Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:47:00 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Cover Page and Table of Contents Diversity University Journal of Virtual Reality Education(DUJVRE) @Copyright DUJVRE, Diversity University Incorporated 1994 DU Journal of VR Education Volume 1 Number 1 1994 Cover page shows a building on the campus of Diversity University. i Virtual Editorial Board Managing editor Donald(idd@io.org) Assistant managing editor Meryl(future issues) Area Editors for future issues: MOO Teaching: Donald, Jeanne Accessibility and Beyond: Dick, LenB Health Care Issues: Samantha K-12: Dr.Z, Jeanne MOO Education Tools: Ken, Richelieu, Ulf Education MOOs: Donald, Gustavo Physical Life Meetings Cathy, Cindy, Danford, Jeanne @Copyright DUJVRE 1994 DUJVRE Published 4 times a year. Individual articles may have copyright assigned to various authors. The Diversity University Journal of Virtual Reality Education is published by Diversity University Press (DU Press). 1 CONTENTS Volume 1 Number 1 1994 DU Administrator's Message and DU Mission Statement 3 Jeanne gsswky@menudo.uh.edu MOO TEACHING Teaching Microbiology at Diversity University 6 Danford facrept@nccvax.wvnet.edu Towards Ordinary Teaching at Diversity University 8 Donald idd@io.org Teaching and Learning at Diversity University 17 Karen mccomas@marshall.edu A Virtual Programming Course using the MOO 21 Marcus marcus@andersen.co.uk ACCESSIBILITY AND BEYOND Learning Disability and Education in the 21st Century 29 R. Zenhausern, A. Pemberton, and L. Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu How I lost 20 pounds on the New Moo Diet. 41 Samantha samajane@mit.edu K-12 Donut: Starknet Campus Of The Future. 46 Suzi_j s_john@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov MOO EDUCATION TOOLS PROGRAMMING Building Tools for Education 49 Ken schweller@bvc.edu EDUCATION MOOs Diversity University Grant Center 52 Cathy Libnm1@nccvax.wvnet.edu Education MOOs 53 Donald idd@io.org The Soul of a MOO Machine 61 David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net Collaboratory 67 Margit Watts watts@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu Ben Millard bmillard@interaccess.com MOO interviews The Beginning of an Education MOO 70 Lunar at DU Ken at CollegeTown 73 Lunar at DU ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:49:31 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: From the Founder of Diversity University @Copyright DUJVRE and Jeanne gsswky@menudo.uh.edu 1994 3 DU Administrator's Message and DU Mission Statement by Jeanne gsswky@menudo.uh.edu DIVERSTIY UNIVERSITY WELCOME MESSAGE Welcome to the Diversity University Journal of Virtual Reality Education(DUJVRE)! I can't tell you how excited I am about Donald actually making this happen since it's been in my dreams ever since Diversity University(DU) was started. All of us who work on educational M**s(MOOs or MUDs, two types of real time text based conferencing systems) are painfully familiar with the accusatory phrase, hurled at us by some people that says, "M**s are just games! Dungeons and Dragons, with no redeeming value.". This journal will help dispell that myth. The DUJVRE will be a scholarly refereed journal which will present articles, research, observations, insights and dreams regarding the provision of education of all kinds via a VR environment. Currently, we are primarily looking at the text-based environment called a MUD but do not intend to limit ourselves to this type. DUJVRE will provide information about other projects going on in this field thus bringing us all closer together and will allow individuals working on similar or parallel projects to collaborate if they wish. DUJVRE also will contain articles on how this medium impacts on individuals. In future editions you will read how DU and other MUDs are being redesigned in sometimes apparently invisible ways to better serve people with disabilities and by people you might never expect. You will be touched as I was by Samantha's article "How I lost 20 pounds on the New MOO Diet", an account of how the ability of the MUD environment to provide accomodation had a vital impact on the physical life of a person. Dr. Zenhausern's article in this issue sheds considerable light on a disability that many of use who swear by computers may even have and not realize. Computers can be used as assistive devices in more ways than most of us realize. As within any academic community, there are differences between the approaches of individual VR educators. Our journal intends to include as many of these as possible. I hope we can focus on matching the approach to the medium, subject or learning style rather than declaring any one approach to be "the" solution. The variety of learning styles I have encountered only serves to reinforce my belief that there is no best approach to teaching or learning, only the best way to teach this subject to this learner. In December I was privileged to attend a gathering of individuals in Boston who are also working towards using MUDs in education. The purpose of the MUDshop, as it was called, was to bring together as a community, people who have been working, up to this point, in isolation from each other. It was interesting to note that of the many people the committee members recommended to attend, that only Pavel Curtis was mentioned by more than one person. One thing that became crystal clear at this ARPA-sponsored workshop was the desperate need for statistical support for what we are doing. To generate valid and reliable data, research must be replicated and this is one reason to bring this community together. It is our hope that this journal will be one way to do that. Jeanne gsswky@menudo.uh.edu 4 DIVERSITY UNIVERSITY MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to develop, support and maintain creative and innovative environments and tools for learning and research through the Internet and other distributed computing systems, and to guide and educate people in the use of these and other tools, to foster collaboration in a synergistic climate, and to explore and utilize applications of emerging technology to these ends in a manner friendly to people who are disabled, geographically isolated or technologically limited. Author: Jeanne McWhorter gsswky@menudo.uh.edu Chief Executive Diversity University ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:52:08 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Teaching Microbiology at Diversity University @Copyright DUJVRE and Danford facrept@nccvax.wvnet.edu 1994 Danford facrept@nccvax.wvnet.edu 6 Teaching Microbiology at Diversity University Danford, Professor of Biology at West Virginia Northern Community College has been teaching his introductory microbiology course at DU on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This class which meets 4 fours per week has been averaging 2 hours per week at the MOO. Danford has included DU based activities as course requirements. He is also using a vax Notes Conference to facilitate discussion of current topics. Danford is combining traditional classroom lecture approach with constructivist technology enhanced activities in this course. The constructivist assignments include a student microscope slide set, an instructional object of some sort, and participation in a group project. The group projects are separate rooms, each devoted to a specific disease or pathogen. Students were divided into three member groups and the disease/organism was assigned in the beginning of the semester. At the end of the term, each group will present its room and contents to the class. Danford's online classtime is usually spent in a variety of activities. Usually he posts the assignments on a generic notice board so that students can progress at their own rate and in their own order. For an hour's time at DU, he would post 3 or 4 chores. There would be some information gathering and analysis, usually by use of an @detailed object (his favorite) or an individually programmed object; next there could be one of two types of collaborative activities - either topic or group related; and finally he would pose a question or questions that students are expected to answer before leaving the class. Danford said, "What surprised me the most about integrating DU into my course was the reaction of the students. They were captivated and motivated by DU. A couple of weeks into the course, I asked on the Vax Notes Conference if learning microbiology could be fun. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. I can assure you that very few traditional microbiology students would evaluate their course as 'fun'." Danford continued, "The next real surprise to me was a hidden asset to MOO based learning: the attention to detail. Students quickly learn that precise typing and precise attention to details are a necessity. This teaches the skills of observation, organization, and persistence (as in follow through). These skills are sometimes hard to incorporate into traditional lecture environments but come as part of the package with DU. " To quote from the course syllabus: In addition to the traditional microbiology course objectives, this section will also: 1. introduce the student to electronic communication and information storage/retrieval (EMail, VaxNotes, Internet, DU-MOO). 2. encourage the students to develop skills applicable to technology, electronic communication, and information storage/retrieval. 3. emphasize the development of student critical thinking and writing skills in the study of microbiology (applicable to all other disciplines and life too). 4. explore some of the moral and ethical questions facing students in the health sciences in the context of our global community. Danford facrept@nccvax.wvnet.edu 7 Danford's classroom, named Micro Lab, #4668, is open to the public whenever a class is not meeting there. There are a number of informational objects available including: Prokaryote, Antibiotics, Antigen, Antibody, Antigen-antibody Reactions, HIV, HIV Disease Spectrum, Bacteriophage, Notifiable Diseases, Metabolism, and Virulence. There are also some programmed objects: Streak_Plate (inoculate), _Streptomyces_fradiae_(grow), a basket of condoms (take condom). In future articles Danford indicated that he would write about the vax Notes Conference and about further MOO teaching experiences. Author: Thomas R. Danford facrept@nccvax.wvnet.edu nc312011@vaxa.wvnet.edu Professor of Biology WV Northern CC Wheeling, WV 26003 304-233-5900 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:54:07 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Towards Ordinary Teaching at Diversity University @COPYRIGHT DUJVRE and Donald idd@io.org 1994 Donald idd@io.org 8 Towards Ordinary Teaching at DU Abstract: Transforming a text based virtual reality conferencing system, i.e., a MOO, into an ordinary teaching environment. In the near future more and more classes will go online, a case is made for using MOOs as teaching environments. A tour of U. Can, a small virtual school, shows what can be done at DU MOO. I) CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS WHAT DOES A TYPICAL MOO STUDENT EXPERIENCE?: Non-virtual or real class experiences are very subjective and MOO ones are also. The discussions before and after classes are both revealing and informative. At first there is MOO consciousness as beginners, called newbies, adjust to the virtual environment. Newbies often feel they are in a strange country where the buildings and streets are not familiar. Usually veterans explain to the newer participants how to communicate on the MOO. This is a bit like pre-college orientation meetings. Once these communications basics are mastered, the dialog typically turns to personal questions or general everyday topics. By the end of the course, the conversations become quite comfortable, resembling ordinary ones. MOO CLASSES ARE NO LONGER EXPERIMENTAL: MOO classes do work! As teachers gain experience in this environment, they can spend less time discussing teaching and more time doing it. Usually participants just need basic MOO orientation. The amount depends on the person's experience and the level of competence required. CURRENT TEACHING TOOLS: (MOO terms used are descriptive but to really understand what the text based tools do try them) The use of teaching tools is very subjective and depends on the instructor. These include using 'lecture notes', 'slide shows', 'notice boards' and 'Television tapes' [see Ken's article]. Chalk is still the basic tool in many classrooms; the MOO equivalent is direct typing using a keyboard. The classrooms and meeting rooms developed by Ken and others allow varying degrees of control including moderated discussion. Courtesy and common sense allow any place to be used as a classroom. However, a clock, blackboard, tables and chairs are useful props. They add a perception of learning environment in real life and in a MOO. POSITIVE ASPECTS OF MOO: The advantages of MOO over postal mail and email should be obvious. Spontaneity and real time interaction provides a rich learning experience. For people located in isolated areas this provides a sense of community. If you believe in learning from others, then MOO provides an opportunity to do that at great distances even across international boundaries. As with any education, it is an opportunity that must be seized. Donald idd@io.org 9 II) CONDUCTING CLASSES AT DU POSSIBLE NOW AT DU: People taking classes at DU have access to MOO objects there. A 'notebook','notice board', 'gopher slate',and 'WWW slate' are MOO versions of pencil, paper and laptop computer. How many regular classrooms give every student access to Gopher and the World Wide Web? DU can do it now. MOO WARNINGS AND SUGGESTIONS: Prospective teachers should first master a few MOO basics before attempting to teach on a MOO. If this is not possible then having an experienced assistant is recommended. Know your environment; expect 'LAG'! Lag is 'network' delay between typing something seeing it. If lag is big, you and/or students are essentially disconnected. Try to minimize excessive text on screen which is very distracting especially for beginners. Use notice board(DU) like MOO objects. These are wonderful text projectors for group viewing and text can also be reviewed, by those who are late or are just recovering from a brief amount of LAG, without disturbing class presentation flow. This partial solution was designed to reduce minor asynchonous 'lag' problems which are still prevalent on the internet. Teaching tool selection is very subjective and depends on the individual. Some will prefer a line by line presentation using straight typing from a keyboard. Others will want to use a 'Lecture' (#6140 at DU) which allows lines of text to be entered and recalled by number(DU is an Object Oriented world, numbers #nnnn are DU objects). There are various MOO objects like the 'Notice board' (#5266 at DU) and 'Slide show' (#1650 at DU) which show a block of text all at once. There are also presentations which allow entered lines to appear on a time delayed basis (TV #907 at DU). HOW TO HOLD A COURSE (A Simple Teaching Guide): The following are simple steps for holding MOO classes. 1. As with any course prepare an outline and fill it in. 2. Get approvals so space, time, etc. fixed and covered. 3. Place a few advertisements in appropriate places. 4. Answer email personally, 'Pine' mailer does list also. 5. Send materials, get them online and through orientation. 6. Present and discuss materials, and do it your way. 7. Learn from the class and rethink the next one. Donald idd@io.org 10 III) THE FUTURE COMING THIS NEXT YEAR: There are several new extensions of MOO being tested that include graphics. BioMOO has been working on a World Wide Web(WWW) programming interface. Others also been working on a WWW interface include Sensemedia's World MOO. WWW capabilities include graphics, sound, and multimedia as well as text. Independent of these WWW extensions is the extension that almost every MOO user is waiting to hear about. Pavel Curtis at Xerox will release 'Jupiter' which is apparently more of a 'whiteboard' product. Users with special Jupiter client programs, either X-windows or Microsoft Windows for now, can use special graphics MOO objects. These objects will generate a window on the user's graphics screen. Graphic icons and a mouse are available to draw simple lines, etc. even color even. A properly equipped local area network will allow images and sound locally. These will be described in a future article. FUTURE BY LINEAR EXTRAPOLATION. In 2001, $1,000 buys a laptop Silicon Graphics Workstation and you have change left over for a 28.8K clunker modem. Ordinary phones use 56K modems that cost less than $100. The Internet is world wide and you can talk to it through a small pocket computer and output shows up on your glasses. VR is almost affordable. Using high resolution stereographic glasses, gloves and a few body gloves people will be able to alter their virtual environments. Education can be done locally connecting to Universities located throughout the world. People will consult their computers. Almost everyone will have gigabytes of info: books, files etc. with them or available instantly through the 'skye-net' everywhere. People will be able to choose either information or entertainment. Most will choose entertainment. The remaining people will have incredible access to information and information services takes on new meanings. IV) A TOUR OF U CAN U CAN: U Can was founded to deliver quality affordable classes using self selection principles with a 'you can do' attitude. Current development projects include 'Snowflake' involving DU MOO, Donut MOO, and BayMOO. This will be shown later. U Can is in Diversity University's 'Business School'. It's north of 'Cratchet Hall 3-4' or type '@go #5029' from anywhere in DU. Donald idd@io.org 11 #5029 is the U Can lounge, it centers a small complex of linked rooms. There is something in almost every direction: * North is 'Future parc' a residential area where students store things. * South is 'Cratchet Hall 3-4' of the 'DU Business School'. * East is 'WakeMOO', here michael holds Finnegan's Wake(Joyce) meetings. * West leads to the Internet classroom where Internet classes are held. * Down leads to 'UCCC' a new area where computer classes will be held. * Up leads to 'MOOland' a development planned for near future. UCCC: Unix classes and Tutorials will be held and stored here, along with HTML classes and tutorials in both English and Spanish. MOOland: An educational 'exposition' area with self paced learning and real time guidance. In particular 'Snowflake' tutorial project will be undertaken jointly with several MOOs: BayMOO, Donut, and DU. UCAN TOUR: The following are some screen captures of an online session at DU. The text scrolls onto the screen as one moves from room to room using mostly standard directions: N, S, E, W, Up and Down. The text is what a person who 'enters' the room would see on screen. NOTE:Screen captures are shown between dashed lines and are numbered. 1) Snowflake ----------------------------------------------------------------- Snowflake Nov. 30, 1994 a few shovelfuls of dirt dug by idd and davem in their never ending quest for easy and simple. This layout is like a snowflake. Each branch of knowledge and fun, sometimes called learning, branches off further. Adventure directions N, S, E, W, Up and Down and the odd hidden NE, NW, SE, SW are used to find the really hidden treasures :). East of here lies MathTree the root of the Mathematics tree. Exits include: [north] to MOOland, [east] to MathTree ----------------------------------------------------------------- Back to the lounge #5029 and then west to the classroom, the actual MOO command is shown in upper left as it appears on the screen. The room name appears just under the last movement command. The students are allowed to stay around the lounge and three are shown here. Donald idd@io.org 12 2) U Can (DU #5029) ----------------------------------------------------------------- @go #5029 UCan AiL is a lounge to relax and chat with friends. TV and Gopher here. Please look at 3,4, 5 and 7 on TV here. or RCA in IHL down below. to observe class in Aic while in session, @go #6982. PLEASE look at the MOO exhibits here, DWI contains dwight's Butterfly. Just 'enter dwi' and try to catch it, 'out' to exit. Exits include: [south] to Cratchet Hall 3-4, [Wake] to WakeMOO, [n] to FUTURE parc, [down] to UCCC, [up] to MOOland, [class] to IFT You see NOTICES, dunb2, ND, TV, g3, U_CAN, Dwi, VT, and Mork here. Reuben, Raman , and Porah are here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The room currently shows some basic MOO commands in its description. This classroom has many features including furniture to sit on, a clock that gives EST(Eastern Standard Time) and GMT(Greenwich Mean Time) times, a blackboard, a Desk and a Table. It can be closed allowing only registered students to enter. 