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.
