This session introduced an alternative to the highly touted Second Life virtual community. A highly engaging Twitch game gets them started, and then leads to deeper exploration. Students play educational simulations to obtain currency in your virtual world. Status awarded to the avatar/face you create, that increases with each login. Economy is a critical piece of the process and feedback loop, as students earn ‘clams’ for various tasks.
Example: nutrition project; citing real nutrition facts re: healthy food consumption practices. Interesting overlap between real life choices and playing in this virtual world. They also have a bio-tech simulation activity, and will be releasing a tropical storm in the community today. The speaker suggests that this form of virtual online community is potentially more valuable than 2nd Life because it is focused on and built around actual science and factual information. The National Science Foundation is involved and supportive of this project. For more info: see Virtual Playgrounds by Yasmin Kafei
The entire trend of simulations and virtual communities was a clear theme at the conference, and raises some challenging questions for educators. As mentioned, whether we like it or not, our kids are in these kinds of environments. One finding from the site is that the content seems to matter less then the opportunities and depth of collaboration. They are also tracking gender difference regarding site use, noting that girls tend to work in groups, and boys will pursue independent games/tasks. More info: www.whyville.net
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment