Virtual Worlds 101 – Part 1

If you’re new to virtual worlds and are curious about this social phenomena and its educational potential, this post will attempt to introduce you to some basics to get you started. The concept of a virtual world is very difficult to explain in a meaningful way if you’ve not experienced one directly. Most [...]

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Virtual Rejection

For my second visit to the virtual world of Everquest, I created a new character (an elf) and began exploring the surrounding area. I noticed activity on a nearby hill and upon coming closer spotted a group of avatars defending the hill from an onslaught of foul looking creatures (orcs as [...]

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Finding Neverland

My First Virtual World Experience
In 2001, ten years after my my first computer game experience with Sid Meier’s Civilization, I was teaching an online course entitled Psychology of the Internet. Our text was a title by the same name authored by Patricia Wallace. Although somewhat dated (1999), it’s still a good read, filled [...]

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Positive Side Effects

There were a couple of memories and observations that remain with me from the days of using the Zoombinis and the other thinking games mentioned in the previous post.
Multiple Intelligences
There were often a few students in the critical and creative thinking course that had difficulty with the intensive writing in the course. They [...]

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Thinking Games

After using Civilization in 1991 for a semester, my next use of educational computer games occurred in the mid 90’s when a few “thinking games” were added to a critical and creative thinking course. The development of the this new course “The Mind at Work, The Mind at Play” was inspired by the [...]

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CIV in the Classroom

(Follow-up to the Sept. 1 post)
Using the computer game Civilization in the classroom back in the early ‘90’s was a bit of an adventure, but we learned a lot from the experience and there were several surprises. I used the game in a social psychology course and my history colleague used it in [...]

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How it all began: Civilization

I had been using a computer for just a few years back in 1991. Like many teachers, my early educational use was primarily for basic tasks such as creating my syllabi and tests and computing grades. The Internet Age had not yet dawned. I found myself wondering if the [...]

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