The BreakThru project is sponsored by Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance (GSAA) and is a collaboration between the College of Education Learning and Performance Support Lab at the at the University of Georgia and the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) at Georgia Institute of Technology.
The GSAA is lead by Robert L. Todd of CATEA and Noel Gregg, Ph.D. of the College of Education Learning and Performance Support Lab and is funded by the National Science Foundation Research in Disabilities Education Program.
The project has some noble aims such as encouraging students with disabilities to embrace the learning world of Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths, or STEM for short. They do this via e-learning using different technologies with the aim of allowing the students to participate in an environment that they find more comfortable and with assistance from mentors who encourage the students to succeed. One technology that this project has embraced is Second Life.
There are a couple of articles related to this that go into more depth about the project and the advantages of a virtual environment. The first is from the University Of Georgia’s website : Virtual world helps students ‘break through’ :
For some, an island is a place of retreat or isolation-a place to be alone with your thoughts.
But the virtual island created in BreakThru, a project combining the talents of researchers from UGA and the Georgia Institute of Technology, is a place for students with disabilities who want to work in a discipline related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics, known as STEM fields. Here, students find small mentoring nooks, large classrooms, an amphitheater, floating cafés and lounges, and green space- all computer generated based on the online virtual world Second Life.
Using avatars, this is also a place for students to meet with their mentors, take part in STEM-related experiences such as scavenger hunts, and access more resources through the Internet. BreakThru’s avenues of communication create a relationship called e-mentoring, and it’s breaking new ground in the ways students engage with their mentors.
The article explains how Second Life isn’t the only technology in use, indeed they even say that Second Life is getting old but it does demonstrate the advantages that a virtual world can bring to learning, such as students being able to represent themselves in different ways via use of avatars. Another advantage of a virtual world environment is that it can bring different experiences to people with different disabilities. The article discusses this and includes a quote from Noel Gregg :
Students with Asperger’s syndrome, for example, enjoy meeting others through Second Life, while students who are visually impaired prefer a platform that is voice activated.
“With that virtual platform, we did learn a lot,” Gregg said. “In the development of this virtual environment, we learned different ways to accommodate virtual learning for students with different types of disabilities.”
The second article I looked at for this post was from The Red & Black : Virtual reality program provides support for students with disabilities , this article also features Noel Gregg :
What made the BreakThru program different from traditional mentoring programs was that mentoring was done online through a virtual reality program called Second Life, Gregg said. Second Life, much like the life simulation video game Sims, allowed students to create their own avatars and meet with mentors in virtual spaces like cafes or auditoriums.
“One of the problems that I have seen over the years that students with disabilities have, particularly by the time they get to college, is that they have had to tell their story so many times and they sometimes just want to have their own identity without the disability label attached to it,” she said. “The avatar ability allows them to be whoever they wanted. They would not necessarily meet each other face to face and they would not know anything about the person except for what that person shared with them. That is the positive of having this sort of virtual environment.”
However it should also be noted that educators are not keen to see these sort of virtual world learning experiences to fully replace the campus experience. They see them as an additional tool to encourage people to learn. Student Government Association Vice President Jim Thompson is quoted as saying :
“I would never want virtual reality to serve as the compromise to an integrated programs existence on campus, but I definitely think it is a good supplementary tool. It could help with cognitive or physical disabilities as there are many factors that would impact a students ability to attend a class.”
I think that’s fair. Virtual learning can certainly increase participation and encourage people to embrace STEM but it should not be seen as the only way of doing so for people with disabilities. Virtual learning is however a very good option to encourage wider participation.
The future of the BreakThru project is currently uncertain, the project has reached its final year in terms of funding. Whatever happens in the future though, this project looks like it has been a useful one in terms of its stated aims of encouraging students with disabilities to participate in STEM.