Great podcast, Jason! I think you’ve covered most of the key elements about using virtual worlds and games for instructional purposes. I think that we should not forget that even though simulations have been used effectively for educational purposes, the use of virtual worlds and MMORPGs is relatively new and there is very limited research about how effective they can be. Indeed, as you may remember from the Eduventures report (2010), these technologies are the least used by institutions of higher education.
I do agree with you that virtual worlds and MMORPGs have the potential to be fun and therefore to increase the engagement and motivation of students to interact with them… however, the fact that they’re interacting many hours playing these games is necessarily correlated to an increase in their learning performance!
You also mention the importance of Wenger’s situated learning model in these technologies and I totally agree: virtual worlds have the potential to provide scenarios that resemble those of real life, so learners can be virtually situated in contexts that would be too expensive or too risky to replicate in real life.
Finally, I noticed that you mentioned that MMORPGs could be considered as virtual worlds and I guess it is true in the sense that both of them use 3D graphics and the player takes the role of an avatar… however, there are some important differences between MMORPGs and virtual worlds. Hollis (2010) identifies the following ones: • A virtual world has no levels. • Most gear that can be obtained in the virtual world is available to everyone… you don’t have to fight for it. • A virtual world has no concept of “gear progression”. • A virtual world has very few instances of combat zones. • Virtual worlds might have missions or quests, but they are optional.
Reference: Hollis, J. (2010). MMO Weekly: Virtual Worlds and Their Impact on MMOs. Retrieved October 11 from http://www.incgamers.com/Columns/96/mmo-weekly-virtual-worlds-and-their-impact-on-mmos
PS. Oh no! I'm not sure which button to click on to submit this post! :-(
Great podcast, Jason! I think you’ve covered most of the key elements about using virtual worlds and games for instructional purposes. I think that we should not forget that even though simulations have been used effectively for educational purposes, the use of virtual worlds and MMORPGs is relatively new and there is very limited research about how effective they can be. Indeed, as you may remember from the Eduventures report (2010), these technologies are the least used by institutions of higher education.
回覆刪除I do agree with you that virtual worlds and MMORPGs have the potential to be fun and therefore to increase the engagement and motivation of students to interact with them… however, the fact that they’re interacting many hours playing these games is necessarily correlated to an increase in their learning performance!
You also mention the importance of Wenger’s situated learning model in these technologies and I totally agree: virtual worlds have the potential to provide scenarios that resemble those of real life, so learners can be virtually situated in contexts that would be too expensive or too risky to replicate in real life.
Finally, I noticed that you mentioned that MMORPGs could be considered as virtual worlds and I guess it is true in the sense that both of them use 3D graphics and the player takes the role of an avatar… however, there are some important differences between MMORPGs and virtual worlds. Hollis (2010) identifies the following ones:
• A virtual world has no levels.
• Most gear that can be obtained in the virtual world is available to everyone… you don’t have to fight for it.
• A virtual world has no concept of “gear progression”.
• A virtual world has very few instances of combat zones.
• Virtual worlds might have missions or quests, but they are optional.
Reference:
Hollis, J. (2010). MMO Weekly: Virtual Worlds and Their Impact on MMOs. Retrieved October 11 from http://www.incgamers.com/Columns/96/mmo-weekly-virtual-worlds-and-their-impact-on-mmos
PS. Oh no! I'm not sure which button to click on to submit this post! :-(