13th June 2006

Second life in education

posted in games |

I first heard about the game “Second Life” a short time ago, and have yet to play it– and tonight found this link to the Second Life Education Wiki. This is touted as a new virtual, game environment for learning:

Second Life provides a unique and flexible environment for educators interested in distance learning, computer-supported cooperative work, simulation, new media studies, and corporate training.

Second Life provides an opportunity to use simulation in a safe environment to enhance experiential learning, allowing individuals to practice skills, try new ideas, and learn from their mistakes. The ability to prepare for similar real-world experiences by using Second Life as a simulation has unlimited potential!

Students and educators can work together in Second Life from anywhere in the world as part of a globally networked virtual classroom environment. Using Second Life as a supplement to traditional classroom environments also provides new opportunities for enriching existing curricula

Anyone have experiences playing “Second Life” for educational purposes or just for fun?

On this day..

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 at 12:30 am and is filed under games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 3 responses to “Second life in education”

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  1. 1 On June 13th, 2006, andi said:

    I’ve played it — it’s quite an experience and I recommend trying it out. It’s the closest anyone’s come to a successful virtual world. One of the very cool things about it is that it’s end-user programmable. So aside from using it as a big chat environment, students can actually create things that have behaviors and that are persistent. (Of course, you need to have some actual real estate if you want to store your things somplace.) I’ve seen classes meeting there, but never attended one.

    You only need to be 13 to join; however, some of the things you encounter in second life are very adult-oriented. There are places that are explicilty built for educational purposes, but I’ve never checked them out and I don’t know what kind of special functionality might exist there for teaching and learning.

  2. 2 On June 13th, 2006, Stephanie Sandifer said:

    I’ve played with it a bit — but not enough to consider myself an expert. I’m also very curious about how people are actually using it in education.

    One point of clarification about the age limit:

    Users who are 13 to 17 years old can only join the teen version of Second Life. Anyone 18 and older join Second Life. Adults are allowed to create an island in the teen version, but users in the teen version are alerted to the fact that an adult owns the island. The two different versions are completely separate and there is no way to travel from one to the another inside of the game (at least accrording to what I read).

    The separation of the age limits between the two games would make it difficult for K-12 educators to use the game with their students. This leads me to think that most educators who are using it are at the college level where all users are 18 or older.

    Of course, how Second Life verifies age is a different issue — anyone can lie about their age to gain access to either game.

    The other issue that I see as a barrier for educators — especially K-12 educators — is that setting up a space for your classroom — after the initial free trial — is costly. You have to subscribe to a premium membership and purchase land (or an island).

    The game intrigues me and I will continue to explore it — but conceptually I’m still struggling with it’s use in education.

    Stephanie

  3. 3 On June 19th, 2006, English Education Professor » Blog Archive » Moving at the Speed of Creativity » Blog Archive » Second life in education said:

    [...] Moving at the Speed of Creativity » Blog Archive » Second life in education I first heard about the game “Second Life” a short time ago, and have yet to play it– and tonight found this link to the Second Life Education Wiki. This is touted as a new virtual, game environment for learning: [...]