Monday, August 4, 2008

Journal #6: Story of My (Second) Life

Trotter, Andrew (2008, June, 18). Educators get a 'Second Life'. Education Week, 27, Retrieved August 4, 2008, from http://www.educationinthenews.ca/2008/07/educators-get-second-life.html

There is a "thriving educational community" now residing in the virtual world known as Second Life. Student and teachers, represented by their digital avatars, can interact and participate in real time in a wide range of activities including building a working volcano, experimenting in virtual science labs and speaking to students in countries around the world. There has been a marketing push by the company that owns second life to introduce the 3-D world in schools, and they offer a 50% discount on user fees for educators. ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, even has it's own "island" in this virtual world.

Much of the educational content on Second Life is visually impressive and educational, such as service projects raising money for Dar fur and other causes, filmaking using virtual locations, sets and student written scripts, 3-D construction projects in current or historical settings, and building virtual avalanches for science class.

Q: What are the potential problems of using Second Life in the classroom?
A: While a lot of educators see true educational potential in the use of Second Life, there are dissenters who cite problems such as the cost, the difficulty of mastering the less than user-friendly technology of the site, privacy and Internet safety issues for students, lack of video processing capability on most school computers to handle the application and the often X-rated content of Second Life's adult-only section.

Q: What is a responsible way to incorporate the use of Second Life in a classroom setting?
A: I think this could be a valuable educational tool, but would need to be used under strict supervision in the classroom given the unregulated nature of the Second Life world. One way that some schools have found to do this is to create private "estates" used by the students and teachers in a district. Better yet would be a version of Second Life specifically intended for use in schools that is free of the adult content and completely educational in nature.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Simulations can illustrate scientific principles but cannot substitute for science laboratory experiences. Why? Because simulations do not allow exploration of the real world with all of the complexities and ambiguities of empirical work. Students working with simulations are not "doing science."