Virtual Congress Needs Your Input!

Virtual Congress, a multiplayer online computer game currently in development, will let students participate in a “virtual world” Congress that functions very much like the real one—with committees, floor action, amendments, back-and-forth discussions, input from constituents, and random events that can influence the legislative agenda.

Virtual Congress will use the latest in multiplayer game technology to allow students from across the country to participate. As three-dimensional online characters or “avatars,” they will hold the 535 House and Senate seats. The student-members of Virtual Congress will introduce bills and work online with others to try to move their proposals through the various stages of the legislative process. Student-legislators will receive opinions and requests from every direction, including constituents, colleagues, and members of the press.

Virtual Congress is being developed by the Center on Congress at Indiana University with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This project also has received grant support from the MacArthur Foundation, the AT&T Foundation, and the Paul Ogle Foundation of Indiana.

Partners and collaborators in Virtual Congress include public television station WTIU at Indiana University, the National Education Association, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Close Up Foundation, the National Council for the Social Studies, and the departments of Telecommunications and Learning Sciences at Indiana University.

Please take a few moments to take this survey, which seeks your input on computer games and simulations as teaching tools. Your thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated and valued by the developers and evaluators of this new teaching tool.

Take the survey! Click Here to take survey

The Center on Congress at Indiana University http://congress.indiana.edu/