Abstract :
This paper describes and reflects on the development of the Schome Park
Programme (SPP), which was established with the specific aim of extending
our thinking about schome, which aims to be the optimal educational system
for the 21st century.
In an earlier stage of the Schome Initiative, it became clear that people find it
almost impossible to break free from established conceptions of education.
Open virtual worlds like Second Life® virtual world offer opportunities for
people to have radically different ‘lived experiences’ of educational systems and
thus seemed to be the ideal vehicle for exploring alternative models of education.
The SPP therefore set out in late 2006 to use Teen Second Life® virtual
world to support the development of the vision of schome, informed by current
understandings about learning, pedagogy and the ‘tools’ available to us today.
This paper provides an overview of the first three phases of the SPP and briefly
outlines the research methodologies used within it. This leads into a discussion
of the potential of virtual worlds to support pedagogical exploration, which in
turn leads to consideration of three dimensions of practice that emerged from
the SPP. These three dimensions, which correspond closely with a framework
developed in post-compulsory education, are illustrated by use of descriptions
of activities and other data from the SPP. The paper concludes by raising
questions about the extent to which pedagogical practices will change in the
future as a result of the opportunities offered by virtual worlds
