http://www.urockcliffe.com/
In real life, educational institutions are bound by laws and accreditations. What happens when instructions teach in Second Life. Can they call themselves Universities. Eventually many educational institutions in Second Life may have to face this.
On the plus side, the Second Life environment levels the student/teacher playing field, with the teachers seen more as peers and friends rather than “founts of knowledge”. Many of the personal biases brought into real life classrooms disappear in the SL environment, where the people are their avatars.
The accreditation process if it ever comes will be challenging. The way information is transferred in SL is a bit different form RL. Much more of it is tacit, making it hard to develop a “checklist” of items which are “taught” in a class.
Rockcliffe also found that socially organizing around the same lines as a formal university simply did not work. The nature of the environment is much more dynamic. People may join and simply disappear after a few months. The virtual community requires a larger level of effort for the same level of commitment. People are committed to their home life and they are committed to their work life. But the virtual worlds, laong with the entire set of virtual-only experiences elicit a different level of commitment. This is not necessarily bad, but needs to be recognized.
There are even more challenges ahead for Second Life educators. Yes, even the biggies of taxation and employment compensation. The fact that the environment provides a low barrier of entry to startup institution still makes it very interesting.
Friday, September 5, 2008
SLCC Friday Morning
The first day (Friday) is all about education in SL (SLED/SLEDcc). Pathfinder Linden and Claudia Linden gave the keynote speaker talking about how the education community was one of the first to adopt Second Life way back in the Alpha dark days.
First session I attended was about using games for education. Be a group for Ohio University. The games are designed to allow students to learn pretty much by playing the games rather than feeling like they are participating in a “learning session”. For instance, one of the games is a mystery game but the questions that the student answers to solve the mystery help the students learn the different between observation and inference.
The games are designed to provide a formal learning environment even as they present the game feel. For instance, in-world chat is logged to make sure the student stay on task rather than being distracted by other facets of Second Life. Prizes are offered for successfully winning the game (learning the lesson).
The games allow the teacher to customize the questions and some facets of the game via a web interface. Much of the student interface is well designed HUDs which the student attaches as they start the session.
The fruit fly game was impressive, leading students through the feel of doing an experiment in a lab. Rather than just showing slides of information, or even showing virtual fruit flies, the student is treated to a lab where they can sit at a lab bench, “do” and experiment, and then answer lab questions about the experiment results. The lab has several benches to allow multiple students to each have their own independent session in the lab. While the students are doing the experiments, the teacher can actually walk around the room seeing what the students are doing and helping out those who are stuck.
The student can set up their own experiments where they create fruit flies by selecting form a series of dominant and recessive traits. They actually see two small jars of the fruit flies they created. They can then move them to breeding bottles. At the end of experiments, the flies are “knocked out” and put in a Petri dish where the student can very interactively count the resulting attributes of the offspring flies, down to zooming in to see eye color.
--dd-
First session I attended was about using games for education. Be a group for Ohio University. The games are designed to allow students to learn pretty much by playing the games rather than feeling like they are participating in a “learning session”. For instance, one of the games is a mystery game but the questions that the student answers to solve the mystery help the students learn the different between observation and inference.
The games are designed to provide a formal learning environment even as they present the game feel. For instance, in-world chat is logged to make sure the student stay on task rather than being distracted by other facets of Second Life. Prizes are offered for successfully winning the game (learning the lesson).
The games allow the teacher to customize the questions and some facets of the game via a web interface. Much of the student interface is well designed HUDs which the student attaches as they start the session.
The fruit fly game was impressive, leading students through the feel of doing an experiment in a lab. Rather than just showing slides of information, or even showing virtual fruit flies, the student is treated to a lab where they can sit at a lab bench, “do” and experiment, and then answer lab questions about the experiment results. The lab has several benches to allow multiple students to each have their own independent session in the lab. While the students are doing the experiments, the teacher can actually walk around the room seeing what the students are doing and helping out those who are stuck.
The student can set up their own experiments where they create fruit flies by selecting form a series of dominant and recessive traits. They actually see two small jars of the fruit flies they created. They can then move them to breeding bottles. At the end of experiments, the flies are “knocked out” and put in a Petri dish where the student can very interactively count the resulting attributes of the offspring flies, down to zooming in to see eye color.
--dd-
SLCC starts!
At the Second Life Community Conference now meeting the great real life people behind Second Life. Yes, there are others interested!
--dd-
--dd-
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
More art in the gallery
I felt like doing a bit of building and so decided to populate the gallery a bit more. All of these items are picture of my RL art. Kinda fun to display them here. I feel an opening party coming on!
--DD-
Friday, August 15, 2008
New Ning group for South Florida
I think I’ve giving up searching per se and am trying to set up stuff so that people doing like searches can find me. I’m setting up a Ning network for South Florida Second Life(ers). Not much but a place for people to find others and make contact. You can join at http://southfloridasl.ning.com/. By all means feel free to invite anyone else who has any level of interest/experience and would like to find out more.
--DD-
Monday, July 21, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Lawmakers hold first hearing in Second Life
Why would Congress hold a hearing in real life when it could do so in Second Life?
Read the story.
--DD-
Read the story.
--DD-
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