Can a virtual world teach real world skills, both academic and ethical? Sasha Barab, Associate Professor at the University of Indiana, wants to prove that using digital technology in a game that appeals to children ages 9-15, can be an interactive way of teaching both academic content and social responsibility. Quest Atlantis combines the latest in commercial online gaming with sound educational research, providing an engaging learning environment that may turn educational practice on its head.

Children spend hundreds of hours a year playing video games. They have grown up immersed in iPods, video games, cell phones and electronic and digital devices of all kinds. There is no doubt that the skills they learn with these devices translate into skills needed to master tomorrow’s digital technology. S. A. Barab and his team want to use multiple user online gaming as a way to build responsibility and academic learning, rather than simply allowing it to be a digital distraction.

How Does Quest Atlantis Work?

Quest Atlantis’s eleven worlds present students with different quests and missions. For example, in the world Taiga, there is a water problem. The water is unclean and unhealthy, and students must work together to solve the problem. Each student takes on a different role, choosing from landowner, farmer, factory owner, conservationist, and so on, providing a wide spectrum of views.