Keywords

Educational technology, Video games

Abstract

This study examines mass-market applications for some of the many theories of eLearning and blended learning, focusing most closely on a period from 2000-2010. It establishes a state of the union for K-12 immersive eLearning environments by using in-depth cases studies of five major mass-market, educational, and community-education based products—Gaia Online, Poptropica, Quest Atlantis, Dimenxian/Dimension U, and Folkvine. Investigating these models calls into play not only the voices of traditional academic and usability research, but also the ad hoc voices of the players, commentators, developers, and bloggers. These are the people who speak to the community of these sites, and their lived experiences fall somewhere in the interstices between in-site play, beta development, and external commentary (both academic and informal.) The works of experimental academic theorists play an acknowledged and fundamental role in this study, including those of Ulmer, Barab, Gee, and McLuhan. These visionary voices of academia are balanced with a consideration of both the political and financial constraints surrounding immersive educational game development. This secondary level of analysis focuses on how issues around equity of access, delivery platforms, and target disciplines can and should inform strategic goals. While this dissertation alone is unlikely to solve issues of access, emergent groups including the OLPC hold exciting promises for worldwide connectivity. My conclusion forms a synthesis of all these competing forces and proposes a pragmatic and conceptual rule-set for the development of a forward-looking and immersive educational MMORPG

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Campbell, James

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003549

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003549

Language

English

Release Date

December 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Arts and Humanities -- Dissertations, Academic, Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Humanities

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