Virtual world: second life

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I must say that I was impressed by the presentation rendered by Dana.  She presented on Second life, another virtual world made up avatars.  Dana mentioned that Second Life, can be compared to MOOs and other programs.  The one thing I learned from Wednesday's class, is that Second life can be really enjoyable if the teacher and students know how to get their way around it.

I remember that Dr. Lybeck conducted some form of a pilot study on us about Second life, she even invited Dana to come and help us.  Every now and then when we logged on to the class meeting Dana would be there to help those that struggled to join the class. I had troubles following the class meeting.  In most cases, I would find myself wondering in the middle of nowhere, where there were no people.  Sometimes when I get lucky and find my way into the class, I ended up sitting or hanging on the fan attached to the ceiling.  Such experiences distracted me and i think that I have come to realize that one can still make second life interesting by making sure students know what to do when they join the class.It's screen appearance is appealing to students, the challenge is just trying to navigate around.

In addition to Dana's presentation, we were divided into groups for peer  review of the final projects. Esther, struggled with her system but ultimately followed the class meeting accordingly.  Her challenge helped me understand that technology cannot be absolutely trusted.  She was calm and allowed Dana to continue with her presentation.   I guess experience counts huh!

Comments

  1. afsjesseNovember 21, 2010 at 2:58 PM

    I found it very interesting that both of Esther's computers were malfunctioning. It was quite an anominally, and a great example of how technology can fail anytime. I found her composure to be great and that would be beneficial in any future online class that she instructs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 21, 2010 at 8:16 PM

    Your experience about second life tell us it is difficult to control students in this kind of learning environment, even you had a person in charge of the technical support every time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mandy_ines7November 23, 2010 at 8:43 PM

    I really liked the second life environment. I feel if you give students time to explore the program and time to discover the area around and in their classroom, class time there later would run a bit more smoothly.

    ReplyDelete

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