Amazed and Amused by the MUSE by Michael Clifford, Mark Tozer, James Cleere, and Erin McGuirk Accelerated Learning Laboratory (A.L.L.) School Worcester, MA Enter one of the Intermediate Blue cluster classrooms at the A.L.L. School in Worcester, MA and there is absolutely no chance that you'll find the entire class reading chapter eight in their science textbook. Instead, walk over to the pair of students in one corner and find them on a computer creating an African safari environment. Take two steps to your left and you'll find a girl exploring the land of Oz. Pass through the door and two more boys might be examining vistas from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Snake your way past a comfortable reading nook and discover a couple more students busily creating a Tolkien world, constructing their own rooms complete with hobbits and unique visions of Middle Earth. Tiptoe across the hall and you're likely to find Clancey, or Charlotte, as she is called on the MUSE, accessing technical advice from a Mentor before passing on this new information to her tutoring group. These students have been introduced to the virtual world of the MUSE -- Multi-User Simulated Environment. Once they have the opportunity to be initiated into this new world, through a series of tutorials called "learning trails" and interaction online with Mentors, the students are able to create their own rooms complete with characters, puppets, and an intricate layout of entrances and exits. Picture first a place called "Cyberion City II." As described in the introduction, "Cyberion City II on MicroMUSE is on a huge space station orbiting Earth whose residents live in peaceful community dedicated to discovery, preservation of knowledge, and good times. When you connect you will notice that many of our simulations and interactive exhibits make our community very much like a large museum. As a student-member, you will be able to explore and interact freely with them. Later, as a full member, you will be able to work on projects yourself...." Membership status is granted only upon the accomplishment of three primary objectives: (1) members need to understand the educational nature of MicroMUSE and develop individual learning goals; (2) members must fully understand and abide by the MicroMUSE Code of Conduct; and (3) members should understand the basic MUSE environment such as how to communicate, create and manipulate objects, and how to access online resources. In order to meet these objectives, students are asked to complete a variety of tasks with the help of online Mentors. They must compose a statement of personal goals, be able to program a simple object, ask two Mentors to sponsor their membership application, and answer an online questionnaire. The possibilities are endless. The advantages for students run the gamut from improved self-esteem and ability to lead and work cooperatively with others to the opportunity to link up and communicate with people from around the world. In addition to improved literacy skills, working with the MUSE has allowed ESL (English as a Second Language) students to make extraordinary gains in language acquisition in a remarkably short time. Through communicating with others online, it has allowed one of our students to be far less timid in class and to interact more consistently with others in the real world of the classroom. As an example of the way one student was able to connect her project about animals within the context of our African project cycle, Aimee used the MUSE to envision an African safari. Take a glimpse into her virtual adventure: You see a big chaotic room filled with jeeps and other equipment needed for going on a safari. The walls are filled with pictures of rhinos, elephants, hippos, lions, chimps, and other African animals. You will be exploring a wonderful savannah that leads you to a fabulous water hole... You see a mixed group of giraffes and zebras drinking from this water source and some lions behind them ready to pounce..." Students at the Accelerated Learning Laboratory are putting into practice one of the key tenets of the New American Schools-sponsored Co-NECT design. Created by Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, MA, the design (Co-operative Networked Educational Community of Tomorrow) calls for redefined student and teacher roles within the context of multiage cluster teams. The empowerment of students becomes not just another wornout cliche, but is continuously put into practice in authentic, purposeful contexts. The technology component of the Co-NECT design calls for a broad range of technology tools to be integrated into the life of the school in such a pervasive and seamless way that the tools allow the entire school community to access, organize, reconfigure, and display information as problems are uncovered, defined, grappled with, and ultimately solved. The technology culture that results encourages both adults as well as children to try out and become comfortable with a wide array of tools, and in so doing, become a true community of learners. As individual students gain expertise in a particular area, they are poised to become mentors to other students (older as well as younger) and to adults. Instead of a simulated, artificial tutoring situation, these students have a purpose in sharing their expertise. In the case of the MUSE it is to open up a new world of text-based networked environments to as many people as possible. The introduction of MUSE capability at our school has been one more way that we have been able to address technology access and equity for all our students, regardless of academic ability or sociocultural background. It has provided a highly motivating forum for students to develop their abilities to communicate with people around the world. Formerly reluctant writers are now determined to join their peers on the computers to tap into this new opportunity. Students for whom reading and writing were a chore, are now anxious to write, think about their writing, and are willing to plan what they intend to write as well as share their writing ideas with others. In the words of Zhao, one of our most advanced negotiators of the MUSE: "MUSE has changed my learning a lot. It has given me ideas and has helped me to write more creative and interesting articles and stories. It has also improved my reading. MUSE is all text so I have to read and imagine a lot. I worked on a project called 'Safari Central.' It was hard to write, but it was a lot of fun creating it." As posted on one of the classroom walls, the learning objectives that relate to the MUSE are directly tied to what we refer to as critical skills: In using the MUSE, students will: * Communicate with people around the world in real time * Build projects for others to see * Practice writing and communicating in a meaningful setting * Practice mechanics of writing * Develop keyboarding skills * Explore the limits of technology * Learn basic computer programming * Expand imaginations and have fun! For most of us, the first time we had ever heard the term "MUSE" was at a staff meeting the day before this school year began. Mark Tozer, one of our Intermediate level teachers, rose near the end of the day-long workshop to describe the MUSE in such an animated, exuberant way that I knew this must be something very powerful. As it turned out, Mark had met B.B.N. staffer Barry Kort while visiting the Boston Museum of Science a couple of years before. In the course of conversation, the A.L.L. School and the MUSE came up, and the natural match between the two became clear. With Barry's encouragement and technical assistance, Mark and two of his colleagues, Erin McGuirk and Jim Cleere, took initial steps in creating a MUSE environment in their classrooms. Barry can be considered a present day "Johnny Appleseed" of sorts who has worked tirelessly to spread the mission of MUSE with next to no funding. He has salvaged rebuilt computers, donating dozens to schools and individual students and has taken to heart his mentor role as "Moulton", spending countless hours online to assist MUSE fledglings in leaving the nest. For years, Mark had toyed with the idea of an idealized school, a utopian learning environment that he came to term "Plato's Academy." Through the MUSE, he has begun to realize his vision as participants at the A.L.L. School have worked to assemble pieces of this fantasy. Plato's Academy was Mark's iniital project which became an extension of the A.L.L. School on the MUSE. Through trial and error they learned that too many students trying to gain expertise at once is neither practical nor considerate. Far better to allow a small core of motivated students to lead the way and in so doing become mentors for additional small groups. Our MUSE learning community has mushroomed to include not only more students in the cluster, but interested students in the other Intermediate team as well as school administrators, a parent, a college volunteer, and a local science museum educator. Doug Potter, from the New England Science Center has worked with several classes and teachers on a variety of projects. He became intrigued with the MUSE after seeing some of the students and teachers working on it. He is now able to meet and work with students in the virtual world of the MUSE and give assistance to students as they work on their projects. For now, the A.L.L. School continues, in ripple effect fashion, to meander through all that the MUSE offers. Fueled primarily by the curiosity and engagement of ten and eleven year-olds, the experiment proceeds in fits and starts. The antithesis of a top-down, administratively-directed initiative, MUSE works beautifully with the mission of a Co-NECT school in which children are expected to take ownership of their learning and follow project paths that will help to create new knowledge. ----- Michael Clifford 101 Timber Lane Holden, MA 01520