Curriculum Plan:

Designed by Salie Davis

 

Core Content Lesson:

The content area for this activity is social pragmatics. for this project the learning environment would be Multiverse Masters (virtual world on the Kitely platform).

The content theme would be: Social Pragmatics. Using NPCs in the virtual world to teach the interpretation of body language and social practice of conversational responses. This social pragmatics lesson will use role play exorcises geared towards helping individuals with starting conversations and reading social and environmental cues.

The content area for this activity is social pragmatics. The goal of this lesson is the interpretation of body language and Social practice of conversational responses in a simulated environment.  Additional resources are located on the back wall.

 

For new users:

Quick Start Guide for Using a Kitely Virtual Reality Island at https://multiversemasters.blogspot.com/2019/04/quick-start-guide-for-using-kitely.html

 

Instructional delivery:

Multiverse Masters is located at grid.kitely.com:8002:Multiverse Masters.

This is the official hyper grid address. A hyper grid address is like a URL for a web page except you need to use a virtual world viewer to access it. This hyper grid address is the learning environment for this project. Multiverse Masters is a virtual world housed on a server on the Kitely platform. Additional support environments will be the Multiverse Masters website and the Multiverse Masters blog site. Participants have the flexibility to perform work in their own environment, and at mutually beneficial times 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, globally. Participants can explore independently or as a group.

 

The activities can be done in any order and repeated as many times as needed. This interactive, hands on activity options increase options for engagement and promotes learning. The interactive and immersive environment serves as an example of design options in virtual worlds to encourage learning using active exchanges in 3D environments and simulations.

 

This would be geared towards Autistic students.

 

Participants will be working with a virtual world viewer to view example assignments and activities. Participation would require a prerequisite of knowledge and ability to use the virtual world platform to navigate at an average user level or having an educational aid to assist with navigation. Participants provide their own device capable of downloading and running the virtual world viewer and to gain access to the Kitely Grid. All participants must have internet access. No additional tools are needed. Participants may use additional tools and programs as they see fit.

 

Learning Outcomes/Objectives:

1.      Through the following tasks, participant will recognize social cues such as folded arms, eye contact, body direction, crossed legs, and other forms of non-verbal social cues.

2.      Through the following tasks, participant will recognize environmental cues such as objects in the environment that may give insight for conversation starters.

3.      Through the following tasks, participant will recognize appropriate and inappropriate social responses to general conversational examples.

4.      Through the following tasks, participant will recognize social cues such as folded arms, eye contact, body direction, crossed legs, and other forms of non-verbal social cues.

5.      Through the following tasks, participants will be able to identify social distractions such as background noise and discuss ways to cope with distractions.

Task expectations, Pre-assessment and post reflection:

Pre-assessment discussion:

1.      Make a list of non-verbal social cues, body language examples and what they may mean.

2.      What examples of body language might show that a person is open to new conversation.

3.      How can objects in the environment give clues about a person’s interest?

4.      What type of activities might show that a person should not be interrupted?

5.      List examples of statements you could use when starting a new conversation.

Task Expectations:

a.    Read support material in-world and assignments

b.    Enter this simulated social environment with an avatar.

c.    Interact using text with the NPCs identifying body language meaning and appropriateness of social interaction based on body language.

d.    Interact with an artificial Intelligence NPC to practice communication and response skills.

e.    Respond to assignments using note cards or screen shots and drop these in the mail box.

Post Activity Reflection:

Discuss this activity with your coach. If you are visiting alone, write in your online journal or post to your chat group, your thoughts on the simulation.

This module would involve a space inside a larger virtual world environment.

 

 

Task one

Q1. These people have things in common. However, their interests are not as clear. Based on their age and environmental cues what might some shared interests be? Put your answer in the response notecard.

Q2. There is one person who is less likely to want to be interrupted. What is it about their body language or their activity that shows this?

Q3. People who are in the middle of a conversation with each other, sometimes do not mind being interrupted. If you wanted to introduce yourself and start a conversation with these people, type in chat a polite way to interrupt. Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: Did you notice what the parrot said? Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

NOTE if the parrot did not speak, click on the parrot and then type your response again.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Teenage group

 

Below is the script required to run the voting feedback object. It allows one vote only per participant.

