Two students stood before a wide-screen television waiting for their cue. After a moment, Professor Jo Hoffman said, “Start classroom,” and the image of a classroom came to life on the screen, with five virtual middle school students, attentive and ready to learn.
Students Courtney Jenkins of Plymouth and Thessa Andrade of Brockton took turns at the board.
“What themes do you want to learn,” Courtney asked, holding in her hands the day’s lesson plan on Romeo and Juliet.
The students on the screen provided an answer or two, until one complained: “I wish I was home working on my music, but here I am…”
Courtney and Thessa had to decide how to get the class back on track. Ed, Sean, Maria Cindy and Kevin – the virtual students – were waiting for their next move.
Welcome to Mursion’s virtual training simulator, which is designed to help future teachers, and other professionals, practice and master the job skills they need when working in front of a group of students or strangers. The real-life students who took turns teaching the virtual visitors adjusted quickly to this brave new classroom.
“That was crazy,” Thessa said.
The idea of a virtual classroom dates back more than a decade, when the University of Florida developed a program called TeachLivE. Mursion last year partnered with UCF to market the program to the private sector.
“I think it has a lot of potential for students to gain experiences at the pre-service level,” said Dr. Hoffman, associate dean of the College of Education and Allied Studies. “My students really loved it! Several commented that they were ‘blown away’ by how real the student avatars are.
Other students said that once the virtual class got underway, they were immediately engaged and had no problem practicing the skills they’ll need once they get out into the field.
The class sessions must be scheduled ahead of time so Mursion can have an “interactor” on hand to run the classroom. There are differeent lesson plans covering different subjects. Professor Hoffman said plans call for new avatars, or virtual students, with special needs or for whom English is a second language.
BSU students, like most younger people today, adapted quickly and even enjoyed being on the cutting edge.
Or, as BSU student Katie Morin put it: “Technology. This is so cool.” (Story and photo by John Winters, G ’11, University News & Media)
