The idea of using Virtual Reality or Virtual Worlds with young children has played on my mind since around 2007 when I first became a user of SL. Knowing the experiences in which I immersed myself and some of the effects experienced during the first few months of actually inhabiting such a space, I often wonder about how it would affect children. I was involved in some Action Research re using the space for PL for colleagues and saw great potential for the teaching of adults in this interactive space. I also listened to many teachers discussing what they do with their students. Some of my experiences are contained within one of my blogs.
Since recognising that I am not technical enough to develop an in house simulated VW for my younger students, I have been using Minecraft. I have seen first hand the experiences of a few years’ worth of students in a multiplayer environment within my after school computer club. I have shared experiences through Flickr (Young Aussie Miners) and with other educators when asked.
My latest foray into research has been to start reading Bergen, Davis and Abbitt’s “Technology, Play and Brain Development: Infancy to Adolescence and Future Implications.” The jury is out at present as I haven’t moved past the first few chapters into finding out what they have concluded. My blog post on this is here. My concerns raised are similar to those mentioned in Waks’ article “Nature and Child Instincts” in the last section of Edorble Week 1 module: “….Dewey pointed to: close and intimate acquaintance with real things and people and actual processes and manipulation of social necessities and uses.” If we encounter experiences within virtual reality – they have been created by someone else – I believe there will always be that disconnect between the real and the virtual. Further …” reality has not been erased or eclipsed but is potentially obscured by networked technologies. Access to mediated versions of reality is not connection to real life. We ignore the complex relations between the “screen” and the world at our peril.”

I do see Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality applications as useful adjuncts to real life experiences when guided by a knowledgeable and ethical educator or parent. This will be something I will be pondering for quite some time to come.