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Second Life: Exploring Educational Spaces

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One of the things that really hit me, I think for the first time, during this experience is that SecondLife (and virtual worlds in general) offer a level of flexibility for the learner that is often impractical or impossible in the real world. I had always understood that building in virtual space allowed for the creation of immersive experiences that allowed the learner to travel to places both real and fictional, through time, and to do things that can't be done in reality. However, as I moved through these spaces (in particular the Smithsonian, College North London, and Stanford regions) it stood out to me that the ability to teleport to different parts of the map, or even just different floors in a virtual building, allows for the learner to create their own experience in a way that doesn't often happen in a traditional setting. We can choose the order in which we take in content by teleporting to the areas that interest us the most right aw...
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Introduction to Second Life

Having spent the better part of a year working in Second Life as a graduate student, I can see that there are myriad uses for the platform as a teaching and learning tool. At the very start, it presents an opportunity to create a virtual meeting space that is different from a simple online chat or video conference. Entering into the world of Second Life opens up the possibility of meeting in a space that can be customized to the needs of the learner and the instructor. Since Second Life itself does not have a specific narrative or game play, it allows the learning environment to be open-ended. It also can be used as a platform for building more goal-oriented tasks, depending on the needs of the instructor and learners. In some ways, Second Life has a similar educational application to other sandbox worlds, such as Minecraft. Second Life is more graphically detailed, and the mechanics of designing and building are more complex. However, these features also provide a tremendous fle...
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Reflection: Blow up the Gradebook

Having been immersed in the quest-based learning environment as a student for the past several months, I completely agree with the power of the format. The choice and the motivation of the game-based model are truly compelling. As a grad student, a full-time teacher, a husband, and a father of two young children, I have more than enough demands on my time. And yet, I still find myself completing quests above and beyond the threshold that guaranteed me an A for the course. That says something. Even more amazing, I have just started the new school year by implementing a quest-based format in my high school chemistry classes, which include 3 sections of college prep "standard" level, and 2 sections of a lower level class formerly known as Chemistry in the Community (ChemCom). In my first 10 years of teaching chemistry at various levels, students across the board have struggled to complete homework and grades have typically been lower than I would like them to be. More importan...
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