 

integer c; string header = "\n \nClick here to give feed back. \nDid you understand the assignment?\n";string text = "\n Completed. ";vector farbe =  < 1.0 , 1.0 , 0.0 >; // gelb -> votes

vector farbe2 = < 1.0 , 1.0 , 1.0 >; // weiß -> 0 list menu = [ "I understand" , "I do not understand"]; list owner = [ "I understand" , "I do not understand" , "RESET", "STOP"]; integer listener; string msg; float volume = 1.0; list visitor_list; integer isNameOnList( string name ){  integer len = llGetListLength( visitor_list );   integer i; for( i = 0; i < len; i++ ){ if( llList2String(visitor_list, i) == name ){return TRUE;}  } return FALSE; } Default { state_entry(){ llSetObjectDesc((string)(0));

llSetObjectName(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_TEXTURE,0));  

llSetText(header + llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_TEXTURE,0), farbe2, 1.0); llSetTexture(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_TEXTURE,0), 2);   }on_rez(integer start_param) { llResetScript();}  changed (integer change) {if (change & CHANGED_INVENTORY) { llResetScript(); }}

 touch_start(integer number_detected) { llListenRemove(listener); integer channel = ~(integer)llFrand(1000.0); listener = llListen(channel,"","",""); llSetTimerEvent(20.0); // 20 Sekunden bis Time out string detected_name = llDetectedName( 0 );

 if( isNameOnList( detected_name ) == FALSE ) {visitor_list +=  llDetectedName( 0 );

integer len = llGetListLength( visitor_list );

if(llDetectedKey(0) == llGetOwner())  {  llDialog(llGetOwner(),"", owner, channel);}else{ llDialog(llDetectedKey(0),"Are these directions clear?", menu, channel); }}else { llInstantMessage(llDetectedKey(0), "Info: " + llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_TEXTURE,0)); } } listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string msg) { if(msg == "I do not understand") {

 llListenRemove(listener);  llSetTimerEvent(0);  }else if(msg == "I understand") {

 string sound = "d8b4e131-62d7-44f4-89e3-a100af2128a0"; // Applause

llListenRemove(listener); llSetObjectDesc((string)(c)); c++;

 llSetText(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_TEXTURE,0) + header + text + " " +(string)(c), farbe , 1.0); llPlaySound(sound, volume); else if(msg == "RESET")   { llListenRemove(listener); llSetTimerEvent(0);  llResetScript(); } else if(msg == "STOP")   { llListenRemove(listener);   llSetTimerEvent(0);   llResetScript();  }

 } timer() {   llListenRemove(listener);  llSetTimerEvent(0);  }  }

The script once triggered pops up an interactive dialog box.

You can turn off one crowd sound by clicking on this person. You will find other crowd sound avatars with the red question mark. You may adjust the background noise as needed.

 

 

Task Two

 

Q1. These two women have things in common. Make a list of two things you see that they have in common. Put your answers in your response notecard

Q2. People who like the same things or have the same interests often talk about these shared interests. If you wanted to introduce yourself and start a conversation with these two ladies, what would you talk about?

Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: These two birds are scripted. Click on the Owl, then type to them in chat. Copy the chat and your responses into the notecard. Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Bird Ladies.

 

In the above example the scripted parrot and the Artificial Intelligence Owl interact with the participant based on what is typed into the chat in the virtual world.

 

 

Task Three

 

Q1. These women have things in common. However, two of them have closer interests. What is the shared interest? Put your answer in the response notecard.

Q2. These two are busy talking to each other. Click on the NPC whose body language shows they would be a good person to start a conversation with. What is it about her body language that shows this? What might the two of you talk about. Put your answers in your response notecard.

Q3. People who are in the middle of a conversation with each other, sometimes do not want to be interrupted.  If you wanted to introduce yourself and start a conversation with these two ladies, what would you say and what would you talk about? Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: Did you notice that the parrot interrupted the conversation. Was the parrot being rude? Why or why not. Copy the chat and add what your response could be to the lady’s invitation to talk into the notecard. Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

NOTE if the parrot did not speak, click on the parrot and then click on the lady again.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Magazine Ladies.

