Hi Mary,
I am a subscriber to a list Moo-Ed at UFL.edu, where the educational
issues concerning MOO's etc take place. I also do some work with a company
called Educatlity, which is a spin off from Virtuality, and have an
interest in immersive VR for education.
Traffic on Moo-Ed is much lighter than XMCA (five postings a month). As
Eva suggests the affordances of Moos are quite different from asynchronous
stuff. Chat figures a lot in my work as children do like it. We are busy
analysing a lot of data between Welsh (first language) and Danish (Dfirst
language) chat in English (9-12 YRS). The ability to follow multithreaded
discussion in a small time space is quite counter intutitve. Another
aspect of my work is the development of an electronic environment which
includes sycnhronous and asynchronous communincation in text, graphics,
speech and video for 16-19 yr old students follwong mainly vocational ed.
courses in the UK and France.
Martin
A sample recent mail of MOO-Ed :
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
We are very pleased and proud to announce the publication of our latest
book
_MOOniversity: A Student's Guide to Online Learning Environments_ from
Allyn
and Bacon. This is the second book in a new series edited by Victor J.
Vitanza called _Writing Technology,Technology Writing_.
MOOniversity is the first and only textbook that gives a comprehensive
overview of the use of educational MOOs. It provides a convenient resource
as a combination text, tutorial, and reference book, while guiding students
through the exciting and challenging world of synchronous MOO learning
environments. Students and teachers will find the material easy to
understand. Beginners will find all the information they need to get
started
with MOOing, and more experienced users will find within its pages the
knowledge they need to unlock all the powerful features of the MOO
environment such as building, editing and programming. In the Computers and
Writing field, MOOniversity is an exciting complement to standard writing
texts because it provides clear, useful instructions for writing online as
well as productive assignments and discussion questions to involve students
with the technology by writing in real-time with real people.
You can find more information about the book at the MOOniversity
Companion Web site at http://www.abacon.com/holmevik/, and at Allyn and
Bacon's site
http://vig.abacon.com/catalog/abbooks/0,2371,0205271146,00.html.
We want to express our deepest thanks to series editor Victor J.
Vitanza
for the opportunity to publish this book, and for his unfailing support
throughout this project. We would also like to thank the anonymous
reviewers
who provided encouragement and many invaluable suggestions. Thanks also to
Joe Opiela and the team at Allyn & Bacon for having faith in our project.
Finally we also extend our gratitude to Britt Høyland and to the students
in
Cynthia?s "Electronic Expression" class of 1998 who all contributed
feedback
on early drafts of the manuscript.
We hope that you will like our new book and find it useful, we
certainly
enjoyed writing it.
Cheers,
Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holmevik
__Jan Rune Holmevik, Cand Philol_________________________________________
University of Bergen jan@mac.com
Department of Humanistic Informatics jan.holmevik@uib.no
Sydnesplass 7, HF-bygget janruneh@utdallas.edu
N-5007 Bergen, NORWAY http://lingua.utdallas.edu/jan
or:
MUVEsim means Multi-User Virtual Environment--simulation, and the
MUVEsim environment is a MOO.
This message contains an invitation to participate as a research subject
in an experiment (described below).
All simulation runs are conducted at the following times (U.S. Eastern
Time):
6-7 AM
10-11 AM
1:30-2:30 PM
9-10 PM
11-12 PM
-------------------------------------------
If you are interested in participating in this experiment, please read
this entire message and FORWARD it (do not reply) to kruess who-is-at gmu.edu.
Include a few words indicating your interest.
A study is being conducted to determine if participants can gain
understanding of and empathy for persons of other cultures by engaging
in a role-play job interview in a text-based on-line simulation
environment. I (Kevin Ruess) seek your participation in this study in
order to evaluate the effectiveness of learning in such an environment.
If you agree to participate, you will be required to provide some basic
demographic data to confirm that you meet the basic requirements of
having a bachelors degree and at least five years of professional
experience. In addition, you will need to verify your age, gender, and
cultural/ethnic identity. You will also participate in a simulation
experience that involves three parts: 1) downloading and installing a
software client for accessing the virtual environment; 2) role-playing
either the interviewer or interviewee in a job interview situation
involving people of two different cultures; and 3) participating in
three types of debriefing activities (one immediately following the role
play in the virtual environment, another consisting of a series of
reflective and interpretative e-mail exchanges with the researcher
(Kevin Ruess), and also participation in an electronic discussion
list). It is anticipated that the entire time requirement will be
approximately three hours of your time, most of it scheduled at your
convenience and spaced out over a period that could range from two to
five weeks.
The foreseeable risks or discomforts include the possibility of feeling
uncomfortable with the interaction in the role play environment or
having regrets about disclosures made to the researcher during the
debriefing activities.
Your participation is voluntary, and you may withdraw from the study at
any time (including during the actual role-play activity itself) and for
any reason. There is no penalty for not participating or withdrawing.
The personal benefits for participation include experiencing a new kind
of interactive, online environment; learning about other cultures from a
role playing activity; and receiving feedback from the researcher and
other participants during the debriefing activities.
There are no costs to you or any other party.
All data collected in this study will be confidential: all
person-identifiable data will be coded so that you cannot be
identified. In interactions with other participants, both in the role
play environment and in the following discussions, you and all other
subjects will employ pseudonyms.
This study is being conducted by Kevin Ruess and the Graduate School of
Education at George Mason University. He may be reached at
kruess@gmu.edu or (703) 848-1866 for questions or complaints. His
faculty advisor is Chris Dede, and he may be reached at cdede@gmu.edu or
(703) 993-2019. You may also contact the George Mason University Office
of Sponsored Programs at 703/993-2295 if you have any questions or
comments regarding your rights as a participant in this research.
This project has been reviewed according to George Mason University
procedures governing your participation in this research. If you choose
to participate, please forward (do not reply to) this message, including
all the original text, to kruess@gmu.edu expressing your intent.
Please note that forwarding this message constitutes your informed
consent (that you understand and agree to the conditions described
above) to participate as a subject in this experiment.
Thank you,
Kevin C. Ruess
Graduate School of Education
George Mason University
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