July 2007 — News
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Second Life: Do You Need One? (Part 4)
7. Shoulds v. Cans
In keeping with a preference for purpose and structure, traditional educators are prone to speak of many "shoulds" and "should nots" in the virtual environment. Classrooms should have walls and ceilings to avoid distractions and keep out the unwanted visitor, or classrooms should not have walls and ceilings to spark creativity. Environments should be wheel-chair accessible to honor the wishes of those remaining in chairs, or environments should not have to be accessible because this is a "virtual" environment. Educators should have a certification process to teach in SL, or educators should not have to have certification. There are hundreds of such debates taking place every day in the listservs and discussion forums. Digital visitors are just busy creating, trying, failing, and trying again to find out the actual potentials available with the new reality of virtual world technology.
While there are always exceptions to every rule, and there is a certain amount of generalization involved in any such list of issues, these particular issues come from two years of interactivity with more than 3,000 traditional educators entering the virtual environment of Second Life. I believe these key differences represent the different mindsets that are revealed each day in classroom conflicts over cell phone use, laptop use, class attendance, participation in traditional discussion, and hundreds of similar issues.
This is the primary reason I believe Second Life offers such value to education in the 21st Century. By becoming immersed in this digital environment, traditional educators may gain some meaningful understanding of not just the new culture, but of their digital learners themselves. The result may be a reduction in the beliefs that game-based learners are somehow lesser learners, and that their digital culture actually brings profoundly meaningful new tools into a meaningful new learning space.
Just think of all the money we'll save by not buying that fancy paint for the classroom walls that blocks cell phone signals from coming into the classroom. Yes, there, my dear reader, is the digital divide.
There you go ... a lot of work yet to do, but it sure is fun!
AJ: What a case for Second Life and learning in a virtual world. Thank you, Virtual Bacon. This is Amareal Jewell signing off ... for now.
Resources:
READ MORE FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, AND CASE STUDIES
About the author: Patricia Deubel has a Ph.D. in computing technology in education, and is currently an adjunct faculty member in the graduate School of Education at Capella University and an education consultant. She is also the developer of Computing Technology for Math Excellence at http://www.ct4me.net.
Proposals for articles, news tips, ideas for topics, and questions and comments about this publication should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
