3D Educational MMO's

[kanelucas]

Hello!

I'm a management major doing some research on educational video games: Just wanted to ask if you have any good sources/references/insights/anything interesting about video games being used in education? especially in the collegiate level.

Things I want to find out are:

>The usual target segment for these games have been children, are there games that are educational that are targeted for a mature/college-level audience?

>How has the educational games market been doing? Do teachers really use it? Would you use it to teach college students?

>Are there any MMO(Massive Multiplayer Online) educational games?

>How about Online Classrooms similar to video games?

>anything interesting/ keep in mind about either or a combination of 3D/MMO/Educational Video Games

Im looking for really good material :) The end project is i'll be doing a sort of 3D MMo educational videogame using the projectwonderland engine, im doing the background of the study.


Thank you so much!

[RedSon]

Nope, nothing. I think you are forging new territory.

[Studlyami]

There is a lot of papers on this topic. If you have access to online databases such as proquest or lexisnexis you can find a lot of great journal articles on it as well as thesis on the topic. I have read several articles which have talked about second life as being used as a classroom for online college courses. There are a lot of articles and feedback from instructors who have used this game for this manner on the internet. I don't think there is a specific MMO for just educational purposes, but second life is open enough to allow you to use it for such purposes including entire islands devoted to historical eras.

How has the educational games market been doing? Do teachers really use it? Would you use it to teach college students?

Its hard for schools to use and incorporate the educational games because it would require each student to have a computer and constant access to the computer. A lot of schools have educational programs like Mavis Beacon and other similar games, but it isn't worked into the main lesson plan.

Military and other industries have used video game like simulators to help train new personal. There has been both positive and negative criticisms for this and it is a current topic which is still being debated. I wrote a paper on military simulations and its use for education and there are plenty of quality articles and sources on it. If i get a chance I'll try to find my paper and provide you some sources on it (sources only), but a few quick searches will bring up a lot of good articles.

[Gameicator]

Hi!

Since I graduated with my BA in English Literature and Secondary Education, I saw a great deal of problems with education today. Most of which I saw fixes for in the realm of what you've mentioned above. I finished school in 2007 and have since gone to work as an educator in Korea for a couple of years where I studied up on the subject quite a bit, learning how to practially apply it. I've discovered the things that I need in the realms of programming and art, and I am currently working towards a position where I can make a AAA game. I've entered a school for game design and have become a leader amongst the other students. I am steadily learning the things needed but have a couple of years to be a fully functional game designer. My main focus is to build a colaborative MMO that students might play, learn and be assessed on just about every subject under the sun.

If you are truly working on such a project, please contact me, as I know I would be a great boon to the project.

rbi