The virtual academy: A simulated environment for constructionist learning

The Virtual Academy is an educational model based on multiage teams of students and adults working through the Internet to build and use virtual worlds for educational purposes. These collaborations are mediated by a range of tools ranging from electronic mail to hypermedia and video links, and result in the creation of simulation‐based role‐playing adventure games within the ExploreNet software environment ExploreNet is an Internet‐based multimedia, multiuser domain constructed specifically for educational experimentation.

This article describes the Virtual Academy Model, the ExploreNet software system, and an experiment conducted in the spring of 1995. The article describes the evolution of features of ExploreNet's user interface and their relevance to collaborative work by children.