Adam Ingram-Goble's Page

To start I want to frame this discussion with some text about what Quest Atlantis is from the MacArthur Foundation's site: "The core elements of QA are 1) a 3-D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE), 2) learning Quests and unit plans, 3) a storyline, presented through an introductory video as well as a novella and a comic book, that involves a mythical Council and a set of social commitments, and 4) a globally-distributed community of participants. QA was designed to foster inter-subjective… Continue

Another aspect of the conversation around games and learning we frequent at Quest Atlantis is how to embed curricula and gameplay in contexts that invite the player to consider not just what they are learning, but why as well. Math, as an example, is frequently segregated from its real domain of utility, and forced into the mold of just solving drill or word problems. So the question that plagues us is how do we balance the telling vs. the showing of an academic goal? What is too m… Continue

A final aspect of Quest Atlantis are the seven Social Commitments. These are Compassionate Wisdom, Social Responsibility, Personal Agency, Creative Expression, Environmental Awareness, Healthy Communities, and Diversity Affirmation. As Kurt Squire notes, games are ideological spaces, and we can readily argue that curricula and school systems are as well. For QA, the Social Commitments are part of our ideological space. As virtual worlds for education become more wide-spread, and international, h… Continue