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This project introduces Staff, Administration, Students and Parents to involve themselves in creation of an academic, social, and collaborative society known as a MUVE (Multi-User Virtual Environment). There are several different programs and interfaces available, *all free for educational purposes*. Participants will learn basic commands, and eventually progress to builders (and programmers, administrators) in the creation of a Virtual Community for their school, district and community. LInC participants will be given online presentations on several Educational MUVEs (Diversity University, Tapped In, and Lingua MOOs (a type of MUVE). Participants will see the capabilities MUVEs enjoy over both synchronous (i.e. IRC, IChat, Palace etc.) and asynchronous (i.e. WWW, email, etc.).
Participants will work with both the project originator (Jeff Cooper), but also with MUVE denizens on the various MUVEs who have been helping educators collaborate for many years predating the WWW entirely. One advantage to this program is its ability to accomodate early technology (one can actually multitask with a 386) to participating in advanced programming classes as well as integrate with the WWW and other Net programs. Specific teacher and student roles will depend upon individual abilities, capability and willingness to learn, and direction. All will have the ability to create their own rooms, set their own descriptions, read and send moomail (within the system) and email (outside the system), record logs of real-time conversations, and project WWW sites to remote computers. Additional outcomes will depend upon goals and expectations set by communication with the project coordinator (Jeff Cooper) and by individuals and groups involved. Groups will evolve through the course of MUVEing, and participants may choose not to group.
Participants will begin by receiving a list of MOO Commands and prepare to log in. Logging in requires telnet, and java running. All participants will be given temporary user names and passworded accounts on Diversity University (DU). Jeff Cooper (Mr.C at DU) will serve as host and coordinator. By using the system participants will see a wide range of educational possibilities and select directions as they deem fit. In addition to exploring, learning and building at DU participants may eventually opt to acquire their own Educational Core from either DU or Lingua MOOs (other cores are also available for other types of MUVEs). The ultimate goal strives for a connected series of educational virtual environments across the country and around the world, facilitating group, project based, and engaged learning.
Success for the project focuses on how well the concept is received, and how many continue to engage in and participate in Educational MUVEs. As a long term project it isn't necessary for success to be immediate. If only a handful of students or teachers continue to engage in these polysynchronous environments, building, collaborating, then the project will be deemed sucessful in the short run, and give hope for future successes.
Author: Jeff Cooper (coops@edmail.com)
School: Portola Middle School, El Cerrito CA 94530
Created: March 1, 1999 - Updated: April 25, 1999
URL: /lincon/w99/projects/muve/pre.htm