Learning moral values through virtual technology: the development and evaluation of Malaysian virtual folktales- Hikayat Land

Moral values are one of the most important lessons to be learnt by Malaysian children. In order to become a harmonious and balanced person in intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical terms, Malaysian children need to be exposed to moral education since primary school. These important lessons should not only be taught in school but also practiced within society where children can be taught indirectly about moral values by exposing them to Malaysian folktales. Malaysian folktales are rich in moral values and ethics, and they also help children to understand their culture and their roles in the society. However, nowadays Malaysian folktales have been forgotten and children are fonder of foreign folktales compared to the local ones. Therefore, we propose a new method of teaching children about moral values and at the same time preserving Malaysian folktales, by using virtual technology like Second Life. In this paper we will share experiences about the development of Hikayat Land – the Malaysian Virtual Folktales based on the KANCIL model. A pilot study has been conducted with ten children (11-14 years old), and it showed that moral values can be projected through a virtual learning environment. Despite the many successes we see in our findings, there are a few aspects that should be revised in order to ensure that this technology is effective in teaching young Malaysians about moral values.