The first hurdle is the stupid name for a brilliant technology. Multi-user Object Oriented environment is as far as most people get before pre-judging these as just too much cognitive work to get into. Pity MOOs have come a long way and are an early example of a constructionist, constructivist world where users can collaborate in real time, chat and interact in all sorts of ways and most important, BUILD.
MOO web and chat interface
Modern MOOs are web-enabled, multi-media capable and my school runs one that the middle-school kids love to bits. This sounds like a grandiose claim, but when kids use these things during their holidays, by choice, you know you have struck a chord. Few schools have dabbled with MOOs, again, a pity. As an OOP programming place they are powerful game environments, are menu and command driven so suit many ages and abilities [from noob to expert] and are web lean [they exist on a dribble of data through a web and a telnet port]. Some things to explore
- Moobies guide: http://moo.terrace.qld.edu.au/moo/moobiesguide/
- Beginners Guide: http://moo.terrace.qld.edu.au/moo/MOOguide/BeginGuide.htm
- Resource collections for MOOs: http://www.encore-consortium.org/Barn/default.htm
