Second Life is a virtual world. One type is the Virtally Linked: London Community. In this video, the folks at London Metropolitan University explain how they have designed ways to introduce the system to new users.
First, they tried handouts, but those were ineffective. Next, they tried allowing students to explore the system completly on their own, but this did not work either. Finally, what has proven effective is providing orientation in a similar way game designers introduce new players, by guiding the user to infer what to do.
As Deborah Butler said, some, such as myself, see this as a bit far fetched, strange, and involving privacy issues. Honestly, I don't know what to do with this in my classroom! It seems silly to me. Can students create historical characters and allow them to interact with each other? Can they create avatars that accuratly resemble the real people, or at least come close? If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.
Out of curiosity, I visited the London in Second Life website and found some reasons for which they believe people can use virtual spaces. For example, users can plan a real trip to London and meet people from the city before going, users can share ideas and hopes, and to interact like a real community. But, I am still not sure how to use this to enhance learning in the classroom.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment