Moving Practice: From Classrooms to MOO Rooms

  • Authors:
  • Vicki O‘Day;Daniel Bobrow;Kimberly Bobrow;Mark Shirley;Billie Hughes;Jim Walters

  • Affiliations:
  • Xerox PARC, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, U.S.A.;Xerox PARC, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, U.S.A.;Xerox PARC, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, U.S.A.;Xerox PARC, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, U.S.A.;Phoenix College, 1202 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ 85013, U.S.A.;Phoenix College, 1202 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ 85013, U.S.A.

  • Venue:
  • Computer Supported Cooperative Work - Special issue on interaction and collaboration in MUDs
  • Year:
  • 1998

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Abstract

We discuss design considerations in moving practice through the boundaryfrom physical to virtual places. Although the examples are grounded in aschool environment, we believe that the design tradeoffs apply to anynetworked collaborative space. The context for discussion is Pueblo, aMOO-based, cross-generation network learning community centered around aK-6 elementary school. The development of practice in Pueblo draws uponteachers‘ and students‘ experience with semi-structured classroomparticipation frameworks – informal structures of social interactionwhich foster certain ways of thinking, doing, and learning through guidedactivities and conversations. We have translated several familiar frameworksinto the Pueblo setting, using the classroom versions as models to beadapted and transformed as they are aligned with the affordances of the MOO.We identify four design dimensions that have emerged as particularlyinteresting and important in this process: audience, asynchrony andsynchrony, attention and awareness, and prompts for reflection. Weillustrate design choices in each dimension using several of theparticipation frameworks that have been translated into Pueblo. We discussthe relation between MOO affordances and design choices and provide examplesof successful and unsuccessful alignment between them.