Some dance in excitement. Some are jittery from too much coffee and not enough sleep. Some are snapping photos for social media love. Some simply are there to cross off another to-do on the list.

When Taylor Bousfield ’13MEd strolled up to claim her doctoral regalia as she breastfed her 5-month-old and cared for her nearly 3-year-old while maintaining a Zen-like calmness, the regalia distribution staff took in the scene before them and wondered: is Wonder Woman real?

“Most of the time I’m a mess,” Bousfield said with a laugh.

Bousfield was born and raised in Orlando and attended The First Academy through middle and high school. After earning her bachelor’s degree from the șŁœÇֱȄ of Mississippi, she taught for three years in Louisiana before moving back to Central Florida to teach at Lake Howell High School.

She had an itch to further her education, and when a grant opportunity arose to do so at UCF, she took the chance to earn her master’s degree in exceptional student education with a certificate in autism spectrum disorder.

While she was in graduate school, Bousfield learned of a doctoral grant from Lisa Dieker, a UCF professor and Lockheed Martin eminent scholar chair.

“I figured, why not try?” Bousfield said. “We have an incredible education program that has faculty members who are so innovative. Not to mention the opportunity to work with TeachLivE. That is something I wouldn’t have been able to do anywhere else.”

A month after starting the doctoral program, she learned she was pregnant with her almost 3-year-old, Luke.

“He literally went to every single class, one way or another – whether it was in person, in utero or on Skype,” she said. “There’s no way I could have been able to accomplish everything without the support of our special-ed faculty and my chair, Lisa Dieker.”

Bousfield’s interest in special education and teaching was instilled at a young age. Her aunt, Charlotte Day, is the county coordinator for Special Olympics in Orange County. Bousfield said from the time she could walk she was volunteering at events.

She will graduate on Aug. 5 with her doctorate in education, and her children and husband will be in attendance. She hopes that her family’s immersion in her university experience will instill a drive and a passion for education in her sons.

She plans to stay at UCF as a Teach Live liaison as she works with associate professor Rebecca Hines, PhD.

“Taylor will be an amazing addition to our program. Her doctoral work included research methods in TeachLivE that we will use to help prepare future teachers,” Hines said.

Bousfield said her biggest challenge over the years has been balancing her roles as a mother, a wife and a student, but she wouldn’t have traded the experience for the moment when she learned she had accomplished her goal.

“Hearing ‘Dr. Bousfield’ after passing my dissertation defense – with my husband and both of our boys there in the room — was amazing. It’s probably the best moment I’ve had in a while,” she said. “My advice to anyone is find a support system and don’t wait. Don’t put it off. Now is the time. Somehow it will always work out. Don’t put off life for school, and don’t put off school for life.”

Long a leader in training professionals using virtual reality and digital simulations through the TeachLivE Lab, the șŁœÇֱȄ will host a conference June 7-9 for those using the program’s technology to train teachers, nurses, police officers and other professionals whose jobs rely on person-to-person interactions.

For a full description of the TeachLivE Lab, check out the story in UCF’s Pegasus magazine.

TeachLivE uses a mixed-reality teaching environment that allows users to practice scenarios in a safe way. For teachers, they can learn classroom management, for example, with “virtual” students. UCF Police Department uses it to give officers practice in defusing confrontations. Counseling students can use it to learn how to help patients in distress.

The technology is in use at 85 campuses around the world, multiple school districts and companies, said Taylor Bousfield, a LEAD Scholar and UCF doctoral candidate who is coordinating the conference. About 100 people from schools, universities, businesses and agencies will be in attendance, she said.

The conference at UCF’s Teaching Academy is an opportunity to hear from those using TeachLivE talk about their successes and results, she said. And, it’s a great way for those working to enhance the program or find new uses for the technology to present their findings.

“This is a great opportunity for us to show off our campus and to see how something we created has really started the revolution of using simulation in education,” Bousfield said. “It’s an opportunity to bring people from around the world to our campus.”

The teachers were part of the College of Education and Human Performance’s second national TLE TeachLivE conference, and the students are named Maria, Ed, CJ, Sean and Kevin. They’re all students in the virtual classroom simulator known as TeachLivE, which was developed at UCF to better prepare teachers to handle the rigors of leading a classroom.

Teachers-in-training and existing teachers can step into the simulator to practice targeted skills, such as classroom management and content pedagogy, in what’s called “virtual rehearsal.” An “interactor” from UCF controls all five avatars, which each have distinctive personalities that mirror what teachers might see in the average classroom.

Actress Cheryl Hines, a UCF alumna, kicked off the conference with a presentation about improvisation and how those skills can be applied to the classroom.

“It would be very difficult as a teacher to communicate anything with a student without connecting with them. The only way you can improvise is if you’re a good listener, so you have to listen to what someone else says, because there’s no script,” said Hines, a graduate of the Groundlings, the revered improv comedy troupe based in Los Angeles.

Hines, the star of television shows including “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Suburgatory,” spoke about the importance of playing along, assuming a relationship and making bold choices to both actors and teachers.

“With teaching, if a student has an idea or a thought or a question, you can’t shut them down and say ‘That’s a bad question,’ ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about’ or ‘Why weren’t you listening,’ any of those things. It has to keep moving in a positive direction,” said Hines. “In improv, you have to stay in the moment. You can’t plan what’s going to happen next because you don’t know. I think it’s that way with teaching.”

