Education in the virtual world known as SecondLife
This page I thought would give you just a little information about learning on Second Life, and what other people around the world, as well as actual accredited educational institutes, views were, concerning how their experiences on education in SL have been.
Educators in Second Life: East Carolina University (virtualworlds.nmc.org, 2016)
FYI, the university of Carolina held many virtual courses and has done since as far back as 2009, they covered such courses as English, Sociology, Anthropology, Intro to Computers, Web Design and Personal Finance.
I was trying to think of a way to describe Second Life as a learning resource, so I researched as many sites that I could find when I came across this description which I felt that I couldn't of said it better myself.
"Second Life is a multi-user virtual platform for both formal and informal online learning. SL is an example of a new trend in social learning theory based on the idea that we can learn from our interactions in a social context (jaimeoyarzo.wordpress.com, 2011)."
Thanks Jaimeoyazro, his wordpress blog about learning on SL was so awesome I thought it deserved a mention, to see more of his work you can click right here.
These are just a few of many pros and cons about learning on Second Life.
Advantages
There are many advantages to using SL as a tool to increase you learning network, below are just a few.3D environment
Free
Highly adaptable
Social Interaction through dialogue and collaboration
Discovery learning
Facilitates an interactive distance learning
Encourages the development of distance communities
Good tools to create virtual context, objects and people.
Simulation and experiential learning/Role playing
Quests and problem solving ability (i.e. games)
Ability to remain anonymous
No passport required
A definite advantage. I found this cool video on YouTube, it is just one of a multitude of videos expressing how successful Second Life has been on education in institutions throughout the world.
Drax files, 2016
Disadvantages
Yup, many dont really want to admit it but there are also a few disadvantages to considerLearning Curve
Distraction factors
High hardware requirements: speed Internet connection, a quick microprocessor, and a good video/graphics card
Do not offer tools to monitor and track students
It isn’t easy to store digital documents
And yes, there are griefers everywhere, every class has a joker
(jaimeoyarzo.wordpress.com, 2011)
Second Life Provides Real-World Benefits
As we the digital natives of today internet technology evolve and grow, we have instigated a transformation of the learning process in pedagogical avenues never before available. Matthew Trevett-Smith PhD an anthropologist lecturer from New York said,
"I often wished that more of my students were able to experience another culture. Now, thanks to Second Life, students in my computer-mediated communication course at St. Lawrence University can experience other cultures without leaving the classroom let alone leaving the country. By virtually travelling to Second Life they can exercise the same skills needed to navigate a different culture as their more traditional study-abroad experience." (facultyfocus.com, 2016)
This lecturers students have stated how fast they were learning through the use of Second Life, some who had travelled abroad remarked how accurate the landscapes were compared to the real cities. Second Life has helped these students learn the linguistic, social, political, and economic conventions of online communicating as well as techniques for communicating effectively on the Internet.
Second Life Education: The Virtual Learning Advantage
Virtual worlds solve many of the challenges faced by educational institutions.Today, hundreds of colleges, universities, and other learning organizations from nearly every country are either augmenting their current curriculum with a virtual learning component or they are holding classes and entire programs exclusively in immersive learning environments in Second Life. (s3.amazonaws.com, 2016)
There’s a reason why over 700 educational institutions from all over the world are in Second Life today — the advantages of learning in immersive 3D environments are many. Learning in Second Life can cut your costs and help you reach and retain more students. Dozens of highly successful projects are proving that Second Life can be as effective as traditional classrooms and for many students it’s an even more effective learning environment. In a few words, Second Life as an educational platform is engaging and it works.
(s3.amazonaws.com, 2016)
So thats it, the end to this blog, all thats left is for you to do it, to get out there and start searching, what you search for is entirely up to you, if you have followed this blog and performed and learned about all these different aspects, from finding, downloading and installing the viewer to learning about each part of the viewer and its purpose and understood the basics of the tools the viewer provides you, then you are ready, ready to begin your journey on exploring the virtual world and increasing your resource scope by adding Second Life to your personal learning network, thank you for using this blog, thank you for taking the time to do the assessments, they will help improve this blog for everybody else, I hope you enjoyed your time learning about Second Life and how you can use it as a learning tool and I wish you all the best in your virtual learning experience.
References
- jaimeoyarzo.wordpress.com, 2011. Retrieved from: https://jaimeoyarzo.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/advantages-and-disadvantages-other-educational-use-of-second-life-w9/
- facultyfocus.com, 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/second-life-provides-real-world-benefits
- s3.amazonaws.com, 2016. Retrieved from:
- http://lecs-static-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/work/SL-Edu-Brochure-010411.pdf
- virtualworlds.nmc.org, 2016. Retrieved from: http://virtualworlds.nmc.org/2012/10/01/educators-in-second-life-east-carolina-university/
- The Drax Files: World Makers [ Episode 19: Virtual Chemistry], 2016. found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAi73JCXOM
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