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PART 3: DEVELOPMENTAL MODELS
Our models represent feasible approaches using existing, real-world methods and applications. They focus on what we are capable of doing now, with the text-based MOOs most commonly in use, with off-the-shelf software, using built-in affordances of MOO databases themselves to support some of the processing. We are committed to using MOOs and MUDs in our own classrooms, so we sought practical answers for teachers working in actual environments based on tools which are ready-to-hand, rather than hypothetical proposals for arcane technical solutions involving technologies which have not yet been developed. We are not precluding the possibility of developing or adapting these models further as such technologies become available, but we wanted to focus on usable tools for existing environments. We happen to believe that high-end solutions will need to address similar questions and issues, and further will need to establish ease-of-use for real teachers who are not technocrats, and who also may lack significant technical support. The models are presented in "evolutionary order:" that is, as different needs emerged or were recognized, models were progressively adapted or ported to new applications.
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