|[ ASCILITE ] [ 2004 Proceedings Contents ] | The authors
believe that the overlap between computer-supported
collaborative learning (CSCL) and games design theories can now
be tested and applied to high school teaching practice, due to
the large uptake of Internet access in schools. Teachers and
students at a high school in Perth, Western Australia, are being
used in a pilot study as "proof of concept". This study will
entail the development, testing and investigation of the use of
a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) to
facilitate collaborative learning in the English and Science
domains. This paper describes the background, preliminary work
and findings involved in the pilot study. Adjacent education
(Eustace, 2003) occurs as students learn and act on new
knowledge in their local context. Whether on-campus or online,
learning takes place adjacent to the learner, and removes the
word 'distance' from use in education. In many ways the
educational technology of instructional gaming ("edut