OK!, over there last week, I've played around with Second Life an awful lot, and I've learned how to teleport, rez items, get clothes, and generally made some really cool friends from out on Maxwell AFB. Second life is a fantastic tool- note that I said tool. I love using it and it's given me all kind of really great ideas about ways in which we could use it in educational environments, however, it's important that we not loose sight of the curriculum. This is the area that I KNOW I will struggle with over the next 50 years! The technology has to come second to the curriculum. When more time is spent teaching the tech, rather that the curriculum the technology should be supporting, the students lose.
Now, with that said, there are come really great things that could be done in Second Life. There was one island that really caught my attention. It was created by an educator, and for the life of me, I cannot remember what the name of the island was...but talk about being chock-full of resources for teachers. Also, some of the islands that we've seen on the voice threads. Talk about awesome opportunities for virtual field trips!
Now as far as Second Life being applicable... I don't think I would want my K-4 students wandering around in a Second life environment. I think it would be too difficult to maintain control with them. However, for middle, secondary and higher education, the sky is the limit! In the past 3 days, I've been places and have even taken "virtual" quizzes after I finished my visit! How cool is that! In any case, I feel that it's a great tool to assist in the educational process, as long as the students are on task and have a clear learning goal.
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