Chapter 6- Virtual Worlds

Have you ever visited an online virtual world? If so, which one, and what were your experiences there? If not, explain why.

Yes, I have visited an on line virtual world.  The on line virtual world I visited was Webkinz.  For Christmas last year my husband bought me two of the puppies needed to get the coded to become a member of Webkinz.  I went on line and registered both dogs.  It was a little frustrating getting registered because everything I tried to type in for user names and passwords would come back with not available to use.  I also had to download Adobe to be able to play.  My husband did this for me but it only stayed on the computer for a few months and then I would have to download it again.  I never did down load it again but because of this, it would not work on iPads if that was what I had because it had to have Adobe to run.  After I finally got in and got them registered it was kind of interesting.  I had to construct and decorate a room for each dog and then as time went on build a kitchen and a bathroom.  I had to have a bathroom to give the dogs a bath to help keep them happy.  There was three things that I had to keep track of: of their health, happiness, and hunger.  There was a chart in the bottom corner to help you keep track of this.  I had to make sure that I played with them, feed them, gave them baths, took them to the vet and just whatever needed to be done to keep them happy and healthy.  When I stopped playing I was in the process of making them a backyard.  In order to do all of this you had to have "money."  That why it took a while to build the house for them.  There were a couple ways to earn money.  There were arcade games you could play where you earned money according to how well you did.  The other way that was kind of neat was that there were quizzes to take.  They were divided down into grade level and subject so a student would be getting quizzed over things they had learned.  This was the quickest way to earn money.  Then there was a store where you went to and had to buy the things for the dogs.  It was a whole community but there were several things that I did not have a chance to explore because I did not have a lot of time to sit and play.  It was possible to communicate with others, the spot was labeled mail, but I never did do this.  The few things I did were kind of fun but I often had trouble logging in.  There is another website where if you accidentally type WebKinx instead of Webkinz it would take you to a website that you would not want your students to accidentally stumble upon.  But it was fun creating the house for the dog and playing the games.  It was even fun doing the quizzes.

Do you think virtual worlds have a place in the classroom? Why or why not,

 

I do not think they have a place in the classroom.  While it was kind of fun, to build up the house and do all the other things you were suppose to do with your pet it would be very time consuming.    So time spent on line would definitely be an issue.  Time in class is limited and I do not feel that this would be a worthwhile activity to use my time with.  I tend to side with the objections listed in the book.  The safety factor and privacy of issue of who they are talking to is a concern for me.  Also, the cyber-bullying is something that would be hard to monitor.  The chance of inappropriate content popping up as well as all the advertisement is another distraction the is a negative for virtual worlds.  I know when I was on WebKinz, I would click on a tab to do something and a some advertisement would pop up.  It was very annoying for one thing but sometimes I would try to click out of it and something else would pop up and I would have to try and find my way to where I would want to go.  I would not want my students exposed to this or have to deal with the frustration of it.  Also, having to have Adobe on the computers or iPads would be another issue to deal with.  While I think they may be fun outside of school with parent supervision, I do not feel that they would be very beneficial for use in the classroom.