I did some digging while in Second Life and found a neat learning environment created by Ohio University. Not Ohio State University... They have really cool educational kiosks set up over a range of topics where students can watch short videos, take quizzes over what they watched, and also play educational games while in Second Life. I think they did a wonderful job. Also another fascinating aspect of Second Life is the ability to take virtual field trips for free and really get your kids excited about seeing and exploring the world. Using Second Life you can have your kids visit famous places, monuments, etc they will most likely never get to see in real life. You can teach them all about the place, show them literally what it looks like, and at many of these places there is educational opportunities you can take at advantage of along the way. You can also virtually visit a host of universities which often have educational games, information about their university and other videos that will benefit your students. You can lead all your students around the world from your desk! How cool is that?
I agree that Second Life could be used for virtual field trips. I can see how it would need more safety tools; if Second Life was used for younger children. Second Life would pretty much have to be a separate game, interaction wise.
ReplyDeleteJeremy, how did you find the educational areas? Did you search education? Last summer was the first time that I tried Second Life, and I had problems finding much of anything. This time I found a way to search, which helped, and then I Googled some things to locate them. I'm much more interested in it after this experience, but don't think I really have found all the things it has to offer. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteViral field trips would be very cool. I am personally not a huge fan of Second Life. This was the second time I have used it and had a much better experience this time, but I still remember the difficulties I had the first time. I still do not think I am very good at navigating around.
ReplyDeleteI found several classrooms too! I think it would be an ideal learning environment for an online PHD program. You could meet your residency requirement through Secondlife!
ReplyDeleteI agree Second Life does have some neat places for virtual field trips. I enjoyed the Colosseum.
ReplyDeleteI found NASA. That was someplace that I thought was really cool. And there was a lot of information available with having the price tag. Virtual Field trips could be one avenue for SL, but aren't there other places thats do the same thing without the worry of your kids taking off to the huka bar...???
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you about the misuse. I love the idea of virtual field trips that we can't see anymore, what might a Roman city have looked like hundreds of years ago. Cool ideas. I'll have to check out Ohio University, sound nice.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with virtual field trips. The image quality in SL is second rate. Showing students a jpeg image would depict much more detail.
ReplyDeleteThe virtual field trips will be nice. That'd be a great way of using virtual worlds, esp. if there's a real person curator. That'd be neat! :)
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