Use of virtual worlds in the educational process

TITLE: Use of virtual worlds in the educational process AUTHOR: Milan Randák DEPARTMENT: Department of information technology and technology education SUPERVISOR: doc. PhDr. Vladimír Rambousek, CSc. ABSTRACT: This thesis is focused on the phenomenon of virtual worlds in the context of didactics, in terms of their educational function, didactic specifics and possibilities of utilization. The study deals with virtual worlds as an innovative didactic resource, which is useful in school praxis. The thesis formulates a rating system of suitability of virtual worlds for use in the educational process and this suitability is empirically investigated through an action research. The action research was carried out in different types of virtual worlds and with different teaching contents and objectives, including questionnaires and a comparison of the students' educational results. KEYWORDS: Education, educational tools, virtual environment, virtual world, virtual reality, Minecraft, OpenSi