Ethnographic approach to second life in education: a focus on technological difficulties

This paper moves from the data collected during an ethnographic research conducted in Second Life, which focuses on the observation of different technological difficulties in educational experiences. The main research interests focused on the social dynamics of educational experiences in Second Life...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethnography and education 2016-09, Vol.11 (3), p.283-297
Main Authors: Sponsiello, Marta, Gallego-Arrufat, María-Jesús
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classroom Environment
Classroom Techniques
Computer Graphics
Computer Simulation
Educational Experience
Educational sociology
Educational Strategies
Educational technology
Ethnographic research
Ethnography
Foreign Countries
Hong Kong
Human Factors Engineering
Italy
Learning Experience
Observation
Online Systems
Participant Observation
Research Methodology
Research Problems
second life
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher Behavior
Teaching Methods
Technological Literacy
United States
virtual world
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Summary:This paper moves from the data collected during an ethnographic research conducted in Second Life, which focuses on the observation of different technological difficulties in educational experiences. The main research interests focused on the social dynamics of educational experiences in Second Life and the opportunity to develop a proper research methodology. The main goal is to evaluate the educational experience in such a particular context through the stories of participants; therefore, the most appropriate methodology for researching the subject has been considered to be ethnography. As result of the research, it is observed that an appropriate use of the available tools and the adoption of innovative teaching strategies can promote the improvement of the educational experience in online worlds. This paper suggests interesting elements from the analysis of the data collected, which may help to adopt an innovative point of view on ethnographic research in an online world in education.
ISSN:1745-7823
1745-7831
DOI:10.1080/17457823.2015.1089181