I’ve said that adults and young people alike may be engaged by courseware systems that apply gaming concepts in their interactive and narrative designs. But what about teachers who want to go beyond websites, courseware systems, whiteboards and discussion forums in their classroom blended learning environments?

BBC contributor Bill Thompson recently attended ReLIVE08, a conference on the education and research uses of virtual “worlds”. At the conference, he learned about the creative ways in which virtual environments are being used in areas as diverse as language teaching and urban planning.

Sarah Robins-Bell, co-author of Second Life for Dummies, gave a paper in which she looked at 75 different virtual worlds and created a classification scheme that may helps courseware system teachers understand similarities and differences between diverse worlds like Everquest, Club Penguin, Second Life and World of Warcraft.

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