In a post about virtual worlds written last term, I listed a few questions that I was keen to seek answers to over the teaching session that followed. Being midway through a module specifically dedicated to educational games and play, I thought it would be useful to revisit two of these questions with this new background.

Can virtual worlds help bridge the gap between students' daily environments and their classrooms, and therefore get them more involved in their studies? Or would it be too distracting and make it difficult for them to distinguish between leisure and studying times?

As soon as I re-read this sentence, I found it contradictory. Even more so through the new vision of play that Kane provides. Beyond shedding some light on why people oppose play and work (including me following the way my question was phrased), one aspect of play that I find particularly useful is the creativity and feeling of wellness it involves. To me, this is what this Masters (by being based, in part, on an experiential design) is all about: it is relative freedom for better learning. It makes it possible to achieve learning at the appropriate level, while enabling learners to enjoy themselves, and thereby increasing the likeliness of reaching an even higher level through creative approaches. In my opinion, the same can apply to work and all aspects of life. In this ideal world (which each of us can create at their own level), the two questions above, taken together, don't make much sense anymore: how useful is it to consider the likeliness of being distracted from one task by another, when both tasks involve as much fun?

If so, are there study areas, such as graphic design or video game development (De Balanda 2008), for which these environments would be more appropriate than for others?

The ethic above - we should approach everything in a playful manner - would in a way be redundant with this question. But in the meantime, virtual environments can possibly help us enter the spiral of creativity, enjoyment and fun. And I'm grateful to this Masters to have opened my mind on the positive as well as negative aspects of those environments.

References:

De Balanda, L.B. (2008). Enseignement en ligne Monde persistance. Intellicore Tech Talks. Sofia-Antipolis, June, 17th 2008. Retrived: 10 November 2008
http://techtalks.intellicore.net/2008/06/18/video-nouveaux-outils-pedagogiques-pour-un-enseignement-en-ligne-dans-un-monde-persistant/

Kane, P. (2005). A general theory of play. In The play ethic: a manifesto for a different way of living. London, Pan. Introduction; Towards the Play Ethic