3) Enter 'Internet For Teachers' classroom IFT (DU #8880) ---------------------------------------------------------------- class IFT This is a classroom designed by Ken. Look blackboard to see msgs. Welcome to informal internet seminar. To speak type: say To page someone type: page If stuck try typing help Exits: [n] to Notice Board repository, [d] to lab, [office] to don's office, [west] to Tutorial room, [east] to UCan lounge. You see Teacher's Desk, Big Table, Barcelona_chair, Mackintosh_chair, LazyBoy, Log, and Rock. You see giar-ift standing about. You see AI_Gallery, REVOX, g1, g2, Homepage, HelpDaveM, MOOO, Watchman, DU-FAQ, Z1, Z2, Z3, mtl, ED, and ift. ------------------------------------------------------------- Donald idd@io.org 13 Next to the Tutorial storage room north of #8880. Each of these notice boards contains about 10-15 notices of 10-15 lines or about seven thousand lines of text in total. 4) A Notice board repository from 'Affordable Internet' course. ------------------------------------------------------------- north Tutorial Room First week of classes covered Internet timeline Z1, Z2, Z3, mtl, FNTL, fw3, and Tnet. and finally FNG, aip, fn1, FNM, and OCM Assignment #1: Read last on fn1, mostly exploration of freenets. Second week covered FMP, Bruno, Uwasa. Read InterNIC Assignment #2 read Usenet readings. Third week read Unix and Hytelnet notes. Also FTP mail. Assignment for Wk 3. Get the ftp info from cica.indiana.edu by email and read. Exits include: [s] to IFT You see FNTL, fw3, Tnet, FNG, aip, fn1, FNM, OCM, WH, FMP, Bruno, MUwasa, InterNIC, Telnet_Names, Pico, Limited, UNIX, Usenet, HUNT2, Telnet, Ciao_Gopher1, Ciao_Gopher2, GH, Cica_Session, Mail_by_FTP, WAIS, ARCHIE, Archie_servers, FTP, Gopher_Session, WWW94_awards, HYTELNET1, HYTELNET2, HYTELNET3, WEBPOIS, TA, Hytelnet Libraries, Library Searches, HypermediaTL, ed2, NCF, NCFB, NCF94CF, NCFOF, NCFSoftwareProjects, wd, HowToStartFreeNet, Commerce, NCFPlanPublicAccess, and Hunt_Qns here. -------------------------------------------------------------- Stopping the tour here to demonstrate the 'notice board' Bruno. A screen caputure shows what the participants see on their screens. 'Project' shows text to everyone in the same room. 'Read' shows same material but only to the person reading it. Bruno is the Netfind server in Colorado used to find email addresses. 5) Showing 1 of 2 slides on the Notice board " Bruno." --------------------------------------------------------------- project next on bruno Donald displays "BrunoS1" posted by Donald. --------------- Top level choices: 1. Help 2. Search 3. Seed database lookup 4. Options 5. Quit (exit server) --> 2 Enter person and keys (blank to exit) --> schwartz boulder colorado cs ------------------------------------------------------------- Donald idd@io.org 14 The next screen also shows easy it is to show text at DU. 6) The second slide from the Notice board " Bruno." ------------------------------------------------------------- project next on bruno Donald displays "BrunoS2" posted by Donald. --------------- Please select at most 3 of the following domains to search: 0. cs.batman.net (boulder area atm network, boulder, colorado) 1. cs.colorado.edu (computer science department,university of colorado, boulder) Enter selection (e.g., 2 0 1) --> 1 ( 1) Look up And Fill In Dom Info: Got URL 'WP-PH://directory.colorado.edu/105' ( 1) LookupAndFillInDomInfo: Got URL 'WP-SMTP-EXPN-Finger://mroe.cs.colorado.edu' ( 1) Searching PH server as per white pages service pointer (URL) for domain 'cs.colorado.edu'. PH Match(es): -------------------------------------------------------------- There is a newer 'tutorial room' object that is still under development. It is 'west' from #8880 or @go #11952. This will be used in the 'Snowflake' project shown earlier. 7) IFT1 (DU #11952) ------------------------------------------------------------- @go #11952 IFT1 Type 'go' to select a tutorial to view. Then enter the selection number. Presently Basic is DU basics, MOOmail is DU moomail. TESP is a Spanish version of DU basics. Testing still! This places you inside the tutorial, instructions are at bottom of each page; i.e., next, previous, look, quit or just n, p, l, q. Please send comments to Donald, we are testing now and need suggestions. Thanks for trying out the Tutorial room here. Type 'help #11585' to find out how it operates. To go back to Orientation: @go #4133 Exits include: [east] to IFT Text modules: Basic, MOOmail, Tutorial Help, and TESP. -------------------------------------------------------------- Donald idd@io.org 15 A brief note on current U Can activites: Initially DaveM conceived of his notice board to save quota and to present stories to children. After many requests from various people he adapted it to the needs of teachers at DU. This latest reincarnation is an easy to use tutorial room aimed at K-12 users. With this accomplished MOOland and U Can are starting to evolve and develop rapidly. The next step is hypertext. Working with DaveM has been very enlightening and satisfying; things really move. That ends the Tour of U Can. Author: Donald Email: idd@io.org Teaching experience includes years in front of real classrooms and several MOO courses including 'Commodity Futures and Options'and 'Affordable Internet' (notes are in #1287 and #8880 respectively). Currently putting this electronic journal together as the managing editor, sponsoring and giving an Internet for Teachers course at DU. A consultant for the GNA C++ course who helps maintain room #2000; other maintenance duties include writing and maintaining the text for DU's walk through @tutorial for beginners (@go #2350). A Spanish version (@go #11952) done by Felipe Contreras (fhca@labvis.unam) is now public. Current projects include 'Snowflake' and 'MOOland'. Academic MOOing at DU is still pleasant: teaching and learning both. MOO Credentials include attending Ulf's MOO programming sessions. As founder and Director of U Can Institute (along with Marcus) we hope to offer useful and affordable courses by using self selection principles. IF you believe in and want to hold quality courses subject to minimal bureaucracy don't give up. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:56:18 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Teaching and Learning at Diversity University @Copyright DUJVRE and Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 1994 Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 17 TEACHING AND LEARNING AT DIVERSITY UNIVERSITY Doing the Cha-Cha The Grand Plan Students majoring in Communication Disorders at Marshall University are required to take 6 credit hours in the area of Audiology and Aural Rehabilitation. This is typically done at the senior level, although additional coursework is offered at the graduate level. I teach the basic audiology course, which requires that students master the basic concepts of acoustics, the anatomy and physiology of the auditory system, and the basic test battery. While the first two areas can effectively and efficiently be taught in a traditional college course format, the basic test battery can only be conceptualized. True learning can only take place with actual practice with the process of administering the basic test battery and screening protocol. Clinical practicum opportunities in the area of audiology are typically reserved for graduate students. In addition, there is a limited amount of equipment available for use in either practice sessions or service provision. These two factors prohibit students in the basic audiology course from having sufficient opportunities to practice and develop their skills in the process of administering the basic test battery and screening protocol. In an effort to answer this dilemma, I created a virtual audiology lab to provide students with ample opportunities for practice. It is in this virtual environment that students do not suffer from the typical real time deficiencies (lack of access to equipment and lack of patients). The Cha-Cha Readers who are familiar with the cha-cha may quickly catch on to my analogy. For those readers who spend more time on their computer than on a dance floor, let me enlighten you about the analogy I have chosen to use to describe my experiences thus far. The Cha-Cha is a Brazilian dance. Described simply, it's one step forward and two steps back. For my first step forward I spent hours learning to program and completing the audiology lab to my satisfaction. Eagerly I awaited the start of the Fall 1993 semester to unveil my efforts to my students. Within the first week of classes I took my first step back. Not a single student in a class of thirty had an account on the university's computer system and only one out of the thirty had any experience with a personal computer. My second step back came shortly thereafter when my colleagues could only feign an interest since (1) only one other faculty member is an audiologist and would be capable of truly appreciating the potential of the virtual audiology lab, and (2) only one other faculty member (at that time) utilized the university's access to the internet. Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 18 Taking Dance Lessons Encouraged by other individuals striving to use the virtual environment to facilitate teaching and learning, I adjusted my objectives and set my sights on taking another step forward. First of all, I offered bonus points to any student who sent e-mail to me and asked for the bonus points. [Fortunately for me, students will do just about anything for bonus points and not until the end of the semester did they realize that if everyone completed the task there really wasn't much of a bonus involved.] While their simple e-mail message was most certainly a step forward, in most cases it was followed immediately by two steps back since only a few students logged in more than one time throughout the semester. In the meantime, I began planning for my spring courses with an eye to the development of computer literacy skills in my students. Since I would have the same students that had fallen for the bonus point scam in the spring course, I had to be more creative and devious the second time around. This time, I utilized another area which I felt certain would motivate students. Throughout my teaching, I have always made every attempt to answer any question, any time, that a student may have regarding the material being covered in class. I have freely offered class time, prior to an exam, for review and even accepted phone calls at home the night before a test or the night before an assignment was due. I decided to continue that practice with a slightly different twist. First, I eliminated the use of a class period for exam review. My previous experiences had led me to the conclusion that what students really wanted from this period of time was either (1) the questions (or preferably) the answers or (2) all of the previous lectures given again. I offered, instead, to conduct the review on-line, on the weekend before the exam. The second change that I made had to do with those questions that students ask, the ones when they stop you as you are about to enter the bathroom or are trying to get to another class. I suggested to them that when they asked their questions in that manner, I was doing them an injustice trying to provide a quick answer without giving thoughtful consideration to the question. I asked them to send their questions to me via e-mail. That way I could devote the necessary time to considering their question and composing an answer that would do justice to the subject matter. The questions and answers could then be distributed to all members of the class (via a mailing list on the local mail program). In addition, when someone asked the same question for the tenth time, I could tell them that I had responded to that question and they could pick up the response via e-mail. Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 19 Only one student routinely sent messages. I suspect that she was the only student who ever received the responses. In spite of this limited success, I knew that I had at least one student who had learned a different dance. Not only did she send e-mail relative to the course, she sent e-mail asking questions about different features available on the computer system, general messages just to make contact, and during a particularly stressful time of the semester for both students and myself, she sent a supportive note recognizing in it that she felt that students didn't realize how much we [teachers] actually did for them and that they tended to forget to thank us [teachers]. While I was highly encouraged by her success, my virtual audiology lab was getting dusty. A New Dance Begins In the middle of the spring semester, I was offered a unique opportunity. For some unknown reason, our department had extra funds for summer school and my department chair asked me if I would like to offer a computer course. Immediately I responded in the affirmative, but I had to guarantee that the course would fill. I developed some devious plans to ensure that the course would fill (at least through the census date) if I couldn't get it filled with our students. As the registration process began, I had committments from several students, but few registrations. As the spring semester ended, I was close, but still not full. I made flyers and recruited for the class everywhere I went (including the softball field where my daughter plays on a Little League team). On the first day of class, I took another step forward. With an enrollment of sixteen (I only needed 9), the course began. By all accounts, the course was a success. For me personally, the major success came as a result of the three students that continued to connect to MOO's even after the MOO assignment was completed. Currently there are about thirty students in the program that regularly utilize the computer resources available. Within a year, we have moved from no students participating in the traffic on the internet to thirty travellers. Karen L. McComas mccomas@marshall.edu 20 It's possible that we are no longer doing the cha-cha here at Marshall. The computer course was such a success that the faculty included a recommendation in our curriculum review that the course be developed as a regular offering to fulfill the computer literacy requirement for graduation. Each semester we have made gains in connecting students to the value of the internet. This semester Marshall opened a World Wide Web server and student papers are being "published" on the web. This has heightened their interest and encouraged several to start utilizing the resources available even when they don't get bonus points. As student awareness grows, and the computer course is offered again in the spring, I plan to make participation at Diveristy University a course requirement for next fall. In the meantime, I'll have to think of a clever name for a new dance. @Copyright 1994 Karen McComas mccomas@marshall.edu :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: Karen L. McComas Communication Disorders, Marshall University Huntington, WV 25755-2634 More info? finger mccomas@marshall.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 09:58:16 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: A Virtual Programming Course using the MOO (fwd) @Copyright DUJVRE and Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 1994 Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 21 A Virtual Programming Course Using the MOO ****************************************** Marcus Speh Andersen, London, U.K. and Globewide Network Academy, Inc., Austin, TX Submitted December 3, 1994 --------------------------- ABSTRACT ~~~~~~~~ The successful running of a fully virtual programming course using three internet tools, World-Wide Web, Email and MOO, is reported. The use of the MOO for realtime interaction of students and teachers is particularly emphasized. Setup, running and experiences made with the MOO during classes are explained and investigated. In May 1994 the Globewide Network Academy (GNA [1]), a consortium of online schools, organized its first fully virtual course "Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming Using C++", an introductory course for the C++ programming language. With 80 students and 10 consultants, it was successfully completed by August 1994, with all interactions taking place on the internet. At the 1st World- Wide Web conference in May 1994, Geneva, this course won the award for "Best Educational Service on the Web '94" [2]. 1. COURSE SETUP. ================ During the course, a global network document retrieval system called the World - Wide Web [3] was the central static information resource. Electronic mail, archived on the Web, was also used, allowing for remote discussion between students and teachers. However, the essential real-time environment to create a classroom atmosphere for the students was a MOO, a multi-user environment with limited programming capabilities using the Object-Oriented MOO language. For the first course, all online sessions were held on Diversity University (DU [4]), a MOO founded by Jeanne Butler McWhorter, who is also a director of her own classroom, "The C++ Class", with the visionary object-number #2000 (see fig. 1). The classroom was an edited version of the standard classroom on DU, written by Ken Schweller. For the C++ course, this room was luxuriously equipped with additional help commands which would guide the MOO beginners through their first sessions. Fig. 2 shows a list of these commands, presented to any user who invoked the command "classhelp". Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 22 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GNA C++ Class You see the classroom for the GNA course 'Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming Using C++, Type 'look blackboard','look clock' to see these items. You can type 'classhelp' for a list of helpful commands in this room. For info on registration matters, type 'registration'. For announcements on the Bullet Board, please type 'look bb' now. To look at the other items here 'exam ' for instructions. Exits includes [out] to computer lab and [Lib] to Library. GNA Forum meetings held on Saturdays. @go #6490 to get to GNA forum. You see Teacher's Desk, Shelf, Big Table, Wall, Blackboard, and Clock. [Fig. 1: Description of the C++ classroom.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- With the standard room commands "@un/authorize", all course consultants were added to the list of authorized classroom personnel. This enables them to change most of the interesting room properties: with the "@sign on/off" command, they could make the status of the class visible as "on" or "off " in the informational "@who" list available to all MOO users. During sessions, entrance to the room could be enabled/disabled through the " door open/close" command: with the door "closed", only registered students and authorized persons were allowed to enter. Unlike other rooms, failed attempts to enter did not send a message to all session participants, so class could remain undisturbed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ******* Useful Info for the C++ Classroom ******* accounts - how to get your account if you are registered classhelp - read this help clients - read about available MOO client programs coding - how to get an introduction to MOO coding getting_started - first thing to do after you received your MOO account guide - MOO guide for first-timers [or: mailme #3877] help here - read help about valid commands in this room look list - list with information on the C++ online consultants map - a map of Diversity University (we are in the Tech Complex) MOOhelp - list of students who may help with MOOing MOOmail - how to get started using MOOmail objects - longer help on details of this room and actions recording - recording class sessions read US-clock - read the US clock registration - if you want to register for a GNA oop/c++ course schedule - see when this room is staffed with a consultant (You finish reading the C++ Class help.) Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 23 Fig. 2: Helpful commands in the C++ classroom. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Besides the standard setup, the room was equipped with a clock showing local MOO time as well as GMT. In addition, a "US-clock" was made available with the help commands displaying a map of the USA with its time zones and GMT (see fig. 3). Desks and tables could be set up by authorized players at leisure. By default, every session was recorded using a MOO recorder. Recorder, tapes and clock were hidden from direct view by storing them in a virtual "shelf" and a virtual "wall" in order not to overload the room with details. Furthermore, two bulletin boards, labelled "for public posting" (by everyone in the room) were set up in the room: one was meant for general announcements by course consultants, the other was for notes and announcements about course-related programming projects which involved only a smaller number of all registered students. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- . . . . __ ________.___________._______ . / | / . . \____. / | | . . | ___ __/ / | . . | / \/ | | . . |_| / | 06:07 . 07:07 . 08:07 . 09:07 | 14:07 | Pacific . Mountain . Central . Eastern | GMT/CUT | . . . _/ | . . . | \ . . . / \_______.______ . ______. \ . \_. _ __/ .\ \ . .\__/ \ / . \ | . . \ | . | | . . \| . \_/ [Fig. 3: Frank's "US-clock" on DU. ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 24 2. GETTING STARTED & RUNNING MOO CLASSES . =========================================== To solve the problem of registration for a greater number of temporary users during the course duration, the "Visiting Student Player Object" (VSPO, object #1939 on DU) was used. This object class gives one or more owners wizard-like control over a fixed set of accounts. Passwords, player privileges and quota can be changed at request. The wizards are automatically notified of changes applied to a particular player of the VSPO. A fixed expiration date for the whole class is optional. To begin with, the total of 80 player accounts was distributed between two managing consultants. To actually become a player, the students were asked to login as guest users first during scheduled sessions where they would receive their password and user identity. For this experimental course, security was not an issue, which is why the consultants chose a method that also included a first real-time interaction with new students. As their first action, students were asked to change their password and set their self-description. Besides getting informed about basic MOO commands through a single info page, a TV for Ken Schweller's short MOO programming course was set up in another room. Though the default student only had the privileges of a "player", many of them subsequently used the chance to take a deeper look into MOO programming and wanted to receive "builder" and even "programmer" privileges. Before the course, most students had not used a MOO. They usually logged on with the simple "telnet" command, devoid of any more sophisticated client. To help with this, an FTP directory of common clients was created [5] and other more experienced MOO players helped writing short descriptions for each client. One consultant, Peter Murray-Rust, even wrote a prototype X-based client using the tk/tcl meta-language and offered it to the students [6]. Lots of additional material could be accessed by the students and the greater public through the Web pages, including classroom descriptions and sample sessions. Parts of these texts could successfully be re-used for another GNA course on the use of the internet. There were no lectures in class during this course, but consultants were available during fixed hours. The schedule, available on the MOO as well as on the Web, covered up to three sessions of two hours each every day of the week. In addition, the consultants held a public meeting every Sunday to plan the following week. Transcripts of interesting discussions were turned into hypertext using Laura Pearlman's converter tool [7] and made available on the Web pages to become a dynamical part of the whole hypertextbook. Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 25 About 80% of the students used the offer to meet and question consultants on the MOO at least once. However, not more than 30% of them became regular visitors during the course. Consequently, some consultants decided to switch to "sessions on demand" - if a student wanted advice, he or she had to notify the consultant via MOOmail or email to come to the classroom. Since the consultants were kept busy preparing the hypertextbook and Web material and carrying out various administrative tasks, too little time remained to further explore all the possibilities of the MOO for this first programming course. In general, the time needed to prepare students for MOO interaction and guide them during their first days was underestimated. Also, threaded email discussions were a strong competitor for the MOO sessions which constituted the most experimental part of this prototype course. 3. SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK. ======================== In spite of many shortcomings during this first course, the overall opinion of most students and consultants was that the MOO is a very promising resource. For a programming course trying to teach a relatively complex language such as C++, graphical help would be greatly appreciated. Both WWW and a gopher slate - which, in principle, would have made it possible to paste short programs to the MOO - were available, but not much used. Linking the MOO to the Web would avoid duplication of material and save MOO database space, and ongoing work of GNA people in this area will benefit future courses [8]. Most certainly, it will pay to have a subgroup of the consultants dedicated to MOO coursework, and similarly for WWW and Email interaction. By the same token, one cannot expect 100% enthusiasm for each part of this hybrid approach to online teaching. Since the present diverse structure of the student audience is undoubtedly here to stay, we will have to be diverse in the methods we can offer as well. The MOO is one with a great potential that has only barely been scratched. It's full capababilities can only be realised through using it to teach many courses to many students. Results of the course and evaluations have been written up in various papers by the author of the present article, Sandra Burke, Daniel Perron and Tina Pitt. They are (or will be) available via FTP [2]. Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 26 5. REFERENCES. ============== [1] See e.g. "The Times Higher Education Supplement", London (UK), Sept. 16, 1994, page xii. On WWW, see "http://uu-gna.mit.edu:8001/uu-gna/". [2] On WWW, see "http://uu-gna-mit.edu:8001/uu-gna/text/cc/". A HTML version of this article is available in the directory "papers/" below this hierarchy, as well as other publications on the course and Tina Pitt's final evaluation. Via FTP, these papers are available at "ftp.desy.de" in " pub/uu-gna/html/cc/papers/" as well. [3] See K. Hughes "Entering Cyberspace - Introduction to the World-Wide Web", anonymous FTP to "ftp.eit.com" in "pub/www.guide", or the WWW section of the GNA Online Teaching Manual (in preparation, contact: Cindy Bartorillo ) [4] See A. Dinsdale's WWW pages at "http://pass.wayne.edu/DU.html". [5] This collection of MOO clients is available via anonymous FTP to "ftp.desy.de" in "pub/uu-gna/moo/". [6] PeterMR's GUI for MOOs, called "exMOO" is available on the Web from " http://www.dl.ac.uk/CBMT/exMOO/HOME.html". He can be reached via Email at [7] This perl script is available via anonymous FTP to "ftp.desy.de" as "pub/uu-gna/moo/moo2html.pl". [8] An example is the moo/www discussion list maintained by Colman Reilly - to particpate, you can email " moo-www-request@maths.tcd.ie" Marcus Speh marcus@andersen.co.uk 27 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. +++++++++++++++++ The GNA and the author are indebted to Ken Schweller for designing and frequently debugging early versions of his marvellous classroom, to Laura Pearlman, a consultant to the course, for her moo2html converter of MOO recorder transcripts into hypertext markup language [6], to many students and consultants for their constructive critique and to the wizard team of DU for making this interaction possible in the first place. Thanks also to Carlye Dinnell, GNA's Press Officer in the UK, for careful proofreading. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- About the author: Marcus Speh is the chairman of the board of directors of the GNA . In his life off the net, he works for Andersen in London. On the internet, his main interest is the development of online courses using the Web and the MOO. More about him is available on the Web, at the address http://www.desy.de/www/marcus.html ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:38:45 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Learning Disability and Education in , the 21 st Century @Copyright DUJVRE, Bob Zenhausern, Anne Pemberton, Lois Elman 1994 Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 29 Learning Disability and Education in the 21st Century Robert Zenhausern Anne Pemberton Lois Elman The purpose of this article is two-fold. To illustrate the kind of discrimination faced by the Learning Disabled child or adult in our society and to summarize some of the strategies and techniques that are currently in use with this group, with an emphasis on Education in the 21st Century. The Nature of the Problem In our culture, there is an underlying bias against all types of cognitive disabilities that does not exist for those with sensory disabilities. The student who is blind is not blamed for being blind, but learning disability is somehow seen as the fault of the student. The child with learning disabilities is often accused of inattention or not working hard enough. The victim is held responsible for the problem and all would be well if he or she would "try harder". On the other hand, no one says to a blind person, "If you try harder you will be able to see." In the case of sensory and physical disability, we make accommodations in recognition of the specific disability and provide alternatives approaches. We recognize the limitation imposed by the disability and teach them to reach the same goals as the non-handicapped using alternative approaches, e.g. Talking Books, Closed Caption, and Computers. The LD person, on the other hand, is often accused of laziness and inattention. Instead of rehabilitation and accomodations, the LD person is given remedial drills in what they have already demonstrated they cannot do. Only recently has there has been grudging acceptance of the need to accommodate the LD individual. On the elementary and secondary levels, for example, there have been flexibility in the timing of tests and acceptance of calculators and spell checker. Many of the accommodations used in Learning Disability, however, have not always served to improve the education of the LD, but seem more cosmetic. The aim seems to be to allow the students to "pass" by giving them lower goals rather than maximizing their potential. The bias may start in grade school, but it continues throughout life as this personal experience of Lois Elman illustrates most vividly. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 30 "In September 1993, I attended a national meeting, in Washington, for parent advocates of disabled children and their families. In my conference packet was an application to be a grant reader for the Federal Department of Education in Washington, D.C. Since so many of these programs serviced people with disabilities, an effort was being made to give that population a voice in deciding which programs demonstrated merit to receive funding. Being the mother of two children with disabilities and learning disabled myself, I decided to give it a shot and apply. As a school psychologist, I qualified on a professional as well as a personal level. Several months after having filled out all the papers and senta detailed vita of my professional experience, a representative of the Department phoned and invited me to come to Washington. "After controlling my initial excitement, I proceeded to remind the caller that as a learning disabled person I had to cope with certain limitations. I asked if I could use my portable computer to write out any documentation and was told that they didn't have a program which could be used with a Macintosh platform. Since everyone hand wrote their comments on special forms, I was told that I had to do the same. When I tried to explain, I was told that maybe I could be given a Department portable computer but there were people who were more needy than me attending the session. "I don't think that anyone at the Department of Education would be insensitive enough to arrange for a grant reader in a wheel chair to stay in a hotel room which is not adapted to accommodate the width of the chair through the bathroom door. Just because a learning disability is not obvious on first glance, doesn't the individual deserve to be treated with dignity and regard for their difference? The story and plea of Lois Elman illustrates the bias continues throughout the lifespan. Often the problem is not as blatant as that experienced by Lois. A good example of this can be seen in a series of e-mail messages from young man in college. Todd is a student with LD who fought his way through the special education hoops and hurdles to an Associate degree and is now enrolled in a 4 year college. Todd's first message: "School is fine. It is a lot harder then I thought it would be. I'm writing more papers then I did at my last college but I am learned alot more about writing papers so it's not to bad. I'm only takeing 3 class, but I end up having to put a lot more time in each of my class then my roommates do just to get the same grades as they do. Sometime it gets to me and I don't feel like going on but I just remind my self of how far I have come and push on. My teachers are good this semester. I go to them alot for help and they set down with me and help me. I also go to the learning center ever day for help on writing. They have helped me get better grades on my papers then if I just did then my self. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 31 A few days later, a second message: "Hi remmber when I said that I have trouble studing 5 chapters at once well I have to do it for my Tuesday class. This is the class that I know what is going on but when it comes to takeing the test I don't do as well as I want. I know what the problem is. I have trouble remmbering tec words. I can tell you what is going on but sometimes that does not help on a test because the teacher wants just the word. Todd has "dysnomia," which is characterized by an individual's inability to find the correct word or words to express himself. Ask a dysnomic child "What is a steeple" and they will say, "The thing on top of a church". Ask "What is the thing on the top of a church called?" and they cannot answer. This child has difficulty reading since they cannot articulate the printed word and have what can be compared to a "tip of the tongue". We have all probably experienced the frustration of having a word or name just beyond our ability to say it. Such a child might read uncle for the word aunt. Comprehension without articulation. Fortunately for Todd, the teacher was a kind and patient man who gave his time to help prepare Todd for the exam and he ultimately did very well. The teacher was helping Todd by preparing him for the test in private sessions. I would hope that all teachers showed the dedication of that man, but it is important to point out that he was using a remediation approach and not accommodation. An accommodation to Todd's unique disability would have been to ask the questions in a different way. Changing the evaluation procedure, rather than drill in passing a test would have been easier on both student and teacher. Prepare a test for the student rather than prepare the student for a test. The whole experience had a very positive effect, as can be seen in this message from Todd after a talk he gave on LD for one of his classes. "This was the first time that I ever gave a speech on this problem and it made me feel special. I liked the idea of telling people of a problem that not too many know about. I also felt that after my speech my class mates treated me a little different. They never treated me bad before but sometimes when I read out loud or spelled something they would make fun of it. Not really me just what I said or spelled. But after, one person came up to me and said, "I gess I can't bother you about your spelling anymore. I think if it is possible that people who have these problems should say something and teach other people about it so everyone can have a understanding of what a LD person must go threw to learn to make in life. Since then Todd has found a pen pal in Virginia who has spina bifida and has volunteered to be a tutor for LD students who are part of the DO-IT project at the University of Washington. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 32 Even if this type of discrimination is eliminated, however, the original learning disability remains and the next section of the paper is a summary of how specific accomodations are being used. Solutions in Technology Low Technology The use of Adaptive technology in the education of those with learning disabilities has come a long way since the days of "perceptual training" when the learning disabled were trained to walk on balance beams in an effort to improve their reading skills. Notebooks, three-ring binders, index cards, xerox copies of someone else's notes, typewriters, color overlays, special colored glasses, and color-coding, highlighters, vcr's and video tapes, tape recorders, calculators, spell checkers, and personal computers are some of the various high and low technology options used by the learning disabled. Learning disabilities vary greatly from one individual to the next making it difficult for others to determine what the problem is and how to solve it. Such a person must often diagnose and solve his or her own problems, often battling problems with low self-esteem or a sense they are "stupid" because others do not seem to have similar problems. Embarrassment over having to use various crutches and adaptations often deter the learning disabled from sharing with others what "works" for them. There is a need for less drill and more alternative approaches to learning, evaluation, and productivity. In the Altlearn Discussion Group (Altlearn@sjuvm.stjohns.edu,log9105) there was a debate on the nature of Learning Disabilities that was punctuated by some heated discussion. There was considerable disagreement on many issues, but all participants agreed on one thing: an LD student must be taught in the way he or she can learn and it was up to the educators to find that way. An interesting contrast can be seen in the use of technology in Accommodation for the Blind and Remediation for the Learning Disabled. Accommodation for the Blind can range Voice Box Synthesizers that allow the Blind to communicate internationally across the Computer Networks to a Guide Dog. High Technology remediation for the LD child is all too often the substitution of computer drilling for the traditional workbook drills. Low Technology Remediation is the workbook without the computer. