Working for Clams in Whyville

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"That doesn't mean it won't be stolen, but it means someone will likely go rip off another car in another neighborhood."

SAFETY RULES.

I spent a few days in the virtual world to experience firsthand how Whyville accomplishing its goal of being a safe place for kids to hang out and learn. As a newbie, I couldn't chat for two days. Instead, I spent my days earning clams, checking out the world, and arranging my face. It was time-consuming—and I couldn't get enough of it. Little wonder. When you first join, you're issued the standard big blue smiley face. I quickly felt that there was nothing more embarrassing than going around as Big Blue. So I spent time carefully deciding what hair, eyes, and clothes to buy so that I could customize my face and fit in. (The activity is called Pick Your Nose.)

As it turned out, getting the money to make these changes was no stroll through the playground. It was tricky figuring out how to use Ions, or electronic charges, to score goals in a hockey game at WASA, an area in Whyville where you play games. WASA is sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Though I studied art in college, I got a real workout when I played the Getty's Treasure Hunt. And okay, I admit it, there were games I tried to play, such as Great Balloon Race, that I simply couldn't master. Flying the balloon and hitting the right targets on the ground with beanbags meant factoring in wind vectors, burn rates, and climbing speeds—no easy task.

But there were two games where I did manage to rack up the clams: The Getty Art game and the Treasure Hunt Travel game. By visiting the capitals of countries where important events in the history of flying occurred (such as Paris, where the Montgolfier Brothers flew the first manned hot-air balloon), I collected francs, lire, and yuan that I could then exchange for clams.

TYPICAL KID-STUFF.

By visiting the areas where everyone hangs out, including the beach and the sun roof, I learned to interact with Whyvillians. Though I couldn't chat at first, I could read the conversations between other kids. They preen for each other, asking what people think of their looks and even holding impromptu beauty contests, where they vote for the cutest person at a particular spot. They create cliques and mock each other, arranging to meet at other destinations. And they flirt, for the most part innocently.

A couple of times I witnessed someone using cryptic spellings to ask whether people nearby were lesbians or bisexuals. Yet, as jarring as this was, it was also encouraging to see kids respond by writing, "You're offending me," and then leaving.

But it's not all about looks, cliques, or flirting. The kids talk about school and trade tips on how to play the games. They write their own newspaper called The Whyville Times and staff the help center for newbies. They gather together at the Greek Theater to compete in word and number games that had my head spinning. (Like looking at a string of letters and pulling out three antonyms for abase. Answer: exalt, honor, extol.)

Yet, how much kids learn is a tricky question. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is pleased enough with the results to keep building out its WASA area on Whyville. Around 180,000 users have visited the Ion Engine site and played six million simulations in the past four years. JPL also points to the amount of time kids spend at WASA: on average, 28 minutes per visit.

BEYOND MARKETING.

Chris Dede, a professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, argues that while Whyville is better for kids because it's more overtly focused on education than the pure marketing and entertainment sites such as Disney or Nickelodeon, mixing the goal of earning clams with education may not lead to that much learning. "Rather than getting them to do something for the reward, they could do more to figure out how to make the activities more engaging," says Dede, who developed River City, a closed virtual world used in classrooms where kids go back in time to the late 1800s and help other kids who are struggling with diseases.

River City, which is rolled out in school districts and specific schools in conjunction with its Harvard creators, was used by around 60 teachers in five states this past spring. Another virtual world is Quest Atlantis, an educational game developed by researchers at Indiana University. Participants help the people of Atlantis, who are threatened by the destruction of their world.

To figure out how much kids are actually learning on Whyville, Yasmin Kafai, an associate professor of psychological studies in education at UCLA, this winter undertook an independent study funded by the National Science Foundation. She's still compiling data, but her early research found that 50% of the kids surveyed did talk with parents and friends outside of Whyville about infectious diseases, a topic that corresponded to the game that Kafai had launched in Whyville. In the end, Kafai is trying to come up with suggestions for people who want to learn how to use these informal education environments effectively. "You have to set different standards," Kafai says. "What I expect to happen in a classroom is different from someone who goes three or four times a week to Whyville."

Green is an associate editor for BusinessWeek .