ERIC Number: EJ842899
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-May
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1553-7544
EISSN: N/A
Just Ask the Avatar in the Front Row
Starkman, Neal
Campus Technology, v20 n9 p32-34, 36, 38, 40 May 2007
Colleges and universities head into virtual worlds, and student learning and psychology are changed forever. For the past few years, Creighton University, a Jesuit institution of about 6,700 students has hosted GameFest (www2.creighton.edu/doit/gamefest), a 12-hour marathon of high-tech, interactive gaming sessions among Creighton students, using the school's hardware and infrastructure. Contrary to the perception that the gaming craze may be injurious to college students, Mike Allington, assistant director of student and classroom technology support at Creighton University, believes that video gaming "encourages students to build relationships throughout the campus." He adds that the university's academic curricula also are becoming infused with the new gaming technologies. There's even an "eFellows" program on campus, he reports; it's training "old-school" faculty members to get up-to-speed on ways to use gaming tools to engage students. In this article, the author explores whether gaming can facilitate learning "more effectively" than classroom lecture and discussion. Many believe the answer lies in the virtual world: a landscape in which the players exist "inside" of the game, socializing with others in the same virtual game environment, expressing themselves and, thus, learning. The author uses the example of Second Life (www.secondlife.com), a 3D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by (at latest count) 5.2 million individuals from around the globe, with 60,000 residents added daily.
Descriptors: Educational Technology, Faculty, Academic Achievement, Student Attitudes, Video Games, Computers, College Students, Student Interests, Instructional Effectiveness, Teaching Methods, Computer Simulation, Universities, Campuses
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California; Ohio
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A