Theory in Action

Theory behind collaborative learning in virtual spaces

In their book The Media Equation, Cliff Nass and Byron Reeves revealed through a series of experiments that people treat media in exactly the same way they treat reality. From this astounding finding we can begin to understand why massive multiuser virtual environments have become so popular. People are, by nature, social and desire a broad variety of interaction with other people. Leveraging some of the most interesting aspects of these online computer games such as fantasy, choice, and customization (Cordova & Lepper, 1996; Lepper & Malone, 1987) we can begin to extrapolate how the classroom of the future may differ from what we have today. The primary difference that this project is concerned with is the possibility of mixing "modes" of interaction, finding the perfect balance of virtual and physical interaction.