If you are familiar with the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship, then you might see how participating in a massive, multiplayer online game (MMO) could help students learn and practice the skills necessary to be a responsible digital citizen.
Digital etiquette (”netiquette”), digital communication, digital security…knowing how to be responsible in these areas is important when participating in an MMO. Plus, with the two that I am going to mention, it’s possible to get better at these skills while playing the game.
Unfortunately blocked for Tennessee schools, most likely because of the chat feature, Woogi World’s mission is:
In our safe and engaging virtual school at www.woogiworld.com, elementary-age children worldwide learn age-appropriate core educational content, essential 21st century skills, cyber safety and security, and responsible and ethical behavior that will yield academic success and the leaders of the future.
Another great online community is Secret Builders:
Not yet blocked for Tennessee schools, the vision of Secret Builders is:
Founded by a former teacher and developed by a core staff, the majority of who are parents themselves, our uncompromising vision for SecretBuilders is a positive, wholesome online outlet for children where they are actively engaged. Internet engagement is inevitable for this generation; turning into passive zombies is not. SecretBuilders will stimulate, educate and entertain through subtle immersion in cultural literacy.
Both games operate in similar fashion. Students choose or create a character that represents themselves, have a home or homepage within the community, and become citizens of the community. Both are academically focused, providing mini-games within that are core subject content focused. Both communities also provide opportunities to publish student writing. While the focus of Woogi World is more character-education driven, Secret Builders has more of a humanities drive. In the latter, students can interact with real-life science and humanities figures like Shakespeare and Albert Einstein, or can play games or go on quests with fictional characters such as Sherlock Holmes and Lewis Carroll’s Alice. Both games are visually fantastic, engaging, and super safe for kids. For example, Secret Builders has a Citizen Patrol button, allowing players to quickly report any wrong-doing within the site, plus an online safety quiz, and a safe-chat feature.
My suggestions for using these games at school:
- Teach digital citizenship first. Make sure students understand netiquette, how to communicate, and internet safety rules. There are many resources available on these topics.
- Give an introduction to MMOs in general, and make sure students understand they are going to be the new kids in an already established digital community.
- Have students sign up with a teacher email. This way, you will be able to approve accounts and look up lost passwords. To avoid the whole “forgot my username/password” deal, provide pencils and slips of paper (preferably with spaces ready to fill in) for students to write down their account information.
- Create a Powerpoint, PDF, or even a handout that details some of the basic rules and gameplay directions so that you can review this with students; however, be sure they know how to locate the in-game FAQs or tutorials. Emphasize that if they want to figure out how to do something, they need to read the directions themselves.
Although I didn’t get far into Woogi World, their staff is very prompt with responding to inquiries, and I hope that perhaps my students will be able to use Woogi World in the future. One student decided to go ahead and get on it at home, with his grandma, and they came in to tell me that they really enjoyed playing it together. Secret Builders, likewise, is a good parent/child game. Also, this MMO has a feature called “One for All” which allows your students to help raise money for a good cause, or raise money for your school.
I tried to get a website unblocked through the state, but it was denied because of the chat feature. This was one of the main reasons that I wanted to have access to the site! The site is called Whyville. The link I provided was to the Wikipedia entry, as anyone in Tennessee would not be able to actually view the site at all. The entry can provide all the information about this science-driven interactive world.
One article about Whyville reported:
In Texas, Whyville recently received grants totaling $440,000 from the Texas Workforce Commission to build Whyville Biotech and Whyville Advanced Manufacturing Center.
The site’s designers created Whyville Biotech to teach kids how to develop vaccines against WhyPox, a flu-like epidemic that erupts each year. WhyPox causes kids’ avatars — their virtual characters — to break out with red spots on their faces. Last fall, during real-world flu season, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention virtually vaccinated 134,000 kids in Whyville.
Through the Texas grant, kids also will learn about drug design and discovery, as well as new techniques in computational biology, Bower said.
Eventually, Whyville citizens will build biotechnology companies in Whyville, Bower said.
“From a work-force standpoint, this is huge,” he said. “We have a ‘cool’ factor, but we’re also doing something very useful for these industries.”
Whyville features all kinds of simulations of real-world events. Residents recently dealt with Tropical Storm Alice and are learning about the effects of global warming. The J. Paul Getty Museum of Los Angeles teaches kids about great works of art at its Whyville gallery.
But science is the main focus.
“You cannot learn science through textbooks,” Bower told a group of Texas educators at a conference in San Antonio last month. “It kills science.”
Kids go to Whyville to socialize, but they also participate in fun activities from science quizzes to writing articles for the Whyville Times, the town newspaper, Bower said.
“It’s a big, big world, and lots of things are going on,” said Yasmin Kafai, associate professor of education at the University of California at Los Angeles. She received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study Whyville. Read more.
I understand the message I received from the Tennessee K12 Cooperative. It has a chat feature. Yes, I understand that, but there is something called moderation. Secondly, how in the world are we going to teach students to be good digital citizens if we block every website that allows them to actually apply what we’ve taught them?
Because so many students are using technology as it is part of almost every aspect of their lives, the role of technology in education should be to teach them digital citizenship, how to use technology appropriately, how to problem solve issues, and how to learn via digital sources. Our administrators need to encourage experimentation from teachers, allow types of technology that they are blocking, such as instant messaging programs, text messaging, blogging, chat rooms, message boards, and other means of digital communication. We cannot expect students to learn how to use these sorts of technology appropriately without guidance, therefore we need to incorporate their use into learning in the classroom and teach digital citizenship while students are actually getting practical application. The real life classroom must also become a digital community.
I’m going to apply for an authorized override, and explore the site some more. If I really find value in it, I think I’m going to challenge this whole blocked business.
To any parents reading, go and check out the site for yourself. Read the online safety procedures and recommendations that Whyville provides, and see if you can’t at least provide this engaging world of science for your own child at home.
