The concept of the virtual world is something new to me. Actually, I didn't know about Second Life until Jim made fun of Dwight on The Office about it =) Since I read this assignment, I decided to ask my high school students about it and got some interesting feedback.
Second Life is a disruptive technology due to the fact the development of it came out of no where but is a replication of life. As Dr. Thornburg mentions in the vodcast, disruptive technology provides functions that obsoletes other technologies. This particular technology was not the product of an evolutionary development but a new development to meet life needs. I guess it seems common sense that something like this would be created. In addition, as reflected by Dr. Thornburg, I don't believe the impact was anticipated on people's daily routines (i.e. Facebook obsession of Farmville). My students told me that some people they know spend hours at a time immersing themselves in this virtual world living a life and developing relationships with others that do not match their reality experience.
The longevity of Second Life is dependent on the users. From what I observe from my students many are not interested in it at this point. Therefore, I'm not sure if they will ever be or if this is dependent on the integration of the real world in the virtual world. I think the premise is good but its effectiveness is reliant on its relevance to each person's life.
From my understanding, I see this as a social network tool as kids playing networked video games. I think the element is there and would be quick to criticize those contending it fosters social isolation. On the other hand, the ability to develop a life that is ideal and not your own is fake and was actually just spoken about by the Pope =) Being a virtual school teacher, I do see some of the unique benefits that Second Life could offer, like the personal avatars and lecture halls/discussions, but I hesitate to force my students to partake in it.
Works Cited
Thornburg, D. (Producer). (nd). DisruptiveTechnologies. [Video Podcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteMy daughter, for many years, was obsessed with the online environment of SimCity. At the time, she was quite young, and I wouldn't allow her to use the internet, we knew of very few reputable interactive virtual worlds, and few of her friends had access to the internet on a regular basis. At some point, she outgrew it, or replaced her need through other means.
My son has slowly developed an interest and now networks of friends on World of Warcraft. Even thought it is a gaming community, users create their own group called guilds, in unique worlds called realms. He and his buddies play using live chat to strategically fight the enemies, one working to fight, another to "heal." He is often sharing abut one or the other grown man playing, "Don't they have a life?" He and is friends are very concerned to balance real life with on-screen worlds and interests.
I'm often amazed to learn of unique "niches" for online networking for the purpose of education or gaming!
Well seems like you are leading your kids in the right direction! Sometimes I really worry when my kids tell me that they have stayed up all night to play games...not healthy!
ReplyDeleteErin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing about your students' perspective on SecondLife. It is interesting that some are getting so involved with it and for others it’s just another “game.” You are right, it longevity totally depends on the users.
I also asked my students (community college) about it. They all were familiar with it, but only a few have used it (or they just did not admit to it!). I plan on using OpenSims for my eBusiness class; I wonder how it will be received by the students.
Orit
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI've read a lot about Second Life being used at universities, but I'd be interesting in reading more about its use in k-12 settings and the results. The one area that I seem to hear a lot about Second Life in K-12 setting is in learning foreign languages.
Guest what guys, if you want to get your students interested in Second Life or other virtual world sites, all you have to do is link their knowledge of games stations such as WE, PS4, and XBOX. Those games that they play on these games station and the computer such as SimCity are situated in virtual worlds. I find with this generation, if you want to engage them in creating Island with avatars, just link it to video games. Let them know they can create their own games using Second Life. Believe me they will come on board. I used this approach to get my students interested in creating WIKI accounts by linking Wiki to MySpace, Facebook, and twittering. Try this approach and let me know how it works.
ReplyDeleteThe founder of Second Life indicated that older people tend to use the software more than others. If you think of the immersive gaming worlds that many youth play in, Second Life barely holds a candle to the content and graphics. However, some teachers might consider games like world of war craft as the immersive 3d environment to work with.
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