MOO: Using a Computer Gaming Environment to Teach about Community Arts

As computer literacy is increasingly considered an important component of teacher education, interactive computer environments offer the possibility of being effective supplements to art talk in the classroom. In my art education classes for preservice teachers, students explore interactive computer technology through a “MOO” (Multi-user domain, Object-Oriented). Community and public arts are emphasized as objects of study, with particular focus on the relationship of these arts to community. The class develops a website of local public art and a series of exercises to explore meaning in the artworks and their relationship to community themes. The preservice teachers use these tools to teach local high school ceramics students involved in a public arts project.