Overcoming Objections to MUVEs in Education - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 9

ers and other adults from worrying about the safety
of young people. It is part of the nature of being a
responsible adult to be concerned for the safety of
the next generation. Hopefully, this data can help
put those fears in proper perspective. As in the real
world, there are undoubtedly some risks involved
in exploring and learning in virtual worlds. But
seen in proper perspective, reasonable risks and
reasonable precautions should be an acceptable
part of life. Opportunities to learn and grow in
virtual worlds, like those in the real world, should
not be taken away from young people because of
misplaced and disproportionate fears.

is that each student user will have access to an
individual computer to gain the full benefits of the
shared virtual environment. Harvard's River City
Project (2007) lists a 1-1 computer ratio as a one
of the hardware requirements to use that MUVE.
Technical requirements can be a misleading bar-
rier to MUVE implementation. Each MUVE,
like each game, has particular requirements. If
the available hardware, software or network can-
not support a particular MUVE, it is possible to
look for another one with different requirements.
Often the objection will be presented before the
requirements are known. Hardware and software
requirements are seldom an insurmountable
obstacle as long as an implementer is willing to
consider different MUVEs.
Another element of client side technical bar-
riers can be the issue of accessing the Internet
from schools. Usually this is not really a technical
problem as much as it is a policy or practice prob-
lem. While once there was a significant question
as to whether a given school had Internet access
at all, nearly all schools now have broadband
access to the Internet (Wells & Lewis, 2006).
Many schools have firewall or Internet access
policies in place that restrict use of the Internet.
Which network ports are open through the school
or district fire wall may be a matter of policy at
the local, district or even state level. Different
network applications, including MUVEs, have
different port requirements. Since the default
security setting for ports is to have them closed
or blocked, it may take active technical support
to open the appropriate ports for a MUVE to be
implemented unless the MUVE uses ports that are
already open for another application. If a MUVE
has uncommon port requirements, they will usu-
ally be identified in the technical documentation
along with other requirements. Firewalls and other
software obstacles to Internet access are controlled
by people and policy, so the solution to theses
barriers is to convince the appropriate control-
ling authorities. That is something better handled
in a direct discussion rather than submitting an

Objection: The Technology
Requirements are too High

This objection often addresses two different as-
pects of the technology. On the one hand it literally
means that the required hardware and software
is either not available or not accessible. On the
other hand, it often means that the potential us-
ers lack sufficient command of the technology to
comfortably or appropriately implement it. These
are significant concerns. Even the best technology
is useless if the intended users cannot access it.
Warburton (2008) identified five technical barriers
to implanting MUVEs in education: client side,
server side, managing use of the MUVE, skill
mastery and shared community skills.
Client side issues include all the logistical fac-
tors that need to be overcome to bring a MUVE
into a school. When computer games are used
in schools, teachers can work around issues like
not having a higher than 1-1 student to computer
ratio. Students can take turns with some on the
computers while others do different projects,
or students can share a computer and work as a
team (Pahl, 1991) Such group play can promote
reflection and deeper learning during the activity.
Some computer companies design games with
educational applications with shared computer
use specifically in mind (Muzzy Lane, 2009).
However, the presumption with most MUVEs