SecondLife: More than just a new way of teaching
Created by AJ Kelton (Montclair State University) on March 15, 2007
I said to someone last night, half-jokingly but half not, really…that I think Massively-Multiuser Virtual Worlds (MMVW’s for short, but to be honest, I wish we’d pick one and stick with it, there are too many acronyms out there for this.), are going to have the most profound impact on education since the book.
I don’t know what I could have been thinking when I said that. That is simply ridiculous, clearly I should have said the chalkboard.
But seriously, folks…is this thing on? [thump thump]
I am completely convinced that SL will have an immense impact on teaching, learning, and research. I know every thing that comes out is going to “replace” the in-class experience – TV, VCR, videoconferencing, LMS’s…everything has been the next big thing. But MMVW’s have the potential to do just that. Well, per se.
See, the thing about what happens in class in SL is that there IS a teacher, and there IS a class, and there IS a classroom (or can be). The surroundings can be anything we want – a glacier melting or a tsunami, like on the NOAA site, or a Center for Learning in a Virtual Environment, like on my little corner of the digital world. We can “be” anyplace we want, doing many things that are not possible in a non-virtual space, and we are experiencing it also in our real lives, which is where the learning is going on anyway. What we have to learn to deal with now, though, is a new way of teaching. Note I didn’t say, new material to teach. We can begin to think about exceptional ways to deliver the content, ways in which the student is excited about being involved.
I don’t know what I could have been thinking when I said that. That is simply ridiculous, clearly I should have said the chalkboard.
But seriously, folks…is this thing on? [thump thump]
I am completely convinced that SL will have an immense impact on teaching, learning, and research. I know every thing that comes out is going to “replace” the in-class experience – TV, VCR, videoconferencing, LMS’s…everything has been the next big thing. But MMVW’s have the potential to do just that. Well, per se.
See, the thing about what happens in class in SL is that there IS a teacher, and there IS a class, and there IS a classroom (or can be). The surroundings can be anything we want – a glacier melting or a tsunami, like on the NOAA site, or a Center for Learning in a Virtual Environment, like on my little corner of the digital world. We can “be” anyplace we want, doing many things that are not possible in a non-virtual space, and we are experiencing it also in our real lives, which is where the learning is going on anyway. What we have to learn to deal with now, though, is a new way of teaching. Note I didn’t say, new material to teach. We can begin to think about exceptional ways to deliver the content, ways in which the student is excited about being involved.
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