SUGGESTED
PROCEDURE |
- Buy the two books by
Cynthia Haynes and Jan Holmevik listed in the resource
list.
These books give a lot of information
and ideas for a first time educational MOO
administrator, but they are also good sources of
ideas for those of us who have been acquainted
with educational MOOs for some time.
- Download the LambdaMOO
engine and the enCore database.
The resource list contains
all of the appropriate URLs.
- Contact your local IT
staff before installing the MOO. Then with their
assistance and authorization, install LambdaMOO
and the enCore database.
All of the directions for installation
are online or in the downloadable files, but the
books by Haynes and Holmevik are also musts.
- Configure the MOO for your
purposes and situation.
Again, the Haynes and Holmevik books are
important. To begin, assuming you are a wizard of
the MOO, click on the "wizard" button (MOO
administration) in the main browser window while
the MOO is running. Then select "enCore
preferences" to configure the main login
webpage to the MOO. Many other items can also be
configured from this spot. To construct the
entrance to your MOO, press the "objects"
button and edit object #62. Also, don't forget to
edit your own personage in the MOO. To get useful
ideas, look at other enCore-based MOOs to see how
they have configured their virtual spaces.
- Experiment,
plan and implement.
It is very advisable to consider having
a new MOO running in an experimental mode while
different ways of constructing this "reality"
are executed. Let the faculty and students
using this MOO prototype know that it is only
experimental. They can assist with ideas of what
works and what does not work. During this
experimental phase, the advisability of
appropriate policies can also be discovered.
- Establish crucial
operating policies.
Decide who will be wizards in the MOO.
There should only be as small a number of wizards
as is necessary to carry out the business of
adding students and faculty as players and
builders, of granting new passwords, and of
solving any other problems that emerge.
Also,
decide what privileges faculty and students will
have to construct and configure sections of the
MOO. In the BC-MOO, we have given the individual
faculty members complete control over their own
"corridors," including an office and a
classroom pre-constructed for them. They may add
whatever rooms they desire, and they may have
their students construct new rooms which may be
accessed from this corridor.
- Subscribe to the enCore
mailing list.
Subscription
details are available in the resource
list.
- Finally, add faculty and
students, and let the fun begin.
As the MOO matures and is used by
several faculty and their classes on a routine
basis, the MOO administrator will want to develop
a procedure to allow efficient addition of new
classes to the MOO. Do stay in touch with other
faculty using the MOO, at least on an informal
basis. From this interaction will come
suggestions for improvement and solutions to
problems.
Remember: "experiment, plan and
implement" is the educational technology cycle.
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