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 33 The following series of approaches aimed at educational disabilities are based on actual research and classroom practices and illustrate the scope of accomodations that have been used. Markman and Zenhausern (1989) found that about half the children in a mainstream class and 85% of LD children can not use verbal rehearsal to learn material. They found that the classic "Cat, C- A-T, Cat" used for spelling or the typical verbal repetition of the arithmetic tables actually interfered with retention for these individuals. The problem is compounded by the fact that this verbal repetition approach to rote learning is in such wide-spread use that individuals continue to use this counter-productive strategy beyond the K-12 school years. They question their own intellectual ability rather than the ineffectual strategies they have been taught to use. An alternative strategy is for such individuals to learn rote material by imaging the letters or numbers. When it come time to recall the material they can retrieve that image. They must make a conscious effort not to repeat the material either out loud or silently. In contrast to this group, 15% of the individuals with the Learning Disabled label and 50% of mainstream children can make very effective use of a verbal repetition strategy. These are the people who learn best by putting the ideas into their own words and explaining it to someone else. These are people who say they want to ask a question, but actually repeat what was just said in their own words. There is an interesting distinction between the two groups of individuals: one learns best by listening, the other learns best by speaking. This distinction is not limited to those with LD but is manifested by everyone to some degree. Perhaps the most debilitating form of Learning Disability stems from a problem with reading. Difficulty with reading is one of the earliest that appears in school and typically plagues individuals throughout their lifetimes. At home and in school, reading all too often means the ability to translate verbatim the printed word into sound. Skipping words and substitutions are unacceptable even though they preserve the meaning of the text. Individuals maintain that inadequate definition of "reading" after the K-12 school years, and thus maintain a self-image of reading disabled. Kalisky, Zenhausern, and Andrews, 1990 found that most children we have termed reading disabled do not learn to read because of the standard strategy used to teach reading. They identified two types of reading disabled individuals. The Phonetic Disabled group has difficulty with the first step of standard reading methods, converting a word to its sound. This can be seen by their poor performance in matching two words on the basis of rhyme despite the fact that they can match on the basis of meaning. These students struggle to pronounce every word and as a result, often lose continuity in the text. They are dysnomic and suffer from chronic "tip of the tongue". Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 34 The second type of child is the Semantic Disabled reader who has no problem with the matching of two words on the basis of rhyme, but shows many more deficits in matching two words on the basis of meaning. These children will give a perfect word-for-word rendition of text, but have no comprehension of the meaning of that text. The semantic disabled reader can convert words into their phonetic representation, but there is no conversion of this representation into its meaning. Even non-reading disabled individuals have experienced "reading" text and suddenly realized that they were not comprehending the words that had been "read". The Semantic Disabled reader does this on a chronic level. These two deficits exhibited by the Phonetic and Semantic Reading Disabled Children can be directly related to the standard approaches used when teaching reading. Children come to school with auditory comprehension, that is, when the they hear the word "ball" they know it means "a round, bouncy thing". Reading means that when children see the letters b-a-l-l they know it means "a round, bouncy thing". Virtually every reading method is based on the strategy of converting the written word to its phonological counterpart so that meaning is derived from auditory comprehension. This approach has been termed the indirect phonological route to meaning. The child sees the word, says the word, and understands the word from its sound. This can be most clearly seen in a phonetic approach, but holds equally well for a sight "look say" approach. An alternative approach that does not depend on the standard indirect phonological route to meaning has been termed Direct Access because it teaches reading by connecting the printed word to its meaning directly. Direct Access at simplest level presents words and corresponding pictures are on separate index cards. As soon as the student learns to pair the words and pictures the student understands the word. The accommodation for these individuals is simple: allow the student to summarize what is read, or answer question about the text, but do not require him or her to read aloud word for word. In other words, the emphasis should be on comprehension rather than oral rendition. The Semantic Disabled reader can "read" aloud fluently, but has no idea of what they have just read. We all experience this from time to time, but these students have the problem on a chronic level. They, especially have been called lazy or inattentive and punished for their handicap. These people can learn to read using the Direct Access approach, but there is an instantaneous "cure" through the use of accommodation. Let the person read aloud into a tape recorder and then listen to the recording to understand what was just read. This is a strategy that may be especially effective for adults with semantic reading disability. Incidentally, individuals who fall into this group also tend to learn by speaking. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 35 Tape recorders are also invaluable for recording lectures and meetings in order to accommodate difficulties with listening, comprehending and remembering. For learning disabled person who find it easier to concentrate with background noise, tape recorders or radios with small headphones can provide the accommodating without disturbing others nearby. VCR's, videos (including the many self-help and how-to videos now on the market) are also especially useful to many learning disabled persons. In addition to the problems of learning to read, LD adults often resort to the use a variety of solutions to everyday problems. Co-author Lois Elmore shares her experiences in buying a small business: "The seller knew I was learning disabled because she had received a detailed vita. Yet, she wanted to negotiate the price of the business without having the benefit of any other professionals being involved. I realized that because I have gaps in my understanding of certain types of communications, I needed to bring in another person to listen and reflect back what was said. I wound up bringing an accountant to assist me with negotiations." "Just as a person who is blind benefits from a scanner to input text into the computer, I need other people to help me get around my "blind spots". In my way, I am using assistive technology. I used to be ashamed to ask someone else to help me do what I thought I should be able to do for myself. This feeling is constantly being reinforced by others. I now feel differently. I realize that if its OK for an individual who is deaf to use a TDD or a person who can't type on a key board to use a text scanner and switch, then its OK for me to have other people assist me through those areas of difficulty. Individuals with learning differences need to have good insight into their own gaps in order to know when to ask for help, as well as why kind and amount of help then need. Some other low-tech options include clear colored plastics overlays for printed material, index cards for note-taking, and pocket calendars or any of the "executive" organizer books and binders sold at many stationary stores. With the advent of the computer chip many low-tech paper and pencil aids have gone electronic. Tiny spell checkers take the place of clumsy dictionaries, small calculators do mundane math chores, and electronic address books, calendars, and organizers take the place of their paper predecessors. These items can be purchased alone, or incorporated into a multi-use computer, which can be a station at home, at work, or a "laptop" or Powerbook handily hung from a shoulder. Software that anticipates the word from the first three letters typed, and spell checkers and grammar checkers on the most widely used word processors help tailor the computer to the specific needs of the learning disabled person. Spreadsheets allow the use to "figure out" the formulae for every-day functions so that they are instantly available as needed. Data bases, project planners, calendars, and similar software allow users to conquer those pervasive organizational problems. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 36 The Computer Networks The computer networks have been considered the "Great Equalizer" for disabled individuals and this holds true for learning disabled individuals of all ages. Electronic mail and mailing lists, real-time chat, and text-based virtual reality have become the motivating factors and students with learning disabilities are now motivated to write clearly and with no errors in spelling and grammar. It is not uncommon to see these children cutting lunch to find a little more time on the networks. The Chatback Group provides an example of the use of mailing list for education of cognitively impaired children. Chatback is a project, based in the United Kingdom and supported by IBM. It was originally aimed at language impaired children, but has been expanded to include education in general with an emphasis on students with disabilities. The following are examples of what has been accomplished. Chatback is a project oriented list, designed to provide guidance and support for teachers who are using the computer networks in their classrooms. During the past two years Chatback has introduced several projects including: Far Star where children responded to an Alien Being about the policy and practices of Earth. The Holiday Dinner, where children from all over the world described a holiday meal; Steel, where the 10 steel yachts, involved in a race around the world, posted latitude and longitude. Children followed the race by plotting that information on maps. Memories tells the story of World War II in Europe through the eyes people who lived it. A soldier who survived the Croatian Death March; a schoolboy who lived through the London Blitz, and a Holocaust survivor are just some of the people who are telling their stories. In addition to the Chatback discussion aimed at projects for the children, there are are other lists with different orientations. Autism provides a forum for those interested in Autism and other developmental disorders. The subscribers include parents, relatives and friends of individuals with autistic individuals, teachers and researchers in the area, and individuals who are autistic themselves. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 37 Bicompal (Big Computer Pals) serves as the "classified ads" for individuals who are looking for network contacts for people with special needs. The initial goal was to develop Big Brother/Sister or Mentor/Student relationships among those with similar disabilities. In practice peer relationships have developed in parallel with the mentor relationships. One example involves a group of blind college students in Austria who are planning to communicate with school children in the New York City Board of Education Visually Limited Program. There are many other lists available at varied locations on the Internet including those on ADD, Traumatic Brain Injury, and a list aimed at Deaf Children. Resources for education may be widely available on both gopher and World Wide Web but the location of these resources has been a problem until the development of lists like EdRes-L, Gopher Jewels, the NY State Department of Education gopher, and WWWEduc. The St. John's University Internet node has a special resource called Unibase. Unibase has been under constant development by Leigh Calnek of the University of Regina over the past 10 years and there are over 30 systems currently in operation in Canada, New York, the Philippines, and Thailand. Unibase is a comprehensive system which encompasses the most important forms of electronic communications currently available on the for computers and the Internet. These include: local and Internet email, discussion groups, access to FTP, telnet, and gopher, WWW and interactive conferencing. The Unibase system at rdz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu has been integrated into the Education and Rehabilitation network that is emerging at St. John's. During the past six months Unibase has been used as a real-time conference center and recent conferences have included: 1) A panel on learning styles, with panelists from the US and Canada 2) On ongoing discussion group on violence in the schools 3) Olga Galkina, from Moscow, was available for several Broadnets on Unibase where she was available to discuss her efforts to get disabled children in Russia on the Networks. Note: A Broadnet is almost the opposite of a broadcast. A Broadcast sends all the information across the nets in all directions. A Broadnet attracts those who telnet to participate; it is more like a fishing net. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 38 A Multiuser Object Oriented (MOO) environment is a text based virtual reality world in which the participants create their ideal surroundings. They are an offshoot of the text based adventure games such as Zork except that the players have the power to create their own rooms and objects. Jeanne McWhorter saw the educational potential of such an environment and created Diversity University, a virtual college campus that was meant to provide the tools for higher education. At the present time, it is possible to walk through Dante's Inferno or take part in a simulated Battle of Agincourt. Diversity University Prep was created as a K-12 extension of DU and several projects have been developed for children in special education. Learning disabled students from NY and VA are creating a virtual performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Graduate students in School Psychology are involved in virtual externships with some of these students and are looking at their creations as possible protective instruments. Learning styles are being measured, no on the basis of the scores on some instrument, but in terms of the environments the children actually create on the MOO. While the emphasis has been on the learning disabled child, the computer networks are effective tools for a person of any age. For several years, husband of co-author Anne Pemberton, Steve, grumbled about her growing involvement with the networks even though he realized that much of her time online was necessary to provide good experiences for her Learning Disabled high school students. Finally, he gave in and decided it would be easier to join than to fight. A plumber and building systems technician by trade, his first time online included a lengthy chat with a building engineer in New York City. Soon after, he discovered and subscribed to a mailing list about the Civil War, which tied into his volunteer work at a local park. His initial trials of the gopher and World Wide Web systems yielded information useful to, and to be incorporated in the History Pavilion of the Virginia's PEN, to be used by Virginia students studying that period in history. Steve's learning disability is most obvious in his writing, which compares poorly to the rich language skills he has in speaking, listening and reading. Use of the keyboard has increased the quantity of words he generates, from single words and short phrases to paragraphs of 2-3 complex sentences. As with many new users, he's too excited by the immediacy of electronic communications to do much offline writing (which can be "cleaned up" by spell checkers and such), so uses the "ask the wife" method of getting words down recognizably. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 39 Summary, Conclusions, and Implications One focus of this paper has been on the discrimination faced by individuals with cognitive disabilities. In summary, there is an underlying bias against all types of cognitive disabilities that does not exist for those with sensory and physical disabilities. The student who cannot see is not blamed for being blind, but learning disability is somehow seen as the fault of the student. It is fortunate that the techniques that maximize the potential of a student we term learning disabled maximize the potential of all students. We have to eliminate our teaching disabilities and learn how to teach more children. Then we do not have to use the label Learning Disabled as frequently. A second point of this paper is based on the historical fact that the main emphasis of the 20th Century was to perfect and automate the 19th Century and the main emphasis of Education was to preserve the 19th Century. During these past 200 years we have seen a growth from the quill pen to desk top publishing; from laborious hand calculations to calculators and spreadsheets; from hand drawing to CAD; from library card catalogs to World Wide Web. Throughout this whole period, however, Education has stressed the importance of handwriting, arithmetic tables, and dated research techniques. Why do we give closed book tests, with an arbitrary time limit, where the student does not have access to calculators and spell checkers? This may be appropriate for the 19th Century workplace, but it does not reflect the tools essential for the 21st Century. Our conception of the 3 R's must be expanded and modified and there must be a re-evaluation of what we mean by Elementary Education Reading Reading disability is one of the most serious problems in Education today since it is a basic tool of any century. Much of that problem, however, has at its basis the rigid and standardized approaches in reading instruction. An alternative approach, Direct Access has been summarized earlier, and this is just one instance of flexibility. There has been a constant debate as to whether a phonetic or sight approach is better for reading. Researchers and theorticians on both sides supported their arguments with words and data. Unfortunately, with all this debate over the two ways of teaching reading, no one looked to see if there might be two different kinds of children. Reading and writing should not be taught, but expected of a child, the way listening and speaking are expected and not taught. Zenhausern, Pemberton, Elman drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu 40 Writing The complaint that students do not how to write is echoed from the Halls of the Third Grade and the halls of the University. Pre School children want to "write letters" explain things, and tell stories and then they enter the First Grade. Consider a 5 or 6 year old being taught to write. He or she must complete 2 or 3 pages of filled with the letter "A" and is criticized for sloppiness. As punishment children are forced to write repetitive statements. The separation of penmanship and creative expression is evident in many programs where the children write and worry about spelling later or where the teacher takes dictation for the story the child tells. I propose to let a child learn to write on a computer and let handwriting be taught later as an ancillary skill (much like we currently teach music an art). Separate creative writing from graphology. Keyboarding skills are much more important in the workplace than handwriting. This has a