Point Rash Judgment: the Exploration of a Wordsworth Text
The Wordsworth MOO space consisting of three rooms--Valley, Point Rash
Judgment, and Cottage--as a translation/interpretation
of the Wordsworth poem Point Rash Judgment.
To enter the space, log
onto the Romantic Circles Villa Diodati MOO.
Entering the Space
Afoot and light hearted, I take to the Open Road
This space was first built as another way of introducing students to
Wordsworth's construction of Nature. The space is "typically" Romantic
and Wordsworthian. Participants map out a tour over a virtual space similar
to the one take by William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Coleridge in the
poem. Almost all objects in the space are take from or suggested by the
poem.
Interaction in the Space
Student are asked to focus on the descriptions of "Nature around them"
and the dialogue with other students. Robots and descriptions provide catalysts
to the student conversation. As students interact with the space,
their discussion serves as a collective interpretation of the poem.
Evaluating the Tour
The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings . . .recollected in tranquillity
After students have moved though the Valley and the Point , the third
room, Cottage, provides a space for recollection. (A similar space is hinted
at in the closing of the poem, beginning with "The happy idleness of that
sweet morn.") The journal recreates the closing lines of the poem where
Wordsworth draws a moral from the encounter. The book in the cottage
has several questions to help students reflect on their experience.
As they discuss the questions, they are interpreting the poem.
The second level of evaluation is outside the MOO. Students are
asked to read the Wordsworth poem for the first time. After discussing
the poem, it is valuable to compare the poem to their log of the MOO walk.
The students are asked to 1) evaluate their walking tour in relation to
the poem 2) explain how the architecture of the MOO space (including division
of rooms, objects, key words for robots, etc.) relates to the architecture
of the poem and 3) discuss the notions of walk, Nature, and experience
as these occur in the MOO encounter and in the poem.
Repetition
Afoot and light hearted
Finally, after such evaluation, it is nice to take a second walk through
the MOO space to see how the second MOO experience differs from the first.
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