Ponderings Two: First steps in Second Life
Posted by: scutter33 in Ponderings, Second Life, Simulation, Virtual Worlds, elearning methodology, elearning technologiesI feel like I am making some progress here. Having read both Horizon reports I now know what I don’t know. My plan now is to begin to understand what I don’t know about emerging technologies by immersing myself within each of them (I think that makes sense!!). Coming from a very ‘conventional’ adult learning background I’d thought I’d start with a technology that is about as unconventional as it gets, Second Life. In preparation for my journey I looked around for some quick information about learning in Second Life and I come up with some very good, and short, YouTube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJTzNSV8pb0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuNFRie8wA
(Hey, I’m learning from Grassroots Video, maybe I’m not such a skeptic after all!!)
After watching the above videos I was ready to get my avatar’s feet wet inside Second Life so, after a brief registration and set-up process, I was off and running through the wonders of Orientation Island.My initial thoughts:
- The learning curve is a little step at first, but it gets easier fairly quickly (though I still can’t figure out why my avatar keeps veering to the left!!)
- Second Life offers some great possibilities for learning such as:
- a unique combination of fun and learning
- the ability to observe others as well as be an active participant
- the ability to interact with a vast array of other people
- the ability to create a unique learning environment tailored to the needs of the student; and
- the ability to link into formal tertiary pathways though TAFE and university
Within my learning context, I see the key benefit of Second Life is its capacity for rich simulation. Many of the skills that my organisation deals with are hard to teach in the real environment and we often rely on simulation to assist us, but these never give us the full range of experience. Second Life offers the potential to simulate a range of scenarios with real-life consequences but in a safe and supportive manner. The use of simulation in Second Life will now become the focus of my further explorations. I will give you a full update in the coming week or so. In the mean time if you are interested in further reading I recommend the Second Life Education Wiki “SimTeach” as a good starting point for a study of learning in Second Life.
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March 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Hi Mal,
This is really helpful. I want to explore second life (perhaps after the first assignment) and really had no idea where to start so I appreciate you sharing your journey. One thing that concerns me, have you any idea yet of what sort of timeframe you are looking at to create a learning experience for students? My concern is that to set it all up would just take forever, but perhaps once I have ventured in I will have a better understanding of what is required.
Keep us up to date on your travels here – you can be the person I will use as my Saunders type ‘model’ for this experience!
Prue
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
No worries Prue. As with most things on the internet finding a good starting point is often the hardest thing! I’m really only sussing out Second Life and don’t have any real plans at the moment as it’s way too revolutionary for where my organisation is at the moment. If I was going to develop training in SL I think it would be best to use what is already there to begin with. Once you and the students are confident I would then start off small and build up over time – that seems to be how a lot of things in Second Life evolved. Getting the students to be part of the construction seems like a good idea too – kind of like the way Anne gave us a basic strucure in Ning and we have built content within it to meet our specific needs.
I have made quite a few new discoveries over Easter and will share them once I get a chance (and the chocolate overdose settles down!).
Mal.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Hi Mal,
I also don’t specifically plan to use it but I would like to understand it a bit better – and I like the idea of getting the students to develop the content! But i think it is definitely something I will have to explore so I am not left behind.
Prue