QUEST ATLANTIS TEACHER AND TEACHER EDUCATOR WORKSHOP
Bronwyn Stuckey
Quest Atlantis, Indiana University
[email protected]
Abstract
In Australia a number of teachers have undertaken training and moved to implement the conceptual
play space Quest Atlantis (http://www.questatlantis.org) into the curriculum in their schools. This
workshop offers participants practical and hands-on insight into the value of Quest Atlantis, a 3D
multi-user virtual world developed by the Learning Sciences team at Indiana University. With foci
varying from gifted and talented education, mainstream teaching and learning, motivating students and
pastoral care, and in the presence of teachers practicing in the program, participants will see how this
virtual world has the potential to transform what we understand a school-based learning.
Workshop objectives are to:
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offer participants full teacher accounts and resources for use in Quest Atlantis
demonstrate the capability of the Quest Atlantis virtual world
allow participants to explore the environments from three relevant perspectives; student,
teacher and community.
Share cases and anecdotes from implementation of Quest Atlantis in classes across Australia
in 2007 and 2008 and to envision and discuss how the program might best fit in their own
teaching and learning environments.
offer participants the opportunity to integrate Quest Atlantis in their classrooms having in this
session completed half of the required teacher professional development
facilitate teacher access to the online professional development after the conference to
complete their training cycle.
The intended audience (experience level and pre-requisites)
Classroom teachers, educational system administrators, tertiary educators (pre-service and
postgraduate) teacher education who have responsibility for school students in the range of 9-14 years
of age are invited to attend this workshop. No prior online experience is required indeed this session
will focus on hands-on explorations for those new to virtual worlds.
The proposed duration of the workshop
3 hours would be preferred to give participants a quality experience in exploring both the technology,
pedagogy and classroom application of Quest Atlantis. A 90 minute version can be run but would only
complete ¼ of the teacher professional development cycle offered online.
An outline the Quest Atlantis program
In Australia a growing number of teachers in primary and secondary have undertaken training and
moved to implement Quest Atlantis into the curriculum planning in their schools. This workshop
session offers hands-on exploration of Quest Atlantis. The training session will count towards full
qualification for participants to use the program in their schools. The presenters will highlight the
motivational, curricular and transformative value of learning within this rich 3D virtual world and a
diverse global community. Participants will have the opportunity to explore quests, missions, units of
work and games within the virtual world.
‘The people of Atlantis face an impending disaster: and despite their technological development, their
world is slowly being destroyed. In an effort to save their civilization, the Council developed the
OTAK - a virtual environment that serves as a technological portal between Atlantis and other
worlds’. This is the scenario that students are drawn into as they enter Quest Atlantis. This OTAK
features two key components, a personalized online portfolio and a virtual 3D space. It is considered
that today's youth with their adventurous optimism can especially contribute the sort of knowledge that
the Council seeks. Students are invited to become a Quester and to help save Atlantis!
Figure 1. Screen capture of the Quest Atlantis 3D interface.
Take a look at the legend video to get a feel for how this scenario is established
http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/public/qa_legend.mov . The legend is presented more fully through a
novel and graphic novel, giving a clear literacy anchor to Quest Atlantis in the school curriculum.
As an international learning and teaching project Quest Atlantis uses a 3D multi-user environment
designed to immerse children, ages 9-15, in rich and diverse educational tasks. It has been developed
by a team in the Learning Sciences group at the Indiana University (http://www.questatlantis.org) with
the assistance of grant funding for the original design from the National Science Foundation and
funding for scaling to globally from the Macarthur Foundation. The program was introduced to a pilot
group of schools in Australia some 4 years ago, and in 2007 with the advent of online teacher
professional development has been able to reach out and gain broader acceptance across our country
and around the world. The program is fully moderated and all communication takes place behind
stringent security has well developed norms and protocols. Quest Atlantis is not commercially
operated and access for schools and is offered at no financial cost. All it takes is a commitment from
schools for an integrated approach to implementation of Quest Atlantis and for teachers to be trained
in the programs rich capabilities. The schools and teachers showcased in this symposium are exemplar
of that commitment and a highly professional approach to integrating virtual worlds into the
curriculum. All the panelists in this symposium trained in their own time online over 2006/7 and
through that professional development and the virtual community itself have developed close ties.
