Second Life (SL) is a virtual world full of different island themes. It is fun to just wander around and chat with people, but it is also the latest tool in education. It is a place to meet in a virtual classroom with amazing visuals and demonstrations. It is also a great way for people to discuss current events in education. I sat in on the Thothica group, named for an Egyptian God who brought water and life back to Egypt. This community has regular meetings to discuss current events, ethical/moral issues, and philosophy.
I also visited Eduisland, which has many teaching tools for educators to use. This island was created by Seminole County Public Schools. They have tools assorted by content and teleports and notecards for each of them. There are areas made for collaboration, areas with tutorials, an art gallery and more.
This is a very informative Wiki. It explains what SL is and different ways it can be used in education. It provides the reader with SL islands that are divided by subject and content area. It has movies and slideshows that are like mini-tutorials for SL. One of the islands described is Music Academy Inworld. On this island there are places for music performances, discussion, lectures and classrooms with audio/visual capabilities. The Island of Svarga is a fully-functioning ecosystem. The plants and animals reproduce and pass on by themselves. It is a great way to study how and ecosystem works and how different things can influence the life of a plant or animal. This is a great place to find content driven SL islands for education.
Educational Uses of Second Life (YouTube video)
This video describes different ways to use SL for education. It describes how teachers can use scavenger hunts, time period reenactments, guided tours, co-creation, simulations, quizzing, tutorials, joining professional networks, collaboration, and information sharing via whiteboards all using SL. I found this video to be very informative and entertaining.
This blog site focuses on what different groups are doing to promote education in SL. One that caught my eye was an entry that related to University of Michigan-Dearborn, which is very close to where I live. In their sim, they are trying to solve a real life problem that their local food bank is having, by playing it out in SL. Having this sim provides educator with case studies and builds community awareness to a problem close to home. Using SL as a community outreach/awareness program brings a new and interesting twist to ongoing social problems.
Second Life and Education from Crossroads the ACM Student Magazine
This article describes mainly two applications of SL: SL classrooms and SL libraries. It discusses the advantages to teaching in a SL classroom, such as outstanding visuals, simulated fictional or historical characters, accessibility, and the ability of students to participate in the actual creation of the classroom. It also discusses Sloodle, which is the SL presence of Moodle. The Moodle tools can be used in SL. It also discusses the breakdown of racial barriers, since people do not look or speak like they do in real life, there is less apprehension to talk to others in SL.
SL libraries are online libraries that give off the feel of a real library. They are able to take advantage of the same browsing and searching databases and social tags as other libraries, but the SL libraries are able to have different buildings for different genres of books, and the buildings can be decorated to fit the genre. The Mystery Manor, for example, is built as a haunted house with visual and audio effects that set the mood.
101 Uses for SL in the College Classroom
This article discusses 101 uses for SL in the college classroom. What interested me the most were the different assignments the professor gave. One assignment was an interview based assignment that discussed body image. Students had to create their own avatar and then ask other avatars about their personal appearances, discuss modification options, money spent on personal appearance, and contemplating what sorts of appearances would earn positive appearance ratings. The professor also had an assignment in which the students had to build a chair and put some personality into it. He also mentions contests that students can participate it. He goes on to discuss the relationships of people in SL and the different cultures to be found there, very informative.
No comments:
Post a Comment