Initially,
I assumed that Second Life was just a game with little educational value but I
am beginning to understand how second Life works as I found Rutgers Island,
Rutgers University where there is a virtual walking trail that provides
instruction. Also there are many YouTube videos that provide instruction on how
to use Second Life. I
joined the mailing list at http://tinyurl.com/qfvv4 and did an
educational tour of Williamsburg with the Virginia Society for Technology in
Education. I can see how learners in second life can emerge themselves into the
subject matter and learn by role playing. I also learned about Sloodle,
a free and open source project which integrates the multi-user virtual
environments of second life and created an account. Like Second Life, it is
going to take some time to learn how to navigate the landscape and make use of
all of its features to create instruction. With this generation of gamers, who
spend half their lives playing xbox or play station, it well worth the effort
for any educator to take the time to learn to how to create instruction in Second life.
I agree that this type of immersive learning is likely something that this generation is going to use more and more. Teachers at least should be comfortable enough with it that they can use it if they need to.
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