POSSIBLE
USES |
- Hosting Real-time
Discussions
In the simplest terms, a
MOO provides a virtual location for persons to
gather and converse. For educational purposes,
these discussions can be directed around an open-ended
question or a topic. Students can enter a room in
the MOO, sit in small groups around different
tables or in separate adjoining rooms, and record
their conversations (in text-format) for later
analysis and referral. Selections from these
recorded conversations can be included in papers
or in portfolios.
- Pursuing Creativity
If students and faculty are designated as
builders in the MOO as opposed to being simply
players or guests, then they can build and
decorate rooms and create story lines to go along
with these rooms.
- Exploring Simulations
This creativity can be expressed in
constructing simulations of our real world which
students can explore on their own time and from
their own physical spaces, whether classrooms or
dorm rooms. Such a simulation may be a virtual
world in which to probe the principles of geology
or astronomy, or it might involve working with
the virtual "bots" of the MOO.
- Programming the MOO
Environment
For those students and
faculty interested in working with computer code,
MOOs provide a relatively easy and yet powerful
programming medium. Creating special objects and
giving them characteristics, generating generic
objects, and forming verbs attached to these
objects all require some level of working with
the code behind the MOO.
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