Educational Possibilities on Second Life
Maria Ortiz
Lit 2932
The internet and technology advancements in the last couple of years have given educational possibilities and resources endless measure. Technological advancements have expanded the minds of numerous people who are part of the educational community. The advancements have been so dramatic that the ability to even create educational opportunities in virtual worlds, like Second Life is possible. Second Life is an online 3D virtual world used internationally in which users (respectively called residents) create the world and surroundings they reside in. In Second Life a resident creates an avatar that is able to learn, play, interact and communicate with other residents and its surroundings. Second Life’s varying educational programs are a transition for students all over the world creating a close to reality experience. This experience is designed to enhance the students in different areas of learning as well as their field of learning. Some people believe Second Life is a great resource for students to use not just for learning purposes from the experience gained but also from the benefits of making learning an enjoyable experience. Others have seen the educational possibilities of the internet and technology but would rather not use Second Life to experience their learning. Some people who have used Second Life at least once for tuition purposes view Second Life as difficult and to complicated. Some students have different ways of learning and would rather just go to a class and listen to a professor speak and explain on a board or power point. People view Second Life as, “just too much technology”. Second Life in an educational aspect has both its positives and negatives depending on the many different types of students and teachers using the virtual world as a resource or a teaching guide.
The virtual world of Second Life explores the possibilities of just about any field of study for educational purposes. Second Life helps to spread the imagination of users. There are many areas like schools, museums, companies, and studios created by other users for each field of study. For example if a student were to use Second Life and they were to be interested in the business aspect of the game. Second Life gives the students the ability to become an entrepreneur, making and running their own virtual business because Second Life has its own economy. The company the student decides to make is assimilated to a real life company and students are even able to compete with other small companies like theirs. Many times people use Second Life to communicate real business ideas and have avatars that assimilate to real employees this all helps to keep the business running smooth.
If the student is interested in architecture, interior design, or art. Second Life has different architectural groups and an architectural island they also have art headquarters and museum that contains art created by other residents that the students can explore and experience with. This would be a virtual hands on experience; they would be given all the tools to create their own masterpieces. These places in Second Life also open up the doors for real opportunities and events professionally. SL also provides real professors and teachers that teach design and architecture classes. These classes are designed for students as well as normal users to create new ideas and interact with others interested in the same field or activity to create even bigger and better ideas or even get suggestions or help on how to make and do things better. Second Life also has many different schools and colleges designated for just one field of study or major, which students can be a part of to also help increase their knowledge as well as skills. All the different types of projects, classes, experiments, and companies that Second Life residents have created help to practice and develop skills. Educationally it’s a new way for students to experiment and assimilate early on.
Second Life not only helps students with their designated area of study but also helps students with interaction. Many students in my opinion would probably perform better in interacting on a computer than maybe being face to face to someone. Some students may be shy or get distracted easily when speaking to people. The internet is so commonly used now that students might actually like using Second Life to talk to people, kind of just like using instant messaging or email. I could use myself as an example. I get shy a lot of times when having group discussions that even if I have a good point to share or a question that can be important to discuss I hold myself back to ask. Our class has met up in Second Life two times and I have been able to express myself and my opinions more easily and freely on the computer. No one really knows who you are (because of the different user names) or what you look like. The interaction process just seems to be able to become more natural on the computer. Also working on the same project with different students of different places or schools can also lead students to collaborate with different types of cultural or regional (international) ideas that can help a student expand and look outside the box for better ideas, thus becoming better at what they would like to pursue in the future. More and more companies and corporations are becoming accustomed to Second Life and many of its services provided. This can also be an upturn for students looking for future opportunities. They can also interact with the right people who can lead them in the best direction to pursue their study and be apart or watch seminars and go to meetings assembled by companies all around the world. Not only is Second Life projects letting students interact with each other but their further interacting with their study and it becomes an extra resource included with school, lectures, teachers, books, and future opportunities.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jokay/sets/72157612171568581/show/
While Second Life might have its positive but endless educational developments for some students and teachers to engage in, some students believe Second Life is just a little too much to handle. One of the main reoccurring issues of Second Life is its difficulty and complications. Second Life is very attention to detail. When creating an avatar there is just so much things you can do to your character in just the face, which is something that sometimes people don’t really want to bother with. The first time I made my avatar it was difficult for me I couldn’t get the right hair style I wanted and my character was wearing pants and a skirt and I only wanted her to be wearing a skirt, all this trouble to just use it for class—definitely time consuming. Also once on the main screen it just seems too hard to even move your character to where it needs to go. For example my teacher wanted us to have a class discussion in a school coliseum, most of us got lost and had to ask for directions while others could not even attend the class. Another big issue with using Second Life for educational purposes was the attention span of students or students being quickly distracted. If students do not really liked using the Second Life website for learning purposes many times since they’re already on the computer they go off to another site, no learning involved. Technical problems in a computer can also be a big problem, you can never really predict when your computer will stop functioning and to be on Second Life you have to be on the computer.
Second Life replaces some peoples preferred way of learning of a teacher or a professor. Second Life can help you, if you have the patience for it or like the idea of a virtual world, but some people believe it should just be a resource something extra a person can look to as a resource but not as a main way of learning. Technology has sure seen a big change over the years but Second Life is still something that not everyone is interested in or can be difficult for others to grasp, while we have been accustomed to teachers giving lectures or classes almost our whole lives. Many people don’t agree with the virtual training, when hands on training would be more beneficial since you could actually be practicing just like you would really do in real life. Some students just don’t like the idea of having an avatar go into rooms being you and show you or educate you on how to do things when you could just easily do it yourself in a classroom.
http://www.mydebitcredit.com/2008/01/04/was-second-life-engaging/
Second Life creates endless possibilities for its residents educationally. Some students and teachers look at it as a main resource to explore, practice, and experiment with while others look at Second Life as being a better benefit as just an extra resource for students to use on top of lectures, books, and guides.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMGR9q43dag
http://chris.pirillo.com/second-life-i-dont-get-it/
