Commonwealth Network
THE MOORING
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Created on 12 JAN 96 by Scott Kapel. The MOOring is part of the Webring by Sage Weil
Welcome to the MOOring. This ring was created in the hopes of bringing together information about MOOs, how to use MOOs, MOOs in education, and actual MOO web interfaces.
What is a MOO, do you ask? A MOO is a Multi User Dimension, Object Oriented. Basically, it is a text-based virtual environment where "players" can interact with each other, inluding expressing emotions, performing actions, etc. (not simply speak, as with IRC or other chat devices). Users may also create sophisticated objects which can act and function on their own, or in response to other players, with the powerful object oriented programming language which characterizes MOOs. MOOs are most efficiently accessed via telnet. However, many MOOs have lately created HTML interfaces, giving web browsers a means to enter and interact with the MOO. Telnetting still offers speed and efficiency beyond web interfaces, though, even if telnet does lack some visual appeal.
Because of the power and flexibility of the MOO environment, it has been recognized as a powerful resource for education. Teachers of all subjects can find MOOs useful tools in their padagogies. For example, rather than the history teacher simply describing the great pyramids of Giza, he or she can bring students into a MOO environment, and they can actually build the pyramids and explore them. Or, if the composition teacher wants to explain descriptive language, he or she can avoid a dry lecture and bring students to a MOO, where descriptive language is a necessity in order for players to be adequately understood. Implications for international and distance education are vast with the MOO environment, as well.
The MOOring concentrates on educational MOOs, and pages related to educational MOOing. The MOOring also aims to bring much needed exposure to the educational possibilities of MOOing, an exposure which can be better facilitated by bringing as much MOO information together in one place as possible. In this way, people from project funders to school administrators wishing to investigate the possibilities of MOO can come to the MOOring and easily work through tutorials, explainations, histories, examples of uses of MOO, and actual MOO interfaces without having to exhaustively search all over the WWW, or compile volumes of hastily scrawled URLs or bookmarks.
Navigating the MOOring is quite easy. To begin, you may click on the @Next button below to go to the first page, or click here to jump to a random page. Each member page of the MOOring will have a navigation device similar to the one below, making navigation to the next or previous page a simple task. Because the pages are linked together by the MOOring, the ring user will eventually come back to where he or she started.
Do you have a webpage concerning MOOs, or do you run a MOO with a webpage interface? If so, please join the MOOring. Joining is a relatively easy process. Simply fill out the form below, add a small amount of HTML code to your page, and e-mail the RingMaster of the MOOring to be added.
Adding Your Page to the MOOring
1.) Fill out this form and submit it. You will be taken to a page which shows the confirmation of your request to be added to the queue for the MOOring. It will list your Site I.D., and your password. Write these down! If you loose them, you may not be able to access your page's attributes (you can always e-mail the ringmaster for assistance, though).
2.) Copy the HTML code and graphics (the graphics are optional) below, and insert them on your page. You can view the source code for this page to copy the code. If you are using a browser which supports saving graphics straight off the screen, do so. If not, e-mail me and I will send them to you. Be certain to copy the code exactly, including the TARGET="_top" tag. However, replace the Site I.D. from this code with your own Site I.D., and, of course, replace my name and e-mail address with your own. The graphics are optional; the MOOring will function without them. However, you must add the HTML code for the text links, or else the MOOring will be broken when a user reaches your page. If you add only the text link, and not the graphics, please indicate in your page what the links are for (e.g. "MOOring: Click for..."). If you want to reduce the size of the logo, simply add a "WIDTH=" attribute to the image's tag.
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This MOOring site owned by Scott Kapel
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Or click here to learn more about the
MOOring
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3.) E-mail the MOOring's RingMaster (scully@newdream.net or hutzinger@mindspring.com) and ask to be added to the ring. Be certain to include your Site I.D. in your message, as well as your page's URL.
4.) You are not yet part of the MOOring. You must wait for the RingMaster to review your page and add you in. Be certain to add the HTML code for the MOOring navigator before you ask to be added (you will NOT be added if the fragment is not on your page and if you have not made the necessary corrections to the ID numbers).
Members:
Enter your Site I.D. and password below to edit your page's attributes.
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