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oday is just another school day for Professor Fengfeng Ke’s students. After boarding a bright yellow bus, they drive down the familiar streets until they reach the school. There’s a particular excitement today, as they have a field trip to one of their favorite destinations: a western town, complete with Conestoga wagon, general stores, and dusty streets. But first, the students have to get through the school day. As the students exit the bus, a teacher appears. Literally, she appears out of thin air. None of the students are fazed by this aberration. These students, who have volunteered for Ke’s research, see people appear and disappear all the time; that’s because, unlike typical students, these students are exploring a virtual world, where buildings and people pop-in as they load into the program. Each student sits behind a computer, controlling a virtual avatar, communicating over voice chat or text chat, and emoting using a list of pre-defined gestures. Another difference between Ke’s student volunteers and a traditional classroom? All of these students are also diagnosed with high-functioning autism, formerly called Asperger’s Syndrome. Once or twice a week, these volunteer students meet with Ke and her team. The students are generally in 5th-7th grade. Ke, who is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, carefully observes the students via her own in-game avatar. As both observer and creator of this virtual world, Ke hopes that she
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THE TORCH - COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MAGAZINE
can build much more than a virtual playground; she hopes that she has created a safe environment for children with high-functioning autism to practice their social skills. The idea to create a virtual training environment came to Ke after her experience teaching a graduate student with Asperger’s. The student was excellent at coursework but suffered in navigating social situations both in and outside of the classroom. “Because of his unique way of communicating, he couldn’t market himself like other people,” Ke says. “It made me feel a little bit frustrated because I knew he was wonderful and capable of coming up with wonderful instructional design projects.” The student would receive interviews but had difficulty advancing further in the job process because of his difficulty in communicating. While no two cases of high functioning autism are entirely the same, struggling to communicate is a common problem for those diagnosed. Children with Asperger’s struggle to recognize the subtle shifts in tone and speech that convey emotional meaning. As they get older, they might understand social interactions better but Dr. Fengfeng Ke
