Second Life, an on line virtual community came to light in 2003 and now has millions of members. Linden Labs is the creator of this virtual community. As a member, you have the ability to create an avatar of your choice from gender, personality to appearance. This avatar will either reflect who you are already or who you would like to be. Second Life offers avatars to live and explore the world in many ways one wouldn't or couldn't in real life. The best thing is that avatars can take on higher education as so many have already done. The question now is, why not?
"Professors use Second Life to hold distance-education classes, saying that communication among students gets livelier when they assume digital personae" (Foster, 2007). Using an avatar, students get the physical feeling of being in the classroom as opposed to in discussion forums. Being that Second Life encourages social interaction, it will give a more meaningful and long-lasting education experience.
As we know there are different types of learners ranging from visual, kinesthetic to auditory, Second Life allows many ways of learning. A professor said that "If we let the students create the space, then they make the space that's best for them" (Foster, 2007). Any type of learner will find the best way for them to learn in an environment that they have helped to make. It should be rather easy for visual Learners for they learn from pictures, colors and diagrams. Kinesthetic learners may find the most benefit to learning online using Second Life for it is so lively. Kinesthetic learners do involve a more physical style such as getting their hands dirty and although there is no physical touch, kinesthetic learners will find learning through Second Life more engaging for they can get up and move around using their avatar. Now, auditory learners learn best through hearing having a tendency to pick up on tone or pitch. They will be a lot more engaged and respond quicker if they hear classmates or the professor talking. Furthermore, an on line community such as Second Life gives every learner the opportunity to participate in a way that he or she feels most comfortable in.
Second Life holds so much potential in higher education, especially for students and professors who are already involved in online learning. A learning experience like this one so closely resembles a traditional classroom setting that you may find it hard to believe that it is done in the virtual world. Catering to all types of learners, online education through Second Life can now be taken to the next level.
References:
Foster, A (2007, Sept 7). Professor Avatar. The Chronicles of Higher Education. EBSCOhost. Retrieved http://web.ebscohost.com.dml.regis.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&hid=7&sid=26756dba-9dc7-421a-a1d3-b229d6c037ca%40sessionmgr12
1 comment:
This is a very interesting article. I never heard of second life. After reading the article, I spent 20 minutes on the second life website and learned about it. I would be very curious to check out how a class turns out on second life. Great article, has me considering creating an second life person.
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