Presence Pedagogy: Needs Some More Dimensions

The other day, I discovered an interesting article, Presence Pedagogy:
Teaching and Learning in a 3D Virtual Immersive World, which describes an educational approach for conducting a learning event in a virtual immersive environment.

Flying around in VirtualU: Sense of space is important in virtual learning environments.

As the abstract to the article indicates:

Presence Pedagogy is a way of teaching and learning that is grounded in social constructivist theory. In it, the concepts of presence, building a true community of practice, and constructing an online environment which fosters collaboration for reflective learning are paramount.

To me, if you look at the core principles of Presence Pedogogy, I am not sure they are much different than a constructivist approach in a classroom environment, or even a virtual classroom environment. One thing that I think is lacking in the core principles is the concept of 3D–what is it about 3D that makes the difference, that drives the sense of presence.

Here are the core principles, what do you think?

The Core Principles of Presence Pedagogy that guide its use in virtual environments:

• Ask questions and correct misperceptions;
• Stimulate background knowledge and expertise;
• Capitalize on the presence of others;
• Facilitate interactions and encourage community;
• Support distributed cognition;
• Share tools and resources;
• Encourage exploration and discovery;
• Delineate context and goals to act upon;

Maybe the concept of peer-to-peer application of knowledge should be added as well as discovering multiple perspectives through diverse experiential learning opportunities. Just not sure the core concepts go far enough beyond 2D virtual classrooms or traditional classrooms to build an argument for learning within a 3D virtual immersive environment.

It is the 3D aspects and the ability to instantly apply learning in an observable fashion that, I think, warrants 3D above other solutions. If you don’t have that, maybe 3D VIEs aren’t the right too for what you are attempting to accomplish.

Read more about my take (and Tony O’Driscoll’s) on the concept and value of 3D in Learning in 3D