Jan Holmevik, my husband, and I created Lingua MOO , a free online chat space with special rooms for class discussions, collaborative work, presentations, dramas, and various other educational tools. We recently added a graphical interface with a chat space on one side and Web pages for multimedia content on the other. It improves critical thinking, and reactions must be quick. They may do presentations using MOO slides or Web projectors through the graphical interface, and they build their own rooms and objects that may function as agents responding to preprogrammed cues. One student created an entire one-act play.
Group work is enhanced in new ways too.
Working in the MOO does not, as yet, necessarily supplant traditional modes of student writing. We still cling to the essay as the primary genre by which we assess student writing skills, although some of us are trying to shake this up and include other kinds of writing and assessment, including MOO activities, as part of course requirements. Even if students are engaged and on topic they do not necessarily understand why we do it. But for the most part, the benefits come with time, as with any new pedagogical tool or theory. Once faculty and students begin to use the MOO as a total work and learning environment, then shifts in levels of motivation, energy, and commitment can be seen.