Dai,
Congratulations on the Senior Fellowship Award. In part, this was in recognition of the work that you've done using Virtual Worlds (or Multi-User Virtual Environments - MUVE) in education.

I'm also interested in Multi-User Virtual Environments, and the ways in which you can use them in in a range of educational ways.

Which are the ones that you use - and are there any differences between the ways n which young people approach an Educational MUVE and ones that they use for recreational purposes?

Regards,

John

Congratulations from me too. Well deserved. I'd like to hear more about our island and what it will be looking like. I shall not have an atavar who is a long legged blond but a grandma with a bun and an apron when you get that far.

Looking forward to hearing about this. Best wishes
Christina



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 18/11/07 17:35 by Administrator.

Well thanks both and I am obviously delighted to be awarded senior fellowship of an organization that has been so thought provoking for me. I became a Mirandanet Scholar in 2003 and gained fellowship through publishing a BPRS study called Computer Supported Collaborative Work Environments: Their use and effect in promoting Metateaching. This looked at the use of Think.com and Blackboard in a secondary school with specific reference to teacher reflection. I have been involved with lots of Mirandanet projects since and also been lucky enough to present on Mirandanets behalf on subjects such as Interactive White Boards to teacher CPD.
I am about to answer John question on MUVE's but year 9 are knocking on my door and I will need to go and teach.
I will post tonight and give more information about MUVE's then

Well as you can see from the time stamp of this post I never did get to this later yesterday evening.
So…
I am involved at the moment in two projects using Multi user virtual Environments (MUVE). Quest Atlantis is something that I am keen to get a group of 11-13 yr olds involved and I feel that Quest has a unique concept. The world is narrative driven in that there is a novel called Archfall that has been written and is available in paper form. The story unfolds about Atlantis and quests that need to be carried out to save the world.
The students can then move into the virtual world becoming avatars and take part in Quests which can then receive feedback.
I am also involved with a Segfl project to build onto the Schome Park and SPii projects that Peter Twinning and the team at the OU have set up. This will take a small group of students from 3 South East schools and involve them in curriculum challenges and problem solving tasks in Teen Grid Second Life.
Second Life has a major presence now on the internet with a reported 4.6 Million users.

I think to answers Johns question of how students use recreational MUVE and learning orientated MUVE is difficult.
I believe that there is so much overlap of motivational effects here with students perhaps seeing the direct enjoyment factor of meeting others and exchange and the game play aspects of the world, perhaps forgetting they are learning.

They may forget that they're learning, but of course they're learning all the time ...

So, to what many teachers would see as a critical element in using these environments: how do you introduce students to using them and get them to understand the structures and rules within the context of a lesson?

Do you have to teach these things in a structured way?

Can you get them to work in groups and let them work it out?

Or do you use the default approach that young people seem to adopt to so much of life, that well-tried FOFO strategy?

There will be no doubt a deal of try it and see as this is part of the experience of a 'new' world. There is also a strong need for structure and the narrative that is used in something like Quest Atlantis. This helps give structure and also provides an attractive story lead backdrop to hang curriculum tasks on.
I think structure such as appropriate use rules etc is also essential and I suppose that this is the area more feared by teachers than any other. Will they abuse the system?
In my experience young people will always test the boundaries and need guidance from teachers and their peers. A rule set is essential but can we should also try to involve the users in creating these rules.
For older students in second life we intend to create a narrative such as a 'genesis event' perhaps a plane crash (ala Lost)
a shipwreck (plenty of films and stories here). This will then be used to introduce problem solving activities into the world as well as citizenship themes such as rules and democracy.