Serenek Timeless

The Rocca Sorrentina Project (2011 to present) Since 2011, a community of educators and interested private individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and locations have been involved in an ongoing immersive learning experiment on the Rocca Sorrentina sim and adjoining Bay of Naples, which is currently sponsored by Brown University. Initially, principal sponsorship of the project was provided by the Missouri Humanities Council (MHC), which had an opportunity to take over a high-quality historical 18th century environment that was conceptualized and largely built by CapabilityTodd Elswitt. MHC staff and board leadership saw potential for developing this remarkable build into what would become a laboratory in which researchers from diverse disciplines could work together in exploring the ways platforms such as SL can be used by teachers and museum education staff. By further developing and expanding the build, and generating associated learning activities, MHC hoped to engage with educators, students and life-long learners, to promote the humanities though virtual worlds, and to help us learn more about how people acquire, share and assimilate information and ideas in these new creative spaces. The island environment, under the name “Rocca Sorrentina,” is a composite, historically-plausible representation of a southern Italian coastal town on the Bay of Naples. The build is set in the year 1785, when that part of Italy was a popular destination for 18th century tourists on the “Grand Tour.” The project features a continually evolving historical environment with elements such as a re-creation of an Enlightenment-era “cabinet of curiosities,” fortifications, harbor, shops and homes, and a Palladian-style villa. The sim also has an entry and orientation area with changing exhibit galleries that present temporary shows not just about history and literature topics, but also creativity and artistic self-expression in virtual worlds. Over the course of the last four years, the Rocca Sorrentina community has evolved under the co-leadership of museum consultant and former MHC Director Geoff Giglierano (SL: Aldo Stern), and Professor Kathryn Spoehr, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences at Brown University (SL: Serenek Timeless). With ongoing management and programming assistance from other residents and friends of the project – including groups such as the Alexandrian Free Library – the project has flourished and the build itself has grown in size and complexity. Community members – some of whom are scholars and educators, as well as interested members of the general public – have used this virtual space as a platform for experiments with programming that focuses on the Enlightenment and the history, arts, and material culture of the 18th century, and the era of the Grand Tour in southern Italy's Kingdom of Naples. These programmatic elements have contributed to one of the more interesting outcomes of the project: in effect, everyone engaged with Rocca Sorrentina -- including residents, visitors, and managers – are both teachers and students. Each month, the galleries and historical environment, along with the associated programmatic activities, attract a diverse audience of both newcomers and regulars, some of whom are students enrolled in SL-based educational programs and many others not. Some explore and enjoy the island and then move on, while others are drawn in and become repeat visitors and active participants in what one community member has described as “collaborative self-directed learning.” Through the discussions and programs on the history and literature of the era, historically-themed social events, exhibit projects, and living history roleplay scenarios built on topics that have ranged from the beginnings of manned flight in balloon ascensions to a yellow fever epidemic, sim residents and visitors are encouraging and assisting each other in experiencing and considering life and ideas in another time and place. Professor Spoehr has compared it to “Montessori for adults, in which there is learning through play, reinforced by lessons at teachable moments.” The project has proven extremely cost-effective, thanks, in part, to the education discount from LL, and the fact that the community members and friends who create content and organize programming — including the community leaders — do so as volunteers on their own time. Furthermore, the community itself contributes to help underwrite expenses though donations, commissions on merchant sales, and inworld residential rentals. In 2104, MHC was making adjustments in its priorities and Brown University has stepped up to continue the project. To date, the project has provided the participating educators with insights on how environments like Rocca Sorrentina have considerable potential for facilitating informal cooperative learning opportunities for both students and life-long learners. Members of the museum profession who have been involved in the project also have seen opportunities for training interpretive staff and prototyping exhibits. There is however, more to be learned, and the community leaders hope to continue the experiment with the ultimate goal of sharing the outcomes with colleagues who have an interest in virtual worlds technology for educational purposes.

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