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 flexibility to both instructional design and the types of deliverable that the learner can create.

Of course, as with any similar technology that is applied to education, Second Life is a tool. The critical component of educational technology is always the education that drives the effectiveness of the environment.

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