According to eMarketer esti- mates, by 2011, 20 million children will be members
of Internet-based multiuser virtual
environments (MUVEs), up from the
8. 2 million who are already participating in them today. “Get ready for
total inundation,” warns Debra Aho
Williamson, an analyst at the research
firm eMarketer.
For educators looking for new
ways to engage their students,
MUVEs offer a great opportunity for
creative teaching and learning. In addition to content-rich explorations,
students in a virtual environment
learn social, technical, and practical
life skills in a setting that keeps them
engaged, inquisitive, and playful. The
platform also makes possible international collaboration and ambitious
goals, such as dealing with human
rights issues and improving the global environment.
If you’ve never participated in a virtual environment before, this all may
sound intimidating. There is a learning curve, but it’s worth it. I know
from personal experience. Up until
two years ago, I had never set one
digital foot in a virtual environment.
At the time, I wasn’t a big proponent
of video games, which I considered
entertaining but only marginally educational. My image of virtual worlds
was as futuristic, ominous environments designed for adults.
All that changed when I learned
about Second Life resources for
educators and the safe, educationally
oriented islands on the Second Life
Teen Grid. I tentatively put aside my
skepticism and designed my virtual
alter ego. Before I knew it, my awkward avatar was stumbling onto learning opportunities that I never thought
possible and discovering constructivist teaching and experiential learning
within virtual wonderlands that would
have inspired even Alice.
Major MUVEs
MUVEs come in a wide variety of
iterations, from realistic-looking cities to imaginative fantasy lands. Some
MUVEs, such as Second Life, are
public and meant for adults. Such environments require residents to download software, create a username and
password, and design a cartoon-like
identity called an avatar that can walk,
fly, or teleport to sites where they can
socialize, shop, play games, and learn.
Amid the array of entertainment-oriented
islands in Second Life, a growing
number of high-quality educational
islands provide teachers with a place
to share resources and learn new skills.
One island where L&L readers will feel
welcome is ISTE Island, which features
ed tech–related networking events and
speaker series as well as virtual NECC
sessions.
Linden Lab, the company that runs
Second Life, also created a teen grid
that’s open only to 13- to 17-year-olds
and their teachers (background checks
are required). The educational projects
in this MUVE fall into two categories:
public projects that are accessible to
all residents of Teen Second Life, and
private projects that are accessible
only to teens invited by their teachers
or school systems.
Educators or school systems can enter Teen Second Life to purchase land
at a cost that is lower than the adult
Second Life grid. On the teen grid land,
teachers and students have developed
virtual environments that include campuses, amphitheaters, cities, and inventive, otherworldly settings. Linden
Lab also offers Campus: TSL, which
provides short-term agreements for
free virtual land to middle school and
secondary educators.
students and global and community
leaders by engaging them in socially
dynamic, content-rich learning experiences.” Global Kids has a variety
of projects that engage students in
worthy efforts to promote global
understanding.
“Virtual worlds can provide an assortment of learning opportunities,
from identity formation to social networking, entrepreneurial skills, and
financial literacy,” says Barry Joseph,
director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program. “Global Kids has responded by developing programs that
formalize this informal learning to
support youth leadership development
around social and global issues.”
Global Kids
One of the most successful efforts
to engage students in virtual worlds
is Global Kids, an organization whose
mission is “to educate and inspire
urban youth to become successful
Virtual Aid
Global Kids partners with GamePill, a
company that designs highly interactive digital experiences, to create socially conscious games that are engaging, timely, and educational. You can
find one such game at the website Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent
City, which lets each player take on the
identity of a child traveling across New
Orleans in search of her mother. Along
the way, players have the opportunity
to talk to citizens and earn “hero”
points by helping people who are injured and trapped in the floods.
Ayiti: The Cost of Life focuses on a
developing country and the challenges
children there might face in their efforts to get an education. Students
help the Guinard family “struggle to
make ends meet and get ahead in their
poverty-stricken homeland, Haiti.”
They must make decisions related to
work, education, community building,
personal purchases, and health care, all
within an entertaining game format.
The goal is to keep the family healthy,
happy, and educated. Students can play
the game over and over again as they
become more skilled and experienced
at assessing the economics of the family’s situation.
