Rethinking the Virtual

Abstract

The author builds theoretically off an alternative conception of the virtual, through a series of steps. First, he explores four processes of engagement through which immersion happens (interest, involvement, imagination and interaction); these will prove especially important for understanding the educational potential of virtuality. Second, he applies this conception of the virtual to a discussion of virtual space and time, suggesting that as virtual spaces become familiar and significant, they become virtual places. Two ways in which this transformation can take place are architecture and mapping, and the author suggests that in educational contexts these processes broadly relate to the perspectives of teacher and learner, respectively. Architecture and mapping represent the structures or design elements in which the four aspects of immersion are guided towards learning goals; when these structures are successful, the process of immersion involves students strongly in the activities of learning. In this sense, then, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that all successful learning environments are, to some extent, ‘virtual’. One way to think of this project is as an attempt to rethink virtuality outside of an exclusively technological domain, and to see it as a central educational concept.