Chatty Parrot and the Artificial Intelligence Chat Bot Owl can continue to interact, or the participant can turn them off. Just like the crowd noise options, this allows the participant to determine the level of distraction in the simulated environment, increasing and decreasing the difficulty level based on comfort level and ability.

 

Task Four

 

Q1. Two of these people have things in common. What is the shared interest? Put your answer in the response notecard.

Q2. Choose one person to Click on to join the conversation. How did the response make you feel?  How would you respond? What might you talk about in this group? Put your answers in your response notecard.

Q3. People who are in the middle of a conversation with each other, sometimes do not want to be interrupted. There are other activities that a person can be doing that would prevent them from responding to you. What activity is the third person doing that prevents them from speaking with you? If you wanted to talk to this person, what might you do? Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: Did you notice that the parrot interrupted the conversation? Was the parrot being rude? Why or why not. Copy the chat and add what your response could be and add it into the notecard. Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

NOTE if the parrot did not speak, click on the parrot and then click on the lady again.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Business people.

 

These NPCs are scripted to respond once clicked on. The participant can use the on-screen chat options to review the full conversation and past conversations. The virtual world chat can be saved for later review as well.

 

Task Five

 

Q1. These people are all doing their own thing. For this example, none of them want to be interrupted. What activities or body language can you identify that may show this? Put your answers in the response notecard.

Q2. Are there times when you do not want to talk to people? How do you communicate this?  Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled I am busy

 

The assessment plan for this lesson would need to be individualized. Ideally the student would be accompanied by an educational aid. Pre-Assessment through observation will assist the coach in adapting the verbal prompts and activities to the level of the student. The aid would use observational assessment and a Rubrics to keep track of goals met. The rubrics would be based on Oral examinations. If this was done by a higher functioning student independently then drop boxes with assigned responses at each interactive station could be used to record reflective responses on a notecard. These performance tasks would be in essay format. This would then be used with a Rubric to gauge level of understanding.

Rubric:

Task one

 

Q1. These people have things in common. However, their interests are not as clear. Based on their age and environmental cues what might some shared interests be? Put your answer in the response notecard.

Q2. There is one person who is less likely to want to be interrupted. What is it about their body language or their activity that shows this?

Q3. People who are in the middle of a conversation with each other, sometimes do not mind being interrupted. If you wanted to introduce yourself and start a conversation with these people, type in chat a polite way to interrupt. Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: Did you notice what the parrot said? Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

NOTE if the parrot did not speak, click on the parrot and then click type your response again.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Teenage group

 

Participant was able to complete this activity using one of the options listed.

Discuss this activity with coach including thoughts on the simulation.

Write in online journal thoughts on the simulation.

 

Unable to participate or was resistive to prompts. 4 points

Participated passively by observation with no submission or response to discussion prompting by coach. 6 points

Participated by responding with one-or two-word responses. 8 points

Fully participated and engaged with complete responses. 10 points

Exceeded expectations by participating with responses that were thoughtful, reflective and respectful. 12 points

 

Task Two

 

Q1. These two women have things in common. Make a list of two things you see that they have in common. Put your answers in your response notecard

Q2. People who like the same things or have the same interests often talk about these shared interests. If you wanted to introduce yourself and start a conversation with these two ladies, what would you talk about?

Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: These two birds are scripted. Click on the Owl, then type to them in chat. Copy the chat and your responses into the notecard. Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Bird Ladies.

Participant was able to complete this activity using one of the options listed.

Discuss this activity with coach including thoughts on the simulation.

Write in online journal thoughts on the simulation.

 

Unable to participate or was resistive to prompts. 4 points

Participated passively by observation with no submission or response to discussion prompting by coach. 6 points

Participated by responding with one-or two-word responses. 8 points

Fully participated and engaged with complete responses. 10 points

Exceeded expectations by participating with responses that were thoughtful, reflective and respectful. 12 points

 

Task Three

 

Q1. These women have things in common. However, two of them have closer interests. What is the shared interest? Put your answer in the response notecard.

Q2. These two are busy talking to each other. Click on the NPC whose body language shows they would be a good person to start a conversation with. What is it about her body language that shows this? What might the two of you talk about. Put your answers in your response notecard.

