Second Life: Exploring Educational Spaces

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 away. Or, we can skip around content that we may already be familiar with to reach more novel information or experiences. This presents an opportunity for differentiation as well. If a student masters a concept ahead of some of the others in the class, he can teleport to an extension activity and teleport back when it is time to start a new lesson. Or students could choose from several different assignments that address the same subject (i.e. different time examples of chemical reactions). Furthermore, there is an opportunity for this to work in a jigsaw type activity, where small groups of students move to different locations and then group up to discuss what was learned or experienced at each location.


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