Added Value of Teaching in a Virtual World

Abstract

It is unfortunate that we often think of virtual worlds in education as a forced application of technology rather than an opportunity to test new theories and educational methodologies or as a way to step into our collective and individual knowledge in a way that we have never been able to do before. Although virtual worlds have been around for many years, their real potential and use for educational purposes has only recently been made evident through affordances involving the replication of teaching environments and museums, art galleries as well as potentially hazardous environments such as laboratories. According to the article ‘Serious Virtual Worlds’,

the lines between virtual worlds, games and social networking are blurring significantly leading to the assertion that over the next five years the majority of young people under 18 will have avatars and be using these kinds of applications daily and therefore have different expectations about how education may be delivered to them.

(de Freitas, 2008)