Teaching in the MOO is both familiar and still uncharted territory. Those teachers seeking new challenges will enjoy designing innovative activities that exploit this powerful tool. With its ability to establish inexpensive, real-time communication between users from across the globe, the MOO is dramatically expanding the four walls of the classroom to include language learners at other schools, native speaker partners from other countries, and a wealth of outside experts. Teachers will also find that the MOO makes it easy to organize classroom tasks, archive student assignments, and even work individually with various students during class. Since all MOO activities are text-based, the MOO offers a wealth of opportunities for improving students' writing skills, whether in the foreign language or in the students' native tongue. Moreover, the student-centered nature to learning in the MOO makes it ideal for individual and group project work, peer teaching, and achieving 100% participation in every class discussion. Discussions can also be "recorded" in the MOO and sent automatically to a user's e-mail account, giving both teachers and students a transcript of all discussions. Small language programs will find that the mediated form of communication in the MOO helps accommodate a wide range of student proficiencies without leaving some students underchallenged and others striving to keep up. Of course, the MOO is a powerful educational environment with ideal applications in a variety of academic fields.

As much as the MOO encourages experimentation with new teaching styles and activities, instructors will find that the MOO potentially makes many traditional pedagogical practices, such as analyzing texts, producing reports, or writing formal papers, even more effective. Though some level of familiarity with computers is necessary, the MOO is relatively easy to master and use in the classroom. Ultimately, teaching in the MOO affords a rewarding partnership between faculty and students as teachers begin to share with students the responsibility for the learning and progress being made.

[Updated: 12 February 2002]