The Innovate – Journal of Online Education, June/July 2009 issue is dedicated to virtual worlds, simulation and games in Education. Editors’ note excerpt: Virtual worlds and simulations are a source of both excitement and anxiety for educators. Alongside the seemingly limitless opportunities for enhancing learning, educators must also grapple with the challenges that arise with novel ways of communicating, connecting, sharing, and knowing. This special issue of Innovate presents a collection of frameworks, design experiences, research results, and informed opinions that seek to bridge this divide and advance our understanding of effective teaching and learning in these new environments.
Virtual Worlds, Simulations, and Games for Education: A Unifying View. Synopsis: While there is some overlap in the uses and structures of virtual worlds, games, and simulations and the three often look similar, their differences are profound. Clark Aldrich presents a taxonomy of virtual environments that recognizes both the distinctions and the similarities among virtual environments for learning. All three, he suggests, are points along a continuum, all instances of highly interactive virtual environments (HIVEs). The HIVE framework recognizes the various relationships among virtual worlds, games, and simulations that can help educators, researchers, and builders of virtual environments think more clearly about the usefulness of virtual environments.
MUVEs and Experiential Learning: Some Examples. Synopsis: Multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) like Second Life present unparalleled opportunities to help students connect knowledge by description to knowledge by experience; in a MUVE, students can experience phenomena rather than only reading about them. Baba Kofi Weusijana, Vanessa Svihla, Drue Gawel, and John Bransford describe their use of a maze constructed in Second Life to help students experience firsthand the phenomena described in their educational psychology course. Their use of Second Life is particularly notable in its use of MUVE-based movies and other strategies to leverage Second Life’s interactive powers for exploration despite restricted access to technology.