Quest Atlantis has been built to support constructivist and constructionist pedagogies supporting
students to take on management of their own learning trajectory. QA combines strategies used in the
commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation.
The 3D space contains the different worlds created by the Council, and each world features several
villages. It allows users to travel to virtual places to perform educational activities (known as Quests),
talk with other users and mentors, and build virtual personae. Through the OTAK, people from other
planets can help the Council by engaging in quests and sharing their experience, wisdom, and hope.
Students also take on roles, responsibilities and leadership as part of an online community and can
develop design and building skills as they design and build environments in the 3D world.
Underlying the development of QA learning tasks, QA unit plans, and the experience of Quest Atlantis
more generally is a participatory framework that emphasizes action and reflection as vital components
to the learning process. This notion of an active learner engaged in real-world activities is central to
the child-centred, experientially-focused, and inquiry-based learning environments promoted in
academic research, and is consistent with current frameworks and plans for educational reform. The
framework is also underpinned by serious considerations for student safety and understanding of
requirements for norms and mores in online virtual spaces. Quest Atlantis staff have negotiated and
documented customizations that allow this program to operate compatibly within most Australian
school firewalls and the program infrastructures confidently address systemic and departmental
concerns about duty of care and student safety .
You can view a Game Play Video that shows a Quester navigating through some of these different
virtual worlds. Worlds reflect various themes (e.g., urban ecology, water quality, astronomy, and
weather) usually aligned with particular subject matters, and include a purpose built spectrum of
challenges (Quests and missions). These Quests and missions involve students in a range of tasks from
simulation to application problems with varying levels of complexity.
The challenge has been to provide an adaptive entity that is not simply about playing yet remains
engaging, is not a lesson yet fosters learning, and is not evangelical yet still promotes a social agenda.
The research agenda focuses on understanding the pedagogical and motivational impact of the
medium, differences among genders and from different socio-economic backgrounds, the relationship
between play and learning, the challenges in maintaining and participating in a globally-distributed
online community, how to best facilitate the meaningful crossing of multiple life worlds, and how
different design features of the project impact children's participation.
A summary of the instructor’s qualifications and experience
Instructor: Dr Bronwyn Stuckey
Postdoctoral Fellow & International Liaison
Quest Atlantis, Indiana University
Bloomington, IN, USA
& Sydney, NSW Australia
Bronwyn Stuckey has a doctorate in education focusing on the development of Internet-mediated
communities of practice and has worked with the Learning Sciences program at Indiana University
Education Faculty as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow for the last 5 years. She has operated in
the role of International liaison and teacher trainer for the past 3 years while doing research on social
network analysis and identity building in virtual world communities. Bronwyn will be accompanied in
this training session by teachers who have implemented Quest Atlantis in mainstream teaching
environments across Australia. We will also be joined in the session by teachers across the globe (time
zones permitting) who have also implemented Quest Atlantis in their schools.
Requirements for the workshop
Lab requirements
The session will be all hands-on and will require one Internet connected computer per participant.
It will be most effectively delivered in a PC Lab.
Software requirements
Quest Atlantis will need to be installed on each computer in the lab and may require testing of the
access to ports and compatibility with any firewalls. There is a standard configuration file that is
readily edited to work within network firewalls and will likely need to be edited in this case. Bronwyn
may need to work with a site network officer to ensure this is made available and readily accessible.
Expectation you have for Internet use
This session will require use of the Internet for all participants and will require that software has been
preloaded onto the lab and presentation machines in a way that is compatible with firewalls and
network preclusions. The presenter will need to have access to the lab before the day of the workshop
to establish configurations compatible with the venue firewalls and proxies.
NB: This workshop session is a companion to a panel session Learning In Virtual Worlds: Case
Studies Of Quest Atlantis In Australian Schools also proposed for this conference. It is hoped that
teachers who attend the panel session will be motivated to join the workshop after hearing the stories
of real world implementation in schools very similar to their own.