I know I am not that old but I remember the "coolest" technology in our classrooms in junior high was going on a computer to play Oregon Trail. Looking back, I cannot believe how far we have come. If you asked me today to tell you something about that educational game, I couldn't. I think it would be because it wasn't collaborative, interactive, colorful, or had any connection to my life as a learner. 15 years later, on my couch, I found a learning environment that I wish we had a long time ago. The site is called
Second Life and it is a 3-Dimensional learning and exploring world. You get to be involved in everything when creating and learning in this setting. First you pick a Sim first name and choose a last name from a list that is given. Then you choose a basic avatar to enter the 3-D world. Once you actually get into the site, the world is yours, literally. You can do almost everything you can do in real life and sometimes things you cannot. For instance, flying is not something you can do if you want to get somewhere fast but in Second Life, flying is a normal. The user can go to fun places within the site that have interests that you like or you can go to educational places that will teach the user, in an interactive and creative way, about the subject.
The possibilities of using this site in a classroom would be endless. The teacher could call for a meeting in a location and all avatars would meet up there. You can even upload pictures and slide shows into the environment. If a school district got a grant for something like this, some money could be used to "build" the classroom setting. The only issue would be that the students would go to a place that may have inappropriate things and you may not know what you are going to find in some of the destinations. Another cool part of this site is that you can use a microphone to talk instead of type. But all students could use this site and I believe they could be very successful and learn a lot. This is the kind of learning that students want so bad and Second Life gives them the opportunity to learn in a great, new way. If they don’t learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn.
You're a very good persuasive writer. Just your blog made me want to log-in and give it another try. My experience didn't seem as positively rewarding as yours. I found that my Attention Deficit would kick in and I would find myself flying in the middle of nowhere. Granted, everything in the site and the actions have to be taught to the students. However, I don't see as many benefits as you do. It's very cool, don't get me wrong. I just think that a lot of the website would be "over" some of my students heads and there would be more classtime spent explaining where to click rather than holding a discussion in a virtual environment. I'll give it another try and perhaps my opinions may change, however, your blog didn't convince me of the positive side of the rainbow. This definitely beats Oregon Trail.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely are not that old, Krista, because I was actually teaching using Oregon Trail not too long ago, or so it seems! Technology has definitely come a long way! However, I agree with you, that there are definitely have some concerns about using Second Life with students. I think the concept is great and as you mentioned it has great potential to be used with students because it addresses all learning modalities. I envision a “student version” to be developed which would be safe for students to use, similar to Edmodo as a safe alternative to Facebook for students to use in school. I really enjoyed my Second Life experience and I hope to see a school version in the near future. I think it would add a valuable aspect to learning that has yet to be fully explored.
ReplyDeleteBefore I would make an attempt to take my students into Second Life, I would need to know that I would have control over where they would be visiting. One educational benefit may be when students are absent that they may be able to participate in the class from home. I am not exactly sure how this would work since I need to spend more time in Second Life myself. I was glad we had the opportunity to try it as a class though. Perhaps there will be an Educational Version in the near future.
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