Quest Atlantis: Creative Voices

So, maybe I'm having a little bit of a nerd moment, but I'm really psyched about some research that I've been doing recently, and I wanted to share something that I found. One of the articles that I read through while researching The Fountainhead mentioned an online game-community called Quest Atlantis, which, from what I understood, was basically an online game world centered around the diametrically opposite architectural ideologies of Howard Roark and Peter Keating, two main characters in The Fountainhead. Well, I've come to find out that it's not just that -- it's like a whole community dedicated to teaching kids, age 9-16, important values and skills through a fun and engaging online world full of quests and adventures and all sorts of stuff. The architectural aspect is just one little part of it! This is the kids' schoolwork, to play games and build buildings and solve problems, and it is all really cool.

I was interested to find out on the official QA blog  that students have independently established hotels and shops and advertising companies and even a functioning stock market! Pretty unbelievable. Students are currently working on developing a legal system for this online world, as money and regulations have recently become more mainstream. Teachers are able to implement this amazing resource as a way to teach and reinforce a number of really positive lessons, listed in QA's mission statement:

• Creative Expression – "I Create"
• Diversity Affirmation – "Everyone Matters"
• Personal Agency – "I Have Voice"
• Social Responsibility – "We Can Make a Difference"
• Environmental Awareness – "Think Globally, Act Locally"
• Healthy Communities – "Live, Love, Grow"
• Compassionate Wisdom – "Be Kind"

I feel like these are the same lessons that I am still learning and relearning every day. I wanted to touch for just a moment on the architectural aspect on QA, because I feel like it, above all else, reflects the ideas that I'll be addressing in my research...

In their article, Peppler and Solomou explain the general scheme of the Architectural unit:

In the Architecture Unit, Questers become acquainted with the opposing ideologies of Rand’s novel when they meet both Roark and Keating at an architecture firm. In order to begin apprenticeship at the firm, Questers have to identify their values as they relate to integrity and social alignment, resulting in their choice to join either Roark’s team (which has less constraints on the types of buildings they can build but with fewer city contracts) or Keating’s team (which has more creative restrictions but is guaranteed more money).

Students in Roark's firm have access to a number of shapes, styles, and textures, while members of Keating's firm are limited to rectangular buildings, straight lines, and a defined array of traditional patterns and textures. Peppler and Solomou note that though ninety percent of the creative resources are common between the two firms, each developed a distinctive creative ideal, almost wholly independent from the other. Students in Roark's firm, when the idea of mushroom-shaped houses was presented, quickly picked it up across the online community. This provides interesting implications as to the nature of creativity and the sharing of ideas. Truly, the QA world provides a revealing look into the nature of creativity and the future of online interaction and learning.

So, the take-home message: the rules of creativity and innovation are changing, and in this ever-changing world, the internet is become more and more valuable as a tool for understanding and implementing ideas as pertaining to creativity and creation. Find out more about QA at http://questatlantisblog.org and read about students' experiences at http://myquestatlantis.edublogs.org/.