simulations supports all ability levels. Similar to the heart map, students are only able to travel in one direction in the simple circuit river. Here, students learn through experience what direct current (DC) means. The shape of the river itself is based off of the schematic of a simple circuit, laying the groundwork for future lessons on schematics and more complex circuitry.

Teaching Literature, Biology, Writing, circuitry, or body systems? How about Math, digital citizenship, or teamwork? Right now, we’re building a variety of spaces in Gather Town and a how-to video library for these topics and more. Our mission as k20 Virtual World Building Think Tank members is to demonstrate innovation in the eduverse and help onboard others who wish to do the same. Check out @k20educators and subscribe to the Metaverse for Education Newsletter. A bridge from the real world to web3, our newsletter contextualizes the metaverse for education by educators. Find our fellowship members on Twitter and check out our latest maps, research, and tutorials as our team builds in public: @VritiSaraf, @Barberification, @terence_fin, @Jaychewyteach, @MartinSConteh1, @ezequiel_lx, @gameonteaching, and @BlakeBlaze7

Jessica Barberry (@Barberification) is a Special Education teacher and administrator working to make ed3 spaces accessible, responsive to student needs, and easy for teachers to use. She believes seamless technology integration is the key to inclusionary practices, unlocking opportunity for learners of all levels.