Introducing multi-user environments into Australia’s virtual classrooms: a value proposition for Australia's National Broadband Network

As debate ensues over the nation’s priority to build 'a gold-standard Internet network' as Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy describes it, his government’s broadband initiative, the NBN, has many Australians asking what the business case for a super-fast broadband service might be. With educationalists alert to the fact that the 21st century classroom leaves the closed, teacher-centric, facts-based model of learning behind, the curriculum is being redesigned, teacher practice is changing, and technology tools that cater for an extensible, customised approach to learning are being developed. Amongst the most compelling technology services for consideration are multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs); these are emerging technology platforms which can be hosted on servers or sold as software that enable 3D rendering of real or composed scenarios, events, people and places, which may be shared in real time with multiple other users, stream rich media and which can integrate learning management systems, such as 'moodle'. The aim of this paper is, firstly, to outline the important role MUVEs could play in our virtual classrooms, and, secondly, to assess whether policy and curriculum development are mindful of the advantages of implementing MUVEs, as there is evidence that MUVEs are being overlooked by ICT strategists and in the setting of Australia’s first national curriculum. This discursive paper shows where the omissions are, and suggests that, as far as the implementation of 3D virtual environments in the education sector goes, there may be a disconnection between those who 'do' (the teachers) and those who 'plan' (the policy makers).