Virtual Worlds
What are the realities and possibilities of utilizing on-line virtual worlds as teaching tools for specific literary works? Through engaging and surprising stories from classrooms where virtual worlds are in use, this book invites readers to understand and participate in this emerging and valuable pedagogy. It examines the experience of high school and college literature teachers involved in a pioneering project to develop virtual worlds for literary study, detailing how they created, utilized, and researched different immersive and interactive virtual reality environments to support the teaching of a wide range of literary works. Readers see how students role-play as literary characters, extending and altering character conduct in purposeful ways ,and how they explore on-line, interactive literature maps, museums, archives, and game worlds to analyze the impact of historical and cultural setting, language, and dialogue on literary characters and events. This book breaks exciting ground, offering insights, pedagogical suggestions, and ways for readers to consider the future of this innovative approach to teaching literary texts.
Using the Classrooms of the future, research and interactions in these virtual worlds is made possible.
Expanding on the Virtual Existance
Video gaming offers immersion in virtual environmens as well. Although on their surface, these games seem like purely recreational engines, some innovators are taking steps to using them for their full educational potential.
Minecraft.edu: Using the open, world building game Minecraft, the developers of this classroom modification are working on ways to use the game in the classroom.
Here we see an interview with the "Minecraft Teacher," who led the charge in using the game in education.
See also: James Gee's excellent consideration of their benifits on learning literacy.
Going beyond this, as technology allows greater interactive storytelling, the inherrent literary value of games and the stories they are telling is getting greater. By examining games as texts in and of themselves, we open a new door to get students interested in the academic study of literature.
Here is a visually interesting, and academically oriented examination of narrative.