21st Century School Teacher

“Virtual worlds can be a powerful, engaging and interactive alternative to more passive media,” states Gauntlett.

Read Open Education’s article, Virtual Worlds - Westminster Professors Discuss Research to take a closer look.

I don’t think many educators would argue about the power of virtual worlds to engage students…  I’ve certainly spent enough sessions on Webkinz with my three year old daughter to understand the power of such worlds.  But what is the practicality of using virtual worlds in the classroom?  There is no doubt that they stimulate creative thinking, and given enough choices, allow for kids with different learning intelligences to find their niche… 

I haven’t had any real experience using virtual worlds as they are defined by the two Westminster professors who studied Adventure Rock—my closest experience would have been with a new programming download I learned about through Randy Pausch—after watching an episode on Oprah…   To get to the point, this past year I introduced StoryTellingAlice to students in my class--a programming environment designed to motivate a broad spectrum of middle school students--particularly girls--to learn to program computers through creating short 3D animated movies.  Granted, these are not virtual worlds, but the processes involved with creating these stories requires students to read critically, learn computer programming, while encouraging collaboration—you could see the wheels in the students heads spinning!  My learning target included elements of stories, but as with any great 21st century lesson, this programming environment allowed for layers of instruction, practice, and learning to take place. 

I suspect it would be similar for students creating and navigating virtual worlds as well.  Any thoughts on this topic?

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