Learning Opportunities

Virtual worlds are often dismissed as merely games without any educational benefits. But there are plenty of informal learning opportunities for kids in these environments, particularly as these are often children’s first experiences with online communities. Participating in a virtual world can help kids learn how to communicate and behave online.

Virtual worlds can also be utilized to help bridge the gap between online and offline ethics. One virtual world, MiniMonos, for example, has an environmental theme and tries to make sustainability methods clear to its users. If you don't recycle around your avatar's treehouse, there are in-world consequences. The virtual world also ties it to the real world, rewarding users for various environmental actions they take.

It's this connection to community that may be one of the greatest benefits of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds offer kids a place to experiment and expand socially, giving children an opportunity to participate in a large social environment, often unsupervised by their parents. As always, parents should make sure they know where and what their kids are doing online. 

Although virtual worlds may be a relatively new phenomenon, the fact that kids under 13 are embracing them suggests that we're only beginning to see the potential of these online communities.

Stirrings from the Sony camp may lead to some exciting new innovations – Sony recently announced their HMD device (head mounted display) which Mike Hocking (SCE Studios executive) sees as heading in the right direction for virtual reality ‘you can see that we can now get back to where we really wanted to get with virtual reality in the ’80s.... We’ve now got the power to do it, we’ve got the screen resolution to do it, we’ve got the processing power to update fast enough so we can have very immersive experiences on head-mounted displays in gaming in the not too distant future... Being in a virtual world where I can see my virtual hands or a virtual gun with all the things we can do in the gaming world is going to be absolutely amazing.’