This project, originally proposed as a dissertation in English at the University of Georgia, explores the potential of MOO as a platform for creating hypertextual online learning spaces. Specifically, it consists of a suite of MOO objects for the study and teaching of the "nonsense songs" of the British Victorian poet Edward Lear. It was first developed on CowTown MOO at the Ohio State University, before that server developed serious technical problems. I am in the process of reconstructing the project on LinguaMOO at the University of Texas at Dallas. It is, of course, meant to be experienced via a synchronous MOO connection allowing interaction with other users, but it can also be browsed via a non-interactive web connection.
When completed, I hope this project will provide a working MOO-based, hypertextual literature classroom, offering an engaging environment for learning about a particular literary topic and models the development of similar spaces for other topics. The project also has implications for both hypertext theory and computer pedagogy. To hypertext theory, it brings the idea of hypertext as a shared space and of hypertext reading as a potentially social, rather than purely solitary, activity. To the discourse on online learning environments, it will provide a resource where the subject of instruction is the teaching environment, where the structure of the knowledge to be learned shapes the space of instruction itself. I would argue that MOO is not an aging and outmoded technology, but rather an educational tool of still-unrealized potential.
If you'd like to know more about this project, please feel free to read:
I also presented a report on this project at Digital Resources for the Humanities 2002 in Edinburgh. My paper is included in the selected proceedings of DRH01 and DRH02, published by the Office for Humanities Communication, Kings College London (Publication 16). The powerpoint presentation I gave can be viewed here.