natural potential for integration into strategies to teach reading. Arithmetic Poor performance in Mathematics is one of the more serious problems faced by society today since Mathematics forms the basis of scientific work which underlies progress. I think that what we call mathematics disability can be traced to an early problem in arithmetic. Children who cannot master their tables, multiplication, long division, etc. are held back from advanced mathematics. Given the widespread use of calculators in the workplace, an insistence on rote calculations is not a realistic preparation for the world after school. I would like to suggest a program based a three-pronged approach to the teaching of mathematics: standard "paper and pencil" calculations, intensive experience with approximations, and extensiveuse of electronic calculators and computers. In the case of uneven development in these three areas, the child will be allowed to progress differentially so that difficulty in one prong does not interfere with growth in the other prongs. The final point of the paper is that we need to add an "I" for information to the Three R's. To survive in the 21st Century, a person must know how to find information and know where to look for information. In the 19th Century, the goal was to cram as much as possible into your memory. In the 20th Century, the 19th Century was automated. In the 21st Century, one goal is to cram as much data as possible into computer memory and still be able to find it. The students have will then have time to convert the data into information and find creative uses for the information. Authors: Robert Zenhausern Anne Pemberton Lois Elman Email: drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:40:27 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: How I lost 20 pounds on the New Moo Diet @Copyright DUJVRE and Samantha samajane@mit.edu 1994 Samantha samajane@mit.edu 41 Off the top of my head..... A series by Samantha J. Scolamiero (Samantha at DU) aka Brain Woman, listowner/creator "Brain Tumor Research / Support" BRAINTMR@mitvma.mit.edu http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/samajane/BRAINTMRad.html "How I lost 20 pounds on ### The New MOO Diet ###" * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (* NO, this is not a tabloid article. MOOers have wonderful senses of humor and fun. You'll just have to get used to it. :-) I ask you to consider the Diversity University MOO -- a virtual college campus that exists partly in cyberspace and partly in the minds and collective imagination of those who visit there. I ask you to consider it's power to change REAL lives. Take me for example: My disabilities are hidden. I have Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) as a result of a congenital brain tumor and subsequent surgery for its removal in 1990. I have spent the last five years trying to return to "normal". I have begun to realize that what I experience now, may BE "normal" for the rest of my life. I have cognitive or sensory overload. Too much noise, light, or conversation can be overwhelming, tiring and even painful. This makes working, playing and navigating in real life difficult. Working in a traditional office environment is draining as the fluorescent lights, noise and activity add up quickly -- on many days a few hours of that is all my poor brain can manage to process before it just shuts down. Then there is playing. Until recently there was no energy left over for playing after coping with the added stresses of just trying to live with these new challenges that crept into my life as insidiously as the tumor grew. I would often refuse invitations to social gatherings like parties or concerts because I knew they would be PHYSICALLY taxing. As for navigating, driving is difficult as my senses are dulled by scenery and cars whizzing by while split-second decisions should be made. After surgery, merely walking has become a task since I have vestibular damage which causes balance problems. Having to be conscious of keeping myself upright adds a challenge to the act of simply walking, which most everyone who can, takes for granted. Samantha samajane@mit.edu 42 However, besides just avoiding overloading situations there are some things I discovered I can do to ease the strain on my body. For example: I often wear my sunglasses or a baseball cap indoors to reduce glare from fluorescent lighting. I have been known to sit down in public places when I get dizzy (including taking advantage of the wide edge of the refrigerator cases in the grocery store. No kidding. :-) I have even borrowed a wheelchair a few times at the shopping mall which helped a lot; it more than doubled the time I could spend there. One of the most frustrating and difficult aspects of having Acquired Brain Injury is that I appear perfectly healthy. I *LOOK* "fine". I know that some people therefore think I am odd or even exaggerating because I wear sunglasses indoors or use a wheel chair. (I wonder what goes through the mind of the shopping mall attendant when I mosey up to the counter, ask for a wheel chair, sit myself down and wheel off.) These preventative measures may seem odd, but I have noticed that using these strategies extends the time that I can DO things! Many people just can not comprehend brain injury because it is invisible. Someone even suggested I was agoraphobic. A phobia is an inexplicable and illogical fear of something. My "fears" of being in large groups of noisy people, or malls full of noise and bright lights and chaos that cause my senses to overload (therefore decreasing my ability to function) are not inexplicable or illogical as a neuropsychologist or a fellow ABI survivor can confirm. Withdrawing in this way from social situations to prevent debilitating overload is not understood by people who think you *LOOK* just fine. Being "anti-social" does not fit my personality either. Being dictated by my body to limit my exposure to people and sensory stimuli, in order to pamper my damaged brain has been very frustrating and lonely if not devastating at times. I did not recognize that person, MYSELF, sitting on the couch day after day, numb from interacting with people, dizzy from standing too long, tired from just looking and listening.... I used to be a person who thrived on interacting with people, running around half-crazed trying to get as much done as humanly possible every day. Again I say: I did not recognize *THAT PERSON* sitting on the couch day after day, numb from interacting with people, dizzy from standing too long, tired just from the simple effort of looking and listening. That just wasn't ME. It was my body there, but it wasn't ME. Samantha samajane@mit.edu 43 I will never forget my first "trip" to Div. U., one Friday night in March 1994. I was supposed to go out... to a party... that night, but I was too tired to deal with people. So I stayed home, turned on the computer and started surfing. I reached this place called Diversity University and went to a party there instead. I was overjoyed! I went to a party and I didn't even have to leave the house. Best of all there were no side conversations, no radio in the background, in fact no noise at all, no sensory overload. I could sit quietly, socializing with people in an environment I could manage. Diversity University gave me my personality back. I can exercise the REAL me who is unfortunately trapped by a brain that doesn't work like it used to. It gave me back real life capabilities. I can run around the campus meeting every one, talking and socializing, like the maniac that I am, but in silence. It is the social environment I desperately needed that is not physically debilitating or painful. (Hmmmmmmm, now if I could just get a JOB there.... :-) There are so many aspects of DU that are beneficial for me. I could write another article on that, but here are some examples. I have trouble attending to real life conversations. At DU I don't have to ask people to repeat themselves because I didn't hear what they said, it is captured in text on the screen. I can read it over 5 times if I need to. It is not as embarrassing as having to ask people to repeat themselves in real life. Also, I don't have to walk for miles across campus to attend classes or meet friends and professors. And when I am tired I can just turn off the computer. I don't have to worry about the commute home, because I am already there. "What about ### The New MOO Diet ### ?", you ask. Yes, I have lost 20 pounds since I discovered the DU MOO just a few months ago, and would directly correlate this pleasantly surprising change to my participation there. Diversity University lightened my MOOd (no pun originally intended) and lifted my spirits; it gave me something fun I could do, and there is no food allowed in the computer room :-). But mainly it helped me to acknowledge and accept and overcome some of my limitations, at least "virtually." Using the MOO technology I saw my productivity increase. I saw the differences between trying to manage in real life and managing better with computer assistance. This realization gave me the confidence to try other "assistive" technology. I finally broke down and got a walking stick. (Don't call it a cane or I will bop you with it.) Now I can walk longer distances and therefore I get more exercise. THAT is how I lost 20 pounds on "The New MOO Diet." :-) Samantha samajane@mit.edu 44 If you call *RIGHT NOW* you can order ### The New MOO Diet ### Companion Cookbook. Call 1-800-NEW-MOO-DIET... But WAIT!!!!... there's MORE! ~ My disabilities are very subtle, and you would never guess anything was wrong if you met me; it is a blessing and a curse. I have had to struggle to define my limitations and accept them. While they are still VERY hard to accept in real life, Diversity University offers me an opportunity to forget them for awhile and to accomplish more and operate more efficiently while I am there. Sometimes I wish I could live and work full-time in cyberspace. Cyberspace empowers the disABLED. Those who cannot, CAN in cyberspace. Someone with cognitive overload can maintain an active social life because they can control their environment. A person who must always rely on a wheelchair in real life can run and jump and play at the MOO, just like everyone else. A person whose hearing is impaired can now "listen" to a group conversation in room full of talkative people. Can you imagine the impact these newfound freedoms have on people's perception of themselves and ultimately upon their lives??? Cyberspace is a leveler. Technology is a powerful tool which is creating a new social structure where equality among individuals is more asymptotically approached than is possible in "real life" circumstances. My experience at Diversity University has enlightened me. I envision endless possibilities for enhancing people's quality of life. It has certainly improved mine. I hope these simple words conveying my experiences may enlighten many more and inspire wider use of this incredible resource. MOO and other cyber applications must be acknowledged, advertised and fostered. The myth that this environment is just for game players must be destroyed. I challenge anyone who reads this to share it with at least one healthcare, medical or rehabilitation professional, to spread the word so that "cyberspace" may become an integral part of REAL LIFE for those who can benefit most from this new environment that has emerged using creative technology. The possibilities are VAST and definitely transcend cyberspace. The future is now. Just MOO it. Author: Samantha J. Scolamiero (Samantha at DU) samajane@mit.edu listowner "Brain Tumor Research / Support" BRAINTMR@mitvma.mit.edu http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/samajane/BRAINTMRad.html ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:42:57 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Starknet Campus Of The Future @Copyright DUJVRE, Suzi John S_john@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov 1994 Suzi John S_john@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov 46 Donut - StarkNet Campus of the Future CANTON, OH- Donut was developed in August 1994 by four Stark County, Ohio middle and high school students as an experiment in cooperation with StarkNet, a division of the Stark County School District. Described as the "StarkNet Campus of the Future," Donut is an on-line interactive learning community focusing on students from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Shawn Arbogast (character name Turbo), from Osnaburg High School, Dave Robinson (Compuwiz) and Andrew Ertley (Q) from Lake High School and Justin Dobbs(Silence) from Lake Middle School are responsible for the concept and development of the Donut community. Their combined programming expertise made their dream of a virtual on-line educational facility a reality. System Operator, Bob Lukens (IDIC), and Internet Information Specialist Judy Birmingham (JudyB) are the adult technical advisors who assist the four talented students. All of the aforementioned make up the core of Engineers (the Donut equivlent of wizards). Arch Engineer, Suzi John (TecSec), computer technology secretary for the Massillon City Schools in Massillon, Ohio, manages, promotes and helps with furthering development of Donut. Students enter this virtual world initially as guests. Eventually they are assigned character names and account passwords to link to the community. The Bus Stop is the point of entry for all new players. From there they can wander the promenades and streets to various classrooms, a guidance office and many business establishments. Points of interest include the clothing store "You Wear it, We Sell It," The Donut Hole pastry shoppe, Donut Books, and the International Market complete with such food booths as La Vela Roja, Der Weinerschnitzel, Viva, The Taj Mahal and The Wok and exotic bills of fare. Donut also has a medical center with attending physician Dr. Kolache, The Daily Planet newspaper office, and the CompuBank. A sleep disorder center is being developed by a group of Marlington High School Students. While wandering throughout the community you might run into some of the regular Donut-ites. Dave_E is from Virginia and has developed the clothing store and a beautiful central park. Bluestreak, Mr.Data, Cally, Blade, Elvis, Byrnes, Stephen, Philos, Silence, Jeremy, Gatsby, Quest and others will be wandering throughout Donut at any given time. For entertainment you might even find them in the Rec Room or Blade's Roll-A-Rena, a complete roller blade and skate boarding arena managed by the colorful virtual bot, Rollin' Joe. The beautiful Cruller Tower dorms are south of the Bus Stop and presently are being occupied by nearly 50 residents. Plans are in the works to construct Croissant Tower, a twin. Suzi John S_john@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov 47 The Puget Sound Community School, lead by Distinguished_Prof, conducts classes online. Orca, Bird_Boy, Sorcia, Gorath, Maji, Dipsquat, Pulp, Autumn_Rain, Red_Petal, Grunge and Smurf reside on the third and fourth floors of Cruller Tower. By going south of the Bus Stop and going Under the street you can embark on an adventure that will take you who knows where. There are many rooms and corridors leading to various points of interest on Donut. The future of the Donut community looks bright as more and more students and staff members discover the benefits of on-line interactive learning. Donut, created by students for students, is accessible at bigbird.stark.k12.oh.us 7777. Development is being done now on classrooms and, teachers are being recruited to bring their classes online. Additional information can be obtained or comments can be addressed to S_John@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov. Author: Suzi John S_john@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:44:27 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Building Tools for Education @Copyright DUJVRE and Ken Schweller schweller@bvc.edu 1994 Ken Schweller schweller@bvc.edu 49 Building Tools for Education -Ken (aka Ken Schweller) Over the past few years I have enjoyed building a variety of MOO tools which are presently being used here and about for instructional and educational purposes. These tools include the following Generics: - video camera, tape, vcr, tv - slide projector, lecture - conversational robot - classroom, and theater The cameras, tapes, vcrs and tv were built on mediaMOO as part of a Television Station. I had originally intended to broadcast live shows from the TV Studio but it turned out that folks were more interested in creating their own documentaries and sharing them with their friends, so I created a Tape Library. Tapes deposited in the library could be viewed on a demand basis by any and all players. Since that time tapes and tvs are being widely used for tutorials, interviews, film making, and class presentations. The slide projector was built to effect the swift presentation of bulky text and graphic material to large groups. This tool has seen wide use in seminars and colloquia. The Generic Lecture was built to help students present multiline material without the necessity of typing at break neck speed. The text is entered ahead of time line by line and given in any chosen order and speed. I found that students who were generally nervous giving class presentations were much more relaxed when they didn't have to type in their speech in real time. The Generic Classroom and Theater were designed to address unique MOO communication problems. Consider the problem of 'too much noise in one room'. The approach I used in the Generic Classroom was to divide the room itself up into subareas in the form of tables, sofas, chairs, rugs etc. Folks in a subarea formed their own local conversation group without disturbing others yet they could still 'hear' the teacher or anyone standing up. I took the opposite approach in designing the Theater. This time I interconnected 6 separate rooms allowing folks to see and hear folks in other rooms under varying degrees of communication control. The theater was intended to be much more than just a place to watch movies or see plays. It was designed as a presentation forum where the level of speaker/audience interaction could be subtly controlled on a sliding scale of absolute quiet to full 6 room interaction The Conversational Robot was originally designed as a toy. Since then it has seen serious educational use as a 'drill and kill' vocabulary tester, tutor, room guide, and information assistant. This is the tool kids have the most fun working with. Ken Schweller schweller@bvc.edu 50 I have thought a lot about what constitutes a really good MOO educational tool Here's the list of tool characteristics I've come up with. A good tool for MOO education must be: *Useful* - must serve a REAL pressing need. A clever tool that serves no important need is best recycled. *Easy* - must be VERY easy to use. A tool should have a familiar look and heft. The verbs should be easily guessable without using @exam and the consequences should be predictable. *Fun* - must be a bit whimsical. If folks don't enjoy using the tool, they won't. But not cute. *Powerful* - must be powerful enough for kids and professional researchers/educators. A tool must 'grow' with you as your moo experience increases. *Adaptable* - must be capable of use in many different unforseen ways. No one can predict what uses a clever person will find for a good tool. *Evocative* - must be a catalyst to evoke new ideas in users. Simply using a tool should suggest to the user new possibilities. I am still actively engaged in Tool making and welcome any suggestions from my colleagues on the design of the latest greatest tool. :) Author: Ken Schweller schweller@bvc.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:45:59 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Diversity University Grant Center @Copyright DUJVRE and Cathy Bennet Libnm1@nccvax.wvnet.edu 1994 Cathy Bennet Libnm1@nccvax.wvnet.edu 52 Diversity University Grant Center Got a great idea for an innovative project but need funding and partners? The Grant Center at DU may be the place to begin your search. Set up as a central repository of information on funding agencies, grant listings and general grant writing information, the Center also fosters collaboration between DU users from many different geographic areas and disciplines. A gopher slate titled Grant Opportunities lists many of the government Internet sites offering grant information. These include such agencies as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. Current funding opportunities are listed along with guidelines and submission criteria. A catalog of DU users is also available at the Grant Center and is keyword searchable. Those individuals who have completed their @info with relevant information regarding their occupations and interests can be linked with others in the same interest area by searching for a particular keyword, such as history, English, music or K-12. Once individual names are found the searcher can then contact the individual for collaboration on a project. The Grant Center is also the location for funding projects involving the incorporated, non-profit agency known as Diversity University. Support services and hardware require donations of time and equipment not always adequate to meet current user needs. The Grant Center is the focus of the planning for and the solicitation of such current and future development funds. Can project and grant collaboration on DU MOO work? Ask the three professors preparing to begin implementation of an Annenberg/CPB project that was developed at DU or the individuals involved with a recently submitted Department of Education grant. Collaboration on DU can be very rewarding. Author: Cathy Bennet Libnm1@nccvax.wvnet.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:48:10 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Education MOOs copyright DUJVRE and Donald idd@io.org 1994 Donald idd@io.org 53 Education MOOs and Tools Contents: 1) Education MOOs 2) Education Tools 3) Education MOO list 4) Featured MOO: Diversity University 5) Education Tools: Generic objects at Diversity University 1) Education MOOs -------------- This column is the first of a series of articles covering Education MOOs. As new moos are popping up steadily, we can only discuss a few typical examples now. We will try to cover as many Education MOOS as possible in future issues. 2) Education Tools --------------- One of our aims is to compile a comprehensive list of Educational Tools. Most of the Education MOOs have a 'gopher slate' but how many have a World Wide Web client like the 'WWW slate' developed at EON. A core set of Education Tools includes: * writing tools: '$note', 'MOO mail' * standard communications features: 'say', 'page', 'emote' and 'think' * exploration tools: 'look', 'read', and 'exam' * manipulation tools: 'get', 'grab', 'drop', 'move' Added to these, are 'generic' tools created by individual programmers, especially wizards. Every Education MOO needs dedicated wizards! 3) Education MOO list ------------------ Apologies offered now for all errors, as we attempt to classify MOOs. ESTABLISHED EDUCATION MOOs: holding classes for six months or more. * BioMOO: bioinfo.weizmann.ac.il 8888 or 132.76.55.12 8888 Contact Gustavo Glusman Email: Gustavo@bioinformatics.weizmann.ac.il Mostly for professional biologists, BioMOO's Web interface development is very innovative. * Diversity University: moo.du.org 8888 or 192.101.98.8 8888 Contact Jeanne McWhorter Email: gsswky@menudo.uh.edu The first dedicated Education MOO is branching out to multiple servers. Donald idd@io.org 54 * Collegetown: next.cs.bvc.edu 7777 Contact Ken Schweller Email: schweller@bvc.edu Ken designed many existing Education Tools at various other MOOs and runs this one. * EON: mcmuse.mc.maricopa.edu 8888 Contact Greg Swan Email: swan@mcmuse.mc.maricopa.edu Shkoo and others developed the WWW slate here. "MCCD must undertake serious exploration of constructivism if it wishes to retain its position of educational excellence in this country." Swan and Hughes. * MOOville: rolfs-gw.ucet.ufl.edu 7777 or 128.227.140.215 7777 Contact Anthony True Email true@ufl.edu 1500+ take English classes using a local area network with 150 stations connected to a MOO. IBM is a sponsor. * WriteMush: palmer.sacc.colostate.edu 6250 or 129.82.169.4 6250 Contact Maria or Jstrick Email: Maria or Jstrick@netcom.com Tari started holding English composition classes here in Sept. 93. This is technically a TinyMush. PIONEERS LIST: MOOs that played an important part with other themes. * LambdaMOO: lambda.xerox.com 8888 or 13.2.116.36 8888 Contact Pavel Curtis Email: pavel@parc.xerox.com All current MOOs descend from this one. * JaysHouseMOO: jhm.ccs.neu.edu 1709 or 129.10.111.77 1709 Contact jhm@ccs.neu.edu 'gopher slate', 'MOO networking', and an 'internal hypertext system' accessible from the world wide web are early JaysHouseMOO developments. * MediaMOO: mediamoo.media.mit.edu 8888 or 18.85.0.48 8888 Contact Amy Bruckman Email: asb@media.mit.edu "A MOO designed to be a professional community for media researchers." *GNALab: gnalab.uva.nl 7777 or 145.18.70.16 8888 Contact Gustavo Glusman Email: Gustavo@bioinformatics.weizmann.ac.il This is GNA's MOO programming testing lab. Donald idd@io.org 55 K-12 LIST: * Donut: bigbird.stark.k12.oh.us 7777 or 199.218.192.6 7777 Contact Suzie John Email: john@sparc3.sparcc.ohio.gov This K-12 MOO is in Stark County Ohio. (See article by Suzie John in this section) * MariMUSE Global Learning Collaboratory (No anonymous guests) Contact Jim Walters and apply for character Email: walters@pc2.pc.maricopa.edu "A Global Learning Collaboratory serves learners k through gray. Many of the MariMUSE users are elementary school students who MUSE as a part of their daily learning activities. All learners are welcome to join." For more info, gopher pcef.pc.maricopa.edu or http://pcinfo.pc.maricopa.edu/MariMUSE/MariMUSE.html * MicroMUSE: micromuse.musenet.org 4201 or 18.43.0.102 4201 Contact Barry Kort Email: bkort@musenet.org. MicroMuse Mission Statement:"MicroMUSE is chartered as an educational Multi-User Simulation Environment (MUSE) and Virtual Community with preference toward educational content of a scientific and cultural nature. The MicroMUSE Operations Council works towards the development of MUSE technology to enhance the exchange of ideas, the learning process, and the expression of creative writing for individuals of all ages and backgrounds." FTP: ftp.musenet.org, Gopher or Web: web.musenet.org. WEB MOOs: * BioMOO: http://bioinfo.weizmann.ac.il:8888 Contact Gustavo Glusman Email: Gustavo@bioinformatics.weizmann.ac.il Get webpass and instructions from BioMOO. Gustavo Glusman runs this MOO for professional Biologists and holds meetings using its WWW capabilites. * Sprawl: http://world.sensemedia.net/ WorldMOO: world.sensemedia.net 1234 Contact S. Epstein Email: sle@picosoft.com Chiba's Sprawl is one of the earliest Web MOOs. World, Tinker and Core MOOs are linked to Sprawl. Donald idd@io.org 56 CULTURAL MOOs: * Meridian: sky.bellcore.com 7777 Contact sky Email: deanna@thumper.bellcore.com The theme is understanding between countries through virtual travel and cultural experiences. * BayMOO: baymoo.sfsu.edu 8888 or 165.113.1.30 8888 Contact baymoo@worldbit.com Their official statement is: "BayMOO is a virtual theater for the creation of objects and the weaving of communities and tribes. The overarching themes are the spirit of the San Francisco Bay Area and the metaphor of water. The only rule of conduct is: RESPECT." MOOs FEATURING LANGUAGES: * French: logos.daedalus.com 8888 Contact Mark Horan Email: horan@LCLARK.EDU According to 'Henri': "The streets of Paris provide the model for this French language MOO." * Italian: Little Italy MOO ipo.tesi.dsi.unimi.it 4444 Contact brenna, carbone, aprile, riva, or veggiot @ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it Or Email: littleit@mora.usr.dsi.unimi.it WWW: http://www.dsi.unimi.it/Users/aprile/HUG/LI.html This is an Italian language MOO in Italy. * Latin: MUGIT at PennMOO ccat.sas.upenn.edu 7777 Contact Ellen There is a Latin Club here called MUGIT. * Multilingual: MOOsaico moo.di.uminho.pt 7777 or 193.136.20.102 7777 Contact Oblivion Email: pmoo@moo.di.uminho.pt This is a multilingual language MOO in Portugal. * Spanish: MundoHispanno kong.syr.edu 8888 or 128.230.1.200 8888 Contact Colega or ThwartedEffort Email: lmturbee@mailbox.syr.edu "an academic MOO for native speakers and second language learners of Spanish." * ESL/EFL: schMOOze University arthur.rutgers.edu 8888 Contact Julie Falsetti Email: jefhc@cunyvm.cuny.edu "schMOOze U. was especially designed as a place where non-native speakers of English could meet and interact." Donald idd@io.org 57 NEW EDUCATION MOOs: holding classes for less than six months. * NovaMOO: nova.edmonds.wednet.edu 8888 Contact Joel Thornton Email: thorntoj@nova.edmonds.wednet.edu This is recent startup in Edmonds school district. * Global Village: tdg.uoguelph.ca 8888 or 131.104.228.200 8888 Contact Paul Graham or Greg Searle Email: searle@tdg.uoguelph.ca "Conspiratorium" and some Guelph classes use Global for virtual classes and conferences. * TecfaMOO: tecfamoo.unige.ch 7777 Contact Daniel This Swiss MOO is in Geneva. * VOU: coyote.csum.edu 7777 Contact Donnelly Email: donnelly@coyote.csum.edu Classes starting up in March 1995 have been announced. HELP WANTED: Pease help me to update and fill in this list! Email: idd@io.org, Thanks! 4) Featured MOO: Diversity University ---------------------------------- NAME: Diversity University ---- ADDRESS: moo.du.org 8888 or 192.101.98.8 8888 ------- CONTACTS: Jeanne McWhorter, Email: gsswky@menudo.uh.edu -------- Wizard-list: Jeanne, Richelieu, Ulf, Dr.Z, Scott and Ken. ----------- INTERVIEW WITH ARCH WIZARD: (See article by Lunar in this section). -------------------------- THEME: ----- The Official Diversity University Mission Statement: "Our mission is to develop, support and maintain creative and innovative environments and tools for learning and research through the Internet and other distributed computing systems, and to guide and educate people in the use of these and other tools, to foster collaboration in a synergistic climate, and to explore and utilize applications of emerging technology to these ends in a manner friendly to people who are disabled, geographically isolated or technologically limited." Donald idd@io.org 58 MOO DATA: -------- * Guest Access: Yes * Guest login command: connect guest Remark: also 'connect peasant peasant' that takes you into Mogue's Agincourt simulation. One of several at DU. * Number of registered characters: 3,000+ * Number of MOO objects: 12,500+ * Size of MOO program in memory: 35 megabytes. * Sample Classes: ('#'numbers refer to DU MOO objects and locations) DU has provided facilities for many classes including: Jeanne's 'MOO 101', 'MOO classes for Teachers', and 'Internet for Teachers classes'. Leslie and Cindy's 'English composition' class simultaneously in Pennsylvania and Wyoming. GNA's WWW94 award winning 'C++ class' @go #2000; 'Commodity Futures and Options', some notes are in #1287; 'Affordable Internet Course', archives are north of #8880. 'MOO Programming' sessions given by Ulf and Doppler at DU. Finnegans Wake (Joyce) reading group held by Michael #7416. Cynthia, Danford, JeanS, JoeW, Van*Faussien, and many others have brought classes to DU. 5) Education Tools: Generic objects at Diversity University -------------------------------------------------------- Some notable Educational Tools at Diversity University including ported ones, known affiliations do not imply development sites. NOTE: These lists are not complete but attempt to be accurate. * Larry and Joe@JaysHouseMOO (Grump and JoeFeedback) - 'MOOGopher'(Copyright (c)1992, 1993, Larry Masinter and Erik Ostrom) was implemented at JaysHouseMOO and is a useful tool found in most MOOs. * Ken or cdr (@Collegetown, @media, @DU) - Media set 'TV', 'VCR', 'Camera', and 'Tape' showing text has an 'Editing room' to transform raw 'Tapes' into a polished product. - 'Lecture note' lines can be prepared ahead of time. - 'Slide shows' can display 15 lines of text at once. - 'Classrooms' include 'blackboards', 'seats' and other features. - Other Education objects include the 'Theatre complex', a 'conversational robot' and introductory MOO Programming tapes. Donald idd@io.org 59 * Michele (@JaysHouseMOO) - Walk through '@Tutorial program' from JaysHouseMOO is very easy to use, even for a beginner. * Gustavo (@BioMOO, @GNAlab, @DU, etc.) - 'Generic Recording device' records activity in a room. - 'InterMOO feature object' allows communications across MOOs. - 'GNA forum' is a virtual conference room that straddles BayMOO, BioMOO, CollegeTown, Diversity University, EON, Global Village, GNAlab, MediaMOO, TecfaMOO and VOU in five different countries. - 'InterMOOwalk' moves characters from GNAlab to BioMOO or back. - BioMOO/WWW interface developers include Eric Mercer, Paul Hansen, Jaime Prilusky, and Gustavo Glusman. * Jeanne with programming by Richelieu(@DU) - 'VSPO', the visting student character class allows teachers to control class and handle some administrative work as well. * Mogue - 'simulation rooms' like 'Agincourt' show 100 year war. Experience history from the perspective of various period characters. * DaveM - 'notice board' is an all purpose tool created to save 'quota'. It finds use as a bulletin board, a note book, a variable slide projector, and a tutorial and, now has its own mailing list even. - 'Tutorial room' also saves quota and is easy to use. Hypertext versions are in development. * Doppler - 'slide show' stores presentations in a variable length format. * Richelieu - 'Generic chaptered Book' (@copyright Richelieu) has chapters. * Shkoo@EON (@BioMOO, nils@DU) - 'WWW slate' is a World Wide Web text based browser. Shkoo first implemented the WWW slate at EON, where the server is. PLEASE! : To 'port' the MOO programming code of any MOO object to another MOO, please contact and obtain permission of the original author. This is a courtesy that also helps the author to distribute upgrades. Donald idd@io.org 60 NEXT ISSUE: ----------- The coming issue will contain reviews of Jupiter features. Mostly a moo extension that allows moo object to generate a window inside microsoft windows or X windows. The resulting whiteboard allows for mouse driven events like lines to be sent back to the moo and to other windows clients. Featured MOO will be BioMOO: an active meeting place for professional biologists, it has pioneered a different approach to graphics using the World Wide Web. Other WWW moos will be surveyed also. ------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Donald idd@io.org ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:49:44 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: The Soul of a Moo Machine @Copyright DUVRE and David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net 1994 David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net 61 The Soul of a MOO Machine Abstract: In considering the attraction and future of Diversity University and other educational Virtual Realities, the author considers three aspects of the "Soul Factor" in people's connections to such environments. The author also maintains that this "Soul Factor" must be sustained for these environments to continue developing their fullest potential. Introduction: Whenever I try to explain to people what Diversity University is and what I spend so much time doing there I find myself struggling with realities. Well, my home computer uses the phone line and calls another computer where I have an account. This more powerful computer gives me access to the Internet. That computer connects through fiber optic cables to another computer in Daytona Beach, Florida. That computer has in it the MOO program and a database called "Diversity University." One database record has my name on it. When I connect I occupy that piece of the database. Other parts of that database are described as rooms or as objects to look at and use. Still other records are other people. And if you are connected at the same time as other people your pieces of the database can interact and it appears that you are talking. It is usually at this point that I notice a glazed look forming in people's eyes, and I wonder why people don't understand. Yet while this description sounds a little outlandish it does reflect one view of the virtual reality environment we call DU Moo. However, this techno-view of reality can easily become a trap. It is sometimes tempting to think only of the wonders (or the frustrations) of the computer terminal we are using, or the awesome knowledge that our touch triggers electric signals that travel at the speed of light from Iowa or Alaska, or Texas, or Israel, or Germany, or Australia or wherever we come from to gather someplace in Florida only to be sent out to all those places again. Or some programming conundrum can so capture our attentions and imaginations that we see DU as some crazy place to program fun things; being virtual gods in total control over the very nature of that reality. Or, if we have experienced text adventure games or some of the more combative Muds and Moos on the Internet, we can view educational or social environments as wonderfully inviting for mischief and competition. The techno-view is a trap, because when we are seduced by it, we fail to see what DU and other educational environments have that make them so different. Then even we who share a larger vision of those environments can end up messing up the future of such environments. For that not to happen we need to recognize and intentionally maintain what I call the "Soul Factor." David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net 62 "The Soul Factor" There are many parts to our lives. There is our intellectual part -- the place for ideas and understanding. There is the emotional part -- the locale for our reactions to events and our judgments about ourselves and the world in which we live. There is the physical part -- the place where we sense our reality and where we actively respond to it. Finally, there is the soul. I see the soul as that aspect of our living that gives meaning and significance to all the other parts. One could think of the soul as the unifying web of our lives: everything we do affects our soul and in return is influenced by what we deem important and worthy. We need to remember the "Soul Factor" in considering the present and future of virtual realities such as DU, because it was the soul of the place that encouraged our initial participation, and it is the soul of the place that either keeps us coming back or leads us away. Just as a human being needs an active soul to live a life of meaning and fullness, so does a place (even a virtual place) need a soul to continue to be vital to its participants. As I reflect upon my involvement in and continued commitment to Diversity University and as I consider the prospects of future expansion of its mission, I can identify three aspects of DU's soul that must not be forgotten or neglected in order for DU's future and the future of other similar educational realities to be long and fruitful. Soul Factor #1: Connected for Support Since I identified myself as an ordained minister of a church and set myself up as unofficial Chaplain at DU, I have been amazed at how often people come to myself or to others for emotional and spiritual support in trying to handle the circumstances of their lives. There are many nights when I have found myself bleary-eyed at 2 or 3 in the morning talking to someone who desperately needed to share their struggles with another human being who will listen. And I know that I am not the only one in that activity. I have even been in long-distance page conversations with people who need some advice on how to handle the stories they are hearing. There is an active 'alanon' support group with 3 loyal participants. And I have been told that at least 2 people on the verge of suicide have been "talked down" through the Moo environment. And it isn't only the negative parts of life that are shared here. I know of romances that have developed through the wires as well as