Being an “Agent Provocateur”: Utilizing Online Spaces for Teacher Professional Development in Virtual Simulation Games

• In Event: Anne Frank Confronts Queen Isabella: Learning Phenomena in Historical, Cultural, and Social Online Simulation Games

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper details the results of our educational action research study which investigated how JCAT teachers used the online learning community spaces to develop and support their teaching and learning of virtual simulation experiences. It also describes how our choices as teacher educators (instructional design, structure) shaped their use of these spaces, their learning, and their teaching. We discuss the differences in discourse and use between synchronous (Adobe Connect Discussions) and asynchronous spaces (Discussion Board). Findings will help improve instructional design, capitalize on each particular technology’s strengths, and support future teachers in how they learn and teach about JCAT and other virtual simulation experiences.

Perspectives:
This study embraces the professional development (PD) approach of “learning community.” Lock (2006) emphasizes that this image of PD should engage teachers in opportunities that promote continuous inquiry into their teaching practice. Past studies argued that PD should be continuous, collaborative, contextualized, and fit with teacher’s schedule and needs (Duncan-Howell, 2010). Online communities help distanced teachers interact and learn in a social space, allowing them to provide interactive peer support and participate in inquiry (Duncan-Howell). A purposeful selection of technology is essential for these communities as it does afford and constrain the learning environment and opportunities (Lock, 2006).

Modes of Inquiry and Data Sources:
We use an educational action research approach to study our practice as teacher educators (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). By examining artifacts of the educational environments which we created, we seek to understand the nature of learning that occurred therein. Using a feminist grounded theory approach (Clarke, 2006), we examined emerging themes from detailed ethnographic field notes taken during monthly synchronous webinars and transcripts of weekly asynchronous discussions. The notes and transcripts were examined for emerging themes during the simulation itself in order to help design ensuing discussions. When the simulation was completed, the authors coded transcripts and notes to reveal emerging themes.

Results:
First, data revealed individual differences in modality preference. While some teachers were active participants in one modality, others were active in the second, signifying the need for both opportunities. Second, synchronous meetings were important for issues that required immediate feedback, such as logistical questions and more satisfying for teachers who preferred hearing immediate answers to questions. Asynchronous discussions supported discussion of issues requiring more consideration – such as how teachers addressed hate-speech postings. Third, as facilitators, we discovered the complexity of equalizing power relations so that teachers could take more active roles.

Scholarly significance:
Implementing virtual simulations in middle school classrooms is complex, as they do not unfold in a linear manner; they embrace a playful stance and require mastery of the technology. Additionally, our participating teachers haled from schools across North America, which potentiates feelings of isolation. Creating online professional development spaces that both support the creation of a learning community AND support teachers’ development of skills, stances and experiences is a tall order. This research aims to shed light on the multiple and diverse opportunities needed to accomplish these goals.

Authors

• Aimee DeNoyelles, University of Central Florida

• Miriam B. Raider-Roth, University of Cincinnati