Second Life, the virtual environment, has been getting a good deal of media attention. It is also being used as a tool for distance education. The Alliance Library System, a consortium of public and academic libraries, has been expanding its presence. Here is an interesting thread from the librarians, on a blog maintained by San Jose State University, that discusses the pro's and con's of using SL for distance learning: http://senna.sjsu.edu/lmain/wpress/wordpress/?p=58 Note the entry by Rolig Loon, a retired senior library administrator: "Part of what makes International and the other library-affliated islands work is the technology. SL comes much closer to offering what we have been trying to do for the past 15 years with distance ed. It marries visual, text, and audio in ways that previous, limted technologies couldn’t. It is much closer to being “immersive.” The other thing that makes the islands work is people. Info island is staffed, live, by librarians and other information professionals about 80% of the waking hours in North America. Professional librarians can answer resource questions and point patrons to resources (in SL, on line, or in RL libraries) just as they do in the real world."
In addition to the inconveniences attendant with other types of synchronous learning, Second Life is very difficult with which for non-technical people to become familiar and comfortable. VR may have a lot of potential, but it's just not there yet when it comes to it being a tool that most students can effectively use. -=Steve=-
The criminals have been using Second Life for some time to conduct various nefarious acts ranging from infecting players computers with malware to fraud and theft.
Indeed. Perhaps Second Life is the training ground for the real world Internet criminals? Well since the Internet and WWW predate SL I suppose the preceding question is more rhetorical than factual.
A number of higher ed institutions have taken to Second Life and are exploring its potential for instruction. The Association for Edcuational Communications & Technology (AECT) is launching a Second Life initiative in the field of instructional technology. Boise State University has one of the most developed islands for teaching and learning. As this unfolds, it should be quite interesting. For those who claim that virtual environments cannot match face-to-face because you cannot see people's expressions--what if a webcam could transfer your exact facial expressions to your Second Life avatar?
I think that I prefer DL technology that's as simple and transparent as humanly possible. The ideal is to not even know that it's there. I'm not sure if I want to go to the trouble of learning new software or creating avatars just so that I can talk to a professor or a librarian. I can already do that, the old-fashioned way. I'd rather devote my few remaining brain-cells to academic content, not to the process of accessing it. If others want to do this, fine. More power to you, I hope that it works and is very cool. But I probably won't be in there with you.
