Saturday, August 29, 2009

Microsoft's simulation for education

Hi,
Is an interactive 3D virtual world the future of teaching?
For years I have heard teachers say jokingly, "if only students could just sit still in class". Well with an interactive 3D virtual world students won't have to.
We use blogs and wiki's but imagine if they were all 3D and all interactive.
Microsoft has already begun a science 3D interactive virtual world (Gibson and Grasso, 2008) and as it expands a new question evolves, do we need schools and teachers anymore once it has developed to cover all curriculum areas?
Yes it is still a long way off and must constantly change to suit our new future but this could be an affordable and possible future for teachers, parents and students alike.
It is only a matter of time until we have so many word based websites that they must be drawn into a fewer number of definitive sites and virtual reality may be it.
But what happens when the cyber bullying and possible illegal activity becomes interactive and virtual?  Well the more sites that are drawn together the easier it is to store information and if all users know all their virtual activity is being stored and can be used as evidence, the less likely bullying and other illegal activity will occur.
What about the personal real life interaction between students and real professionals?  Well if learning becomes interactive and virtual and students have this type of learning with real teachers do we need the current system of learning?
Yes it is an out there possible future, so tell me what you think.
Feel free to agree or disagree.
Paul Jak.
Reference List
Gibson, D., & Grasso, S. (2008). An enterprise simulation platform for education: Building a world game for pre-college students with Microsoft ESP. Retrieved July 31, 2009, from
http://www.microsoft.com/education/highered/whitepapers/simulation/SimulationPlatform.aspx

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