Bron Stuckey is supporting a campaign to reboot Quest Atlantis, a project derived from Active Worlds which she has been intensively involved in. She will join us on Learning2gether to tell us about the importance to learners of Quest Atlantis and the Kickstarter campaign she is promoting to help raise funds to revive the initiative, as it says on these websites
Rick Noll Owner and one of the developers of ActiveWorlds, Inc.
and Ellen Jameson of Reboot Quest Atlantis
For the past decade there was a vast educational research project taking place in classrooms on 6 continents. It was Quest Atlantis, a massively multiplayer online game integrating strong support for 21st century skills into each subject. Teachers, students, and researchers alike hoped that Quest Atlantis could grow, and other students could share the experiences they loved. Some parts of the project moved forward, but as grant funding for the multiplayer platform drew to a close, the team couldn’t keep the game ready for today’s classrooms. As the developers of the engine that ran Quest Atlantis, we’ve always been excited to see what students were able to do, inside the game and out, and we listened when teachers told us they didn’t want to see it go. We’re working hard to bring it back for a new generation, in collaboration with members of the original Quest Atlantis team. If you brought your students in to Quest Atlantis – or if you were a student there – you know that the community formed around reading, writing, building, sharing, and saving the world together was special. You know there was potential for much more to unfold – more for students and teachers to create, more features to make the right tools available. Make your pledge and help us bring a new Quest Atlantis to a new generation!
Where? Hangout on Air
You could watch and listen to the stream in the video embedded at http://webheadsinaction.org/live
while chatting with us in real-time in the Chatwing embed below the video
Vance Stevens – I see an icon with your name on it … move your mouse to the left edge of the HoA window and find the green screenshare icon with the white arrow, try and toggle it off ?
but if you’re happy, no problem
Daniel F. Bassill – I clicked on the green icon and it was inviting me to share my screen. I can see that in my icon space my screen is being shared. It’s not a problem to me.
Daniel F. Bassill – This issue of funding continuation is something I’ve focused on for nearly 20 years. I faced it in the programs I was leading and recognize that everyone else faces same challenge. Thus my on-line connections seek people working to fix this problem for all of us, not just for themself. Hard to find such people.
Vance Stevens – I think this is for K-12, am I right?
Daniel F. Bassill – Minecraft seems to be well-supported, and promoted, by YouTube videos that show “how to” build things. My son has watched these for a few years. Building something that has the same appeal, and the same level of YouTube activity, would be key to making this widely used.
Daniel F. Bassill – People need to get paid in order to stay involved and give their time and talent. Is there a business plan that shows how fees for use might generate enough revenue for future development, training, marketing, etc.
Ellen Jameson – Yes! Would love to talk more about that
Daniel F. Bassill – I’ve been part of some cMOOCs over past few years, such as Deeper Learning, Education Technology & Media. Format is good and can be on-going.
Daniel F. Bassill – Minecraft has millions of users who have become self motivated to spen countless hours playing the game. If educators had resources that motivated as much student use, and could show measurable learning outcomes, this would be a home run. It’s possible that the more this appeals to educators the less it will appeal to learners.
Ellen Jameson – That’s one reason I’m very excited about the story/game authoring tools. The thing that really drove the continuing core of voluntary student participation was building
even the peer review activity system was tied to building
And authoring is highly enriched building – as Bron described with World Congress
Nellie Deutsch, Ed.D – You need to market QA. I forgot about it until now. Need to bring it out to the public not just teachers, but maybe parents and kids
Daniel F. Bassill – I encourage you to move quickly into social media and/or a MOOC and try to attract those 25k past users into participation. Just building those numbers can help you demonstrate value to potential donors/investors while offering loads of talent to help you.
Nellie Deutsch, Ed.D – I’d like to get involved. I’m freer these days so try me.
The ELT cyber faculty lounge returns as many teachers and students around the world get ready to head back to the classroom. All are welcome to join in and share ideas, questions, and collaboration thoughts for the coming semester.
Wed. Aug. 26 1300 UTC
Tune in at http://eltlive.com/live