Teaching 21st-Century Art Education in a Virtual Age? Investigating Student Responses and Challenges to 3D Virtual Learning Environments

• In Event: Multimodal Arts Education: Virtuality, Fiction, Drama, and Utopia in Educational Research

Abstract

3D virtual worlds (VWs) have become an ongoing trend in education; however, students’ responses to 3D VWs and their perceived learning are not well understood. This study aims to demystify 3D VWs for art education by investigating preservice and inservice art teachers’ reflections on their 3D VW learning experiences by using Lu’s (2010) teaching model (VW curricula and pedagogy). The preliminary findings show that most participants enjoyed their learning when using 3D VWs as a new art form/medium, new learning/teaching environment, new exhibition/creation arena, a new visual/virtual community, and an emerging curricular topic for inquiry. The challenges, barriers, and concerns for teaching art in 3D VWs will be presented.

Author

• Lilly Lu, Northern Illinois University