Journal 2

“Real Life Migrants on the MUVE: Stories of Virtual Transitions” by Ross A. Perkins and Cathy Arreguin

The article “Real Life Migrants on the MUVE” is an interesting piece on how virtual realities work and how they can be applied in the classroom. A multi-user virtual environment is a technological tool that is quickly growing in popularity and in utilization in public classrooms. These fascinating second worlds allow for the highest level of personalization, giving the student a great sense of pride in their virtual reality. These virtual realities can be used to complete class assignments as well as being used as a fun extra credit assignment. One example of how this tool could be used in lieu of a traditional hard-copy classroom assignment is given through the example of a timeline. Instead of students making a traditional timeline on paper, they could take a single event from a timeline and create a virtual world to show the event taking place or what the environment would look like.

The article wraps up by giving advice on what to consider when buying a virtual reality for the classroom. Don’t ever buy for novelty, it fades away faster than you expect. Always consider user capabilities, software, hardware, networking, costs, goals, standards, legal protection, the needs of special education students, and finally the amount of time and training that is required to lean the new software.

Although I like the idea of integrating different technological elements into the classroom and classroom assignments, I do not find this particular tool very appealing. I am a child of the technological age, but believe that some things, such as homework and projects should remain old-fashioned. Some assignments should remain hard-copy. For example, if a test is administered through a virtual classroom, in which the student is really at home, it is much easier for the student to cheat. But I do believe that this would be a fun, exciting tool to use to reward students for good work and/or behavior. It would also be a lot of fun to use for an extra credit assignment.

1) How would I use this as extra credit in my classroom?
Since I aim to teach British literature in high school, I could use a tool like this to have students create a world like that of Shakespeare and Marlowe. They could create the royal court of Queen Elizabeth or the Globe playhouse.
2) How would this help students to learn more about the subject area?
I would give my students the freedom to pick any aspect of the Elizabethan era that they like and want to explore further. This will foster their interest in the subject area (hopefully).