friendships. I count as real friends a number of people whom I have never met physically, but with whom I have been connected through the words we type. Why is that? And more importantly, why SHOULD that be true? David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net 63 This is an important first factor in considering the soul of a Moo, because it reminds us that on the other end of all those cables and electrical signals sits another human being with hopes and hurts, and with visions and disappointments. There sits another person who is searching for something more in their life. Maybe they log on out of loneliness or because they seek for knowledge. Or possibly when they connect they are stumbling toward compassion and relationships yet want to remain hidden behind the secure filter of the words and the signals. Whatever the issues are (and I know I have heard only a fraction of them) they come along with the character that logs on. The danger of the filter is that people might interact as an altogether different character. On some Muds and Moos that sort of role playing is encouraged, but in an educational environment this sort of deception can be detrimental. Learning and growing involves a certain level of risk and of trust. The risk in learning comes as we lower the defences around what we already know and open the way for some new ideas to be entertained. Most of these ideas represent re-adjustments to what we already know. But some ideas represent radical changes to one's world view -- the fundamental way we approach life, the universe and everything. When you are open to learn you do not know what type of ideas will come your way. In order for people to continue taking that risk in learning there must be maintained an environment of trust, honest interaction and genuine concern. This is true in real life where one can see and touch and listen to the other person. Yet, when we come into a virtual reality situation where the only contact one has is through a set of words that appear on a computer screen, this environment of trust is more difficult to maintain. However, when the participants remember the need and intentionally foster and encourage supportive interactions, the learning environment will reinforce trust and allow people the opportunity to continue learning. Soul Factor #2: Connected for Curiosity When I was growing up, (before the gas crunch), my families Sunday afternoon entertainment was to go out driving. To explore the community, looking at the houses and yards, seeing what things are out there to see. My Dad had a particular way he would approach these drives: he would never repeat a path. We would drive along the road and my Dad would comment on how he'd never seen THIS road before and then he would turn onto it. I think the game he was playing was the let's-get-lost-and-see-if-we-can-find-home-again game. We always did make it home and we always saw some interesting things along the way. I continue part of that tradition while driving on my real life journeys as well as when I journey through virtual reality. David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net 64 Every few days (or sometimes every couple weeks) I set my programs aside and leave my construction unfinished and just 'walk' around the Moo. On those 'walks,' I always try to go to parts that I have not seen in a while. And when I do, I will sometimes see what old friends have been doing lately, but am more likely to meet new friends and experience new learning experiences. Why is it important for me to do that? A drive for curiosity. What makes an education institution (even a Virtual Reality one) continue is a genuine interest among its participants in the process of learning. Whether as a teacher or a wanderer, it is the prospect that through the next exit there might be an object, a room or a person that holds something new to learn or to think about. In talking with Jeanne McWhorter, one of the founders of Diversity University, she used the image of a "living encyclopedia" in referring to DU. I thought that image was both appropriate and intriguing in considering the future of educational realities. Through the diversity of people that participate and through the wide range of interests they represent it is not too far-fetched of an idea to see a virtual reality environment develop into just such a resource. And as more people have access to such educational environments it is ever more important for them to broaden those resources so that people's curiosity will continue to be captured and many more people will go out and "walk the moo." Another aspect of text-based virtual realities that makes education there so interesting and accessible is that with creatively programmed objects and some description skills the journey of learning can be one of true discovery. Why just read about bones when you can walk through Yorick the human skeleton. Or imagine how you can discover pre-history by joining cave-people in fishing or hunting, or even rediscovering the spiritual joys of delighting in the world and in one's self by becoming a child in a playground of delight. One's imagination is the only limitation in how different ideas and facts can be taught and demonstrated. And when the learning is fun, people will continue to explore. And as people continue to explore they will be inspired to share some of what they know and the cycle continues. Soul Factor #3: Connected for Partnership One of the objects that takes up a surprisingly large amount of my time is the "Generic Notice Board" on DU and Collegetown. It started out as my attempt to make a place where I could store interesting quotes without having to bother the wizards for quota for $note objects. It also provided a worthy first programming project. Well, I worked on the initial version for a couple weeks and set it up and convinced a couple friends to use it as part of its testing. It was simple and I was pleased with how it turned out. David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net 65 Then a couple people paged me one day. "I'm using your Notice Board and think it's really great, but have you thought about making it do this..." They both then shared with me their vision for how they could use the object much more efficiently if it did something more or different. Well, I guess I am a sucker for good ideas and they convinced me of their vision. So, I took out my code and looked at it with some new eyes and adapted the code to add the new options that were suggested. Not too long after that and then again and then again other people paged me or wrote me with their appreciation and then their suggestions for making it more useful in fitting into their vision for their participation in DU. Some of the suggestions have been easy, I can call up the verb in my editing window and work on it while we are talking and they can try it out right away. Others have been more far-reaching in the scope of the changes and take a couple days or even (as is the case in the last major change) a couple weeks. But the time and energy have not been an issue for me, because I have caught some piece of someone else's vision for using not just my object, but for using the environment. This is one example of the type of partnership that is possible in a Moo environment. While some types of large group discussions are often confusing and difficult, the ability to have people from various locations interact in real time makes possible other types of cooperative endeavors. This exploration of ways of cooperation are important to the soul of the Moo. A shared vision for what we can do together in this place. As long as there is an attitude of co-creating the virtual world (with the freedom and responsibility that goes with co-creation) then the soul will be strong. But when either of those two polarities overpowers the other, the soul is in danger. When freedom is abused and seen as freedom to do anything to anyone because the virtual world is not really real then people will choose to leave rather than face the offensive behavior. On the other hand if too much emphasis is placed on control, then anyone with an urge or desire to make something useful and interesting will not find support or encouragement and will go elsewhere with their gifts, or might even stop desiring to create and contribute from their unique experience and set of interests. Conclusion These three pieces of the soul of the Moo need to be honored because they form an environment for growth and development. And even if we must continue to deal with people who come and trample on our flowers or insult the neighbors or even punch us in our virtual faces, when we remember our connections as human beings, our connections as learners and our connections as creators, the environments will continue to thrive and face the challenges and celebrations that come from our participation. David Morris bweaver@worf.infonet.net 66 Author: David Morris is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church living in Green Mountain, Iowa. He has been a participant in Diversity University Moo (DU) since April of 1994 where he is currently a Programmer. His major projects at DU include the Interfaith Center and the Generic Notice Board. DaveM on Diversity University and Collegetown bweaver@worf.infonet.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:51:14 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Collaboratory @Copyright DUVJRE, Margit Watts and Ben Millard 1994 Margit Watts and Ben Millard watts@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu 67 COLLABORATORY The University of Hawai'i at Manoa Rainbow Advantage Program has initiated a project called Collaboratory, a project that links together museums, universities, and secondary schools around the country. Students are engaged in meaningful and integrated learning and through exploration, discovery, and manipulation, students work with exhibits to further their critical thinking skills, broaden their base of knowledge, and enhance their understanding of culture. This project encourages intellectual curiosity by allowing students to choose from a wide range of topics as well as modes of expression. Museums offer places for learning which are not confined to the traditional school setting or time frame. Collaboratory will also move into making museums available to people not able to access their exhibits through the front door. Technology has made it possible to recreate museum exhibits in many forms, making it possible for students across the world to interact with exhibits, explore them from many vantage points, and study them on numerous levels. Thus, Collaboratory is a two strand project -- one has students studying exhibits all over the country, the other has students creating their own exhibits (their own interpretation of culture). This project reaches a wide audience and is in line with the Goals 2000 mandate. TEAMS A team consists of university and high school students, as well as a museum or similar cultural institution. The formation of the teams is determined by the unique contribution each part makes to the whole. The high school students perform much of the work of the team, while the university students provide both an academic direction and study of the project. The use of museums is the interesting addition to the project. It is an emerging theme amongst museums that they provide a learning environment that is quite different from the classroom. They not only cover an unlimited range of subjects, they do so at the visitor's pace. They provide teams with 'triggers for wonder'. The major permanent exhibits -- a museum's icons -- act as both projects for the teams as well as models for works of their own generation. Museums provide yet another opportunity for students; they permit students to become the experts on these icons. Since no museum can provide the Internet presence necessary to field all possible questions, the students can become the 'experts' for some of the first-level and most commonly asked questions. The results of the composition of these teams is a group of students who mutually benefit from working together and are given access to resources from a cultural institution with which they are familiar. Ultimately, all are working toward a project which is meaningful. Margit Watts and Ben Millard watts@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu 68 PROJECTS The results of these collaborative efforts will be exhibits; in this context, the term exhibit is loosely defined. Students will find expression for their work in multi-media, text, performance, music, and any other medium they find relevant to their project. An example of some of the work by current teams includes video documentary on the effects of hurricane Iniki on Kauai, an exhibit on ancient net fishing in Hawai'i, a modern day re-creation of Plato's Republic, and a display of a corner of Pittsburgh. Each of these projects have called on the students to search for something important and determine how they want to present it. It is through these projects that the students can work to make sense of their place in, and contribute to their culture. INTERNET The Internet plays a role in this as the medium for participation. It will provide the link between the members of a team, as well as across the teams. The other value added by the Internet will be a place to 'store' or present the exhibits. It is our intention to open a MOO for the teams to use text-based VR as one medium for their works. Providing them with a place to met on-line as a haven will be one of the most important steps in our development. Amidst the discussion of the latest telecommunications, Collaboratory's model does not *require* connectivity beyond paper and mail. It is this sclar approach to the student's resources that will allow Collaboratory to form teams in countries not part of the Internet. POSSIBILITIES Collaboratory exists under the auspices of the University of Hawaii and is directed by Dr. Margit Misangyi Watts. The current structure consists of six teams among the islands of Hawai'i, as well as teams from California, Pennsylvania, and Western Canada. In January new teams will be added from Illinois, Washington D.C., Missouri, Japan, Guam and Kenya. As we prepare our server for duty, we are also building the corporate support necessary to fuel Collaboratory. We have some corporate connections in place and will also be seeking grants and equipment from other sources in order to support the teams with equipment. Margit Watts and Ben Millard watts@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu 69 The future holds the expanded bandwidth modes mentioned above, as well as simply growing the reach of the teams in both geography and involvement. Plans for involving museums is not limited to local ones, though we feel that it is within their own communities that the teams can make their biggest contributions. Creation of national icons could become a project that joins multiple teams in illustrating a country's cultural context. As we seen to put our students at the center of their own education, Collaboratory tries to extend this to include putting the students in the center of their own cultures. We welcome your comments and participation. Please contact us by the means below. Authors: Dr. Margit Misangyi Watts (808) 956-4040 watts@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu Ben Millard (808) 956-4040 bmillard@interaccess.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:52:57 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: The Beginning of an Education MOO @copyright DUJVRE and Flora Moon Lunar at DU 1994 Flora Moon Lunar at DU 70 The Beginning of an Education MOO The following excerpts are from an interview with Jeanne conducted by Lunar at DU. The full tapes are viewable at DU, please contact Lunar or Donald at Diversity University or email idd@io.org. Imagine the text scrolling up your screen, pausing every few seconds. [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "first was a fellow called Sandoz, Billy Chambless, the fellow who brought up the blank MOO." [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "he invited me to write on his tabla rasa" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "I had first just thought about doing a psychology/social work building" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "then what happened?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "I loved the idea of all the things we could use the MOO to teach." [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "So you decided to expand the idea?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "but when he offered me an entire MOO, I decided it was too limv:iting to make it just one subject, so I figured why nookt create an entire university" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "who else did you enlist?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "first was a young man from erau who kinda found us somehow, by using "who" on his unix account to see who was where" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "So you started DU in Miss?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "thant was Mogue" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "yes, it was on a private account then, in Miss. and was called Chaos Theory" [on projection screen] Jeanne did not like that name [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "So what did Mogue do?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "and there was another MOO named Chaos so I convinced they we had to change the name" Flora Moon Lunar at DU 71 [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "Mogue was a MOO programmer type" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "what was his take on MOO's or did he follow your lead?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "for some bizarre reason they all liked my vision" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "Ulf came next. I recruited him" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "Why Ulf? and how did you know him?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "I used to hang out on MediaMOO and lambda still while working on DU cause it was still pretty lonesome here" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, I ran into this twit with the name spitboy [on projection screen] Lunar laughs [on projection screen] Jeanne . o O ( Ulf will love that sentance ) [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "except when he explained the story behind the name, I found myself very touched" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "and?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "he too liked the concept and came to help" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "are there others? who contributed to getting DU started?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "at some point we realized that we all needed to be wizards here to really do anything, so he made us wizards" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "sandoz was the only wizard up to that point. I can't remember the order of wizing, but I know I was first, then Mogue" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "How long did it take to open DU?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "oh, quite a while. I went massively recruiting for teachers, mostly on lambda and Media" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "a year, two years?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "we are only just over a year old right now" [on projection screen] Lunar exclaims, Oh that's significant. The level of organization and sophistication blows me away here! Flora Moon Lunar at DU 72 [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "I handpicked most all the first ppl" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "Before we move on, any others you want to mention?" [on projection screen] Jeanne thinks. Richelieu, naturally, but he was not until January. Leslie was one of our first teachres on DU, as was NikkiC, who is not really active here anymore. Cindy came the same time leslie did [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "SteveDF was among the first as well, and Andrew" [on projection screen] Lunar says, "I'm glad you mentioned some women, I was beginning to wonder..." [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "So when is the first anniversary?