Virtual Communities as Therapeutic Tools
This was an interesting article about a scientist at Tufts who combines child development with computer technology. The scientist, Marina Bers, developed a software program called "Zora" for children who are transplant patients. The program sounds like a version of Second Life--the kids/teens create avatars, houses, public spaces within a city space. One of the public spaces is a place called "Transplant House" where stories of their experiences are displayed. For Halloween some of them are creating a haunted house in which they explore their fears. I very much liked Bers description of what Zora means to her. She took the name Zora from a city in an Italo Calvino short story where people go to explore their identities: "When I think of Zora, I think of being in synagogue on a Friday night...You are in the middle of a room of people--you're building community--but you are also creating this private space for yourself in your head. Zora is a place you go, a spiritual place in a virtual world that connects you to yourself and to others, because it's only in relationships with others that you realize who you are."