Throughout the two-day conference, educators attended workshops and discussions about how TeachLivE can be used as a stimulating way to prepare all different kinds of teachers.

Breakout sessions targeted math, science, preschool, counselor and other educators. New developments in TeachLivE, including a parent-teacher conference scenario and the creation of an avatar with Autism Spectrum Disorder, were also introduced.

Just 10 minutes in the simulator forces teachers to think more about their practice, said Karla Auzenne, a science instructional specialist for the Houston Independent School District, which has used TeachLivE as a preparation tool for rookie and veteran teachers.

“Even when I first met the TeachLivE students through Skype, I forgot I was talking to avatars,” said Auzenne. “They become kids to you. They come off the screen into real life. It’s a game-changer, right then and there.”

TeachLivE was created eight years ago by education professors Mike Hynes and Lisa Dieker, College of Engineering & Computer Science professor Charles Hughes, and an interdisciplinary team that included members of the Synthetic Reality Lab at UCF’s Institute for Simulation & Training.

Today, TeachLivE is delivered to more than 10,000 teachers at 37 partner universities and at other sites including the school districts in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties. A team of more than 25 at UCF supports the technology, development and partnerships.

The theme for this year’s TeachLivE conference was ludic convergence, or playful collaboration, a celebration of what the TeachLivE team calls “sandbox technology.” One group of children could come into a sandbox and create distinct castles or shapes. When they’re done, another group of kids could come in, tear down what was there and build something completely different.

That’s the nature of TeachLivE, which can be completely customized depending on the user’s objectives. What stays the same, however, is the realistic nature of the classroom.

“I’m not great at technology, but what I saw today was fascinating,” said Hines. “This is so great. You’re actually talking to a real person—different characters, but a real person.”

You’re trying to calm your nerves and deliver content clearly and compellingly when you catch C.J. in the back row texting on her cell phone. Sean, another student, interrupts your pre-calculus lesson to tell you about a TV show he watched the night before.

Suddenly, you’ve lost your place entirely.

It is a scenario that’s typical for teachers, but thanks to an innovative teacher preparation tool developed at the șŁœÇֱȄ, it is something that practicing teachers and teachers-in-training can work through without impacting any actual students.

That’s because C.J., Sean and their classmates are avatars in a virtual classroom. The program, called TLE TeachLivE is a mixed-reality simulation environment that provides users the opportunity to practice a targeted skill, whether classroom management or content pedagogy.

Similar simulation technologies are common in medicine and aviation, but TeachLivE is the only one of its kind in education, providing a personalized learning environment customized to the unique needs of teachers-in-training or practicing teachers looking to brush up on their skills or try out new techniques.

“Suspension of disbelief is a key aspect of simulation and training. When a subject steps into the simulator that cognitively they know is not a ‘real’ situation, they begin to accept the simulation as real in a short period of time. The subject is experiencing suspension of disbelief,” said Mike Hynes, a member of the TeachLivE team and professor in UCF’s College of Education and Human Performance. “It never ceases to amaze me when I see subject after subject experience suspension of disbelief in TeachLivE.”

Hynes created TeachLivEwith education professor Lisa Dieker, College of Engineering & Computer Science professor Charles Hughes, and an interdisciplinary team that included members of the Synthetic Reality Lab at UCF’s Institute for Simulation & Training.

Last month, TeachLivE took the top prize at the NewSchools Venture Fund’s annual summit. The Learning to Teach Impact Award is given annually to a teacher-preparation program that connects teachers with opportunities for practice in real-world settings.

In 2013, TeachLivE earned the 2013 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Modeling and Simulation from the National Training and Simulation Association, an honor that’s typically awarded to military applications of modeling and simulation.

“The various awards, and especially this most recent, recognizing our impact on learning, are such a celebration of the over 25 people who are part of our team,” said Dieker. “UCF, too, should be celebrated in each award the TeachLivE team has received in that the university has a culture and climate of true partnerships, not within, but across disciplines.”

Hughes said: “This latest recognition of our collaborative work as members of the TeachLivE team is wonderful in itself, but even more so as it motivates us to continue ignoring disciplinary walls to help make a positive difference for all aspects of society.”

The TeachLivE concept began more than eight years ago. Today, TeachLivE is delivered to more than 10,000 teachers at 37 partner universities and at other sites including the school districts in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties. A team of more than 25 at UCF supports the technology, development and partnerships.

The current version of TeachLivE requires only a typical computer, a large display and a Microsoft Kinect to allow users to move about the environment and have “natural” interactions with the avatars.

The TLE TeachLivE team says the “sandbox” nature of the program—its ability to be used in different ways and for different purposes—could also have uses in areas outside of education.

Up next for the TeachLivE team is the program’s second annual conference, which will be held at UCF May 22-23.

The conference will include presentations by institutions that use TeachLivE with opportunities to share teaching and research ideas. Actress Cheryl Hines, a UCF alumna, will kick off the conference Thursday at 3:45 p.m. in the Morgridge International Reading Center with a keynote presentation about improvisation.

Other conference sessions will focus on how “virtual rehearsal” can be used to curb teacher anxieties, train counselors and prepare early childhood educators.