65°
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. Students in Pace Universitys education degree program will now be able to practice their teaching skills in front of a classroom of students on a daily basis, while never leaving the Pleasantville campus.
The classroom wont be filled with actual students, but instead virtual ones through the fully interactive TeachLivE Lab.
This is a great tool because a student can go practice in front of a classroom and if they dont do so well they can say to themselves, alright Ill just try to do better tomorrow, said Education Professor Brian Monahan. As opposed to the embarrassment of performing poorly in front of a real class and going home crying.
The TeachLivE computer program, developed by the University of Central Florida, puts the college student in front of a large screen that features five avatar students in desks. The student acting as the teacher is equipped with a headset where they can listen to the virtual students and give them commands. The five avatar students are controlled by staff workers based at the University of Central Floridas campus. The avatars can not only speak and interact with the student-teacher, but also view them live through a webcam attachment. After each interactive classroom in the TeachLivE Lab, the student is able to receive feedback from their professor and peers on their performance.
The goal of the program is to get students acquainted with the difficulties of teaching a classroom.
These avatars are like real children, and each child is going to have a different personality, said Director of Technology Services for the Pace School of Education, Jermain Smith. Theres going to be the reserved child who doesnt like to talk and its your responsibility to get them involved and then theres going to be the rowdy child that youre going to need to manage in the appropriate way.
The TeachLivE lab will be available to 10 education classes in the spring semester at Pace with over 300 students. Pace purchased the lab through a Verizon Infinity Grant. They are one of only 10 universities in the nation with the technology and the only school in the northeast region.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Armonk and receive free news updates.
