Some educators feel strongly that schools should use virtual worlds to engage today’s youth. I remember a distant time when teachers had the power to create imaginary worlds in the class. A Social Studies would tell about the Civil War from the viewpoint of a teenager as his middle school students enter in that teenager’s struggles. An English teacher used A Midsummer’s Nights Dream to explore young love for high school students. They understand the world of crazy love, mistaken love, and true love. The play becomes a vehicle for them to explore an important issue in their lives. A science teacher had the students adopt a local stream; they tell the stream’s story throughout the school year. They write as if they were the living stream. Teachers have the power to create wonderful worlds in the classroom. Students can be transported to other places, times, and events and see through the eyes of others. They learn more in-depth and more comprehensively.
Can you create imaginary worlds in your class so that students enter into a different world? Do you transport them to a different realm of seeing and thinking? Get your Merlin’s wand out!
My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.
Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle 