News from the MOO:

Lingua Walks the High Wire

From Staff and Wire Reports

High Wired: On the Design, Use, and Theory of Educational MOOs

Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holmevik, members of the Kairos Editorial Board and co-founders of the journal's electronic partner LinguaMOO, recently released their first co-edited print publication, High Wired: On the Design, Use, and Theory of Educational MOOs. At its publication, the book instantly became the leading resource on the use of MOO techology in the classroom milieu.

High Wired is an indispensable guide to all aspects of educational MOOs. It is a remarkable collection of essays written by experts on educational MOOs, covering a wide variety of pertinent topics:

the history of MOO technology;
practical introductions on how to use a MOO;
how to set up and run a MOO;
how MOOs can be used in the classroom and other educational settings;
theoretical musings on the nature of MOO technology and our use of it.

The book is written primarily for students and educators who are curious about MOO technology, theory and use in general, and for educators who are interested in setting up their own educational MOO.

Among the contributors to High Wired are experienced MOO veterans such as Amy Bruckman (founder of MediaMOO), Pavel Curtis (founder of LambdaMOO and the creator of MOO technology), Jorge Barrios and Deanna Wilkes-Gibbs, (founders of Meridian MOO), Ken Schweller (founder of CollegeTown MOO), Shawn Wilbur (long time wizard at PMC MOO and Bay MOO), Juli Burk (founder of ATHEMOO), and Jan Rune Holmevik and Cynthia Haynes (founders of Lingua MOO). Other distinguished contributors include Mark Blanchard, Eric Crump, Dene Grigar, John Barber, Beth Kolko, D. Diane Davis, Victor J. Vitanza, Michael Joyce, Jeffrey Galin, and Brian Clements. The foreword to High Wired is written by Sherry Turkle, author of the popular culture classic Life on the Screen.

Keep an eye out for Haynes' and Holmevik's new student textbook, MOOniversity, forthcoming from Allyn & Bacon.

High Wired enCore 1.0 Released

High Wired enCore is an educational MOO core database developed for use with High Wired. This MOO database is designed for educators who want to put MOO technology to productive use quickly and easily.

High Wired enCore comes fully loaded with many of the most popular teaching tools and objects, as well as a feature-rich multimedia interface to the World Wide Web. The enCore database is distributed free of charge. For more information visit the High Wired enCore home page -- building your own MOO has never been easier!