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "it was last fall" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "they did the very first research on DU, with their two english classes, Leslie Harris and Cindy Wambeam. Les was a primary author of the proposal for the Annenberg grant we just received" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "Can you tell me a little about the research?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "They both taught freshman english composition and universities across teh country from each ohter" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "how did DU come in?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "the wanted to see if they could stimulate greater interest and enjoyment of writing in their students by using the MOO" [on projection screen] Lunar asks, "can you explain how they used the MOO?" [on projection screen] Jeanne says, "so they used a control group and then brought classes on to discuss the books they read and to write things on DU. The did a formal research project, using double bliind pretests and postests" Author: Lunar at DU ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:56:45 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Lunar Ken at CollegeTown @copyright DUJVRE and Flora Moon Lunar at DU 1994 Flora Moon Lunar at DU 73 Ken at CollegeTown Excerpts from interview of Ken at Collegetown by Lunar assisted by idd. Imagine the text scrolling up your screen, pausing every few seconds. [on TV] . . .the camera zooms in on Ken. . . [on TV] You see a middle-aged professor type who likes to fool around with computers and virtual worlds. He is one of the janitors here and is happy to help or chat. [on TV] Lunar says, "First of all I want to say happy anniversary, Collegetown is one year old!" [on TV] Ken says, "thankyou " [on TV] Lunar says, "How does it feel to be the father of all this?" [on TV] Ken says, "I do indeed feel like a father at times, and like all fathers i hold in my heart a great love and tenderness for this moo which I have seen develop from a single room and a half dozen members to its present size and scope.." [on TV] Lunar says, "What is its present size and scope? " [on TV] Ken says, "sorry for the delay, i was running some stats programs on our community.." [on TV] Ken says, "the stats show we are presently at 306 members, of which 115 are from Buena Vista College.. either students or faculty.." [on TV] Lunar says, "And who are the others?" [on TV] Ken says, "The others include undergraduates, graduate students, faculty members, assorted folks from various communities and several children.." [on TV] Lunar says, "Why did you build collegetown?" [on TV] Ken says, "I have decided it is important to include members of all ages.." [on TV] Ken says, "I built Collegetown as a platform for collaborative academic research and teaching.. with the intent that academicians of all ilk might meet here to exchange ideas, work together on projects , and hold seminars.. I also thought that.." [on TV] Ken says, "having the theme be *only* academic was unduly restrictive.. so I have divided collegetown into 3 theme areas.." [on TV] Lunar says, "Could you elaborate?" Flora Moon Lunar at DU 74 [on TV] Ken says, "There is foremost the campus itself, then there is the 'city', and finally the outer wilderness and nature area lying all about.. here is where.." [on TV] Ken says, "folks can build houses for themselves and do a bit of socializing.. It is my belief.." [on TV] Ken says, "that much valuable research and thinking takes place 'outside' the classroom while folks talk and socialize so i believe.." [on TV] Ken says, "it is important to provide open spaces like seashores, forest walks, mountains etc.. as stimulants to good conversation and the exchange of ideas.." [on TV] Ken says, "After all, Socrates himself did his thinking on his feet strolling through the marketplace.. " [on TV] Lunar grins [on TV] Lunar says, "I was wondering if you would take us to a favorite place and we can return here if it is too crowded" [on TV] Ken says, "i have many favorite places lets go!" [on TV] Ken heads for the South Quad... [on TV] You are on a grassy quadrangle surrounded by ivy covered buildings. [on TV] Lunar says, "What happens here?" [on TV] Ken says, "this is just a quad.. a central hub connecting many academic buildings.. mostly people just socialize here on the lawn.." [on TV] Lunar says, "I notice a lot of humor here, tell me about that" [on TV] Ken says, "humor? such as?" [on TV] Lunar says, "Robbo, for instance a wise cracking humble servant.." [on TV] Ken laffs.. 'Every creation reflects in part the personlity of its creators.. Collegetown is no different... [on TV] Ken says, "I find moos immensely enjoyable .." [on TV] Lunar agrees [on TV] idd says, "robbo may have been around earlier if I recall?" [on TV] Ken says, "and I am pleased that my joy overflows into some of my objects.. appearing there as 'humor' " Flora Moon Lunar at DU 75 [on TV] Lunar says, "Who's idea was it to make the ascii representations of spaces like the quad here?" [on TV] Ken says, "as i mentioned before, we have many middle school students working here and they contribute there own form of humor.. " [on TV] Ken says, "ah, I believe this is one of the firs moos to be fully ascii mapped.. its not just the quad.. *everything* is mapped (or will be)... " [on TV] Ken says, "I have chosen to do this because.." [on TV] Ken says, "I believe that spatial orientation is a strong component of thinking..." [on TV] Ken says, "we can use our innate proprioceptive skills to help orient ourselves in virtual space just as in physical space.." [on TV] Ken says, "we are *used* to operating in physical space, we feel at home there.. my goal is to bring as many senses to play in VR as is possible.." [on TV] Lunar says, "I feel *oriented* here because of the ascii mapping, an instant familiarity that the maps confer..." [on TV] Ken smiles [on TV] Ken says, "i am very interested in the interfacing of WWW and moos to show graphics and sound... I am following with keen interests the work of gustavo, pavel, and others in this area.." [on TV] Ken says, "I feel that present moosters are much like the early pioneers heading West in coverd wagons.." [on TV] Lunar nods vigrously in agreement [on TV] Ken says, "Where we now go by foot over untracked deserts, future mooers will travel by jet plane.." [on TV] Ken smiles [on TV] idd says, "are there many classes held here at CT?" [on TV] JeremyS arrives from The Forum... [on TV] JeremyS says, "ahem, could I ask you a question Dr. Schweller?" [on TV] Ken [to idd]: DU holds many more classes than we do.. we hold small seminars and there are writing workshops and a few faculty meet with grad students here.. and a few regular classes have been held.. we look forward to doing much more in the future.. Flora Moon Lunar at DU 76 [on TV] . . .the camera zooms in on JeremyS. . . You see a student with glasses and dark hair [on TV] Ken grins jeremyS, smile, you are on camera, i am being interviewd by these folks.. [on TV] JeremyS smiles, uh sorry... [on TV] Ken says, "Jeremy is a new member of Collegetown, and a member of my 3 week cyberspace class.." [on TV] JeremyS says, "Would you like me to leave?" [on TV] Ken says, "you may ask him a question if you like " [on TV] Ken grins jeremyS, of course not! [on TV] Lunar says, "I'd like him to ask his question, if he swouldn't mind" [on TV] JeremyS says, "Well, I was wondering if there was a way to erase keywords from our robots?" [on TV] Ken [to JeremyS]: sure, just '@exam botname' and you will see how to use 'remove' to erase a keyword.. [on TV] JeremyS says, "alright, thanks" [on TV] Ken says, "for example, 'remove 5 from robot'" [on TV] JeremyS says, "ok, bye.." [on TV] Ken says, "use the number of the word." [on TV] Ken waves [on TV] Lunar waves [on TV] JeremyS waves back [on TV] Ken says, "ok.. lets check out the downtown area.." [on TV] Ken heads for Main Street! [on TV] Ken says, "This is the hub of the second theme.. we saw the 'Gown'.. this is the 'Town'" [on TV] Lunar says, "And the statue of Pavel Curtis?" [on TV] Ken says, "we have yet to see 'Country' " [on TV] Ken says, "in honor of the founding father of all Moos.. " Flora Moon Lunar at DU 77 [on TV] Ken says, "Collegetown is run by a council of 7 citizens. They meet every week or so in City Hall to decide matters of application, quota, and building.." [on TV] Lunar says, "Do you sometimes bowl while you're meeting?" [on TV] Ken laffs, the bowling alley was a project by one of my computer science students who wrote th longest single verb ive ever seen.. 8 pages! [on TV] Ken says, "i had to give him a refresher course in modularity " [on TV] Lunar says, "One verb for strikes, spares and scratch?" [on TV] Ken nods, laffs.. and ascii pictures..! [on TV] Lunar says, "and scoring and shoes? " [on TV] idd says, "did it work though the 8 pages?" [on TV] Ken says, "yup, but then the moo crashed and he lost it all! he was heartbroken and i felt terrible.." [on TV] Lunar says, "Life in cyberspace..." [on TV] Ken says, "An important thing I've tried to accomplish here, btw, is to create a " [on TV] Ken says, "feeling of community.... Each of our members is encouraged to build.." [on TV] Ken says, "1) a house and 2) an office.... and the houses are to be fully connected so" [on TV] Ken says, "that we have residential communities and neighborhoods.." [on TV] Ken says, "we can put in a hard days work at the office or at school and then retire to our communities neighborhoolds for relaxation.." [on TV] Lunar says, "talk to me about the culture here at CT. There is a distinct one here isn't there?" [on TV] Ken says, "Yes, I like to believe there is.. We are insistent on theme related building and we advertise ourselves as a serious academic community.." [on TV] Ken says, "it is largely a matter of self selection.. we purposedly chose to remain small and rather obscure.. I have" Flora Moon Lunar at DU 78 [on TV] Ken says, "been very reticent to publish our address.. Most of us know each other and we ahave a strong cadre of 'founding fathers and mothers'.. to instill our vision in the new folks.." [on TV] Lunar says, "And what are the values engendered and exhibited here?" [on TV] Ken says, "this is by no means the only or best way to run a moo.. I fully appreciate the naturally evolving social format.." [on TV] Ken laffs, I would *like* to think that the shared values here are love of things scholarly, an appreciation for creative work, and a shared vision of utopian community buildintg.. but then again, maybe all thats just in my imagination ;) [on TV] Ken says, "we have some strict rules here such as: No weapons, No harassment.. etc.." [on TV] Ken says, "hi johnM, im being filmed for an interview.." [on TV] JohnM says, "hello. An interview for what?" [on TV] Lunar says, "When I was visiting earlier I notices a lot of helping going on, a real comaraderie and desire to build somthing together" [on TV] Ken says, "I do not wear blinders however, I realize that our good spirits here may be a simple accident" [on TV] . . .the camera zooms in on JohnM. . . [on TV] A cool, handsome, and fun guy to be around [on TV] Ken says, "of our relative youth... I have personally lived through several of the crisis " [on TV] Ken says, "fperiods that seem to fall on moos once they reach a certain size and popularity.." [on TV] JohnM says, "What crisis?" [on TV] idd says, "I have visited quite a few MOOs recently and do notice you are on quite a few of the Education ones, almost all, how long have you been Mooing? and which MOOs have influenced you?" [on TV] Ken [to idd]: I am a wiz at mediaMOO, bayMOO, Diversity University, and Collegetown.. [on TV] Ken says, "I learned to program at Lambdamoo 2 years ago.." [on TV] Ken says, "but i was unhappy at lambda.. I yearned to" [on TV] Ringer wanders in. . . Flora Moon Lunar at DU 79 [on TV] red_Guest wanders in. . . [on TV] Ken says, "apply this great technology to some more persistent and glorious goal " [on TV] JohnM says, "Hello everyone" [on TV] red_Guest smiles [on TV] Ringer waves hi [on TV] Ken says, "thats when i heard of mediamoo.. I fell in love with mm at first sight.." [on TV] Ken says, "i developed the cameras and other communication technology there and built a theater.. we had a great film fest last year with 15 art films entered.." [on TV] Ringer says, "this is irradiate a friend from tecfa " [on TV] Lunar says, "I love the cameras and other technology that you've built! In RL I am a filmmaker and the camera gives me a way to mavigate this world much as I do the other one" [on TV] Ken says, "but i yearned to have a moo of my own and experiment with my own ideas of ascii graphics, spatial orientation, and logical connectedness.." [on TV] red_Guest smiles hello [on TV] Ken [to Lunar]: thankyou! I have a friend and cowiz here PaulB aka ZenDream who is a film maker also.. [on TV] Ken greets red.. welcome, we are doing a filmed interview.. [on TV] red_Guest nods [on TV] Ken says, "shall we visit some wildreness areas..?" [on TV] Lunar says, "Maybe we should talk about your philosophy here. Tools, roomws like the collaboratory?" [on TV] Lunar says, "Or should we amove to the next place?" [on TV] Ken says, "the collaboratory is the work of Mahina..." [on TV] Ken says, "follow me, type UW to get to the underground walkway.." [on TV] Ken says, "by the riverside.." Flora Moon Lunar at DU 80 [on TV] Ken summons the Ferry Boat... [on TV] . . . the camera pans left to right over Riverside Estates . . . [on TV] You are on the access road to Riverside Estates.. All along the river you see houses being built. Summon Ferry for transportation to Babbage Island. [on TV] Ferry Boat goes <> [on TV] With a chug chug and a toot toot the Ferry Boat arrives... [on TV] Ken says, "look ferry" [on TV] Ken says, "enter ferry" [on TV] Ken hops onto the ferry... [on TV] Lunar drops betacam. [on TV] Ken says, "type out" [on TV] Ken hops off the ferry in true nautical fashion... [on TV] Outside: JohnM dives into the Turing River... [on TV] Ringer hops off the ferry in true nautical fashion... [on TV] idd hops off the ferry in true nautical fashion... [on TV] Lunar drops betacam. [on TV] Lunar turns on camera to begin recording. . . [on TV] Ken says, "ok.." [on TV] Ken drops Ascii Art. [on TV] . . .the camera zooms in on Ringer. . . [on TV] Ringer smiles .. [on TV] . . . the camera pans left to right over The Waterfall . . . [on TV] You are at the foot of a roaring Waterfall. You see a shimmering rainbow over the misty spray o o o o o [on TV] red_Guest says, "fun!" [on TV] Lunar nods in agreement! Flora Moon Lunar at DU 81 [on TV] Ringer grins and thinks of Yea's Crocko. [on TV] Ken says, "we have an ascii art gallery on the West Quad.. this is just a photo album.. in the library we have a bout a 100 other books.. all gopher interfaces.. the complet works of Shakespeare for example.." [on TV] idd says, "this is interesting you have a gopher here linked directly to CT?" [on TV] Ken says, "many of the books were written by Buena Vista College students.." [on TV] Park Ranger says, "[to idd] I hope you are enjoying your visit to our park areas!" [on TV] Ken grins idd, yes and interfaces to WWW thanks to ringer.. shall we go to the library? [on TV] Park Ranger says, "[to Ken] You are most welcome!" [on TV] . . . the camera pans left to right over library . . . [on TV] Ken says, "type: whole catalog to see our holdings.." [on TV] Ringer tiptoes in quietly from the Quad.... [on TV] red_Guest tiptoes in quietly from the Quad.... [on TV] Ken says, "type: whole catalog to see our holdings.." [on TV] Lunar consults Card Catalog . . . [on TV] idd consults Card Catalog . . . [on TV] red_Guest consults Card Catalog . . . [on TV] Ringer grins .. one of her favorite room. [on TV] Ken removes King James Bible from Bookshelf1. [on TV] Ken says, "we have to reset these books everynow and then, because when someone downloads Moby Dick to read it uses up quite a bit of data base storage.." [on TV] idd says, "Ringer, you have a fuzzi logic tutorial of ken's ?" [on TV] Ringer says, "oh.. yes.. " Flora Moon Lunar at DU 82 [on TV] Ringer drops Fuzzy Logic Tutorial. [on TV] Ringer says, "Actually i had mark retrieve it from lost and found .. " [on TV] Ringer is lagging badly [on TV] Ken drops Complete Works SHAKESPEARE. [on TV] Ken lags too.. [on TV] Ringer [to Ken]: which shelf should it go on. [on TV] Ken says, "we are checkpointing i think.." [on TV] Ken shrugs ringer, dunno.. [on TV] Ringer smiles [on TV] Ken says, "look complete works" [on TV] Ken nods ringer [on TV] Ringer thinks that CollegeTown is an InterMOOtional MOO [on TV] Ken says, "just 'look fuzzy' to read the fuzzy logic tutorial.. or anything else.." [on TV] idd says, "maybe this is also what we should do at other MOOs for beyond basic stuff" [on TV] Ken grins ringer [on TV] Ken consults Card Catalog . . . [on TV] Ringer says, "Ken collects folks from all over." [on TV] . . . the camera pans left to right over library . . . [on TV] idd says, " lagging here, forgot to ask you Ken about lambda and when you left for Media was that long ago, and were you there for a long time before starting Collegetown. well only 2 yrs, but many moos started in the same period I think." [on TV] red_Guest is back [on TV] idd says, "I guess I am looking for some chronology, and reasons. Was media started long before you got there?" Flora Moon Lunar at DU 83 [on TV] Ken drops A Rape in CyberSpace. [on TV] Ringer says, "may i reset fuzzy?" [on TV] idd says, " oh the village voice article, it was at DU once. " [on TV] Ken says, "we seem to be experienceing a sever lag problem.. wonder whats happening.." [on TV] Ken says, "i was at mediaMoo for about a year before starting collegetown.. i joined the wiz team there and learned a lot of valuable lessons in administration.." [on TV] Ken says, "AT lambda previously i was a typical newbie.. i programmed all sorts of weird, even antisocial toys, and showed off a lot.. was frequently accused of spamming.. im not proud of my early moo days " [on TV] Ken says, "no, media when i joined only had a hundered or so players if I recall.. i was, i think, the first wizard not from mit.." ------------------------------------------------------------------ Author: Lunar at DU ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 22:52:11 -0500 Reply-To: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal Sender: Journal of Virtual Reality In Education Complete Journal From: Dick Banks Subject: Late Subscribers Hi Everyone There have been a number of people subscribe AFTER the first edition of DU Journal of Virtual Educations was issued to the list. I thought I would give this group a command which will allow them to retrieve the Journal. Here are the instructions. Send a mail message to listserv@sjuvm.stjohns.edu LEAVE THE SUBJECT LINE BLANK. In the body of the mail message put this command on the first line and nothing else in the message. No sigs etc. get jvre-all log9501 You will have the journal in your mailbox in a short while. Please be advised that this is a very large mail message. The articles were sent one at a time at release, but this command will give you the ENTIRE journal in one file. Look for an announcement to the list about the journal being placed for gopher access and perhaps FTP as well. If anyone has problems getting the journal with the above command, please write me and I will send the journal to you. Good Luck! Dick /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\ [ Dick Banks EASI Electronic Resource Manager ] [ Adaptive Technologist - Consultant List owner - Co-owner -Moderatrator ] [ Library Learning Center EASO - AXSLIB-L - ABLE-JOB - ADVOCACY ] [ University of Wisconsin-Stout ITD-JNL - ITD-TOC - JVRE-ALL & TOC]] ] [ rbanks@uwstout.edu rbanks@savvy.com rbanks@rdz.stjohns.edu ] \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\]