Q3. People who are in the middle of a conversation with each other, sometimes do not want to be interrupted.  If you wanted to introduce yourself and start a conversation with these two ladies, what would you say and what would you talk about? Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: Did you notice that the parrot interrupted the conversation. Was the parrot being rude? Why or why not. Copy the chat and add what your response could be to the lady’s invitation to talk into the notecard. Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

NOTE if the parrot did not speak, click on the parrot and then click on the lady again.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Magazine Ladies.

 

Participant was able to complete this activity using one of the options listed.

Discuss this activity with coach including thoughts on the simulation.

Write in online journal thoughts on the simulation.

 

Unable to participate or was resistive to prompts. 4 points

Participated passively by observation with no submission or response to discussion prompting by coach. 6 points

Participated by responding with one-or two-word responses. 8 points

Fully participated and engaged with complete responses. 10 points

Exceeded expectations by participating with responses that were thoughtful, reflective and respectful. 12 points

 

Task Four

 

Q1. Two of these people have things in common. What is the shared interest? Put your answer in the response notecard.

Q2. Choose one person to Click on to join the conversation. How did the response make you feel?  How would you respond? What might you talk about in this group? Put your answers in your response notecard.

Q3. People who are in the middle of a conversation with each other, sometimes do not want to be interrupted. There are other activities that a person can be doing that would prevent them from responding to you. What activity is the third person doing that prevents them from speaking with you? If you wanted to talk to this person, what might you do? Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Activity: Did you notice that the parrot interrupted the conversation. Was the parrot being rude? Why or why not. Copy the chat and add what your response could be and add it into the notecard. Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

NOTE if the parrot did not speak, click on the parrot and then click on the lady again.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled Business people.

 

Participant was able to complete this activity using one of the options listed.

Discuss this activity with coach including thoughts on the simulation.

Write in online journal thoughts on the simulation.

 

Unable to participate or was resistive to prompts. 4 points

Participated passively by observation with no submission or response to discussion prompting by coach. 6 points

Participated by responding with one-or two-word responses. 8 points

Fully participated and engaged with complete responses. 10 points

Exceeded expectations by participating with responses that were thoughtful, reflective and respectful. 12 points

 

Task Five

 

Q1. These people are all doing their own thing. For this example, none of them want to be interrupted. What activities or body language can you identify that may show this? Put your answers in the response notecard.

Q2. Are there times when you do not want to talk to people? How do you communicate this?  Put your answers in your response notecard.

 

Discuss your experience with your coach, in your journal or in the chat that was set up for you outside this virtual space.

 

Drop the response notecard in the mail box titled I am busy

Discuss this activity with coach including thoughts on the simulation.

Write in online journal thoughts on the simulation.

 

Unable to participate or was resistive to prompts. 4 points

Participated passively by observation with no submission or response to discussion prompting by coach. 6 points

Participated by responding with one-or two-word responses. 8 points

Fully participated and engaged with complete responses. 10 points

Exceeded expectations by participating with responses that were thoughtful, reflective and respectful. 12 points

 

Task Reflective

 

a.       Read support material in the virtual world and assignments

b.      Enter a simulated social environment with an avatar.

c.       Interact using text with the NPCs identifying body language meaning and appropriateness of social interaction based on body language.

d.      Interact with an artificial Intelligence NPC to practice communication and response skills.

e.       Respond to assignments using notecards or screen shots and a drop box.

 

Participant was able to complete this activity using one of the options listed.

Discuss this activity with coach thoughts on the simulation.

Write in online journal thoughts on the simulation.

 

Unable to participate or was resistive to prompts. 10 points

Participated passively by observation with no submission or response to discussion prompting by coach. 20 points

Participated by responding with one-or two-word responses. 30 points

Fully participated and engaged with complete responses. 40 points

Exceeded expectations by participating with responses that were thoughtful, reflective and respectful. 50 points

 

Final Reflection:

 

I am an intuitive designer. I often design learning content in the same way I cook and in the same way I create an art project. When I cook, I open the refrigerator. I ask myself what I need to accomplish? Is this breakfast, lunch or dinner? What do people expect for a meal. I do not go to the shelf and pull out a recipe book. I do not go to the cupboard and take out measuring spoons or measuring cups. I lay out all the ingredients that fit the meal unto the counter and I prepare the meal. I scoop out some of this, sprinkle in some of that, and guess on the temperature and time based on what I observe and smell. This gets the task done to varying levels of success. Sometimes I create a delicious meal that everyone loves. The down side to this is because I did not follow a recipe or write down what I did or how I did it, the praise worthy meal cannot be replicated. Other times it is barely edible and often overcooked.

This process made me create the plan first. I tend to see the big picture and get very excited about the creation process. I am great at creating plans and even writing recipes, or in this case a curriculum plan, complete with assessment. The process became difficult when I became short on resources. When I was pulled in many directions and under mental fatigue. I was able to keep the big picture in mind but had difficulty focusing on the smaller tasks. Instead of referring to the recipe book, or in this case the curriculum plan and course goals, I focused on the task of completing the project as a whole. I ran to the fridge and looked inside. I pulled out all my resources and began to cook. I built the curriculum in the virtual world, I built supports and thought about assessment however I did not follow the guidelines of the course or the recipe and original plan I had created. I relied on the energy of my creative flow to push through.

This caused confusion when I produced results that were not part of the original structured plan. This resulted in me doing a lot more creative work that was unproductive to the goals that were tasked to me. I had to teach myself and remind myself to follow a preset formula. I used the examples and had to redo the assignments several times in order to complete what was expected. I still found this very challenging because I did so much additional and creative work, I didn’t want to leave it out, yet it went beyond what the assignments called for and I believe in the process I missed main components and understandings of finer details.

In an attempt to follow a formula, I began the design by building an environment with clear navigation. I created signage that led participants to the area the simulation would be conducted in. I also created a slide show presentation which could be sent as a PDF file to participants, is currently an educational post in a support website and is a slide show in the virtual world prior to entry into the simulation. https://multiversemasters.blogspot.com/2019/04/social-cues-and-communications.html

 

This sets clear navigations and clear expectations of what the simulation will look like and what will be expected of the participant prior to entering into the simulation and learning environment.

I found the discussion on adaptation of a lesson personally relatable to what I do and who I design for. Knowing the laws and the ways that you can adapt curriculum and design for accessibility and inclusion is a foundational component in any design. I also applied this same principle when deciding on the grading rubric for this assignment. I chose to use a scaled approach. The total score cannot go below 30 points, just for showing up. This is important to factor in the challenges when working with different populations of students. Just showing up is credit worthy. If the participant is graded at the highest percentage for all the activities, then they can have a score of 110 points. And the final task, the reflective task is worth in and of itself 50 points. This means that even if the student is not able to complete all the other tasks, they can get credit for reflecting on the overall experience. In and of itself this task of self-reflection is the most important in this activity.

In choosing what type of assessments to use, several things factored in. To create quizzes in the virtual world takes hours of scripting or adapting script. In order for this to be worth while you have to pay close attention to the questions that can be easily answered through multiple choice, yes and no, or true and false answers. This would be very difficult to do in a social pragmatics lesson. In addition, this would give way to random answers and would not engage reflective learning techniques.

 Short essay answers have more success when measuring formative and reflective learning. Short essay answers also have challenges when considering the different levels and abilities of the participant. The act of typing out a response, using grammatically correct spelling and complete sentences, those actions alone may require more energy that the participant can expend on the tasks asked of them. In this curriculum it is the observation of the environment and reflection on social and environmental cues that are more important. This is why participating with a coach and allowing the observational assessment of the coach is more beneficial than requiring a written assessment.

Another optional level of difficulty is also added in this simulation that can be adapted to the individual participant. That option is the ability to turn on or turn off back ground noise or ignore chat that comes from scripted and artificial intelligence objects or non-player characters. The participant can gauge their own ability to focus on the tasks with or without these additional features, as can the coach on the participants behalf.

This is another reason why I did not make the voting feedback a grading requirement for the participant. Yes, this feature is a valuable assessment feature for the design and development of the coursework, however it is not a relevant feature for the learning outcome of the participant.

Overall, I am pleased with the result of the finished project and have learned that I need to follow formulas in order to justify my actions when designing a course and assessing the learning as well as the course design. If I am going to branch off and get caught up in the creative flow, which I am sure I will, then I need to retrace my steps and record what I am doing, while at the same time, search for relevant examples and principles that will support why the approach I am taking will work and how it can be assessed. By doing so I add credibility and adaptability to my design.