Whyville
Web 2.0 classroom applications June 10th, 2007I am interested in hearing about teacher experiences with Whyville, the virtual world for children. Similar to Second Life for adults, Whyville allows children to create their own avatar, an online identity, that can interact with others in a virtual world.
According to the Whyville website: “Whyville has places to go, things to do, and of course, people to see. Whyville has its own newspaper, its own Senators, its own beach, museum, City Hall and town square, its own suburbia, and even its own economy – citizens earn “clams” by playing educational games. And much, much, much more!”
I have explored the Whyville site a bit but have not introduced it to students. I’m worried about parental backlash, about creating a group of students who sit in front of the computers for hours participating in a virtual world rather than experiencing a real world. Please post a comment if you have used Whyville in your classes or have heard any positive or negative feedback about virtual worlds for children. Let me know your thoughts.
June 11th, 2007 at 2:16 am
Congrats Andrew on a fabulous blog! I am certainly going to check out Whyville! At the moment I have been seconded to the Brisbane Catholic Education office, so I am not in a position to introduce it to any kids, but I cannot see why there would be parental backlash if the use of this tool was clearly linked to the curriculum. The way I see it, we need to ensure that we offer a balanced curriculum, so that we don’t provide only ICT options but also physical education options, but within that balanced curriculum, why shouldn’t children be able to engage in whatever learning tools that their teacher feels are appropriate?
I have subscribed to your blog and look forward to many interesting updates!
Kay.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Hi,
I am CEO and the creator of Whyville.net. so I thought I would give you some hints and direction to classroom use. First, there is a professor at UCLA, YAsmin Kafai, who has been publishing educational research on the use of whyville in classrooms. you might find some of her work interesting.
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kafai/projects/whyville.htm
Second, there are a number of NSF funded programs around the country now, that are based on Whyville. here is a news article on one of them
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/May/04/local/stories/06local.htm
third, and perhaps most importantly — whyville has tools for teachers to monitor their kids use of whyville — and get feedback. This teacher support system is going to be significantly upgraded and extended over the new few months into a curriculum wiki — so stay tuned.
Fourth, you didn’t mention it, but safety and security is important to teacher and parents. We can provide anyone interested on information on the security / safety system in Whyville, important to parents, and awarded by the parental evaluation organization iparenting, as the best in class on the web.
finally, with respect to exercise and getting off the computer, you might want to look at the activity in Whyville supported by sisters of science, which actually pushes kids to get off the computer and whyville and go out and exercise to bring your data back to Whyville.
So, thanks for your interest, and stay tuned, much more coming.
Jim Bower
CEO Numedeon Inc
Whyville.net