Electronic Discourse in educational Moos

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,3 (A), University of Munster (English Seminar), course: Didactics Advanced Seminar, language: English, abstract: [...] In our introduction, we first want to draw on the field of educational MOOs. The upcoming of personal computers, it s speedy with more advancing progress upto this date and the easy accessibility at home or in educational institutions such asschools and universities. Language Classes in universities for example, have alreadyled the 1980s to an ever increasing awareness that there is an almost unsustainableand enormously large potential in its use for classroom purposes and other activities. Although manifold, in the focus of our interest (for we are dealing with EFL learningin our seminar) we measured L2 acquisition and the learnability of a ForeignLanguage with the help of a computer program. We will thus narrow down severalpossible choices we could make relating to teaching/learning software and chooseone of them. The program that we will thoroughly discuss in the next few chapters isone that already, from a technological standpoint, has a long history. We must lookback to 1979 when the first virtual MUD (Multi-User Dungeon or Multi-User Domain),the predecessor of the MOO (Multi-User Domain, Object-Oriented) comes into play. MUDs do not crucially differ from MOOs, as becomes evident in their being virtuallythe same program based on a similar code, the MOO, however, evolved from theMUD as a more advanced version sporting some more additional and useful featuresand making it therefore better to use for classroom purposes.1First of all, what is a/the MOO? The MOO is a publicly accessible database,available and accessible from anywhere on the world via network systems like, mostpopular, the Internet. Users must log on to a server in order to gain access. Some ofthis works via telnet or clients include MacMOOSE, Pueblo or encore Xpress. Curtisand Nichols say that MOOs are frequently referred to as text-based virtual realities (own italics, K.M, D.B) (TBVRs)2, because they are based on unformatted text, ratherthan a colourful user graphic interface (UGI). The term object-oriented, hidden inMOO, means MOO players can add new spaces in the form of rooms or otherobjects to the classroom. 1 To provide the reader with a complete history on MUD/MOO environments would by far exceed thelength of this paper. For a complete history, see Holmevik, Jan Rune; Haynes, Cynthia:MOOniversity:a student s guide to online learning environments. 2000. p. 1 ff. 2 Curtis/Nichols 1993: n.p.