Pop.Cosmo: Constance Steinkuehler’s New Blog on VWs

Constance Steinkuehler, over at U. Wisconsin, is shepherding a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to explore the pedagogical potentials within virtual worlds. Consequently, Steinkuehler and colleagues have begun a blog called pop.cosmo. Contributing authors to the blog include David Simkins and Sean Duncan.

In explaining the name, Steinkuehler notes that pop cosmopolitan refers to, “the ways that virtual worlds are becoming novel contexts for the development of new forms of civic engagement in a global, networked world.”  

The blog will serve as a platform for the research team to discuss ongoing research as well as transfer information regarding after school projects and other related goings-on. In a post on Terra Nova, Steinkuehler elaborates on the research team’s raison d’être:

… we empirically investigate key literacy practices that constitute successful MMO gameplay (such as scientific literacy, computational literacy, and reciprocal apprenticeship) & how those literacy practices connect up with life and learning beyond the virtual worlds themselves. Then, based on this understanding, we develop after school instructional programs that leverage MMOs to get kids involved in what we see as core 21st century skills (that are often under-emphasized in classrooms).

It looks like an interesting blog, and those interested in ongoing research of virtual worlds in education should stop by to take a look.