Lansiquot and MacDonald’s Interdisciplinary Place-Based Learning in Urban Education with faculty at the New York City College of Technology concluded with the chapter “Modeling Interdisciplinary Place-Based Learning in Virtual Worlds: Lessons Learned and Suggestions for the Future,”1 which examined some ways in which the virtual can be used to enhance interdisciplinary place-based learning. This volume seeks to expand upon the concept of virtual place-based learning, with chapters that explore the many contexts for its interpretation and application in an urban learning environment. At the same time, the goal is to examine the integration of virtual place-based practices within the framework of interdisciplinary teaching in an undergraduate setting, highlighting both the interdisciplinary framework and the value of place-based learning in urban higher educational settings. The chapter contributions further highlight the evolution and development of place-based learning as a high-impact educational practice.2
We consider that learning in virtual worlds by definition is place-based; this includes game-based learning. Contributing authors consider how the concept of virtual has been interpreted in their teaching and how virtual space has been used to define “place” from an interdisciplinary perspective. They provide a comprehensive study of how this innovative pedagogical approach can be effectively implemented and provide a model for how its adoption at other institutions of higher education can further advance critical thinking and inquiry in new and innovative ways.
Virtual place-based learning, employing the tools of digital storytelling, mapping and data visualization, game design, and information literacy as methodologies, is explored as an approach that can both enhance the exploration of physical place and reimagine the physical in an interdisciplinary environment. In this context, this book focuses on the wide range of disciplines in which learning and student engagement and inquiry can be enhanced by virtual place-based learning, at the same time exploring how the cultural, technological, and discipline-focused contexts in which virtual techniques have been employed facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge.
We also consider how virtual place facilitates study in urban environments where physical observation and study are not possible, or where the virtual can enhance the study of physical space. At the same time, it considers how the resources of urban settings can be cultivated in designing virtual methodologies. In this way, the experience of place can be realized as geographic place, while other limitations of physical space are transcended.
Further explored is the question of how virtual place-based learning in urban higher education settings can serve the purpose of engaging a diverse student population with the real world. How can virtual locations be employed in interdisciplinary ways to realize the concept of place in such settings where access to the physical location isn’t possible? How have the resources of urban spaces been used for this purpose?
This book examines the variety of resources faculty teams have used in interdisciplinary virtual place-based learning in response to the following questions: how has the concept of virtual been applied in your teaching and/or student projects? How has virtual space been employed to connect the interdisciplinary theme of a course to real-world experience? What activities have been undertaken? What were the processes, what were the outcomes, and how were the outcomes assessed?
The implementation of interdisciplinary virtual place-based learning detailed in these chapters may take the forms of web-, project-, or game-based learning environments. Through the interdisciplinary experience, students learn to identify and to discern the perspectives of different disciplines, to purposefully connect and integrate knowledge and skills across multiple disciplines to solve problems, and to synthesize and transfer knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. In the process, students become more flexible thinkers who are comfortable with complexity and uncertainty; understand other factors inherent in complex problems; grasp the universal nature and deep structure of science; prepare for their future as lifelong learners; and apply their capacity as integrative thinkers to solve problems in ethically and socially responsible ways.
Given this scope of outcomes related to interdisciplinary learning, we aim to connect virtual place-based learning to strategies for productive collaborative interdisciplinary studies at the college level. The focus on place-based learning complements interdisciplinary studies as place-based learning encompasses active project- or problem-based education.
There is an extensive body of literature that explores the ways in which learning can be enhanced through the employment of virtual strategies and that focuses on approaches to using specific technologies, such as game-based learning and geographic information systems (GIS) to augment teaching and learning. Other studies consider both the benefits and the challenges posed by educational technology centered on virtual tools.
Iqbal et al.3 used a survey to highlight the many ways in which virtual contexts can be used as a means to engage students “in learning by doing.” They pointed to a range of learning strategies that can be facilitated through virtual place-based learning, including project-based, experiential, and inquiry-based learning, as well as “interaction with and through avatars in a graphical, immersive, and embodied context [that] provides interesting possibilities for experiential learning and for exploration.”4 The authors further highlight the social and collaborative nature of virtual worlds, noting that they enhance communication and interaction among users “through the interaction of avatars with the artifacts in a virtual world.”5
The benefits of employing computer-based simulations to complement traditional learning methodologies in the life sciences via virtual science labs are discussed in Zumbach et al.6 The authors consider one such project, Lifelab, which includes a multidisciplinary approach to learning, drawing upon the expertise of faculty across disciplines, including information technology, psychology, pedagogy, and computer-based learning. The central goal of the Lifelab laboratory simulation is described as making “authentic life science research accessible to students and to support students (and teachers) in scientific reasoning and discourse.”7 The authors’ evaluation of the simulation program concludes that it effectively engaged students at varying levels of preparation and that student learning was effective.
In another study Holden and Sykes8 examined the effect of a place-based augmented reality context for language learning through students’ use of the mobile game, Mentira, for learning Spanish. In this study, the classroom—or place—for language learning becomes the local community, supplemented by the virtual design of that community. Following one semester of participation, students overwhelmingly indicated that they felt highly engaged and experienced as active participants in the learning process. Students also offered suggestions for improving the game itself and several of its features for learning Spanish, which led to subsequent design modifications and revisions to narratives.
A number of sources have evaluated the benefits and challenges posed by educational technology such as virtual tools,9 while others have explored the use of specific technologies such as game-based learning and GIS to augment teaching and learning.10 Wu et al.11 cited many benefits of virtual and augmented learning environments, including the ability of such approaches to close gaps between formal and informal learning processes, to enhance learning, provide an environment that “gives learners a sense of being in a place with others,” and the ability to visualize the unobservable. Similarly, Jones et al.12 conceived of virtual learning as a methodology that can address a variety of needs, are always accessible and that can be used and shaped by th...