Learning Villages

Introduction of Learning Villages (LV)：

Learning Villages (LV) is a system developed for students to learn while having fun through online games. LV is a virtual world composed of a castle and different learning villages. A castle represents a WebQuest task assigned for the players, who are encouraged to discuss their tasks and cooperation together in a learning village embedded in the castle. In other learning villages outside the castle, one theme is set for each village and the players are welcome to discuss with each other based on the themes they are interested in.

Players in LV role-play as villagers who live in the learning villages. They are allowed to build villages in this virtual world and each of them also has a right to own a house, where you can have nice decoration with the use of your virtual money (donut), play games as well as talk freely with other villagers. Players are also required to complete a WebQuest task found in the castle.

Players can join any learning villages through building a house there to initiate an issue for others to discuss. Other villagers are welcome to join the discussions in two different ways:

Build a new house near others in the same village to express ideas relative to others and then use a road to display linkages of these ideas.
imply go into a house and then discuss there.

Therefore, we can see that there are two levels of discussion: one is at the village level, which is characterized by different houses linked by roads whereas another is at the house level, in which players are able to express their own viewpoint and feeling based on the idea being raised in the house.

The castle consists of a WebQuest task and also a learning village where players can discuss any topics being raised in the task. This WebQuest castle is created by the system administer and therefore no participant is able to change any part of it. To facilitate the learning process, teachers can elicit the discussion in the learning village embedded in the castle.

To motivate our players, a credit-earning system is adopted in this learning game. Players can gain their reputation by completing WebQuests tasks assigned by their teachers and having high quality discussions with other villagers. Their WebQuest products (i.e. their assignments) as well as their online conversations with other players will be assessed, either by the computer system or a human evaluator. Players who achieve high reputation will be able to earn more virtual money to decorate their own houses and themselves.

Goals：

The goal of this LV project is to help students in learning cross-curriculum subject knowledge, developing high-order thinking ability as well as nurturing their collaborative and communicative skills through project-based learning in a virtual learning community, in which a WebQuest learning model, scaffolding and collaborative learning approach are adopted.

Objectives：

To motivate students to work independently on project work in a game-based learning environment.
To promote international collaboration between the Chinese and the Western communities.
To cultivate students’ interest in project-based learning and help them develop high-order generic skills.
To promote the idea of global village to students in Hong Kong, China and U.S.A
To promote the use of English as a medium of communication.
To perform research on the effectiveness of the learning process.

Target Participants：

100 students and 4 teachers from each of the ten H.K. secondary schools (S.1 to S.3)*
10 secondary schools from the Mainland China (S.3)
5 schools from the U.S.A. (Grade 9)

* Each school must arrange a representative to be the member of the Steering Committee
* English will be used as the medium of communication.

Expected Learning Outcomes：

Teachers will be trained to guide students to learn in an online virtual learning community with the use of WebQuest and different scaffolding tools, which will facilitate their self-learning. It is expected that students will develop self-learning ability, learn subject-specific knowledge and nurture high-order thinking under teachers’ guidance.

Requirements for Schools：

Project-based Learning (Inquiry learning)

Experience in project-based learning (Inquiry learning)

Computer Facilities

Central Processing Unit (CPU): Pentium 4 or above

Memory: 128MB or above

Screen resolution: 1024x768 or above

Network Connection Set Up: bandwidth with 1.5Mbps or above (file download speed not less than 3K/s)

Working System: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Duration：

12 months (1/9/2006 - 31/8/2007)*

Time Frame：

Date	Items	Remarks
1/9/06 - 29/9/06	Accept application from schools	-
2/10/06 - 6/10/06	Inform the selected schools arrangement of the project	-
23/9/06	Introduce LV project to teachers in Guangzhou	-
24/9/06	Start teachers’ training in Guangzhou	-
Oct 06	A training workshop will be held in C.U.H.K in early Oct for the H.K. teacher participants to familiarize the operation of Learning Villages and design their WebQuest	-
Oct 06	Open web accounts	-
28/10/06 (am)	Opening Ceremony	H.K. principals and teachers will be invited to join.
1/12/06-30/4/07	Collaboration among students in the three regions	-
1/1/07 - 30/4/07	Implementation of WebQuest
1/5/07 - 10/5/07	Conclusion of the learning outcomes will be made by teachers and students of the three regions	-
Jun 2007 - Jul 2007	Closing Conference and Product Presentation	H.K. principals, teachers and students will be invited to join.

Contents of Teachers' Training ：

Introduction of "Learning Villages"system
Roles of teachers and students
Credit-earning system and online reputation
Learning through WebQuest and related theories and issues
Sharing of WebQuest examplers

Application and Enquiry ：

For schools who are interested in this project, please complete the application form and then return it to CAITE through fax (Fax no.: 852 - 2603 5622) or email to caite@fed.cuhk.edu.hk

Application Form

If there is any enquiry, please contact Ms. Jacqueline Pang
at (852) 3163 4443 or email to caite@fed.cuhk.edu.hk